AIM: To investigate the differences in varying stages of non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy(NPDR)using optical coherence tomography angiography(OCTA).METHODS: Cross-sectional study. A total of 77 cases(77 eyes)of diabetic patients were included, and they were divided into non-diabetic retinopathy(NDR; 23 eyes)and non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy(NPDR; 54 eyes)groups, further subdivided into mild NPDR(20 eyes), moderate NPDR(20 eyes), and severe NPDR(14 eyes). Foveal avascular zone(FAZ)area, superficial and deep capillary plexus densities(SSP and DSP), and visual acuity(LogMAR)were compared between NDR and NPDR groups. Furthermore, the visual acuity, FAZ area and levels of SSP and DSP were compared in different degrees of NPDR. Correlation analysis were conducted to elucidate relationships between FAZ area, visual acuity, SSP, DSP, and severity of the disease.RESULTS: Compared with the NDR group, the visual acuity(LogMAR)and macular FAZ area increased, while SSP and DSP were decreased in the NPDR group(P<0.05); there were significant differences in visual acuity, FAZ area and SSP and DSP levels in different degrees of NPDR(P<0.05). Visual acuity(LogMAR)and FAZ area displayed a positive correlation with the severity of disease, while SSP and DSP showed a negative correlation.CONCLUSION: With the progression of NPDR, the visual acuity(LogMAR)and FAZ area increased, and the SSP and DSP decreased.

Objective:To explore the prevalence and independent associated factors of vascular calcification (VC) in non-dialysis chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients of stage 3-5.Methods:It was a single-center cross-sectional observational study. Non-dialysis stage 3-5 CKD patients ≥18 years old who were admitted to the Department of Nephrology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University from May 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022 with VC evaluation were enrolled. The patients' general information, laboratory examination and imaging data were collected. Coronary artery calcification (CAC), thoracic aorta calcification (TAC), abdominal aorta calcification (AAC), carotid artery calcification and aortic valve calcification (AVC) were evaluated by cardiac-gated electron-beam CT (EBCT) scans, lateral lumbar x-ray, cervical macrovascular ultrasound and echocardiography, respectively. The differences in clinical data and the prevalence of VC at different sites of patients with different CKD stages were compared, and the prevalence of VC at different sites of patients in different age groups [youth group (18-44 years old), middle-aged group (45-64 years old) and elderly group (≥65 years old)] and patients with or without diabetes were compared. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to analyse the independent associated factors of VC for different areas.Results:A total of 206 patients aged (51±14) years were included, including 129 (62.6%) males. There were 44 patients with CKD stage 3 (21.4%), 51 patients with CKD stage 4 (24.8%), and 111 patients with CKD stage 5 (53.9%). CKD was caused by chronic glomerulonephritis [104 cases (50.5%)], diabetic kidney damage [35 cases (17.0%)], hypertensive kidney damage [29 cases (14.1%)] and others [38 cases (18.4%)]. Among 206 patients, 131 (63.6%) exhibited cardiovascular calcification, and the prevalence of CAC, TAC, AAC, carotid artery calcification, and AVC was 37.9%, 43.7%, 37.9%, 35.9% and 9.7%, respectively. The overall prevalence of VC in young, middle-aged and elderly patients was 24.6%, 73.6% and 97.4%, respectively. With the increase of age, the prevalence of VC in each site gradually increased, and the increasing trend was statistically significant (all P<0.001). The overall prevalence of VC in CKD patients with diabetes was 92.5% (62/67), and the prevalence of VC at each site in the patients with diabetes was significantly higher than that in the patients without diabetes (all P<0.001). Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that age (every 10 years increase, OR=2.51, 95% CI 1.77-3.56, P<0.001), hypertension ( OR=5.88, 95% CI 1.57-22.10, P=0.009), and diabetes ( OR=4.66, 95% CI 2.10-10.35, P<0.001) were independently correlated with CAC; Age (every 10 years increase, OR=6.43, 95% CI 3.64-11.36, P<0.001) and hypertension ( OR=6.09, 95% CI 1.33-27.84, P=0.020) were independently correlated with TAC; Female ( OR=0.23, 95% CI 0.07-0.72, P=0.011), age (every 10 years increase, OR=3.90, 95% CI 2.42-6.29, P<0.001), diabetes ( OR=5.37, 95% CI 2.19-13.19, P<0.001) and serum magnesium ( OR=0.01,95% CI 0-0.35, P=0.014) were independently correlated with AAC. Moreover, age and diabetes were independently correlated with carotid artery calcification, AVC and overall VC Conclusions:The prevalence of VC in non-dialysis CKD patients of stage 3-5 is 63.59%, of which CAC reaches 37.9%, TAC is the most common one (43.7%), while AVC is the least one (9.7%). Age and diabetes are the independent associated factors for VC of all sites except TAC, while hypertension is an independent associated factor for both CAC and TAC.

Objective To express the monkeypox virus (MPXV) A23R protein in Escherichia coli and purify by Ni-NTA affinity column, and to prepare mouse antiserum against MPXV A23R. Methods The recombinant plasmid pET-28a-MPXV-A23R was constructed and transformed into Escherichia coli BL21 to induce the expression of A23R protein. After optimizing the conditions of expression, A23R protein was highly expressed. Recombinant A23R protein was purified by Ni-NTA affinity column and identified by Western blot analysis. The purified protein was used to immunize mice for preparing the A23R polyclonal antibody, and the antibody titer was detected by ELISA. Results The expression of A23R recombinant protein reached the peak under the induced conditions of 0.6 mmol/L isopropyl-β-D-thiogalactoside (IPTG), 37 DegreesCelsius and 20 hours. The purity of the protein was about 96.07% and was identified by Western blot analysis. The mice were immunized with recombinant protein, and the titer of antibody reached 1:102 400 at the 6th week after immunization. Conclusion MPXV A23R is expressed highly and purified with a high purity and its antiserum from mouse is obtained with a high titre.
Animals ; Mice ; Monkeypox virus ; Antibodies ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Blotting, Western ; Recombinant Proteins ; Escherichia coli/genetics*

Objective:To investigate the effects of myeloid differentiation protein-2 (MD-2) on paclitaxel resistance cells in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) through EGFR signaling pathway.Methods:Immunohistochemical method was used to detect the expression of MD-2 in cancer tissue and adjacent tissue of TNBC patients, and the relationship between MD-2 expression and clinicopathological parameters of patients was analyzed. The TNBC paclitaxel-resistant cell line was constructed and MD-2 expression in cells was interfered. Cell invasion was detected by Transwell, and cell apoptosis was detected by flow cytometry. The signaling pathways regulated by MD-2 were screened by transcriptome sequencing and verified by Western blot.Results:The expression of MD-2 was significantly enhanced in cancer tissues relative to adjacent tissues. High expression of MD-2 was closely related to clinical stage, tumor size, tumor recurrence and metastasis ( χ2=4.50, P=0.032; χ2=2.55, P=0.011; χ2=4.40, P=0.036). In cell experiments, compared with normal breast cells, the expression of MD-2 in TNBC cell lines was significantly enhanced. Compared with sh-NC group (100±11.52) (6.81±0.57), knockdown of MD-2 could inhibit the invasion (61.44±6.78) ( t=4.99, P=0.008) but promote apoptosis (15.19±1.06) ( t=12.06, P<0.001) of paclitaxel resistant TNBC cells. Transcriptome sequencing and Western blot results showed that MD-2 mainly affects the biological behavior of TNBC cells by regulating the EGFR signaling pathway. Conclusions:MD-2 promoted TNBC cell invasion and paclitaxel resistance, which may be achieved by affecting the EGFR signaling pathway. MD-2 is expected to become an effective target in TNBC treatment.

This paper expounds that the construction of a clinical teacher's teaching ability model is an urgent problem to be solved in medical colleges and universities, and analyzes that the current clinical teaching concepts and methods are constantly improving, and the clinical teaching environment is more informatized and intelligent. This paper summarizes the clinical teachers' teaching ability models at home and abroad, such as the ability and quality iceberg model, teacher growth model, inquiry-based teaching model, Molenaar three-dimensional teaching ability model, etc., and discusses the practice research progress of current clinical teacher teaching ability models such as student-centered guided teaching, bedside teaching, micro-teaching and BOPPPS (bridge-in, objective, pre-assessment, participatory-learning, post-assessment, and summary) method, medical simulation teaching, etc., hoping to provide guidance for further constructing models of teacher's teaching ability suitable for Chinese medical colleges and universities.

Tumor microenvironments (TMEs) are closely related to tumor resistance. TMEs are divided into cellular components and acellular components. The cellular components include tumor-associated macrophages, tumor-associated fibroblasts, mesenchymal stem cells, etc., which can enhance tumor resistance through recruitment and secretion of a variety of protective cytokines; acellular components such as extracellular matrix, hypoxia and acidification, etc., can mediate drug resistance by constructing physical barriers, affecting tumor cell growth and metabolism. Studying the mechanisms of TME-mediated drug resistance and reshaping TMEs can provide new strategies for anti-tumor therapy.

Non-coding RNAs ( ncRNA ), including ribosomal RNA( rRNA), transfer RNA( tRNA), MicroRNA ( miRNA), long noncoding RNA(lncRNA) and small nucleolar RNA(snoR-NA), are a class of RNA that have multiple functions and are not translated to proteins. MicroRNA and lncRNA are involved in the injury, remodeling and aging of blood vessels, and it is necessary to understand the regulatory roles of MicroRNA and lncRNA in these processes. It is reported that MicroRNA and lncRNA are not only participated in the regulation of oxidative response, inflammation, cell proliferation and migration, and phenotype transition, they are also involved in the regulation of gene expression by conducting different mechanisms, including transcriptional regulation, post-transcriptional modification and chromatin remodeling. These aspects of regulation by MicroRNA and lncRNA are related to cardiovascular diseases, such as ath-erosclerosis, hypertension, myocardial infarction, stroke, pul-monary hypertension and diabetes, and thus provide a new way for genetic diagnosis and therapy of cardiovascular diseases.

When senescence induction is based on DNA damage, senescent cells display a unique phenotype, which has been termed “senescence-associated secretory phenotype”( SASP ) . SASP, including proinflammatory cytokines, growth factors, chemokines, matrix remodeling enzymes and other cytokines, may be an important driver of chronic inflammation and therefore may be part of a vicious cycle of inflammation, DNA damage and senescence. Senescence-associated secretory products released by such cells can affect the neighboring cells and further exacer-bate their regenerative capacity. SASP is associated with many chronic age-related diseases.

Objective To study the clinical characteristics,pathology,and treatment for papillary carcinoma of the breast.Methods The clinical data of 17 patients of papillary carcinoma of the breast admitted in the First Affiliated Hospital of Wen Zhou Medical College were retrospectively analyzed.Results Papillary carcinoma of the breast accounted for 0.64％ of all breast cancer cases hospitalized during last 10 years.All cases had palpable lumps in the breast.12 cases received modified radical mastectomy,2 cases received simple mastectomy,2 cases underwent breast conservation therapy,1 case underwent simple mastectomy plus sentinel lymph node biopsy.15 patients received postoperative chemotherapy,among those 5 cases also received radiotherapy.During a 32.5-month median follow-up ( 1 month to 8 years),one case with bone metastases died 2 years postoperatively and another one died of multimetastases 7 years later.Conclusions The prognosis of papillary carcinoma of the breast is closely related with its pathology type.For intraductal papillary carcinoma low-traumatic therapy is applicable,while in case of infiltrating papillary carcinoma or invasive micropapillary carcinoma ( IMPC ),more aggressive therapies like that adopted for infiltrating ductal carcinoma are recommended.

Objective To investigate the effects of antisense recombinant euraryotic expression vector of HCCR-2 on the proliferation and apoptosis of HepG2. Methods The antisense recombinant eukaryotic expression vector of HCCR-2 was constructed. The vector was stably transfected to the HepG2 cells, and positive clones were selected by G418 (antiseuse vector group), pIRES2-EGFP vector was transfected into the HepG2 cells in the same way (pIRES2-EGFP group). The conditions of the nontransfected HepG2 cells were used as control (HepG2 group). Changes in cell growth curve, cell cycle, cell apoptosis and morphology of HepG2 cells after the transfec-tion were detected by MTT method, flow cytometry and transmission electron microscopy, respectively. All the data were analyzed by one-way ANOVA and chi-square test. Results The expression level of HCCR-2 mRNA was down-regulated to 0.39±0.04 in antisense vector group, and the expression level of HCCR-2 mRNA in pIRES2-EGFP group and HepG2 group were 0.62±0.06 and 0.72±0.03, respectively, with significant difference among the 3 groups (F=43.701, P<0.05). The apoptotic rate of HepG2 cells in antisense vector group, pIRES2-EGFP grop and HepG2 group were 13.30%, 2.51% and 2.07%, respectively, with significant difference among the 3 group (χ2=6.793, 8.721, P<0.05). The growth of HepG2 cells in antisense vector group was retarded, and was blocked in G0/G1 stage. Conclusions The HCCR-2 antisense recombinant eukaryotic expression vector can inhibit the mRNA expression of HCCR-2 and promote the apoptosis of cells. HCCR-2 may be involved in cell regulation and the proliferation of hepatocellular carcinoma cells.