Objective: To simulate the tumor microenvironment though the 3D microtumor model which was constructed using droplet microfluidics.To explore its feasibility as a model for in vitro breast cancer research through3D microtumour fabrication,characterisation and sensitivity testing to chemotherapeutic drugs. Methods: Breast cancer cells were encapsulated with hydrogel shells in collagen-rich microencapsulated cores to obtain breast cancer microtumours in vitro;breast cancer microtumours were co-cultured with 3D microencapsulated endothelial cells by Transwell system.The structure and growth characteristics of the microtumours were directly observed by microscopy;the CCK-8 assay was used to detect the proliferation of the cells under different culture models and the drug sensitivity to doxorubicin;flow cytometry was used to compare the differences in apoptosis during the proliferation process;and the differences in the migratory and invasive abilities of the cells were assessed by scratch assay and Transwell assay;the expression of epithelial-mesenchymal transition-related proteins was detected by Western blot. Results: Breast cancer cells grew well in hydrogel nucleus-shell microcapsules;cell proliferation assays showed that 3D culture and 3D co-culture cells proliferated at a significantly lower rate than 2D culture;3D culture and 3D co-culture cells had enhanced migration and invasion ability and showed higher expression of EMT-related proteins compared to 2D culture;3D culture and 3D co-culture cells were significantly less sensitive to chemotherapeutic drugs compared to 2D culture.The sensitivity of 3D and 3D co-cultured cells to chemotherapeutic drugs was significantly reduced compared to 2D culture. Conclusion 3D cultures show similar morphology and biology to in vivo tumours and are more resistant to chemotherapeutic agents.

Purpose To explore the expression of autoph-agy-related 7(ATG7)in breast cancer and its effect on the breast cancer development.Methods Immunohistochemistry(IHC)was used to detect ATG7 protein expression in breast cancer tissues and the relationship between ATG7 and clinico-pathological features was analyzed.ShRNA was used to interfere with the expression of ATG7 in breast cancer cell line MCF-7.Puromycin was used to screen for stably transfected cells and Western blot was used to detect transfection efficiency.The effect of ATG7 knockdown cells on proliferation ability was de-tected by CCK8 and clone formation experiments.The effect of ATG7 knockdown cells on tumorigenicity in vivo was detected by subcutaneous tumor formation experiment in nude mice.Results IHC showed that ATG7 expression in breast cancer tissues was mainly localized in cytoplasm,and its expression was significant-ly correlated with tumor size and Ki67 expression(P＜0.05).ATG7-shRNA significantly interfered with ATG7 expression in breast cancer cells MCF-7.CCK8 and clone formation experi-ments showed that ATG7 knockdown promoted the cell prolifera-tion compared with the control group.The experiment of subcu-taneous tumor formation in nude mice showed that the tumor for-mation ability of mice was significantly increased after ATG7 knockdown compared with the control group.Conclusion ATG7 may inhibit the proliferation capacity of breast cancer and could be a potential target for breast cancer therapy.

Objective To analyze the medication law of Professor Yuan Jinsheng,a renowned TCM practitioner in China,for treating palpitations through data mining methods.Methods Clinical prescriptions for treating palpitations by Professor Yuan Jinsheng from January 2016 to May 2023 were collected.The prescriptions were screened based on inclusion and exclusion criteria,a prescription compatibility network was constructed based on R Studio 4.3.1,and the medication law of prescriptions was analyzed.Results Totally 331 prescriptions were screened,involving 180 types of Chinese materia medica,with a total frequency of 3 625.The most frequently used drugs(≥30 times)were mainly tonics.The main properties were warm and neutral,the main tastes were sweet,bitter,and pungent,which belonged to heart,spleen and lung meridians.The top 5 drugs with high correlation were tonifying,blood circulation-activating and stasis-resolving,qi-regulating,and heat-clearing.Correlation analysis reveals high-frequency drugs,which were mainly Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma Praeparata cum Melle,Rehmannine Radix,Ophiopogonis Radix,Astragali Radix and Codonopsis Radix.The clustering analysis results showed that the efficacy was mainly tonifying deficiency,regulating qi,activating blood circulation,and resolving stasis.Conclusion Professor Yuan Jinsheng's prescription compatibility for treating palpitations primarily focuses on tonics,qi-regulating,and blood circulation-activating and stasis-resolving herbs,embodying the principles of treating palpitations from the perspective of the heart and spleen and the combined use of multiple organs.

Objective:To study the changes in long non-coding RNA C2dat1 expression in kidney tissues of rats at different stages of diabetic kidney disease (DKD) and its relationship with renal interstitial fibrosis.Methods:Forty-eight male SD rats were randomly divided into two groups with 24 rats in each group: control group and DKD group. The rats in the control group were fed with ordinary diet, while those in the DKD group were fed with high-fat diet and drank water freely. After eight weeks of feeding, the rats were fasted for 12 h with free access to water. Then, the DKD group was given a one-time intrabitoneal injection of streptozotocin and the control group was given an equal dose of sodium citrate buffer. After 72 h, the random peripheral blood glucose concentration (≥ 16.7 mmol/L for three consecutive days) and urine sugar (positive) were tested to assess the establishment of the diabetes model. Urine, blood and kidney samples were collected at 3, 6, 9 and 12 weeks. The urinary protein excretion rate within 24 h, urinary creatinine and serum total cholesterol were measured by automatic biochemical apparatus. Pathological changes in kidney tissues were observed by HE staining. The expression of calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase Ⅱ delta (CaMK2D), p65, p50, α-SMA and E-cardherin was detected by immunohistochemistry. Quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) was used to detect the expression of lncRNA C2dat1 and CaMK2D. The relationship of lncRNA C2dat1 with α-SMA, E-cardherin and CaMK2D was analyzed by correlation analysis. In in vitro experiment, renal tubular epithelial cells HK-2 were induced by high glucose. The expression of lncRNA C2dat1 and CaMK2D in HK-2 cells was detected by qPCR after 24, 48 and 72 h of intervention. Results:The rats in the DKD group showed typical symptoms such as polydipsia, polyphagia, significant weight loss and increased blood glucose as compared with the rats in the control group. Results of the biochemical tests revealed that compared with the control group, the DKD group had increased 24 h excretion rate of urinary protein, decreased urinary creatinine and up-regulated total cholesterol. HE staining showed that the rats in the control group had intact glomeruli, normal basement membrane and no mesangial hyperplasia or inflammatory cell infiltration. However, enlarged glomeruli and evenly thickened basement membrane were observed in the DKD group. Immunohistochemistry indicated that the expression of CaMK2D, p50 and α-SMA was higher in the DKD group than in the control group, while the expression of E-cardherin was lower in the DKD group. qPCR results showed that the expression of lncRNA C2dat1 and CaMK2D at mRNA level was higher in the DKD group than in the control group. In in vitro experiment, the expression of lncRNA C2dat1 and CaMK2D at mRNA level was also higher in HK-2 cells induced by high glucose than in the control group. Correlation analysis indicated that lncRNA C2dat1 was positively correlated with α-SMA and CaMK2D, but negatively correlated with E-cardherin. Conclusions:During the progression of DKD, the high expression of lncRNA C2dat1 might promote diabetic renal interstitial fibrosis by regulating the expression of CaMK2D to activate the NF-κB signaling pathway.

Objective:To explore the clinical value of urine semi-quantitative colorimetry by sodium dithionite reduction method in the diagnosis and treatment of diquat poisoning.Methods:The data of 49 patients with acute diquat poisoning treated in the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University from December 3, 2020 to November 23, 2022 were retrospectively analyzed, the correlation between urine colorimetric results and plasma diquat concentration was observed, and the predictive value of urine colorimetric results for target organ damage and prognosis were evaluated.Results:There was a significant correlation between urine colorimetric results and plasma diquat concentration, the correlation coefficient was r=0.89, P <0.01. The cut-off value of urine colorimetry for the predicting the damage of gastrointestinal tract, liver, kidney, and central nervous system injury were 2.5, 3.5, 3.5, 5.5, respectively; in which the urine colorimetric results showed the highest sensitivity in predicting digestive tract injury [ AUC 0.93 (95% CI:0.89-1.00)]. The cut-off value of urine colorimetry for the prognosis of death was 4.5, the positive predictive value was 64.2%, and the negative predictive value was 95.2%. Conclusions:The urine semi-quantitative method can be used for rapid prediction of the plasma diquat concentration range on admission. The urine colorimetry results can also effectively predict the occurrence of organ injury and clinical outcome related to diquat poisoning, which provides evidence for the clinical diagnosis and therapy.

Purpose To investigate the expression of PD-1,PD-L1,CD3 and CD8 in the immune microenvironment of non-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC)and their clinical signifi-cance.Methods The clinical data of 39 patients with NSCLC brain metastasis(BM)were collected.The expression of PD-1,PD-L1,CD3 and CD8 in the tumor and stroma of BM was detec-ted using an immunofluorescence-based tissue microenvironment analysis panel.Targeted sequencing was carried out to catalog cancer-related genes.The clinical pathological features were an-alyzed with review of relevant literature.Results Thity-nine patients with NSCLC presented with tumor-infiltrating lympho-cytes(TIL)in different degree.CD3+TIL(P=0.000 7)and CD8+TIL(P=0.0006)were more prominent in the tumor stroma,and the positive PD-L1 expression was significantly higher in the interstitial tissues of tumor(P=0.025 8).Com-pared with the whole wild-type driver gene cohort,the expres-sion of PD-L1 in the stroma of BM was significantly increased in the EGFR mutation cohort(P=0.039).Patients with high in-filtration of stroma CD8+TIL had longer median overall survival than those with low infiltration(16 months vs 6 months,P=0.032);PD-L1-positive patients(36 months)were longer sur-vival time than PD-L1-negative patients(5.5 months,P=0.056).Compared with lung primary lesions,the variant allele frequencies(VAFs)in BM generally increased,and samples with higher VAFs corresponded to higher expression of PD-1,PD-L1,CD3 and CD8.Conclusion The TIL infiltration is most prominent in the stroma of NSCLC BM.The EGFR muta-tion of a tumor might affect the immune microenvironment of me-tastases;PD-L1 expression and TIL infiltration were correlated with overall survival.

Cognitive impairment is one of the important clinical manifestations in depression. The particularly vulnerable cognition domains included executive function, attention, memory, and processing speed. Depression with cognitive impairment is not only a predictor of poor efficacy, but also closely related to dementia. Previous studies have suggested that multiple physiological mechanisms may be altered between depression and cognitive impairment. With the rapid development of neuroimaging technology, resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging has been widely used to explore the neurobiological mechanisms of depression and cognitive impairment. After reviewing the resting-state functional MRI manifestations of the comorbidity, it was found that the default mode network, cognitive control network, and salience network were activated or weakened in the brain. In addition, the inter-network functional connectivity was altered with the co-existence of impairment and compensation. The aforementioned changes of brain function are expected to be the therapeutic targets for depression with cognitive dysfunction.

Objective:To establish surgical difficulty scoring system of partial nephrectomy based on holographic imaging and explore its application value in partial nephrectomy.Methods:A total of 184 patients including 110 males and 74 females with renal tumors diagnosed as stage cT 1 to cT 2 before surgery in the First Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen University from October 2019 to January 2022 were included. Among the 184 patients, 141 patients were treated with partial nephrectomy and 43 patients were treated with radical nephrectomy (3 partial nephrectomies were finally changed to radical nephrectomies due to vascular and tumor location). 60 patients had hypertension. 24 patients had diabetes. 7 patients had hyperuricemia. The median age was 55(47, 62) years. The median BMI was 23.7(21.8, 26.4) kg/m 2. The median maximum tumor diameter was 3.9(2.9, 5.2) cm. The median preoperative eGFR was 99.7(83.4, 114.2) ml/(min·1.73m 2). The median R. E.N.A.L. score was 8(6, 9). The median PADUA score was 9(8, 10). 153 patients were diagnosed as stage cT 1 and 31 patients were diagnosed as stage cT 2. The hologram reconstruction was performed according to preoperative CT or MRI examination. The maximum diameter of the tumor in the kidney (D), the compression degree of the renal segmental vessels by tumor(C), the area of the renal sinus occupied by tumor(O) and the mass of exophytic rate(M) were comprehensively considered and finally constituted the difficulty scoring system named DCOM score for partial nephrectomy. The DCOM score divided the complexity of tumor surgery into mild (4-6 points), moderate (7-8 points) and high (≥ 9 points). Meanwhile, the MIC (surgical margins are negative, WIT is <20 min, and no major complications)was used to evaluate the overall surgical effect. The DCOM, R. E.N.A.L. and PADUA scores were performed on all patients and compared with each other to evaluate the surgical effect of DCOM score in partial nephrectomy. Results:All surgeries in this study were successfully completed, including 141 partial nephrectomies and 43 radical nephrectomies. The DCOM score was 10(9, 11) for radical nephrectomy and 6(5, 8) for partial nephrectomy, and the difference was statistically significant ( P=0.001). There were 23 patients (37.7%) in highly complex group, 39 patients (88.6%) in moderately complex group and 79 patients (100.0%) in mildly complex group underwent partial nephrectomy, respectively. According to multifactorial analysis, patients in highly and moderately complex group of DCOM score had 8.88 times ( P=0.001) and 1.76 times ( P=0.005) less reach MIC than those in mildly complex group, respectively. Patients in highly and moderately complex group of PADUA score had 4.86 times ( P=0.005)and 3.41 times ( P=0.006)less reach MIC than patients in mildly complex group of DCOM score, respectively. What’s more, patients in moderately complex group of R. E.N.A.L. score had 3.11 times ( P=0.003) less reach MIC than patients in mildly complex group of DCOM score. In the ROC curves to predict MIC achievement, the AUC values of R. E.N.A.L., PADUA and DCOM scores were 0.657, 0.655 and 0.746, respectively. Comparing:R. E.N.A.L. score with DCOM score, the AUC value was statistically significant ( P=0.025). Conclusions The surgical difficulty scoring system (DCOM score) based on holographic imaging can predict the outcome of partial nephrectomy, but further verification is needed.

Objective:To study the relationship between somatization symptoms and body mass index (BMI), sleep and cognitive function in patients with depression.Methods:A total of 119 patients with depression were selected from January to December in 2019.According to the score of patient health questionnaire-15(PHQ15), they were divided into mild somatization group ( n=75) and moderate severe somatization group ( n=44). Hamilton depression scale-24(HAMD-24), patient health questionnaire-15, Pittsburgh sleep quality index(PSQI) and Montreal cognitive assessment(MoCA) were used to evaluate all subjects.SPSS 23.0 software was used for data analysis.Independent sample t-test was used to compare BMI, sleep and cognitive function scores between the two groups.Pearson correlation analysis was used to study the correlation between somatization symptoms and sleep quality and cognitive function. Results:There were significant differences in BMI((21.70±3.09)kg/m 2, (23.31±3.51)kg/m 2), PSQI((12.56±4.37), (14.37±3.72)), sleep quality(1.87±0.86), (2.21±0.80)), sleep disorder ((1.24±0.59), (1.65±0.53))and daytime dysfunction((2.45±0.81), (2.77±0.48)) between the two groups ( t=-3.783--2.133, all P<0.05), but no difference was found in cognition ( P>0.05). Correlation analysis showed that after controlling HAMD, PHQ-15 was positively correlated with PSQI, sleep quality, sleep disorder, daytime dysfunction and language score in MoCA ( r=0.205-0.298, all P<0.05). Conclusion:The severity of somatization in patients with depression is related to BMI, sleep quality, sleep disorder, daytime dysfunction and language function, suggesting that they may play an important role in the pathogenesis of depression with somatization.

To investigate the expression of CMaf inducing protein(CMIP) in human laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma and polyps tissues,and to analyze their association with clinicopathological parameters and survival of patients with laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma.Methods Real-time PCR assay was used to detect the expression of CMIP mRNA in 28 cases of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma and 23 cases of polyp fresh tissue specimen.Immunohistochemical staining was used to detect the expression of CMIP in 86 cases of formalin-fixed and parrffin-embedded laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma and 29 cases of polyp tissue specimens.The clinicopathological and prognostic significance of CMIP expression was investigated in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma.Results The expression of CMIP mRNA and protein was both significantly increased in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma compared with polyp tissue specimens.The expression of CMIP was significantly associated with tumor lymph node metastasis and late clinical stage of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma.Furthermore,the expression of CMIP was significantly correlated with poor relapse-free survival and overall survival in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma.Conclusion CMIP might play an important role in the development and progression of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma and increased expression of CMIP might imply disease progression and poor outcome in patient with laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma.