Objective To evaluate the application value of golden angle radial sparse parallel(Grasp)sequence in contrast-enhanced MRI of liver.Methods The imaging data of 30 patients who underwent gadolinium ethoxybenzyl diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid contrast-enhanced MRI of liver were collected.With the same equipment,images were collected by Grasp sequence and breath-hold sequence separately,with an interval of less than 3 months.The subjective and objective scores of the late arterial phase and portal venous phase images were evaluated.Results There were no significant differences in all subjective scores of the late arterial phase and portal venous phase images between the two sequences(P＞0.05).The signal-to-noise ratio(SNR)of the late arterial phase images in the Grasp sequence was lower than that in the breath-hold sequence(148.4±52.8 vs 195.6±68.4),and the difference was statistically significant(P＜0.01).Although the SNR of the portal venous phase in the Grasp sequence was lower than that in the breath-hold sequence,the difference was not statistically significant(P＞0.05).There was no statistical difference in the other objective scores between the two sequences(P＞0.05).Conclusion The image quality of Grasp sequence in contrast-enhanced MRI of liver can meet the diagnositic requirements,and it is suitable for patients with poor breath-hold capacity,which has important application value.

Objective:To explore the application effect of preoperative autologous blood localization method in laparoscopic resection of gastric stromal tumors in unfavorable areas of the stomach.Methods:A retrospective analysis was conducted on the case data of 40 patients with gastric stromal tumors in unfavorable locations admitted to Jinjiang Hospital from January 2019 to December 2022. The patients were divided into a control group (intraoperative endoscopic localization method) and an autologous blood localization group according to different intraoperative lesion localization methods, with 20 cases in each group. The surgical time, intraoperative blood loss, hospitalization time, postoperative exhaust time, and adverse reactions were compared between the two groups.Results:The surgery time of the autologous blood localization group was shorter than that of the control group [(92.30±8.80)min vs (108.20±14.87)min, P<0.05]. There was no statistically significant difference in intraoperative bleeding, hospitalization time, and postoperative exhaust time between the two groups (all P>0.05). Two groups of patients did not show an increase in inflammatory indicators such as white blood cells and C-reactive protein on the day after surgery. Both groups of patients did not experience adverse reactions such as fever, abdominal pain, or postoperative complications. Conclusions:The autologous blood injection localization method provides a safe, simple, and effective method for preoperative localization of gastric stromal tumors in unfavorable areas of the stomach under laparoscopy, and is worthy of clinical promotion and use.

A triple-transgenic (tyrosine hydroxylase/dopamine decarboxylase/GTP cyclohydrolase 1, TH/DDC/GCH1) bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell line (BMSCs) capable of stably synthesizing dopamine (DA) transmitters were established to provide experimental evidence for the clinical treatment of Parkinson's disease (PD) by using this cell line. The DA-BMSCs cell line that could stably synthesize and secrete DA transmitters was established by using the triple transgenic recombinant lentivirus. The triple transgenes (TH/DDC/GCH1) expression in DA-BMSCs was detected using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), Western blotting, and immunofluorescence. Moreover, the secretion of DA was tested by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Chromosome G-banding analysis was used to detect the genetic stability of DA-BMSCs. Subsequently, the DA-BMSCs were stereotactically transplanted into the right medial forebrain bundle (MFB) of Parkinson's rat models to detect their survival and differentiation in the intracerebral microenvironment of PD rats. Apomorphine (APO)-induced rotation test was used to detect the improvement of motor dysfunction in PD rat models with cell transplantation. The TH, DDC and GCH1 were expressed stably and efficiently in the DA-BMSCs cell line, but not expressed in the normal rat BMSCs. The concentration of DA in the cell culture supernatant of the triple transgenic group (DA-BMSCs) and the LV-TH group was extremely significantly higher than that of the standard BMSCs control group (P < 0.000 1). After passage, DA-BMSCs stably produced DA. Karyotype G-banding analysis showed that the vast majority of DA-BMSCs maintained normal diploid karyotypes (94.5%). Moreover, after 4 weeks of transplantation into the brain of PD rats, DA-BMSCs significantly improved the movement disorder of PD rat models, survived in a large amount in the brain microenvironment, differentiated into TH-positive and GFAP-positive cells, and upregulated the DA level in the injured area of the brain. The triple-transgenic DA-BMSCs cell line that stably produced DA, survived in large numbers, and differentiated in the rat brain was successfully established, laying a foundation for the treatment of PD using engineered culture and transplantation of DA-BMSCs.
Rats ; Animals ; Dopamine ; Parkinson Disease/metabolism* ; Mesenchymal Stem Cells/metabolism* ; Cell Line ; Brain/metabolism* ; Cell Differentiation ; Mesenchymal Stem Cell Transplantation

Spinal cord injury (SCI) causes motor, sensory, and autonomic dysfunctions. The gut microbiome has an important role in SCI, while short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) are one of the main bioactive mediators of microbiota. In the present study, we explored the effects of oral administration of exogenous SCFAs on the recovery of locomotor function and tissue repair in SCI. Allen's method was utilized to establish an SCI model in Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. The animals received water containing a mixture of 150 mmol/L SCFAs after SCI. After 21 d of treatment, the Basso, Beattie, and Bresnahan (BBB) score increased, the regularity index improved, and the base of support (BOS) value declined. Spinal cord tissue inflammatory infiltration was alleviated, the spinal cord necrosis cavity was reduced, and the numbers of motor neurons and Nissl bodies were elevated. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), and immunohistochemistry assay revealed that the expression of interleukin (IL)‍-10 increased and that of IL-17 decreased in the spinal cord. SCFAs promoted gut homeostasis, induced intestinal T cells to shift toward an anti-inflammatory phenotype, and promoted regulatory T (Treg) cells to secrete IL-10, affecting Treg cells and IL-17⁺ γδ T cells in the spinal cord. Furthermore, we observed that Treg cells migrated from the gut to the spinal cord region after SCI. The above findings confirm that SCFAs can regulate Treg cells in the gut and affect the balance of Treg and IL-17⁺ γδ T cells in the spinal cord, which inhibits the inflammatory response and promotes the motor function in SCI rats. Our findings suggest that there is a relationship among gut, spinal cord, and immune cells, and the "gut-spinal cord-immune" axis may be one of the mechanisms regulating neural repair after SCI.
Animals ; Rats ; Interleukin-17 ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Recovery of Function ; Spinal Cord Injuries/drug therapy* ; T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory ; Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, gamma-delta/immunology*

BACKGROUND: Osteoporosis (OP) has become a major public health issue, threatening the bone health of middle-aged and elderly people from all around the world. Changes in the gut microbiota (GM) are correlated with the maintenance of bone mass and bone quality. However, research results in this field remain highly controversial, and no systematic review or meta-analysis of the relationship between GM and OP has been conducted. This paper addresses this shortcoming, focusing on the difference in the GM abundance between OP patients and healthy controls based on previous 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequencing results, in order to provide new clinical reference information for future customized prevention and treatment options of OP. METHODS: According to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA), we comprehensively searched the databases of PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Cochrane Library, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). In addition, we applied the R programming language version 4.0.3 and Stata 15.1 software for data analysis. We also implemented the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS), funnel plot analysis, sensitivity analysis, Egger's test, and Begg's test to assess the risk of bias. RESULTS: This research ultimately considered 12 studies, which included the fecal GM data of 2033 people (604 with OP and 1429 healthy controls). In the included research papers, it was observed that the relative abundance of Lactobacillus and Ruminococcus increased in the OP group, while the relative abundance for Bacteroides of Bacteroidetes increased (except for Ireland). Meanwhile, Firmicutes, Blautia, Alistipes, Megamonas, and Anaerostipes showed reduced relative abundance in Chinese studies. In the linear discriminant analysis Effect Size (LEfSe) analysis, certain bacteria showed statistically significant results consistently across different studies. CONCLUSIONS: This observational meta-analysis revealed that changes in the GM were correlated with OP, and variations in some advantageous GM might involve regional differences.
Middle Aged ; Aged ; Humans ; Gastrointestinal Microbiome/genetics* ; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics* ; Genes, rRNA ; Osteoporosis ; Feces

Objective: This study collected and analyzed data from patients with microtia in multiple clinical centers to obtain the incidence characteristics of microtia in Chinese. Methods: Data from 746 patients with microtia were collected from six hospitals, including theThird Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Hunan Provincial People′s Hospital, the Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Weihai Municipal Hospital, West China Hospital Sichuan University, Plastic Surgery Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences from January 2016 to December 2017. These data included the results of physical examination and the results of auxiliary examination such as electrocardiogram, chest CT, and abdominal ultrasound. Then, the accompanying malformations of the microtia were statistically analyzed and discussed. Data were entered and processed using SPSS 19.0 statistical software. The relationship between microtia deformities and associated malformations was analyzed by Pearson χ² test. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: A total of 746 patients with microtia were included, including 513 males and 233 females, aged 5-27 years old. There were 678 cases of unilateral microtia, 68 cases of bilateral microtia; 128 cases of Ⅰ degree, 564 cases of Ⅱ degree, and 54 cases of Ⅲ degree. In addition, 336 cases (45%) were associated with dysplasia of other systems. Detected anomalies were 321 cases of the ear, face, and neck, 261 cases of musculoskeletal system and 76 cases of cardiovascular system, 30 cases of anomalies of the urogenital system, eye, 27 cases of respiratory system, 7 cases of central nervous system, 5 case of digestive system and 1case of diaphragmatic hernia. The proportion of male and female with microtia was 47.0% (241/513) and 40.8% (95/233), respectively, and there was no significant difference in between (χ²=2.493, P=0.114); The composition ratios of unilateral and bilateral associated malformations were 45.7% (310/678) and 38.2% (26/68 ), and there was no significant difference in between (χ²=1.400, P=0.237); The composition ratios of Ⅰ, Ⅱ, Ⅲ degree-associated malformations were 39.8% (51/128), 42.6% (240/564), and 83.3% (45/54), and the difference was statistically significant (χ²= 34.794, P<0.001). Conclusions Microtia has significant clinical heterogeneity with a higher proportion of associated malformations. A higher incidence of associated deformities in patients with severe microtia was observed. Systematic examination is required, which will be helpful to clinical therapy and etiology analysis.

Autoimmune pancreatitis (AIP) is a unique subtype of chronic pancreatitis, which shares many clinical presentations with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA). The misdiagnosis of AIP often leads to unnecessary pancreatic resection. F-FDG positron emission tomography/ computed tomography (PET/CT) could provide comprehensive information on the morphology, density, and functional metabolism of the pancreas at the same time. It has been proved to be a promising modality for noninvasive differentiation between AIP and PDA. However, there is a lack of clinical analysis of PET/CT image texture features. Difficulty still remains in differentiating AIP and PDA based on commonly used diagnostic methods. Therefore, this paper studied the differentiation of AIP and PDA based on multi-modality texture features. We utilized multiple feature extraction algorithms to extract the texture features from CT and PET images at first. Then, the Fisher criterion and sequence forward floating selection algorithm (SFFS) combined with support vector machine (SVM) was employed to select the optimal multi-modality feature subset. Finally, the SVM classifier was used to differentiate AIP from PDA. The results prove that texture analysis of lesions helps to achieve accurate differentiation of AIP and PDA.
Adenocarcinoma ; diagnostic imaging ; Algorithms ; Autoimmune Diseases ; diagnostic imaging ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Fluorodeoxyglucose F18 ; Humans ; Pancreatic Neoplasms ; diagnostic imaging ; Pancreatitis ; diagnostic imaging ; Positron Emission Tomography Computed Tomography ; Support Vector Machine

Objective: To assess the clinical characteristics and identify the risk factors in the acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients complicating with ventricular septal rupture (VSR). Methods: A retrospective study was performed on 96 AMI patients complicating with VSR, who were hospitalized in the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Hunan Provincial Peoples′ Hospital, the First Affiliated Hospital of University of South China, the Second Affiliated hospital of University of south China, Xiangtan Central Hospital from December 2007 to May 2017. There were 46 females and the age was (66.2±10.7) years (from 43 to 90 years). Patients were divided into in-hospital survival group (n=64) and in-hospital death group (n=32). The 96 patients were also divided into the early death group (survived ≤2 weeks after admission, n=50) and non-early death group (survived>2 weeks after admission, n=46). Multivariate logistic regression was used to analyze the independent risk factors of the early death. Results: Location of VSR was available in 71 patients, VSR was located at the apical or anterior septum near the apical region in 64.0% (32/50) patients with the anterior AMI, VSR was located at the posterior wall and basal inferior segment in 57.1% (12/21) patients with non-anterior AMI. Compared to the in-hospital survival group, patients in the in-hospital death group were older ((69.6±11.3) years vs. (64.6±10.1) years, P=0.031), incidence of non-ventricular aneurysm (71.9% (23/32) vs. 37.5% (24/64), P=0.001) and anterior AMI (84.4%(27/32) vs. 62.5%(40/64), P=0.028) was significantly higher in the in-hospital death group than in the in-hospital survival group. The comparison between the early death group and non-early death group showed that older age, female, no history of angina or myocardial infarction, Killip grade>Ⅲ, and non-ventricular aneurysm were related to increased risk of the early mortality in this patient cohort. Logistic regression analysis revealed that female (OR=5.109,95%CI 1.19-22.00, P=0.012), no history of angina or myocardial infarction (OR=23.34, 95%CI 3.44-158.37, P=0.001), Killip grade>Ⅲ(OR=5.35, 95%CI 1.26-22.66, P=0.019) and non-ventricular aneurysm (OR=6.30,95%CI 1.67-23.73, P=0.005) were independent risk factors for early death in this patient cohort. Conclusion The risk factors of in-hospital death include older age, non-ventricular aneurysm and anterior AMI. Female, no history of angina or myocardial infarction, Killip grade>Ⅲ and non-ventricular aneurysm are independent risk factors for the early death of AMI patients complicating VSR.

Objective: To investigate the correlation between expression of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) ZXF1 and clinicopathological characteristics, as well as prognosis of lung adenocarcinoma; and to explore its potential molecular mechanism. Methods: A total of 83 lung adenocarcinoma tissue samples and 83 paracancerous lung tissue samples from lung adenocarcinoma patients were collected. The mRNA expression of ZXF1 in the tumors and the corresponding adjacent non-tumor tissues were determined by real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR. The correlation between ZXF1 level and clinicopathological characteristics such as age, gender, smoking history, tumor size, tumor differentiation and lymph node metastasis was evaluated. Survival analysis was performed using Kaplan-Meier and Cox multivariate regression, based on the data of a 12-56 months follow-up after surgery. In vitro ZXF1 was over-expressed in lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells, and then the proteins functionally related to ZXF1 were identified by protein array analysis. Results: Of the 83 cases of lung adenocarcinoma, the ZXF1 mRNA levels in the tumor and adjacent non-tumor tissues were 8.32±3.05 and 1.05±0.47, respectively (P<0.05), and a high-level the high expression of ZXF1 in the tumor tissues was detected in 56 cases. The expression status of ZXF1 was closely correlated with the tumor differentiation and lymph node metastasis (P<0.05), but was not significantly related to age, gender and tumor size. Based on a 12-56 months follow-up, the patients with high level ZXF1 expression had a shorter disease free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) than that of the group with low level ZXF1 (all P<0.05). Multivariate analysis showed that ZXF1 expression, tumor size and lymph node metastasis were independent risk factors to DFS; and ZXF1 expression, tumor size, lymph node metastasis and tumor differentiation were independent risk factors to OS. The protein array data revealed that expressions of bone morphogenetic protein 5 (BMP-5)and stem cell factor receptor (SCFR)were upregulated upon overexpression of the ZXF1 in A549 cells. Conclusions lncRNA ZXF1 is overexpressed in lung adenocarcinoma, and is closely correlated with tumor differentiation and lymph node metastasis. As an independent risk factor, a high expression of ZXF1 indicates a poor prognosis for the patients. ZXF1 may influence the biological behavior of lung adenocarcinoma by enhancing the protein expression of BMP-5 and SCFR.

Objective To study the feasibility of DCE-MRI application in the orthotopic transplantation model of gastric cancer in nude mice.Methods Orthotopic transplantation model of gastric cancer in nude mice was established, and 15 models underwent DCE-MRI using the contrast agent of gadopentetate.Subsequently, the tumor was dissected in order to detect the MVD.The MVD was compared between orthotopic transplantation tumor model of gastric cancer and normal gastric mucosa.Results Fifteen nude mice with orthotopic transplantation of gastric cancer successfully underwent DCE-MRI examination.As for the cancer, the values of Ktrans, Kep and Ve were (2.11±0.44) min-1, (4.59±0.93) min-1, and 0.46±0.06, respectively.The MVD in gastric cancer tissues was significantly higher than that in normal gastric mucosa (χ2=16.205, P<0.001).Conclusion DCE-MRI can be used for noninvasively quantitative evaluation of vascular parameters of gastric carcinoma.