Objective:To evaluate the role of nuclear factor E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2)/heme oxidase-1 (HO-1) in reduction of renal ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury by the human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (hucMSCs)-derived exosomes (hucMSCs-exo) in mice.Methods:The hucMSCs were cultured, and exosomes were extracted and identified by transmission electron microscopy, nanoparticle tracking analysis and Western blot. Thirty-six male SPF-grade C57BL/6 mice, weighing 20-25 g, were used. Thirty mice were selected and divided into 5 groups ( n=6 each) by a random number table method: sham operation group (Sham group), sham operation + Nrf2 inhibitor ML385 group (Sham + ML385 group), renal I/R group (I/R group), renal I/R + exosome group (I/R+ EXO group), and renal I/R + exosome + Nrf2 inhibitor ML385 group (I/R+ EXO+ ML385 group). A model of renal I/R injury was prepared by clamping the bilateral renal pedicles for 45 min followed by perfusion in anesthetized animals. ML385 30 mg/kg was intraperitoneally injected at 45 min before preparing the model in Sham+ ML385 group and I/R+ EXO+ ML385 group, and hucMSCs-exo 100 μg was injected via the tail vein at 15 min before reperfusion in I/R+ EXO group and I/R+ EXO+ ML385 group. Serum blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine (Cr) concentrations were detected at 24 h of reperfusion. The renal tissues were obtained for examination of the pathological changes and for determination of contents of interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) and malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels and expression of Nrf2 and HO-1 protein and mRNA (by Western blot and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction). The left 6 mice were allocated to sham operation group (Sham-IM group, n=3) and renal I/R group (I/R-IM group, n=3) by a random number table method for VISQUE in living imaging observation. Results:The exosomes showed a typical cup-shaped morphology with a transmission electron microscope, the nanoparticles tracked and analyzed the average diameter of the exosome, with an average diameter of 96.7 nm, and the positive expression of surface markers CD9, CD63 and TSG101 was detected using Western blot. The renal fluorescence intensity value was significantly increased in I/R-IM group as compared with Sham-IM group ( P<0.05). Compared with Sham group, the serum BUN and Cr concentrations were significantly increased, the contents of IL-6, TNF-α and MDA and ROS levels were increased, the activity of SOD was decreased, the expression of Nrf2 and HO-1 protein and mRNA was down-regulated ( P<0.05), and the pathological changes of renal tissues were aggravated in I/R group, and no significant change was found in serum BUN and Cr concentrations in Sham+ ML385 group ( P>0.05). Compared with I/R group, the serum BUN and Cr concentrations were significantly decreased, the contents of IL-6, TNF-α and MDA and ROS levels were decreased, the activity of SOD was increased, the expression of Nrf2 and HO-1 protein and mRNA was up-regulated ( P<0.05), and the pathological changes of renal tissues were significantly attenuated in I/R+ EXO group. Compared with I/R+ EXO group, the serum BUN and Cr concentrations were significantly increased, the contents of IL-6, TNF-α and MDA and ROS levels were increased, the activity of SOD was decreased, the expression of Nrf2 and HO-1 protein and mRNA was down-regulated ( P<0.05), and the pathological changes of renal tissues were aggravated in I/R+ EXO+ ML385 group. Conclusions:The mechanism by which hucMSCs-exo reduces renal I/R injury may be related to activation of the Nrf2/HO-1 signaling pathway in mice.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is the most common motor neuron disease. At present, no definite ALS biomarkers are available. In this study, exosomes from the plasma of patients with ALS and healthy controls were extracted, and differentially expressed exosomal proteins were compared. Among them, the expression of exosomal coronin-1a (CORO1A) was 5.3-fold higher than that in the controls. CORO1A increased with disease progression at a certain proportion in the plasma of patients with ALS and in the spinal cord of ALS mice. CORO1A was also overexpressed in NSC-34 motor neuron-like cells, and apoptosis, oxidative stress, and autophagic protein expression were evaluated. CORO1A overexpression resulted in increased apoptosis and oxidative stress, overactivated autophagy, and hindered the formation of autolysosomes. Moreover, CORO1A activated Ca²⁺-dependent phosphatase calcineurin, thereby blocking the fusion of autophagosomes and lysosomes. The inhibition of calcineurin activation by cyclosporin A reversed the damaged autolysosomes. In conclusion, the role of CORO1A in ALS pathogenesis was discovered, potentially affecting the disease onset and progression by blocking autophagic flux. Therefore, CORO1A might be a potential biomarker and therapeutic target for ALS.
Mice ; Animals ; Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis/pathology* ; Calcineurin/metabolism* ; Motor Neurons/pathology* ; Microfilament Proteins/metabolism* ; Cytoskeletal Proteins/metabolism*

Cultivating salt-alkali tolerant rice varieties is one of the important ways to meet the increasing food demand of growing global population. In this study, twenty-one rice germplasms with different salt-alkali tolerance were treated with six salt-alkali concentrations at germination and seedling stages. The germination potential, germination rate, shoot length, root length, root number, fresh weight of shoot and seedlings were measured. The average value of salt damage rate was used to evaluate the salt-alkali tolerance. As the salt-alkali concentration increases, the inhibition on seed germination and growth became more obvious. Upon treatment with 1% NaCl plus 0.25% NaHCO₃, the salt damage rate of germination rate has the largest variation, ranging from 0% to 89.80%. The salt damage rate of each trait shows a similar trend at all concentrations. Four germplasm resources with strong salt-alkali tolerance (Dajiugu, Nippobare, Mowanggu and 02428) and 7 sensitive germplasms were screened. The salt-tolerant gene sequence of 4 salt-alkali tolerant varieties and 3 sensitive germplasms were analyzed. OSHAL3 and OsRR22 were identical among the 7 germplasms, but SKC1 and DST showed clear variations between the salt-alkali tolerant and sensitive germplasms. Besides the salt-alkali tolerant germplasm resources, this study can also serve as a reference for mining of genes involved in salt-alkali tolerance and breeding of salt-alkali tolerant rice varieties.
Alkalies ; Germination ; Oryza/genetics* ; Plant Breeding ; Seedlings/genetics*

In animal experiments, ischemic stroke is usually induced through middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO), and quality assessment of this procedure is crucial. However, an accurate assessment method based on 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) is still lacking. The difficulty lies in the inconsistent preprocessing pipeline, biased intensity normalization, or unclear spatiotemporal uptake of FDG. Here, we propose an image feature-based protocol to assess the quality of the procedure using a 3D scale-invariant feature transform and support vector machine. This feature-based protocol provides a convenient, accurate, and reliable tool to assess the quality of the MCAO procedure in FDG PET studies. Compared with existing approaches, the proposed protocol is fully quantitative, objective, automatic, and bypasses the intensity normalization step. An online interface was constructed to check images and obtain assessment results.
Animals ; Fluorodeoxyglucose F18 ; Infarction, Middle Cerebral Artery/diagnostic imaging* ; Positron-Emission Tomography/methods*

【Objective】 To investigate the molecular mechanism of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) TDRG1 in facilitating the malignant progression and poor prognosis of patients with cervical cancer. 【Methods】 Cervical cancer cell lines and normal cervical cell Ect1/E6E7 were collected. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to detect the expression of TDRG1. Cervical cancer cell lines were transfected with TDRG1-siRNA, and the proliferation of cancer cells was detected by CCK-8 method and cell plate cloning experiment. The invasion and migration of cancer cells were measured by Transwell experiment. The apoptosis of cancer cells was examined by flow cytometry, and the expressions of relevant proteins were tested by Western blot. 【Results】 Compared with Ect1/E6E7, cervical cancer cell lines showed relatively increased expression of TDRG1. Downregulation of TDRG1 expression inhibited the proliferation and colony formation (162±21 vs. 411±33, P<0.05), as well as the invasion and migration (invasion: 86±13 vs. 315±38, P<0.01; migration: 177±22 vs. 406±41, P<0.01) of Hela cells. Meanwhile, the apoptosis of Hela cells increased [(28±1.5)% vs. (16±1.2)%, P<0.05] and the expression of Bcl-2 protein reduced. In addition, TDRG1 knockdown also decreased the activity of autophagy in Hela cells. 【Conclusion】 TDRG1 facilitates the malignant biological progression of cervical cancer by inhibiting the apoptosis and providing a protective autophagy in cervical cells.

Objective To investigate the application value of MR SWI and DWI in the diagnosis of liver lesions.Methods 1 300 patients underwent 1.5T MRI scan of liver,no pathology or follow-up examination results of patients with focal liver lesions were excluded,147 patients were included and underwent conventional magnetic resonance(MRI),DWI and SWI.By 2 senior radiologists with double blind method of conventional MRI and MRI combined with DWI and SWI image reading,the feature and enhancement pattern of signal intensity were evaluated.Kappa test was used to evaluate the consistency of the diagnosis of 2 physicians.The pathological examination and comprehensive follow-up results were used as the gold standard.The diagnostic accuracy of the two groups was compared.Results 2 doctors had good consistency in the image diagnosis of the two groups.The Kappa values of conventional MRI and conventional MRI combined with DWI and SWI images were 0.912 and 0.936,respectively.The conventional MRI diagnosed primary hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC) in 40 cases,bile duct cancer cells (ICC) in 13 cases,liver metastasis (HMs) in 14 cases,cavernous hemangioma of the liver (CHL) in 17 cases.The conventional MRI combined with DWI and SWI diagnosed HCC in 50 cases,ICC in 20 cases,HMs in 20 cases,CHL in 24 cases,the differences were statistically significant (x2 =5.660,5.250,5.560,6.640,all P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion Conventional MRI combined with DWI and SWI can provide additional valuable information and improve diagnostic performance for liver lesions.

Objective To master the current status of iodine nutrition of people in Nanjing after the adjustment of iodized salt standard,and to provide scientific basis for reasonable iodine supplementation and strategies for iodine nutrition control.Methods The probability proportional to size (PPS) sampling method was employed in the investigation.We firstly selected 30 streets in the whole city,and then chosen 50 children aged 8-10 years from each of 30 primary schools respectively,which was selected from 30 different streets to examine the size of thyroid gland by palpation and B-type ultrasound.We also collected urine and edible salt samples from 12 children aged 8-10 years from each primary school,to detect their urinary and salt iodine content.Moreover,20 pregnant women and 10 lactating women were picked out from each of 30 schools nearby to detect their urinary and salt iodine content.We also conducted a unique questionnaire survey in 30 fifth-grade students selected from each of 30 schools,and 5 housewives selected from these schools nearby to understand their knowledge of iodine deficiency disorders.Results The thyroid palpate swelling rate was 0.33％(5/1 500) in 1 500 children aged 8-10.The medians of urinary iodine level were 220.5 μg/L in 362 school-age children,196.7 μg/L in 600 pregnant women and 152.0 μg/L in 300 lactating women.A total of 1 260 samples of edible salt were tested.The coverage rate of iodized salt and the consumption rate of eligible iodized salt were 99.7％ (1 256/1 260) and 96.9％ (1 221/1 260),respectively.The mean iodine content of edible salt was (24.5 ± 4.5) mg/kg.A total of 900 fifth-grade students and 150 housewives were surveyed for health knowledge of iodine,and the eligible rate was 83.2％ (2 246/2 700) and 91.6％ (412/450),respectively.Conclusions After the adjustment of iodized salt content,iodine nutrition level of people in Nanjing has maintained appropriately.However,health education should be further strengthened.Improving the awareness rate of iodine deficiency knowledge,and guiding scientific iodine consciousness are our serious task in the future.

Based on Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Hospital’s practice of applying big data for prevention of registration traffickers,the paper analyzes the behavioral characteristics of technology-based registration traffickers'malicious occupation from the aspects of abnormal registration,abnormal withdrawal,abnormal grab and abnormal user binding,makes the corresponding technical plans and countermeasures,so as to limit the malicious registration of registration traffickers using the reservation system and guarantee the medical resources can be distributed to patients fairly and impartially.

Discrimination of abnormal images from the numerous wireless capsule endoscope (WCE) video sequence images is laborious and time-consuming, so that a computer-based automatic image recognition system is desired for this task. We propose an algorithm to allow feature extraction from each image channel and decision fusion using multiple BP neural networks. The algorithm was tested and the results demonstrated its high efficiency and accuracy in identification of abnormalities in the WCE images.
Algorithms ; Capsule Endoscopy ; methods ; Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted ; methods ; Pattern Recognition, Automated ; methods

Objective To explore the optimal b value in MR DWI for breast.Methods Forty patients with palpable masses of breasts underwent MR and DWI at b = 1000, 800 and 600 s/mm2 before surgery according prospective planning. Visual assessment, signal to noise ratio (SNR) of DWI and the ADC values of benign and malignant lesions were compared among three b values using one-way ANOVA test.The diagnostic value of ADC were analyzed by ROC curves.Results Of the 40 patients, there were 26 patients with malignant lesions and 14 patients with benign lesions verified by histopathology.36 patients with 42 lesions were examined by DWI, and detectabilities at three b values were alike.Most DWI at b = 1000, 800 and 600 s/mm2 were of high quality, and images of grade A were 75.0% (30/40), 77.5% (31/40) and 77.5% (31/40), respectively.Mean SNR at b = 1000, 800 and 600 s/mm2 were 63 ± 22,82 ± 27 and 96 ± 29 respectively.Compared with one another, there was statistically significant difference (P <0.01).Mean ADC of benign lesions at different b values were (1.44 ± 0.28) × 10-3, (1.50 ± 0.32) × 10-3 and (1.52±0.29) × 10-3 mm2/s respectively. Compared with one another, there was no statistically significant difference (P = 0.725).Mean ADC of malignant lesions were (1.00 ± 0.25) × 10-3, (0.98 ± 0.19) × 10-3 and (1.07 ± 0.22) × 10-3 mm2/s respectively.Compared with one another, there was also no statistically significant difference (P = 0.358).The area under the ROC curves at b = 1000,800 and 600 s/mm2 were 0.879,0.885 and 0.865 respectively.Threshold value to distinguish benign and malignant lesions were 1.295 × 10-3,1.435×10-3 and 1.335×10-3 mm2/s respectively.Sensitivity of diagnosing breast cancer were 80.0%, 92.0% and 84.0%, and specificity were all 90.0% . Positive predictive values were 95.2%, 95.8% and 95.5% at b = 1000, 800 and 600 s/mm2.Conclusion Combining SNR and the value of ADC in diagnosing benign and malignant breast lesions, the study indicated that b = 800 s/mm2 was the optimal b value in breast DWI.