With the deepening reform of ideological and political education, Medical Parasitology teaching needs to update the teaching concept, change the teaching ideas, as well as keep trying to combine ideological and political education with the curriculum content closely. In addition to teaching students’ basic knowledge and practical skills, teachers are needed to cultivate their moral literacy and political awareness through course teaching, so as to provide the basis for students’ subsequent adaptations to social environments and jobs. Currently, the study of ideological and political education in Medical Parasitology teaching is still in the exploratory stage. Therefore, colleges and universities need to carry out effective construction of ideological and political education in Medical Parasitology teaching, in order to achieve good teaching outcomes and provide insights into ideological and political education in teaching.

Objective To explore the value of coronary fat attenuation index(FAI)combined with laboratory indicators in predicting the risk of acute coronary syndrome(ACS)in patients with coronary heart disease(CHD).Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on 454 patients who were diagnosed with CHD in Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital SCAD group(n=233)and an ACS group(n=221).Univariate and multivariate Logistic regression analyses were performed on the FAI values of the main coronary branches[right coronary artery(RCA),left anterior descending branch(LAD),left circumflex branch(LCX)],laboratory indicators,and clinical data,to identify independent risk factors for ACS in CHD patients.Receiver operating characteristic curves were constructed,and area under the curve(AUC)was calculated to evaluate the predictive performance of the independent risk factors and their combinations.Results LAD-FAI,RCA-FAI,and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein(hs-CRP)were independent influencing factors for ACS in CHD patients.The AUC for the prediction of ACS occurrence in CHD patients based on LAD-FAI,RCA-FAI,and elevated hs-CRP values alone were 0.568,0.703,and 0.749,respectively.When these three factors were analyzed in combination,the AUC was 0.815.Conclusion The combined analysis of LAD-FAI,RCA-FAI,and hs-CRP has good predictive performance for assessing the risk of ACS in CHD patients.

Self-organized blastoids from extended pluripotent stem (EPS) cells possess enormous potential for investigating postimplantation embryo development and related diseases. However, the limited ability of postimplantation development of EPS-blastoids hinders its further application. In this study, single-cell transcriptomic analysis indicated that the "trophectoderm (TE)-like structure" of EPS-blastoids was primarily composed of primitive endoderm (PrE)-related cells instead of TE-related cells. We further identified PrE-like cells in EPS cell culture that contribute to the blastoid formation with TE-like structure. Inhibition of PrE cell differentiation by inhibiting MEK signaling or knockout of Gata6 in EPS cells markedly suppressed EPS-blastoid formation. Furthermore, we demonstrated that blastocyst-like structures reconstituted by combining the EPS-derived bilineage embryo-like structure (BLES) with either tetraploid embryos or tetraploid TE cells could implant normally and develop into live fetuses. In summary, our study reveals that TE improvement is critical for constructing a functional embryo using stem cells in vitro.
Pregnancy ; Female ; Animals ; Mice ; Tetraploidy ; Blastocyst ; Embryo, Mammalian ; Cell Differentiation ; Embryonic Development

Human pluripotent stem cells provide an inexhaustible model to study human embryogenesis in vitro. Recent studies have provided diverse models to generate human blastoids by self-organization of different pluripotent stem cells or somatic reprogramming intermediates. However, whether blastoids can be generated from other cell types or whether they can recapitulate postimplantation development in vitro is unknown. Here, we develop a strategy to generate human blastoids from heterogeneous intermediates with epiblast, trophectoderm, and primitive endoderm signatures of the primed-to-naïve conversion process, which resemble natural blastocysts in morphological architecture, composition of cell lineages, transcriptome, and lineage differentiation potential. In addition, these blastoids reflect many features of human peri-implantation and pregastrulation development when further cultured in an in vitro 3D culture system. In summary, our study provides an alternative strategy to generate human blastoids and offers insights into human early embryogenesis by modeling peri- and postimplantation development in vitro.
Humans ; Pluripotent Stem Cells/metabolism* ; Embryo, Mammalian/metabolism* ; Cell Differentiation ; Blastocyst ; Cell Lineage ; Embryonic Development

Objective:To provide a basis for its diagnosis and treatment for clinicians by analyzing the clinical manifestations, imaging features and surgical efficacy of primary intraspinal paraganglioma.Methods:The clinical data of 6 patients with intraspinal paraganglioma from April 2014 to January 2021 in Xiangyang Central Hospital were retrospectively analyzed, and all patients were treated with microsurgery via a posterior median approach.Results:All 6 patients achieved total tumor resection, and the postoperative pathological diagnosis was paraganglioma. Among them, 1 patient′s tumor located inside and outside the cervical spinal canal without destruction of the vertebral body; 1 patient′s tumor located lumbosacral canal with destruction of the vertebral body; the others 4 patients′ tumor located within the lumbar spinal canal. The patients were followed up for 12 to 120 months after surgery, with a median follow-up time of 61.5 months. MRI examination was performed at the last follow-up, and no recurrence was observed. The patients underwent MRI examination at the last follow-up, and none of the patients recurred.Conclusions:The intraspinal paraganglioma is a rare tumor, and nonfunctional benign tumors are predominant. Its clinical and imaging manifestations lack specificity and are often difficult to diagnose before surgery. Surgical resection, especially complete resection, has a better prognosis, and the effectiveness of adjuvant therapy is uncertain.

Objective:To compare the value of NoSAS score, STOP-BANG questionnaire (SBQ) and Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) in assessing the risk of obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) in patients with respiratory disease (RD).Methods:The clinical data, NoSAS, SBQ and ESS scores of 190 patients who underwent overnight polysomnography (PSG) were collected. According to the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, with different apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) as the judgment cutoff, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) and accuracy of the three scales were compared.Results:With AHI ≥5 times/h as the cutoff, the area under the ROC curve (AUC) of NoSAS and SBQ were 0.833 and 0.729, respectively, indicating that both have predictive value for mild OSAHS. Among them, NoSAS had a larger DOR value (16.150), indicating that NoSAS had the higher accuracy in assessing the risk of mild OSAHS. When AHI>15 times/h was used as the cutoff, the AUC value of NoSAS was 0.704, indicating that it has predictive value for moderate OSAHS. When AHI>30 times/h was used as the cutoff, the AUC value (0.706) and DOR value (6.527) of SBQ were high, indicating that it has predictive value and good accuracy for severe OSAHS. The SBQ is more sensitive than NoSAS and ESS when evaluating patients at high risk for OSAHS ( SBQ≥3). Conclusions:When evaluating the risk of mild and moderate OSAHS in RD patients, NoSAS is better than SBQ and ESS, and when evaluating severe OSAHS, SBQ is better than NoSAS and ESS. In clinical work, appropriate predictive tools should be selected according to the actual situation to assess the risk of OSAHS, so as to formulate and implement early intervention plans based on the assessment results.

Chemically defined medium is widely used for culturing mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs), in which N2B27 works as a substitution for serum, and GSK3β and MEK inhibitors (2i) help to promote ground-state pluripotency. However, recent studies suggested that MEKi might cause irreversible defects that compromise the developmental potential of mESCs. Here, we demonstrated the deficient bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signal in the chemically defined condition is one of the main causes for the impaired pluripotency. Mechanistically, activating the BMP signal pathway by BMP4 could safeguard the chromosomal integrity and proliferation capacity of mESCs through regulating downstream targets Ube2s and Chmp4b. More importantly, BMP4 promotes a distinct in vivo developmental potential and a long-term pluripotency preservation. Besides, the pluripotent improvements driven by BMP4 are superior to those by attenuating MEK suppression. Taken together, our study shows appropriate activation of BMP signal is essential for regulating functional pluripotency and reveals that BMP4 should be applied in the serum-free culture system.
Animals ; Bone Morphogenetic Protein 4/metabolism* ; Cell Differentiation ; Chromosomal Instability ; Endosomal Sorting Complexes Required for Transport ; Mice ; Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Kinases/metabolism* ; Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells/cytology* ; Pluripotent Stem Cells/cytology* ; Signal Transduction ; Ubiquitin-Conjugating Enzymes

【Objective】 To evaluate the safety and efficacy of balloon-expandable vertebral body stenting （VBS） in treating elderly patients with osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures. 【Methods】 Thirty-eight elderly patients with osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures were randomly divided into two groups according to the parity of their hospital admission numbers to receive VBS and traditional percutaneous kyphoplasty （PKP）， respectively. The two groups were compared regarding changes in the intensity of pain， functional score， imaging parameters related to vertebral compression， and sagittal Cobb angle as well as the incidence of bone cement leakage after treatment， to evaluate the safety and efficacy of VBS. 【Results】 All the patients underwent the operations smoothly， which were performed with the bilateral percutaneous puncture technique under local anesthesia by the same surgeon， and were followed up for more than half a year. Both VBS group and PKP group showed significant improvement in the visual analogue scale score， the Oswestry disability index， the height of the fractured vertebral body， and the Cobb angle at 3 days， 1 month， 3 months and 6 months after treatment （all P<0.05）. There were significant differences in those indicators between the two groups （all P<0.05）. 【Conclusion】 VBS is an effective treatment approach for elderly patients with osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures. It can effectively recover fractured vertebral body height， relieve patients’ pain， and have fewer complications such as bone cement leakage.

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