Objective
To investigate the protective effect of Niacin on blood-retina barrier (BRB) in diabetic rats and related mechanism.
Methods
The male Wistar rats (60) were divided into control (CON) group, diabetes (DM) group and Niacin-treated (NA) group, 20 rats in each group. Rats diabetes models were induced with streptozotocin injection. Niacin (40 mg/kg·d) was administrated orally everyday in Niacin-treated group until sacrificed after 3 months. Pathological outcomes, total cholesterol (TC) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) were evaluated at month 3. Optical microscopy was used to observe the retinal structure. The integrity of BRB and the vascular permeability was quantified by analyzing albumin leakage using Evans blue (EB) method. The relative expressions of Claudin-5, Occludin, zonula occluden (ZO)-1 and GPR109A mRNA in rat retinas were detected by reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) and relative expression of GPR109A, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and interleukin (IL)-6 by Western blot.
Results
Compared to CON group, the TC content was increased and HDL content was decreased in DM group (t=4.034, 5.831; P < 0.05). Compared to DM group, the TC content was decreased and HDL content was increased in NA group (t=6.868, 3.369; P < 0.05). The retinal structure of CON group was normal. Pathological changes were found in the DM group, such as tumescent nuclei and disorganized structures. The retinal structure of NA group was similar to the control group. Evans blue dye that the microvascular leakage in DM group was increased compared with CON group (t=24.712, P < 0.05), while in NA group was decreased compared with DM group (t=16.414, P < 0.05). The mRNA expression of Occludin, Claudin-5, ZO-1 in DM group were decreased compared with CON group (t=11.422, 12.638, 12.060; P < 0.05), while in NA group were increased compared with DM group (t=5.278, 3.952, 8.030; P < 0.05). The mRNA expression of GPR109A in NA group were increased compared with DM group (t=5.053, P < 0.05). The protein expression of GPR109A, IL-6, TNF-αin DM group were increased compared with CON group (t=4.915, 11.106, 6.582; P < 0.05). Compared to DM group, the protein expression of GPR109A was increased (t=5.806, P < 0.05), while the protein expression of IL-6 and TNF-α were decreased (t=10.131, 5.017; P < 0.05).
Conclusion
Niacin has the protective effect for BRB by up-regulating GPR109A expression which may suppress inflammation.
Mechanoresponsive microRNAs are a type of miRNAs which are sensitive or responsive to mechanical strain applied to them, their expression levels were changed after mechanical loading, thus affecting the expression levels of mRNA and proteins they regulated. Up to now, some mechanoresponsive miRNAs have been discovered in physiological or pathological tissues or organs. However, these discoveries are usually limited, and they are not able to guide clinical practice well. According to this situation, this paper summarizes research findings of mechanoresponsive miRNAs, and provides directions for clinical practice and further researches.
Objective To explore the application effect of a nursing management mode based on Swiss cheese model in safe medication for chemotherapy patients in daytime wards. Methods The study included chemotherapy patients in the Department of Day Care Ward of Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute & Hospital between February and March 2023 (before improvement) and between June and July 2023 (after improvement). Before the improvement, a conventional nursing management mode was adopted, and after the improvement, a nursing management mode based on the Swiss cheese model was adopted. The medication safety ability of nurses, adverse drug events, and patients’ satisfaction of nursing before and after improvement were compared. Results Finally 150 patients were included before and after improvement, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference in age, gender, educational level, per capita monthly household income, tumor staging, and disease diagnosis between the two groups of patients (P>0.05). The total score of patients’ satisfaction of nursing after improvement was higher than before improvement (22.99±1.52 vs. 20.45±2.14, P<0.05), but there was no statistically significant difference in the dimensions of treatment environment and service attitude (P>0.05). There was no change in the nursing staff before and after the improvement, and a total of 34 nurses were included in the Department of Day Care Ward. The total score of the nurses’ medication safety ability was higher than before improvement [162.00 (160.75, 166.25) vs. 136.00 (135.00, 138.00), P<0.05], but there was no statistically significant difference in the dimensions of improving medication safety issues, multidisciplinary collaboration ability, and nursing professional responsibility (P>0.05). The incidences of adverse events during daytime chemotherapy after improvement were lower than before improvement (P<0.05). Conclusion The nursing management mode based on Swiss cheese model can improve the safety medication ability of nurses, reduce adverse events of chemotherapy medication in daytime wards, and improve patient satisfaction, which can be promoted in clinical practice.
Objective To analyze the death cause of residents in Zigong from 1985 to 2009, so as to provide the government with scientific information of health strategies, and disease prevention and control. Methods The death surveillance data in Zigong residents from 1985 to 2009 were collected, and the indexes such as all death mortality rate, infant mortality rate, maternal mortality rate, disease-specific mortality rate, age-specific mortality rate, and life expectancy were analyzed. Results The all death mortality rate had fluctuation of plus or minus 6‰, and the male mortality rate was higher than the female (χ2=8 059.769, P=0.000). The six main influencing factors of the death of Zigong residents were as follows: respiratory system diseases, circulatory system diseases, tumour, injury and poisoning regarded as external cause diseases, digestive system diseases, and infectious diseases and parasitic diseases. The mortality rates of different districts were statistically different (χ2=1 643.926, P=0.000), and Fushun County was the highest among them after standardization. The curve of mortality rate in different sex and age groups was changed alike letter “U”. The mortality rate was ascending with the age in the group of over 15 years old, the ascending trend was more evident especially after 50 years old. The infant mortality declined steadily and was well controlled. The maternal mortality declined obviously. The average life expectancy for the whole city was 74.72, which showed an ascending trend. Conclusion The chronic diseases are the main death cause of residents in Zigong. The prevention and controlling of acute infectious diseases and parasitic diseases should be persistently performed for declining both incidence rate and mortality rate. The Zigong city is gradually stepping into aging society, which requires the great development of senior work.
Objective To systematically evaluate the risk factors and population attributable risk of children leukemia in China, so as to provide references for policy-making. Methods The case-control studies about risk factors of children leukemia in China were searched in PubMed, CNKI, CBM, VIP and WanFang Data from inception to December 2011. According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, two reviewers independently screened articles, extracted data, and evaluated the quality of the included studies. Then Meta-analysis was performed using STATA 11 and Excel 2003. The pooled odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (95%CI) of each risk factor were calculated, and the population attributable risk percent (PARP) based on the exposure rate of the risk factors was computed, and published bias was estimated according to the fail-safe number. Results A total of 15 case-control studies were included. The first 5 risk factors related to children leukemia were: dwelling environmental pollution (OR=2.782, 95%CI 2.268 to 3.413), house decoration (OR=2.525, 95%CI 1.736 to 3.673), maternal exposure to chemical hazards (OR=2.428, 95%CI 1.976 to 2.985), family history of tumor (OR=2.212, 95%CI 1.677 to 2.919), and child exposure to electromagnetic field around dwelling (OR=2.144, 95%CI 1.761 to 2.610). Factors with higher PARP were influenza history (37.56%), house decoration history (32.95%), X-ray exposure history (20.47%), and chemical hazards exposure history (17.37%). The fail-safe number showed the results were generally reliable. Conclusion In order to prevent and control children leukemia, positive and effective measures should be taken in the following aspects: strengthening child care, avoiding unnecessary X-ray exposure, and providing good living environment.
Accurate detection of cephalometric landmarks is crucial for orthodontic diagnosis and treatment planning. Current landmark detection methods are mainly divided into heatmap-based and regression-based approaches. However, these methods often rely on parallel computation of multiple models to improve accuracy, significantly increasing the complexity of training and deployment. This paper presented a novel regression method that can simultaneously detect all cephalometric landmarks in high-resolution X-ray images. By leveraging the encoder module of Transformer, a dual-encoder model was designed to achieve coarse-to-fine localization of cephalometric landmarks. The entire model consisted of three main components: a feature extraction module, a reference encoder module, and a fine-tuning encoder module, responsible for feature extraction and fusion of X-ray images, coarse localization of cephalometric landmarks, and fine localization of landmarks, respectively. The model was fully end-to-end differentiable and could learn the intercorrelation relationships between cephalometric landmarks. Experimental results showed that the successful detection rate (SDR) of our algorithm was superior to other existing methods. It attained the highest 2 mm SDR of 89.51% on test set 1 of the ISBI2015 dataset and 90.68% on the test set of the ISBI2023 dataset. Meanwhile, it reduces memory consumption and enhances the model’s popularity and applicability, providing more reliable technical support for orthodontic diagnosis and treatment plan formulation.
Objective To analyze the causes of injury-related deaths of permanent residents in Zigong city, so as to provide scientific references for the prevention and control of injury deaths and for putting forward to relevant health policies as well. Methods Based on the death surveillance data of Zigong from 2001 to 2009, following indicators were analyzed, such as cause specific mortality, age specific mortality and potential years of life lost (PYLL). Results An accumulative total of 10 957 people died of injury from 2001 to 2009, and the crude mortality was 38.13/100 thousands, while the standardized mortality was 36.07/100 thousands. The highest mortality was at the age of more than 65 years of age. The first six injury death causes were as follows: drowning, transport accidents except motor vehicle, suicide, motor vehicle accidents, accidental falling and accidental poisoning. The PYLL of injury death was 334 325.50 person year, APYLL was 34.67 year, and the PYLL rate was 11.63‰ which was higher in male than that of female. Conclusion The epidemiological analysis of injury-related deaths shows an ascending trend, which is the main reason resulting in the loss of residents’ life. Injury has become one of the most serious problems of public health, and it should be prevented and controlled by formulating effective measures and strategies aiming at the injury death spectrum and the target population of Zigong city.
This study was to explore a better three-dimensional (3-D) culture method of chondrocyte. The interpenetrating network (IPN) gel beads were developed through a photo-cross linking reaction with mixed barium ions and calcium ions at the ratio of 5:5 with the methacrylic alginate (MA), which was a chemically conjugated alginate with methacrylic groups. The second generation of primary cartilage cells was encapsulated in the MA gel beads for three weeks. In the designated timing, HE stain, Alamar blue method and Scanning electron microscopic were used to determine the cartilage cells growth, proliferation and the cell distribution in the scaffolds, respectively. The expression of typeⅡcollagen was investigated by an immunohistochemistry assay and the glycosaminoglycan content was quantitatively evaluated with the spectrophotometry of 1, 9 dimethylene blue assay. Compared to the alginate control group, the deposition of glycosaminoglycan was significantly upregulated in IPN-MA gel beads with higher cell proliferation. The secretion of extracellular matrix and proliferation of chondrocyte in methacrylic alginate gel beads were higher than that in Alginate beads. Cells were able to attach, to grow well on the scaffolds under scanning electron microscopy. The result of immunohistochemistry staining of collagen typeⅡwas positive, confirming the maintenance of chondrocyte phenotype in methacrylic alginate gel beads. This study shows a great potential for three-dimensional culture of cartilage.
Non-rigid medical image registration is a popular subject in the research areas of the medical image and has an important clinical value. In this paper we put forward an improved algorithm of Demons, together with the conservation of gray model and local structure tensor conservation model, to construct a new energy function processing multi-modal registration problem. We then applied the L-BFGS algorithm to optimize the energy function and solve complex three-dimensional data optimization problem. And finally we used the multi-scale hierarchical refinement ideas to solve large deformation registration. The experimental results showed that the proposed algorithm for large deformation and multi-modal three-dimensional medical image registration had good effects.
