Claudin-15 overexpression inhibits proliferation and promotes apoptosis of Schwann cells .

Our previous experiments have discovered that Claudin-15 was up-regulated in Schwann cells of the distal nerve stumps of rat models of sciatic nerve injury. However, how Claudin-15 affects Schwann cell function is still unknown. This study aimed to identify the effects of Claudin-15 on proliferation and apoptosis of Schwann cells cultured in vitro and explore the underlying mechanisms.

Rural-urban disparity in risk exposure to involuntary social health insurance transition in China: An investigation of chronic disease patients' mental health problems.

Chronic disease patients have long suffered from mental health problems because of the long-lasting and costly treatments. Although the multilevel social health insurance system in China attempts to provide them with full-fledged health insurance coverage, the increasing prevalence of gig economy unexpectedly disrupts this situation. As the social health insurance system in China is closely associated with employment status, unemployed rural-to-urban migrant workers/regular urban workers have to accept the transition from urban employee basic medical insurance (UEBMI) to new cooperative medical scheme (NCMS)/urban resident basic medical insurance (URBMI).

Co-expression Network Analysis Identified Key Proteins in Association With Hepatic Metastatic Colorectal Cancer.

Purpose: Intense efforts have been made in colorectal cancer (CRC) treatment in recent decades. However, the mechanism of development and metastasis of CRC has not been fully cleared. This study is designed to identify key proteins involved in stage III and hepatic metastatic CRC.

Understanding the effectiveness of government health expenditure in improving health equity: Preliminary evidence from global health expenditure and child mortality rate.

Governments around the world are committed to enhance health equity, but the effectiveness of government health expenditure in improving health equity is still full of controversy. To respond to it, this study investigates the influence of government health expenditure (including domestic government health expenditure and foreign-sourced health expenditure distributed by government) on child mortality rate across the world, in doing so evaluates its role in improving the social equity of health outcome. Using data of health expenditure and child mortality rate across the world (2000-2015), empirical results show that both domestic government and foreign-sourced health expenditure can greatly reduce the child mortality rate of families in rural areas with the lower level of maternal education and in the medium or low-income stratum.

Multi-Level Social Health Insurance System in the Age of Frequent Employment Change: The Urban Unemployment-Induced Insurance Transition and Healthcare Utilization in China.

Job tenure has been significantly shortened with the prevalence of the gig economy around the world. Workers are faced with a new age of frequent employment change. This emerging situation is out of expectation of social health insurance policymakers.

Hypoxia-Induced VISTA Promotes the Suppressive Function of Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cells in the Tumor Microenvironment.

Tumor hypoxia is a negative prognostic factor that is implicated in oncogenic signal activation, immune escape, and resistance to treatment. Identifying the mechanistic role of hypoxia in immune escape and resistance to immune-checkpoint inhibitors may aid the identification of therapeutic targets. We and others have shown that V-domain Ig suppressor of T-cell activation (VISTA), a negative checkpoint regulator in the B7 family, is highly expressed in the tumor microenvironment in tumor models and primary human cancers.

Rapid Discovery of Illuminating Peptides for Instant Detection of Opioids in Blood and Body Fluids.

The United States is currently experiencing an opioid crisis, with more than 47,000 deaths in 2017 due to opioid overdoses. Current approaches for opioid identification and quantification in body fluids include immunoassays and chromatographic methods (e.g.

Pathogenesis of fibrostenosing Crohn's disease.

Crohn's disease (CD) is a chronic inflammatory disease, which could affect any part of the gastrointestinal tract. A severe complication of CD is fibrosis-associated strictures, which can cause bowel obstruction. Unfortunately, there is no specific antifibrotic therapy available.

Household Registration System, Migration, and Inequity in Healthcare Access.

This study investigates the influence of the household registration system on rural-urban disparity in healthcare access (including healthcare quality, blood pressure check, blood test, vision test, dental examination, and breast exam), using data from a large-scale nationwide life history survey that covered 150 counties across 28 provinces and municipalities in China. In contrast to the findings of many previous studies that emphasize the disparity in the residence place as the cause of rural-urban disparity in healthcare access, this study finds that the residence place just has a very limited influence on healthcare access in China, and what really matters is the household registration type. Our empirical results show that people with a non-rural household registration type generally have better healthcare access than those with a rural one.

Serotonergic neurons in the dorsal raphe nucleus mediate the arousal-promoting effect of orexin during isoflurane anesthesia in male rats.

Previous studies have demonstrated that the activation of orexinergic neurons facilitates the recovery of animals from general anesthesia. Moreover, serotonergic neurons that receive projections from orexin neurons have also been shown to participate in sleep-wakefulness regulation. In the present study, we aimed to explore whether orexinergic neurons facilitate emergence from isoflurane anesthesia in rats by activating serotonergic neurons.

The Policy Effect of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on the Digital Public Health Sector in the European Union: An Empirical Investigation.

The rapid development of digital health poses a critical challenge to the personal health data protection of patients. The European Union General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR) works in this context; it was passed in April 2016 and came into force in May 2018 across the European Union. This study is the first attempt to test the effectiveness of this legal reform for personal health data protection.

Electrospun polymer micro/nanofibers as pharmaceutical repositories for healthcare.

Electrospun polymer micro/nanofibers have been widely explored as platforms for controlled delivery of therapeutic agents. Electrospun fibers are featured by large surface area, high porosity, and tunable morphology, which can be manipulated to fabricate micro/nanofibers with appropriate physicochemical properties, degradation kinetics, and drug release profiles. Many therapeutic agents can be separately or simultaneously loaded by electrospun fibers in the application of cancer therapy, adhesion prevention, wound repair, and regeneration of bone and nerve.

Surgical management of tailgut cysts: A rare case report.

Rationale: Tailgut cysts are a type of very rare congenital polycystic lesions that are always located posterior to the rectum and anterior to the sacrum. The symptoms of tailgut cysts are nonspecific and misleading. Therefore, a full understanding of the characteristics of tailgut cysts is important for their diagnosis and treatment.

Plasma Trimethylamine N-Oxide as a Novel Biomarker for Plaque Rupture in Patients With ST-Segment-Elevation Myocardial Infarction.

Background: Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) is reported to promote the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and be associated with cardiovascular events risk. It is unknown whether plasma TMAO is associated with plaque morphology in patients with acute myocardial infarction. We investigated the relationship between the culprit plaque morphology and plasma TMAO concentration in patients with ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction.

Relation of Circulating Trimethylamine N-Oxide With Coronary Atherosclerotic Burden in Patients With ST-segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction.

The gut microbial metabolite trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) promotes atherosclerosis and cardiovascular diseases. TMAO levels are associated with the coronary atherosclerotic burden in patients with stable coronary artery disease. However, the relation between TMAO levels and the coronary atherosclerotic burden in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) is unknown.

Combinatorial Peptide Microarray Synthesis Based on Microfluidic Impact Printing.

In this Research Article, a novel inkjet printing technique, micro impact printing (MI printing), is applied for the first time to combinatorial peptide microarray synthesis on amine functionalized microdisc arrays through standard Fmoc chemistry. MI printing shows great advantages in combinatorial peptide microarray synthesis compared with other printing techniques, including (1) a disposable cartridge; (2) a small spot size (80 μm) increases array density; (3) minimal loading volume (0.6 μL) and dead volume (<0.

The effects of irreversible electroporation on the stomach wall after ablating hepatic tissues.

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of irreversible electroporation (IRE) on the stomach wall after IRE was applied on liver tissues adjacent to the anterior wall of the stomach. IRE ablation was performed in eight Tibet mini-pigs with three lesions per pig. The IRE electrodes were inserted into the liver tissues situated close to the anterior wall of the stomach.

A Plug-and-Play, Drug-on-Pillar Platform for Combination Drug Screening Implemented by Microfluidic Adaptive Printing.

Traditional high-throughput drug combination screening requires automatic pipetting of drugs into high-density microtiter plates. Here, a drug-on-pillar platform is proposed for efficient combination drug screening. Using the proposed approach, combination drug screening can be carried out in a plug-and-play manner, allowing for high-throughput screening of large permutations of drug combinations at various concentrations, such that drug dispensing and cell-based screening can be temporally separated and therefore can potentially be performed at distant laboratories.

A new species of cascade frog (Amphibia: Ranidae) in the Amolops monticola group from China.

A new species, Amolops wenshanensis sp. nov., is described from Guangxi and Yunnan Provinces, China.

The frequency of ANCA-associated vasculitis in a national database of hospitalized patients in China.

Background: Anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV) is a group of life-threatening autoimmune diseases. The epidemiological data on AAV in China are limited. The aim of the present study is to investigate the frequency, geographical distribution, and ethnic distribution of AAV in hospitalized patients in China, and its association with environmental pollution.

Deciphering the metabolic role of AMPK in cancer multi-drug resistance.

Multi-drug resistance (MDR) is a curious bottleneck in cancer research and chemotherapy, whereby some cells rapidly adapt to the tumor microenvironment via a myriad of heterogeneous metabolic activities. Despite being a major impediment to treatment, there is a silver lining: control over metabolic regulation could be an effective approach to overcome or correct resistance pathways. In this critical review, we comprehensively and carefully curated and analyzed large networks of previously identified proteins associated with metabolic adaptation in MDR.

Porous Polylactide Film Plus Atorvastatin-Loaded Thermogel as an Efficient Device for Peritoneal Adhesion Prevention.

Peritoneal adhesion is a common postoperative complication that causes many kinds of organ dysfunctions. It can be minimized by the integration of physical isolation and pharmaceutical treatment. However, the gas permeability of traditional medical devices for adhesion prevention is not satisfactory, which increases the risk of infection and inflammation, thus facilitating the formation of peritoneal adhesion.

Highly Bioadhesive Polymer Membrane Continuously Releases Cytostatic and Anti-Inflammatory Drugs for Peritoneal Adhesion Prevention.

Peritoneal adhesion is a complex fibrosis and inflammatory process, and it can be minimized by physical isolation by biomaterial membranes or treatment with cytostatic and/or anti-inflammatory drugs. However, the integration of physical isolation and pharmaceutical therapy in one platform faces many challenges. First, normal polymer antiadhesion membranes are hydrophobic and show low bioadhesion to the injured tissue, which decrease their efficacies.