Publications by authors named "Liangzhi Zhang"

Objective: Impaired skeletal muscle glycogen synthesis contributes to insulin resistance (IR). Aerobic exercise reported to ameliorate IR by augmenting insulin signaling, however the detailed mechanism behind this improvement remains unclear. This study investigated whether aerobic exercise enhances glycogen anabolism and insulin sensitivity via EGR-1/PTP1B signaling pathway in skeletal muscle of rats.

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Dietary fiber (DF) is an important nutrient component in pig's diet that remarkably influences their growth and slaughter performance. The ability of pigs to digest DF depends on the microbial composition of the intestinal tract, particularly in the hindgut. However, studies on how DF alters the growth and slaughter performance of pigs by shaping the gut microbial composition and metabolites are still limited.

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Spinal intradural (subdural and subarachnoid) hematoma following percutaneous kyphoplasty is an extremely rare complication. In this report, we described a case of 2 episodes of subarachnoid hemorrhage with delayed paralysis after kyphoplasty. A 73-year-old man underwent percutaneous kyphoplasty in our hospital an osteoporotic vertebral fracture at the T12 level.

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Captivity is an important and efficient technique for rescuing endangered species. However, it induces infertility, and the underlying mechanism remains obscure. This study used the plateau pika () as a model to integrate physiological, metagenomic, metabolomic, and transcriptome analyses and explore whether dysbiosis of the gut microbiota induced by artificial food exacerbates infertility in captive wild animals.

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Article Synopsis
  • Vaccination against enterovirus A71 (EV-A71) has shown effectiveness in clinical trials, but its real-world impact and potential for symptom reduction post-vaccination remain unclear.
  • A study analyzed data from a referral hospital to evaluate the effectiveness of the EV-A71 vaccine against hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) and correlation between vaccination history and disease severity.
  • Results indicated a 63.4% effectiveness for fully vaccinated individuals and shorter hospital stays for them, but no protection against some other viruses, highlighting the need for improved vaccine strategies.
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The RNA-Seq technology was used to screen the key genes that affect the early development of the testes of Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire piglets, to determine the regulatory pathway and provide reference for subsequent reproductive performance research, breeding, and other production practices. This study selected 14-day-old Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire piglets as the trial animals. Testes from piglets with similar weights and no pathological changes were divided into small testis (ST) and large testis (LT) groups, and the RNA-Seq screening of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) was performed to find candidate genes and regulatory pathways related to early testicular development.

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The browning of white adipose tissue (WAT) is a promising area of research for treating metabolic disorders and obesity in the future. However, studies on plant secondary compounds promoting WAT browning are limited. Herein, we explored the effects of swainsonine (SW) on gut microbiota and WAT browning in captive pikas.

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Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a prevalent, chronic metabolic disease. Sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors and aerobic exercise (AE) have shown promise in mitigating insulin resistance (IR) and T2DM. This study investigated the effects of dapagliflozin (Dapa) monotherapy and combined AE on mitochondrial quality control (MQC) in skeletal muscle and IR in T2DM rats.

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Although fungi occupy only a small proportion of the microbial community in the intestinal tract of mammals, they play important roles in host fat accumulation, nutrition metabolism, metabolic health, and immune development. Here, we investigated the dynamics and assembly of gut fungal communities in plateau pikas inhabiting six altitudinal gradients across warm and cold seasons. We found that the relative abundances of and significantly decreased with altitudinal gradients in the warm season, whereas the relative abundance of significantly increased.

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Most wild animals follow Bergmann's rule and grow in body size as cold stress increases. However, the underlying thermogenic strategies and their relationship with the gut microbiota have not been comprehensively elucidated. Herein, we used the plateau pikas as a model to investigate body mass, thermogenic capacity, host transcriptome, gut microbiota and metabolites collected from seven sites ranging from 3100 to 4700 m on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) in summer and winter to test the seasonal thermogenesis strategy in small herbivorous mammals.

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The gut microbiotas of small mammals play an important role in host energy homeostasis. However, it is still unknown whether small mammals with different enterotypes show differences in thermogenesis characteristics. Our study confirmed that plateau pikas with different bacterial enterotypes harbored distinct thermogenesis capabilities and employed various strategies against cold environments.

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Background: Sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2i) are commonly used in the management of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and have been found to worsen the reduction of skeletal muscle mass in individuals with T2DM. This study aims to examine the potential of exercise in mitigating the skeletal muscle atrophy induced by SGLT2i treatment.

Methods: A rat model of T2DM (40 male Sprague-Dawley rats; T2DM induced by a combination of high-fat diet and streptozotocin) was used to examine the effects of six-week treatment with Dapagliflozin (DAPA, SGLT2i) in combination with either aerobic exercise (AE) or resistance training (RT) on skeletal muscle.

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Objective: To observe the effect of acupotomy on the expression of Beclin-1, Bcl-2 and Caspase-3 in the cartilage tissue in rabbits with knee osteoarthritis (KOA), so as to explore its mechanism underling improvement of KOA.

Methods: Twenty-four healthy male New Zealand rabbits were randomly and equally divided into blank control, model and acupotomy groups, with 8 rabbits in each group. By using the modified Videman's methods, the KOA model was established by left hind limb immobilization with a plaster cast for 6 weeks.

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Objective: To investigate the effect of visual acupotomy intervention on intervertebral disc degeneration, nucleus pulposus cell apoptosis and expression of apoptosis related proteins in rabbits with cervical spondylosis (CS), so as to explore its mechanism underlying improvement of CS.

Methods: A total of 48 male New Zealand rabbits were randomly divided into blank control, model, acupotomy and medication (meloxicam) groups, with 12 rabbits in each group. The neck type CS model was established by forcing the rabbit to make a neck flexion for 5 hours in a restrained chamber, once daily for 12 weeks.

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Background: Increasingly, patient satisfaction after total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is being recognized as an important measure of health-care quality in osteoarthritis (OA) patients. But satisfaction after TKA has not yet been reported in Kashin-Beck disease (KBD). We aim to examine satisfaction and clinical efficacy of TKA in the treatment of OA and KBD.

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Objective: To analyze the epidemiological characteristics of hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) in Chengdu from 2012 to 2020, to make comparison in order to examine the changes in incidence before and after vaccination was introduced, and to provide basis for the prevention of HFMD in the future.

Methods: Descriptive epidemiological methods were adopted to analyze the incidence, mortality and rate of severe cases of HFMD cases reported in Chengdu from 2012 to 2020.

Results: From 2012 to 2020, the cumulative cases of HFMD reported in Chengdu were as many as 279216, of which, there were 2201 severe cases and 16 deaths.

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Copy number variation (CNV), an important source of genomic structural variation, can disturb genetic structure, dosage, regulation and expression, and is associated with phenotypic diversity and adaptation to local environments in mammals. In the present study, 24 resequencing datasets were used to characterize CNVs in three ecotypic populations of Tibetan sheep and assess CNVs related to domestication and adaptation in Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. A total of 87,832 CNV events accounting for 0.

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The gut microbiota plays a crucial role in coronary heart disease (CHD). However, only a few studies focusing on the relationship between gut microbiota and CHD in ethnic populations are available. Here, we employed shotgun sequencing of the gut metagenome to analyze the taxonomic composition and functional annotation of the gut microbiota of 14 CHD patients, 13 patients with non-stenosis coronary heart disease (NCHD), and 18 healthy controls (HT) in Tibetan subjects.

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Three inactivated enterovirus A71 (EV-A71) vaccines have been widely vaccinated among children in the targeted age group in mainland China since mid-2016. However, comprehensive virological surveillance of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) over multiple years after the use of EV-A71 vaccines has rarely been conducted. Using long-term data extracted from the Public Health and Clinical Center of Chengdu, we described the clinical, aetiological, and epidemiological characteristics of HFMD inpatients after the use of EV-A71 vaccines from 2017 through 2022.

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Objective: To observe the effect of acupotomy on the morphology and ultrastructure of rectus femoris muscle in rabbits with knee osteoarthritis and to reveal the possible therapeutic mechanism involved in the effect of acupotomology on the treatment of knee osteoarthritis(KOA).

Methods: Twenty-four male New Zealand rabbits aged 6 months and weighed (2.0±0.

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Gastrointestinal tract and dietary fiber (DF) are known to influence gut microbiome composition. However, the combined effect of gut segment and long-term intake of a high fiber diet on pig gut microbiota and metabolite profiles is unclear. Here, we applied 16S rRNA gene sequencing and untargeted metabolomics to investigate the effect of broad bean silage on the composition and metabolites of the cecal and jejunal microbiome in Durco × Bamei crossbred pigs.

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Seasonal variations in gut microbiota of small mammals and how they are influenced by environmental variables are relatively poorly understood. We sampled 162 wild plateau pikas (Ochotona curzoniae) in 4 seasons over 2 and a half years and recorded the air temperature, precipitation, and nutrient content in edible vegetation at the sampling site. After conducting 16S rRNA and shotgun metagenomic sequencing, we found that the highest alpha diversity, the relative abundance of Firmicutes, and the simplest co-occurrence network occurred in winter, whereas the highest relative abundance of Proteobacteria and the most complex network structure were observed in spring.

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Several studies have shown that dietary fiber can significantly alter the composition and structure of the gut bacterial community in humans and mammals. However, few researches have been conducted on the dynamics of the bacterial community assembly across different graded levels of dietary fiber in different gut regions. To address this, 24 Durco × Bamei crossbred pigs were randomly assigned to four experimental chows comprising graded levels of dietary fiber.

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Interactions between species provide the basis for understanding coexisting mechanisms. The plateau pika () and the yak () are considered competitors because they have shared habitats and consumed similar food on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau for more than 1 million years. Interestingly, the population density of plateau pikas increases with yak population expansion and subsequent overgrazing.

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