Uric acid reference values for children and adolescents should be stratified by pubertal stage.

Background And Aim: To establish reference values for hyperuricemia (HUA) in children and adolescents.

Methods And Results: The study enrolled 4807 students from "The Evaluation and Monitoring on School-based Nutrition and Growth in Shenzhen study." Utilizing quantile regression, associations between age, body mass index (BMI), pubertal stage, and serum uric acid (SUA) were examined, alongside the relationship between SUA and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors.

Secondary oxidized di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate metabolites may be associated with progression from isolated premature thelarche to central precocious or early puberty.

Phthalate esters (PAEs) may act as estrogen receptor agonists, and their relationship with precocious puberty is a global health concern. However, their role in isolated premature thelarche (IPT) progression remains unclear. We conducted a cohort study investigating the relationship between IPT progression and urinary PAE metabolites.

Motivations, psychosocial burdens, and decision-making modes of post-partum women with stress urinary incontinence engaging in pelvic floor physical therapy: a qualitative research.

Introduction And Hypothesis: This qualitative research explores the motivations, psychosocial burdens, and decision-making modes of post-partum women with stress urinary incontinence (SUI) engaging in pelvic floor physical therapy (PFPT).

Methods: This study was conducted face-to-face in a treatment room using qualitative semi-structured interviews with post-partum women who received PFPT for SUI between May and October 2022. Participant interviews were transcribed verbatim and thematically analyzed using NVivo software, which is most commonly used for qualitative data analysis.

Combined assisted bone age assessment and adult height prediction methods in Chinese girls with early puberty: analysis of three artificial intelligence systems.

Background: The applicability and accuracy of artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted bone age assessment and adult height prediction methods in girls with early puberty are unknown.

Objective: To analyze the performance of AI-assisted bone age assessment methods by comparing the corresponding methods for predicted adult height with actual adult height.

Materials And Methods: This retrospective review included 726 girls with early puberty, 87 of whom had reached adult height at last follow-up.

Effects of Acid Modulators on the Microwave-Assisted Synthesis of Cr/Sn Metal-Organic Frameworks.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have attracted remarkable attention for their distinguished structural designability. Precisely controlling the particle size and improving the structural stability of MOF nanoparticles influence their catalytic activity significantly. In this study, six acids (nitric, hydrochloric, formic, acetic, succinic, and citric acids) were used as modulators to prepare bimetallic MIL-101 (Cr, Sn) (MIL stands for Materials of Institut Lavoisier) via a microwave-assisted hydrothermal method.

Association between phthalate exposure and accelerated bone maturation in Chinese girls with early puberty onset: a propensity score-matched case-control analysis.

Estrogen can promote the acceleration of bone maturation and phthalate esters (PAEs) have estrogen-mimicking effects. We investigated whether PAEs are associated with the acceleration of bone age (BA) in girls with early onset of puberty (EOP). This case-control study enrolled 254 girls with EOP from the Endocrinology Department at Shenzhen Children's Hospital between December 2018 and August 2019.

[Correlation between variants of CYP21A2 gene promoter region and nonclassical 21-hydroxylase deficiency].

Objective: To summarize the clinical characteristics of two children with nonclassical 21 hydroxylase deficiency (NC-21OHD) due to variants of CYP21A2 gene promoter region.

Methods: Clinical characteristics and the results of genetic testing were reviewed.

Results: The main clinical manifestations of the two children included precocious puberty with poor bone age/progression control and menstrual disorder with hirsutism.

A Mobility Aware Binary Tree Algorithm to Resolve RFID Jam and Bottleneck Problems in a Next Generation Specimen Management System.

Hospitals are continuously working to reduce delayed analysis and specimen errors during transfers from testing stations to clinical laboratories. Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, which provide automated specimen labeling and tracking, have been proposed as a solution to specimen management that reduces human resource costs and analytic delays. Conventional RFID solutions, however, confront the problem of traffic jams and bottlenecks on the conveyor belts that connect testing stations with clinical laboratories.

Endotoxin May Not Be the Major Cause of Postprandial Inflammation in Adults Who Consume a Single High-Fat or Moderately High-Fat Meal.

Background: Metabolic endotoxemia is considered a cause for high-fat diet (HFD)-induced inflammation. However, convincing experimental evidence in humans is scant.

Objective: We determined whether a HFD or moderately HFD increases LPS and LPS-mediated cytokine production in the postprandial blood (PPB).

Association between sexual intercourse frequency and pelvic floor muscle morphology in pregnant women.

Introduction And Hypothesis: No studies have been performed to examine the association of sexual activity and pelvic floor muscle (PFM) morphology or function during pregnancy. The aim of this study was to survey the frequency of sexual intercourse and examine the associations between the frequency of sexual intercourse and the PFM morphology in pregnant women of mainland China. The relationship between sexual intercourse frequency and stress urinary incontinence (SUI)-related symptoms was also evaluated.

Temporal changes in postprandial blood transcriptomes reveal subject-specific pattern of expression of innate immunity genes after a high-fat meal.

White blood cells are among the first responders to dietary components and their metabolites absorbed from the gut. The objective of this study was to determine the whole blood transcriptome response to high-fat challenge meals. A total of 45 fasting and postprandial (3-h and 6-h) whole blood transcriptomes from 5 subjects in a crossover intervention trial of a high-fat meal supplemented with placebo, blueberry powder or docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) were analyzed using RNA sequencing.

(-)-4-O-(4-O-β-D-glucopyranosylcaffeoyl) Quinic Acid Inhibits the Function of Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cells to Enhance the Efficacy of Anti-PD1 against Colon Cancer.

Purpose: Immunotherapy in the clinic has demonstrated its potential to control cancer through disinhibiting the immune system, especially for immune checkpoint inhibitors such as anti-programmed cell death protein 1/anti-programmed death-ligand 1 (anti-PD1/anti-PD-L1). However, although these new immunotherapies have resulted in durable clinical responses in various cancers, multiple mechanisms of immune resistance and suppression exist in tumors. One significant barrier to efficacy of anti-PD1 against colon cancer may be the recruitment of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) into the tumor microenvironment.

Resveratrol increases phagocytosis and lipopolysaccharide-induced interleukin-1β production, but decreases surface expression of Toll-like receptor 2 in THP-1 monocytes.

THP-1 monocytes were used to evaluate the effects of physiological levels of resveratrol aglycone, resveratrol-3-O-glucuronide, resveratrol-4'-O-glucuronide, and resveratrol-3-O-sulfate on phagocytosis, IL-1β, IL-1α, and IL-18 production, viability, and TLR2 and TLR4 expression. THP-1 cells were treated with 1, 5, 10, and 15μM resveratrol or metabolites. Resveratrol-3-O-glucuronide, resveratrol-4'-O-glucuronide, and resveratrol-3-O-sulfate had no effect on the functional parameters tested.

Transgenic mice with ectopic expression of constitutively active TLR4 in adipose tissues do not show impaired insulin sensitivity.

Introduction: Chronic low-grade inflammation is associated with obesity and diabetes. However, what causes and mediates chronic inflammation in metabolic disorders is not well understood. Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) mediates both infection-induced and sterile inflammation by recognizing pathogen-associated molecular patterns and endogenous molecules, respectively.

A randomised controlled trial in comparing maternal and neonatal outcomes between hands-and-knees delivery position and supine position in China.

Background: the supine position is the most frequently offered for birth delivery in China and many other countries, but the hands-and-knees position is now gaining prominence with doctors in China. This study aims to examine the differences in maternal and neonatal outcomes among low-risk women who gave birth either in the hands-and-knees position or the supine position.

Methods: a randomised controlled trial was conducted in 11 hospitals in China from May to December in 2012.

Postprandial Inflammatory Responses and Free Fatty Acids in Plasma of Adults Who Consumed a Moderately High-Fat Breakfast with and without Blueberry Powder in a Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial.

Background: Saturated fatty acids (FAs) released from triglyceride-rich lipoproteins (TGRLs) activate Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR-2) and induce the expression of proinflammatory cytokines in monocytes. Certain plant polyphenols inhibit TLR-mediated signaling pathways.

Objective: We determined whether plasma free FAs (FFAs) after a moderately high-fat (MHF, 40% kcal from fat) breakfast modulate the inflammatory status of postprandial blood, and whether blueberry intake suppresses FFA-induced inflammatory responses in healthy humans.

Docosahexaenoic acid and palmitic acid reciprocally modulate monocyte activation in part through endoplasmic reticulum stress.

Palmitic acid (C16:0) and TLR2 ligand induce, but docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) inhibits monocyte activation. C16:0 and TLR2 or TLR4 ligand induce certain ER stress markers; thus, we determined whether ER stress induced by these agonists is sufficient to induce monocyte activation, and whether the ER stress is inhibited by DHA which is known to inhibit C16:0- or ligand-induced TLR activation. Monocyte activation and ER stress were assessed by TLR/inflammasome-induced IL-1β production, and phosphorylation of IRE-1 and eIF2 and expression of CHOP, respectively in THP-1 cells.

Acylcarnitines activate proinflammatory signaling pathways.

Incomplete β-oxidation of fatty acids in mitochondria is a feature of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Previous studies revealed that plasma concentrations of medium- and long-chain acylcarnitines (by-products of incomplete β-oxidation) are elevated in T2DM and insulin resistance. In a previous study, we reported that mixed D,L isomers of C12- or C14-carnitine induced an NF-κB-luciferase reporter gene in RAW 264.

Inflammasome-mediated secretion of IL-1β in human monocytes through TLR2 activation; modulation by dietary fatty acids.

Many studies have shown that TLR4- and TLR2-deficient mice are protected from high-fat diet-induced inflammation and insulin resistance, suggesting that saturated fatty acids derived from the high-fat diet activate TLR-mediated proinflammatory signaling pathways and induce insulin resistance. However, evidence that palmitic acid, the major dietary saturated fatty acid, can directly activate TLR has not been demonstrated. In this article, we present multiple lines of evidence showing that palmitic acid directly activates TLR2, a major TLR expressed on human monocytes, by inducing heterodimerization with TLR1 in an NADPH oxidase-dependent manner.

Saturated fatty acids activate TLR-mediated proinflammatory signaling pathways.

Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and TLR2 were shown to be activated by saturated fatty acids (SFAs) but inhibited by docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). However, one report suggested that SFA-induced TLR activation in cell culture systems is due to contaminants in BSA used for solubilizing fatty acids. This report raised doubt about proinflammatory effects of SFAs.

Inhibition of Nod2 signaling and target gene expression by curcumin.

Nod2 is an intracellular pattern recognition receptor that detects a conserved moiety of bacterial peptidoglycan and subsequently activates proinflammatory signaling pathways. Mutations in Nod2 have been implicated to be linked to inflammatory granulomatous disorders, such as Crohn's disease and Blau syndrome. Many phytochemicals possess anti-inflammatory properties.

Accelerated telomere shortening and replicative senescence in human fibroblasts overexpressing mutant and wild-type lamin A.

LMNA mutations are responsible for a variety of genetic disorders, including muscular dystrophy, lipodystrophy, and certain progeroid syndromes, notably Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria. Although a number of clinical features of these disorders are suggestive of accelerated aging, it is not known whether cells derived from these patients exhibit cellular phenotypes associated with accelerated aging. We examined a series of isogenic skin fibroblast lines transfected with LMNA constructs bearing known pathogenic point mutations or deletion mutations found in progeroid syndromes.

Differential modulation of Nods signaling pathways by fatty acids in human colonic epithelial HCT116 cells.

Nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-containing proteins (Nods) are intracellular pattern recognition receptors recognizing conserved moieties of bacterial peptidoglycan through their leucine-rich repeats domain. The agonists for Nods activate proinflammatory signaling pathways, including NF-kappaB pathways. The results from our previous studies showed that the activation of TLR4 and TLR2, leucine-rich repeat-containing pattern recognition receptors, were differentially modulated by saturated and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in macrophages and dendritic cells.

Collaboration of Werner syndrome protein and BRCA1 in cellular responses to DNA interstrand cross-links.

Cells deficient in the Werner syndrome protein (WRN) or BRCA1 are hypersensitive to DNA interstrand cross-links (ICLs), whose repair requires nucleotide excision repair (NER) and homologous recombination (HR). However, the roles of WRN and BRCA1 in the repair of DNA ICLs are not understood and the molecular mechanisms of ICL repair at the processing stage have not yet been established. This study demonstrates that WRN helicase activity, but not exonuclease activity, is required to process DNA ICLs in cells and that WRN cooperates with BRCA1 in the cellular response to DNA ICLs.

The spectrum of WRN mutations in Werner syndrome patients.

The International Registry of Werner syndrome (www.wernersyndrome.org) has been providing molecular diagnosis of the Werner syndrome (WS) for the past decade.