PPAR /Nnat/NF-B Axis Involved in Promoting Effects of Adiponectin on Preadipocyte Differentiation.

A previous study has demonstrated that adiponectin (APN) could promote preadipocyte differentiation, and the present study further explored its mechanism. 3T3-L1 cells were infected with adenovirus holding human adiponectin gene apM1 and mouse neuronatin (Nnat) shRNA and initiated differentiation while coculturing with mature adipocytes stimulated with LPS. After 8 days, preadipocyte differentiation was observed by Oil Red O staining.

Concordance of chronic conditions among the household members in Shanghai: a cross-sectional study.

Objectives: Members living in the same household tend to share some similar behaviours and environment. We want to quantitatively assess the associations of chronic conditions to investigate the concordance of disease status among the household members.

Setting: Shanghai, China.

A hybrid machine learning approach to cerebral stroke prediction based on imbalanced medical dataset.

Background And Objective: Cerebral stroke has become a significant global public health issue in recent years. The ideal solution to this concern is to prevent in advance by controlling related metabolic factors. However, it is difficult for medical staff to decide whether special precautions are needed for a potential patient only based on the monitoring of physiological indicators unless they are obviously abnormal.

Yeast diversity investigation of Vitis davidii Föex during spontaneous fermentations using culture-dependent and high-throughput sequencing approaches.

Vitis davidii Föex is widely planted in South China as a potential wine making grape. In this study, yeast communities during the spontaneous fermentations of two varieties of Vitis davidii Föex in Guizhou, China were investigated. Hanseniaspora uvarum, Pichia terricola, Saccharomyces cerevisiae/S.

Comparison of In-Hospital Mortality and Length of Stay in Acute ST-Segment-Elevation Myocardial Infarction Among Urban Teaching Hospitals in China and the United States.

Background The aim of the study is to compare in-hospital outcomes of acute ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) between China and the United States. Methods and Results Urban teaching hospitals were queried for adult patients with a primary diagnosis of acute STEMI during 2007-2010. The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality, and the secondary outcome was length of stay.

Flaxseed oil supplementation improves intestinal function and immunity, associated with altered intestinal microbiome and fatty acid profile in pigs with intrauterine growth retardation.

Flaxseed oil (FO), enriched in n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), is an important oil source for intestinal development and health. We aimed to study the different effects of FO versus soybean oil (SO) on growth, intestinal health and immune function of neonates with intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) using a weaned piglet model. Forty pairs of male IUGR and normal birth weight piglets, weaned at 21 ± 1 d, were fed diets containing either 4% FO or SO for 3 weeks consecutively.

Continuous theta burst stimulation provides neuroprotection by accelerating local cerebral blood flow and inhibiting inflammation in a mouse model of acute ischemic stroke.

Acute ischemic stroke is a leading cause of disability with limited therapeutic options. Continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) has recently been shown to be a promising noninvasive therapeutic strategy for neuroprotection in ischemic stroke patients. Here, we investigated the protective effects of cTBS following acute infarction using a photothrombotic stroke (PTS) model in the right posterior parietal cortex (PPC) of C57BL/6 mice.

Biomechanical and neuromuscular strategies on backward somersault landing in artistic gymnastics: A case study.

Landing is a crucial factor in gymnastics competitions, but the underlying biomechanical and neuromuscular strategies remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the biomechanical characteristics and neuromuscular strategies of landing for backward somersault. A 19-segment human model was developed and bilateral lower-limb joint loadings were estimated using computer stimulation.

Skin/Muscle Incision and Retraction Induces Evoked and Spontaneous Pain in Mice.

Background: Surgery is a frequent cause of persistent pain. Unrelieved chronic postsurgical pain causes unnecessary patient suffering and discomfort and usually leads to psychological complications. The rat model of skin/muscle incision and retraction (SMIR) with decreased paw withdrawal thresholds developed by Flatters was usually used to investigate the underlying mechanism of chronic postsurgical pain.

PARP Inhibition Suppresses GR-MYCN-CDK5-RB1-E2F1 Signaling and Neuroendocrine Differentiation in Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer.

Purpose: In this study, we addressed the underlying mechanisms for the association between enzalutamide (ENZ) treatment and neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC), and the critical involvement of MYCN, and loss of RB1 function in neuroendocrine differentiation (NED) of prostatic epithelial cells, and the development of NEPC. We further sought to determine whether PARP inhibition could suppress NEPC, and to identify molecular determinants of this therapeutic activity.

Experimental Design: We used a novel prostate cancer patient-derived xenograft (PDX) treatment model, prostatic adenocarcinoma and NEPC cell lines, an NEPC organoid line, and NEPC xenograft models to address the mechanistic basis of ENZ-induced NED, and to analyze suppression of NED and NEPC growth by PARP inhibition.

eRF1 mediates codon usage effects on mRNA translation efficiency through premature termination at rare codons.

Codon usage bias is a universal feature of eukaryotic and prokaryotic genomes and plays an important role in regulating gene expression levels. A major role of codon usage is thought to regulate protein expression levels by affecting mRNA translation efficiency, but the underlying mechanism is unclear. By analyzing ribosome profiling results, here we showed that codon usage regulates translation elongation rate and that rare codons are decoded more slowly than common codons in all codon families in Neurospora.

Effects of Pre-Cardiopulmonary Bypass Administration of Dexmedetomidine on Cardiac Injuries and the Inflammatory Response in Valve Replacement Surgery With a Sevoflurane Postconditioning Protocol: A Pilot Study.

Background: Preventing myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury in on-pump cardiac surgeries remains an enormous challenge. Sevoflurane postconditioning has been effective at overcoming this challenge by modulating inflammatory mediators and ameliorating antioxidative stress. Dexmedetomidine (DEX) is a commonly used medication for cardiac patients with organ-protective properties that lead to positive outcomes.

DNA co-methylation analysis of lincRNAs across nine cancer types reveals novel potential epigenetic biomarkers in cancer.

The potential functions and prognostic value of lincRNAs with co-methylation events are explored in 9 cancer types. Here, we evaluated the co-methylation events in promoter and gene-body regions between two lincRNAs across 9 cancer types by constructing a systematic biological framework. The co-methylation events in both promoter and gene-body regions tended to be highly cancer specific.

Correlations between ultrasonographic and subsequent radiographic findings of developmental dysplasia of the hips.

Purpose: The study aimed to investigate the utility of ultrasonographic findings in predicting the subsequent radiographic parameters of developmental dysplasia of the hips.

Methods: In this 12-year retrospective cohort study, all new-born infants with a positive clinical examination or risk factors were included. They were scheduled for hip ultrasonography in the first 3 months, and subsequent radiographs at 1 year of life.

A Graph Embedding Framework for Maximum Mean Discrepancy-Based Domain Adaptation Algorithms.

Domain adaptation aims to deal with learning problems in which the labeled training data and unlabeled testing data are differently distributed. Maximum mean discrepancy (MMD), as a distribution distance measure, is minimized in various domain adaptation algorithms for eliminating domain divergence. We analyze empirical MMD from the point of view of graph embedding.

Pre-cardiopulmonary bypass administration of dexmedetomidine decreases cardiac troponin I level following cardiac surgery with sevoflurane postconditioning.

Objective: This study was performed to determine the effect of dexmedetomidine (DEX) administration on myocardial damage in cardiac surgery with sevoflurane postconditioning.

Methods: We retrospectively examined all cardiac valve replacement surgeries from 1 April 2016 to 30 April 2017. Eligible patients were divided into two groups based on whether DEX was infused.

Assessment of outcomes of hearing and speech rehabilitation in children with cochlear implantation.

Objectives: This study aimed to assess the effect of hearing and speech rehabilitation in patients with Nurotron cochlear implants.

Design: Ninety-eight paediatric patients with bilateral severe-to-profound sensorineural deafness who received cochlear implantation were divided into three groups according to age: group A (≤3 years), group B (4-7 years), and group C (8-16 years). All patients were followed up for one year for hearing and speech performance after the surgery.

Extracellular ASC exacerbated the recurrent ischemic stroke in an NLRP3-dependent manner.

Using a photothrombotic mouse model of single stroke, we show that a single stroke onset increases the nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB), NLR family CARD domain containing protein 4 (NLRC4), and absent in melanoma 2 (AIM2) inflammasomes, as well as the mRNA levels of NLRP3. Next, using a photothrombotic mouse model of recurrent stroke, we found that recurrent strokes increased the activation of NLRP3, exacerbated the brain damage and the pro-inflammatory response in wild type (WT) mice, but not in NLRP3 knockout ( KO) mice. Additionally, we found that apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a CARD (ASC) protein level surrounding the infarct area was comparatively increased, but that ASC specks outside of microglia in both the ipsilateral and contralateral of stroke site were decreased in KO mice relative to wild-type (WT) controls, and the number of ASC specks surrounding the second infarct area was positively correlated to the damage scores.

[Arthroscopic GraftLink technique reconstruction combined with suture anchor fixation for anterior cruciate ligament and medial collateral ligament injuries].

Objective: To investigate the effectiveness of arthroscopic GraftLink technique reconstruction combined with suture anchor fixation in treatment of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rupture and medial collateral ligament (MCL) grade Ⅲ injury.

Methods: Between June 2015 and February 2018, 28 patients with ACL rupture and MCL grade Ⅲ injury were treated. Arthroscopic GraftLink technique was used to reconstruct ACL with autologous peroneus longus tendon (PLT), and suture anchor fixation was used to repair MCL.

Base excess in predicting the prognosis of patients with paraquat poisoning: A meta-analysis.

Background: Although the prognostic significance of base excess (BE) in patients with paraquat (PQ) poisoning has been investigated for several years, the results remain controversial. Thus, we performed for the first time a comprehensive meta-analysis to explore the value of BE in predicting the prognosis of patients with PQ poisoning.

Methods: We searched PubMed, EMBase, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, Cochrane Library, and the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure to identify all relevant papers that were published up to August 2018.

[Structure of preschoolers intestinal Bifidobacteria and its relationship with milk consumption].

Objective: To determine the population structure of intestinal Bifidobacteria in preschool children, and evaluate its relationship with milk consumption.

Methods: The study was performed among 200 healthy children aged 2 to 6 in a kindergarten, Chengdu. Half of the children were female.

Prognostic significance of serum lactate dehydrogenase in patients with breast cancer: a meta-analysis.

Multiple studies have assessed the prognostic significance of serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in patients with breast cancer, but their results remain controversial. This study aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of LDH in breast cancer by meta-analysis. Electronic searches for relevant articles were conducted in PubMed, Embase and Web of Science databases.

FOXO3a knockdown promotes radioresistance in nasopharyngeal carcinoma by inducing epithelial-mesenchymal transition and the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway.

Mutations in the forkhead box O 3a (FOXO3a) gene are closely related to the progression of several types of cancers. However, few studies explore the relationship between FOXO3a and nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Our findings demonstrate that silencing FOXO3a promotes tumor radioresistance of NPC in vitro and in vivo through inducing EMT and activating Wnt/β-catenin signal pathway.

Directing Liquid Crystalline Self-Organization of Rodlike Particles through Tunable Attractive Single Tips.

Dispersions of rodlike colloidal particles exhibit a plethora of liquid crystalline states, including nematic, smectic A, smectic B, and columnar phases. This phase behavior can be explained by presuming the predominance of hard-core volume exclusion between the particles. We show here how the self-organization of rodlike colloids can be controlled by introducing a weak and highly localized directional attractive interaction between one of the ends of the particles.