The causal effect of gut microbiota on hepatic encephalopathy: a mendelian randomization analysis.

Background: There is growing evidence for a relationship between gut microbiota and hepatic encephalopathy (HE). However, the causal nature of the relationship between gut microbiota and HE has not been thoroughly investigated.

Method: This study utilized the large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS) summary statistics to evaluate the causal association between gut microbiota and HE risk.

Retinal vascular morphological characteristics in diabetic retinopathy: an artificial intelligence study using a transfer learning system to analyze ultra-wide field images.

Aim: To investigate the morphological characteristics of retinal vessels in patients with different severity of diabetic retinopathy (DR) and in patients with or without diabetic macular edema (DME).

Methods: The 239 eyes of DR patients and 100 eyes of healthy individuals were recruited for the study. The severity of DR patients was graded as mild, moderate and severe non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) according to the international clinical diabetic retinopathy (ICDR) disease severity scale classification, and retinal vascular morphology was quantitatively analyzed in ultra-wide field images using RU-net and transfer learning methods.

Association between ambient temperatures and injuries: a time series analysis using emergency ambulance dispatches in Chongqing, China.

Background: Global warming and increasing extreme weather have become a severe problem in recent years, posing a significant threat to human health worldwide. Research exploring the link between injury as one of the leading causes of death globally and ambient temperature was lacking. Based on the hourly injury emergency ambulance dispatch (IEAD) records from 2019-2021 in the main urban area of Chongqing, this study explored the role of temperature extremes on the pathogenesis of injury by different mechanisms and identified sensitive populations for different mechanisms of injury.

Corrigendum: Improvement of antioxidant activity and active ingredient of microbial fermentation.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.

Improvement of antioxidant activity and active ingredient of microbial fermentation.

This study used brewer's yeast to ferment and single-factor and orthogonal experiments were conducted to determine the optimal fermentation conditions. The antioxidant capacity of fermentation solution was also investigated by experiments, which showed that different concentrations of fermentation solution could effectively enhance the total antioxidant capacity of cells. The fermentation liquid was found to contain seven sugar compounds including glucose, galactose, rhamnose, arabinose, and xylose using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and high performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole-time of flight mass spectrometry (HPLC-Q-TOF-MS), with the highest concentrations of glucose and galactose at 194.

Overcoming chemoresistance to b-raf inhibitor in melanoma via targeted inhibition of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase1 using 3-mercaptopropionic acid.

The resistance of melanoma to BRAF inhibitors remains a tough clinical challenge. In order to explore the underlying mechanism of drug resistance in melanoma, we established the resistant cell line to vemurafenib, and assessed the changes of drug-resistant cells on proliferation, apoptosis, oxidative stress and tumor stemness. Our results suggest that phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase1 (PCK1) is activated and inhibits the oxidative stress caused by vemurafenib in drug-resistant cells.

Combining robot-assisted surgical system and 3D visualization system for teaching minimally invasive vitreoretinal surgery.

Aim: To investigate the feasibility of teaching minimally invasive vitreoretinal surgery with a robot-assisted surgical system and a three-dimensional (3D) visualization system.

Methods: Enucleated porcine eyes were established as an animal model for removing foreign bodies. Forty medical students were recruited to remove foreign bodies to compare the traditional microscope and the 3D system.

Macular density alterations in myopic choroidal neovascularization and the effect of anti-VEGF on it.

Aim: To analyse macular microvascular alterations in myopic choroidal neovascularization (mCNV) and the efficiency of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) therapy for mCNV by optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA).

Methods: A total of 123 patients were included in this retrospective study, divided into mCNV group, high myopia (HM) group, and normal group at the Affiliated Eye Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University from January 2017 to January 2019. Superficial vessel density, deep capillary density, foveal avascular zone (FAZ) area, A-circularity index (AI) and vessel density around the 300 µm width of the FAZ region density (FD) and the area of choroidal neovascularization (CNV) lesion (only for mCNV group) were measured on 3×3 mm OCTA images.

TRIM44 activates the AKT/mTOR signal pathway to induce melanoma progression by stabilizing TLR4.

Background: There is growing evidence that tripartite motif-containing protein 44 (TRIM44) plays crucial role in tumor development. However, the underlying mechanism of this deubiquitinating enzyme remains unclear.

Methods: Large clinical samples were used to detect TRIM44 expression and its associations with clinicopathological features and prognosis.

Downregulation of RNF128 activates Wnt/β-catenin signaling to induce cellular EMT and stemness via CD44 and CTTN ubiquitination in melanoma.

Background: Ring finger proteins (RNFs) were involved in carcinogenesis. Here, we aimed to explore the detailed mechanism of RNF128 in the progression of melanoma.

Methods: We reanalyzed several gene expression profiles from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database and obtained the overlapped differential expressed RNF genes.