Publications by authors named "Zhi-zhen Li"

Background: Maternal fear of childbirth fluctuates throughout pregnancy. However, no studies have investigated the changing characteristics and influencing factors of fear of childbirth.

Aims: This study aimed to identify the trajectory patterns of fear of childbirth in third-trimester primiparas and to examine the factors influencing these patterns.

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Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a heterogeneous tumor with an increased incidence worldwide accompanied by high mortality and dismal prognosis. Emerging evidence indicates that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs)-derived exosomes possess protective effects against various human diseases by transporting microRNAs (miRNAs or miRs). We aimed to explore the role of exosomal miR-15a derived from MSCs and its related mechanisms in HCC.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to analyze whole-transcriptome sequencing data from cholangiocarcinoma (CHOL) patients to understand the molecular mechanisms of this cancer by comparing tumor and adjacent non-tumor tissues.
  • In total, 2,895 differentially expressed mRNAs, 56 miRNAs, 151 long non-coding RNAs, and 110 circular RNAs were identified, highlighting significant changes in gene expression related to the disease.
  • Validation through The Cancer Genome Atlas showed that downregulated hsa-miR-144-3p and various other DEGs are likely involved in CHOL's development, particularly affecting RNA splicing and protein degradation.
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Numerous studies have suggested that dysregulated long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) contributed to the development and progression of many cancers. lncRNA OIP5 antisense RNA 1 (OIP5-AS1) has been reported to be increased in several cancers. However, the roles of OIP5-AS1 in liver hepatocellular carcinoma (LIHC) remain to be investigated.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study performed a meta-analysis to assess how effective transcatheter hepatic arterial chemoembolization (TACE) is for treating intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC).
  • It included data from nine clinical trials with a total of 1,724 patients, primarily from countries like China, Italy, South Korea, and Germany, and analyzed various survival rates at 1, 3, and 5 years post-treatment.
  • Results showed that TACE significantly improved 1-year overall survival but not 3- or 5-year rates; overall, it suggests TACE is a beneficial treatment for ICC, though further research is needed.
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Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) as a component of the outer structure of cell wall of gram-negative bacteria, could induce apoptosis in the intestinal endocrine cell line STC-1. However, the signaling cascades involved in this process have not been elucidated. Hence, we investigated the mechanism of cell apoptosis and hyposecretion of glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) induced by LPS in the GLUTag enteroendocrine cell line.

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Diabetic nephropathy is one of the manifestations of systemic microangiopathy in diabetes. Hesperetin, a natural flavanone glycoside compound in citrus fruits, has been demonstrated to exert hypoglycemic effects and protect kidney in experimental diabetic animals. The current study was aimed to investigate the mechanisms underlying the hypoglycemic effects of hesperetin in high-fat/streptozocin (STZ)-induced diabetic nephropathy.

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Multiple pathways contribute to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in response to high fat diets (HFD). A homolog of mammalian JNK-interacting protein 3 (JIP3), also known as JSAP-1, activates different components in various signaling pathways to modulate cellular processes. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of JIP3 in obesity-related pathologies pathway.

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  • This study examines the accuracy of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels for diagnosing prostate cancer across different age groups in 476 healthy males aged 10-89.
  • It finds that total PSA (tPSA) and free PSA (fPSA) levels generally increase with age, with tPSA peaking in older men while %fPSA peaks in younger ones.
  • The research suggests that %p2PSA and the prostate health index (PHI) may serve as more reliable early indicators for prostate cancer compared to traditional PSA measurements, especially in older individuals.
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Background: Breast cancer is the most frequent malignancy in women and drug resistance is the major obstacle for its successful chemotherapy. In the present study, we analyzed the involvement of an oncofetal gene, sal-like 4 (SALL4), in the tumor proliferation and drug resistance of human breast cancer.

Results: Our study showed that SALL4 was up-regulated in the drug resistant breast cancer cell line, MCF-7/ADR, compared to the other five cell lines.

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LASP-1 is an actin-binding protein that regulates cytoskeletal dynamics and cell migration. LASP-1 was previously identified in a cDNA library from metastatic breast cancer samples. This protein has since been detected in multiple human cancers, including liver cancer, gastric cancer and pancreatic cancer.

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Background: As well known, both natural and synthetic steroidal compounds are powerful endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) which can cause reproductive toxicity and affect cellular development in mammals and thus are generally regarded as serious contributors to water pollution. Streptomyces virginiae IBL14 is an effective degradative strain for many steroidal compounds and can also catalyze the C25 hydroxylation of diosgenin, the first-ever biotransformation found on the F-ring of diosgenin.

Results: To completely elucidate the hydroxylation function of cytochrome P450 genes (CYPs) found during biotransformation of steroids by S.

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Resistin is an adipokine highly related to insulin resistance (IR). The purpose of our research was to investigate how resistin influences skeletal glucose metabolism and explore its mechanisms. We constructed the recombinant plasmid pcDNA3.

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Objective: To explore the effect of glucose fluctuation on resistin.

Methods: The phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate(PMA)-activated and differentiated U937 cells were exposed to experimental condition for 3 days, three groups of cells were formed, each one receiving the following fresh medium every 6 hours, respectively: (1) continuous 11.1 mmol/L glucose concentration medium (Con group), (2) continuous 22.

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Article Synopsis
  • - Mice injected with a virus carrying the resistin gene showed changes in glucose metabolism and insulin sensitivity, with no impact on fasting blood glucose but increased fasting insulin and reduced glucose tolerance.
  • - The study observed lower hepatic glycogen levels and decreased activation of the enzyme AMPK, indicating that resistin may hinder its activity.
  • - Elevated mRNA levels of glucose-6-phosphatase and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase were found, suggesting that resistin overexpression disrupts glucose metabolism and contributes to hepatic insulin resistance by promoting gluconeogenic enzyme expression.
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Objective: To investigate the relationship between serum interleukin-10 (IL-10) level and insulin resistance (IR) in patients with metabolic syndrome (MS).

Methods: Eighteen MS subjects and 18 age-matched normal subjects were enrolled. IR was evaluated by hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp technique and serum IL-10 level measured by ELISA.

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