Recent Advancements in Intestinal Microbiota Analyses:A Review for Non-Microbiologists

Microbial constituents naturally inhabiting the gastrointestinal tract may influence the homeostasis of the gut environment.The presence or overabundance of some bacterial taxa has been reported to be associated with complex diseases,and the metabolites of certain bacteria may contribute to diverse disorders by influencing signaling pathways.Therefore,the study of gut microbial population has emerged as a crucial field and a new potential area of clinical significance. Advances in the methods of microbiota analysis have shed light upon the details including species diversity,microfloral activities as well as the entire gut microbiota.Nevertheless,comprehensive reviews on this subject are still limited.For elucidating the appropriate selection strategy of the methods to address a particular research question,we comprehensively reviewed the continuously improving technologies,classical to newly developed,and dissected their relative advantages and drawbacks.In addition,aiming at the rapidly advancing next-generation sequencing,we enumerated the improvements in mainstream platforms and made the horizontal and vertical comparison among them.Additionally,we demonstrated the four main-omics methods,which may provide further mechanistic insights into the role of microbiota,to propel phylotyping analysis to functional analysis.

MS-HRM to Detect Serum DNA Methylation of Intrauterine Growth Retardation Children

Intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) is also called fetal growth restriction (FGR), which is the major complications in obstetrics and one of the most important causation from high morbidity and mortality in perinatal. In this study, MS-HRM (Methylation-Sensitive High Resolution Melting Curve Analysis) was used to detect the methylation status of serum DNA. Gene of insulin-like growth factor binding protein 3 (IGFBP-3) was detected in this study. Results showed that the serum DNA methylation level of FGR fetus were lower than that of the control group;different methylation levels were also found between male and female fetus;and the methylation level was increased with the birth weight of the newborn. Our results showed that the IGFBP-3 gene methylation level of serum DNA of newborn could be semi-quantitative detected which guide the early prevention and treatment of IUGR. It also indicated that the methylation status of serum DNA can be conveniently identified and quantified by inspection of the melting curves.

Effect of folic acid and vitamin supplement on endothelial injury and placental blood perfusion in patients with hypertensive disorder complicating pregnancy

Objective: To study the effect of folic acid and vitamin supplement on endothelial injury and placental blood perfusion in patients with hypertensive disorder complicating pregnancy. Methods: A total of 62 patients who were diagnosed with preeclampsia in Wuhan Red Cross hospital between March 2015 and February 2017 were selected as the research subjects and randomly divided into two groups, the observation group received folic acid, vitamin and conventional symptomatic treatment, and control group accepted conventional symptomatic treatment. Serum contents of endothelial injury markers and oxidative stress indexes were detected before treatment and 2 weeks after treatment;the expression of apoptosis genes in the placenta were detected after delivery. Results: 2 weeks after treatment, serum ET-1, tTG, sFlt-1, sEng, MPO, IMA, MDA and AOPP levels of both groups of patients were significantly lower than those before treatment, and serum ET-1, tTG, sFlt-1, sEng, MPO, IMA, MDA and AOPP levels of observation group were significantly lower than those of control group;after delivery, Fas, Bax and Caspase-3 mRNA expression levels in placenta tissue of observation group were significantly lower than those of control group while Bcl-2, Survivin and Livin mRNA expression levels were significantly higher than those of control group. Conclusion:Folic acid and vitamin supplement can significantly improve the endothelial injury and placental blood perfusion in patients with hypertensive disorder complicating pregnancy.

Correlation between women's sub-health and reproductive diseases with pregnancies and labors

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether female sub-health conditions and reproductive diseases areassociated with pregnancies and labors.METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was performed by using a structured questionnaire. A total of 1343 women aged 35 years or younger in six urban areas of Chengdu were included in the study.According to the Screening Criteria of sub-health conditions, these women were categorized into three groups: postpartum healthy group,sub-healthy group, and reproductive disease group. Data were double-entered using EpiData and the nanalyzed by SPSS.RESULTS: Pregnancy and labor were correlated with postpartum sub-health conditions. The number of pregnancies was negatively correlated with women's postnatal health but was positively correlated with the incidence of postpartum reproductive diseases.CONCLUSION: The number of pregnancies and labors is probably an important factor leading to sub-health conditions and the occurrence of reproductive diseases in women. Avoiding or reducing unwanted pregnancies and labors, enhancing the awareness of health among child bearing-age women are effective measures for preventing sub-health conditions.

Diagnosis,treatment and prevention of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection in children:experts'consensus statement updatedforthe Omicron variant

It has been more than 3 years since the novel coronavirus(SARS-CoV-2)pandemic raged globally.The coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)has greatly influenced human society.According to data from the World Health Organization(WHO),there were over 656 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the world as of January 1,2023,including over 6.6 million deaths[1].