HIF-1α induces VE-cadherin expression and modulates vasculogenic mimicry in esophageal carcinoma cells

AIM: To investigate whether hypoxia inducible factor (HIF)-1α modulates vasculogenic mimicry (VM) by upregulating VE-cadherin expression in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC).

miRNAs as new molecular insights into inflammatorybowel disease:crucial regulators in autoimmunity andinflammation

Inflammatory bowel disease(IBD) is characterized by chronic relapsing inflammatory disorders of the gastrointestinal tract, and includes two major phenotypes: ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. The pathogenesis of IBD is not fully understood as of yet. It is believed that IBD results from complicated interactions between environmental factors, genetic predisposition, and immune disorders. mi RNAs are a class of small non-coding RNAs that can regulate gene expression by targeting the 3′-untranslated region of specific m RNAs for degradation or translational inhibition. mi RNAs are considered to play crucial regulatory roles in many biologic processes, such as immune cellular differentiation, proliferation, and apoptosis, and maintenance of immune homeostasis. Recently, aberrant expression of mi RNAs was revealed to play an important role in autoimmune diseases, including IBD. In this review, we discuss the current understanding of how mi RNAs regulate autoimmunity and inflammation by affecting the differentiation, maturation, and function of various immune cells. In particular, we focus on describing specific mi RNA expression profiles in tissues and peripheral blood that may be associated with the pathogenesis of IBD. In addition, we summarize the opportunities for utilizing mi RNAs as new biomarkers and as potential therapeutic targets in IBD.

Epidermal growth factor upregulates serotonin transporter and its association with visceral hypersensitivity in irritable bowel syndrome

AIM: To investigate the role of epidermal growth factor (EGF) in visceral hypersensitivity and its effect on the serotonin transporter (SERT).

Capsule endoscopy and single-balloon enteroscopy in small bowel diseases: Competing or complementary?

AIM To evaluate diagnostic yields of capsule endoscopy(CE) and/or single-balloon enteroscopy(SBE) in patients with suspected small bowel diseases.METHODS Were trospectively analyzed 700 patients with suspected small bowel diseases from September 2010 to March 2016. CE, SBE, or SBE with prior CE was performed in 401, 353, and 47 patients, respectively. Data from clinical and endoscopy records were collected for analysis. Indications, procedure times, diagnostic yields, and complications were summarized and evaluated.RESULTS The overall diagnostic yield for the CE group was 57.6%. The diagnostic yield of CE in patients with obscure gastroin testinal bleeding(OGIB) was significantly greater than that in patients with no bleeding(70.5% vs 43.8%, P < 0.01). The overall diagnostic yield of SBE was 69.7%. There was no difference in the diagnostic yield of SBE between patients with OGIB and those with no bleeding(72.5% vs 68.9%, P = 0.534). Forty-seven patients underwent CE prior to SBE. Among them, the diagnostic yield of SBE with positive findings on prior CE was 93.3%. In addition, SBE detected two cases with superficial ulcer and erosive lesions in the small bowel, which were missed by CE. However, one case with lymphoma and two with Crohn's disease were not confirmed by SBE. The rate of capsule retention was 2.0%. There were no significant complications during or after SBE examinations.CONCLUSION SBE is a safe and effective technique for diagnosing small bowel diseases. SBE with prior CE seemed to improve the diagnostic yield of small bowel diseases.

Fecal microbial dysbiosis in Chinese patients with inflammatory bowel disease

AIM To analyze the alterations of fecal microbiota in Chinese patients with inflammatory bowel disease(IBD).METHODS Fecal samples from 15 patients with Crohn's disease(CD)(11 active CD, 4 inactive CD), 14 patients with active ulcerative colitis(UC) and 13 healthy individuals were collected and subjected to 16 S ribosomal DNA(rDNA) gene sequencing. The V4 hypervariable regions of 16 S rDNA gene were amplified from all samples and sequenced by the Illumina Mi Seq platform. Quality control and operational taxonomic units classification of reads were calculated with QIIME software. Alpha diversity and beta diversity were displayed with R software.RESULTS Community richness(chao) and microbial structure in both CD and UC were significantly different from those in normal controls. At the phyla level, analysis of the microbial compositions revealed a significantly greater abundance of Proteobacteria in IBD as compared to that in controls. At the genera level, 8 genera in CD and 23 genera in UC(in particular, the Escherichia genus) showed significantly greater abundance as compared to that in normal controls. The relative abundance of Bacteroidetes in the active CD group was markedly lower than that in the inactive CD group. The abundance of Proteobacteria in patients with active CD was nominally higher than that in patients with inactive CD; however, the difference was not statistically significant after correction. Furthermore, the relative abundance of Bacteroidetes showed a negative correlation with the CD activity index scores.CONCLUSION Our study profiles specific characteristics and microbial dysbiosis in the gut of Chinese patients with IBD. Bacteroidetes may have a negative impact on inflammatory development.

Corticosteroid therapy in ulcerative colitis:Clinical response and predictors

AIM:To evaluate clinical response to initial corticosteroid(CS) treatment in Chinese ulcerative colitis patients(UC) and identify predictors of clinical response.METHODS:Four hundred and twenty-three UC patients who were initially treated with oral or intravenous CS from 2007 to 2011 were retrospectively reviewed at eight inflammatory bowel disease centers in China,and 101 consecutive cases with one-year follow-up were analyzed further for clinical response and predictors.Short-term outcomes within one month were classified as primary response and primary non-response.Longterm outcomes within one year were classified as prolonged CS response,CS dependence and secondary non-response.CS refractoriness included primary and secondary non-response.Multivariate analyses were performed to identify predictors associated with clinical response.RESULTS:Within one month,95.0%and 5.0%of the cases were classified into primary response andnon-response,respectively.Within one year,41.6%of cases were assessed as prolonged CS response,while49.5%as CS dependence and 4.0%as secondary nonresponse.The rate of CS refractoriness was 8.9%,while the cumulative rate of surgery was 6.9%within one year.After multivariate analysis of all the variables,tenesmus was found to be a negative predictor of CS dependence(OR=0.336;95%CI:0.147-0.768;P=0.013)and weight loss as a predictor of CS refractoriness(OR=5.662;95%CI:1.111-28.857;P=0.040).After one-month treatment,sustained high Sutherland score(≥6)also predicted CS dependence(OR=2.347;95%CI:0.935-5.890;P=0.014).CONCLUSION:Tenesmus was a negative predictor of CS dependence,while weight loss and sustained high Sutherland score were strongly associated with poor CS response.

Multi-objective optimization and experiment of nylon cord rubber in expandable packer

Nylon cord rubber has the advantages of small residual deformation and is easy to lift and lower the tubing string in low-permeability oil and gas reservoirs.However,it is associated with low-pressure resistance and poor sealing performance.To enhance the performance of nylon cord rubber,a three-dimensional numerical model of the nylon cord rubber was established and its accuracy experimentally determined.The Plackett-Burman test,the Steepest climbing test and the Response surface method were used to acquire the polynomial response surface model connecting structural parameters with bearing and sealing pressure.Using genetic algorithms,optimal structural parameters of nylon cord rubber were determined depending on field operation.The reliability of the optimized results was verified by laboratory tests.It was shown that after optimization,the bearing capacity of the expandable packer increased by 25%while the sealing performance increased by 66%.In addition,the bearing pressure was 70 MPa while the sealing pressure was 50 MPa.These measurements effectively met the on-site requirements of high-pressure and fine fracturing in low-permeability oil and gas reservoirs.

Uncoupling protein 2 regulates glucagon-like peptide-1 secretion in L-cells

AIM:To investigate whether uncoupling protein 2(UCP2) affects oleic acid-induced secretion of glucagonlike peptide-1(GLP-1) in L-cells.METHODS:mRNA and protein expression of UCP2 were analyzed in human NCI-H716 cells,which serve as a model for enteroendocrine L-cells,by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and Western blotting before and after treatment with oleic acid.Localization of UCP2 and GLP-1 in NCI-H716 cells was assessed by immunofluorescence labeling.NCI-H716 cells were transiently transfected with a small interfering RNA(siRNA) that targets UCP2(siUCP2) or with a nonspecific siRNA using Lipofectamine 2000.The concentrations of bioactive GLP-1 in the medium were measured by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay.RESULTS:Both GLP-1 and UCP2 granules were expressed mainly in the cytoplasm of NCI-H716 cells.NCI-H716 cells that secreted GLP-1 also expressed UCP2.Time-course experiments revealed that release of GLP-1 from NCI-H716 cells into the medium reached a maximum at 120 min and remained stable until at least 180 min after treatment with oleic acid(the level of GLP-1 increased about 2.3-fold as compared with the level of GLP-1 in the control cells,P < 0.05).In an experiment to determine dose dependence,stimulation of NCI-H716 cells with ≤ 8 mmol oleic acid led to a concentration-dependent release of GLP-1 into the medium;10 mmol oleic acid diminished the release of GLP-1.Furthermore,GLP-1 secretion induced by oleic acid from NCI-H716 cells that were transfected with siUCP2 decreased to 41.8%,as compared with NCI-H716 cells that were transfected with a non-specific siRNA(P < 0.01).CONCLUSION:UCP2 affected GLP-1 secretion induced by oleic acid.UCP2 plays an important role in L-cell secretion that is induced by free fatty acids.

Serological investigation of IgG and IgE antibodies against food antigens in patients with inflammatory bowel disease

BACKGROUND Food antigens have been shown to participate in the etiopathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD),but their clinical value in IBD is still unclear.AIM To analyze the levels of specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) and E (IgE) antibodies against food antigens in IBD patients and to determine their clinical value in the pathogenesis of IBD.METHODS We performed a retrospective study based on patients who visited the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University between August 2016 and January 2018.A total of 137 IBD patients,including 40 patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) and 97 patients with Crohn’s disease (CD),and 50 healthy controls (HCs),were recruited.Serum food-specific IgG antibodies were detected by semiquantitative enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay,and serum food-specific IgE antibodies were measured by Western blot.The value of food-specific IgG antibodies was compared among different groups,and potent factors related to these antibodies were explored by binary logistic regression.RESULTS Food-specific IgG antibodies were detected in 57.5% of UC patients,in 90.72% of CD patients and in 42% of HCs.A significantly high prevalence and titer of foodspecific IgG antibodies were observed in CD patients compared to UC patients and HCs.The number of IgG-positive foods was greater in CD and UC patients than in HCs (CD vs HCs,P = 0.000;UC vs HCs,P = 0.029).The top five food antigens that caused positive specific IgG antibodies in CD patients were tomato (80.68%),corn (69.32%),egg (63.64%),rice (61.36%),and soybean (46.59%).The foods that caused positive specific IgG antibodies in UC patients were egg (60.87%),corn (47.83%),tomato (47.83%),rice (26.09%),and soybean (21.74%).Significantly higher levels of total food-specific IgG were detected in IBD patients treated with anti-TNFα therapy compared to patients receiving steroids and immunosuppressants (anti-TNFα vs steroids,P = 0.000;anti-TNFα vs immunosuppressants,P = 0.000;anti-TNFα vs steroids + immunosuppressants,P = 0.003).A decrease in food-specific IgG levels was detected in IBD patients after receiving anti-TNFα therapy (P = 0.007).Patients who smoked and CD patients were prone to developing serum food-specific IgG antibodies [Smoke: OR (95%CI): 17.6 (1.91-162.26),P = 0.011;CD patients: OR (95%CI): 12.48 (3.45-45.09),P = 0.000].There was no difference in the prevalence of food-specific IgE antibodies among CD patients (57.1%),UC patients (65.2%) and HCs (60%)(P = 0.831).CONCLUSION CD patients have a higher prevalence of food-specific IgG antibodies than UC patients and HCs.IBD patients are prone to rice,corn,tomato and soybean intolerance.Smoking may be a risk factor in the occurrence of food-specific IgG antibodies.Food-specific IgG antibodies may be a potential method in the diagnosis and management of food intolerance in IBD.

Effect of continuous induction annealing on the microstructure and mechanical properties of copper-clad aluminum flat bars

Copper-clad aluminum （CCA） flat bars produced by the continuous casting-rolling process were subjected to continuous induction heating annealing （CIHA）, and the effects of induction heating temperature and holding time on the microstructure, interface, and mechanical properties of the fiat bars were investigated. The results showed that complete recrystallization of the copper sheath occurred under CIHA at 460℃ for 5 s, 480℃ for 3 s, or 500℃ for 1 s and that the average grain size in the copper sheath was approximately 10.0 μm. In the case of specimens subjected to CIHA at 460-500℃ for longer than 1 s, complete recrystallization occurred in the aluminum core. In the case of CIHA at 460-500℃ for 1-5 s, a continuous interracial layer with a thickness of 2.5-5.5 μm formed and the thickness mainly increased with increasing annealing temperature. After CIHA, the interracial layer consisted primarily of a Cu9A14 layer and a CuA12 layer; the average interface shear strength of the CCA flat bars treated by CIHA at 460-500℃ for 1-5 s was 45-52 MPa. After full softening annealing, the hardness values of the copper sheath and the aluminum core were HV 65 and HV 24, respectively, and the hardness along the cross section of the CCA flat bar was uniform.

空气悬浮高速永磁电机系列化设计及发展趋势

本文介绍了空气悬浮鼓风机高速电机在轴承-轴系一体化设计、电磁约束及机械限制、热管理等方面的特殊关键问题。高速永磁电机的优化开始朝着多样化,生态化的设计方向发展。

Presentation of gallbladder torsion at an abnormal position:A case report

BACKGROUND Gallbladder torsion is a rare acute abdominal condition that requires emergency surgery.It occurs more commonly in elderly people and in women in the adult population.Diagnosis is a challenge as non-specific symptoms and signs have been reported on ultrasonography,computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging.Prompt cholecystectomy can decrease the mortality and morbidity of perforation due to gallbladder torsion.CASE SUMMARY An 82-year-old woman with upper-right quadrant pain and associated nausea and vomiting was diagnosed with ectopic acute calculus cholecystitis.Magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography(MRCP)showed a V-shaped distortion of the extrahepatic bile ducts and a particularly extended twisted cystic duct,which indicated the presence of gallbladder torsion.Emergency laparoscopic cholecystectomy confirmed the diagnosis and the patient recovered without incident.CONCLUSION Gallbladder torsion can be diagnosed pre-operatively by MRCP.The specific signs are a V-shaped distortion of the extrahepatic bile ducts and a particularly extended twisted cystic duct which can be called twisting signs.

Flavidanolides A and B from Isodon flavidus

A phytochemical investigation on Isodon flavidus led to the isolation of flavidanolide A(1),a rearranged diterpenoid featuring a six/seven/five-membered tricyclic skeleton,together with flavidanolide B(2),an uncommon heterodimeric diterpenoid consisting of a norabietane and a seco-isopimarane monomeric units.Their structures were elucidated by extensive spectroscopic data and single-crystal X-ray diffraction analyses.Their plausible biosynthetic routes were also proposed.In the bioassay,flavidanolide B was found to exhibit good inhibitory effect against lipopolysaccharide(LPS)-induced nitric oxide(NO)production in RAW264.7 cells comparable to positive control pyrrolidinedithiocarbamate ammonium(PDTC),which provided evidence for the medicinal value of I.flavidus as a folk medicine for treating inflammatory diseases.

Improving Open Set Domain Adaptation Using Image-to-Image Translation and Instance-Weighted Adversarial Learning

We propose to address the open set domain adaptation problem by aligning images at both the pixel space and the feature space.Our approach,called Open Set Translation and Adaptation Network(OSTAN),consists of two main components:translation and adaptation.The translation is a cycle-consistent generative adversarial network,which translates any source image to the“style”of a target domain to eliminate domain discrepancy in the pixel space.The adaptation is an instance-weighted adversarial network,which projects both(labeled)translated source images and(unlabeled)target images into a domain-invariant feature space to learn a prior probability for each target image.The learned probability is applied as a weight to the unknown classifier to facilitate the identification of the unknown class.The proposed OSTAN model significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art open set domain adaptation methods on multiple public datasets.Our experiments also demonstrate that both the image-to-image translation and the instance-weighting framework can further improve the decision boundaries for both known and unknown classes.

端羧基酯交换法合成高分子量大豆油基聚酯

以大豆油为原料可高效合成大豆油基二元醇(SOD),通过与二元酸的熔融缩聚获得大豆油基聚酯.然而传统的酯化和酯交换机理无法获得高分子量的聚酯产物,其原因在于反应过程中醇酸单元摩尔比偏离达到高分子量所需的等摩尔比条件.本研究采用一种新型的端羧基酯交换(CET)机理成功合成了高分子量的大豆油基聚酯,首先以过量的可升华二元酸与SOD酯化生成羧基封端预聚物,再通过CET在高真空下脱除过量的二元酸,动态地逼近醇酸等摩尔比条件,从而获得了黏均分子量可达123 kDa的高分子量大豆油基聚酯.该聚酯具有良好的热稳定性和高透明性,其黏附性能可达压敏胶黏剂的商用标准.这种含不饱和脂肪族侧链的聚酯还可通过巯-烯“点击”反应引入季铵盐基团,获得抗菌型大豆油基聚酯.

Risk factors for colorectal neoplasia in patients with underlying inflammatory bowel disease:a multicenter study

Background:This study sought to evaluate the risk factors for the development of colitis-associated neoplasia(CAN)in Chinese patients with inflammatory bowel disease(IBD).Methods:IBD patients who developed CAN between 1999 and 2016 were identified from eight medical centers.In addition to initial pathology evaluation,a CAN diagnosis was confirmed by two expert pathologists.Patients with CAN(n=29)were compared with non-CAN controls(n=87).Matching was performed for gender and IBD type with a ratio of three controls to one subject.Results:Of the 29 patients with CAN,8(27.6%)had colorectal cancer(CRC),20(69.0%)had a final diagnosis of low-grade dysplasia and 1(3.4%)had high-grade dysplasia.Multivariate analysis revealed that an older age at the time of IBD diagnosis and a longer IBD duration were independent risk factors for the development of CAN,with odds ratios of 1.09[95%confidence interval(CI):1.04–1.14,P<0.001]and 1.14(95%CI:1.03–1.27,P=0.013),respectively.Comparison between IBD patients with CRC and those with dysplasia indicated that the former were older at the time of IBD diagnosis(P=0.012)and had longer IBD durations(P=0.019).Conclusions:Older age at the time of IBD diagnosis and longer IBD duration were found to be associated with the development of CAN in IBD patients.

A NOVEL DIRECT ACTIVATOR OF TFEB PROMOTES AUTOPHAGY AND LYSOSOME BIOGENESIS AND PROTECTS NEURONS IN THE BRAIN

Autophagy dysfunction is a common feature in neurodegenerative disorders caused by the accumulation of toxic,aggregate-prone proteins.Increasing evidence have demonstrated that genetic or pharmacological activation of transcription factor EB(TFEB),a master regulator of autophagy and lysosomal biogenesis,ameliorates neurotoxicity and rescues neurodegenerative phenotypes in several animal models of neurodegenerative diseases.