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Background: Interstitial fibrosis is the primary determinant of the progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD), and noninvasive identification of interstitial fibrosis is a major challenge. We aimed to explore the diagnostic value of secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine (SPARC) in serum and urine in kidney fibrosis., Methods: Single-cell transcriptome analysis was used to measure SPARC expression in healthy reference kidneys and those of patients with CKD. A total of 674 patients with CKD who underwent renal biopsy served as the training cohort (n = 322) and the validation cohort (n = 352). Serum and urinary SPARC levels were measured at the time of kidney biopsy. In vivo and in vitro models of kidney fibrosis were also used to confirm the role of SPARC., Results: Increased SPARC expression was detected in kidney fibrosis tissues. Higher serum SPARC levels were associated with increased severity of kidney fibrosis. Moreover, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC-ROC) (AUC 0.86) was greater for the serum SPARC level than for the urinary SPARC level and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). The combination of the serum and urinary SPARC levels and eGFR increased the AUC-ROC for predicting kidney fibrosis from 0.86 to 0.90. The diagnostic performance of serum or urinary SPARC levels was consistent in the validation cohort. In vivo and in vitro models of kidney fibrosis also confirmed the upregulation of SPARC expression., Conclusions: Serum and urinary SPARC levels may be potential biomarkers for kidney fibrosis and may be useful for noninvasive diagnosis., Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest The authors declare that they have no competing interests., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Choline, an essential nutrient, plays a critical role in cognition, and may help prevent dementia and mild cognitive impairment. However, studies on dietary choline and its derivatives for preventing these conditions are limited and inconsistent., Objective: The objective of this study was to explore the associations between dietary choline intake and the incidence of dementia, Alzheimer disease (AD), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and current cognitive performance in the United Kingdom Biobank cohort., Methods: Dietary choline intake was categorized into quartiles of consumption based on 24-h dietary recalls, with units expressed as milligrams per day. Diagnoses of dementia, AD, and MCI were identified using the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-9/10) codes. Current cognitive performance was assessed via the computerized touchscreen interface. After adjusting for sociodemographic factors, dietary and lifestyle behaviors, and comorbid conditions, Cox proportional hazards regression, logistic regression, and restricted cubic splines were used to analyze the association between choline intake and dementia or cognitive performance., Results: Among 125,594 participants (55.8% female), with a mean age of 56.1 y (range: 40-70 years) at baseline and a median follow-up of 11.8 y, 1103 cases of dementia (including 385 AD and 87 cases of MCI) were recorded. U-shaped associations were observed between choline intake and dementia and AD. Participants in the 2nd quartile of total choline intake had lower risks than those in the lowest quartile, with HR of 0.80 (95% CI: 0.67, 0.96) for dementia and 0.76 (95% CI: 0.58, 1.00) for AD. Moderate intake of choline derivative, including free choline (HR, 0.77; 95%CI, 0.65, 0.92), phosphatidylcholine (HR 0.82; 95% CI: 0.68, 0.98), sphingomyelin (HR 0.82; 95% CI: 0.69, 0.98) and glycerophosphocholine (HR 0.83; 95% CI: 0.70, 1.00), were associated with a 17%-23% lower odds of dementia. Additionally, moderate total choline intake was associated with an 8%-13% lower odds of poor cognitive performance in visual attention (OR: 0.92; 95% CI: 0.86, 0.99), fluid intelligence (OR: 0.87; 95% CI: 0.82, 0.92), and complex processing speed (OR: 0.90; 95% CI: 0.84, 0.95)., Conclusions: In conclusion, our findings suggest that moderate dietary choline intake, ranging from 332.89 mg/d to 353.93 mg/d, is associated with lower odds of dementia and better cognitive performance., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 American Society for Nutrition. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

This paper analyzes the pathogenesis, clinical characteristics, treatment measures and prognosis of a case of methemoglobin and hemolytic anemia caused by acute nitrogen trifluoride poisoning. The patient with occupational exposure to nitrogen trifluoride was treated immediately after the onset of illness, methemoglobin was monitored and a comprehensive examination was conducted. After comprehensive analysis, it was considered that acute nitrogen trifluoride poisoning could cause methemoglobinemia, hemolytic anemia and liver injury. The patient was disengaged and given symptomatic treatment such as oxygen therapy, methylene blue, low-dose methylpredrone, vitamin C and reduced glutathione. The prognosis of the patient is good, which provides a reference for the clinical treatment and occupational health examination of nitrogen trifluoride poisoning.

To investigate the mechanism by which Peitu Yifei Granules inhibit idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis(IPF) in rats, fifty specific-pathogen-free(SPF) grade male Wistar rats were randomly divided into blank group and modeling group. IPF was induced in the modeling group rats by tracheal infusion of 5 mg·kg~(-1) bleomycin(BLM) and then randomly divided into model group, pirfenidone group, and high-dose, medium-dose, and low-dose groups treated with Peitu Yifei Granules. After 24 hours of modeling, the treatment groups received intragastric administration of either Peitu Yifei Granules or pirfenidone as a positive control drug; meanwhile, the model group received an equal volume of normal saline. After 21 days of treatment administration, lung tissue samples were collected for analysis. Pathological changes in lung tissues were assessed using hematoxylin-eosin(HE) staining and Masson's trichrome staining. The expression levels of protein kinase B(Akt), mammalian target of rapamycin(mTOR), their phosphorylated forms, and sequestosome 1(p62) were determined through Western blot(WB). Fluorescent quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction(RT-qPCR) was used to measure messenger ribonucleic acid(mRNA) expression levels of Beclin-1, microtubule-associated proteins 1A/1B light chain 3B(LC3B), and p62. Immunohistochemistry was performed to assess protein expression levels of Beclin-1 and LC3B in lung tissue samples. RESULTS:: demonstrated that lung tissue structure appeared normal without significant collagen deposition in the blank group rats. In contrast, rats from the model group exhibited thickened alveolar septa along with evident inflammatory changes and collagen deposition. Compared to the model group rats, those treated with Peitu Yifei Granules or pirfenidone showed significantly improved lung tissue structure with reduced inflammation and collagen deposition observed histologically. Furthermore, compared with those of the blank group, the expressions of p62 and its mRNA, p-Akt and p-mTOR protein in lung tissues of the model group were significantly increased, while Beclin-1, LC3B and their mRNA levels were significantly decreased. Compared with those of the model group, the expressions of p62 and its mRNA, p-Akt and p-mTOR in lung tissues of the pirfenidone group and Peitu Yifei Granules high-dose and medium-dose groups were significantly decreased, while Beclin-1, LC3B and their mRNA expressions were significantly increased. The above results indicate that Peitu Yifei Granules can improve autophagy levels in lung tissues by inhibiting the phosphoinositide 3-kinase(PI3K)/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway and delay the development of IPF disease.

Research on microplastics (MPs) is gaining more attention in the soil environment, but their impact on soil microbiota and related nitrogen processes remains poorly understood. Nitrous oxide (N 2 O) is one of the important greenhouse gases of the nitrogen cycle in agricultural soil, which mainly originates from microbial-mediated nitrogen (N) transformation processes. Microplastics can influence soil nitrogen transformation, as well as nitrogen-related functional enzymes and genes, and its enrichment may profoundly affect the N 2 O emissions in soil. However, because of the complexity of the properties of MPs, variations in experimental conditions, and spatial-temporal scales, the results on the effects of MPs on soil N 2 O emissions, nitrogen content, enzymes activities, and nitrogen functional genes remain inconsistent. Additionally, there is a lack of research conducted at broader experimental scales (e.g., pot scale), from diverse perspectives (e.g., denitrification or DNRA), and using advanced techniques (e.g., stable isotope approaches) to elucidate the underlying mechanisms. Therefore, to comprehend the environmental risk of MPs on soil from multiple perspectives, this review summarized the impact of MPs on soil N cycling from previous published research to provide a knowledge basis and gain holistic insights into the potential impact of soil microplastic enrichment on N 2 O emission patterns in agricultural soils under climate change conditions.

Liver fibrosis is a key pathological stage in the progression of chronic liver disease. If the disease is mistreated, it can further deteriorate into liver failure, which seriously affects the quality of life of patients and brings heavy medical costs. Hepatic stellate cell(HSC) activation triggers extracellular matrix(ECM) deposition, which plays an important driving role in liver fibrosis, and ferroptosis is an effective strategy to clear or reverse the activation of HSCs into a deactivated phenotype. Therefore, inhibiting the activation and proliferation of HSCs by regulating ferroptosis is the key to the treatment of this disease, so as to derive the prospect of inducing ferroptosis of HSCs(including RNA-binding proteins, non-coding RNA, chemicals, and active components of traditional Chinese medicine) to intervene in liver fibrosis. On this basis, this paper started from the activation of HSCs to induce ECM deposition and focused on summarizing the mechanism of inducing HSC ferroptosis in delaying the progression of liver fibrosis, so as to continuously enrich the clinical practice of liver fibrosis and provide a reference for subsequent basic research.

Background: The effect of a healthy lifestyle on dementia associated with multimorbidity is not well understood. Our objective is to examine whether the adoption of a healthy lifestyle could potentially reduce the elevated risk of dementia in individuals with and without multimorbidity., Methods: We utilized data from the UK Biobank cohort. A comprehensive healthy lifestyle score, ranging from 0 to 6, was generated. Cox proportional hazards models were used to examine the associations between multimorbidity, the healthy lifestyle score, and the incidence risk of dementia., Results: Over a median follow-up period of 12.5 years, 5 852 all-cause dementia were recorded. Multimorbidity including cardiovascular, metabolic, neuropsychiatric, and inflammation-related diseases was associated with a higher risk of subsequent dementia. Each additional chronic disease was associated with a hazard ratio (HR) of 1.38 (95% CI: 1.33, 1.44). Compared to individuals without multimorbidity and a healthy lifestyle score of 5-6, patients with multimorbidity and a lifestyle score of 0-1 had a significantly higher risk of dementia (HR: 3.13; 95% CI: 2.64, 3.72), but the risk was markedly attenuated among those with multimorbidity and a lifestyle score of 5-6. Among patients with 3 or more diseases, the HR for dementia was 0.53 (95%CI: 0.42, 0.68) when comparing a lifestyle score of 5-6 to 0-1. And we observed more pronounced association between them among people younger than 60 years old., Conclusions: Adherence to a combination of healthy lifestyle factors, especially at a young age, was associated with a significantly lower risk of dementia among participants with multimorbidity., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Introduction: Renal fibrosis (RF), being the most important pathological change in the progression of CKD, is currently assessed by the evaluation of a biopsy. This present study aimed to apply a novel functional MRI (fMRI) protocol named amide proton transfer (APT) weighting to evaluate RF noninvasively., Methods: Male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were initially subjected to bilateral kidney ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI), unilateral ureteral obstruction, and sham operation, respectively. All rats underwent APT mapping on the 7th and 14th days after operation. Besides, 26 patients underwent renal biopsy at the Nephrology Department of Shanghai Tongji Hospital between July 2022 and May 2023. Patients underwent APT and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) mappings within 1 week before biopsy. MRI results of both patients and rats were calculated by comparing with gold standard histology for fibrosis assessment., Results: In animal models, the cortical APT (cAPT) and medullary APT (mAPT) values were positively correlated with the degree of RF. Compared to the sham group, IRI group showed significantly increased cAPT and mAPT values on the 7th and 14th days after surgery, but no group differences were found in ADC values. Similar results were found in human patients. Cortical/medullary APT values were significantly increased in patients with moderate-to-severe fibrosis than in patients with mild fibrosis. ROC curve analysis indicated that APT value displayed a better diagnostic value for RF. Furthermore, combination of cADC and cAPT improved fibrosis detection by imaging variables alone (p < 0.1)., Conclusion: APT values had better diagnostic capability at early stage of RF compared to ADC values, and the addition of APT imaging to conventional ADC will significantly improve the diagnostic performance for predicting kidney fibrosis., (© 2024 S. Karger AG, Basel.)

Background: When specific nutrients are inadequate, vulnerability to cardiovascular and metabolic illnesses increases. The data linking dietary nutrition with these illnesses, however, has been sparse in the past observational research and randomized controlled trials., Objectives: A Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was performed to assess the influence of macronutrients (fat, protein, sugar, and carbohydrates) and micronutrients (β-carotene, folate, calcium, iron, copper, magnesium, phosphorus, selenium, zinc, vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin B, and vitamin B12) on the susceptibility to cardiovascular metabolic disorders, including coronary artery disease, heart failure, ischemic stroke, and type 2 diabetes., Methods: We employed a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis, utilizing inverse variance weighting and conducting comprehensive sensitivity assessments. We obtained publicly accessible summary data from separate cohorts comprising individuals of European ancestry. The level of statistical significance was established at a threshold of P < 0. 00074., Results: Based on our research findings, we have established a causal association between the consumption of circulating fat and the development of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. The study found that an increase of one standard deviation in fat consumption was associated with a decreased risk of heart failure, with an odds ratio of 0. 56 (95 % CI: 0. 40-0. 79; p = 0. 0007). Notably, various sensitivity analyses confirmed the robustness of this association. Conversely, we did not find any significant correlation between other dietary components and the risk of cardiovascular and metabolic disorders., Conclusion: Our research findings demonstrate a conspicuous impact of dietary fat consumption on the susceptibility to heart failure, independent of coronary artery disease, diabetes, and stroke. Consequently, it is indicated that dietary factors are unrelated to the predisposition to cardiovascular metabolic disorders., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Inc.)