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(1) Objectives: To investigate the difference in prevalence of depression between patients with CL/P (cleft lip and/or palate) and analyze the possible demographic factors that affect the prevalence of depression in Chinese patients with CL/P. (2) Methods: Patients with CL (cleft lip only), CP (cleft palate), and CLP (cleft lip and palate) were included in the study group. Non-CL/P individuals were included in the control group. The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) was used to screen the depression of Chinese patients with CL/P. The different proportions of different depression groups between the CL/P group and the control groups were tested by the Fisher–Freeman–Halton test and Bonferroni correction. The scores between the study groups and the control group were analyzed by one-way ANOVA. In the study groups, demographic and clinical data of the patients, including diagnosis (CL, CP, CLP), gender, age, the only child or not, and region were collected to analyze whether they were the possible factors affecting depression through one-way independent-samples t-test. Pearson correlation analysis was used to analyze the correlation between monthly family income and depression. (3) Results: 111 and 80 valid questionnaires were collected from the study and control groups, respectively. The mean PHQ-9 score of the study group (5.459 ± 6.082) was relatively higher than the control group (4.362 ± 3.384), and the difference in proportions of depression groups was statistically significant between the CL/P group and the control group (p = 0.01), especially in the mild depression (p < 0.05) and moderately severe depression groups (p < 0.05). Statistically significant differences in PHQ-9 scores were observed between the individuals of different genders (p = 0.036) and ages (p = 0.007) in patients with CL/P, the individuals who were the only child or not in patients with CL (p = 0.007), and the individuals of different ages in patients with CP (p = 0.016). (4) Conclusions: The prevalence of depression in Chinese patients with CL/P was different compared with those without CL/P, while gender, age, the only child or not, and region played significant roles in affecting depression psychology.

We performed in vitro and in vivo experiments to explore the role of protein kinase C-binding protein 1 (PICK1), an intracellular transporter involved in oxidative stress-related neuronal diseases, in sepsis-related acute kidney injury (AKI). Firstly, PCR, western blotting, and immunohistochemistry were used to observe the expression of PICK1 after lipopolysaccharide- (LPS-) induced AKI. Secondly, by inhibiting PICK1 in vivo and silencing PICK1 in vitro, we further explored the effect of PICK1 on AKI. Finally, the relationship between PICK1 and oxidative stress and the related mechanisms were explored. We found that the expression of PICK1 was increased in LPS-induced AKI models both in vitro and in vivo. PICK1 silencing significantly aggravated LPS-induced apoptosis, accompanied by ROS production in renal tubular epithelial cells. FSC231, a PICK1-specific inhibitor, aggravated LPS-induced kidney injury. Besides, NAC (N-acetylcysteine), a potent ROS scavenger, significantly inhibited the PICK1-silencing-induced apoptosis. In conclusion, PICK1 might protect renal tubular epithelial cells from LPS-induced apoptosis by reducing excessive ROS, making PICK1 a promising preventive target in LPS-induced AKI.

Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are produced by non-enzymatic glycation or glycoxidation of proteins, lipids and nucleic acids. The bond of AGEs and the receptor of AGE (AGER) in a pro-oxidant environment could induce immune and inflammation reaction involved in progress of microvascular disease. Accumulated evidence warrant further study on AGE-AGER pathway and genetic susceptibility to hypertension (HT).We designed a two-stage association study to evaluate the association of AGER polymorphism and HT. In stage 1, seven tagSNPs were tested in 524 cases and 531 controls and the significant SNPs (P0.05) would enter into stage 2 including 807 cases and 869 controls. Furthermore, joint analysis was performed for all 2731 subjects including 1331 cases and 1400 controls, and meta-analysis was applied to evaluate combined estimations from the subgroups of stage 1 and stage 2.In stage 1, rs204994 had significant association with HT (P0.05) and enter stage 2. Neither joint analysis nor meta-analysis found statistical association of rs204994 with HT after adjusted for the covariates in the whole population. However, further stratification analysis found that rs204994 was significantly associated with HT in50years and ≥50years groups, ORs (95%CI) of dominant model were 1.623 (1.054-2.500) and 0.721 (0.546-0.952) respectively. No significant correlation was found between blood pressure and the polymorphisms of rs204994.Our data suggests that age might modulate the genetic effects of variation of rs204994 in AGER on HT and further replications in other populations and functional studies should be warranted.

Serum C-reactive protein (CRP) and genetic variation of CRP gene have been reported as a strong, independent predictor of myocardial infarction and stroke. But there is rare association evidence of CRP genetic variation and hypertension (HT).A community-based case-control study including 1331 cases with HT and 1400 controls was used to evaluate the association of tagSNPs covered CRP gene, CRPP1 gene and 40kb upstream with HT in a Chinese Han population. Haplotypes and stratification analysis were applied to further evaluate relationships between the screened SNPs and HT and general linear model (GLM) was applied to compare blood pressure levels between genotypes.In stage 1, five SNPs had positive association with HT (P0.05) and entered stage 2 and two SNPs rs876537 and rs10737175 polymorphisms showed significant association with HT in joint sample. Haplotype analysis showed that comparing with common haplotype T-C which was constructed by rs6677719 and rs10737175, haplotype T-T significantly associated with HT after adjusted covariates. Stratification analysis found significant associations of HT for rs876537, rs2808630, rs6677719 and rs10737175 in ≥50years group, rs876537, rs10737175 in female, rs876537 and rs10737175 in non-smoking and non-drinking populations as well as rs2808630 in non-drinking population. Furthermore, quantitative trait analysis indicated significant differences of SBP and DBP between the genotypes of rs10737175, rs876537 and rs2808630 in non-treatment hypertensive cases and control population.The findings of this study support that CRP gene polymorphisms have significant association with genetic susceptibility of HT and quantitative traits of blood pressure.