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Background It has been reported that patients with cholelithiasis may have changes in levels of cytokines and growth factors, while their causal relationships were still unclear. Methods This study was a bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR) study. Datasets of 41 circulation cytokines and growth factors and the data on cholelithiasis were obtained. Six steps of strict instrumental variable filtration were set, and inverse-variance weighted analysis, MR-Egger regression, and weighted median test were used to identify the causal relationships. Benjamini–Hochberg method was used to adjust the P -values. Results After adjustments of P -values, four cytokines and growth factors were still causally associated with cholelithiasis significantly: interleukin 2 receptor alpha (adjusted P : 4.59E-02), interleukin 8 (adjusted P : 1.09E-02), monocyte-specific chemokine 3 (adjusted P : 2.73E-04), and stem cell factor (adjusted P : 2.73E-04). In the reverse MR analysis, no significant causal relationship was detected after adjustment. Conclusions Four cytokines and growth factors, including interleukin 2 receptor alpha, interleukin 8, monocyte-specific chemokine 3, and stem cell factor, were proven to relate to cholelithiasis causally and unidirectionally. Key messages What is already known on this topic? Patients with cholelithiasis may have changes in levels of cytokines and growth factors, while their causal relationships were still unclear. What this study adds? This study aimed to identify the causal effects of cytokines and growth factors on cholelithiasis. Four cytokines and growth factors, including IL2ra, IL8, MCP3, and SCF, were proven to relate to cholelithiasis causally. How this study might affect research, practice, or policy? Our study may provide evidence for new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies in clinical practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fatty acid synthase (FAS) attracts more and more attention recently as a potential target for metabolic syndrome, such as cancer, obesity, diabetes and cerebrovascular disease. FAS inhibitors are widely existed in plants, consisting of diversiform compounds. These inhibitors exist not only in herbs also in many plant foods, such as teas, allium vegetables and some fruits. These effective components include gallated catechins, theaflavins, flavonoids, condensed and hydrolysable tannins, thioethers, pentacyclic triterpenes, stilbene derivatives, etc, and they target at the different domains of FAS, showing different inhibitory mechanisms. Interestingly, these FAS inhibitor-contained herbs and plant foods and their effective components are commonly related to the prevention of metabolic syndromes including fat-reducing and depression of cancer. From biochemical angle, FAS can control the balance between energy provision and fat production. Some studies have shown that the effects of those effective components in plants on metabolic syndromes are mediated by inhibiting FAS. This suggests that FAS plays a critical role in the regulation of energy metabolism, and the FAS inhibitors from plants have signifi cant potential application value in the treatment and prevention of metabolic syndromes.

Studies on GaAsBi-based devices have been deeply carried out in recent years, strongly driven by their excellent performance. Despite the growing interest in GaAsBi, the systematic researches on its vibrational and thermodynamic properties are still lacking. Hence, in this work, the structural, vibrational and thermodynamic properties of GaBixAs1-x are studied systematically by performing ab initio calculations. Firstly, the calculation structure constants of GaBixAs1-x are in accordance with other available data in the literature. Next, the results of the vibrational frequencies indicate that the phonon frequencies of GaBixAs1-x undergo a sharp decline when the bismuth concentration x is elevated. Besides the reduction of the phonon densities of states at the specified wave vector, the optical branches of GaBixAs1-x narrow and the attenuation of longitudinal modes is greater than that of transverse modes with the enhancement of the Bi concentration x. Then, the splitting degree δ ω suggests that the ionic strength for GaBixAs1-x is declined when increasing the Bi composition. Finally, the thermodynamic functions of GaBixAs1-x ranging from Δ F , Δ E , C v and S are predicted. In addition, the calculation values of the Debye temperature for GaBixAs1-x also confirm the change trend of phonon frequencies of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper a micro multi-phase flow equation is built based on the mechanism of a multi-phase fluid flow in porous media. The authors consider the impact of convection diffusion and the improved component mixing rule. In order to accurately evaluate the fluid flow in a low permeability reservoir, two models are established to simulate simple pore throat structure and complex pore throat structure. The predicted residual oil distribution characteristics of CO2 flooding in low permeability reservoir, calculated by finite element microsimulation, have been further verified by experiment. Furthermore, we analyze the effect of different wettability on microflow characteristics of CO2 flooding. The results show that CO2 flooding improving microsweep volume by convective diffusion is more evident in low permeability reservoirs than in high permeability reservoirs. The residual oil is mainly distributed following a pattern of prismatic, wedge-shape, or membrane microstructure. With decrease in the wetting angle on the fluid-rock boundary, the efficiency of oil displacement is further improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]