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AIM: To evaluate the efficacy of mycophenolate mofetil(MMF)on the prevention of relapse and visual prognosis of patients in neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders(NMOSD)with AQP4 antibody positive optic neuritis. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 11 patients with initial diagnosis of NMOSD and AQP4 antibody positive optic neuritis from January 2017 to December 2019. Among the 11 patients, 3 were male and 8 were female. The unique core clinical manifestation of NMOSD was optic neuritis. The onset age was 36.3±6.0(27-47)years old. Duration of the disease was 3.4±1.4(2.2-6.8)a. MMF was added in the relieving period of NMOSD for 1a or over 1a. Annualized relapsing rate(ARR), best corrected vision activity(BCVA)and adverse reactions of MMF were recorded.RESULTS: The median time of MMF treatment was 18(12, 36)mo. The ARR was 0.66/a at baseline and 0.16/a after the treatment. There were 91% of the patients had decreased ARR and 82% of them had no clinical relapse. The patients had significant improvement on ARR after MMF treatment(P0.05). Of the 11 patients, 3 patients had side effects(27%), including 1 patient with elevated liver transaminase(9%), and 2 patients with mild gastrointestinal reaction(18%)during follow-up period. None of them discontinued MMF due to adverse events.CONCLUSION: MMF treatment for AQP4 antibody positive NMOSD can reduce the ARR of optic neuritis to a certain extent and protect the visual function of patients.

Carrier reuse technology is an important method to reduce the cost of Passive Optical Networks (PON) and multiplexing technology is the main method to improve the transmission capacity of PON. A PON system is designed in this paper. By combing the Subcarrier Multiplexing (SCM) and Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) technology, the transmission capacity of PON is increased significantly. The passive reflection filter is used in the system to realize carrier reuse, which greatly reduces the system cost. In the SCM/WDM-PON system, the carrier reuse is achieved by the reflection filter, which is built in the Optisystem software. Using 3 and 6 GHz radio frequency signals as subcarriers in the SCM system, 8 wavelengths signal with a wavelength interval of 200 GHz ranging from 193.1~194.5 THz are used as optical carriers in WDM, and the data rate of users for uplink and downlink transmission is 1 Gbit/s. The effects of the reflection coefficient, optical carrier power and transmission distance on uplink and downlink data transmission performance are studied. When the reflection coefficient of the reflection filter is 97%, the overall system performance is optimal with the optical carrier power of 5 dBm and the transmission distance less than 27.2 km.

Endometrial development is a complicated process involving numerous regulatory factors. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been known as a member of the naturally occurring non-coding RNA family, and are reportedly crucial for a variety of physiological processes. This study investigated the circRNA landscape of non-pregnant endometrium of dairy goats during estrus. Non-pregnant endometrial samples of goats at estrus day 5 (Ed5) and estrus day 15 (Ed15) were used to methodically analyze the circRNA landscape using strand-specific Ribo-Zero RNA-Seq. A total of 2 331 differentially expressed (P

In order to generate high-frequency millimeter-wave, this paper proposes a scheme of generating 16-tupling millimeter wave signal with 4 polarization modulators in parallel, using the different polarities of optical sideband to merely reserve optical carrier and the 8nth-order sidebands. By properly selecting the modulation index, we can get the±8th-order optical sideband signal with carrier suppressed. Finally, after the composite optical signals beaten on the photodetector, the 16-tupling millimeter-wave signal is achieved. The principle of generating 16-tupling millimeter-wave signal is theoretically analyzed. The optical sideband suppression ratio of the obtained±8th-order sideband signal is 61.72 dB, and the radio frequency stray suppression ratio of the 16-tupling millimeter-wave signal is 55.70 dB. The optical sideband suppression ratio and the radio frequency stray suppression ratio obtained from the simulation are 60 dB and 53 dB, respectively. The effects of phase offset and modulation index on sidebands suppression ratio are also analyzed. The experimental results are consistent with the theoretical analysis, which can verify the feasibility of the proposed scheme.

Polymer materials are widely used in medical materials, food packaging, coatings, and other fields. However, the surface of the materials is easily contaminated by microorganisms, resulting in serious problems. To solve this issue, a new type of antibacterial polymer fluorescent coating was successfully synthesized by copolymerization of divinylbenzene with 7-methacryloxy-4-methyl coumarin, dodecafluoroheptyl methacrylate, and other monomers. The surface structure and thermal stability of the coating were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis. Fluorine was polymerized into the polymer, improving the thermal stability compared to polystyrene and polydivinylbenzene. The bactericidal and antibacterial adhesion properties of the coating materials were studied by a contact germicidal test and antibacterial adhesion test. The polymer had a strong inhibitory effect on Staphylococcus aureus. After immersion in room temperature water, the film maintained its strong inhibitory effect on S. aureus fluorescence intensity and had high fluorescence stability.

The maternal–fetal interface is a key barrier to protect the fetus from infection. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) at the maternal–fetal interface are involved in antiviral responses. TLRs are expressed in both maternal decidua and fetal trophoblasts. Virus-induced activation of TLR signaling pathways triggers the release of interferon-related antiviral molecules and other inflammatory cytokines and/or chemokines by the host innate immune system, which may disrupt immune tolerance at the maternal–fetal interface and lead to pregnancy complications. In this review, we summarize the state of knowledge on the most common viral infections during pregnancy, antiviral TLR responses at the maternal–fetal interface, and TLR-associated pregnancy complications.

Tristetraprolin (TTP) regulates the stability of multiple targets that have important biological roles. However, the role of TTP in trophoblasts at the maternal-fetal interface remains poorly understood. We demonstrated that TTP was upregulated in placental trophoblasts from patients with recurrent miscarriages (RMs). Immunofluorescence and immunoblotting analyses indicated that TTP was redistributed from the nucleus to the cytoplasm in trophoblasts from patients with RMs. Trophoblast invasion and proliferation was repressed by TTP overexpression and was enhanced by TTP knockdown. Interestingly, TTP knockdown promoted trophoblast invasion in an ex vivo explant culture model. Furthermore, TTP overexpression in trophoblasts significantly inhibited the expression of the long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) HOTAIR. TTP was found to regulate HOTAIR expression by a posttranscriptional mechanism. To RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) and RNA-protein, pull-down identified TTP as a specific binding partner that decreased the half-life of HOTAIR and lowered steady-state HOTAIR expression levels, indicating a novel posttranscriptional regulatory mechanism. Our findings identify a novel function for TTP in lncRNA regulation and provide important insights into the regulation of lncRNA expression. This study reveals a new pathway governing the regulation of TTP/HOTAIR in trophoblast cell invasion during early pregnancy. Keywords: TTP, HOTAIR, trophoblast invasion, RNA destabilizing, recurrent miscarriage

The study aims to research the influence of salt fog corrosion cycles on seismic performance of reinforced concrete (RC) frame beam-column joints in coastal atmosphere. Based on low cyclic loading tests of six RC frame beam-column joint specimens, this study analyses the failure patterns, hysteresis loops, load carrying capacity, displacement, backbone curves, and energy dissipation capacity of corrosion-damaged RC frame beam-column joints. The effect of salt fog corrosion cycles and axial compression ratios are tested repeatedly. The results show that with the same level of axial compression of the frame joint specimens, as the increase of salt fog cycles, the strength, ductility, energy dissipation, bearing capacity, and deformation capacity of joints degenerated to different degrees． When the corrosion level is the same, the stiffness degradation appeared to be more apparent as the increase of axial compression ratio. Then, the behavior degeneration rule of the RC frame beam-column joints is analyzed and formed according to the results of the test; the degeneration restoring force models of corroded RC frame beam-column joints is formed and verified based on Clough’s three-line degenerate restoring force model and the introduction to cyclic degeneration index. The results show that the restoring force model can better describe the hysteresis characteristics of the beam-column joints of corroded RC frames. The research is a theoretical reference for the seismic analysis of the RC frame structure affected by coastal atmospheric environment.

Endometrium receptivity, an absolutely necessary part of successful embryo implantation, and several morphological and biochemical endometrial receptivity biomarkers have already been studied and proposed in some animals. However, to our knowledge, no such a study has as yet been undertaken in dairy goat. In the present study, the serum and uterus of dairy goat were studied at gestational days 5 and 15, the estrogen (E2) and progesterone (P4) concentrations in serum were determined by electrochemiluminescence immunoassay, the surface topography of endometrium was observed by scanning electron microscopy. Furthermore, the estrogen receptors (ER), prolactin (PRL), some marker genes of receptive endometrium, and cell proliferation and apoptosis in the uterus were also detected. Well-formed pinopodes were found on the surface of endometrium at day 15 with higher E2 and P4 concentrations in the serum and higher estrogen receptors ERα and ERβ expression levels and a lower PRL level in the endometrium. Moreover, some expression levels of marker genes of receptive endometrium (OPN, VEGF, LIF, PRLR) were increased at day 15 compared to day 5, but no significant differences were observed in the cell proliferation and apoptosis in the uterus. The results showed that the endometrium reached the receptive state at gestational day 15 in dairy goats.

Decidual CD8+ (dCD8) T cells have been proposed to play important roles in immune protection against the invading pathogens and in tolerance toward the growing semi-allogeneic fetus during early pregnancy. However, their phenotypic and functional characteristics remain poorly defined. Here, we performed the first analysis of the transcriptional and alternative splicing (AS) signatures for human first-trimester dCD8 T cells using high-throughput mRNA sequencing. Our data revealed that dCD8 T cells have distinct transcriptional and AS landscapes when compared with their autologous peripheral blood CD8+ (pCD8) T counterparts. Furthermore, human dCD8 T cells were observed to contain CD8-Treg and effector-memory T-cell subsets, and display enhanced functionality in terms of degranulation and cytokine production on a per-cell basis. Additionally, we have identified the novel splice junctions that use a high ratio of the non-canonical splicing motif GC-AG and found that AS is not a major contributor to the gene expression-level changes between paired pCD8 and dCD8 T cells. Together, our findings not only provide a comprehensive framework of the transcriptional and AS landscapes but also reveal the functional feature of human dCD8 T cells, which are of great importance in understanding the biology of these cells and the physiology of human healthy pregnancy.

Decidual CD4+ T (dCD4 T) cells are crucial for the maternal-fetal immune tolerance required for a healthy pregnancy outcome. However, their molecular and functional characteristics are not well elucidated. In this study, we performed the first analysis of transcriptional and alternative splicing (AS) landscapes for paired decidual and peripheral blood CD4+ T (pCD4 T) cells in human early pregnancy using high throughput mRNA sequencing. Our data showed that dCD4 T cells are endowed with a unique transcriptional signature when compared to pCD4 T cells: dCD4 T cells upregulate 1,695 genes enriched in immune system process whereas downregulate 1,011 genes mainly related to mRNA catabolic process and the ribosome. Moreover, dCD4 T cells were observed to be at M phase, and show increased activation, proliferation, and cytokine production, as well as display an effector-memory phenotype and a heterogenous nature containing Th1, Th17, and Treg cell subsets. However, dCD4 T cells undergo a comparable number of upregulated and downregulated AS events, both of which are enriched in the genes related to cellular metabolic process. And the changes at the AS event level do not reflect measurable differences at the gene expression level in dCD4 T cells. Collectively, our findings provide a comprehensive portrait of the unique transcriptional signature and AS profile of CD4+ T cells in human decidua and help us gain more understanding of the functional characteristic of these cells during early pregnancy.

To reveal the effect of p53-tristetraprolin-stathmin-1 signaling on trophoblasts and recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA).Stathmin-1 (STMN1), p53, and tristetraprolin (TTP) expression in paraffin-embedded villus tissue was determined using immunohistochemistry. HTR-8/SVneo cells were treated with doxorubicin to activate p53; STMN1 and TTP levels were detected by quantitative reverse transcription-PCR and western blotting. Western blotting and immunofluorescence were used to investigate STMN1 expression after TTP overexpression or knockdown in HTR-8 cells.STMN1 was downregulated and p53 was upregulated in the villus tissue from patients with RSA. Doxorubicin decreased STMN1 expression but enhanced TTP expression in HTR-8 cells. In vitro, TTP overexpression inhibited STMN1 production; TTP knockdown promoted it. TTP downregulated STMN1 expression in trophoblasts by directly binding its 3' untranslated region.TTP modulates trophoblast function and interacts with STMN1 and p53, and is related to pregnancy outcomes.

AIM: To explore the effect of lacrimal duct laser with lacrimal drainage tubes and stents implantation for complexity dacryagogatresia.METHODS:There were 65 patients(82 eyes)with compound tears nasolacrimal duct obstruction who received lacrimal drainage tubes and stents implantation after laser. The lacrimal duct stents were removed through nasal cavity after 1mo. Lacrimal drainage tubes were removed after 3-6mo. Follow-up periods were 6mo to 1a. RESULTS: In the 65 patients(82 eyes), 71 eyes were cured, 5 eyes improved, the efficient rate was 93%; there were 6 eyes(7%)with epiphora. CONCLUSION: Lacrimal duct laser with lacrimal drainage tubes and stents implantation was efficient for complexity dacryagogatresia.

Intrauterine infection is one of the most frequent causes of miscarriage. CpG oligodeoxynucleotide (CpG ODN) can mimic intrauterine infection. CpG ODN-induced embryo-resorption was observed consistently in the NK-cell deficient non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice but not in the wild-type (WT) mice. To elucidate the molecular mechanisms of differential pregnancy outcomes, differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the placenta and decidua basalis was revealed by RNA-Seq with CpG ODN or control ODN treatment. Common DEGs in the WT and NOD mice were enriched in antimicrobial/antibacterial humoral responses that may be activated as a primary response to bacterial infection. The susceptibility to CpG ODN-induced embryo-resorption in the NOD mice might mainly be attributed to M1 macrophage polarization and the immunodeficient status, such as the down-regulation in antigen processing and presentation, allograft rejection, and natural killer cell mediated cytotoxicity. In contrast, the WT mice with normal immune systems could activate multiple immune responses and be resistant to CpG ODN-induced embryo-resorption, such as M2 macrophage differentiation and activation regulated by complement component C1q and peroxisome proliferation-activated receptor (PPAR) signaling pathways. Collectively, this study suggests that the immunodeficient status of NOD mice and the macrophage polarization regulated by C1q and PPAR signaling might be the basis for differential pregnancy outcomes between the NOD and WT mice.

CXCL8 may involve in a variety of inflammatory and immune response. To investigate the effect of hemodialysis on the expression of CXCL8 in serum and its mRNA in neutrophils of the patients with chronic renal failure (CRF). It was used to dynamically observe of Hemodialysis on the concentration of the CXCL8 in serum and the levels of CXCL8 mRNA in neutrophils were respectively measured by ELISA and PCR. The house keeping gene encoding glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) as the internal reference, the ratio of lgcDNA/lgGAPDH was regarded as the extreme level of CXCL8 mRNA. The serum level of CXCL8 and expression of CXCL8 mRNA in neutrophils of the chronic renal failure were (128.892±17.101) pg/mL and (1.332±0.138) lgcDNA/lgGAPDH. There was no significant difference compared with the normal controls (t=2.8468, P=0.062; t=1.953, P=0.0559). Further observation showed that the levels of CXCL8 and mRNA in neutrophils of the patients with infection were (136.048±15.551) pg/mL and (1.391±0.119) lgcDNA/lgGAPDH, and were significantly higher than those in the cases without infection (t=3.2901, P= 0.023; t=3.3701, P=0.0018). After treatment of Hemodialysis for 12h, CXCL8 and mRNA levels in peripheral blood of the patients were decreased very rapidly, and mainly found in the patients with infection. There was no significant difference between the patients with and without infection (t=0.936, P=0.3468; t=1.7741, P=0.0848). Follow up observation for 48 h after Hemodialysis treatments, the levels of CXCL8 and mRNA in peripheral blood of the patients have a certain degree of up-regulation, but there was still no significant difference between the patients with and without infection (t=1.6975, P=0.0985; t=2.0575, P=0.472). CXCL8 can be as a sensitive indicator of the immunological reaction of micro inflammation in the patients, and tightly correlated with the merger of infection. The high concentration of CXCL8 in serum can be quickly filtered out by Hemodialysis in the short term and the transcription level of CXCL8 mRNA in neutrophils also be induced down regulation, and subsequently promote the recovery of injury via the inhibition pathway of micro inflammatory immune. In order to prevent excessive micro inflammation, the patients with infection should have been repeated Hemodialysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decidual CD4+ T (dCD4 T) cells are crucial for the maternal-fetal immune tolerance required for a healthy pregnancy outcome. However, their molecular and functional characteristics are not well elucidated. In this study, we performed the first analysis of transcriptional and alternative splicing (AS) landscapes for paired decidual and peripheral blood CD4+ T (pCD4 T) cells in human early pregnancy using high throughput mRNA sequencing. Our data showed that dCD4 T cells are endowed with a unique transcriptional signature when compared to pCD4 T cells: dCD4 T cells upregulate 1,695 genes enriched in immune system process whereas downregulate 1,011 genes mainly related to mRNA catabolic process and the ribosome. Moreover, dCD4 T cells were observed to be at M phase, and show increased activation, proliferation, and cytokine production, as well as display an effector-memory phenotype and a heterogenous nature containing Th1, Th17, and Treg cell subsets. However, dCD4 T cells undergo a comparable number of upregulated and downregulated AS events, both of which are enriched in the genes related to cellular metabolic process. And the changes at the AS event level do not reflect measurable differences at the gene expression level in dCD4 T cells. Collectively, our findings provide a comprehensive portrait of the unique transcriptional signature and AS profile of CD4+ T cells in human decidua and help us gain more understanding of the functional characteristic of these cells during early pregnancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present study was to investigate the PAQR3 gene expression and its methylation level in colorectal cancer tissues, as well as the association with colorectal cancer clinical data. In total, 54 cases of colorectal cancer tissue samples and normal adjacent tissue samples were collected between June, 2013 and July, 2014. RT-PCR and western blot analysis were used to detect the mRNA and protein levels of PAQR3 in colorectal samples, respectively. MSP was used to detect the methylation level of PAQR3 gene in colorectal samples, which was compared with colorectal data. The results showed that a decreased expression level of PAQR3 mRNA in colorectal cancer tissues and the expression reduction rate was 57.4% (31/54). Similarly, the expression level of PAQR3 protein was reduced in cancer tissues, and the reduction rate was 46.3% (25/54), while the protein expression reduction rate in cancer adjacent tissue was 5.6% (3/54), and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). Furthermore, the methylation rates of PAQR3 in cancer tissues and cancer adjacent tissues were 33.3% (18/54) and 5.6% (3/54), respectively. In addition, PAQR3 mRNA and protein levels in colorectal cancer tissues were associated with the differentiation degree, lymphatic metastasis and tumor infiltration depth. The methylation level of PAQR3 was associated with age, differentiated degree, lymphatic metastasis and tumor infiltration depth. In conclusion, the expression of PAQR3 mRNA and protein in colorectal cancer was reduced and methylation of PAQR3 occurred. Although the PAQR3 mRNA and protein levels were not associated with gender, age or the location of tumor, there was an association with differentiation degree, lymphatic metastasis and tumor infiltration depth. In addition, the methylation level of PAQR3 was not correlated with gender or tumor location, but was correlated with age, differentiation degree, lymphatic metastasis and tumor infiltration depth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To investigate the prevalence of obesity and distribution of body mass index (BMI) in school children of four ethnic groups in Urumqi, Xinjiang, China. Methods A total of 55 508 school children of Han, Hui, Uygur and Kazak nationalities aged 8-18 years were selected by a cluster sampling from a districts of Urumqi City for anthropometric measurement and demographic survey. Prevalence of obesity and overweight and distribution of body mass index (BMI) by gender, age, and nationality were analyzed and compared. Cutoff points of BMI for defining obesity and overweight were based on the proposal set by the Working Group on Obesity in China (WGOC) to assess age-, gender- and nationality-specific prevalence of obesity and overweight. Results Prevalence of obesity was 5.34%, 6.78%, 3.39%, and 1.22% for boys and 2.61%, 1.83%, 1.78%, and 1.40% for girls of Han, Hui, Uygur and Kazak nationalities, respectively. Prevalence of obesity tended to decrease with age overall, whereas that of overweight increased with age in Han children. Conclusions Prevalence of obesity in school children in Urumqi varies with their nationalities and is lower than that of an average national level and a level of western countries. Obesity is more prevalent in boys than in girls of Urmuqi overall, which is just the opposite in Kazak children. Han boys and Hui girls have the highest prevalence of obesity and Kazak boys and girls have the lowest ones. Prevalence of obesity decreases with age, but that of overweight shows a different trend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]