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As a systemic metabolic disease caused by a variety of factors, osteoporosis is characterized by reduced bone mass, bone tissue microstructural degradation, and decreased bone mechanical properties, accompanied by bone fragility and fracture, which is a common risk of senile disease. In China, osteoporosis has become a common disease and has frequent morbidity, with the incidence trend on the rise. Bisphosphates have received much attention in this field as inhibitory bone resorption agents, and sodium olpadronate belongs to the third-generation bisphosphonates. This experiment investigated the synthetic process and pharmacological activity of sodium olpadronate. Using 3-(N,N-dimethylamino)-propionitrile as the starting material, the synthesis process was improved to reduce cost with a total yield of 49.7%, which was 24.0% higher than that reported in the literature. Pharmacodynamic experiments showed that sodium olpadronate could be used to treat osteoporosis. Moreover, toxicology experiments showed no obvious toxic side effects. Taken together, sodium olpadronate had very promising development prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The heart is one of the most important organs in human body. In general, we generally believe that exercise can enhance the strength of the heart and keep it healthy. However, many athletes are accompanied by cardiac diseases such as cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure, and even have the risk of sudden death. In view of this phenomenon, there have been relevant studies abroad, which are defined as "athlete's heart", and think that overload sports will increase the probability of suffering from heart disease. Exercise has become a double-edged sword in heart health, but there are few studies on the changes of left ventricular morphology and function after exercise. So far, this paper uses the quantitative detection method of ultrasound biomicroscopy to conduct in-depth study. The research of this paper is mainly divided into three parts. The first part is the research of basic theory and core concepts. Through the research, this paper believes that the effect of exercise on the heart is not absolute, different training methods will get different results; using reasonable exercise program is the premise of maintaining heart health. The second part is to establish the experimental model of rats. In this paper, 40 adult rats were used as experimental samples, and they were randomly divided into exercise group and control group, with 20 in each group. In the third chapter of this paper, the experimental methods and specific operation steps were given in detail. The third part is the experimental results and analysis. In this part, a number of comparative experiments including cardiac function test were carried out in rats. Through the analysis of experimental data, we can see that exercise is the main cause of heart failure in experimental rats, but exercise can also make the rats recover to the indicators before heart failure, which further proves that reasonable exercise can maintain heart health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To assess whether olopatadine hydrochloride (OH) was noninferior to cetirizine in the treatment of cuta-neous pruritus (CP). Patients and Methods: Patients with CP presenting at seven centers in China were randomly al-located to double-blind treatment with 5 mg of OH orally twice a day or cetirizine 10 mg orally once a day for 2 weeks. Patients were followed up on days 7 and 14. Noninferiority was predefined as a 20% maximum difference in the reduc-tion of symptom score reducing indices (SSRI). Both inten-tion-to-treat (ITT) and per-protocol populations were ana-lyzed. Results: 174 patients (86 receiving OH and 88 cetiri-zine) were included in the ITT population. In the ITT population, the mean reduction in SSRI was 0.640 ± 0.274 in the OH group and 0.603 ± 0.289 in the cetirizine group. The one-sided 97.5% CI (-0.047) met the criteria for noninferior-ity. Noninferiority was also demonstrated for SSRI in the per-protocol population, with reductions of 0.640 ± 0.271 with OH and 0.596 ± 0.287 with cetirizine (97.5% CI -0.043). The total effectiveness rate (TER) was similar in the OH (90.0%) and cetirizine (80.0%) groups. The corresponding one-sided 97.5% CI (-1.0%) also demonstrated noninferior-ity. The incidence of adverse events was 47.1% in the OH group and 41.4% in the cetirizine group (p = 0.453). Conclu-sion: The efficacy of OH was noninferior to that of cetirizine in controlling itching indicating that it can be considered as a clinically relevant alternative therapy to cetirizine for the management of CP in adult Chinese patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aluminum has been established as an earth-abundant and low-cost alternative to gold and silver for plasmonic applications. Particularly, aluminum largely tends to combines with oxygen compared with silver. Here, a simple glancing angle deposition technique is presented to prepare Ag-Al alloy nanorods (NRs) with a small amount of aluminum. The effect of aluminum is to combine oxygen or corroded substances under certain conditions, such as in the air and in etchants. Beside this, owing to the large diffusion coefficient of aluminum in a Si wafer, the aluminum diffuses easily into a Si wafer, so the bonding force between the Ag-Al alloy NRs and Si wafer can be improved accordingly. In this work, 3.5 at% Al alloy NRs are optimal to exhibit high surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) sensitivity, long-time stability as well as strong bonding force with a Si wafer. Ag-Al alloy NRs make a metal-metal alloy a promising material platform to develop pretty sensitive as well as stable SERS substrates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Mycosis fungoides (MF) is the most common type of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. Objectives: This study was conducted to evaluate efficacy and safety of interferon (IFN) α-2a combined with phototherapy for early-stage MF. Methods: Thirteen patients with early-stage MF received subcutaneous injections of IFN α-2a at 3 million IU combined with phototherapy three times per week for 6months. Treatment efficacy was measured by changes in body surface area (BSA) score and modified severity-weighted assessment tool (mSWAT) score at 1, 3, and 6months after treatment. Histopathologic examinations of skin lesions were performed before and after treatment. Results: After 3months of treatment, all 13 patients achieved a partial response, and BSA and mSWAT scores were significantly lower than those at baseline (p<0.001). After 6months, BSA and mSWAT scores were significantly lower than those at baseline (p<0.001) and after 3months (p<0.05). Eleven patients achieved complete remission and two patients achieved a partial response (overall response rate, 100%). Histopathologic examination showed a significant decrease in the number of atypical lymphocytes in both epidermis and dermis. No severe adverse effects occurred. Conclusion: IFN α-2a in combination with phototherapy may be an effective and safe alternative modality for early-stage MF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to investigate the assembly characteristics of ciliature and cortical microtubules and the localization of tubulins in different depths and regions of the cortex. The hypotrichous ciliates have closely arranged cilia and a highly complex microtubular system. Direct fluorescence and immunofluorescence labeling were used to observe ciliary organelles and cortical microtubular cytoskeleton in Euplotes eurystomus. An immunofluorescence analysis demonstrated that α-tubulin localized to the ventral and dorsal ciliary organelles and their associated microtubules, while γ-tubulin localized to the basal bodies of ciliary organelles, macronuclear membrane, and excretory pore of a contractile vacuole in the interphase. A direct fluorescence analysis showed that the ciliature and cortical microtubules in the deep cortex were more clearly marked by fluorescent taxoid (FLUTAX). Interestingly, α- and γ-tubulins also colocalized to the ringlike ciliary base-associated microtubules of dorsal kineties. The short microtubular bundles between the bases of transverse cirri could be marked by FLUTAX and γ-tubulin rather than α-tubulin, suggesting that tubulins in cortical microtubules in E. eurystomus varied, and the differentiation of cortical microtubules in the hypotrichous ciliate tended to be versatile. Also, during morphogenesis, γ-tubulin also localized to the base of ciliary primordium, where new basal bodies were formed, suggesting that the endocellular position of γ-tubulin in ciliates was related to basal bodies and regulated by the cell cycle. This study might help understand the assembly characteristics and tubulin composition of microtubules in different depths and regions of the cortex in hypotrichous ciliate E. eurystomus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current report presents an extremely rare case of a 41-year-old female with advanced gastric cancer who developed scalp metastasis during the period of systemic chemotherapy. The patient did not exhibit any rash or plaque at the initial physical examination. Following the 11th cycle of chemotherapy, the patient complained of pain on the scalp and a pink lesion was identified in the parietal region on physical examination, which increased in size and became darker and ulcerated. Pathological biopsy of the lesion and cranial magnetic resonance imaging confirmed the diagnosis of scalp metastasis. The patient succumbed to the disease one month later. The English literature was searched in the PubMed database and four cases of gastric cancer metastatic to the scalp were found. The present report discusses the common clinical presentations of these four cases in combination with the current case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the fundamental questions in bone biology is where osteoblasts originate and how osteoblast differentiation is regulated. The mechanism underlying which factors regulate chondrocyte to osteoblast lineage commitment remains unknown. Our data showed that Runt-related transcription factor 1 (Runx1) is expressed at different stages of both chondrocyte and osteoblast differentiation. Runx1 chondrocyte-specific knockout (Runx1f/fCol2a1-cre) mice exhibited impaired cartilage formation, decreased bone density, and an osteoporotic phenotype. The expressions of chondrocyte differentiation regulation genes, including Sox9, Ihh, CyclinD1, PTH1R, and hypertrophic chondrocyte marker genes including Col2a1, Runx2, MMP13, Col10a1 in the growth plate were significantly decreased in Runx1f/fCol2a1-cre mice chondrocytes. Importantly, the expression of osteoblast differentiation regulation genes including Osx, Runx2, ATF4, and osteoblast marker genes including osteocalcin (OCN) and osteopontin (OPN) were significantly decreased in the osteoblasts of Runx1f/fCol2a1-cre mice. Notably, our data showed that osteoblast differentiation regulation genes and marker genes are also expressed in chondrocytes and the expressions of these marker genes were significantly decreased in the chondrocytes of Runx1f/fCol2a1-cre mice. Our data showed that chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) and promoter mapping analysis revealed that Runx1 directly binds to the Indian hedgehog homolog (Ihh) promoter to regulate its expression, indicating that Runx1 directly regulates the transcriptional expression of chondrocyte genes. Collectively, we revealed that Runx1 signals chondrocyte to osteoblast lineage commitment and promotes endochondral bone formation through enhancing both chondrogenesis and osteogenesis genes expressions, indicating Runx1 may be a therapeutic target to enhance endochondral bone formation and prevent osteoporosis fractures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wolf's isotopic response refers to the occurrence of a new skin disease at the exact site of an unrelated skin disease that had previously healed. Various cutaneous lesions have been described after herpes zoster. This study included 24 patients with Wolf's isotopic response after herpes zoster infection, which presented as manifestations ranging from inflammatory disease to carcinoma. Histopathological examinations in 12 patients and immunohistochemical analyses in 10 patients allowed exploration of secondary microscopic changes in the lesions. CD4+/CD8+ T-cell ratios were normal and infiltrating cells included mast cells, eosinophils, and tumour cells. Our study has described additional patients with confirmed Wolf's isotopic response following herpes zoster infection; moreover, it has extended the spectrum of Wolf's isotopic response to include impetigo. We suggest Wolf's isotopic response classification categories for herpes zoster- associated Wolf's isotopic response. Additionally, clinicians should consider the possibilities of different diseases in Wolf's isotopic response, especially malignancies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-bullous congenital ichthyosiform erythroderma (NBCIE) is a hereditary disorder of keratinization caused by pathogenic variants in genes encoding enzymes important to lipid processing and terminal keratinocyte differentiation. Impaired function of these enzymes can cause pathologic epidermal scaling, significantly reduced skin barrier function. In this study, we have performed a focused, genetic analysis of a probrand affected by NBCIE and extended this to his consanguineous parents. Targeted capture and next-generation sequencing was performed on NBCIE associated genes in the proband and his unaffected consanguineous parents. We identified a homozygous nonsense variant c.814C>T (p.Arg272*) in ALOXE3 (NM-001165960.1) in the proband and discovered that his parents are both heterozygous carriers of the variant. The clinical manifestations of the proband's skin were consistent with NBCIE, and detailed histopathological assessment revealed epidermal bulla formation and Majocchi's granuloma. Infection with Trichophyton rubrum was confirmed by culture. The patient responded to oral terbinafine antifungal treatment. Decreased skin barrier function, such as that caused by hereditary disorders of keratinization, can increase the risk of severe cutaneous fungal infections and the formation of Majocchi's granuloma and associated alopecia. Patients with NBCIE should be alerted to the possible predisposition for developing dermatophytoses and warrant close clinical follow-up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore and compare the clinical presentations and pathologic features of cutaneous pseudolymphomas (CPL) with primary cutaneous lymphomas. Review literature in order to improve the treatment of CPL. Six cases of CPLs were collected. The clinical, pathologic, and immunohistochemical features were performed and analyzed in Peking Union Medical College Hospital in 2018. Of six patients, the distributions and clinical manifestations of skin lesions are varied. The pathologic features consisted of atypical prominent lymphocytes infiltration. Of them, two cases imitated mycosis fungoides, one case mimicked primary cutaneous aggressive pidermotropic CD8+ cytotoxic T‐cell lymphoma, one case was diagnosed as Jessner‐Kanof lymphocyte infiltration and two cases primary cutaneous CD4+ small/medium T‐cell lymphoproliferative disorder. With respect to etiology, one was result from insects bite and the others were on account of drugs. All cases were treated with systemic or local glucocorticoid. The skin lesions and systemic symptoms showed notable improvement after treatment. Follow‐up visits were 2 years, half a year, and months, respectively, without relapse. These unique types of CPL were similar to cutaneous lymphomas in clinical manifestation and pathology. They were all sensitive to the treatment of externally or orally using glucocorticoid. The prognosis is generally good but needs long‐term follow‐up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a study regarding a 58-year-old Chinese man with a rapidly growing proliferative lesion on the left lower limb after three years of renal allograft. Physical examination revealed a slightly tender, reticular, erythematous, purplish red, focally indurated plaque with irregular borders on his left lower limb.