Int J Med Sci
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Background: COVID-19 is known to disrupt immune response and induce hyperinflammation that could potentially induce fatal outcome of the disease. Until now, it is known that interplay among cytokines is rather important for clinical presentation and outcome of COVID-19. The aim of this study was to determine transcriptional activity and functional phenotype of T cells and the relationship between pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines and clinical parameters of COVID-19 severity. ⋯ Analyses of T cells subsets indicate a noticeable phenotype change. CD4+, but not CD8+ T cells expressed increased transcriptional activity through increased expression of Tbet and RORγT, accompanied with increased percentage of IFN-γ and IL-17 producing T cells. Conclusion: Our results pose a novel hypothesis of the underlying mechanism behind deteriorating immune response in severe cases of COVID-19.
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Objectives: Red blood cell distribution width (RDW) is a widely used clinical parameter recently deployed in predicting various cancers. This study aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of RDW in patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of 745 patients with HBV-related HCC, 253 patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB), and 256 healthy individuals to compare their hematological parameters and analyze their RDW levels. ⋯ Finally, we successfully generated a nomogram incorporating RDW and validated its predictive ability. Conclusions: RDW is a potentially valuable hematological marker for predicting the survival and prognosis of patients with HBV-related HCC. The nomogram incorporating RDW can be used as an effective tool to plan the individualized treatment of such patients.
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Objectives: To investigate the effect of thermal pulsation treatment on meibomian gland function, ocular parameters and tear inflammatory cytokines compared with the warm compress group. Methods: Twenty-five participants with MGD underwent a 12-minute thermal pulsation treatment, while 25 participants with MGD underwent manual warm compress treatment. MGD related parameters, including meibomian gland function (MGE, MQ and lid margin), tear stability (NIKBUT, FBUT and LLT), tear secretion (SIT, and TMH), were examined and OSDI questionnaire was also obtained. ⋯ IP-10 was positively correlated with MQ (r = 0.522, *p = 0.037) and negatively correlated with tear stability (r = -0.613, **p = 0.002), and OSDI was only positively correlated with IL-8 (r = 0.679, ***p < 0.001). The decrease of MIG was positively correlated with less corneal epithelium injury (r = 0.557, **p = 0.006) and meibograde (r = 0.49, *p = 0.019). Conclusions: Thermal pulsation treatment obviously improved MGD probably by attenuating tear CXCL chemokines in ocular surface of MGD patients, which demonstrated an efficacy and well-tolerated therapy in clinical.
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An elevated white blood cell (WBC) count has been linked to incident diabetes. WBC count has been positively associated with body mass index (BMI), and elevated BMI has been reported to be a strong predictor of future diabetes. Hence, the association of increased WBC count with the subsequent development of diabetes may be mediated by increased BMI. ⋯ After further adjustment for BMI, this association was attenuated (p = 0.050). In conclusion, our results showed that BMI had a significant impact on the relationship between increased WBC count and new-onset diabetes in all study participants, and BMI also attenuated the association in those with a normal WBC count. Hence, the association between increased WBC count and the future development of diabetes may be mediated by BMI.
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The treatment of bone loss due to periodontitis has posed a great challenge for physicians for decades. Therefore, it is of extraordinary significance to identify an effective regeneration scheme for alveolar bone. This study aimed to investigate long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) small nucleolar RNA host gene 5 (SNHG5) whether sponges microRNA-23b-3p (miR-23b-3p) to achieve the osteogenic differentiation of human periodontal ligament stem cells (hPDLSCs). ⋯ Dual luciferase report and RNA pulldown assay verified that miR-23b-3p is a regulatory target of SNHG5 and that Runx2 is a gene target of miR-23b-3p. In brief, the results demonstrate that SNHG5 promotes the osteogenic differentiation of hPDLSCs by regulating the miR-23b-3p/Runx2 axis. Our study provides novel mechanistic insights into the critical role of lncRNA SNHG5 as a miR-23b-3p sponge to regulate Runx2 expression in hPDLSCs and may serve as a potential therapeutics target for periodontitis.