Int J Med Sci
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Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an age-related neurodegenerative disorder characterized by cognitive impairment and memory loss, for which there is no effective cure to date. In the past several years, numerous studies have shown that increased inflammation in AD is a major cause of cognitive impairment. This study aimed to reveal 22 kinds of peripheral immune cell types and key genes associated with AD. ⋯ We also validated the key genes in an independent dataset, and found GPR174, TRAF1, ROD1, RAET1E, OR4K2, MRPL23, ARMCX5 and EDN3 were significantly different between the AD and healthy controls. Moreover, in the 5XFAD transgenic mice, the differential expression trends of Wnt7b, Gpr174, Ptbp3, Mrpl23, Armcx5 and Raet1e are consistent with them in independent dataset. Our results provided potential therapeutic targets for AD patients.
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Objective: NIR-II imaging with indocyanine green (ICG) has been clinically used in liver tumor resection. However, few data are available concerning the application of ICG-NIR-II in lymphatic and vascular systems in clinic. To expand the application and promote the clinical translation of this approach, we aimed to investigate the feasibility of ICG-NIR-II imaging for monitoring both lymphatic and vascular systems in physiological and pathological conditions using a swine model and compared it to ICG-NIR-I imaging. ⋯ Moreover, ICG-NIR-II imaging has lower background fluorescence and higher resolution than ICG-NIR-I imaging. Conclusions: We demonstrated the first application of a portable NIR-II imaging system for dynamically monitoring both lymphatic and vascular systems in physiological and pathological conditions using a swine model. Our study indicates that ICG-NIR-II imaging be a promising approach for the diagnosis of malfunctions in lymphatic and vascular systems and the surgical navigation of microsurgery and reconstructive surgery.
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The incidence of colorectal cancer (CRC) has increased significantly in the past decade. Early diagnosis and new therapeutics are still urgently needed for CRC in clinical practice. Human α-defensin 6 (HD6) plays a defense role against microbes in the gastrointestinal tract. ⋯ EGF treatment caused an increase of the level of serpine-1 and pEGFR levels and then increased growth activity in HD6 overexpressing cells. Together, our study shows that HD6 may compete with EGF to bind to EGFR and interrupt cancer progression in CRC. We believe these findings may give new insights for HD6 in CRC therapy.
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Background: Obesity is a well-established risk factor for atrial fibrillation (AF). Previous epidemiological research on obesity and AF often focused on adult populations and now broadened to earlier in life. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the relationships between obesity at different periods of life and the risk of AF. ⋯ Conclusion: Our study reveals the association of genetic susceptibility to obesity with a higher risk of AF. Moreover, an earlier age at obesity was associated with an increased risk of AF. Therefore, public awareness of the dangers of obesity and active early weight control may prevent the development of AF.
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Objectives: Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) upregulation/activation have been implicated in myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. We previously reported that ER stress mediates angiotensin II-induced sEH upregulation in coronary endothelium, whether and how ER stress regulates sEH expression to affect postischemic cardiac function remain unexplored. This study aimed to unravel the signaling linkage between ER stress and sEH in an ex vivo model of myocardial I/R injury. ⋯ Inhibition of ER stress or IRE1α downregulated I/R-induced sEH expression and inhibited JNK and c-Jun phosphorylation. Both JNK and AP-1 inhibitors lowered sEH level in myocardium and coronary artery in I/R-injured hearts. Conclusions: This study deciphered the molecular linkage between ER stress and sEH regulation in global I/R insult by uncovering a novel signaling axis of IRE1α-JNK-c-Jun/AP-1-sEH, which provided basis for future research on the therapeutic potential of targeting the IRE1α-JNK-c-Jun/AP-1-sEH axis for ischemic myocardial injury.