Benefit Effect of Dendrobium officinale Ultrafine Powder on DSS-Induced Ulcerative Colitis Rats by Improving Colon Mucosal Barrier

Aim and Objective. To study the effect of Dendrobium officinale ultrafine powder (DOFP) on the intestinal mucosal barrier in rats with ulcerative colitis (UC) induced by dextran sulfate sodium (DSS). Materials and Methods. After intragastric administration of DOFP for 3 weeks, the rat UC model was made by the administration of 4% oral DSS solution for one week, and the drug was given at the same time. During the experiment, the disease activity index (DAI) score of the rats was regularly computed. At the end of the experiment, the blood routine indexes of rats were obtained. The histopathological changes in the colon were monitored by hematoxylin-eosin (H&E) and PAS staining and observation of ultrastructural changes in the colon by transmission electron microscope. Occludin expression in the colon was monitored by Western blot, the expression of claudin-1 and ZO-1 in the colon was detected by immunofluorescence, and the expression of TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1β in the colon was detected by immunohistochemistry. Results. The results firstly indicated that DOFP could significantly alleviate the signs and symptoms of the DSS-induced rats UC model, which manifested as improvement of body weight loss, increase of colon length, and improvement of the symptoms of diarrhea and hematochezia. Then, results from histopathology, blood routine examination, and transmission electron microscope analysis further implied that DOFP could dramatically reduce inflammatory cell infiltration and restore intestinal epithelial barrier integrity. In addition, the experiments of Western Blot analysis, immunofluorescence, and PAS staining also further confirmed that DOFP could markedly increase related protein expressions of the intestinal barrier and mucus barrier, as the expression of occludin, claudin-1, and ZO-1 in the colon significantly decreased. The experiments of immunohistochemistry confirmed that DOFP could markedly decrease protein expression levels of inflammatory cytokines TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1β. Conclusion. DOFP notably alleviated inflammatory lesions, repaired the colon mucosa damage by promoting the expression of tight junction proteins occludin, claudin-1, and ZO-1 and inhibiting the release of inflammatory factors TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1β, and finally achieved the purpose of treating UC.

Thrombocytopenia Caused By Compound Heterozygous Missense Mutations C.3946G>a in Vwf Gene and C.1825C>T in MYO5A Gene?

Objective: One patient with thrombocytopenia from childhood was examined to identify the cause of thrombocytopenia. Methods: The previous medical history of the patient was comprehensively reviewed, with blood routine examination , reticular platelet count, autoantibodies, hepatitis virus full set, thyroid function, plasma coagulation factor VIII activity, vWF activity and antigen testing, and NGS with peripheral blood to detect thrombosis and hemostatic related genes. Results: The female patient, 43 years old, was presented with thrombocytopenia for more than 40 years. She had no history of fever or bleeding with no significant menstrual volume increasing. His father had similar thrombocytopenia but died four years ago. On third June,2021, she had no skin bruises or enlarged spleen. Blood routine test showed wbc 7.4x10 9/l, HB 112g/l, Plt 47x10 9/l and reticular platelet count 1.85%. Hepatitis B surface antibody was 147.08mIU/ml. FVIII:C was 62.0% with vWF:A 17.4% and vWF:Ag 61.9%. NGS results suggested that there was a heterozygous c.3946G> A missense mutations in Exon28 of vWF gene (chr12:6128638) , resulting in p.Val1316Met. The variation is rare in the East Asian population and is shown in the human disease database to cause type 2B vWD, which causes increased platelet clearance due to variation in vWF molecule-platelet binding regions, clinically manifested as mild to moderate platelet reduction. there was also a heterozygous c.1825C>T missense mutation in Exon15 of MYO5A gene (chr15:52676447) , resulting in p.Arg609Cys. There are adverse effects on the structure / function of the MYH12 protein encoded by the MYO5A gene. The MYH12 protein is involved in cell metabolism and cytoskeletal activity, and this protein deficiency might also cause thrombocytopenia, which is clearly warranted to further investigation. Conclusions：compound heterozygous missense mutations c.3946G>A in vWF gene and c.1825C>T in MYO5A gene might caused thrombocytopenia in the patient. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Novel Classification System Of Adenoids Based On Appearance And Its Relationship With Drug Therapy

Objective: To investigate the appropriate drug therapy based on a novel classification system for adenoids based on their appearance. Methods: We used fiberoptic nasal endoscopy to determine the degree and appearance of adenoid hypertrophy (AH). The adenoids were divided into three types: edematous type, common type, and fibrous type. In adenoid tissues, the eosinophils were counted. Immunohistochemistry and western blot were done to determine the expression of CysLTR1, CysLTR2, CGR-α, and CGR-β in different types of adenoids. Results: 70.67% (106/150) AH patients with AR, and of them 68% (72/106) of adenoids were the edematous type. The expression of CGR-α and CGR-β and eosinophil count were higher in the edematous type but not in common and fibrous types. The expression of the leukotriene receptor was stable in all types. There was a positive correlation between eosinophil count in the blood and in the adenoid tissue. Conclusion: AR was the risk factor for the development of AH. Leukotriene receptor antagonist was an important drug for the treatment of AH. The glucocorticoid was only useful in the edematous type. Therefore, for AH patients with AR, patients with edematous type adenoids and/or patients with increased eosinophils in blood routine choose nasal glucocorticoid combined with leukotriene receptor antagonist is appropriate. On the contrary, leukotriene receptor antagonists alone can be selected to treat AH.

Combination of Blood Routine Examination and T-SPOT.TB Assay for Distinguishing Between Active Tuberculosis and Latent Tuberculosis Infection

BackgroundDistinguishing between active tuberculosis (ATB) and latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) remains challenging.MethodsBetween 2013 and 2019, 2,059 (1,097 ATB and 962 LTBI) and another 883 (372 ATB and 511 LTBI) participants were recruited based on positive T-SPOT.TB (T-SPOT) results from Qiaokou (training) and Caidian (validation) cohorts, respectively. Blood routine examination (BRE) was performed simultaneously. Diagnostic model was established according to multivariate logistic regression.ResultsSignificant differences were observed in all indicators of BRE and T-SPOT assay between ATB and LTBI. Diagnostic model built on BRE showed area under the curve (AUC) of 0.846 and 0.850 for discriminating ATB from LTBI in the training and validation cohorts, respectively. Meanwhile, TB-specific antigens spot-forming cells (SFC) (the larger of early secreted antigenic target 6 and culture filtrate protein 10 SFC in T-SPOT assay) produced lower AUC of 0.775 and 0.800 in the training and validation cohorts, respectively. The diagnostic model based on combination of BRE and T-SPOT showed an AUC of 0.909 for differentiating ATB from LTBI, with 78.03% sensitivity and 90.23% specificity when a cutoff value of 0.587 was used in the training cohort. Application of the model to the validation cohort showed similar performance. The AUC, sensitivity, and specificity were 0.910, 78.23%, and 90.02%, respectively. Furthermore, we also assessed the performance of our model in differentiating ATB from LTBI with lung lesions. Receiver operating characteristic analysis showed that the AUC of established model was 0.885, while a threshold of 0.587 yield a sensitivity of 78.03% and a specificity of 85.69%, respectively.ConclusionsThe diagnostic model based on combination of BRE and T-SPOT could provide a reliable differentiation between ATB and LTBI.

Effect of Different Pollution Parameters and Chemical Components of PM2.5 on Health of Residents of Xinxiang City, China

The present study was planned to explore the pollution characteristics, health risks, and influence of atmospheric fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and its components on blood routine parameters in a typical industrial city (Xinxiang City) in China. In this study, 102 effective samples 28 (April–May), 19 (July–August), 27 (September–October), 28 (December–January) of PM2.5 were collected during different seasons from 2017 to 2018. The water-soluble ions and metal elements in PM2.5 were analyzed via ion chromatography and inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry. The blood routine physical examination parameters under different polluted weather conditions from January to December 2017 and 2018, the corresponding PM2.5 concentration, temperature, and relative humidity during the same period were collected from Second People’s Hospital of Xinxiang during 2017–2018. Risk assessment was carried out using the generalized additive time series model (GAM). It was used to analyze the influence of PM2.5 concentration and its components on blood routine indicators of the physical examination population. The “mgcv” package in R.3.5.3 statistical software was used for modeling and analysis and used to perform nonparametric smoothing on meteorological indicators such as temperature and humidity. When Akaike’s information criterion (AIC) value is the smallest, the goodness of fit of the model is the highest. Additionally, the US EPA exposure model was used to evaluate the health risks caused by different heavy metals in PM2.5 to the human body through the respiratory pathway, including carcinogenic risk and non-carcinogenic risk. The result showed that the air particulate matter and its chemical components in Xinxiang City were higher in winter as compared to other seasons with an overall trend of winter > spring > autumn > summer. The content of nitrate (NO3−) and sulfate (SO42−) ions in the atmosphere were higher in winter, which, together with ammonium, constitute the main components of water-soluble ions in PM2.5 in Xinxiang City. Source analysis reported that mobile pollution sources (coal combustion emissions, automobile exhaust emissions, and industrial emissions) in Xinxiang City during the winter season contributed more to atmospheric pollution as compared to fixed sources. The results of the risk assessment showed that the non-carcinogenic health risk of heavy metals in fine particulate matter is acceptable to the human body, while among the carcinogenic elements, the order of lifetime carcinogenic risk is arsenic (As) > chromium(Cr) > cadmium (Cd) > cobalt(Co) > nickel (Ni). During periods of haze pollution, the exposure concentration of PM2.5 has a certain lag effect on blood routine parameters. On the day when haze pollution occurs, when the daily average concentration of PM2.5 rises by 10 μg·m−3, hemoglobin (HGB) and platelet count (PLT) increase, respectively, by 9.923% (95% CI, 8.741–11.264) and 0.068% (95% CI, 0.067–0.069). GAM model analysis predicted the maximum effect of PM2.5 exposure concentration on red blood cell count (RBC) and PLT was reached when the hysteresis accumulates for 1d (Lag0). The maximum effect of exposure concentration ofPM2.5 on MONO is reached when the lag accumulation is 3d (Lag2). When the hysteresis accumulates for 6d (Lag5), the exposure concentration of PM2.5 has the greatest effect on HGB. The maximum cumulative effect of PM2.5 on neutrophil count (NEUT) and lymphocyte (LMY) was strongest when the lag was 2d (Lag1). During periods of moderate to severe pollution, the concentration of water-soluble ions and heavy metal elements in PM2.5 increases significantly and has a significant correlation with some blood routine indicators.