Genetic mapping of folate QTLs using a segregated population in maize

As essential B vitamin for humans, folates accumulation in edible parts of crops, such as maize kernels, is of great importance for human health. But its breeding is always limited by the prohibitive cost of folate profiling. The molecular breeding is a more executable and efficient way for folate fortification, but is limited by the molecular knowledge of folate regulation. Here we report the genetic mapping of folate quantitative trait loci (QTLs) using a segregated population crossed by two maize lines, one high in folate (GEMS31) and the other low in folate (DAN3130). Two folate QTLs on chromosome 5 were obtained by the combination of F₂ whole-exome sequencing and F₃ kernel-folate profiling. These two QTLs had been confirmed by bulk segregant analysis using F₆ pooled DNA and F₇ kernel-folate profiling, and were overlapped with QTLs identified by another segregated population. These two QTLs contributed 41.6% of phenotypic variation of 5-formyltetrahydrofolate, the most abundant storage form among folate derivatives in dry maize grains, in the GEMS31×DAN3130 population. Their fine mapping and functional analysis will reveal details of folate metabolism, and provide a basis for marker-assisted breeding aimed at the enrichment of folates in maize kernels.     

老年冠心病患者血清Lp-PLA2、hs-CRP、IL-27及MMP-9水平与Gensini积分的相关性研究*

目的:探讨老年冠心病患者血清脂蛋白相关磷脂酶A2(Lp-PLA2)、高敏C反应蛋白(hs-CRP)、白细胞介素-27(IL-27)及基质金属蛋白酶-9(MMP-9)水平与Gensini积分的相关性。方法:选取2015年10月至2018年2月我院收治的冠心病患者142例为研究对象,将所有患者按照不同的冠心病类型分为不稳定型心绞痛(UAP)组54例、稳定型心绞痛(SAP)组40例和急性心肌梗死(AMI)组48例。同时根据患者Gensini积分将其分为轻度47例、中度51例和重度44例。比较不同冠心病类型、不同严重程度的Lp-PLA2、hs-CRP、IL-27、MMP-9水平及Gensini积分,并分析冠心病患者上述指标水平与Gensini积分的相关性。结果:AMI组患者Lp-PLA2、hs-CRP、IL-27、MMP-9水平及Gensini积分均高于UAP组和SAP组,且UAP组高于SAP组(P0.05)。重度患者Lp-PLA2、hs-CRP、IL-27、MMP-9水平及Gensini积分均高于中度和轻度患者,且中度患者高于轻度患者(P0.05)。经Spearman相关性分析结果显示,冠心病患者Lp-PLA2、hs-CRP、IL-27、MMP-9水平与Gensini积分均呈正相关(P0.05)。结论:老年冠心病患者Lp-PLA2、hs-CRP、IL-27及MMP-9水平与患者冠状动脉病变Gensini积分均呈正相关。临床根据Lp-PLA2、hs-CRP、IL-27及MMP-9水平的变化,有助于评估老年冠心病患者的病情严重程度。     

后腹腔镜下肾部分切除术对肾癌患者肾功能和预后的影响

目的:探讨后腹腔镜下肾部分切除术对肾癌患者肾功能以及近远期预后的影响。方法:回顾性分析2012年1月～2017年8月在我院接受手术治疗的肾癌患者92例,根据不同手术治疗方法分为观察组(n=48)和对照组(n=44)。对照组行传统开放手术治疗,观察组行后腹腔镜下肾部分切除术。对比两组患者术前、术后血清肌酐(Cr)、血尿素氮(BUN)、β2-微球蛋白(β2-MG)、C反应蛋白(CRP)、白细胞介素-6(IL-6)水平的变化,术后1年、3年、5年生存率及切口感染、肺部感染、腹部疼痛、肾周血肿等并发症的发生情况。结果:观组患者手术时间、术后胃肠功能恢复时间、住院时间均明显短于对照组(P0.05),术中出血量、术后引流管引流量均显著低于对照组(P0.05)。术后1个月、术后2个月,两组患者血清Cr、BUN、β2-MG表达水平均较治疗前上升,且观察组以上指标显著低于对照组(P0.05)。术后,两组患者血清CRP、IL-6水平虽有升高,但观察组以上指标明显低于对照组(P0.05)。两组患者术后3年、5年的生存率均较术前下降,但观察组均分别高于对照组(P0.05)。术后,两组患者均有出现切口感染、肺部感染、腹部疼痛、肾周血肿等并发症,观察组总发生率(10.42%)明显低于对照组(29.54%,P0.05)。结论:后腹腔镜下肾部分切除术治疗肾癌患者可缩短患者的住院时间,对肾功能影响小,明显提高患者术后3年、5年生存率,且安全性更高。     

44例不同孕周脐带脱垂患者的临床资料分析

目的:探讨不同孕周脐带脱垂患者相关因素的差异。方法:回顾性比较分析2012年01月至2017年12月我院收治的44例脐带脱垂患者的临床资料。将患者按照脐带脱垂发生的孕周分为足月组、早产组及流产组,使用SPSS18.0统计软件处理数据。结果:我院近六年脐带脱垂总的发病率为1.829/1000。44例患者中,足月组7人,占15.91%;早产组22人,占50%;流产组15人,占34.09%。三组患者的年龄、产次及孕次均无显著统计学差异(P0.05)。足月组新生儿apgar评分最高,与其它两组相比均有统计学差异(P0.05),早产组apgar评分显著高于流产组(P0.05);足月组剖宫产率为100%,早产组为63.64%,流产组则为13.13%,三组患者剖宫产率比较存在统计学差异(P=0.000),足月组剖宫产率与早产组比较无统计学差异(P=0.075),足月组剖宫产率与流产组比较有统计学差异(P=0.000),早产组剖宫产率与流产组比较有统计学差异(P=0.003)。足月组异常胎方位的发生率显著低于早产组(P=0.038)。早产组胎儿数(单胎、双胎)与足月组及流产组相比均有统计学差异(P0.05),而足月组与流产组胎儿数则无统计学差异(P0.05)。早产组双胎妊娠占比例更高。三组患者发生脐带脱垂的地点比较无统计学差异(P=0.256)。结论:不同孕周是否发生脐带脱垂与患者的年龄、产次、孕次及地点无关。脐带脱垂较多发生于早产者,且早产患者中双胎、异常胎方位发生率更高。一旦发生脐带脱垂,尤其是有机会存活的胎儿,应以最快的方式娩出胎儿,提高新生儿存活几率。     

一例喉真菌病病例报道并文献复习

目的:探讨喉真菌病的临床特征、诊断要点和治疗方案。方法:回顾我院收治的一例喉真菌病患者的临床病例资料,并对1992年至今国内外报道的类似病例33例进行文献复习。本研究共纳入患者34例,男性16例,女性18例,年龄14-67岁,临床表现以声嘶为主,可伴有咽痛、咽干等咽喉不适感,其中有16例患者被误诊为急性喉炎,27例患者有不同程度的抗生素和(或)糖皮质激素使用史。结果:34例患者中,13例通过病理确诊为喉真菌病。所有患者均予抗真菌药物治疗,其中有1例同时行手术治疗,均治愈。结论:喉真菌病临床罕见,症状无特异性,易误诊,但病理学检查可靠,全身或局部使用抗真菌药物疗效佳,预后良好。     

氰酸盐诱导氧化应激促进肾小管上皮细胞上皮–间充质转化

该研究探讨氰酸盐(cyanate)诱导肾小管上皮细胞氧化应激损伤和促进肾纤维化的作用。氰酸盐作用HK-2肾小管上皮细胞后, CCK8法检测其对细胞活力的影响;倒置显微镜观察细胞形态的改变; DCFH-DA法检测细胞ROS水平;细胞免疫荧光和Western blot分别检测E-cadherin、Fibronectin、α-SMA的表达; Western blot检测TGF-β的表达水平。结果显示, 2 mmol/L氰酸盐明显下调HK-2细胞的活力(P<0.05),细胞形态变为长梭形。氰酸盐作用24 h后, HK-2细胞内ROS水平呈浓度依赖性升高。免疫荧光和Western blot结果均显示,氰酸盐作用24 h后, HK-2的Fibronectin、α-SMA表达升高, E-cadherin表达下降; TGF-β的表达水平随氰酸盐浓度升高而上调(P<0.05)。以上结果表明,氰酸盐诱导肾小管上皮细胞产生过量ROS,上调TGF-β水平促进细胞上皮–间充质细胞转化(epithelia-mesenchymal transition, EMT)。     

MCLPMDA: A novel method for miRNA‐disease association prediction based on matrix completion and label propagation

MiRNAs are a class of small non‐coding RNAs that are involved in the development and progression of various complex diseases. Great efforts have been made to discover potential associations between miRNAs and diseases recently. As experimental methods are in general expensive and time‐consuming, a large number of computational models have been developed to effectively predict reliable disease‐related miRNAs. However, the inherent noise and incompleteness in the existing biological datasets have inevitably limited the prediction accuracy of current computational models. To solve this issue, in this paper, we propose a novel method for miRNA‐disease association prediction based on matrix completion and label propagation. Specifically, our method first reconstructs a new miRNA/disease similarity matrix by matrix completion algorithm based on known experimentally verified miRNA‐disease associations and then utilizes the label propagation algorithm to reliably predict disease‐related miRNAs. As a result, MCLPMDA achieved comparable performance under different evaluation metrics and was capable of discovering greater number of true miRNA‐disease associations. Moreover, case study conducted on Breast Neoplasms further confirmed the prediction reliability of the proposed method. Taken together, the experimental results clearly demonstrated that MCLPMDA can serve as an effective and reliable tool for miRNA‐disease association prediction.     

3D Printing of Tunable Energy Storage Devices with Both High Areal and Volumetric Energy Densities

Developing advanced supercapacitors with both high areal and volumetric energy densities remains challenging. In this work, self‐supported, compact carbon composite electrodes are designed with tunable thickness using 3D printing technology for high‐energy‐density supercapacitors. The 3D carbon composite electrodes are composed of the closely stacked and aligned active carbon/carbon nanotube/reduced graphene oxide (AC/CNT/rGO) composite filaments. The AC microparticles are uniformly embedded in the wrinkled CNT/rGO conductive networks without using polymer binders, which contributes to the formation of abundant open and hierarchical pores. The 3D‐printed ultrathick AC/CNT/rGO composite electrode (ten layers) features high areal and volumetric mass loadings of 56.9 mg cm^?2 and 256.3 mg cm^?3, respectively. The symmetric cell assembled with the 3D‐printed thin GO separator and ultrathick AC/CNT/rGO electrodes can possess both high areal and volumetric capacitances of 4.56 F cm^?2 and 10.28 F cm^?3, respectively. Correspondingly, the assembled ultrathick and compact symmetric cell achieves high areal and volumetric energy densities of 0.63 mWh cm^?2 and 1.43 mWh cm^?3, respectively. The all‐component extrusion‐based 3D printing offers a promising strategy for the fabrication of multiscale and multidimensional structures of various high‐energy‐density electrochemical energy storage devices.