[Pulse oximetric saturation/fraction of inspired oxygen and partial pressure of oxygen/fraction of inspired oxygen in diagnosing acute respiratory distress syndrome: which is better?]

Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) is distinguished by hypoxemia, contributing to heightened morbidity, elevated mortality rates, and substantial healthcare expenses, thereby imposing a significant burden on patients and society. Presently, effective treatments for ARDS are lacking, emphasizing the pivotal role of early diagnosis and timely intervention in its successful management. The partial pressure of oxygen/fraction of inspired oxygen (PaO2/FiO2, P/F) has traditionally served as a crucial metric for assessing patient hypoxemia and disease severity. While relatively accurate, its reliance on advanced technical expertise and specific medical equipment conditions constrains its implementation in areas with underdeveloped medical standards, resulting in missed diagnoses and treatments for ARDS patients. Conversely, the Pulse oximetric saturation/fraction of inspired oxygen (SpO2/FiO2, S/F) has garnered increasing attention owing to its straightforward, non-invasive, and sustainable monitoring attributes. This article seeks to meticulously compare the correlation, accuracy, and clinical feasibility of S/F with P/F in ARDS diagnosis, so as to propose diagnostic indicators for more quickly and accurately assessing the oxygenation status of ARDS patients.

Collagen I-DDR1 signaling promotes hepatocellular carcinoma cell stemness via Hippo signaling repression

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are a minority population of cancer cells with stemness and multiple differentiation potentials, leading to cancer progression and therapeutic resistance. However, the concrete mechanism of CSCs in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains obscure. We found that in advanced HCC tissues, collagen I was upregulated, which is consistent with the expression of its receptor DDR1. Accordingly, high collagen I levels accompanied by high DDR1 expression are associated with poor prognoses in patients with HCC. Collagen I-induced DDR1 activation enhanced HCC cell stemness in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, DDR1 interacts with CD44, which acts as a co-receptor that amplifies collagen I-induced DDR1 signaling, and collagen I-DDR1 signaling antagonized Hippo signaling by facilitating the recruitment of PP2AA to MST1, leading to exaggerated YAP activation. The combined inhibition of DDR1 and YAP synergistically abrogated HCC cell stemness in vitro and tumorigenesis in vivo. A radiomic model based on T2 weighted images can noninvasively predict collagen I expression. These findings reveal the molecular basis of collagen I-DDR1 signaling inhibiting Hippo signaling and highlight the role of CD44/DDR1/YAP axis in promoting cancer cell stemness, suggesting that DDR1 and YAP may serve as novel prognostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets in HCC.

Rapamycin Upregulates Connective Tissue Growth Factor Expression in Hepatic Progenitor Cells Through TGF-β-Smad2 Dependent Signaling

Rapamycin (sirolimus) is a mTOR kinase inhibitor and is widely used as an immunosuppressive drug to prevent graft rejection in organ transplantation currently. However, some recent investigations have reported that it had profibrotic effect in the progression of organ fibrosis, and its precise role in the liver fibrosis is still poorly understood. Here we showed that rapamycin upregulated connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) expression at the transcriptional level in hepatic progenitor cells (HPCs). Using lentivirus-mediated small hairpin RNA (shRNA) we demonstrated that knockdown of mTOR, Raptor, or Rictor mimicked the effect of rapamycin treatment. Mechanistically, inhibition of mTOR activity with rapamycin resulted in a hyperactive PI3K-Akt pathway, whereas this activation inhibited the expression of CTGF in HPCs. Besides, rapamycin activated the TGF-β-Smad signaling, and TGF-β receptor type I (TGFβRI) serine/threonine kinase inhibitors completely blocked the effects of rapamycin on HPCs. Moreover, Smad2 was involved in the induction of CTGF through rapamycin-activated TGF-β-Smad signaling as knockdown completely blocked CTGF induction, while knockdown of Smad4 expression partially inhibited induction, whereas Smad3 knockdown had no effect. Rapamycin also induced ROS generation and latent TGF-β activation which contributed to TGF-β-Smad signaling. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that rapamycin upregulates CTGF in HPCs and suggests that rapamycin has potential fibrotic effect in liver.

[Characteristics of non-marital and non-commercial heterosexual transmission of HIV infection in Miao-Dong Autonomous prefecture of Qiandongnan]

Objective: The goal of this research was to understand the demographic distribution and related factors of non-marital and non-commercial heterosexual transmission (non-commercial transmission) for HIV/AIDS (human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). Methods: Data related to HIV/AIDS infected by non-marital heterosexual transmission and whose present address was in Qian Dongnan, were collected from Information System on the HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control. Information included demographic characteristics, the members of non-marital sex partners, transmission path, detection source, CD4(+)T lymphocyte level, et al. cases belong to homosexual history, injective drug use or non-classified non-marital heterosexuality transmission were excluded, totally collect HIV/AIDS 919 cases. Multivariate logistic regressions were used to analyze potential factors associated with non-marital and non-commercial heterosexual transmission. In addition, in March and June 2017, using a convenience sampling, we conducted one-to-one interviews among 10 HIV/AIDS who were infected by non-marital heterosexuality and had non-marital and non-commercial heterosexual experience in Kaili Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The content of the interview included basic information, sexual orientation, the main place of making friends and sexual behavior, attitude to commercial heterosexuality and non-martial and non-commercial heterosexuality and so on. Results: Out of the 919 cases, 645 (70.2%) were male, the proportion of non-commercial transmission was 55.06% (506). The proportion of female HIV/AIDS with non-commercial transmission was 84.7% (232), which was higher than male (42.5%(274)) (χ(2)=138.35, P<0.001). The proportion of Han HIV/AIDS with non-commercial transmission was 61.5% (275), which was higher than other religion (52.2%(412)) (χ(2)=6.32, P=0.012). The proportion of HIV/AIDS with non-commercial transmission who had 0-5 non-marital sexual partners was 58.8% (498), which was higher than who had>5 non-marital sexual partners (11.1%(8)) (χ(2)=61.10, P<0.001). The proportion of HIV/AIDS with non-commercial transmission who lived mobile was 72.9% (94), which was higher than who lived fixedly (52.2%(412)) (χ(2)=19.34, P<0.001). Qualitative interviews results revealed that the age of the respondents were 22-69. Respondents whose ages are in 22-34 were more likely to use mobile phone (4/10) and respondents whose ages are in 35-69 were less likely to look partners through party and the context of working. Conclusion: The proportion of cases being infected by non-marital and non-commercial heterosexual transmission in Qian dongnan was higher than general national levels. The characteristics of sex, marriage status, migration, vocation, the members of non-marital sex partners were significant differed between commercial heterosexual transmission and non-marital and non-commercial heterosexual transmission.

[Comparison of two kinds of methods evaluating the degree of facial asymmetry by three-dimensional data]

OBJECTIVE

To compare two digital methods of quantitatively accessing the degree of facial asymmetry by three-dimensional data.

METHODS

The three-dimensional data of 20 subjects were got by the FaceScan, and then were input to the reverse engineering software Imageware 13.0 and Geomagic 12. Their mirror data were acquired and superimposed with the original data by the methods of interactive closest points (ICP) and Procrustes analysis (PA). The mid-sagittal planes of the two methods were extracted respectively, the degree of facial asymmetry and the distance of 21 automatic landmarks to mid-sagittal plane were calculated and compared.

RESULTS

The paired t test was taken and t=1.346, P=0.193.

CONCLUSION

We can safely come to the conclusions that for the subjects with no evident facial asymmetry, there are no significant difference between the PA and the ICP methods for extracting the mid-sagittal plane from three-dimensional data.

Influence of airway inflammatory changes on airway hyperresponsiveness in asthmatics

The effect of changes of airway inflammation on airway nonspecific reactivity were studied in 29 patients with chronic asthma. Detailed examinations of bronchial lavage (BAL) fluid and airway responses to histamine, propranolol and exercise were performed before and after treatment. The patients treated with steroids had significant improvements in parameters of BAL fluid cells and mediators with consistent changes of decreasing airway reactivities to propranolol and exercise after treatment. Whereas no significant changes occurred in the patients treated with B2-agonist either in inflammatory parameters or airway responses. On the other hand, airway response to histamine changed little in all asthmatic patients. Our study implied that inhibiting the airway inflammation in asthmatics may lead to marked decrease of airway response to non-mediator stimuli but fail to attenuate bronchial hyperresponse to mediator stimuli like histamine.