Alteration of the faecal microbiota composition in patients with constipation: evidence of American Gut Project

There is limited information is known about the composition difference of the gut microbiota in patients with constipation and healthy controls. Here, the faecal 16S rRNA fastq sequence data of microbiota from the publicly available American Gut Project (AGP) were analysed. The tendency score matching (PSM) method was used to match in a 1:1 manner to control for confounding factors age, gender, body mass index (BMI), and country. A total of 524 participants including 262 patients with constipation and 262 healthy controls were included in this analysis. The richness and evenness of the gut microbiota in the constipation group were significantly lower than those in the control group. The dominant genera in the constipation group include Escherichia_Shigella, Pseudomonas, and Citrobacter. The dominant genera in the control group include Faecalibacterium, Prevotella, Roseburia, Clostridium_XlVa, and Blautia. The abundance of three butyrate production-related pathways were significantly higher in the constipation group than in the control groups. There was no significant difference in the diversity and gut microbiota composition in patients with constipation at different ages. In conclusion, patients with constipation showed gut microbiota and butyrate metabolism dysbiosis. This dysbiosis might provide a reference for the diagnosis and clinical therapy of diseases.

Predictive role of cytokines IL-10, IL-12 and TNF-α gene polymorphisms for the development of osteonecrosis of the femoral head in the Chinese Han population

The progressive neurodegenerative process in osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH) is accompanied by chronic inflammation, including activation of microglia and astrocytes that express pro-inflammatory cytokines. Up to now, numerous studies of genetic epidemiology have assessed the association of anti- and pro-inflammation cytokines gene polymorphisms and risk of ONFH in different populations, but contradictory results were obtained due to the genetic heterogeneity of in different populations. In the study, 250 ONFH patients and 228 matched healthy controls from Shandong Province were recruited to evaluate the influence of interleukin-10 (IL-10) rs1800872, IL-12 rs3212227 and tumor necrosis factor-(TNF-α) rs1800629 polymorphism in ONFH. Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) locus was genotyped using the PCR-RFLP method. The genotypic and allele frequencies of TNF-α and IL-10 did not show significant difference between ONFH patients and normal controls. However, the frequencies of wild (AA) and homozygous mutant (CC) genotype of IL-12 rs3212227 in controls were more than that in ONFH patients, but that of the heterozygous genotype was more in patients with ONFH. Thus, our findings indicate that IL-12 rs3212227 AC genotype confer genetically susceptibility to ONFH in the Chinese Han population.

[Follicular thyroid carcinoma metastatic to the lung and bone and cutaneous: one case report]

Follicular thyroid carcinoma usually metastasizes through a hematogenous route, the most frequent sites of distant metastases are bone and lung, cutaneous metastasis is exceptionally rare. In this paper, we report a patient with lung, bone and subcutaneous metastasis of well-differentiated forms of follicular thyroid carcinoma, 19 years after resection of thyroid tumor.

[Protective effect of tetrandrine on pancreatic islet cells damaged by alloxan in rats]

Tetrandrine (TET, 100 mg/kg) injected intraperitoneally could prevent rats from diabetes induced by alloxan. After 48 h of injection of alloxan, the blood sugar of the preventive group decreased from the control value of 25.46 +/- 1.21 mmol/L to 7.63 +/- 0.44 mmol/L (P < 0.001) while the serum insulin level increased to 11.33 +/- 1.97 microU/ml and the plasma glucagon concentration to 66.85 +/- 5.07 pg/ml respectively from the control group's value of 7.13 +/- 0.45 microU/ml and 90.35 +/- 8.33 pg/ml. In glucose tolerance test, TET 100 mg/kg showed that the abnormal glucose tolerance induced by alloxan could be improved. The blood sugar area under the glucose tolerance curve of the preventive group decreased from the control groups level of 113.28 +/- 5.02 mmol.h/L to 29.45 +/- 1.63 mmol.h/L (P < 0.001). Immunohistochemical observation of islet beta cells confirmed that TET could markedly prevent beta cells from injuries induced by alloxan and there was no obvious change in the appearance of islet beta cells in the preventive group. The above results suggested that TET could protect pancreatic islet beta cells from injuries caused by Alloxan.