Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a metabolic disease, now prevalent worldwide, which is characterized by a relative or absolute lack of insulin secretion leading to chronically increased blood glucose levels. Diabetic patients are often accompanied by multiple macrovascular complications, such as coronary heart disease, hypertension, macrovascular arteriosclerosis, and microvascular complications. Microvascular complications include diabetic kidney injury, diabetic encephalopathy, and diabetic foot, which reduce the quality of life and survival status of patients. Mesenchymal stem cell exosomes (MSC-Exos) possess repair functions similar to MSCs, low immunogenicity, and ease of storage and transport. MSC-Exos have been proven to possess excellent repair effects in repairing various organ damages. This study reviews the application of MSC-Exos in the treatment of DM and its common complications. MSC-Exos may be used as an effective treatment for DM and its complications.

Large prefabricated flaps often suffer from necrosis or poor healing due to a lack of new blood vessels and related factors that promote angiogenesis. The innovative use of adipose-derived stem cell exosomes (ADSC-Exo) resolves the problem of vascularization of prefabricated flaps. We analyzed the differential microRNA (miRNA) expression in ADSC-Exo using nextgeneration sequencing (NGS) technology to explore their potential mechanisms in promoting vascularization. We observed that ADSC-Exo could significantly promote the vascularization of artificial dermis prefabricated flaps compared with human foreskin fibroblast exosomes. NGS indicated that there were some differentially expressed miRNAs in both exosomes. Bioinformatics analysis suggested that significantly upregulated hsa-miR-760 and significantly downregulated hsa-miR-423-3p in ADSC-Exo could regulate the expression of the ITGA5 and HDAC5 genes, respectively, to promote the vascularization of skin flaps. In summary, ADSC-Exo can promote skin-flap vascularization, and thereby resolve the problem of insufficient neovascularization of artificial dermis prefabricated flaps, thus expanding the application of prefabricated skin-flap transplantation.

Seawater (SW) immersion can increase the damage of skin wounds and produce refractory wounds. However, few studies have been conducted to investigate the mechanisms of SW immersion on skin wounds. In our current study, we investigated the effect of human adipose-derived stem cells (hADSCs) on the repair of SW-treated full-thickness skin wounds and the underlying mechanisms. The results showed that SW immersion could reduce the expression of EGF and suppress the activation of the MEK/ERK signaling pathway. At the same time, the proliferation and migration of skin stem cells were inhibited by SW immersion, resulting in delayed wound healing. However, hADSCs significantly accelerated the healing of SW-immersed skin wounds by promoting cell proliferation and migration through the aforementioned mechanisms. Our results indicate a role for hADSCs in the repair of seawater-immersed skin wounds and suggest a potential novel treatment strategy for seawater-immersed wound healing.

Objective Endovascular treatment of unruptured wide-necked aneurysms located at the middle cerebral artery bifurcation remains challenging. This study aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of endovascular treatment for middle cerebral artery bifurcation unruptured wide-necked aneurysms using a low-profile visualized intraluminal support (LVIS) stent. Methods We retrospectively reviewed all patients with middle cerebral artery bifurcation unruptured wide-necked aneurysms treated using an LVIS device at our institution between October 2014 and December 2018. Clinical presentation, aneurysmal characteristics, technical feasibility, perioperative complications, clinical outcome, and angiographic and clinical follow-up results were evaluated. Results Fifty-seven patients with 57 wide-necked aneurysms arising from the middle cerebral artery bifurcation were identified. The technical success rate of stent deployment was 100%. Immediate postoperative angiograms showed Raymond 1 in 26 aneurysms (45.6%), Raymond 2 in 10 (17.6%), and Raymond 3 in 21 (36.8%). Perioperative complications developed in two patients (3.5%), including one procedure-related hemorrhagic event and one thromboembolic event. The follow-up angiogram was available for 47 aneurysms obtained at an average of 11.7 months (range, 5 to 49 months) after intervention; the latest follow-up angiograms revealed complete occlusion in 37 (78.7%) aneurysms, improvement in three (6.4%), stabilization in five (10.6%), and recanalization in two (4.3%). During the follow-up, one patient was found to have in-stent stenosis and two patients were found to have slow flow or occlusion of the jailed branch. All three of these patients were asymptomatic. No hemorrhagic or thromboembolic events occurred during clinical follow-up. Conclusions Our experience suggests that endovascular treatment of middle cerebral artery bifurcation unruptured wide-necked aneurysms with an LVIS stent is safe and effective, but the effect on branches needs to be further studied.

AbstractMelanoma is one of the most highly metastatic, aggressive and fatal malignant tumors in skin cancer. This study employs bioinformatics to identify key microRNAs and target genes (TGs) of plasma extracellular vesicles (pEVs) and their diagnostic and prognostic significance in melanoma. The gene expression microarray dataset (GSE100508) was downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. Differential analysis of miRNAs in pEVs was performed to compare melanoma samples and healthy samples. Then, TGs of the differential miRNAs (DE-miRNAs) in melanoma were selected, and differential genes were analyzed by bioinformatics (including Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway enrichment, protein–protein interaction network and prognostic analysis). A total of 55 DE-miRNAs were found, and 3,083 and 1,351 candidate TGs were diagnostically correlated with the top ten upregulated DE-miRNAs and all downregulated DE-miRNAs, respectively. Prognostic analysis results showed that high expression levels of hsa-miR-550a-3p, CDK2 and POLR2A and low expression levels of hsa-miR-150-5p in melanoma patients were associated with significantly reduced overall survival. In conclusion, bioinformatics analysis identified key miRNAs and TGs in pEVs of melanoma, which may represent potential biomarkers for the early diagnosis and treatment of this cancer.

No abstract

Background: Androgen alopecia (AGA), the most common type of alopecia worldwide, has become an important medical and social issue. Accumulating evidence indicates that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play crucial roles in the progression of various human diseases, including AGA. However, the potential roles of lncRNAs in hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs) and their subsequent relevance for AGA have not been fully elucidated. The current study aimed to explore the function and molecular mechanism of the lncRNA AC010789.1 in AGA progression.Methods: We investigated the expression levels of AC010789.1 in AGA scalp tissues compared with that in normal tissues and explored the underlying mechanisms using bioinformatics. HFSCs were then isolated from hair follicles of patients with AGA, and an AC010789.1-overexpressing HFSC line was produced and verified. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and Western blotting were performed to verify the molecular mechanisms involved.Results: AC010789.1 overexpression promoted the proliferation and differentiation of HFSCs. Mechanistically, we demonstrated that AC010789.1 overexpression promotes the biological function of HFSCs by downregulating miR-21-5p and TGF-β1 expression but upregulating the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway.Conclusion: These results reveal that overexpression of AC010789.1 suppresses AGA progression via downregulation of hsa-miR-21-5p and TGF-β1 and promotion of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, highlighting a potentially promising strategy for AGA treatment.

Autologous fat grafting has been widely used in plastic surgery in recent years, but the unstable retention of fat graft has always been a key clinical problem. Adipose tissue has poor tolerant to ischemia, so the transplanted adipose tissue needs to rebuild blood supply at an early stage in order to survive stably. Our previous study has found that comparing to human foreskin fibroblast exosome (HFF-Exo), human adipose-derived stem cells exosome (hADSC-Exo) can significantly improve the proliferation of vascular endothelial cells and the angiogenic effect of artificial dermal preconstructed flaps. Therefore, the ability of hADSC-Exo to improve the retention of adipose grafts and its potential regenerative mechanism aroused our strong interest. In this study, we applied hADSC-Exo and HFF-Exo to adipose grafts and explored the potential regeneration mechanism through various means such as bioinformatics, immunofluorescence, immunohistochemistry, and adipogenic differentiation. The results showed that hADSC-Exo can significantly promote grafts angiogenesis and adipogenic differentiation of ADSC to improve the retention of fat grafts and may downregulate the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway to promote the adipogenic differentiation. In summary, our results provide a theoretical basis for the clinical translation of hADSC-Exo in fat grafting.