Background:Nontraumatic osteonecrosis of the femoral head (NONFH) is a debilitating disease that represents a significant financial burden for both individuals and healthcare systems. Despite its significance, however, its prevalence in the Chinese general population remains unknown. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of NONFH and its associated risk factors in the Chinese population.Methods:A nationally representative survey of 30,030 respondents was undertaken from June 2012 to August 2013. All participants underwent a questionnaire investigation, physical examination of hip, and bilateral hip joint X-ray and/or magnetic resonance imaging examination. Blood samples were taken after overnight fasting to test serum total cholesterol, triglyceride, and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels. We then used multivariate logistic regression analysis to investigate the associations between various metabolic, demographic, and lifestyle-related variables and NONFH.Results:NONFH was diagnosed in 218 subjects (0.725%) and the estimated NONFH cases were 8.12 million among Chinese people aged 15 years and over. The prevalence of NONFH was significantly higher in males than in females (1.02% vs. 0.51%, χ2 = 24.997, P < 0.001). Among NONFH patients, North residents were subjected to higher prevalence of NONFH than that of South residents (0.85% vs. 0.61%, χ2 = 5.847, P = 0.016). Our multivariate regression analysis showed that high blood levels of triglycerides, total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, and non-HDL-cholesterol, male, urban residence, family history of osteonecrosis of the femoral head, heavy smoking, alcohol abuse and glucocorticoid intake, overweight, and obesity were all significantly associated with an increased risk of NONFH.Conclusions:Our findings highlight that NONFH is a significant public health challenge in China and underscore the need for policy measures on the national level. Furthermore, NONFH shares a number of risk factors with atherosclerosis.

Introduction: Previous studies have linked the relationship between ABO blood group and COVID-19 infection. However, existing evidence is preliminary and controversial. This meta-analysis sought to identify studies that describe COVID-19 and ABO blood group. Methodology: A literature search was conducted from PubMed, Web of Science, MedRxiv, BioRxiv and Google Scholar databases. Members of cases and controls were extracted from collected studies. Pooled Odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (95%CI) were calculated and interpreted from extracted data. Publication bias and sensitivity analysis were also applied to confirm our discovery. Results: Total 13,600 patients and 3,445,047 controls were included in the study. Compared to other ABO blood group, blood group O was associated with a lower risk of COVID-19 infection (OR = 0.76, 95%CI 0.66-0.84), while blood group A and AB was associated with a higher risk (OR = 1.25, 95%CI 1.10-1.41; OR = 1.13, 95%CI 1.04-1.23, respectively). In the subgroup analysis, the relationship between blood group A, O and COVID-19 infection remained stable among Chinese, European and Eastern Mediterranean populations. In American population, blood groups B was linked with increased risk of COVID-19 infection (OR = 1.21, 95%CI 1.09-1.35). Conclusions: Our data suggested that individuals with blood types A and AB are more susceptible to COVID-19, while people with blood type O are less susceptible to infection. More research is needed to clarify the precise role of the ABO blood group in COVID-19 infection to address the global question.

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Grafting is a widely used technique, and graft compatibility between the rootstock and scion is a prerequisite for grafting. To date, the underlying reasons for the success of healing after heterografting remain largely unknown. Here, using Acanthopanax senticosus (A. senticosus) grafted onto more vigorously grown Acanthopanax sessiliflorus (A. sessiliflorus) rootstocks, and self-grafting A. senticosus as controls, anatomical analysis was used to conduct studies on the healing process of grafted plants and transcriptome analysis was also performed on the healing union at 16 days after grafting (DAGs). In total, 10,215 significantly differentially expressed genes were detected between the transcriptomes of heterografts and homografts at 16 DAGs. Go and KEGG analyses showed that a number of metabolic, physiological and hormonal responses are involved in the healing process of heterografted seedlings, including metabolic processes, cellular processes, responses to stimulus, plant hormone signal transduction, the plant–pathogen interaction, the MAPK signaling pathway of the plant, transcription factors and defense responses. This study advances our understanding of the molecular mechanism of the grafting healing process in heterografts and provides a useful reference for elucidating the molecular mechanism of the healing process in homografted and heterografted systems and the candidate genes for functional analysis.

Schisandra chinensis, classed as a climbing woody vine, is representative of the Schisandraceae family regarded as a significant plant in Chinese herbal medicine. However, the application of molecular breeding is constrained by the fact that the number of genetic markers is small for this species. In this study, transcriptome sequencing of S. chinensis was performed using the Illumina HiSeq platform to construct a library of expressed sequence tag-simple sequence repeat (EST-SSR) markers. A total of 59,786 unigenes were obtained on the basis of 8.57 Gbp clean data. A total of 3460 putative SSR sites were detected with a frequency of 5.79%. The predominant type of repeat markers was dinucleotide (64.54%), followed by trinucleotide (23.87%), hexanucleotide (0.90%), tetranucleotide (0.12%) and pentanucleotide (0.40%). Besides, 50 pairs of EST-SSR primers were randomly selected for verification, among which 14 pairs (28%) showed polymorphism in 42 different types of S. chinensis accessions. The mean values of Na, Ne, PIC, Ho, He and SI were 2.71, 1.7642, 0.4295, 0.6016, 0.3934 and 0.6078, respectively. All of the 42 accessions were successfully identified and formed four major clusters, indicating that the EST-SSR markers are applicable for genetic diversity analysis and identification in S. chinensis. According to the result, the transcriptome data are an effective resource for developing SSR markers. These markers can provide a basis for the identification of S. chinensis accessions, genetic diversity analysis, the conservation and construction of genetic linkage maps as part of selective breeding and the conservation efforts for this valuable plant.

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Acanthopanax senticosus (A. senticosus) is a member of Acanthopanax Miq. and is used in traditional Chinese medicine, and it has been found that grafting technology can be used to alter plant metabolite composition and transcriptome characteristics. In this study, shoots of A. senticosus were grafted onto the rootstocks of the vigorous Acanthopanax sessiliflorus (A. sessiliflorus) to improve its varietal characteristics. In order to investigate the changes in metabolites and transcriptional patterns in grafted A. senticosus leaves (GSCL), fresh leaves were collected from 2-year-old grafted A. senticosus scions, while self-rooted seedling A. senticosus leaves (SCL) were used as controls to analyse the transcriptome and metabolome. Metabolic profiles and gene expression patterns were further identified and correlated in special metabolite target pathways. The content of chlorogenic acid and triterpenoids in the GSCL was higher than in the control, while the quercetin content was lower. All these metabolic changes were associated with changes in the expression pattern of transcripts. Our results revealed the transcriptome and metabolome characteristics of GSCL. This may help to improve leaf quality in A. senticosus cultivation, suggesting that it is feasible to improve the medicinal quality of GSCL through asexual propagation, but the long-term effects need further investigation. In conclusion, this dataset provides a useful resource for future studies on the effects of grafting on medicinal plants.