Circulating T follicular helper (cTfh) cells are known to be involved in numerous immune-mediated diseases, but their pathological role in psoriasis is less fully investigated. Herein, we aimed to identify whether cTfh cells contributed to the pathogenesis of psoriasis. The frequency and function of cTfh cells were compared between patients with psoriasis vulgaris and healthy controls, and the infiltration of Tfh cells was detected between lesional and nonlesional skin tissues of psoriasis patients. Moreover, the dynamic change of cTfh cells before and after acitretin treatment was evaluated. Our results showed both increased frequency and activation (indicated by higher expression of ICOS, PD-1, HLA-DR, and Ki-67 and increased production of IL-21, IL-17, and IFN-γ) of cTfh cells in psoriasis patients. Compared with nonlesional skin tissues of psoriasis patients, the number of infiltrated Tfh cells was significantly increased in psoriasis lesions. In addition, positive correlations between the percentage of cTfh, functional markers on cTfh cells in peripheral blood and disease severity were noted. Furthermore, the frequency of cTfh cells and the levels of cytokines secreted by cTfh cells were all significantly decreased after 1-month treatment.
Qingchang Wenzhong Decoction (QCWZD) is a newly developed, effective traditional Chinese herbal formulation for ulcerative colitis (UC). In earlier studies, we found that QCWZD could relieve the clinical symptoms of UC patients, reduce inflammation, and improve the intestinal barrier function in dextran sulphate sodium (DSS)-induced UC rats. However, the relationship between QCWZD and the gut microbiota in colitis was not clarified. In this study, we established a rat model of DSS-induced UC and then investigated the regulatory effects of QCWZD on the gut microbiota using 16S rRNA analysis. We also determined the expression of NLRP12 after QCWZD administration. Our findings suggested that QCWZD administration could modulate gut microbiota composition and selectively promote the protective strains such asButyricimonas,Blautia,andOdoribacter,whereas the enteric pathogens includingClostridiumandDoreawere significantly reduced after QCWZD treatment. It is noteworthy that QCWZD administration was identified to promote gut microbiota-mediated NLRP12 expression by inhibiting the activity of the TLR4/Blimp-1 axis. In conclusion, our study supports the potential of QCWZD administration as a beneficial therapeutic strategy for UC.
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a group of multifactorial and inflammatory infirmities, is closely associated with dysregulation of gut microbiota and host metabolome, but effective treatments are currently limited. Qingchang Wenzhong Decoction (QCWZD) is an effective and classical traditional herbal prescription for the treatment of IBD and has been proved to attenuate intestinal inflammation in a model of acute colitis. However, the role of QCWZD in recovery phase of colitis is unclear. Here, we demonstrated that mice treated with QCWZD showed a faster recovery from dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced epithelial injury, accompanied by reduced mucosal inflammation and attenuated intestinal dysbiosis using bacterial 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing compared to those receiving sterile water. The protective effects of QCWZD are gut microbiota dependent, as demonstrated by fecal microbiome transplantation and antibiotics treatment. Gut microbes transferred from QCWZD-treated mice displayed a similar role in mucosal protection and epithelial regeneration as QCWZD on colitis in mice, and depletion of the gut microbiota through antibiotics treatments diminished the beneficial effects of QCWZD on colitis mice. Moreover, metabolomic analysis revealed metabolic profiles alternations in response to the gut microbiota reprogrammed by QCWZD intervention, especially enhanced tryptophan metabolism, which may further accelerate intestinal stem cells-mediated epithelial regeneration to protect the integrity of intestinal mucosa through activation of Wnt/β-catenin signals. Collectively, our results suggested that orally administrated QCWZD accelerates intestinal mucosal healing through the modulation of dysregulated gut microbiota and metabolism, thus regulating intestinal stem cells-mediated epithelial proliferation, and hold promise for novel microbial-based therapies in the treatment of IBD.
A recent genome-wide association study has identified an association between rs1920116 near TERC and high-grade glioma in populations of European ancestry. In order to evaluate the effect of the SNP rs1920116 near TERC in the Chinese population, we examined associations of this candidate SNP with glioma in a sample of 1970 Chinese Han individuals. SNP genotype data were available for 980 Chinese glioma patients and 990 healthy controls. Logistic regression analyses were performed to evaluate the association between rs1920116 and glioma risk adjusted for age, gender and stratified by tumor grade where appropriate. The allele G at TERC rs1920116 are risk factors for gliomas, and its association with glioma risk was consistent across tumor subgroups in the Chinese Han population (OR = 1.18-1.21). In order to assess variation in SNP effect size at different patient ages, glioma cases and controls were divided into 3 age strata, in years: <50, 50-59, and 60+. The results of multiple logistic regression analyses indicate that the SNP has age-specific effects on the risk of developing glioma. Our report confirmed the effects of rs1920116 near TERC on glioma occurring in older peoples in the Chinese Han population for the first time. As TERC is a candidate for inter-individual variation in telomere length, our study supports the hypothesis that telomerase-related mechanisms of telomere maintenance are more associated with gliomas that develop later in life.
A modified dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (DLLME) technique combined with an HPLC-UV procedure was developed for the extraction and determination of clenbuterol in swine urine. The modification involved the selection of methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) as the dispersive solvent, which had a low solubility in aqueous samples, playing the part of dispersion with the help of violent shaking. MTBE improved the partition of clenbuterol into the extractant, and helped the formation of phase separation. Various factors affecting the extraction efficiency including selection of the organic extractant and the dispersive solvent, the volume of extractant and dispersive solvent, salt concentration, NaOH concentration and centrifugation time were evaluated and optimised. Under the optimal conditions, precision, linearity (correlation coefficient, r (2 )= 0.996 over the concentration range of 10-1000 ng ml(-1)), detection limit (2.4 ng ml(-1)) and enrichment factor of 55 were obtained. The modification to the DLLME made it suitable for analytes with pronounced solubility, especially when the compounds are highly polar and thus more difficult to extract effectively by DLLME. The procedure was suitable for the fast screening of clenbuterol residue in swine urine.
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