Background. Brucellosis has a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations and it may last several days or even several years; however, it is often misdiagnosed and therefore may cause inadequate therapy and prolonged illness. Previous studies about meta-analysis of manifestations of brucellosis reported in English lacked the data published in Chinese, which did not provide details about the contact history, laboratory tests, and misdiagnosis. We undertake a meta-analysis of clinical manifestations of human brucellosis in China to identify those gaps in the literature. We have searched published articles in electronic databases up to December 2016 identified as relating to clinical features of human brucellosis in China. 68 studies were included in the analysis. The main clinical manifestations were fever, fatigue, arthralgia, and muscle pain (87%, 63%, 62%, and 56%, resp.). There are significant differences between adults and children. Rash, respiratory and cardiac complications, and orchitis/epididymitis were more prevalent in children patients. The common complications of brucellosis were hepatitis, followed by osteoarthritis, respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, central nervous system dysfunction, hemophagocytic syndrome, and orchitis/epididymitis in male. In the nonpastoral areas, brucellosis has a high ratio of misdiagnosis. Our analysis provides further evidence for the accurate diagnosis, particularly in assessing severe, debilitating sequelae of this infection.

This article has an accompanying continuing medical education activity, also eligible for MOC credit, on page e135. Learning Objective-Upon completion of this activity, successful learners will be able to list the criteria for diagnosis of cirrhosis with acute decompensation; list at least 1 independent risk factor for portal vein thrombosis in patients with cirrhosis and acute decompensation; list 3 indicators for acute decompensation in patients with cirrhosis; and know the impact of portal vein thrombosis on 1-year mortality in patients with cirrhosis and acute decompensation. BACKGROUND & AIMS: Portal vein thrombosis (PVT) is a common and serious complication in patients with cirrhosis. However, little is known about PVT in patients with cirrhosis and acute decompensation (AD). We investigated the prevalence and clinical significance of PVT in nonmalignant patients with cirrhosis and AD. METHODS: We performed a retrospective study of 2 cohorts of patients with acute exacerbation of chronic liver disease who participated in the Chinese AcuTe on CHronic LIver FailurE study, established by

Definitions and descriptions of acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) vary between Western and Eastern types, and alcoholism and hepatitis B virus (HBV) are, respectively, the main etiologies. To determine whether there are unified diagnostic criteria and common treatment programs for different etiologies of ACLF, a multicenter prospective cohort with the same inclusion criteria and disease indicators as those used in the European Consortium Acute-on-Chronic Liver Failure in Cirrhosis Study is urgently needed in Asia, where the prevalence of HBV is high. A multicenter prospective cohort of 2,600 patients was designed, drawing from 14 nationwide liver centers from tertiary university hospitals in China, and 2,600 hospitalized patients with chronic liver disease (both cirrhotic and noncirrhotic) of various etiologies with acute decompensation or acute hepatic injury were continuously recruited from January 2015 to December 2016. Data were collected during hospitalization, and follow-ups were performed once a month, with plans to follow all patients until 36 months after hospital discharge. Of these patients, 1,859 (71.5%) had HBV-related disease, 1,833 had cirrhotic disease, and 767 had noncirrhotic disease. The numbers and proportions of enrolled patients from each participating center and the baseline characteristics of the patients with or without cirrhosis are presented.

Long noncoding RNA (LncRNA) SOX2 overlapping transcript (SOX2-OT) has been shown to serve an oncogenic role in human lung cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, and gastric cancer. However, the clinical significance and biological function of lncRNA SOX2-OT in osteosarcoma are still unclear. LncRNA SOX2-OT expression was measured in osteosarcoma tissues and cell lines. Loss-of-function and gain-of-function studies were performed to observe the effects of lncRNA SOX2-OT on osteosarcoma cells proliferation, migration, invasion, and expressions of cancer stem cell biomarker. The relationship between lncRNA SOX2-OT and SOX2 was analyzed in osteosarcoma tissues and cells. Rescued-function studies were conducted to confirm the role of SOX2 in the regulation of lncRNA SOX2-OT in osteosarcoma cells migration, invasion, and expression of cancer stem cell biomarkers. In our results, lncRNA SOX2-OT expression was increased in osteosarcoma tissues and cell lines, and associated with malignant status and overall survival in osteosarcoma patients. LncRNA SOX2-OT regulated osteosarcoma cells proliferation, migration, invasion, and expression of cancer stem cell biomarkers. LncRNA SOX2-OT positively regulated SOX2 expression in osteosarcoma cells and positively associated with SOX2 expression in osteosarcoma tissues. The rescued-function studies suggested that SOX2 is necessary for lncRNA SOX2-OT induced osteosarcoma cells migration, invasion, and expression of cancer stem cell biomarkers. In conclusion, lncRNA SOX2-OT is a prognostic biomarker for osteosarcoma patients and serves an oncogenic role to regulate osteosarcoma cells migration, invasion, and expression of cancer stem cell biomarkers. © 2017 IUBMB Life, 69(11):867-876, 2017.

Although hydrogels based on biopolymers show many advantages, their low mechanical properties limit their applications in osteochondral tissue engineering. In this study, one part of our work aimed at preparing a high strength biohydrogel by using a double-network (DN) hydrogel system, which consisted of two interpenetrating polymer networks composed of γ-glutamic acid, lysine, and alginate, and meanwhile by incorporating bacterial cellulose into the DN structures. The results showed that compression modulus of the resultant hydrogel (0.322 MPa) was comparable with that of natural articular cartilage and swelling degree was greatly depressed by using these strategies. On this basis, a bilayer hydrogel scaffold based on the bionics principle for osteochondral regeneration was fabricated via chemical and physical cross-linking. Additionally, hydroxyapatite (HA) particles with two different sizes were introduced into the bilayer hydrogels, respectively: micro-HA in the top layer for promoting cartilage matrix deposition and HA nanocrystals in the bottom layer for enhancing compression modulus and osteogenesis. The osteochondral defect model of rabbits was used to evaluate the repair effect of the scaffolds with the bilayer structure, and the results showed such as-synthesized scaffolds had a good osteochondral repair effect.