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BackgroundThe IL-4, IL-4 receptor (IL4R), and IL-13 genes are crucial immune factors and may influence the course of various diseases. In the present study, we investigated the association between the potential functional polymorphisms in IL-4, IL-4R, and IL-13 and coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP) risk in a Chinese population.MethodsSix polymorphisms (C-590T in IL-4, Ile50Val, Ser478Pro, and Gln551Arg in IL-4R, C-1055T and Arg130Gln in IL-13) were genotyped and analyzed in a case-control study of 556 CWP and 541 control subjects.ResultsOur results revealed that the IL-4 CT/CC genotypes were associated with a significantly decreased risk of CWP (odds ratio (OR) = 0.74, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.58–0.95), compared with the TT genotype, particularly among subgroups of age <65 years (OR = 0.68, 95%CI = 0.46–0.99) and dust exposure years ≥26 years (OR = 0.69, 95%CI = 0.50–0.94). Moreover, the polymorphism was significantly associated with risk of CWP patients with stage I. In addition, a combined effect was observed in a dose-dependent manner with increasing numbers of risk variant alleles (P trend = 0.023), and individuals with 11–12 risk alleles had a 47% higher risk of CWP than those with 0–8 risk alleles (OR = 1.47, 95% CI = 1.05–2.05).ConclusionsOur results suggest that the IL-4 C-590T polymorphism is involved in the etiology of CWP and susceptibility to this disease. Larger studies are warranted to validate our findings.

The anti-inflammatory effect of sea cucumber peptides (SCP) in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW264.7 murine macrophages was tested. SCP significantly reduced LPS-induced nitric oxide release by inhibiting the inducible nitric oxide synthase mRNA expression without affecting the cell viability. The mRNA expression of LPS-induced inflammatory cytokines including tumour necrosis factor-α, interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-6 was suppressed. SCP inhibited LPS-induced degradation of the inhibitor of κBα (IκBα) and nuclear transposition of NF-κB p65, resulting in decreased NF-κB transactivation. Moreover, SCP suppressed the LPS-induced phosphorylation of JNK, ERK and p38. In addition, the expression of heme oxygenase (HO)-1 in macrophages was up-regulated by SCP in a dose-dependent manner. The inhibition effect of SCP on the mRNA expression of LPS-induced inflammatory cytokines was partially reversed by co-treatment with a HO-1 inhibitor. The SCP with anti-inflammatory activity was made up of low-molecular-weight peptides rich in glycine, glutamic acid and aspartic acid. Collectively, these results demonstrate that SCP exerts anti-inflammatory function through inhibiting NF-κB and MAPK activation and inducing HO-1 expression in macrophages.

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The auricular conchae of 310 young Chinese people (169 men and 141 women) aged 18–28 years were classified into different groups and differentiated in terms of shape as a basis to designing wearable and non‐slip earphones. Seven characteristic distances could be obtained accurately by defining 5 characteristic points and extracting their 3‐dimensional (3D) coordinates from 3D digital models (obtained by scanning 310 ear impressions) automatically. The shape differences of auricular conchae were statistically analyzed. Results show that the average dimensions of auricular conchae for men are generally larger than those for women, and the shapes of auricular conchae significantly differ among the participants. The shapes of auricular concha were classified into 24 groups, depending on the characteristic distances. For each group, the coordinates of 5 common‐characteristic points were determined and the basic shape was summarized. The percentage of the samples in each group was statistically given, and 8 prioritized groups of samples more than 5% were suggested. Finally, the feasibility of the classification method was demonstrated by designing earphone, 3D printing, and wearing verification.