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Bone injury following radiotherapy has been confirmed by epidemiological and animal studies. However, the underlying mechanism remains to be elucidated and no preventive or curative solution has been identified for this bone loss. The present study aimed to investigate the irradiation-altered osteogenesis and adipogenesis of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs). BMSCs were derived and exposed to γ-irradiation at doses of 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 5 and 10 Gy. Cell viability was assessed using a 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5 diphenyl tetrazolium bromide assay, and clonal expansion in vitro was detected by colony forming unit assessment. The osteogenic differentiation ability was demonstrated by alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, ALP staining and mineralization alizarin red staining, and the adipogenic differentiation ability was determined using Oil O red staining. The osteogenesis-associated genes, RUNX2, ALP, osteocalcin (OCN) and adipogenesis-associated genes, PPAR-γ and C/EBPα, were detected using reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction analyses. The protein expression levels of RUNX2, ALP and PPAR-γ were detected using western blotting. Compared with the control, significant decreases in the proliferation, ALP activity and mineralization ability of the BMSCs were observed in the γ-irradiation group, with a high level of correlation with the exposure dose. However, no significant changes were observed in the area of Oil red O positive staining. The mRNA levels of RUNX2, ALP and OCN were decreased (P<0.05), however, no significant changes were observed in the levels of C/EBPα and PPAR-γ. The protein expression levels of RUNX2 and ALP were decreased in the irradiated BMSCs, however, no significant difference was observed in the protein expression of PPAR-γ. Irradiation inhibited the osteogenic and adipogenic ability of the BMSCs, and the osteogenic differentiation was decreased. The results of the present study provided evidence to assist in further elucidating radiotherapy-associated side effects on the skeleton.

Objective In this study, machine learning was utilized to classify and predict pulse wave of hypertensive group and healthy group and assess the risk of hypertension by observing the dynamic change of the pulse wave and provide an objective reference for clinical application of pulse diagnosis in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Method The basic information from 450 hypertensive cases and 479 healthy cases was collected by self-developed H20 questionnaires and pulse wave information was acquired by self-developed pulse diagnostic instrument (PDA-1). H20 questionnaires and pulse wave information were used as input variables to obtain different machine learning classification models of hypertension. This method was aimed at analyzing the influence of pulse wave on the accuracy and stability of machine learning model, as well as the feature contribution of hypertension model after removing noise by K-means. Result Compared with the classification results before removing noise, the accuracy and the area under the curve (AUC) had been improved. The accuracy rates of AdaBoost, Gradient Boosting, and Random Forest (RF) were 86.41%, 86.41%, and 85.33%, respectively. AUC were 0.86, 0.86, and 0.85, respectively. The maximum accuracy of SVM increased from 79.57% to 83.15%, and the AUC stability increased from 0.79 to 0.83. In addition, the features of importance on traditional statistics and machine learning were consistent. After removing noise, the features with large changes were h1/t1, w1/t, t, w2, h2, t1, and t5 in AdaBoost and Gradient Boosting (top10). The common variables for machine learning and traditional statistics were h1/t1, h5, t, Ad, BMI, and t2. Conclusion Pulse wave-based diagnostic method of hypertension has significant value in reference. In view of the feasibility of digital-pulse-wave diagnosis and dynamically evaluating hypertension, it provides the research direction and foundation for Chinese medicine in the dynamic evaluation of modern disease diagnosis and curative effect.

A novel protein, GflB, is found to control both Ras and Rho to optimize the reorganization of actin cytoskeletons for directed cell migration. GflB is subjected to feedback regulation from actin cytoskeletons, allowing cells to detect and control the size of actin-rich pseudopods and navigate their movements with extremely high precision.

Vitamin A (VA) is an important nutrient for weaning piglets. It plays a significant role in the normal formation, development, and maintenance of epithelial cells. Previous studies have shown that VA supplements could improve the host’s intestinal barrier function. Therefore, we hypothesized that VA supplements can affect intestinal function in weaned piglets by regulating intestinal stem cells. Thirty-two 21-d-old weaned [(Yorkshire × Landrace) × Duroc] piglets with an average weight of 8.34 ± 0.13 kg were randomly divided into 4 treatment groups, with 1) 2 mg/kg (control), 2) 4 mg/kg, 3) 8 mg/kg, and 4) 16 mg/kg doses of VA, respectively. The experiment lasted for 14 d. Weaned piglets were given ad libitum access to food and water during the test. The ADG (linear, P = 0.020) and G:F (linear, P = 0.005) of the piglets were found to increase significantly from days 8 to 14. The Lgr5+ gene expression (P = 0.012) in the jejunum mucosa of the 16 mg/kg VA group was increased. The jejunum villus height (P = 0.027) and villi surface area (P = 0.035) were significantly increased in the 4 mg/kg VA treatment group. The crypt depth increased significantly in the 4 and 8 mg/kg VA treatment groups (quadratic, P = 0.043), and the ratios of villus height to crypt depth significantly increased in the 16 mg/kg VA group (quadratic, P = 0.015). The maltase (P = 0.032), sucrose (P = 0.041), and alkaline phosphatase activity (linear, P = 0.024) were significantly increased when further supplemented with 4 mg/kg VA. Slc2a2 mRNA abundance was significantly increased in the 2 mg/kg VA group (linear, P = 0.024). Moreover, the budding rates, buddings number per organoid, and Chromogranin A and Muc2 expression of piglet intestinal organoids were significantly reduced (P &lt; 0.05) by VA and its metabolites (retinoic acid). Compared with the control group, the expression of Spp1 and Trop2 increased. These results indicated that VA may increase the stemness of intestinal stem cell in vitro. This study suggested that VA could affect growth performance and intestinal function by regulating intestinal stem cells in the jejunum of weaned piglets.

Objective: This study aimed to understand the demographics, functional disabilities, cognitive impairment, and depressive mood among stroke patients and to explore the correlation between functional disability and the other health conditions so as to provide some data for community rehabilitation among stroke patients.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted to investigate the functional status of ischemic stroke patients with stroke history between 1 month and 2 years by applying the modified Rankin Scale (mRS). Data were collected during October 2016 and January 2017 from 11 communities in two districts of Shanghai, China. We used face-to-face questionnaire interviews to collect information on sociodemographics, vascular risks associated with stroke, cognitive function [Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE)], and depression [Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9)]; and we applied SPSS 24.0 for data analysis.Results: In this study, 305 patients with ischemic stroke were finally recruited, including 189 (61.97%) men, with an average age of 67 years. According to the mRS score, ischemic stroke patients were divided into patients without symptoms (controls, mRS = 0), patients without obvious disability (mRS = 1), and patients with mild to severe disability (mRS = 2–5). Ischemic stroke patients with different mRS levels demonstrated significant differences in age, tobacco smoke exposure, previous stroke history, cognitive function, and depression status. Compared with patients without symptoms (mRS = 0), patients with mRS = 1 had a lower MMSE score [odds ratio (OR): 0.48, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.26–0.90]; and patients with mRS = 2–5 had a lower MMSE score [OR = 0.16, 95% CI: 0.08–0.33], had a higher PHQ-9 score [OR = 5.36, 95% CI: 2.19–13.11], and were more likely to have previous stroke history [OR = 2.18, 95% CI: 1.01–4.79].Conclusion: Lower degrees of functional independence are related to cognitive impairment, as well as the previous stroke history and depression status.

In2O3 is a promising partner of Cu2O to form a Cu2O/In2O3 heterojunction system. We used x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to determine the valence band offset (VBO) of a Cu2O/In2O3 heterojunction. The valence band offset is found to be 1.43 ± 0.2 eV. Given the experimental bandgaps of 2.0 eV and 2.6 eV for Cu2O and In2O3, respectively, we calculate the band alignment of a Cu2O/In2O3 heterojunction with a conduction band offset (CBO) of 0.83 ± 0.2 eV. To apply Cu2O/In2O3 bilayers in electronic devices, it is important to determine the band alignment accurately based on the VBO and CBO.

BackgroundBrdU is a commonly used reagent in cell proliferation assays, and WST-1 measurement is widely used to detect cell viability. However, no previous study has formally reported the combination of the two assays, which may be used to detect the proliferation and viability simultaneously. In this study, we examined the effect of adding BrdU 2 h prior to the WST-1 assay and tried to test the possibility of the combined detection using rat airway smooth muscle cells.ResultsThe WST-1 measurements obtained from the combined detection were consistent with those obtained from the separate detection, which suggested that the addition of BrdU 2 h prior to the WST-1 analysis did not affect the WST-1 results. The BrdU measurements obtained from the combined detection also demonstrated the same trend as that obtained from the separate detection, and dosages of 200, 400 and 800 ng/ml testing reagent significantly inhibited the proliferation of rat airway smooth muscle cells.ConclusionsOur study suggests that the BrdU and WST-1 measurements can be applied simultaneously without mutual interference, which may increase the efficacy and consistency of these measurements to a certain extent.