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Neurosurgical operations may result in surgical injury which would lead to postoperative neurological deficits. Hyperbaric oxygen preconditioning (HBO-PC) may be beneficial for such people. However, the exact mechanism underlying HBO-PC is not well known yet. The aim of this study is to explore the role of osteopontin (OPN) in HBO-PC-induced neuroprotection. The study consisted of two experiments. In experiment 1, Sprague Dawley (SD) rats were divided into four groups: sham group, HBO-PC sham group, stroke group, and HBO-PC group (HBO-PC + stroke). The animals in the second experiment were randomly assigned to one of two groups: OPN small interfering (siRNA) group (HBO-PC + stroke + OPN siRNA) and control siRNA group (HBO-PC + stroke + negative control siRNA). Neurological outcome in HBO-PC group was better than that of stroke group. After OPN siRNA was administered, neurological function aggravated compared with control siRNA group. Brain morphology and structure seen by light microscopy was diminished in stroke group and OPN siRNA group, while fewer pathological injuries occurred in HBO-PC and control siRNA group. The infarct volume in HBO-PC group was the lowest, followed by OPN siRNA group and stroke group, respectively. Preconditioning with HBO promoted expression of OPN, which reduced the expression of interleukin (IL)-1β/nuclear factor-κ-gene binding (NFκB) and augmented protein kinase B (Akt). OPN siRNA reversed these changes. OPN plays an important role in the neuroprotection elicited by HBO-PC. Pretreatment with HBO may be beneficial for people going to undertake brain surgery.

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Objective. A previous meta-analysis has revealed that cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) might not be clinically beneficial to chronic wounds. However, several new randomized controlled trials (RCTs) reported that CAP was an effective treatment option for accelerating wound healing in chronic wounds. The purpose of this review is to incorporate these new results and evaluate the efficacy of CAP in chronic wounds. Methods. The major databases, including PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science, were searched for articles related to CAP treatment in chronic wounds until March 21, 2022. The literature retrieval and evaluation were carried out by two independent researchers. Result. A total of 13 randomized clinical trials published between 2010 and 2022 were finally included. CAP therapy showed to be more effective in reducing the area of wounds (mean difference (MD): -1.74, 95%; confidence interval (CI): [-3.14, -0.33], p = 0.02 ), compared with non-CAP treatments. The immediate reduction of the bacterial load was higher in the CAP group than in the control group. (MD: -0.37, 95%; CI: [-0.7, -0.05], p = 0.02 ). Conclusion. No significant changes were found in long-term antibacterial efficacy and pain perception between the two groups. However, more RCTs of excellent methodological quality are required to confirm technical details of the source of AP and the appropriate duration of the treatment with plasma.

This study investigated the effect of dietary myo-inositol (MI) on alleviating the adverse effect of the high carbohydrate diet in Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). Six diets contained either low carbohydrate (LC 30%) or high carbohydrate (HC 45%) with three levels of MI supplementation (0, 400 and 1200 mg/kg diet) to each level of the carbohydrate diet. After an 8-week trial, the fish fed 400 mg/kg MI under HC levels had the highest weight gain and fatness, but the fish fed 1200 mg/kg MI had the lowest hepatosomatic index, visceral index and crude lipid in the HC group. The diet of 1200 mg/kg MI significantly decreased triglyceride content in the serum and liver compared with those fed the MI supplemented diets regardless of carbohydrate levels. Dietary MI decreased triglyceride accumulation in the liver irrespective of carbohydrate levels. The content of malondialdehyde decreased with increasing dietary MI at both carbohydrate levels. Fish fed 1200 mg/kg MI had the highest glutathione peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, aspartate aminotransferase and glutamic-pyruvic transaminase activities. The HC diet increased the mRNA expression of key genes involved in lipid synthesis (DGAT, SREBP, FAS) in the fish fed the diet without MI supplementation. Dietary MI significantly under expressed fatty acid synthetase in fish fed the HC diets. Moreover, the mRNA expression of genes related to lipid catabolism (CPT, ATGL, PPAR-α) was significantly up-regulated with the increase of dietary MI levels despite dietary carbohydrate levels. The gene expressions of gluconeogenesis, glycolysis and MI biosynthesis were significantly down-regulated, while the expression of the pentose phosphate pathway was up-regulated with the increase of MI levels. This study indicates that HC diets can interrupt normal lipid metabolism and tend to form a fatty liver in fish. Dietary MI supplement can alleviate lipid accumulation in the liver by diverging some glucose metabolism into the pentose phosphate pathway and enhance the antioxidant capacity in O. niloticus.

New pathway databases generally display pathways by retrieving information from a database dynamically. Some of them even provide their pathways in SBML or other exchangeable formats. Integrating these models is a challenging work, because these models were not built in the same way. Pathways integration Tool (PINT) may integrate the standard SBML files. Since these files may be obtained from different sources, any inconsistency in component names can be revised by using an annotation editor upon uploading a pathway model. This integration function greatly simplifies the building of a complex model from small models. To get new users started, about 190 curated public models of human pathways were collected by PINT. Relevant models can be selected and sent to the workbench by using a user-friendly query interface, which also accepts a gene list derived from high-throughput experiments. The models on the workbench, from either a public or a private source, can be integrated and painted. The painting function is useful for highlighting important genes or even their expression level on a merged pathway diagram, so that the biological significance can be revealed. This tool is freely available at http://csb2.ym.edu.tw/pint/.

mchen@zju.edu.cn.

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