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Approximately 31% of patients with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS) have genitourinary system disorders and 6% of them have undescended testes. Haploinsufficiency of genes on chromosome 22q11.2 might contribute to the risk of 22q11.2DS. In this study, we used mice with single-allele deletion in mitochondrial ribosomal protein L40 (Mrpl40+/−) as models to investigate the function of Mrpl40 in testes and spermatozoa development. The penetrance of cryptorchidism in Mrpl40+/− mice was found to be higher than that in wild-type (WT) counterparts. Although the weight of testes was not significantly different between the WT and Mrpl40+/− mice, the structure of seminiferous tubules and mitochondrial morphology was altered in the Mrpl40+/− mice. Moreover, the concentration and motility of spermatozoa were significantly decreased in the Mrpl40+/− mice. In addition, data-independent acquisition mass spectrometry indicated that the expression of genes associated with male infertility was altered in Mrpl40+/− testes. Our study demonstrated the important role of Mrpl40 in testicular structure and spermatozoa motility and count. These findings suggest that Mrpl40 is potentially a novel therapeutic target for cryptorchidism and decreased motility and count of spermatozoa.

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a common microvascular complication of diabetes mellitus (DM). Radix Astragali (RA), a frequently used Chinese herbal medicine in the Leguminosae family, Astragalus genus, with its extracts, has been proven to be effective in DN treatment both in clinical practice and experimental studies. RA and its extracts can reduce proteinuria and improve renal function. They can improve histopathology changes including thickening of the glomerular basement membrane, mesangial cell proliferation, and injury of endothelial cells, podocytes, and renal tubule cells. The mechanisms mainly benefited from antioxidative stress which involves Nrf2/ARE signaling and the PPARγ-Klotho-FoxO1 axis; antiendoplasmic reticulum stress which involves PERK-ATF4-CHOP, PERK/eIF2α, and IRE1/XBP1 pathways; regulating autophagy which involves SIRT1/NF-κB signaling and AMPK signaling; anti-inflammation which involves IL33/ST2 and NF-κB signaling; and antifibrosis which involves TGF-β1/Smads, MAPK (ERK), p38/MAPK, JNK/MAPK, Wnt/β-catenin, and PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathways. This review focuses on the clinical efficacy and the pharmacological mechanism of RA and its representative extracts on DN, and we further document the traditional uses of RA and probe into the TCM theoretical basis for its application in DN.

ObjectiveTo explore the temperature distribution characteristics of the face, palms, feet and the trunk area of metabolic syndrome (MS) through infrared thermography (IRT) and provide evidence for the application of IRT in the assistant evaluation of MS population.MethodsWe collected thermographs of 184 participants (91 males, 93 females) and further divided participants of each gender into 4 groups according to the number of abnormal metabolic indexes. Mean temperatures of 6 Region of Interests (ROIs) (face, anterior trunk, bilateral palms and dorsum of feet) were calculated. Comparisons of the mean temperatures between genders, among groups and ROIs were carried out.ResultsMale participants had higher mean temperature in their face, palms (P