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AIM: To introduce and evaluate the clinical efficacy of a new technique, the use of viscoelastic substances (VS) to close leaking sclerotomy in 23G microincision vitrectomy, and to observe its effect on the visual acuity and intraocular pressure (IOP) of patients. METHODS: Patients who underwent 23G vitrectomy in Ningbo Eye Hospital before the use of VS technique (June 2019 to September 2020) and after the use of VS technique (October 2020 to December 2021) were selected as the subjects of this study. The above cases underwent operation by the same surgeon and were retrospectively analyzed. VS technique was used as the alternative to suturing, in which a small amount of VS was injected at the leaking sclerotomy and then gently massaged to confirm leaking sclerotomy closure. RESULTS: A total of 174 eyes were covered in the study, including 84 eyes in the control group (before the use of VS technique) and 90 eyes in the VS technique group. The number of eyes that needed to be sutured decreased considerably from 42.9% in the control group to 3.3% in the VS technique group, and the proportion of subconjunctival hemorrhage at 1-2d after surgery decreased remarkably from 35.7% in the control group to 2.2% in the VS technique group. No substantial differences in the incidence of mean IOP and low IOP were found between 1-2 and 3-20d after surgery in the VS technique group. No major complications associated with VS technique were identified during the study. CONCLUSION: In 23G microincision vitrectomy, VS technique is a safe, simple, and effective method to close leaking sclerotomy.

AIM: To investigate whether nintedanib can inhibit pterygium cells through the fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 (FGFR2)/extracellular-signal-regulated kinase (ERK) pathway. METHODS: Human primary pterygium cells were cultured in vitro. After treatment with nintedanib, the cell morphology was observed under microscopy, the morphological changes of the nucleus were observed after DAPI staining, apoptosis was analyzed by Annexin-V FITC/PI double staining, and the changes of apoptosis-associated proteins were detected by Western blot. The binding ability of nintedanib to FGFR2 was predicted by molecular docking. Finally, by silencing FGFR2, we explored whether nintedanib inhibited FGFR2/ERK pathway. RESULTS: The results showed that nintedanib inhibited the growth of pterygium cells and caused nuclear pyknosis. The results of Annexin-VFITC/PI double staining showed that nintedanib was able to induce early and late apoptosis of pterygium cells, significantly increasing the expression of apoptosis-associated proteins Bax and cleaved-Caspase3 (P0.05). CONCLUSION: Nintedanib induces apoptosis of pterygium cells by inhibiting FGFR2/ERK pathway.

Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and a key element in the exacerbation of NAFLD. Since there are currently no drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat this disease, the search for treatments that can be translated into clinical use is urgent. Butyrolactone I (BLI), isolated from Aspergillus terreus, is an active compound possessing multiple biological activities. However, the effects of BLI on NASH have never been reported. In this study, RAW264.7 cells stimulated by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) were applied to study the anti-inflammatory effect and the underlying mechanisms of BLI in vitro. Following this, mice fed with high-fat and -fructose diet (HFFD) were used to explore the alleviation of NASH by BLIin vivo. We found that BLI attenuated inflammation in LPS-induced RAW264.7 cells by inhibiting the NF-κB signaling pathway and downregulating the expression of iNOS and COX-2. Moreover, results of experiments in vivo demonstrated that BLI reduced serum transaminase levels, decreased hepatic fat accumulation, inhibited inflammation, suppressed oxidative stress, and ameliorated liver fibrosis. For the first time, we investigated the role of BLI in the treatment of murine NASH. We found that BLI alleviates NASH partly by inhibiting the NF-κB pathway of signaling. Given its hepatoprotective effects and non-toxic properties, BLI can be a novel and effective drug for NASH patients.

Additional file 4: Supplementary Table 1. The point scales of nomograms in patients with solitary LM, 2-4 LM, ≥ 5 LM.

We study the decay of Λb→J/ψΛϕ by taking into account the intermediate resonances X(4140), X(4160), and Pcs(4459). In addition to the peak of the X(4140), we also find a bump structure around 4160 MeV followed by a cusp structure around Ds*D¯s* threshold in the J/ψϕ invariant mass distribution of the Λb→J/ψΛϕ process, which can be associated to the Ds*D¯s* molecular state X(4160). We also show that this reaction can also be used to confirm the existence of the hidden-charm pentaquark Pcs(4459) with strangeness. We predict an enhancement structure close to the threshold in the Ds*D¯s* invariant mass distribution of the Λb→Ds*D¯s*Λ process, which is the reflection of the X(4160) and should not be misidentified with a new resonance. We strongly suggest experimentalists to further measure these processes, which can be useful to clarify the nature of X(4140) and X(4160) resonances, and to confirm the existence of the Pcs(4459).

In the chiral unitary approach, we have studied the single Cabibbo-suppressed decays $$\Lambda _c\rightarrow pK^+K^-$$ Λ c → p K + K - and $$\Lambda _c \rightarrow p \pi ^+\pi ^-$$ Λ c → p π + π - by taking into account the s-wave meson–meson interaction as well as the contributions from the intermediate vectors $$\phi $$ ϕ and $$\rho ^0$$ ρ 0 . Our theoretical results for the ratios of the branching fractions of $$\Lambda _c\rightarrow p {\bar{K}}^{*0}$$ Λ c → p K ¯ ∗ 0 and $$\Lambda _c\rightarrow p \omega $$ Λ c → p ω with respect to the one of $$\Lambda _c\rightarrow p \phi $$ Λ c → p ϕ are in agreement with the experimental data. Within the picture that the scalar resonances $$f_0(500)$$ f 0 ( 500 ) , $$f_0(980)$$ f 0 ( 980 ) , and $$a_0(980)$$ a 0 ( 980 ) are dynamically generated from the pseudoscalar-pseudoscalar interactions in s-wave, we have calculated the $$K^+K^-$$ K + K - and $$\pi ^+\pi ^-$$ π + π - invariant mass distributions respectively for the decays $$\Lambda _c\rightarrow pK^+K^-$$ Λ c → p K + K - and $$\Lambda _c\rightarrow p\pi ^+\pi ^-$$ Λ c → p π + π - . One can find a broad bump structure for the $$f_0(500)$$ f 0 ( 500 ) and a narrow peak for the $$f_0(980)$$ f 0 ( 980 ) in the $$\pi ^+\pi ^-$$ π + π - invariant mass distribution of the decay $$\Lambda _c\rightarrow p\pi ^+\pi ^-$$ Λ c → p π + π - . For the $$K^+K^-$$ K + K - invariant mass distribution, in addition to the narrow peak for the $$\phi $$ ϕ meson, there is an enhancement structure near the $$K^+K^-$$ K + K - threshold mainly due to the contribution from the $$f_0(980)$$ f 0 ( 980 ) . Both the $$\pi ^+\pi ^-$$ π + π - and $$K^+K^-$$ K + K - invariant mass distributions are compatible with the BESIII measurement. We encourage our experimental colleagues to measure these two decays, which would be helpful to understand the nature of the $$f_0(500)$$ f 0 ( 500 ) , $$f_0(980)$$ f 0 ( 980 ) , and $$a_0(980)$$ a 0 ( 980 ) .