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Hua Wang,1 Xiao-Li Hu,2 Qiu-Fang Li,3 Jie Zhou,1 Ming-Yuan Wu1 1Department of NICU, Women’s Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, 310006, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Obstetrics, Women’s Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, 310006, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Nursing, Women’s Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, 310006, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Ming-Yuan Wu, Department of NICU, Women’s Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, No. 1 of Xueshi Road, Shangcheng District, Hangzhou, 310006, People’s Republic of China, Tel + 86 13958115502, Email wumy@zju.edu.cnObjectives: This study aimed to investigate the matching degree between the donated supply and demand, clinical characteristics of both donors and recipients, along with the operation cost.Methods: From January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2021, the data on human milk donation and usage, the clinical characteristics of donors and recipients, and the cost of each operating center were collected from the Manual Donation Registration Form and Information Management System of the selected human milk bank.Results: During the four years that the human milk bank was in operation, the volume of donated milk was slightly greater than the volume of consumed milk. A total of 1364 donors donated 2434.63 liters of qualified human milk, for RMB 1,791,000 (USD 257, 202), ie, RMB 385.3 (USD 55.3)/L; 97.8% of the donors were preterm puerperae, and 59% of the donors donated between 1 week and 1 month after delivery. All recipients were preterm infants and received donated human milk for a duration of 9.4 days on average. During the four years of operation, the proportion of donors who had previously received donated milk among all donors showed an overall increasing trend, while the incidence of NEC in preterm infants gradually decreased.Conclusions: The increasingly optimized structure of donors, the more economical operation, and the fact that the use of donated milk may not affect breastfeeding of the recipients have made it a human milk bank operation mode worthy of promotion.Keywords: donated human milk, human milk bank, NEC, operating cost, preterm infants

Xiaolin Hu,1 Xiuying Hu,1 Yonglin Su,2 Moying Qu,3 Mary A Dolansky41Department of Nursing, 2Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, 3Department of Cardiology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, People’s Republic of China; 4Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USABackground: Self-care behavior is essential for achieving good outcomes among patients with heart failure. Understanding the factors associated with self-care over time is important for the provision of appropriate and targeted interventions. However, little is known regarding the changes and factors associated with post-discharge self-care behaviors among Chinese patients with heart failure.Objective: To investigate the changes and factors of self-care behaviors during the first 3 months following discharge among patients with heart failure in the People’s Republic of China.Methods: A descriptive design with a convenience sample was utilized in this study. Patients (N=128) from two hospitals, West China Hospital and Angjin Hospital, in Chengdu, People’s Republic of China, were recruited from June 2013 to June 2014. The instruments used in the study included the following: the Social Support Rating Scale, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the Self-Efficacy for Managing Chronic Disease 6-Item Scale, and the European Heart Failure Self-Care Behaviour Scale. Multivariate linear regression analyses were used to identify the factors related to self-care behaviors at baseline, 1 month, and 3 months following discharge.Results: Patients’ self-care behaviors were poor and decreased significantly over time (F=4.09, P

Wenbin Wu,1 Yonghui Zheng,2 Rui Wang,2 Weili Huang,3 Lei Liu,2 Xiuli Hu,2 Shi Liu,2 Jun Yue,2 Ti Tong,1 Xiabin Jing21Department of Thoracic Surgery, Second Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, 2State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 3Department of Gastroenterology, the Affiliated Hospital of Beihua University, Jilin, ChinaBackground: Esophageal cancer is recognized as one of the most refractory pernicious diseases. In addition, it is an aggressive malignancy with a propensity for local progression and distant dissemination. Because of the poor long-term prognosis for patients with esophageal cancer, increasing attention has focused on the integration of targeted agents into current therapeutics. Nevertheless, there have been few studies reported concerning the therapeutic efficacy of paclitaxel-conjugated polymeric micelles in human esophageal cancer in vivo. Therefore, the aim of this research was to investigate the tumor inhibition effect of composite micelles containing folic acid and paclitaxel on the human esophageal EC9706 cancer cell line.Methods and results: Intravenous administration of folate-targeted, paclitaxel-loaded micelles was demonstrated to be more efficient in inhibiting subcutaneous xenograft tumors and extending the survival rate of tumor-bearing nude mice than free paclitaxel and plain paclitaxel micelles at an equivalent paclitaxel dose of 20 mg/kg, which was further backed up by flow cytometry, TUNEL, and expression of apoptosis-related proteins, including Bax, Bcl2, and caspase 3 in this study.Conclusion: The folate-mediated paclitaxel-loaded polymeric micelle is a promising agent for the treatment of human esophageal cancer.Keywords: esophageal cancer, folate, paclitaxel, polymer-drug conjugate, targeted drug delivery

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play important regulatory roles in the growth and development of organisms. The colonial green microalga Botryococcus braunii is an oil-rich algae and little is known about its miRNAs and their target genes. Here we constructed and sequenced a small RNA library for B. braunii using the HiSeq 2000 deep sequencing method. In total, we identified 42 known miRNA families and 14 novel miRNAs from B. braunii via sequence alignment and secondary structure prediction. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis indicated that the majority of miRNAs were effective and credible. Gene ontology analysis showed that most of the targets of miRNAs were classified as being involved in metabolic and cellular processes, gene expression regulation and stress/defense functions. Our findings provide the first large-scale identification and characterization of B. braunii miRNAs and their potential target genes. This study could lead to further identification of B. braunii miRNAs and enhance our understanding of their regulatory mechanisms in diverse biological and metabolic processes.