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Background: To observe the basic metabolic characteristics of obese patients with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), and observe and compare the effect of laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy and metformin treatment after 3 months. Methods: In January to December 2018, the Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University selected 104 women who were classified as obese with a body mass index (BMI) of 28 kg/cm2 or higher and had PCOS. They were divided into obese PCOS group (53 cases) and obese non-PCOS group (51 cases). Results: 1. There was no significant difference in waist circumference and WHR between patients who are obese with PCOS and patients who are obese without PCOS (P > 0.05). Obese PCOS patients were significantly higher in anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH), LH/FSH, T, FAI, homa-ir, triglyceride (TG), low density lipoprotein (LDL), Apo-B and uric acid than the group of non-PCOS patients who were obese. (P 0.05). Conclusions: 1. Obese patients with PCOS demonstrated higher expression of AMH, LH/FSH, T, SHBG, and FAI when contrasted with the control group. Additionally, they experienced more severe insulin resistance and lipid metabolism disorders. 2. The weight and BMI of obese PCOS patients were significantly decreased after weight loss, while IR and blood lipid were significantly improved, while IR was improved in metformin group, and no significant discrepancy was observed in the degree of improvement of insulin resistance between both groups.

Late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) proteins are a class of proteins associated with osmotic regulation and plant tolerance to abiotic stress. However, studies on the LEA gene family in the alpine cold-tolerant herb are still limited, and the phylogenetic evolution and biological functions of its family members remain unclear. In this study, we conducted genome-wide identification, phylogenetic evolution, and abiotic stress response analyses of LEA family genes in Notopterygium species, alpine cold-tolerant medicinal herbs in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau and adjacent regions. The gene family identification analysis showed that 23, 20, and 20 LEA genes were identified in three Notopterygium species, N. franchetii, N. incisum, and N. forrestii, respectively. All of these genes can be classified into six LEA subfamilies: LEA_1, LEA_2, LEA_5, LEA_6, DHN (Dehydrin), and SMP (seed maturation protein). The LEA proteins in the three Notopterygium species exhibited significant variations in the number of amino acids, physical and chemical properties, subcellular localization, and secondary structure characteristics, primarily demonstrating high hydrophilicity, different stability, and specific subcellular distribution patterns. Meanwhile, we found that the members of the same LEA subfamily shared similar exon–intron structures and conserved motifs. Interestingly, the chromosome distributions of LEA genes in Notopterygium species were scattered. The results of the collinearity analysis indicate that the expansion of the LEA gene family is primarily driven by gene duplication. A Ka/Ks analysis showed that paralogous gene pairs were under negative selection in Notopterygium species. A promoter cis-acting element analysis showed that most LEA genes possessed multiple cis-elements connected to plant growth and development, stress response, and plant hormone signal transduction. An expression pattern analysis demonstrated the species-specific and tissue-specific expression of NinLEAs. Experiments on abiotic stress responses indicated that the NinLEAs play a crucial role in the response to high-temperature and drought stresses in N. franchetii leaves and roots. These results provide novel insights for further understanding the functions of the LEA gene family in the alpine cold-tolerant Notopterygium species and also offer a scientific basis for in-depth research on the abiotic stress response mechanisms and stress-resistant breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metals are an emerging topic in cancer immunotherapy that have shown great potential in modulating cancer immunity cycle and promoting antitumor immunity by activating the intrinsic immunostimulatory mechanisms which have been identified in recent years. The main challenge of metal‐assisted immunotherapy lies in the fact that the free metals as ion forms are easily cleared during circulation, and even cause systemic metal toxicity due to the off‐target effects. With the rapid development of nanomedicine, metal‐based smart nanosystems (MSNs) with unique controllable structure become one of the most promising delivery carriers to solve the issue, owing to their various endogenous/external stimuli‐responsiveness to release free metal ions for metalloimmunotherapy. In this review, the state‐of‐the‐art research progress in metal‐related immunotherapy is comprehensively summarized. First, the mainstream mechanisms of MSNs‐assisted immunotherapy will be delineated. The immunological effects of certain metals and categorization of MSNs with different characters and compositions are then provided, followed by the representative exemplar applications of MSNs in cancer treatment, and synergistic combination immunotherapy. Finally, we conclude this review with a summary of the remaining challenges associated with MSNs and provide the authors' perspective on their further advances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) secreted by human umbilical cord have therapeutic effects on various degenerative diseases. However, the characteristics and potential functions of human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (huMSCs)‐derived sEVs, especially the role of premature ovarian failure (POF), are poorly understood. Here, we isolated and characterized huMSCs and their sEVs. huMSCs highly expressed CD73, CD90, and CD105. huMSC‐sEVs showed typical exosomal features, highly expressing CD9, TSG101, and CD63. It was shown that huMSC‐sEVs could be taken up by granulosa cells (GCs) and damaged ovarian tissue, which increased the levels of hormone secretion and reduced GCs apoptosis. We further confirmed that the levels of follicle‐stimulating hormone in rat serum decreased dramatically, while the levels of estrogen (E2）and anti‐mullerian hormone (AMH) increased significantly with the treatment of huMSC‐sEVs. Meanwhile, huMSC‐sEVs treatment greatly reduced cell apoptosis and autophagy, while increased the phosphorylation levels of p‐PI3K and p‐Akt. Therefore, treatment with huMSC‐sEVs significantly inhibited GCs apoptosis, improved ovarian morphology, promoted follicular development, inhibited follicular over‐atresia, and improved ovarian reserve capacity in POF rats. Our study verified that activation of PI3K/Akt signaling pathway and regulation of cellular autophagy, thus reducing GCs death, are the mechanisms by which huMSC‐sEVs restore ovarian tissue function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To investigate the value of quantitative and semi-quantitative parameters of dynamic contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) in evaluation of the extramural venous invasion (EMVI) in rectal cancer. Methods A total of 76 patients with rectal cancer who underwent preoperative DCE-MRI examination and total mesorectal excision in our hospital from November 2016 to June 2018 were enrolled, and the results of the examination was collected and analyzed retrospectively. The entire tumor regions of interest (ROIs) for rectal cancer was drawn, and the quantitative [volume transfer constant (Ktrans), rate constant (Kep), volume fraction of extravascular extracellular space (Ve), and volume fraction of plasma (Vp)] and semi-quantitative parameters [initial area under curve (iAUC), time to peak (TTP), Max Slope, and Max Conc] of DCE-MRI were extracted using a third-party post-processing software, Omni Kinetic (OK). Each of the parameters between the EMVI positive and the negative groups was compared to analyze their respective diagnostic efficacy, and the correlation between each parameter and EMVI was analyzed. Results The intraclass correlation coefficient for each parameter extracted by 2 physicians was excellent in this study. The Ktrans and Ve values were significantly higher in the EMVI positive group than the negative group (P < 0.05), while the Kep and Vp values and the values of all semi-quantitative parameters showed no statistical differences between the 2 groups (P>0.05). The Ktrans (r=0.353, P=0.002) and Ve (r=0.417, P < 0.001) values were positively correlated with EMVI, respectively. When the Ktrans value is larger than 0.870 or Ve value than 0.556, good diagnostic performance was obtained in identifying EMVI with the area under the curves (AUC) of 0.728 and 0.769, respectively, and Ktrans had a higher specificity (90.9%) in excluding EMVI. But, the combined application of the 2 parameters had no effect on improvement of diagnostic performance (AUC=0.779). Conclusion DCE-MRI quantitative parameters Ktrans and Ve values have important application value in preoperative evaluation of rectal cancer EMVI.

In this article, a novel dynamic periodic event-triggered control (DPE-TC) is proposed to investigate input-to-state stability (ISS) in multilayer coupled systems (MCSs). Different from the existing literature, a dynamic term is introduced to event-triggered control (E-TC), which can reduce the number of event triggers as the interexecution times are prolonged on the whole. Moreover, a periodic sampling is adopted, from where the Zeno phenomenon is naturally avoided. Based on the Lyapunov method and graph theory, ISS for coupled systems under the DPE-TC is established. Meanwhile, a dynamic event-triggered control with dwell-time is proposed, and a corollary to ensure the ISS of MCSs is also provided. Eventually, results are applied to second-order oscillators and a numerical example is given to prove the validity of the theoretical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]