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Background: The fractional flow reserve (FFR) has made the treatment of coronary heart disease more precise. However, there are few reports on the measurement of FFR via the left internal mammary artery (LIMA). Herein, we described the determination of further treatments by measuring FFR via the LIMA in 2 cases after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG)., Case Summary: Case 1 was a 66-year-old male who was admitted due to "chest tightness after CABG." The patient underwent CABG 7 years prior due to coronary heart disease. Coronary artery angiography showed complete occlusion of the left anterior descending artery (LAD), and subtotal occlusion of the third segment of the right coronary artery. On arterial angiography, there was 85% stenosis at the distal end of the anastomosis of the LIMA-LAD graft. FFR via LIMA was determined at 0.75. Thus, balloon dilation was performed in Case 1. FFR after balloon dilation was 0.94. Case 2 was a 60-year-old male who was admitted due to "chest tightness after CABG." The patient underwent CABG 6 years prior due to coronary heart disease. There was 60% segmental stenosis in the middle segment of LAD and 75% anastomotic stenosis. FFR measured via LIMA was 0.83 (negative); thus the intervention was not performed. Case 2 was given drug treatments. At the 3-mo follow-up, there was no recurrence of chest tightness or shortness of breath in both cases. They are currently under continual follow-up., Conclusion: We provided evidence that FFR measurement via grafted blood vessels, especially LIMA, after CABG is a good method to determine the intervention course., Competing Interests: Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors report having no relevant conflicts of interest for this article. The funders played no role in the study., (©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.)

In this study, dilute alkali salts (0.6% NaClO, 0.067% Na 2 S) pretreatment at 10% sulfidity under the autoclave system at 120°C for 40min was used for pretreating bamboo shoot shell (BSS). Furthermore, FT-IR, XRD and SEM were employed to characterize the changes in the cellulose structural characteristics (porosity, morphology, and crystallinity) of the pretreated BSS solid residue. After 72h, the reducing sugars and glucose from the enzymatic in situ hydrolysis of 50g/L pretreated BSS in dilute NaClO/Na 2 S media could be obtained at 31.11 and 20.32g/L, respectively. Finally, the obtained BSS-hydrolysates containing alkalic salt NaClO/Na 2 S resulted in slightly negative effects on the ethanol production. Glucose in BSS-hydrolysates was fermented from 20.0 to 0.17g/L within 48h, and an ethanol yield of 0.41g/g glucose, which represents 80.1% of the theoretical yield, was obtained. This study provided an effective strategy for potential utilization of BSS., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Effective utilization of winter bamboo shoot shell (BSS) is of great interest, since BSS provides a renewable and inexpensive bioresource for the production of biofuels. In this study, an effective combination pretreatment by the sequential aqueous ammonia (25 wt%) extraction at 50 °C for 24 h and LiCl/N,N-dimethyl formamide (LiCl/DMF) (6 wt% of LiCl) pretreatment at 50 °C for 8 h was used for pretreating BSS. SEM, FTIR, and XRD results indicated that combination pretreatment could effectively remove lignin and change the crystal structure of cellulose for promoting enzymatic saccharification. Additionally, significant linear correlations were found about solid recovery-delignification (R 2  = 0.9235), delignification-reducing sugars (R 2  = 0.9552), and delignification-hemicellulose removal (R 2  = 0.9779) during the combination pretreatment. The reducing sugars and glucose from the hydrolysis of 100 g/L pretreated BSS could be obtained at 72.3 and 40.5 g/L, respectively. Using the recovered BSS-hydrolysates containing 20-50 g/L glucose as carbon source, the ethanol yields at 48 h could be obtained at 84.5-86.1% of the theoretical yield. In conclusion, the sequential ammonia extraction and LiCl/DMF pretreatment has high potential application in future.

Objective: To investigate whether tetrahydrobiopterin (BH 4 ) could improve left ventricular diastolic function through phosphoinositide-3 kinase/protein kinase B (PI 3 K/Akt) signaling pathway in hypertensive mice. Methods: Ten-week-old male C57BL/6 mice were used to establish the deoxycorticosterone acetate (DOCA)-salt hypertensive model, age matched Sham mice serve as the controls. Mice were divided into four groups: Sham( n =20), Sham+ BH 4 ( n =20), DOCA ( n =22), and DOCA+ BH 4 ( n =22). On the 14 days after surgery, mice in Sham+ BH 4 and DOCA+ BH 4 groups received BH 4 (0.1 ml/10 g) supplement for 7 days, while mice in Sham and DOCA groups were given equal volume of normal saline.The blood pressure measurements were performed 7 days later.Hemodynamic and echocardiographic parameters were used to assess left ventricular functions.High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis was used to measure cardiac biopterins BH 4 and BH 2 .The phosphorylated phospholamban (p-PLB) was detected by immunohistochemical staining. PI 3 K, Akt and phosphorylated Akt were assayed with Western blot analysis. Results: (1) The systolic and diastolic blood pressure of DOCA group were significantly higher than control group ( P <0.05). Compared with DOCA group, the systolic blood pressure was lower in DOCA+ BH 4 mice ( P =0.027). Diastolic blood pressure was similar between the groups. (2) Compared with Sham group, the left ventricular diastolic function indexes such as mitral annulus velocity (E') and E'/A'ratio were significantly lower, while the E/ E'ratio was significantly higher( P <0.05)in DOCA mice. The E/ E'ratio of DOCA+ BH 4 group was significantly lower than that of DOCA group ( P <0.05). Compared with Sham group, the left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP), left ventricular end-diastolic pressure volumetric coefficient (EDPVR) and left ventricular relaxation time constant Tau index were significantly higher in DOCA mice ( P =0.002, 0.011 and 0.016, respectively). The EDPVR and Tau index were significantly lower in DOCA+ BH 4 group than in DOCA group ( P <0.05). (3) Compared with Sham group, the myocardial contents of BH 4 and BH 2 were significantly lower in DOCA mice ( P <0.05). The BH 4 levels and BH 4 /BH 2 ratio were significantly higher in Sham+ BH 4 and DOCA+ BH 4 groups than in the DOCA group ( P <0.05), but the BH 2 levels were similar between groups. (4) The cGMP content, SOD activity and NO content in the left ventricular myocardial tissue were significantly lower ( P <0.05), while the MDA content was significantly higher in DOCA mice than in Sham mice.The NO content and SOD activity in DOCA+ BH 4 groups were significantly higher than in the DOCA group ( P <0.05). (5) Compared with DOCA group, the expression of p-PLB was significantly higher in Sham mice and lower in DOCA+ BH 4 mice ( P <0.05). (6) The expression of PI 3 K, Akt and p-Akt (Ser473 and Thr308) in DOCA mice were significantly lower than in Sham group ( P <0.05). The expression of PI 3 K, Akt and p-Akt (Ser473) was significantly higher in DOCA+ BH 4 group than in DOCA group ( P <0.05). p-Akt (Thr308) expression was similar between DOCA + BH 4 group and DOCA group (all P >0.05). Conclusion: Our results suggest that BH 4 could improve left ventricular diastolic function in hypertensive mice, this effect might be mediated by reducing the oxidative stress in ventricular myocardium through modlating the expression of Akt and PLB phosphorylation.