Acupuncture Induces Time-Dependent Remodelling Brain Network on the Stable Somatosensory First-Ever Stroke Patients: Combining Diffusion Tensor and Functional MR Imaging

Different treatment interventions induce distinct remodelling of network architecture of entire motor system. Acupuncture has been proved to be of a promising efficacy in motor recovery. However, it is still unclear whether the reorganization of motor-related brain network underlying acupuncture is related with time since stroke and severity of deficit at baseline. The aim of study was to characterize the relation between motor-related brain organization following acupuncture and white matter microstructural changes at an interval of two weeks. We demonstrated that acupuncture induced differential reorganization of motor-related network for stroke patients as time-lapse since stroke. At the baseline, acupuncture can induce the increased functional connectivity between the left primary motor cortex (M1) and the right M1, premotor cortex, supplementary motor area (SMA), thalamus, and cerebellum. After two-week recovery, the increased functional connectivity of the left M1 was more widely distributed and primarily located in the insula, cerebellum, basal ganglia, and SMA. Furthermore, a significant negative relation existed between the FA value in the left M1 at the baseline scanning and node centrality of this region following acupuncture for both baseline and two-week recovery. Our findings may shed a new insight on understanding the reorganization of motor-related theory underlying motor impairments after brain lesions in stroke patients

Loss of Microstructural Integrity in the Limbic-Subcortical Networks for Acute Symptomatic Traumatic Brain Injury

Previous studies reported discrepant white matter diffusivity in mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) on the base of Glasgow Coma Scale, which are unreliable for some TBI severity indicators and the frequency of missing documentation in the medical record. In the present study, we adopted the Mayo classification system for TBI severity. In this system, the mTBI is also divided into two groups as "probable and symptomatic" TBI. We aimed to investigate altered microstructural integrity in symptomatic acute TBI (<1 week) by using tract-based spatial statics (TBSS) approach. A total of 12 patients and 13 healthy volunteers were involved and underwent MRI scans including conventional scan, and SWI and DTI. All the patients had no visible lesions by using conventional and SWI neuroimaging techniques, while showing widespread declines in the fractional anisotropy (FA) of gray matter and white matter throughout the TBSS skeleton, particularly in the limbic-subcortical structures. By contrast, symptomatic TBI patients showed no significant enhanced changes in FA compared to the healthy controls. A better understanding of the acute changes occurring following symptomatic TBI may increase our understanding of neuroplasticity and continuing degenerative change, which, in turn, may facilitate advances in management and intervention

Preliminary Evidence of Sex Differences in Cortical Thickness Following Acute Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

The main objective of this study was to evaluate sex differences in cortical thickness after acute mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and its associations with clinical outcomes. Thirty-two patients with mTBI at acute phase (2.4 ± 1.3 days post-injury) and 30 healthy controls were enrolled. All the participants underwent comprehensive neurocognitive assessments and MRI to assess cortical thickness. Significant sex differences were determined by using variance analysis of factorial design. Relations between the cortical thickness and clinical assessments were measured with the Spearman Correlation. Results revealed that patients with mTBI had significantly reduced cortical thickness in the left entorhinal cortex while increased cortical thickness in the left precuneus cortex and right lateral occipital cortex, compared with healthy controls. The interaction effect of the group × sex on cortical thickness was significant. Female patients had significant thicker cortical thickness in the left caudal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) than male patients and had higher scores on Posttraumatic stress disorder Checklist—Civilian Version (PCL-C). Spearman correlational analysis showed a significantly positive correlations between the cortical thickness of the left caudal ACC and PCL-C ratings in female patients. Sex differences in cortical thickness support its potential as a neuroimaging phenotype for investigating the differences in clinical profiles of mild TBI between women and men

Sex Differences in Abnormal Intrinsic Functional Connectivity After Acute Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

Mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) is considered to induce abnormal intrinsic functional connectivity within resting-state networks (RSNs). The objective of this study was to estimate the role of sex in intrinsic functional connectivity after acute mild TBI. We recruited a cohort of 54 patients (27 males and 27 females with mild TBI within 7 days post-injury) from the emergency department (ED) and 34 age-, education-matched healthy controls (HCs; 17 males and 17 females). On the clinical scales, there were no statistically significant differences between males and females in either control group or mild TBI group. To detect whether there was abnormal sex difference on functional connectivity in RSNs, we performed independent component analysis (ICA) and a dual regression approach to investigate the between-subject voxel-wise comparisons of functional connectivity within seven selected RSNs. Compared to female patients, male patients showed increased intrinsic functional connectivity in motor network, ventral stream network, executive function network, cerebellum network and decreased connectivity in visual network. Further analysis demonstrated a positive correlation between the functional connectivity in executive function network and insomnia severity index (ISI) scores in male patients (r = 0.515, P = 0.006). The abnormality of the functional connectivity of RSNs in acute mild TBI showed the possibility of brain recombination after trauma, mainly concerning male-specific

Characterization of the glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase gene and its real-time expression under cold stress in Paeonia lactiflora Pall.

Elucidating the cold tolerance mechanism of Paeonia lactiflora, which is one of the most valuable ornamental and medicinal plants in Asia, fundamentally impacts its breeding and production. The glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase (GPAT) gene plays a pivotal role in cold resistance in a variety of plant species. Here, we cloned the P. lactiflora GPAT gene, determined its expression pattern, and tested its role in cold resistance. We obtained the full-length P. lactiflora GPAT gene using tissue-cultured seedlings and real-time polymerase chain reaction and rapid amplification of cDNA ends analyses. We named this gene PlGPAT in P. lactiflora. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that the PlGPAT gene is closely related with the GPAT genes in core eudicots. The phylogenetic tree containing 31 angiosperm species based on GPAT protein sequences is largely consistent with the known phylogeny in flowering plants. We conducted a time-course PlGPAT expression analysis and demonstrated that PlGPAT expression is correlated with low-temperature stress. Our results suggest that the PlGPAT gene plays an important role in regulating cold resistance in P. lactiflora

Plant hormonal changes and differential expression profiling reveal seed dormancy removal process in double dormant plant-herbaceous peony.

Herbaceous peony (Paeonia lactiflora Pall.) is a popular ornamental and medicinal plant. Taking approximately six to seven months, the seeds germination under natural conditions experiences dual dormancies, which seriously affects horticultural cultivation. Few studies have been conducted on exploring both biological and molecular mechanism that regulates dormancy removal process in hypocotyls double dormant plants. Here, we first measured ABA and GA3 content changes at four key dormancy break stages, and then performed transcriptomic analyses to identify the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) using RNA-seq. We subsequently carried out Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) to validate RNA-seq data. ABA content decreased during the whole dormancy removal process and GA3 content exhibited decreasing slightly and then increasing trend. RNA sequencing de novo assembly generated a total of 99,577 unigenes. 20,344 unigenes were differentially expressed in the whole dormancy release process. The qPCR results of 54 selected unigenes were consistent with the FPKM values obtained from RNA-seq. Our results summarize a valuable collection of gene expression profiles characterizing the dormancy release process. The DEGs are candidates for functional analyses of genes affecting the dormancy release, which is a precious resource for the on-going physiological and molecular investigation of seeds dormancy removal in other perennial plants

Cardiovascular risk factor profiles for peripheral artery disease and carotid atherosclerosis among Chinese older people: a population-based study.

OBJECTIVES: Epidemiological data concerning atherosclerotic disease among older people in rural China are sparse. We seek to determine prevalence and cardiovascular risk factor profiles for peripheral artery disease (PAD) and carotid atherosclerosis (CAS) among Chinese older people living in a rural community. METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 1499 participants (age ≥60 years, 59.0% women) of the Confucius Hometown Aging Project in Shandong, China. From June 2010-July 2011, data were collected through interviews, clinical examinations, and laboratory tests. PAD was defined as an ankle-brachial index ≤0.9. Carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) and carotid artery stenosis were assessed by ultrasonography. We defined moderate stenosis as carotid stenosis ≥50%, and severe stenosis as carotid stenosis ≥70%. cIMT≥1.81 mm was considered as an increased cIMT (a measure of CAS). Data were analyzed with multiple logistic models. RESULTS: The prevalence was 5.7% for PAD, 8.9% for moderate stenosis, 1.8% for severe stenosis, and 11.2% for increased cIMT. After controlling for multiple potential confounders, diabetes, an increased low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C)/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) ratio, and hypertension were significantly or marginally associated with PAD. Ever smoking, hypertension, and an increased LDL-C/HDL-C ratio were significantly associated with an increased likelihood of increased cIMT. An increasing number of those cardiovascular risk factors were significantly associated with an increasing odds ratio of PAD and increased cIMT, respectively (p for linear trend <0.001). CONCLUSION: Among Chinese older people living in a rural community, PAD, carotid artery stenosis, and an increased cIMT are relatively uncommon. Cardiovascular risk factor profiles for PAD and CAS are slightly different, with hypertension and an increased LDL-C/HDL-C ratio being associated with an increased likelihood of both PAD and increased cIMT

Depressive Symptoms in Multiple Sclerosis from an In Vivo Study with TBSS

Clinically significant depression can impact up to 50% of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) over a course of their life time, which is associated with an increased morbidity and mortality. In our study, fifteen relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) patients and 15 age- and gender-matched normal controls were included. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) was acquired by employing a single-shot echo planar imaging sequence on a 3.0 T MR scanner and fractional anisotropy (FA) was performed with tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) approach. Finally, widespread WM and GM abnormalities were observed in RRMS patients. Moreover, the relationships between the depressive symptoms which can be measured by Hamilton depression rating scale (HAMD) as well as clinical disabilities measured by the expanded disability status scale (EDSS) and FA changes were listed. There was a positive relation between EDSS and the FA changes in the right inferior parietal lobule, while negative relation was located in the left anterior cingulate cortex and hippocampus. Also a positive relation between HAMD and FA changes was found in the right posterior middle cingulate gyrus, the right hippocampus, the left hypothalamus, the right precentral gyrus, and the posterior cingulate which demonstrated a link between the depressive symptoms and clinically relevant brain areas in RRMS patients

Anticancer Potency of Platinum(II) Complexes Containing Both Chloride Anion and Chelated Carboxylate as Leaving Groups

Three platinum complexes with both a chloride anion and a chelated carboxylate as leaving groups were synthesized and spectrally characterized. In vitro cytotoxicity of complexes <b>1</b>–<b>3</b> was evaluated against human A549, HCT-116, MCF-7, and HepG-2 tumor cell lines. The results showed that all the compounds exhibited effective cytotoxicity against the tested cell lines, nearly comparable to those of cisplatin and oxaliplatin. Notably, the activity of complex <b>2</b> was about 2-fold better than that of oxaliplatin against the HCT-116 cell line. Flow cytometry analysis indicated that these complexes produced death of tumor cells through an apoptotic pathway. The DNA-binding properties of the platinum-based compounds were also studied by agarose gel electrophoresis. The kinetics study showed that the chloride anion departs from the Pt atom quickly, whereas the five and/or six-membered ring formed by coordination of N,O-donors and the metal ion is opened a little more slowly by the rupture of a Pt–O bond, which helps us to further understand the mechanism of action of the newly synthesized complexes with biomolecules. Furthermore, the reaction rate constants of complexes <b>1</b>–<b>3</b> were roughly the same

Association between depression and the risk for fracture: a meta-analysis and systematic review

Abstract Background Several studies have suggested that depression is associated with an increased risk for fracture; however, the results are conflicting. This study aimed to conduct a meta-analysis of cohort studies assessing the association between depression and the risk for fracture. Methods Relevant studies were identified by a search of Web of Science, PubMed, Embase, China National Knowledge Infrastructure and WanFang database to Feb 2018. Cohort studies on the relationship between depression and the risk for fracture in the general population were included in the meta-analysis. Data collection was in accordance with the Meta-analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (MOOSE) guidelines, and the quality of the included studies was assessed using the Newcastle–Ottawa scale. Two independent investigators screened the abstracts and full texts of the studies, extracted data, and assessed the quality of the study. Either a fixed-effect or random-effects model was used to compute the pooled risk estimates when appropriate. Results In total, 16 cohort studies with 25 independent reports that included 414,686 participants during a follow-up duration of 3–14 years were included in the analysis. The pooled hazard ratio (HR) for total fracture was 1.24 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.14–1.35; P < 0.001 for heterogeneity; random-effects model). In the subgroup analyses conducted in terms of study region, the pooled HR for the studies conducted in Europe was higher (HR: 1.76; 95% CI: 1.44–2.17; P = 0.792 for heterogeneity) than that in America and Asia, with a significant difference between the groups (P = 0.036). Conclusion The results of our meta-analysis suggest that depression is prospectively associated with a significantly increased risk for fracture, which may have substantial implications, both clinical and preventive