Peanut aspiration: an avoidable life-threatening condition

Foreign body aspiration is a potentially fatal condition. Yet, an accurate diagnosis may not be easy. Management is also challenging and requires a high level of expertise with proper instruments. In this article, we report our experience in the management of peanut aspiration in two young children by means of a ventilating bronchoscope.published_or_final_versio

Involvement of macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) in graft-versus-host disease (GvHD)

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The first report of a single-port laparoscopic nephrectomy in a child

There has been an exponential rise in the use of minimally invasive procedures in surgery, with obvious benefts to patients. Recently, transumbilical single-port laparoscopic surgery has been championed as the next major technical advance. In this article, we report the frst case where single-port laparoscopic surgery has been used to manage a paediatric problem in the region.published_or_final_versio

Elevation of marcophage migration inhibitory factor level acute myocardial infarction but not in acute myocardial ischaemia

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Adrenomedullin suppresses migration inhibitory factor production and cytokine response of rat macrophages to lipopolysaccharide

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Osteopontin in rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthrits

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microRNA-29b prevents liver fibrosis by attenuating hepatic stellate cell activation and inducing apoptosis through targeting PI3K/AKT pathway

microRNA-29b (miR-29b) is known to be associated with TGF-β-mediated fibrosis, but the mechanistic action of miR-29b in liver fibrosis remains unclear and is warranted for investigation. We found that miR-29b was significantly downregulated in human and mice fibrotic liver tissues and in primary activated HSCs. miR-29b downregulation was directly mediated by Smad3 through binding to the promoter of miR-29b in hepatic stellate cell (HSC) line LX1, whilst miR-29b could in turn suppress Smad3 expression. miR-29b transduction in the liver of mice prevented CCl4 induced-fibrogenesis, concomitant with decreased expression of α-SMA, collagen I and TIMP-1. Ectopic expression of miR-29b in activated HSCs (LX-1, HSC-T6) inhibited cell viability and colony formation, and caused cell cycle arrest in G1 phase by downregulating cyclin D1 and p21cip1. Further, miR-29b induced apoptosis in HSCs mediated by caspase-9 and PARP. miR-29b inhibited its downstream effectors of PIK3R1 and AKT3 through direct targeting their 3'UTR regions. Moreover, knockdown of PIK3R1 or AKT3 suppressed α-SMA and collagen I and induced apoptosis in both HSCs and in mice. In conclusion, miR-29b prevents liver fibrogenesis by inhibiting HSC activation and inducing HSC apoptosis through inhibiting PI3K/AKT pathway. These results provide novel mechanistic insights for the anti-fibrotic effect of miR-29b.published_or_final_versio

Outcomes of Re-Intervention for Laparoscopic Transperitoneal Pyeloplasty in Children

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C-Reactive Protein Promotes Diabetic Kidney Disease in db/db Mice via the CD32b-Smad3-mTOR signaling Pathway

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