Historical and contemporary management of infantile hemangiomas: a single-center experience

Objective: This study explores the 22-year evolution of Infantile Hemangiomas (IHs) treatment strategies at a single-center hospital, aiming to establish an individualized IHs management protocol.Methods: Retrospective review of IHs infants 2000–2022 at the Department of Plastic Surgery, Jiangxi Provincial Children’s Hospital.Results: In our study of 27,513 IHs cases, 72.2% were female, with the median age at first hospital visit being 25 days. The majority of cases had localized and superficial lesions primarily on the head, face, and neck (67.5%). Ulceration rates fell from 21.1% to 12.6% with the introduction of propranolol. Management strategies have shifted over time, with the proportion of cases undergoing expectant management dropping from 32.9% to 12.4%. Since 2008, 26.1% of patients were treated with oral propranolol, largely replacing corticosteroids. Topical β-blockers have been used in 12.1% of cases, leading to a reduction in local injection therapy from 20.8% to 13.2%. Laser therapy, introduced in 2016, has been used in 13.8% of cases, while surgical excision has dropped from 25.0% to 8.5% due to alternative treatment options. Combination therapy was used in 8.8% of cases post-2015, indicating a rising trend. Drawing from the evolution of IHs management strategies, an individualized protocol for the management of IHs was successfully established.Conclusion: Treatment for IHs has evolved over recent decades, with less invasive medical interventions increasingly replacing more invasive methods. Furthermore, a personalized treatment protocol established in this study could boost the cure rate of IHs while minimizing potential side effects and complications

The functional spectrum of low-frequency coding variation

Background Rare coding variants constitute an important class of human genetic variation, but are underrepresented in current databases that are based on small population samples. Recent studies show that variants altering amino acid sequence and protein function are enriched at low variant allele frequency, 2 to 5%, but because of insufficient sample size it is not clear if the same trend holds for rare variants below 1% allele frequency. Results The 1000 Genomes Exon Pilot Project has collected deep-coverage exon-capture data in roughly 1,000 human genes, for nearly 700 samples. Although medical whole-exome projects are currently afoot, this is still the deepest reported sampling of a large number of human genes with next-generation technologies. According to the goals of the 1000 Genomes Project, we created effective informatics pipelines to process and analyze the data, and discovered 12,758 exonic SNPs, 70% of them novel, and 74% below 1% allele frequency in the seven population samples we examined. Our analysis confirms that coding variants below 1% allele frequency show increased population-specificity and are enriched for functional variants. Conclusions This study represents a large step toward detecting and interpreting low frequency coding variation, clearly lays out technical steps for effective analysis of DNA capture data, and articulates functional and population properties of this important class of genetic variatio

Simultaneous Determination of Six Active Components in Oviductus Ranae via Quantitative Analysis of Multicomponents by Single Marker

A method, quantitative analysis of multicomponents by single marker (QAMS), was established in this article to investigate the quality control of a traditional Chinese medicine, Oviductus Ranae. 7-Hydroxycholesterol, 7-ketocholesterol, 4-cholesten-3-one, stigmasterol, 7-dehydrocholesterol, and cholesterol were selected as the indexes of quality evaluation of Oviductus Rana. The determination was achieved on an Agilent HC-C18 column (4.6 mm × 250 mm, 5 μm) using methanol with water (87 : 13 v/v) as mobile phase at the flow rate of 2.0 mL/min. Cholesterol was used as an internal standard to determine the relative correction factors between cholesterol and other steroidal constituents in Oviductus Ranae. The contents of those steroidal constituents were calculated at the same time. To evaluate the QAMS method, an external standard method was used to determine the contents of six steroidal constituents. No significant difference was observed when comparing the quantitative results of QAMS with the results of external standard method. The proposed QAMS method was proved to be accurate and feasible based on methodological experiments. QAMS provided a simple, efficient, economical, and accurate way to control the quality of Oviductus Ranae

Investigation and Analysis on Agricultural Biological Resources of Wuchuan Gelao and Miao Autonomous County, Guizhou Province

Wuchuan Gelao and Miao Autonomous County is located in the northeast of Guizhou Province, and in the border of Guizhou and Chongqing, having a subtropical humid monsoon climate. There is no severe heat in summer, and no severe cold in winter. It has distinct national characteristics, and there are many biological resources with national characteristics. A systematic investigation of biological resources in the county for nearly a month was carried out by organizing a professional investigation team. The investigation covered 5 townships and we visited 12 village committees and 26 villagers' groups, involving three ethnic groups: Gelao, Tujia and Miao. The biological resources closely related to the agricultural production and life of local ethnic groups were investigated, collected and sorted out. A total of 230 samples of all kinds of resources were collected, including 47 food crops, 75 vegetables and annual crops, 37 fruit trees and perennial crops, and 71 medicinal plants. Of these, a total of 73 were unique, superior and special resources. Based on general investigation and professional investigation, this paper analyzes the present situation, growth and decline of local agricultural biological resources, and puts forward some suggestions for the protection, development and utilization of agricultural biological resources

Self-Assembled Micelles Composed of Doxorubicin Conjugated Y-Shaped PEG-Poly(glutamic acid)2 Copolymers via Hydrazone Linkers

In this work, micelles composed of doxorubicin-conjugated Y-shaped copolymers (YMs) linked via an acid-labile linker were constructed. Y-shaped copolymers of mPEG-b-poly(glutamate-hydrazone-doxorubicin)2 and linear copolymers of mPEG-b-poly(glutamate-hydrazone-doxorubicin) were synthesized and characterized. Particle size, size distribution, morphology, drug loading content (DLC) and drug release of the micelles were determined. Alterations in size and DLC of the micelles could be achieved by varying the hydrophobic block lengths. Moreover, at fixed DLCs, YMs showed a smaller diameter than micelles composed of linear copolymers (LMs). Also, all prepared micelles showed sustained release behaviors under physiological conditions over 72 h. DOX loaded in YMs was released more completely, with 30% more drug released in acid. The anti-tumor efficacy of the micelles against HeLa cells was evaluated by MTT assays, and YMs exhibited stronger cytotoxic effects than LMs in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Cellular uptake studied by CLSM indicated that YMs and LMs were readily taken up by HeLa cells. According to the results of this study, doxorubicin-conjugated Y-shaped PEG-(polypeptide)2 copolymers showed advantages over linear copolymers, like assembling into smaller nanoparticles, faster drug release in acid, which may correspond to higher cellular uptake and enhanced extracellular/intracellular drug release, indicating their potential in constructing nano-sized drug delivery systems

Different concentrations of PMs1 and PMs2 in LNCaP cells (A) and in PC3 cells (B) after incubation for 72 h.

<p>(n = 5).</p

Schematic illustration of DTX-PCL-PEG-SMLP micelles targeted to PSMA.

<p>Schematic illustration of DTX-PCL-PEG-SMLP micelles targeted to PSMA.</p

Synthetic representation of the chemical reaction for preparation of PCL-PEG-SMLP copolymer.

<p>Synthetic representation of the chemical reaction for preparation of PCL-PEG-SMLP copolymer.</p

<i>In vitro</i> release profile of DTX from the four types of PMs solution at 37°C in PBS (10 mM, pH 7.4) or PBS(10 mM,pH 5.5), in comparison with Taxotere. (n = 3).

<p><i>In vitro</i> release profile of DTX from the four types of PMs solution at 37°C in PBS (10 mM, pH 7.4) or PBS(10 mM,pH 5.5), in comparison with Taxotere. (n = 3).</p