Hepatoprotective Effects of Total Triterpenoids and Total Flavonoids from Vitis vinifera L against Immunological Liver Injury in Mice

Suosuo grape (the fruits of Vitis vinifera L) has been used for prevention and treatment of liver diseases in Uighur folk medicine in China besides its edible value. In this study, the hepatoprotective effects of total triterpenoids (VTT) and total flavonoids (VTF) from Suosuo grape were evaluated in Bacille-Calmette-Guerin- (BCG-) plus-lipopolysaccharide- (LPS-) induced immunological liver injury (ILI) in mice. Various dose groups (50, 150, and 300 mg/kg) of VTT and VTF alleviated the degree of liver injury of ILI mice, effectively reduced the BCG/LPS-induced elevated liver index and spleen index, hepatic nitric oxide (NO), and malondialdehyde (MDA) content, increased liver homogenate alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels, and restored hepatic superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity in ILI mice. VTT and VTF also significantly inhibited intrahepatic expression of Th1 cytokines (IFN-γ and IL-2) in ILI mice and increased intrahepatic expression of Th2 cytokines (IL-4 and IL-10). Moreover, the increased Bax/Bcl-2 ratio was significantly downregulated by VTT and VTF in liver tissue of ILI mice. These results are comparable to those of biphenyl dicarboxylate (DDB, the reference hepatoprotective agent) and suggest that VTT and VTF play a protective role against immunological liver injury, which may have important implications for our understanding of the immunoregulatory mechanisms of this plant

Time trends and risk factor associated with premature birth and infants deaths due to prematurity in Hubei Province, China from 2001 to 2012

Background: The nutrition and epidemiologic transition has been associated with an increasing incidence of preterm birth in developing countries, but data from large observational studies in China have been limited. Our study was to describe the trends and factors associated with the incidence of preterm birth and infant mortality due to prematurity in Hubei Province, China. Methods: We conducted a population-based survey through the Maternal and Child Health Care Network in Hubei Province from January 2001 to December 2012. We used data from 16 monitoring sites to examine the trend and risk factors for premature birth as well as infant mortality associated with prematurity. Results: A total of 818,481 live births were documented, including 76,923 preterm infants (94 preterm infants per 1,000 live births) and 2,248 deaths due to prematurity (2.75 preterm deaths per 1,000 live births). From 2001 to 2012, the incidence of preterm birth increased from 56.7 to 105.2 per 1,000 live births (P for trend < 0.05), while the infant mortality rate due to prematurity declined from 95.0 to 13.4 per 1,000 live births (P for trend < 0.05). Older maternal age, lower maternal education, use of assisted reproductive technology (ART), higher income, residence in urban areas, and infant male sex were independently associated with a higher incidence of preterm birth (all p values < 0.05). Shorter gestation, lower birth weight, and lower income were associated with a higher mortality rate, while use of newborn emergency transport services (NETS) was associated with a lower preterm mortality rate (all p values < 0.05). Conclusion: An increasing incidence of preterm birth and a parallel reduction in infant mortality due to prematurity were observed in Hubei Province from 2001 to 2012. Our results provide important information for areas of improvements in reducing incidence and mortality of premature birth. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12884-015-0767-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Trajectories of length, weight, and bone mineral density among preterm infants during the first 12 months of corrected age in China

Background: Limited evidence has been provided on the trajectories of length, weight, and bone mineral density (BMD) among preterm infants in early life in Asian countries. Methods: We conducted a longitudinal study, which included 652 late preterm (gestational age: 34–36.9 weeks), 486 moderate preterm (32–33.9), 291 very preterm (28–31.9), 149 extremely preterm infants (≤28.9) and 1434 full-term peers (≥37) during the first 12 months of corrected age in Wuhan, China. Weight and length were measured at birth, once randomly before term, and every month thereafter. BMD was examined at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Results: From birth to 12 months of corrected age, growth peaks in length and weight were observed at 1–3 months among preterm infants. No catch-up growth in length, weight, and BMD was observed among preterm infants. However, accelerated growth in length, weight, and BMD was found. Among extremely preterm infants, relative to full-term infants, length was −6.77 cm (95 % CI: −7.14, −6.40; P for trend < 0.001) lower during the first 12 months; weight was −1.23 kg (−1.33, −1.13; P for trend < 0.001) lower; and BMD was −0.070 g/cm2(−0.087, −0.053; P for trend < 0.001) lower; however, average growth rates of these measures were higher (Ps < 0.05). Small gestational age and low birth weight were independently associated with lower length, weight, and BMD. Conclusion: Growth peaks in length and weight among preterm infants were observed at 1–3 months. No catch-up growth in length, weight, and BMD was observed, however, there was accelerated growth in length, weight, and BMD. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12887-015-0396-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Protective effects of grape seed proanthocyanidins on podocytes against injury induced by glucolipotoxicity

265-275Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is the most common cause of end-stage renal failure, oxidative damage and iron metabolism disorder are related to DN progression, but the exact pathogenesis remains unclear. Grape seed proanthocyanidins extract (GSPE) are one of the most widely distributed polyphenols with antioxidant properties. Here, we evaluated the mechanism by which GSPE alleviates podocyte damage induced by high glucose and palmitic acid (HG/PA). Podocytes were cultured in groups in normal environment; these were based on whether HG/PA and ML385 were present and the GSPE conc. 10, 25 and 50 mg/L. The flow cytometer, immunofluorescence staining, Western blot, quantitative real time-PCR (qRT-PCR), kit method and fluorescence microscope were used, respectively. After HG/PA intervention, the podocyte morphology was destroyed, the survival rate was reduced, the cell apoptosis was increased, and the fluorescence intensity of ROS detection was increased, iron metabolism was disordered. After adding ML385, increased oxidative damage to podocyte, nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) and its downstream protein and mRNA expression levels were significantly reduced. However, application of different concentrations of GSPE could reverse these situations. Our findings indicate that GSPE regulates intracellular iron metabolism disorders and reduces the oxidative damage of podocytes possibly through activation of the Nrf2 signaling pathway

SAR Time Series Despeckling Based on Additive Signal Component Decomposition in Logarithm Domain

With the substantial improvement of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) regarding swath width and spatial and temporal resolutions, a time series obtained by registering SAR images acquired at different times can provide more accurate information on the dynamic changes in the observed areas. However, inherent speckle noise and outliers along the temporal dimension in the time series pose serious challenges for subsequent interpretation tasks. Although existing state-of-the-art methods can effectively suppress the speckle noise in a SAR time series, outliers along the temporal dimension will interfere with the denoising results. To better solve this problem, this paper proposes an additive signal decomposition method in the logarithm domain that can suppress the speckle noise and separate stable data and outliers along the temporal dimension in a time series, thus eliminating the impact of outliers on the denoising results. When the simulated data are disturbed by outliers, the proposed method can achieve an approximately 3 dB improvement in the Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR) compared to the other state-of-the-art methods. On Sentinel-1 data, the proposed method robustly suppresses the speckle noise in a time series, and the obtained outliers along the temporal dimension provide reference data for subsequent interpretation tasks

Modified tibial transverse transport technique for the treatment of ischemic diabetic foot ulcer in patients with type 2 diabetes

Background: Ischemic diabetic foot ulcer is one of the terminal complications of diabetes. The high amputation rate, recurrence rate, and treatment cost have caused a huge burden on patients and society. This study designed the modified tibial transverse transport (mTTT) technology to treat diabetic ischemic diabetic foot ulcers in patients with type 2 diabetes and investigated the effectiveness and safety of this technique. Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of patients with type 2 diabetes and ischemic diabetic foot ulcers at two hospitals during January 2016–October 2019. These patients underwent mTTT surgery combined with wound debridement and vacuum sealing drainage negative pressure drainage treatment. In-hospital follow-up was performed at 1 month after the operation, while outpatient follow-up was performed at 3, 6, and 12 months after the operation. The ulcer healing time, recurrence rate, major amputation rate, and complications were analysed. Results: A total of 201 patients were enrolled in this study, including 107 males and 94 females (mean age: 68.3 ​± ​7.1 years). The wounds of all patients healed completely (mean healing time: 4.6 ​± ​1.6 months). There was no occurrence of major amputation, recurrence, and treatment-related complications in the patients. Conclusion: mTTT can effectively and safely treat ischemic diabetic foot ulcers in patients with type 2 diabetes. This technology is an important part of the ischemic diabetic foot ulcer treatment system and warrants further research. The Translational Potential of this Article: This study introduced a new method to treat the ischemic diabetic foot ulcer which was called modified tibial transverse transport. The promising outcomes of patients indicated that this surgical method had great potential for clinical application and was worthy of further clinical research with high evidence level