Melatonin differentially regulates pathological and physiological cardiac hypertrophy: Crucial role of circadian nuclear receptor RORα signaling

Exercise‐induced physiological hypertrophy provides protection against cardiovascular disease, whereas disease‐induced pathological hypertrophy leads to heart failure. Emerging evidence suggests pleiotropic roles of melatonin in cardiac disease; however, the effects of melatonin on physiological vs pathological cardiac hypertrophy remain unknown. Using swimming‐induced physiological hypertrophy and pressure overload‐induced pathological hypertrophy models, we found that melatonin treatment significantly improved pathological hypertrophic responses accompanied by alleviated oxidative stress in myocardium but did not affect physiological cardiac hypertrophy and oxidative stress levels. As an important mediator of melatonin, the retinoid‐related orphan nuclear receptor‐α (RORα) was significantly decreased in human and murine pathological hypertrophic cardiomyocytes, but not in swimming‐induced physiological hypertrophic murine hearts. In vivo and in vitro loss‐of‐function experiments indicated that RORα deficiency significantly aggravated pathological cardiac hypertrophy, and notably weakened the anti‐hypertrophic effects of melatonin. Mechanistically, RORα mediated the cardioprotection of melatonin in pathological hypertrophy mainly by transactivation of manganese‐dependent superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) via binding to the RORα response element located in the promoter region of the MnSOD gene. Furthermore, MnSOD overexpression reversed the pro‐hypertrophic effects of RORα deficiency, while MnSOD silencing abolished the anti‐hypertrophic effects of RORα overexpression in pathological cardiac hypertrophy. Collectively, our findings provide the first evidence that melatonin exerts an anti‐hypertrophic effect on pathological but not physiological cardiac hypertrophy via alleviating oxidative stress through transactivation of the antioxidant enzyme MnSOD in a RORα‐dependent manner.     

腹腔镜解剖性肝切除术与非解剖性肝切除术的前瞻性对比研究

目的探讨腹腔镜下解剖性肝切除术和非解剖性肝切除术治疗肝癌的临床疗效。 方法按照前瞻性随机对照试验选取本院2015年1月至2018年2月期间收治的106例肝癌患者进行，按照随机数字表法分为解剖组(行腹腔镜解剖性肝切除术)和非解剖组(行腹腔镜非解剖性肝切除术)各53例。采用SPSS20.0统计软件对数据进行分析，围术期指标、肝功能指标用( ±s)表示，采用独立t检验；术后并发症发生率、术后1年复发转移率和生存率组间比较用χ²检验；P<0.05为差异有统计学意义。 结果解剖组的手术时间明显长于非解剖组，但术中出血量、输血量明显减少，住院时间显著短于非解剖组(P<0.05)。非解剖组术后第1、3、7天血清ALT、TBIL值明显高于解剖组(P<0.05)；术后1、3天血清AST值解剖组低于非解剖组(P<0.05)。解剖组术后并发症发生率为7.5%低于非解剖组22.6%(P<0.05)。解剖组与非解剖组1年总体生存率分别为94.3%和88.6%，两组差异无统计学意义(P>0.05)；1年无瘤生存率分别为90.6%和75.5%(P＝0.038)，两组差异有统计学意义(P<0.05)。 结论相对于腹腔镜非解剖性肝切除术，腹腔镜解剖性肝切除术临床疗效更好，并有效提高1年无瘤生存率，值得在临床上进一步推广应用。     

The Influence of the Common Cold on Self-Rated Health: A Population-Based Study

ObjectiveStudies on the association between self-rated health and acute conditions are sparse. The aim of this study was to examine whether individuals respond to acute conditions (such as the common cold) in health ratings as well as the effect of chronic conditions (using the Charlson comorbidity score) on self-rated health.MethodsThe national representative survey data was linked with the claims data from the Taiwan National Health Insurance for 13,723 adults ≥ 18 years. Ordered logistic regressions with fractional polynomials were estimated to determine the relationship between the frequency of common cold episodes and the Charlson comorbidity score on self-rated health. The interactions between these two variables and the baseline age were tested.ResultsSelf-rated health worsens with the increased frequency of both common cold episodes and the Charlson comorbidity score. Both variables have a non-linear relationship with self-rated health. Younger individuals put heavier weight on acute health conditions than their older counterparts.ConclusionIndividuals respond to questions regarding their self-rated health based on their acute health condition along with chronic condition. Thus the information on self-rated health depends on the timing the information is collected, and whether at that time the individual experienced acute health conditions or not.     

环境条件对蕲艾叶品质影响的研究＊

目的 研究环境条件对蕲艾叶有效物质含量以及出绒率的影响。方法 采用国家行业标准分别测定土壤水分、pH值及有机质的含量；采用紫外-可见分光光度法测定蕲艾叶总黄酮含量；参照中国药典（2015年版）方法测定蕲艾叶挥发油和鞣质含量；采用HPLC法比较样品70%甲醇提取液的峰谱特征；采用自拟的经过方法学验证的方法检测蕲艾叶出绒率。结果 蕲艾叶品质与土壤水分、pH、日照长短及施化肥与否有关。施用化肥（含N、P、K）后所产蕲艾叶的挥发油平均含量比未施化肥的高17.6%，而总黄酮和鞣质的平均含量分别降低28.5%、30.5%，且施用化肥者5种有机酸的总含量显著降低；日照时数较短的蕲艾叶的挥发油的平均含量比日照时数长的高12.6%，但总黄酮和鞣质的平均含量分别降低23.5%、19.1%，5种有机酸的含量也显著降低，且出绒率整体较低；土壤水分较少的蕲艾叶的挥发油的平均含量比土壤水分充足的高5.5%，但总黄酮和鞣质的平均含量分别降低21.4%、34.6%，5种有机酸的含量也显著降低。蕲艾叶总黄酮和鞣质的含量在土壤酸性范围内随pH的升高而升高。结论 蕲艾的栽培应选择日照充分、土壤偏酸性且水分较充足的环境，避免施用化学肥料。     

Personal responsibility modulates neural representations of anticipatory and experienced pain

An individual's sense of personal responsibility is crucial for adaptive functioning in ever‐changing social situations. This study investigated how the sense of personal responsibility affected the neural dynamics of anticipating one's own pain and another person's pain, using EEG. Participants played a cooperation game in which either the participant (self‐context) or the confederate (other‐context) received a mild electric shock whenever one of them erred. At the anticipatory stage of pain, feedback‐related negativity (FRN) and P300 were sensitive to the degree of responsibility in both contexts. The FRN was more negative when the participant had full responsibility (only the participant had erred) than when the participant shared responsibility with the confederate (both had erred) or had no responsibility (only the confederate had erred), and shared responsibility elicited more negative FRN than no responsibility. Having no responsibility produced larger P300 amplitudes than having shared or full responsibility, whereas there was no significant difference in P300 amplitude between the shared responsibility and the full responsibility conditions. When the shock was delivered to the participants, the P2 was smaller when there was no responsibility than when there was shared or full responsibility. When participants observed the painful facial expressions of the confederates, the P300 was not sensitive to responsibility level. Our results suggest that responsibility level modulates FRN and P300 in anticipation of pain experienced by both self and others, reflecting the attentional and affective experiences in both pain‐ and empathy‐related processes.