BackgroundDrought and soil salinity are major abiotic stresses. The mechanisms of stress tolerance have been studied extensively in model plants. Caragana korshinskii is characterized by high drought and salt tolerance in northwestern China; unique patterns of gene expression allow it to tolerate the stress imposed by dehydration and semi-desert saline soil. There have, however, been no reports on the differences between C. korshinskii and model plants in the mechanisms underlying their drought and salt tolerance and regulation of gene expression.ResultsThree sequencing libraries from drought and salt-treated whole-seedling- plants and the control were sequenced to investigate changes in the C. korshinskii transcriptome in response to drought and salt stresses. Of the 129,451 contigs, 70,662 (54.12 %) were annotated with gene descriptions, gene ontology (GO) terms, and metabolic pathways, with a cut-off E-value of 10−5. These annotations included 56 GO terms, 148 Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways, and 25 Clusters of Orthologous Groups (COG). On comparison of the transcriptomes of the control, drought- and salt-treated plants, 1630 and 1521 contigs showed significant differences in transcript abundance under drought and salt stresses. Compared to the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in drought- or salt-treated Arabidopsis in the database, 542 DEGs in drought-treated C. korshinskii and 529 DEGs in salt-treated samples were presumably unique to C. korshinskii. The transcription profiles revealed that genes related to transcription factors, protein kinases, and antioxidant enzymes are relevant to the tolerance of drought and salt stress in this species. The expression patterns of 38 randomly selected DEGs were confirmed by quantitative real-time PCR and were essentially consistent with the changes in transcript abundance identified by RNA-seq.ConclusionsThe present study identified potential genes involved in drought and salt tolerance in C. korshinskii, as well as many DEGs uniquely expressed in drought- or salt-treated C. korshinskii samples compared to Arabidopsis. To our knowledge, this study is the first exploration of the C. korshinskii transcriptome under drought and salt conditions, and these results will facilitate the discovery of specific stress-resistance-related genes in C. korshinskii, possibly leading to the development of novel plant cultivars through genetic engineering.

BackgroundPost-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common psychological disorder caused by unusual threats or catastrophic events. Little is known about the combined incidence of PTSD after earthquakes. This study aimed at evaluating the combined incidence of PTSD among survivors after earthquakes using systematic review and meta-analysis.MethodsThe electronic databases of PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and PsycARTICLES were searched for relevant articles in this study. Loney criteria were used to assess the quality of eligible articles. The combined incidence of PTSD was estimated by using the Freeman-Tukey double arcsine transformation method. Subgroup analyses were conducted using the following variables: the time of PTSD assessment, gender, educational level, marital status, damage to one’s house, bereavement, injury of body and witnessing death.ResultsForty-six eligible articles containing 76,101 earthquake survivors met the inclusion criteria, of which 17,706 were diagnosed as having PTSD. Using a random effects model, the combined incidence of PTSD after earthquakes was 23.66 %. Moreover, the combined incidence of PTSD among survivors who were diagnosed at not more than 9 months after earthquake was 28.76 %, while for survivors who were diagnosed at over nine months after earthquake the combined incidence was 19.48 %. A high degree of heterogeneity (I2 = 99.5 %, p<0.001) was observed in the results, with incidence ranging from 1.20 to 82.64 %. The subgroup analyses showed that the incidence of PTSD after earthquake varied significantly across studies in relation to the time of PTSD assessment, gender, educational level, damage to one’s house, bereavement, injury of body and witnessing death. However, stratified analyses could not entirely explain the heterogeneity in the results.ConclusionsGiven the high heterogeneity observed in this study, future studies should aim at exploring more possible risk factors for PTSD after earthquakes, especially genetic factors. In spite of that, the results of this study suggest that nearly 1 in 4 earthquake survivors are diagnosed as having PTSD. Therefore, the local government should plan effective psychological interventions for earthquake survivors.

BackgroundDiabetic foot ulceration is receiving more attention because of its high amputation and mortality rate. It is essential to establish the frequency of amputations in people with diabetes after any change to the management of diabetic foot care. The present study aim to compare the frequency of lower-extremity amputations in patients with diabetes foot ulcer over a ten-year period.MethodsSix hundred forty eight patients with diabetes foot ulcer were retrospectively studied from 2004 to 2013. The clinical features, laboratory results and the lower-extremity amputations were recorded. Major amputation was defined as amputations above the ankle while minor amputation was amputations below the ankle in the present study.ResultsPatients with diabetic foot ulcer were old (age 66.96 ± 11.96 years), with a long duration of diabetes (10.30 ± 6.94 years), high HbA1c (9.19 ± 2.62 %), SBP (144.05 ± 24.18 mmHg), DBP (79.53 ± 11.88 mmHg), LDL-C (2.71 ± 0.93 mmol/L) and had great frequency of neuropathy (62.7 %), retinopathy (45.0 %), nephropathy (39.5 %) and PAD (33.2 %). From 2004 to 2013, the frequency of all lower-extremity amputations is 12.0 % (5.2 % major amputation, 6.8 % minor amputation). The frequency of major amputations decreased from 9.5 % in 2004 and 14.5 % in 2005 to less than 5.0 % after 2006. In particular, there was a significant decline in major amputations of diabetic foot patient with Wagner 3 to 4 wounds. The frequency rate of major amputations in diabetic foot patient with Wagner 3 to 4 wounds fell from 35.7 % in 2004 to 4.4 % after 2007. The change in frequency of minor amputations was fluctuation.ConclusionThis study demonstrates that the introduction of a multidisciplinary team, coordinated by an endocrinologist and a podiatrist, for managing diabetic foot disease is associated with a reduction in the frequency of major amputations in patients with diabetes.

BackgroundNasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a type of head-neck cancer with a distinguishable geographic and racial distribution worldwide. Increasing evidence supports that the accumulation of additional genetic and epigenetic abnormalities is important in driving the NPC tumorigenic process. In this study, we aim to investigate the association between EIF5A2 (Eukaryotic translation initiation factor 5A2) expression status and NPC clinical outcomes.MethodsThe expression status of EIF5A2 was investigated in the NPC tissue microarray. Tissues were from 166 NPC patients staging II-IV, collected between 1999 and 2005. All patients were administered 2–3 cycles of DDP (cisplatin) + 5-Fu (5-fluorouracil) induction therapy and then treated with a uniform conventional two-dimensional radiotherapy. Cell motility assay, tumor growth assay and cytotoxicity assay were performed on the EIF5A2 overexpressed cells and control cells. siRNA was also used in the in vitro studies.ResultsPositive staining of EIF5A2 was observed in 85.4 % (105/123) informative tumor cases. Multivariate analyses demonstrated that EIF5A2 was an independent prognostic marker of poor overall survival (OS) (P = 0.041), failure-free survival (FFS) (P = 0.029), and distant failure-free survival (D-FFS) (P = 0.043) in patients with locoregionally advanced NPC patients treated with cisplatin + 5-Fu chemoradiotherapy. The forced expression of EIF5A2 in NPC cells enhanced the cells’ motility and growth ability. Knock-down of EIF5A2 in NPC cells decreased the cell’s motility and growth ability. Our results also demonstrated that EIF5A2 overexpression induced chemoresistance of NPC cells to 5-Fu.ConclusionsOur findings suggested that EIF5A2 expression, as examined by immunohistochemistry, could function as an independent prognostic factor of outcomes in NPC patients with cisplatin + 5-Fu chemoradiotherapy. EIF5A2 might be a novel therapeutic target for the inhibition of NPC progress.

BackgroundPost-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is one of the most prevalent long-term psychiatric disorders among survivors of traumatic events. It is well established that social support has been related to the onset of PTSD after natural disasters. However, very little is known whether or not social support has had an influence on the recovery from the PTSD that was diagnosed after floods. This study, therefore, made a follow-up assessment of PTSD in flood victims 13–14 years after they were diagnosed with PTSD in 2000 to measure the prevalence rate of PTSD among them and identify the association between social support and their recovery from PTSD.MethodsVictims who had experienced Dongting Lake flood in 1998 and had been diagnosed as having PTSD in 2000 were enrolled in this study. A follow-up survey was done between the years 2013 and 2014 to diagnose the victims again of PTSD using the DSM-IV criteria. Social support and its three dimensions were measured using the Chinese version of Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS), including objective support, subjective support and support utilization. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews using a structured questionnaire. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to examine the relationship between social support and the recovery from PTSD after flood.ResultsOut of 321 subjects with prior PTSD, 51 (15.89 %) were diagnosed as still having PTSD. Logistic regression analyses indicated that the recovery from prior PTSD was significantly associated with social support (odds ratio (OR) =0.202, 95 % confidence interval (95 % CI): 0.047–0.878), subjective support (OR = 0.236, 95 % CI: 0.080–0.694) and support utilization (OR = 0.245, 95 % CI: 0.071–0.844).ConclusionsThe prevalence rate of current PTSD indicates that natural disasters, such as floods, may affect the mental health of victims for a long time. Social support was significantly associated with the recovery from prior PTSD, especially subjective support and support utilization.

BackgroundSurgical stress initiates a series of host hormone, metabolism and immune responses, which predominantly affect the homeostatic mechanism of patients with major surgery. B7-H3 is a co-stimulatory molecule and has been shown to participate in both adaptive and innate immune responses. In this study we evaluated the clinical significance of plasma B7-H3 levels in pediatric patients with different types of operation and degrees of surgical stress.MethodsA total of 48 children received pediatric general and cardiac surgery were recruited into this study. Based on the surgical stress scoring, children were divided into moderate stress (n = 14) and severe stress (n = 34) groups. Plasma B7-H3 levels were assessed at selected time points: before surgery, immediately after surgery, at day 1, day 3, and day 7 after surgery. Correlations between plasma B7-H3 levels and surgical stress scores were also examined.ResultsPlasma B7-H3 levels were significantly decreased in all 48 pediatric patients after surgery compared to the B7-H3 level before surgery (p < 0.01). Children with general surgery showed significant decreases in plasma B7-H3 immediately after surgery, and at day 3 and day 7 after surgery (p < 0.05, p < 0.01), whereas children with cardiac surgery showed reduced plasma B7-H3 immediately after surgery and at day 3 after surgery (p < 0.05). Plasma B7-H3 in cardiac surgery group was dropped much lower than that in general surgery group at day 1 (p < 0.05) and day 3 (p < 0.01) after surgery. Significantly reduced plasma B7-H3 was observed in the severe stress group, but not in the moderate stress group, immediately after surgery and at day 3 after surgery (p < 0.05), and severe stress group had significantly lower plasma B7-H3 levels than moderate stress group at day 1, day 3, and day 7 after surgery (p < 0.05). Furthermore, plasma B7-H3 levels at day 1 (p = 0.01) and day 3 (p = 0.025) after surgery correlated negatively with surgical stress scores.ConclusionsPlasma B7-H3 levels were decreased significantly in children subjected to pediatric general and cardiac surgery, which is closely associated with the severity of surgical stress. The negative correlation of plasma B7-H3 levels at day 1 and day 3 after surgery with surgical stress scoring implicates that the plasma B7-H3 level might be a useful biomarker for monitoring stress intensity during pediatric surgery.