There was a significant increase in CD4(+)CD25(-)Foxp3(+)T cells in patients with new-onset SLE that correlated with anti-dsDNA titres, whereas no alteration in either the percentage or function of CD4(+)CD25(+)Foxp3(+)T cells was observed.

Background:This study explored the association between smoking and colorectal malignant carcinoma (CRC) in the Chinese population at the national level for the first time.Methods:In the China Nationwide Retrospective Mortality Survey conducted during 1989–1991, 12 942 CRC cases among 1 136 336 all-cause deaths aged ⩾30 years were randomly assigned 25 884 control interviews from 325 255 surviving spouses of all-cause deaths across 103 urban and rural areas.Results:Compared with non-smokers, smoking significantly increased the risk of CRC-specific mortality by 9.8% (odds ratio (OR)=1.098, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.046–1.153) adjusted for sex, age, and residence. There were significant dose–response relationships between smoking and CRC, such as smoking years, cigarettes smoked daily, and age at onset of smoking. Long-term heavy smokers aged ⩾50 years with ⩾30 smoking years and ⩾20 cigarettes daily had an excess risk of CRC deaths of 30.2% (OR=1.302, 95% CI=1.214–1.397). The strongest association between these smoking variables, such as long-term heavy smokers (OR=1.604, 95% CI=1.341–1.919), and CRC was observed among rural men.Conclusions:Quitting smoking at any time would likely be beneficial to CRC prevention. Long-term heavy smokers and rural men should be viewed as special targets for smoking prevention and cessation programs.

Urinary sodium levels are reported to be associated with blood pressure in clinical trials and epidemiology studies. Nevertheless, the public health message of reducing sodium intake in free-living community populations remains under debate. Based on an ongoing prospective study initiated in 2012 with a community-based design in Xinjiang, China, 1668 adults (⩾30 years old) were assessed in the current study for associations between urinary sodium and blood pressure and hypertension in a free-living population of Kazakh people. After excluding 223 people on antihypertensive medication, 1445 participants were analyzed. Second urine samples after waking were used to estimate 24-h urinary sodium excretion, which is a marker for sodium intake. Following analyses, we found that the distribution of systolic and diastolic blood pressures moved upward with increasing quartiles of urinary sodium. After adjusting for age, differences in median systolic blood pressure were 8.5 mm Hg for men and 8.0 mm Hg for women between the top and bottom urinary sodium quartiles, and differences for diastolic blood pressure were 4.7 mm Hg for men and 4.3 mm Hg for women. A significant increased risk for hypertension was observed for the top quartile of urinary sodium after adjusting for age, body mass index, smoking, alcohol consumption, fruit and vegetable consumption, with corresponding odds ratios being 1.61 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.02-2.54) for men and 1.92 (95% CI: 1.13-3.27) for women. Improving education about reducing salt intake is of particular public importance to reduce blood pressure and the risk for hypertension among the Kazakh people.

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