Huang Gan formula (HGF) is a new traditional Chinese herbal medicine created according to the basic theory of traditional Chinese medicine. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effects of HGF on chronic kidney disease and determine the mechanisms of action. The extract of HGF was prepared, and qualitative and quantitative determination of phytochemical was performed with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometer and high-performance liquid chromatography. Sprague-Dawley rats (n=72) were submitted to 5/6 nephrectomy (Nx), and then respectively treated with uremic clearance granule, losartan, HGF low dose, HGF middle dose, and HGF high dose once per day for 12 weeks. The sham group of operated rats (n=22) was treated with normal saline or HGF middle dose as a background control group. Blood and urine biochemical parameters, renal tissue morphology, and mRNA and proteins of Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathways were investigated. The results showed that the quality of the extraction process could be controlled, and a total of eight major compounds were identified and quantified. HGF could decrease the level of serum creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, and urine protein and increase the renal index and creatinine clearance rate in a dose-dependent manner. HGF also remarkably reduced the glomerulosclerosis and tubulointerstitial fibrosis by blocking the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway through inhibiting the Wnt1, β-catenin, transcription factor 4, and fibronectin 1 expressions, simultaneously measured through mRNA and protein levels in the remnant kidney. These results suggest that extraction of HGF could improve remnant renal function and possibly ameliorate glomerulosclerosis and tubulointerstitial fibrosis by depressing the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway.

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Zona pellucida (ZP), which is composed of at most four extracellular glycoproteins (ZP1, ZP2, ZP3, and ZP4) in mammals, shelters the oocytes and is vital in female fertility. Several studies have identified the indispensable roles of ZP1–3 in maintaining normal female fertility. However, the understanding of ZP4 is still very poor because only one study on ZP4-associated infertility performed in rabbits has been reported up to date. Here we investigated the function of mammalian Zp4 by creating a knockout (KO) rat strain (Zp4−/− rat) using CRISPR-Cas9 mediated DNA-editing method. The influence of Zp4 KO on ZP morphology and some pivotal processes of reproduction, including oogenesis, ovulation, fertilization and pup production, was studied using periodic acid–Schiff’s staining, superovulation, in vitro fertilization, and natural mating. The ZP morphology in Zp4−/− rats was normal and none of these pivotal processes was affected. This study renewed the knowledge of mammalian Zp4 by suggesting that Zp4 was completely dispensable for female fertility.

The research was aimed to analyze the impact of epidemic pneumonia on nursing personnel’s mental health under wireless network background and to improve the selection of random forest classification (RFC) algorithm parameters by the whale optimization algorithm (WOA). Besides, a total of 148 in-service nursing personnel were selected as the research objects, and 148 questionnaires were recycled effectively. The collected data were analyzed by the improved RFC algorithm. In addition, the research investigated the impacts of demographic factors on nursing personnel’s mental health by the one-way variance method. The results demonstrated that the accuracy of the improved algorithm in training samples and test samples reached 83.3% and 81.6%, respectively, both of which were obviously higher than those of support vector machine (SVM) (80.1% and 79.3%, respectively) and back-propagation neural network (BPNN) (78.23% and 77.9%, respectively), and the differences showed statistical meanings P < 0.05 . The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) showed that the depression levels of 9.46% of the included personnel were above moderate. The Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) demonstrated that the anxiety levels of 3.38% of the included personnel were above moderate. The insomnia severity index (ISI) indicated that the insomnia levels of 3.38% of the included personnel were above moderate. The average score of male personnel (3.65) was obviously lower than that of female personnel (3.71). Besides, the average scale score of married personnel (3.78) was significantly higher than that of unmarried personnel (3.65). The average scale scores of personnel with bachelor’s (3.66) and master’s degrees (3.62) were obviously lower than those of personnel with junior college (3.77) and technical secondary school (3.75) diplomas. The average scale score of personnel with over 5-year work experience (3.68) was significantly lower than that of personnel working for less than five years (3.72). The average scale score of personnel with experience in responding to public emergencies (3.65) was obviously lower than that of personnel without related experience (3.74). The differences all showed statistical meaning P < 0.05 . The results of this research revealed that the accuracy of the improved RFC algorithm was remarkably higher than that of the SVM and BPNN algorithms. Furthermore, many nursing personnel suffered from mental diseases at different levels with the impact of the epidemic. Gender, marital status, education level, and experience in responding to public emergencies were the main factors affecting nursing personnel’s mental health.