Purpose To investigate the effects of exenatide on renal injury in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. Methods Fifty SD rats were randomly divided into normal control, model, exenatide-1, exenatide-2 and exenatide-3 groups, 10 rats in each group. The diabetic nephropathy model was constructed in later 4 groups. Then, the later 3 groups were treated with 2, 4 and 8 μg/kg exenatide for 8 weeks, respectively. The serum and urine biochemical indexes and oxidative stress and inflammatory indexes in renal tissue were determined. Results Compared to the model group, in exenatide-3 group the serum fasting plasma glucose and hemoglobin A1c levels were significantly decreased, the fasting insulin level was significantly increased, the renal index and blood urea nitrogen, serum creatinine and 24 h urine protein levels were significantly decreased, the renal tissue superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase levels were significantly increased, the malondialdehyde level was significantly decreased, and the renal tissue tumor necrosis factor alpha, interleukin 6, hypersensitive C-reactive protein and chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 5 levels were significantly decreased P<0.05). Conclusions Exenatide can mitigate the renal injury in diabetic rats. The mechanisms may be related to its resistance of oxidative stress and inflammatory response in renal tissue.

In China, the prevalence of idiopathic membranous nephropathy (IMN) is increasing with a younger age of onset. From January 2012 to October 2018, biopsy‐proven nephrotic IMN patients aged between 15 and 40 in Taian City Central Hospital treated with tacrolimus (TAC) were retrospectively analyzed. Twelve‐month follow‐up data were collected. A total of 86 patients were enrolled in this study. Forty patients in the TAC group received TAC monotherapy with an initial dose of 0.05 to 0.1 mg/kg/day. Forty‐six patients in the TAC + Pred group received TAC combined with oral prednisone (0.5 mg/kg/day initially). Remission rate, relapse rate, and adverse events in the two groups were assessed. Total remission (TR) rates at the end of the 3rd, 6th, and 12th month were 15%, 35%, and 77.5% (TAC group) and 28.3%, 56.5%, and 80.4% (TAC + Pred group), respectively. Compared with the TAC group, the TAC + Pred group had higher complete remission rates at the end of the 6th and 12th month, and TR rate at the 6th month was significantly higher. Twenty‐four‐hour urinary protein excretion, serum albumin and estimated glomerular filtration rate between the two groups were comparable during the follow‐up. Decrease in proteinuria was significantly greater in the TAC + Pred group. No significant difference of relapse rate was found between the two groups. Adverse effects in the two groups were mild and controllable. Both TAC monotherapy and TAC combined with medium‐dose prednisone are effective and safe for young adults with nephrotic IMN, while TAC + Pred regimen brings more benefits.

BackgroundAcute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a common hematologic malignancy of adults. The pathophysiological mechanism of AML is not well understood. The purpose of this study was to examine the crucial miRNAs and mRNAs associated with AML survival.Material/MethodsThe full clinical dataset of miRNA and mRNA expression profiling of AML patients was downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas database. Univariate Cox regression analysis was performed to obtain those miRNAs and mRNAs associated with AML survival. A miRNA-mRNA interaction network was constructed. The underlying functions of mRNAs were predicted through Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEEG) pathway enrichment. The expression levels of miRNAs and mRNAs were detected by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR).ResultsFourteen miRNAs and 830 mRNAs associated with AML survival were identified. Of the 14 miRNAs, hsa-mir-425, hsa-mir-1201, and hsa-mir-1978 were identified as risk factors and the other 11 miRNAs were identified as protective factors of AML survival. For target-genes of miRNAs, GTSF1, RTN4R, and CD44 were the top risk factor target-genes associated with AML survival. An interaction network was constructed that including 607 miRNA-target gene pairs associated with AML survival. Target-genes associated with AML survival were significantly enriched in several pathways including pancreatic secretion, calcium signaling pathway, natural killer cell mediated cytotoxicity, and Alzheimer’s disease. The qRT-PCR results were consistent with our bioinformatics analyses.ConclusionsThe miRNA hsa-mir-425 was identified as the top risk factor miRNA of AML survival and CD44 was identified as one of the top three risk factor target-genes associated with AML survival. Both hsa-mir-425 and CD44 may play key roles in progression and development of AML through calcium signaling pathway and natural killer cell mediated cytotoxicity.

BackgroundThis study investigated the correlations between acute cerebral hemorrhage complicated with stress ulcer bleeding and corresponding indexes, including the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II score, vascular endothelin-1 (ET-1), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), and blood lipid factors.Material/MethodsA total of 53 patients with acute cerebral hemorrhage complicated with stress ulcer bleeding were selected as the observation group and 50 patients with simple acute cerebral hemorrhage were selected as the control group. The APACHE II score and the levels of ET-1, TNF-α, and blood lipid factors, including total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C), and malondialdehyde (MDA), were detected and the correlations of were analyzed between the 2 groups of patients.ResultsThe blood lipid index TG, APACHE II score, ET-1, TNF-α, renal function indexes [blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine (Cr)], mortality rate, hemoglobin, and MDA in the observation group were significantly higher than those in the control group, while HDL-C in the observation group was obviously lower than in the control group (p<0.05). The APACHEII score had positive correlations with TG and TNF-α (r=0.8960, r=0.8563, respectively), while it was negatively correlated with TC, HDL-C, LDL-C, and ET-1 (r=−0.909, r=−0.9292, r=−0.8543, and r=−0.8899, respectively) (p<0.001 in all comparisons). APACHEII score, BUN, and Cr were all risk factors.ConclusionsStress ulcer in patients with acute cerebral hemorrhage is associated with blood lipid changes and inflammation, which provides clues for the diagnosis and treatment of acute cerebral hemorrhage.

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