IntroductionOrthotopic liver transplant (OLT) is the primary therapy for end-stage liver disease and acute liver failure. Ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI) occurs as an inevitable consequence of the transplant process, beginning with organ procurement and preservation and followed by reperfusion of the donor organ with recipient blood during transplant (1). Data from murine models have indicated that liver IRI has hypoxic cellular stress and inflammation-mediated injury components (2-5). Local circulatory damage first induces endogenous reactive oxygen species production causing hepatocyte death. This cellular damage initiates the second phase by recruiting and activating innate immune cells at the site of injury. IRI is then further exacerbated by the adaptive immune system; indeed, activated CD4 + T cells are essential in promoting IRI-related inflammation and hepatocyte damage in mice. IRI can lead to primary graft nonfunction and need for retransplantation (6) and predisposes the recipient to both acute and chronic rejection and graft loss as well as decreases the pool of transplantable organs. Although IRI is a signifi-BACKGROUND. Orthotopic liver transplant (OLT) is the primary therapy for end-stage liver disease and acute liver failure. However, ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI) can severely compromise allograft survival. To understand the evolution of immune responses underlying OLT-IRI, we evaluated longitudinal cytokine expression profiles from adult OLT recipients before transplant through 1 month after transplant.

Background: Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) found that IGF2BP2 rs4402960 and rs1470579 polymorphisms were associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) risk. Many studies have replicated this association, but yielded inconsistent results. Materials and Methods: A case-control study consisting of 461 T2DM patients and 434 health controls was conducted to detect the genetic susceptibility of IGF2BP2 in a northern Han Chinese population. A meta-analysis was to evaluate the association more precisely in Asians. Results: In the case-control study, the carriers of TT genotype at rs4402960 had a higher T2DM risk than the G carriers (TG + GG) (adjusted odd ratio (AOR) = 1.962, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) = 1.065–3.612, p = 0.031]; CC carriers at rs1470579 were more susceptible to T2DM than A carriers (CA + AA) (AOR = 2.014, 95% CI = 1.114–3.642, p = 0.021). The meta-analysis containing 36 studies demonstrated that the two polymorphisms were associated with T2DM under the allele comparison, genetic models of dominant and recessive in Asians (p < 0.05). The rs4402960 polymorphisms were significantly associated with the T2DM risk after stratification by diagnostic criterion, size of sample and average age and BMI of cases, while there’re no consistent results for rs1470579. Conclusions: Our data suggests that IGF2BP2 polymorphisms are associated with T2DM in Asian populations.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a systemic, chronic, and progressive inflammatory autoimmune disease, affects up to 1.0% of the world population doubling mortality rate of patients and is a major global health burden. Worrisomely, we lack robust diagnostics of RA and its remission status. Research with the next-generation biomarker technology platforms such as glycomics offers new promises in this context. We report here a clinical case-control study comprising 128 patients suffering from chronic RA (80.22% in remission, 19.78% active clinically) and 195 gender- and age-matched controls, with a view to the putative glycan biomarkers of RA as well as its activity or remission status in Han Chinese RA patients. Hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography-ultra-performance liquid chromatography (HILIC-UPLC) was used for the analysis of IgG glycans. The regression model identified the glycans that predict RA status, while a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis validated the sensitivity and prediction power. Among the total 24 glycan peaks (GP1-GP24), ROC analysis showed only GP1 prediction to be highly sensitive with an area under the curve (AUC) = 0.881. Even though GP21 and GP22 could predict active status among the RA cases (p < 0.05), they had lower sensitivity of prediction with an AUC = 0.658. Taken together, these observations suggest that GP1 might have potential as a putative biomarker for RA in the Han Chinese population, while the change in IgG glycosylation shows association with the RA active and remission states. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first glycomics study with respect to disease activity and remission states in RA.

During outbreaks of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), many countries adopted quarantine to slow the spread of the virus of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Quarantine will cause isolation from families, friends, and the public, which consequently leads to serious psychological pressure with potentially long-lasting effects on the quarantined population. Experience of specific practices to improve the psychological status of the mandatory quarantined population was limited. The aim of this study was to investigate the psychological impact of mandatory quarantine, and evaluate the effect of psychological intervention on the quarantined population. We conducted a prospective cohort study to assess and manage the psychological status of a mandatory quarantined population in Beijing, China. A total of 638 individuals completed 2 questionnaires and were enrolled in this study, of which 372 participants accepted designed psychological intervention while other 266 participants refused it. The SCL-90 questionnaire was used to evaluate the psychological status and its change before and after the intervention. The differences of SCL-90 factor scores between participants and the national norm group were assessed by 2 samples t test. While the SCL-90 factor scores before and after intervention were compared with 2 paired samples t test. Compared with the Chinese norms of SCL-90, the participants had higher SCL-90 factor scores in most items of the SCL-90 inventory. The SCL-90 factor scores of participants with psychological intervention significantly decreased in somatization, obsessive-compulsive, depression, anxiety, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, and psychoticism. In contrast, most factor scores of the SCL-90 inventory changed little without statistical significance in participants without psychological intervention. Psychological problems should be emphasized in the quarantined individuals and professional psychological intervention was a feasible approach to improve the psychological status of the mandatory quarantined population in the epidemic of SARS-CoV-2.