Research in mammalian hair cell regeneration is hampered by a lack of in vivo model of adult mouse inner ear injury. In the present study we investigated the effects of a combination of a single dose of aminoglycoside followed by a loop diuretic in adult mice. The auditory brainstem response threshold shift, extent and defining characteristics of the cochlear lesion were assessed and verified at different time points post-treatment. Our data indicated that this drug combination caused the rapid and extensive death of outer hair cells (OHCs). OHC death presented throughout the cochlea that commenced in the basal turn by 24 h and progressed apically. In contrast, inner hair cell (IHC) loss was delayed and mild. Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labelling-positive nuclei demonstrated that the majority of OHCs died via an apoptotic pathway. Auditory threshold shifts of up to 90 dB SPL indicated a profound hearing loss. In addition, the endocochlear potential (EP) in the drug-treated animals displayed a significant decline at 12 h post-treatment followed by recovery by 48 h post-treatment. Despite this recovery, there was a significant and progressive decrease in strial vascularis thickness, which was predominantly due to atrophy of marginal cells. The present study reproduced an adult mouse model of aminoglycoside-induced hearing loss. The mechanism underlying the recovered EP in the model with extensive hair cell death is discussed.

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The disability rate of spinal cord injury (SCI) is extremely high, and stem cell inhibition is one of the most effective schemes in treating the spinal cord, but the survival rate is extremely low after stem cell transplantation, so it cannot be widely used in clinic. Studies have revealed that loading stem cells with biological scaffolds can effectively improve the survival rate and effect after stem cell transplantation. Therefore, this research was devised to analyze the repair effect of thiolated chitosan nanocarriers scaffold carrying de-epithelized human amniotic epithelial cells (HAECs) on SCI. And we used thiolated chitosan as nanocarriers, aiming to provide a reliable theoretical basis for future clinical practice. Through experiments, we concluded that the Tarlov and BBB scores of rats with SCI were raised under the intervention of thiolated chitosan carrying HAECs, while the inflammatory factors in serum, oxidative stress reaction in spinal cord tissue, apoptosis rate of nerve cells, and autophagy protein expression were all suppressed. Thus, the thiolated chitosan carrying HAECs may be applied to treat SCI by suppressing autophagy protein expression, oxidative stress response, and release of inflammatory factors in spinal cord tissue, which may be a new clinical therapy for SCI in the future. Even though we cannot understand exactly the therapeutic mechanism of thiolated chitosan carrying HAECs for SCI, the real clinical application of thiolated chitosan carrying HAECs needs to be confirmed by human experiments.

Background: Among patients with diabetes who had been hospitalized, 30% had twice or more hospitalisations rate, accounting for more than 50% of total hospitalizations and hospitalization expense. The purpose of our study was to to find available strategies to reduce the readmission rate of diabetics in rural areas.Methods: This retrospective single-center study used the data from Yongchuan Hospital of Chongqing Medical University. The t-test and the chi-square test or Fisher's exact test were used to compare continuous and categorical variables, respectively. We used the Spearman correlation coefficient to examine the relationship between variables. Multiple linear regression was performed to analyze the influencing factors of hospitalisation time, and dummy variables were set for categorical independent variables. Results: There were a total of 1721 readmissions during a five-year period; among them, 829 were females and 892 males. The readmission rate of diabetic patients in the endocrinology department was 32.40%. The age, times of hospitalisation, and duration of all subjects were 64.67 ± 13.82, 2.69 ± 1.41 and 10.60 ± 6.78, respectively. Among all the diabetic patients, type 2 diabetes accounted for 98.55% (n = 1696). Most of the patients were readmitted due to poor glycemic control, infection, edema, dizziness, and weakness, accounting for approximately 56%. During the 5-year period, the majority of readmitted diabetic patients were hospitalized twice. Times of hospitalisation was weakly positively correlated with age (Rho = 0.206, P≤0.001), diabetic duration (Rho = 0.248, P ≤ 0.001) and hospitalisation expenses (Rho = 0.008, P = 0.035) by Spearman correlation analysis. Age, duration of diabetes, systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) were the main factors affecting times of hospitalisation in diabetes patients (all P < 0.05). Compared with current smokers, non-smokers and cessation smokers had high hospitalisations rate (all P for trend < 0.05). When taking diabetic foot infection as a reference, edema was more accountable than diabetic foot infection for hospitalisation times, which was statistically significant (P for trend = 0.048).Conclusion: Age, duration of diabetes and hospitalisation costs were positively correlated with times of hospitalisation. Age, duration of diabetes, blood pressure, ALT, smoking status and edema are the influencing factors of hospitalisation times. The most common causes of hospitalisation for diabetics are poor glycemic control, infection, edema, dizziness, and weakness. Controlling these factors may be key to developing rational health strategies for rural diabetics.