Walking as a singular exercise therapy has no significant effects on BMD at the lumbar spine, at the radius, or for the whole body in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women, although significant and positive effects on femoral neck BMD in this population are evident with interventions more than 6 months in duration.

Overall results suggest that a low-fat diet is efficacious in reducing the concentrations of TC, HDL-C, and LDL-C but not in reducing TG and TC-to-HDL-C ratio in women. A low-fat diet is efficacious in reducing TC, HDL-C, and LDL-C in premenopausal women. Additional studies are needed to further address its effects on postmenopausal women.

Diabetic nephropathy ( DN ) is a complication of diabetes mellitus ( DM ) that frequently results in renal disease, and is characterized by a variety of symptoms, including albuminuria. It has been shown that apoptosis of glomerular mesangial cells ( MC s) can aggravate albuminuria and contribute to the development of diabetic glomerulosclerosis. Hence, determination of the mechanisms leading to MC apoptosis may help us gain insights into the pathogenesis of DN . As our understanding of the role of high glucose ( HG ) in MC apoptosis remains elusive, we explored the interplay between X‐box binding protein 1 ( XBP 1) and MC apoptosis in this study. XBP 1 was observed to be downregulated both in vivo and in vitro . Treatment of XBP 1‐overexpressing cells with HG resulted in a decrease of reactive oxygen species ( ROS ) and a suppression of cell apoptosis, concomitant with decreases in cleaved caspase‐3 and Bax. Subsequent analyses demonstrated that XBP 1 overexpression inhibited the expression of phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome ten ( PTEN ) and enhanced the activation of AKT in MC s exposed to HG . In addition, XBP 1‐induced injuries in MC were reversed by overexpression of PTEN , and XBP 1 inhibited apoptosis, which was mediated by the activated PTEN / AKT signaling pathway. Thus, our data indicate that XBP 1 can activate the PTEN / AKT signaling pathway, thereby alleviating oxidative stress caused by HG or MC apoptosis. These findings suggest that XBP 1 may have potential in the development of treatment methods for DN .

The optimal timing of glucocorticoid treatment for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia is uncertain. We evaluated the clinical outcomes of methylprednisolone therapy (MPT) for patients with a high-risk common type (HRCT) COVID-19 pneumonia. We conducted a multicenter retrospective cohort study in Northeast China. A comparison was performed between the standard treatment (SDT) group and the SDT + MPT group to determine the efficacy of methylprednisolone in treating HRCT COVID-19 pneumonia. We collected the medical records of 403 patients with HRCT COVID-19 pneumonia (127 in the SDT + MPT group and 276 in the SDT group). None of the patients had received mechanical ventilation or died. Furthermore, there were no side effects associated with MPT. Patients in the SDT + MPT group treated with methylprednisolone received an intravenous injection for a median interval of five days (interquartile range of 3 to 7 days). The trends in lymphocyte count, C-reactive protein, interleukin 6, lactic acid dehydrogenase, respiratory rate, SpO2, PaO2, D-dimer and body temperature were similar between the SDT + MPT and SDT groups. The results for the SDT + MPT group seemed to improve faster than those for the SDT group; however, the results were not statistically significant. Clinical outcomes revealed that the average hospitalized days and the rate of progression to severe type COVID-19 pneumonia in both the SDT + MPT group and the SDT group were 14.56 ± 0.57 days versus 16.55 ± 0.3 days (p = 0.0009) and 21.26% (27/127) versus 32.4% (89/276) (p = 0.0247), respectively. The 16-day nucleic acid negative rate was higher in the SDT + MPT group than in the SDT group, 81.73% (104/127) versus 65.27% (180/276) (p = 0.0006). MPT effectively prevents patients with HRCT COVID-19 pneumonia from progressing to the severe stage.Keywords COVID-19 pneumonia • A high-risk common type • Methylprednisolone therapy • Optimal timing