Plos One
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In the past three years, the Government of China initiated health reform with rural public health system construction to achieve equal access to public health services for rural residents. The study assessed trends of public health services accessibility in rural China from 2008 to 2010, as well as the current situation about the China's rural public health system performance. ⋯ The implementation of health reform since 2009 has led the public health development towards the right direction. Physical access to public health services had increased from 2008 to 2010. But, inter- and intra-regional inequalities in public health system coverage still exist. Strategies to improve the quality and equality of public health services in rural China need to be considered.
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The cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway is an endogenous mechanism by which the autonomic nervous system attenuates macrophage activation via nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR). This concept has however not been demonstrated at a cellular level in intact tissue. To this end, we have studied the effect of nicotine on the activation of resident macrophages in a mouse stomach preparation by means of calcium imaging. ⋯ This study is the first in situ demonstration of an inhibition of macrophage activation by nicotine suggesting functional signaling between cholinergic neurons and macrophages in the stomach. The data suggest that the β2 subunit of the nAChR is critically involved in the nicotine-induced inhibition of these resident macrophages.
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Adipose tissue expressed endogenous cystathionine gamma lyase (CSE)/hydrogen sulfide (H2S) system. H2S precursor inhibited catecholamine stimulated lipolysis. Thus, we hypothesized that CSE/H2S system regulates lipolysis which contributed to the pathogenesis of insulin resistance. ⋯ These results implicated that inhibition endogenous CSE/H2S system in adipocytes increased lipolysis by a protein kinase A-perilipin/hormone-sensitive lipase pathway, thus blunted fat mass increase and reduced insulin resistance in obese mice; giving H2S donor decreased lipolysis, also reduced insulin resistance induced by HFD. Our data showed that increase or decrease H2S induced opposite lipolysis, but had the same effect on insulin resistance. The paradoxical regulation may be resulted from different action of H2S on metabolic and endocrine function in adipocyte.
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Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Antidepressant and neurocognitive effects of isoflurane anesthesia versus electroconvulsive therapy in refractory depression.
Many patients have serious depression that is nonresponsive to medications, but refuse electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Early research suggested that isoflurane anesthesia may be an effective alternative to ECT. Subsequent studies altered drug, dose or number of treatments, and failed to replicate this success, halting research on isoflurane's antidepressant effects for a decade. Our aim was to re-examine whether isoflurane has antidepressant effects comparable to ECT, with less adverse effects on cognition. ⋯ Our data reconfirm that isoflurane has an antidepressant effect approaching ECT with less adverse neurocognitive effects, and reinforce the need for a larger clinical trial.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Analysis of serum inflammatory mediators identifies unique dynamic networks associated with death and spontaneous survival in pediatric acute liver failure.
Tools to predict death or spontaneous survival are necessary to inform liver transplantation (LTx) decisions in pediatric acute liver failure (PALF), but such tools are not available. Recent data suggest that immune/inflammatory dysregulation occurs in the setting of acute liver failure. We hypothesized that specific, dynamic, and measurable patterns of immune/inflammatory dysregulation will correlate with outcomes in PALF. ⋯ The application of DBN analysis of inflammatory mediators in this small patient sample appears to differentiate survivors from non-survivors in PALF. Patterns associated with LTx pre-transplant were more like those seen in spontaneous survivors than in those who died. DBN-based analyses might lead to a better prediction of outcome in PALF, and could also have more general utility in other complex diseases with an inflammatory etiology.