Pulmonary vascular remodelling and inflammation have been implicated in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). YKL-40, a marker of tissue remodelling and inflammation, has recently been recognized as ...a risk predictor of cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases. The study aimed to investigate a potential role of YKL-40 in predicting prognosis in idiopathic PAH (IPAH).
Plasma YKL-40 levels were measured in 82 IPAH patients without current or previous PAH-specific treatment during right heart catheterization and in 54 healthy volunteers. Concurrent data included clinical, haemodynamic and biochemical variables.
Plasma YKL-40 levels were increased in IPAH patients compared with control subjects (median, interquartile range: IPAH: 24.90, 17.68-39.78 ng/mL; controls: 16.58, 14.20-19.64 ng/mL; P < 0.001). YKL-40 levels correlated with cardiac index (r = -0.244, P = 0.027) and N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP, r = 0.263, P = 0.017). After a median follow-up of 578 days, YKL-40 outperformed NT-proBNP, uric acid, and 6-min walk distance in receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses in predicting both clinical worsening (area under the curve (AUC) 0.681) and death (AUC 0.717). Compared with patients with YKL-40 below the ROC-derived cut-off point (24.5 ng/mL), the high YKL-40 group showed higher pulmonary vascular resistance and serum uric acid levels, and showed more clinical worsening events and deaths in Kaplan-Meier analyses. Plasma YKL-40 was independently associated with clinical worsening in univariate and multivariate Cox analyses (all P < 0.05).
Plasma YKL-40 might serve as a promising indicator of disease severity and prognosis in patients with IPAH.
The hybrid atomistic-continuum coupling method based on domain decomposition serves as an important tool for the micro-fluid simulation. There exists a certain degree of parallelism load imbalance ...when directly using the USHER algorithm in the domain decomposition–based hybrid atomistic-continuum coupling method. In this article, we propose a grid-based parallel algorithm for particle insertion, named WI-USHER, to improve the efficiency of the particle insertion operation when restricting the size of the region to be inserted or with higher number density. The WI-USHER algorithm slices the region to be inserted into finer grids with proper spacing scale, marks parts of finer grids in black according to three exclusive rules, that is, Single Particle Occupation (SPO), Single Particle Coverage (SPC), and Multi-Particles Coverage (MPC), and finds the target insertion point in the remained white grids. We use two test cases to show the superiority of our WI-USHER algorithm over the USHER algorithm. The WI-USHER algorithm performs lower averaged force evaluation times, which decreases from
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compared to the USHER algorithm when the number density of slightly high to high value. The percentage of the total parallel simulation time processed by the particle insertion operation decreases from 23.5% to 3% compared to the USHER algorithm.
Abstract Introduction The present study was designed to test the hypothesis that local angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) was involved in the cardiac hypertrophy induced by sinoaortic denervation ...(SAD) in rats. Methods Experiment 1: Six weeks after SAD of rats, components of renin–angiotensin system (RAS) in left ventricles were assayed by quantitative real-time PCR and Western blotting analysis. Experiment 2: Rats were divided into five groups treated as follows: (1) sham-operated group; (2) SAD group; (3) SAD group treated with angiotensin II type 1 receptor (AT1R) antagonist losartan (10 mg·kg − 1 ·day − 1 , orally); (4) SAD group treated by ACE inhibitor ramipril (1 mg·kg − 1 ·day − 1 , orally); (5) SAD group treated by ramipril and the B2-kinin receptor selective antagonist HOE-140 (0.25 mg·kg − 1 ·day − 1 , subcutaneously). Results SAD led to augmentation of the mRNA levels and protein expression of left ventricular ACE and AT1R. Both losartan and ramipril ameliorated SAD-induced left ventricular hypertrophy. Both losartan and ramipril abated oxidative stress, suppressed inflammation, and reduced expression TGFβ-R in left ventricles. In addition, the protective effect of ramipril could be abolished by HOE-140. Conclusion Local ACE is involved in the left ventricular hypertrophy induced by sinoaortic denervation in rats, via both angiotensin II/AT1R and bradykinin/B2R pathways.
Flow instabilities of non-Newtonian fluids severely hamper the quality of products during various chemical processes, such as fibre spinning, extrusion, and film blowing. The origin of extrusion ...instability has been studied over many decades. However, no consensus has been reached among the research community so far. In this paper, the possible cause of extrusion instabilities is explored using the finitely extensible nonlinear elastic conformation-dependent (FENE-CD) model with a nonmonotonic constitutive curve. Many well-documented experimental phenomena are reproduced in our simulations, and it could be concluded that the nonmonotonic constitutive curve plays an essential role in extrusion instabilities. In addition, the results imply that the die exit singularity may generate or magnify oscillations.
Titanium dioxide nanoparticles are precisely segregated in or on polymer submicron particles domains by phase separation between a polymer and a hydrophobic liquid or between two different polymers. ...The inorganic nanoparticles can be located either in the core, as a patch on the surface of the polymer particle, as a disk, or in the middle of Janus polymer particles. In the latter case, tricompartment submicron particles arranged in a linear triblock fashion are fabricated.
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Context Litsea cubeba (Lour.) Pers. (Lauraceae) has long been used as a folk remedy in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for the treatment of rheumatic diseases. Previous studies from our laboratory ...indicated that L. cubeba extract showed anti-arthritic activity in rats.
Objective To study L. cubeba chemically and biologically and to find the potential constituents responsible for its anti-arthritic effect.
Materials and methods The compounds were isolated from the root of L. cubeba by column chromatography which eluted with PE:EtOAc gradient system, and the structures were elucidated by detailed spectroscopic data analysis; the anti-inflammatory activity of the isolated compounds was evaluated by lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced RAW 264.7 cells and the TNF-α and NO level were measured by ELISA (commercial kit); The iNOS and COX-2 mRNA expression were measured by RT-PCR and the phosphorylation of IκBα, IKKβ, P38 and Akt were determined by western blots.
Results A novel 9-fluorenone, 1-ethoxy-3,7-dihydroxy-4,6-dimethoxy-9-fluorenone (1), together with 4 known compounds, namely pinoresinol (2), syringaresinol (3), 9,9′-O-di-(E)-feruloyl-meso-5,5′-dimethoxysecoisolariciresinol (4) and lyoniresinol (5) were isolated from the root of L. cubeba for the first time. The IC
50
for NO inhibition on compounds 1 and 4 were 56.1 ± 1.2 and 32.8 ± 2.3 μM, respectively. The IC
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for TNF-α inhibition were 28.2 ± 0.9 and 15.0 ± 1.0 μM, respectively. Both 1 and 4 suppress mRNA expression of iNOS, COX-2 and protein phosphorylation of IκBα, IKKβ in LPS-induced RAW 264.7 cells.
Discussion and conclusion Compounds 1 and 4 isolated from L. cubeba exhibited potent anti-inflammatory activity through the NF-κB signal pathway.
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