BACKGROUND: The aim was to validate the correlation between corneal shape parameters and axial length growth (ALG) during orthokeratology using Image-Pro Plus (IPP) 6.0 software.
METHODS: This retrospective study used medical records of myopic children aged 8-13 years (n = 104) undergoing orthokeratology. Their corneal topography and axial length were measured at baseline and subsequent follow-ups after lens wear. Corneal shape parameters, including the treatment zone (TZ) area, TZ diameter, TZ fractal dimension, TZ radius ratio, eccentric distance, pupil area, and pupillary peripheral steepened zone(PSZ) area, were measured using IPP software. The impact of corneal shape parameters at 3 months post-orthokeratology visit on 1.5-year ALG was evaluated using multivariate linear regression analysis.
RESULTS: ALG exhibited significant associations with age, TZ area, TZ diameter, TZ fractal dimension, and eccentric distance on univariate linear regression analysis. Multivariate regression analysis identified age, TZ area, and eccentric distance as significantly correlated with ALG (all P < 0.01), with eccentric distance showing the strongest correlation (β = -0.370). The regressive equation was y = 1.870 - 0.235a + 0.276b - 0.370c, where y represents ALG, a represents age, b represents TZ area, and c represents eccentric distance; R2 = 0.27). No significant relationships were observed between the TZ radius ratio, pupillary PSZ area, and ALG.
CONCLUSIONS: IPP software proves effective in capturing precise corneal shape parameters after orthokeratology. Eccentric distance, rather than age or the TZ area, significantly influences ALG retardation.

In recent decades, the prevalence of obesity has been rising. One of the major characteristics of obesity is fat accumulation, including hyperplasia (increase in number) and hypertrophy (increase in size). After histological staining, it is critical to accurately measure the number and size of adipocytes for assessing the severity of obesity in a timely fashion. Manual measurement is accurate but time-consuming. Although commercially available adipocyte counting tools, including AdipoCount, Image-Pro Plus, and ImageJ were helpful, limitations still exist in accuracy and time consuming. In the present study, we introduced the protocol of combined usage of these tools and illustrated the process with histological staining slides from adipose tissues of lean and obese mice. We found that the adipocyte sizes quantified by the tool combination were comparable as manual measurement, whereas the combined methods were more efficient. Besides, the recognition effect of monochrome segmentation image is better than that of color segmentation image. Overall, we developed a combination method to measure adipocyte sizes accurately and efficiently, which may be helpful for experimental process in laboratory and also for clinic diagnosis.

OBJECTIVE: The value of virtual touch tissue imaging (VTI) with support of Image-Pro Plus (IPP) for diagnosing malignant thyroid tumors was assessed in the present study.
METHODS: In this retrospective study, we enrolled 160 patients with 198 thyroid nodules. TI-RADS, VTI grade, and VTI with support of IPP (VTI-IPP) were underwent for each nodule. With the pathological diagnosis as the gold standard, the receiver-operating characteristic curve (ROC) was drawn to evaluate the diagnostic performance of VTI-IPP, VTI, TI-RADS, VTI-IPP combinate with TI-RADS in thyroid carcinoma.
RESULTS: VTI-IPP score >2, VTI score >3, TI-RADS score >1, and VTI-IPP combine with TI-RADS score >4 expressed the highest diagnostic value for malignant thyroid nodules, the areas under the curve (AUC) were 0.939, 0.905, 0.925, and 0.967, respectively. The combination indicated the largest AUC, compared with VTI-IPP and TI-RADS, respectively (P = 0.0054 and 0.0009). The performance of VTI-IPP in diagnosing thyroid carcinomas was better than VTI (P = 0.0321).
CONCLUSIONS: Compare with VTI, VTI-IPP exhibited more excellent value in distinguishing between benign and malignant thyroid nodules. The value of malignant thyroid nodules diagnosis can be improved when VTI-IPP combines with TI-RADS.

There is a significant correlation between the degree of tumor differentiation and the survival of patients with gastric cancers. In this report, we compared proteomic differences between poorly differentiated gastric adenocarcinoma tissues and well-differentiated gastric adenocarcinoma tissues in order to identify differentiation-related proteins that may be closely correlated with differentiation of gastric cancer pathogenesis. We identified 7 proteins, of which calreticulin precursor, tapasinERP57 heterodimer, pyruvate kinase isozymes M1/M2 isoform M2, class Pi glutathione S-transferase, and chain A crystal structure of human enolase 1 were upregulated in poorly differentiated gastric adenocarcinoma compared with well-differentiated gastric adenocarcinoma, while myosin-11 isoform SM2A and actin alpha cardiac were downregulated. Two of them, pyruvate kinase isozymes M1/M2 isoform M2 and enolase 1 are enzymes involved in glycolytic pathway. The upregulation of pyruvate kinase isozymes M1/M2 isoform M2 and enolase 1 in poorly differentiated gastric adenocarcinoma was confirmed by Western blotting and immunohistochemistry. Furthermore, we observed 107 cases with gastric adenocarcinoma and found that the high expression of pyruvate kinase isozymes M1/M2 isoform M2 and enolase 1 correlates with tumor size (P = .0001 and P = .0017, respectively), depth of invasion (P = .0024 and P = .0261, respectively), and poor prognosis of patients. In conclusion, with this proteomic analysis, pyruvate kinase isozymes M1/M2 isoform M2 and enolase 1 were identified upregulated in poorly differentiated gastric adenocarcinoma comparing with well-differentiated gastric adenocarcinoma. The expression level of pyruvate kinase isozymes M1/M2 isoform M2 and enolase 1 was significantly correlated with overall survival. Some of them would be differentiation-related cancer biomarkers and are associated with tumor metastasis, invasion, and prognosis.

Demyelinating diseases include multiple sclerosis, which is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by immune attacks on the central nervous system (CNS), resulting in myelin sheath damage and axonal loss. Leucine-rich repeat and immunoglobulin domain-containing neurite outgrowth inhibitory protein (Nogo) receptor-interacting protein-1 (LINGO-1) have been identified as a negative regulator of oligodendrocytes differentiation. Targeted LINGO-1 inhibition promotes neuron survival, axon regeneration, oligodendrocyte differentiation, and remyelination in diverse animal models. Although studies in rodent models have extended our understanding of LINGO-1, its roles in neural development and myelination in zebrafish (Danio rerio) are not yet clear. In this study, we cloned the zebrafish homolog of the human LINGO-1 and found that lingo1b regulated myelination and oligodendrocyte differentiation. The expression of lingo1b started 1 (mRNA) and 2 (protein) days post-fertilization (dpf) in the CNS. Morpholino oligonucleotide knockdown of lingo1b resulted in developmental abnormalities, including less dark pigment, small eyes, and a curly spinal cord. The lack of lingo1b enhanced myelination and oligodendrocyte differentiation during embryogenesis. Furthermore, immunohistochemistry and movement analysis showed that lingo1b was involved in the axon development of primary motor neurons. These results suggested that Lingo1b protein functions as a negative regulator of myelination and oligodendrocyte differentiation during zebrafish development.

BACKGROUND: Sheng-Nao-Kang decoction (SNK), a modified traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), has been used clinically for the treatment of acute and chronic cerebrovascular related diseases. To evaluate the protective effect of SNK on focal cerebral ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury in rats and investigate the underlying mechanisms.
METHODS: Focal cerebral I/R injury in rats was induced by middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) for 2h followed by reperfusion for 24h. Adult male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were randomly divided into six kinds of groups: Sham group; I/R group; SNK-treated groups at doses of 0.7 g/kg, 1.4 g/kg and 2.8 g/kg; and nimodipine (NMP)-treated group. The recoveries of neurological function in rats were estimated by neurological defect scoring and 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) staining after 24h reperfusion. Various biochemical indexes in serum were assayed by colorimetry, including malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and total nitric oxide synthase (TNOS). Histological structures of the brain in rats were observed by hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining. Immunohistochemistry was performed to detect the caspase-3 protein content in rats.
RESULTS: SNK administration significantly reduced the neurological defect scores and lessened the cerebral infarction volume. The treatment of SNK lowered MDA content, up-regulated SOD and GSH-Px levels, down-regulated iNOS and TNOS levels in serum. Furthermore, histological examination indicated that dense neuropil and largely surviving neurons were seen in SNK-treated rats. SNK administration restrained the expression of caspase-3 positive protein significantly.
CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that SNK demonstrates a strong and ameliorative effect on cerebral I/R damage in rats. The protective mechanisms of SNK are associated with its properties of anti-apoptosis and anti-oxidation as well as regulation of iNOS and TNOS.