Effect of acupuncture on serum levels of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis related hormones and immune factors in rats with allergic rhinitisJiale, Zhongming, Wei
et alJ Tradit Chin Med (2025) 45 (2), 359-367
Abstract: To explore the correlation between acupuncture treatment for allergic rhinitis (AR) and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis regulation by investigating changes in serum immune factors, HPA axis-associated hormone levels, activation levels of paraventricular nucleus (PVN) neurons, and the severity of nasal mucosal lesions, in rats with AR before and after acupuncture treatment.After establishing the AR rat model, ovalbumin was administered vianasal drip to all groups except the blank control. Each group received continuous treatment for 14 d: the acupuncture, acupuncture + RU-486 (mifepristone), and RU-486 groups received acupuncture only, RU486 intraperitoneal injection and acupuncture, and RU-486 intraperitoneal injection only, respectively. Following the intervention period, behavioral scoring was performed on all AR rats, and peripheral blood, nasal mucosa samples, and brains tissue (containing PVN region) were obtained following euthanization. Interleukin (IL-4, IL-5, IL-13), interferon gamma (IFN-γ), corticosterone (CORT), and corticotrophin-releasing hormone (CRH) levels were evaluated in peripheral blood samples. Adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) levels were determined using an enzyme-linked immunoassay assay, and hematoxylin and eosin staining was performed on the nasal mucosa samples. The expression levels of c-Fos in PVN neurons following acupuncture treatment were evaluated by immunofluorescent staining.Following the intervention period, the behavioral scores for the blank control group were lower than those of other groups (P < 0.05), while the acupuncture group scores were lower than those in the model control, acupuncture + RU486, and RU486 groups (P < 0.05). The blank control group had lower serum IL-4, IL-5, and IL-13 levels than those in the other groups (P < 0.05). The acupuncture group had lower serum IL-4, IL-5, and IL-13 levels than those in the model control, acupuncture + RU486, and RU486 groups (P < 0.05). The blank control group had the highest serum IFN-γ levels among all groups, followed by the acupuncture group. The serum CORT, CRH, and ACTH levels in the blank control group were lower than those in the remaining groups (P < 0.05). These biomarker levels were also lower in the acupuncture group than those in the model control, acupuncture + RU486, and RU486 groups (P < 0.05). Compared with model, rats in the acupuncture group exhibited an increased c-Fos expression in PVN neurons.Acupuncture can alleviate AR symptoms and regulate serum inflammatory factor levels and HPA axis-related hormones in AR rats. Moreover, these effects are inhibited by glucocorticoid antagonists, suggesting that acupuncture may regulate AR symptoms through HPA axis regulation.
Discriminatory Value and Validation of a Risk Prediction Model Based on Serum Cytokines in Pediatric Acute Appendicitis: A Single-Center Experience of 483 CasesZhou, Liu, Song
et alChildren (Basel) (2025) 12 (3)
Abstract: Objectives: Pediatric acute appendicitis (AA) is one of the most prevalent acute abdominal conditions in pediatric surgery. Children with complicated acute appendicitis (CA) may need timely surgical decisions and have a worse prognosis. In this study, we explored the risk factors and developed a predictive model for complicated AA in children. Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted on patients data from those hospitalized for acute appendicitis, confirmed by post-surgery pathological results, at Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University between September 2022 and October 2023. Lasso regression was performed to identify risk factors, and multivariate logistic regression analysis was used for model establishment. Results: Serum levels of IFN-γ, IL-5, IL-6, IL-8, and IL-10 before surgery were useful in classifying acute appendicitis in children. IL-6, IL-8, and IL-10, on their own, had high predictive values for CA in children. Independent risk factors for CA were age, IL-10, and IFN-γ. A multifactorial logistic regression prediction model was established, demonstrating good predictive efficacy. Its predictive sensitivity was 70.0%, specificity 73.9%, with an AUC of 0.7949. Furthermore, the results of the external validation indicated that the model's accuracy was good, with an AUC of 0.8567. Conclusions: Early identification of CA is imperative for timely clinical decision-making. Prediction models based on age, IL-10, and IFN-γ may be reliable and accurate in predicting the incidence of CA, which may lead to better clinical outcomes for children with AA.
Development of a Monoclonal Antibody Against Duck IFN-γ Protein and the Application for Intracellular Cytokine StainingChen, Song, Chen
et alAnimals (Basel) (2025) 15 (6)
Abstract: Interferon-γ (IFN-γ), a member of the Type II IFN family, is a crucial cytokine in the immune system and serves as an important indicator of immune response. Intracellular cytokine staining (ICS) is a technique used to analyze the production of cytokines within individual cells, and it has a wide range of applications in the fields of immunological monitoring, vaccine trials, and the study of infectious diseases. This study aimed to prepare monoclonal antibodies against duck IFN-γ protein and to establish an ICS protocol for detecting the duck IFN-γ protein. The duIFN-γ-His or duIFN-γ-Fc gene was cloned into the pEE12.4 expression vector and expressed as a recombinant protein of size 20.2 KDa or 54.9 KDa in 293F cells. The purified recombinant proteins were inoculated into BALB/c mice to generate splenic lymphocytes capable of secreting anti-duIFN-γ antibodies, and hybridoma cells were obtained after fusion with SP2/0 cells. A new hybridoma cell line named 24H4, which stably secreted IgG3 κ subtype antibody against duck IFN-γ, was established. This monoclonal antibody (mAb) was identified by Western blot to recognize duck IFN-γ antibodies, and the indirect ELISA results showed that its ability to recognize IFN-γ protein reached 0.001 μg/mL. The established ICS method was used to stain PBMCs after Concanavalin A (ConA) stimulation, and duck IFN-γ protein was successfully detected by flow cytometry, indicating that the ICS method was successful. In this study, we provide a crucial tool for subsequent research on duck cellular immune responses by using the monoclonal antibody 24H4.
Comparison of 46 Cytokines in Peripheral Blood Between Patients with Papillary Thyroid Cancer and Healthy Individuals with AI-Driven Analysis to Distinguish Between the Two GroupsBae, Bae, Oh
et alDiagnostics (Basel) (2025) 15 (6)
Abstract: Background: Recent studies have analyzed some cytokines in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC), but simultaneous analysis of multiple cytokines remains rare. Nonetheless, the simultaneous assessment of multiple cytokines is increasingly recognized as crucial for understanding the cytokine characteristics and developmental mechanisms in PTC. In addition, studies applying artificial intelligence (AI) to discriminate patients with PTC based on serum multiple cytokine data have been performed rarely. Here, we measured and compared 46 cytokines in patients with PTC and healthy individuals, applying AI algorithms to classify the two groups. Methods: Blood serum was isolated from 63 patients with PTC and 63 control individuals. Forty-six cytokines were analyzed simultaneously using Luminex assay Human XL Cytokine Panel. Several laboratory findings were identified from electronic medical records. Student's t-test or the Mann-Whitney U test were performed to analyze the difference between the two groups. As AI classification algorithms to categorize patients with PTC, K-nearest neighbor function, Naïve Bayes classifier, logistic regression, support vector machine, and eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) were employed. The SHAP analysis assessed how individual parameters influence the classification of patients with PTC. Results: Cytokine levels, including GM-CSF, IFN-γ, IL-1ra, IL-7, IL-10, IL-12p40, IL-15, CCL20/MIP-α, CCL5/RANTES, and TNF-α, were significantly higher in PTC than in controls. Conversely, CD40 Ligand, EGF, IL-1β, PDGF-AA, and TGF-α exhibited significantly lower concentrations in PTC compared to controls. Among the five classification algorithms evaluated, XGBoost demonstrated superior performance in terms of accuracy, precision, sensitivity (recall), specificity, F1-score, and ROC-AUC score. Notably, EGF and IL-10 were identified as critical cytokines that significantly contributed to the differentiation of patients with PTC. Conclusions: A total of 5 cytokines showed lower levels in the PTC group than in the control, while 10 cytokines showed higher levels. While XGBoost demonstrated the best performance in discriminating between the PTC group and the control group, EGF and IL-10 were considered to be closely associated with PTC.
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