Background and Objectives: Currently, there is a serious need to find practical biomarker(s) for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) therapeutic target(s). This study aimed to investigate the association between microRNA (miRNA, miR) expression level in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMCs) and symptomatology improvement in MDD patients before and after six-week antidepressant treatment. Methods: By using an Affymetrix array that covers 723 human miRNAs, 26 miRNAs were identified with significantly altered expression in PBMCs in MDD patients, of which 10 miRNAs were selected for quantitative real-time Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) study. Twenty out of all the 81 MDD patients were selected for miRNA expression levels testing and symptomatology assessments before and after six-week treatment. Results: Compared with the control group, the expression levels of miR-26b, miR-4743, miR-4498, miR-4485 and miR-1972 of the MDD group were significantly higher (P < 0.05); the changes of expression levels of miR-4743, miR-4498, miR-4485 and miR-1972 were positively related to retardation improvement (P < 0.05), and the change of expression level of miR-26b negatively to the improvement of day and night change (P < 0.05); regression analysis result demonstrated that the alteration of miR-4485 expression accounted for 28.8% of retardation improvement (P < 0.05). Conclusions: These five miRNAs (miR-4743, miR-4498, miR-4485, miR-1972 and miR-26b) may serve as biomarker for MDD diagnosis and therapeutic targets for MDD treatment.

An incompressible fully developed laminar flow in a helical rectangular duct having finite pitch and curvature with temperature-dependent viscosity under heating condition is studied in this work. Both the cases of one wall heated and four walls heated are studied. The cross-sectional dimensions of the rectangular duct are 2a and 2b. The aspect ratio n=2b/2a is 0.5. Water is used as the fluid and Reynolds number (Re) is varied in the range of 100 to 400. The secondary flow with temperature-dependent viscosity is enhanced markedly as compared to constant viscosity. An additional pair of vortices is obtained near the center of the outer wall at Re=400 for the model of four walls heated with temperature-dependent viscosity, y, while for constant viscosity, the appearance of two additional vortices near the outer wall cannot be found. Besides, the axial velocity decreases and the temperature increases at the central region of the rectangular duct when the temperature-dependent viscosity is considered. Due to the decrease of the viscosity near the walls, the friction factor obtained with temperature-dependent viscosity is lower than that of constant viscosity, while the convective heat transfer for temperature-dependent viscosity is significantly enhanced owing to the strengthened secondary flow. Especially for four heated walls, the effects of viscosity variation on the flow resistance and heat transfer are more significant.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the characteristics of seasonal distribution of active systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and the influences of meteorological factors including temperature and humidity on active systemic lupus erythematosus. METHODS: The characteristics of seasonal distribution of active SLE and its correlation with meteorological factors were retrospectively analyzed in 640 patients living in the city of Zhanjiang, China and had active SLE between January 1997 and December 2006. RESULTS: In winter, when there are weaker ultraviolet (UV) rays, the ratio of patients with active SLE to total inpatients was 3.89 %o, which is significantly higher than in other seasons with stronger UV rays, including 2.17 %o in spring, 1.87 0 in summer and 2.12 0 in autumn. The number of patients with active SLE had significant negative correlation with mean temperature and was not significantly related to mean humidity. CONCLUSION: Active SLE has the characteristics of seasonal distribution and is associated with temperature. The mechanism remains to be further studied.