YTH Domain Containing 1 (YTHDC1) is one of the m⁶A readers that is essential for oocyte development and tumor progression. The role of YTHDC1 in neuronal survival and ischemic stroke is unknown. Here, we found that YTHDC1 was unregulated in the early phase of ischemic stroke. Knockdown of YTHDC1 exacerbated ischemic brain injury and overexpression of YTHDC1 protected rats against brain injury. Mechanistically, YTHDC1 promoted PTEN mRNA degradation to increase Akt phosphorylation, thus facilitating neuronal survival in particular after ischemia. These data identify YTHDC1 as a novel regulator of neuronal survival and modulating m⁶A reader YTHDC1 may provide a potential therapeutic target for ischemic stroke.

The development and treatment of some diseases, such as large-area cerebral infarction, cerebral hemorrhage, brain tumor, and craniocerebral trauma, which may involve the injury of the dura mater, elicit the need to repair this membrane by dural grafts. However, common dural grafts tend to result in dural adhesions and scar tissue and have no further neuroprotective effects. In order to reduce or avoid the complications of dural repair, we used PLGA, tetramethylpyrazine, and chitosan as raw materials to prepare a nanofibrous dura mater (NDM) with excellent biocompatibility and adequate mechanical characteristics, which can play a neuroprotective role and have an antifibrotic effect. We fabricated PLGA NDM by electrospinning, and then chitosan was grafted on the nanofibrous dura mater by the EDC-NHS cross-linking method to obtain PLGA/CS NDM. Then, we also prepared PLGA/TMP/CS NDM by coaxial electrospinning. Our study shows that the PLGA/TMP/CS NDM can inhibit the excessive proliferation of fibroblasts, as well as provide a sustained protective effect on the SH-SY5Y cells treated with oxygen–glucose deprivation/reperfusion (OGD/R). In conclusion, our study may provide a new alternative to dural grafts in undesirable cases of dural injuries.

Background: Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) is the gold standard for the measurement of spinal parameters. The aim of this study is to evaluate the practical value of using an iPhone to rapidly measure lumbosacral spine-pelvic sagittal parameters, and compared the measurement time and accuracy between iPhone and PACS. Methods: The study group consisted of 50 patients. They were examined with a lateral x-ray of the whole spine in a standard standing position, as well as by three-dimensional CT scan of the lumbosacral area from January to September 2016. An iPhone was employed to take and observe pictures in order to measure the extent of lumbar lordosis (LL), pelvic tilt (PT), and sacral slope (SS). We compared the results with those obtained with PACS, and analyzed the reliability and measurement errors between the two acquisition methods. Results: The average measurement values obtained with PACS were as follows: (LL): 53.56 ± 15.76°, (PT): 12.60 ± 5.15°, (SS): 42.16 ± 13.29°. The average measurement values obtained by iPhone were as follows: LL: 52.20 ± 14.46°, PT: 12.48 ± 5.39°, SS: 12.48 ± 5.39°. There was no statistical significance difference found between the values obtained using the two methods, P > 0.05. The two methods of measurement of intra-class correlation coefficients (ICCs) were 0.938(De-LL), 0.812(De-PT) and 0.946(De-SS). There was no statistically significant difference in the deviation between the two measurement methods. PACS measurement time: 18.53 ± 1.44 s; iPhone measurement time: 14.02 ± 1.08 s, iPhone demonstrating statistically significant faster measurement times than PACS, P < 0.05. Conclusion: Using the iPhone’s built-in photo editing function to rapidly measure the parameters of the spinal- pelvic sagittal plane balance in the lumbosacral region is relatively accurate and reliable. This might provide a great convenience for Orthopedists in their clinical works, because they can measure imaging pictures with their iPhones at any time and place.