Gallstones are common, and dietary inflammatory and antioxidant characteristics may influence their development, but sex-specific associations remain unclear. We evaluated three dietary indices in relation to gallstone prevalence and explored potential obesity-related pathways. This cross-sectional analysis included 3,904 adults from the 2017–2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The Healthy Eating Index-2015 (HEI-2015), Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII), and Comprehensive Dietary Antioxidant Index (CDAI) were derived from two 24-h dietary recalls. Survey-weighted sex-stratified logistic regression, curve fitting, threshold and subgroup analyses, and exploratory mediation analyses of body mass index (BMI) and body fat percentage (BFP) were performed. Overall, 426 participants (10.91%) reported gallstones. In females, compared with the lowest tertile, the highest DII tertile was associated with higher gallstone odds (odds ratio [OR] = 1.45, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.04–2.01; p = 0.0282), whereas the highest CDAI tertile was associated with lower odds (OR = 0.68, 95% CI 0.49–0.95; p = 0.0219). HEI-2015 was not significantly associated with gallstones. No significant associations were observed in males. In females, BMI and BFP showed exploratory indirect effects in the DII and CDAI associations, with mediated proportions of 19.47% and 26.35% for DII and 10.91% and 15.84% for CDAI, respectively. Fully adjusted models yielded an area under the curve of approximately 0.71. Higher dietary inflammatory potential and lower dietary antioxidant capacity were associated with gallstones in females, but not males. Prospective studies are needed to confirm temporality and causality.

Fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 (FGFR2) is an oncogenic driver and therapeutic target in gastric cancer, but bulk profiling cannot resolve its intratum

Background Tertiary lymphoid structures (TLS) are immune niches linked to antitumor responses. Whether neural-like programs spatially associate with TLS in gastric cancer (GC) is unclear. Methods We integrated scRNA-seq (GSE183904), Visium spatial transcriptomics (GSE251950), and TCGA-STAD RNA-seq. A 15-gene neural-like (Neuro) program and TLS program were evaluated by Spearman correlation, Lee’s L, and a ReLU-corrected coupling score. Ligand–receptor co-expression and supportive CellChat domain inference were assessed; GSE245704 provided limited corroboration. Results Neuro activity localized mainly to fibroblasts and was driven by neural adhesion/glial markers. Unadjusted Neuro–TLS associations were positive (Spearman rho 0.143–0.559; Lee’s L 0.038–0.317; permutation p ≤ 0.006), but adjustment for microenvironmental components attenuated both measures and reversed their direction in a minority of sections, indicating partial composition dependence. NeuroHigh/TLSHigh domains had higher exhaustion-signature scores (p = 0.002). GSE245704 showed a directionally concordant association (rho = 0.193; Lee’s L = 0.109). In TCGA-STAD, Coupling_ReLU was associated with inferior overall survival after adjustment (HR = 1.291, 95% CI 1.062–1.569; p = 0.010); however, Neuro alone was significant (HR = 1.322; p = 0.001), suggesting that the prognostic signal may be partly driven by the stromal neural-adhesion component. Conclusions A stromal neural-adhesion program co-localizes with TLS niches, but the relationship is partly composition-dependent. Ligand–receptor co-expression and CellChat provide supportive domain-level inference rather than direct cell–cell interaction. These findings are hypothesis-generating and require larger cohorts, higher-resolution spatial profiling, and functional validation.

Cutaneous melanoma poses an evolving public-health challenge in China, with an epidemiological profile distinct from that of Western populations. Using data from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2023, we assessed the burden of malignant skin melanoma in China from 1990 to 2023, including prevalence, incidence, mortality, years lived with disability, years of life lost, and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), and applied joinpoint regression, an intrinsic-estimator age–period–cohort (APC) model, and autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) forecasting to 2033. Age-standardized prevalence rose from 1.39 (95% uncertainty interval [UI]: 0.82, 2.15) to 5.03 (95% UI: 3.17, 8.48) per 100,000; sex-specific prevalence rose approximately 3.38-fold in males and 2.13-fold in females, whereas mortality fell from 0.33 to 0.27 per 100,000 despite rising incidence. Period effects showed the largest variation (1.32 units for males, 0.97 for females), exceeding cohort and age effects and indicating contemporaneous factors as the principal drivers. Joinpoint analysis revealed acceleration after 2013 in males (APC 1.32% → 2.93%) and four phases in females. Sex patterns reversed by 2023, with males showing higher mortality (ratio 1.08) and DALYs (ratio 1.23), while the mortality-to-incidence ratio approximately halved in both sexes. ARIMA projected continued mortality decline (37.0% overall) through 2033, with wide long-term uncertainty. Melanoma burden in China has been transformed—markedly higher prevalence alongside falling mortality—driven predominantly by period rather than demographic effects. Interpreted in light of the acral lentiginous subtype prevalent in Chinese patients, these findings support population-specific prevention and early-detection strategies beyond ultraviolet-based paradigms.