Blumea balsamifera, also named Ainaxiang, is widely used as an ancient medicinal herb in tropical and subtropical Asia. It is rich in essential oils. In this work the essential oils of B. balsamifera from different plant organs and in different months were extracted, and then analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The results showed that essential oil yield of young leaves was the highest (0.65 mL/100 g), followed by mature leaves (0.57 mL/100 g), and the oil yield was higher in October (0.47 mL/100 g) than other months. A total of 44 compounds were identified, representing 92.64%–96.71% of the oil. Eighteen common chemical components were found among the six plant organs, representing >80% of the oil constituents. l-borneol was the main ingredient in leaves, and its content was the highest in senescent leaves and in December. In the essential oils of young shoots and young stems, the main component was dimethoxydurene. Antioxidant activity was also determined using the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and β-carotene bleaching (BCB) assays. The results indicated that the β-carotene bleaching activity was far stronger than the DPPH radical-scavenging capacity, and the young leaves and young shoots showed stronger antioxidant activity. Dimethoxydurene, β-caryophyllene, and α-caryophyllene play a positive role in good antioxidant activity, while β-eudesmol, phytol, and tetradecanal play a negative role. The antioxidant activity revealed in this study might help in developing this promising bioresource for use in the medicinal and cosmetic industries.

Sebocyte regeneration after injury is considered a key element of functional skin repair. Exosomes from adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs-EXO) accelerate wound healing by promoting the proliferation of fibroblasts. However, the effects of ADSCs-EXO on sebocytes are largely unknown. In this study, the effects of ADSCs-EXO on sebocyte proliferation and migration were evaluated. The levels of phosphorylated AKT (p-AKT), AKT, sterol regulatory-element binding protein (SREBP), and perilipin-1 (PLIN-1) were detected with immunofluorescence, quantitative PCR, and western blot analysis. RNA-Seq was used to analyze the differential gene expression between the ADSCs-EXO group and the control group under anaerobic conditions. Lipogenesis was assessed with Nile red staining. In animal studies, full-thickness skin wounds in BALB/c mice were treated with gelatin methacrylate (GelMA) hydrogel-loaded sebocytes alone or in combination with ADSCs-EXO. Histopathological assessments of the wound tissues were performed Masson Trichrome staining, Immunohistochemical staining and so on. The phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT pathway blocker LY294002 inhibited the effects of ADSCs-EXO on p-AKT and sebocytes proliferation. ADSCs-EXO also regulated the expression of SREBP-1 and PLIN-1 through the PI3K/AKT pathway in an oxygen level-dependent manner. In BALB/c mice, ADSCs-EXO accelerated sebocyte-assisted wound healing and regeneration. These in vitro and in vivo results supported that ADSCs-EXO can promote the regeneration of fully functional skin after injury through the PI3K/AKT-dependent activation of sebocytes. Graphical abstract

The genus Blumea is one of the most economically important genera of Inuleae (Asteraceae) in China. It is particularly diverse in South China, where 30 species are found, more than half of which are used as herbal medicines or in the chemical industry. However, little is known regarding the phylogenetic relationships and molecular evolution of this genus in China. We used nuclear ribosomal DNA (nrDNA) internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) trnL-F sequences to reconstruct the phylogenetic relationship and estimate the divergence time of Blumea in China. The results indicated that the genus Blumea is monophyletic and it could be divided into two clades that differ with respect to the habitat, morphology, chromosome type, and chemical composition of their members. The divergence time of Blumea was estimated based on the two root times of Asteraceae. The results indicated that the root age of Asteraceae of 76–66 Ma may maintain relatively accurate divergence time estimation for Blumea, and Blumea might had diverged around 49.00–18.43 Ma. This common ancestor had an explosive expansion during the Oligocene and Miocene and two major clades were differentiated during these epochs 29.60 Ma (17.76–45.23 Ma 95% HPD (Highest Posterior Density). Evidence from paleogeography and paleoclimate studies has confirmed that Blumea experienced differentiation and an explosive expansion during the Oligocene and Miocene.

Background: Early neurologic deterioration (END) may occur in patients with anterior circulation ischemic stroke (ACIS) after receiving endovascular treatment (EVT). Hemodynamic insufficiency, re-occlusion, and post-re-canalization hyper-perfusion are likely to play a critical role in END. We hypothesized that hemodynamic changes can predict END in patients with ACIS post-successful EVT using trans-cranial Doppler (TCD). Methods: We utilized a prospectively maintained database of ACIS patients treated with EVT between September 2016 and June 2018 in the Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University. TCD parameters including peak systolic velocity (PSV), bilateral mean flow velocity (MFV), and pulse index (PI) were determined via the middle cerebral arteries within 72 h post-EVT. A logistic regression model was applied to detect independent predictors for END. Results: Totally, 112 EVT patients were included in this study and 80/112 patients experienced successful re-canalization with <50% residual stenosis, while 17/80 (21.3%) patients suffered END, for which vasogenic cerebral edema (11/17) was considered as a leading role and followed by symptomatic intra-cranial hemorrhage (4/17) and ischemia progression (2/17). For the 80 patients, the PSV (median: 127 cm/s vs. 116 cm/s, P = 0.039), the ratio of ipsilateral-MFV/contra-lateral-MFV (iMFV/cMFV) (median: 1.29 vs. 1.02, P = 0.036) and iMFV/mean blood pressure (MBP) (median: 0.97 vs. 0.79, P = 0.008) in END patients were higher than those of non-END. Using the receiver-operating characteristic curve to obtain cut-off values for PSV, PI, iMFV/cMFV, and iMFV/MBP for END, we found that PI ≥0.85 (odds ratio: 11.03, 95% confidence interval: 1.92–63.46, P = 0.007) and iMFV/MBP ≥0.84 (odds ratio: 9.20, 95% confidence interval: 2.07–40.84, P = 0.004) were independent predictors of END in a multivariate logistic regression model, with a sensitivity of 82.4% and 76.5% and a specificity of 42.9% and 66.7%, respectively, and had the positive predictive values of 29.0% and 38.2%, and negative predictive values of 90.0% and 91.3%, with an area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve of 0.57 and 0.71, respectively. Conclusion: TCD examination of EVT patients may be used as a real-time tool to detect END predictors, such as the higher PI and iMFV/MBP, allowing for better post-thrombectomy management in ACIS patients.

Since 1978, with the first IVF (in vitro fertilization) baby birth in Manchester (England), more than eight million IVF babies have been born throughout the world, and many new techniques and discoveries have emerged in reproductive medicine. To summarize the modern technology and progress in reproductive medicine, all scientific papers related to reproductive medicine, especially papers related to reproductive translational medicine, were fully searched, manually curated and reviewed. Results indicated whether male reproductive medicine or female reproductive medicine all have made significant progress, and their markers have experienced the progress from karyotype analysis to single-cell omics. However, due to the lack of comprehensive databases, especially databases collecting risk exposures, disease markers and models, prevention drugs and effective treatment methods, the application of the latest precision medicine technologies and methods in reproductive medicine is limited.

Blumea balsamifera (Ai-na-xiang) is used as an important plant source of natural borneol, which is widely used in the pharmaceutical industry. The aim of this study was to establish the methods based on near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy for determining the geographical origin of B. balsamifera, as well as developing a method for the quantitative rapid analysis of the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). A total of 109 samples were collected from China in 2013 and arbitrarily divided into calibration and prediction sets using the Kennard–Stone algorithm. The l-borneol and total flavone contents of the samples were measured by gas chromatography and ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, respectively. The NIR spectra were acquired using an integrating sphere and a partial least squares (PLS) model was built using the optimum wavelength regions, which were selected using a synergy interval partial least-squares (SiPLS) algorithm. The root mean square errors of prediction of the l-borneol and total flavone models were 0.0779 and 2.2694 mg/g, with R² of 0.9069 and 0.8013, respectively. A discriminant model to determine the geographical origin of B. balsamifera (Guizhou and Hainan) was also established using a partial least squares discriminant analysis method with an optimum pretreatment method. The prediction accuracy rate of the model was 100%. NIR spectroscopy can be used as a reliable and environmentally friendly method to determine the API and the origin of different B. balsamifera samples.