At present, there are 8 sources of neural stem calls (NSCs), such as the early embryo, umbilical cord blood, brain tissue of adults and bone marrow, which are used for experiments. Four methods are also provided to isolate NSCs, for example, the serial passage and the gene transduction. Most of the hotspots at home and abroad are on the modulation of NSC transplantation in vivo, to make it proliferate and differentiate in hand. Most findings are achieved through experiments on rodents, no matter in vitro or vivo, which indicate that the proliferation and differentiation of NSCs can be affected by a variety of biological factors and drugs. Even more, the effects are multiple according to the factors and drugs of different kinds and the same kind of different concentrations, even the same factor would have different roles in different process of the culture of NSCs. The survival of NSCs during transplantation can also be affected by local microenvironment. Neither the NSC endogenous nor exogenous treatment is efficient. Furthermore, the body also rejects the exogenous NSCs. Taken together, it is tough for us to conclude that a factor does have some effects on the NSCs. Moreover, there are still a series of key problems unveiled clinically, such as how to perfect transplantation and whether to choose exogenous or endogenous NSCa for transplantation.

It is considered that the central nervous system (CNS) is an immunologically privileged organ, but its immunological privilege is not complete, and immunological rejection may also occurred after tissue transplantation. Neural stem cell (NSC) transplantation has developed a brand-new approach for the treatment of various CNS diseases. Despite the low immunogenicity of NSC, there are also troubles of immunological rejection. This article reviews the immunological characteristics of CNS, the mechanisms of immunological response and immunological rejection in CNS, as well as the problems of immunological rejection of NSC transplantation.

Objective To study the in vivo expression patterns of caspase-3 in normally aged primate brain. Methods Fresh brain tissue was taken from 4-year-old and 20-year-old female rhesus monkeys,4 for each age group. In vivo distribution of caspase-3-positive cells and its protein levels in different brain regions were investigated by immunohistochemical and immunoblot means,respectively. Results In the frontal cortex,most neurons lacked detectable caspase-3 immunoreactivity,whereas low to moderate caspase-3 immunostaining was found mainly in pyramidal cells in CA1,CA3 and CA4 subdivisions of hippocampus. And in the cerebellum,a small number of Purkinje cells were strongly stained in their cytosol and dendrites,while their nuclei lacked staining. Age-related changes in caspase-3 expression pattern were not found. Immunostaining of motor cortex in aged monkeys localized strong caspase-3 immunoreactivity to a limited number of large pyramidal cells in layer V. Immunoblotting revealed the 32 000 caspase-3 progenitor in all three brain regions. There were no differences in caspase-3 expression levels as a function of either brain region or age of animals. Conclusions These results suggest that caspase-3 is constitutively expressed in matured primate brain and there is no significant age-related change in its expression.

Objective To study the serum iaminin (LN) and fibronectin (FN) changes in acute coronary syndromes (ACS), and explore the role of them in assessing the severity of ACS. Methods This study included 46 ACS patients [25 with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and 21 with unstable angina (UA)], 51 stable angina (SA) patients and 47 people without CHD as controls. Serum levels of LN, FN, fibrinogen and blood fat were assessed. Coronary angiography were performed on 49 of them. Results The serum concentration of LN was lower in ACS patients [(85.20±27. 57)ng/mL], higher in SA patients [(116. 80 ± 28. 80)ng/mL] as compared to that in the control group [(100.06±29.96)ng/mL], with significant difference among the groups (P<0.05). No difference was found in FN among the three groups. However, the subgroup analysis in the group with ACS showed that the serum concentration of FN was significantly higher in UA patients [(229.60±121.39)μg/mL ], and lower in AMI patients [(108.31±47.12) μg/mL ]. The serum LN and FN concentration could respectively enter the logistic regression equations of ACS patients and US patients. Neither LN nor FN concentration was correlated with narrowing of coronary artery of angiography. Conclusion Serum LN and FN level may be a useful indicator for stability of atherosclerosis plaque in coronary arterial disease patients, but could not predict the extent of narrowing in coronary angiography.

BACKGROUND: Caspase-3 is well recognized as the key caspase carrying out apoptosis in animal and human brain. To date, a few studies revealed the expression of caspase-3 protein in brains of normal persons and Alzheimer patients but data obtained from rodents exhibited much discrepancy.OBJECTIVE: To investigate the different expression patterns of caspase-3in rodent and monkey brain, and the different expression of caspase-3 in different brain regions and during aging in monkeys.DESIGN: Parallel comparison between means of single variable.SETTING: Institute of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Chinese PLA General Hospital and Department of Anatomy, the Chinese University of Hong Kong.MATERIALS: The experiment was carried out from August, 2003 to February, 2005 in Institute of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Chinese PLA General Hospital and Department of Anatomy, the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Sprague Dawley rats, ICR mice and senescence-accelerated mice (SAM) with ages ranging from postnatal 2, 12, 24 to 48 weeks(n=5 for each age group of different rodents) were included in the present study. All of these animals were supplied by Laboratory Animal Services Center, the hinese University of Hong Kong. Totally 8 rhesus monkeys aged 4 years (n=4) or 20 years (n=4) were selected from the Laboratory Animal Center in Chinese PLA General Hospital [SCXK-(Beijing)2003-002]. Both ro dents and monkeys were female and were raised under standard conditions without any experimental interventions. METHODS: ①Brain tissue samples were taken freshly from both rodents and monkeys and made into homogenate. The expression of caspase-3 pro tein in brains of both rodents and monkeys was investigated with im munoblot. ② The expression levels in monkey brains were exhibited quantitatively with the same method in three brain regions, such as the frontal cortex, hippocampus and cerebellar cortex, for the two age-groups. In vivo distribution patterns of caspase-3-immunoreactive cells were further presented in 3 brain regions of monkeys through immunohistochemistry. MAIN OUTCOME MEATURES: ①Detection of caspase-3 protein with immunoblot in the brain of rodents and monkeys; ② Distribution patterns of caspase-3-immunoreactive cells in 3 brain regions of monkeys. RESULTS: ① Result of detection with immunoblot: The same pattern of caspase-3 protein expression in brain of three kinds of 2-week-old rodents. But the expression was not seen in any other brains of older ages. Caspase 3 was expressed in a relatively high level inboth adult and aged monkey brains, and the amount did not attain to the level in 2-week-old rodents. Caspase-3 Was expressed in the pattern of zymogen (Mr 32 000). The ex pressions of caspase-3 in brains of monkey were not different in ages and brain regions. ②Result of Immunohistochemistry: It was showed that most neurons in the frontal cortex lack detectable caspase-3 immunoreactivity, whereas low to moderate caspase-3 immunostaining be found mainly in pyramidal cells in CA1, CA3 and CA4 subfields of hippocampus. And in the cerebellum, a small number of Purkinje cells were strongly stained in their cytosol and dendrites. Age-related expression pattern of caspase-3 were not found except that in the motor cortex of aged monkeys in which there were a limited number of large pyramidal cells in layer Ⅴ that were strongly stained with caspase-3 antibody.③ Immunoblot procedure revealed that the caspase-3 protein expressed in monkey brains is in the form of zymogen (Mr 32 000) and there is no significant difference in caspase-3 expression level as a function of either brain region or age of animals.CONCLUSION: Unlike rodents in which caspase-3 protein rapidly drops to an undetectable level since animals grow up, the primate expresses caspase-3 constitutively in brain until the late period of lifetime. But there are no significant brain region- or age-related differences in the protein levels in monkey brain.

Background:Fenretinide,which is capable of generating reactive oxygen species( ROS ),has emerged as a promising antineoplastic agent based on numerous in vitro and in vivo studies and clinical chemoprevention trials. Preliminary studies showed that fenretinide could induce apoptosis in human hepatocellular carcinoma( HCC)cells in vitro, however,the precise mechanism was not clarified. Aims:To elucidate the effect of ROS on apoptosis of human HCC cells induced by fenretinide and the underlying mechanism. Methods:Human HCC cell line Huh-7 was treated with antioxidant vitamin E,fenretinide or their combination,respectively. ROS in live cells was evaluated by confocal microscopy and flow cytometry;cell viability and apoptosis were assessed by CellTiter-Glo Luminescent Cell Viability Assay Kit and Caspase-Glo3/7 Assay Kit;expression and intracellular localization of nuclear receptor Nur77,as well as expression of stress-induced transcription factor GADD153 were measured by immunofluorescence staining and Western blotting,respectively. Results:Vitamin E pretreatment fully blocked the fenretinide-induced ROS production. In Huh-7 cells pretreated with vitamin E,cell apoptosis induced by fenretinide was significantly reduced(P<0. 05). Furthermore,effect of vitamin E pretreatment was noteworthy on reducing fenretinide-induced GADD153 expression, while no significant impact on fenretinide-induced Nur77 expression and translocation was observed. Conclusions:Elimination of ROS by vitamin E can abrogate the pro-apoptotic effect of fenretinide on Huh-7 cells,which indicates the participation of ROS in fenretinide-induced apoptosis of human HCC cells. Its mechanism might be associated with induction of GADD153 protein expression.

Objective To understand the blood pressure variability (BPV) and the influencing factors through ambulatory blood pressure monitoring during hemodialysis (HD) in the end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients.Method Eighty-one ESRD patients on maintenancing HD for more than three months were enrolled into the study.The patients were with properly dry body weight.The blood pressure was monitored using dynamic blood pressure monitor around the HD.BPV was estimated with the coefficient of variation (CV) and standard deviation (SD) of the systolic blood pressure (SBP-CV,SBP-SD).Patients were divided into two groups according to the mean of SBP-CV:high SBPV group and low SBPV group.The possible influencing factors such as age,dialysis duration,ultrafitration volume,ultrafiltration/body weight,therapy of antihypertensive,electrolyte,nutrition state,metabolic bone disease indexes,inflammatory state and serum lipid state were analyzed and compared between the two groups.And multivariate stepwise regression analysis was made between the SBP-CV,SBP-SD and the above observational parameters.Results The average SBP-CV of the 81 patients was (8.12± 3.16)％,SBP-SD was (11.22±4.55) mm Hg.The proportion of hypertention and hypotention in high SBPV(SBP-CV≥8.12％) group (20.0％,25.7％) was higher than that in the low SBPV(SBP-CV ＜8.12％) group (8.7％,6.5％)(P =0.009).Serum high-sensitivity c-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) were higher in high SBPV group than that in the low SBPV group[(7.19± 5.95) mg/L vs (3.35±2.78) mg/L,P =0.001 and (180.31±96.32) U/L vs (98.00±41.19) U/L,P =0.049].Serum creatinine and potassium were higher in the low SBPV group than that in the high SBPV group [(1015.83±276.20) μmol/L vs (893.63±216.61) μmol/L,P =0.034 and (5.27±0.78) mmol/L vs (4.80± 0.23) mmol/L,P =0.005].SBP-SD was positively correlated with hs-CRP (β =0.499,P ＜ 0.01),SBP-CV was positively correlated with hs-CRP and dialysis vintage (β =0.464 and 0.211,P ＜ 0.01 and P ＜ 0.05) by the multivariate stepwise regression analysis.Conclusions The SBP-CV during HD is 8.12％ in ESRD patients.Hypertention and hypotention are more often in the higher SBPV patients.SBPV is closely related to the serum hs-CRP.

[Absrtact] Objective To investigate the effect of anatomic quantitative target evaluation of class-room teaching on students' professional knowledge learning ability. Methods Twenty-five international students of 6-year program of grade 2013 were chosen as the experimental group, while twenty-seven Chinese students coming from the same class of grade 2013 and fifteen international students of 6-year program of grade 2012 were chosen as two control groups; quantitative and non-quantitative evaluation were imple-mented respectively by classroom questions and answers; teaching effects were evaluated by scales in the separation of teaching and examination, by records of answers for in-class questions and by questionnaire survey; SPSS 20.0 was used to make statistical analysis, one-way ANOVA and Kruskal Wallis test to com-pare the scores of three groups of students, P<0.05 indicates statistic significance. Results Compared with control groups, the accuracy of answers for class questions were improved greatly in the experimental group (2/3~3/4) vs. (1/2) and (2/3~3/4) vs. (1/2) and the average test scores (80.62±5.93) vs. (79.62±5.93) and (80.62 ±5.93) vs. (70.16 ±6.36) of the experimental group students were higher than control groups, the difference was statistically significant between the control group and the control group (P=0.045). Conclusions
Quantitative evaluation of teaching objectives in anatomy class can improve the learning attitude of foreign students and enhance their academic ability.

Objective To explore suitable anatomy for teaching methods for international medical students from multiple sources. Methods Thirteen international medical students of 6-year-programme (grade 2011) and 19 Chinese medical students of five-year-programme were taught with Chinese system anatomy(module) textbooks and Chinese-English bilingual textbook(as reference) by three-step bilingual anatomy teaching method , which includes previewing anatomical vocabulary , teaching Chinese and foreign students in the same class. Teaching effect was international tested by scale separating teaching and examing and questionnaire survey. SPSS 10.0 was used to do statistical analysis and t test was used to compare the score of Chinese medical students and international med-ical students. P<0.05 students for statistic difference. Results Average test scores of international and Chinese students in the same class were 86.2 and 88.1 respectively, with no significant difference (P﹥0.05). 92.3%(12/13) international students were satisfied with this teaching method and the same class teaching for Chinese and international students . Conclusions Three-step bilingual anatomy teaching method in the same class may be more suitable for international students from multiple sources and this teaching method is worthy of further study and practice.

Fifty five patients with alcohol induced-mental disorder (study group) and 43 local inhabitants without history of alcohol abuse (control group) were surveyed with family environment scale (FES-CV) and generic quality of life inventory-74 (GQOLI-74). The total score and the scores of all dimensions except material life in GQOLI-74 of study group were significantly lower than those of control group(P ＜0. 05). Compared with control group, the scores in FES of study group were lower for factors of cohesion, expressiveness, active-recreational orientation, moral-religious emphasis and organization in the patient's family, while the scores for conflict and control were higher( P ＜ 0. 05 or P ＜ 0. 01 ). The results indicate that family environment is closely correlated with quality of life in patients with alcohol-induced mental disorder, and family therapy would improve their quality of life.