Objective:To study the expression of angiotensin-converting enzyme(ACE),extracellular signal-regulated kinase(ERK),and the changes of atrial fibrosis in patients with rheumatic heart disease(RHD) and atrial fibrillation(AF) treated with angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor(ACEI).Methods:Atrial tissues were obtained from the right appendage during open surgery in 35 patients with RHD.The mRNA of ACE and ERK2 were semi-qualified by reverse transcription-ploymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR) and normalized to the glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase(GAPDH).Western blotting analysis was employed to examine the expressions of ACE and phosphorylated ERK(pERK).Atrial collagen volume fraction(CVF) was detected by Masson's stain.Results:The mRNA of ACE and ERK2 or the protein of ACE and pERK were significantly increased,and CVF was significantly increased in patients with chronic atrial fibrillation(CAF) compared with sinus rhythm group(SR)( P 0.05).Conclusion:The expressions of ACE,ERK2 and pERK increase,and fibrosis is more severe in RHD patients with CAF as compared with those with SR.Compared with CAF patients treated without ACEI,the expressions of ERK2 and pERK significantly decrease( P 0.05)in CAF patients treated with ACEI.This suggests that the increasing expression of ERK2 and pERK resulting from local renal angiotensin-converting enzyme system activation mediates the development of atrial fibrosis,and ACEI may contribute to lesser atrial fibrosis in RHD patients with AF.

According to the sera aquaporin-4 antibody (AQP4), neuromyelitis optica (NMO) can be classified into two types as AQP4 antibody positive (AQP4+) and negative (AQP4-). However, the NMO patients with AQP4- are prone to delayed treatment, and may have a different pathogenesis compared to that in patients with AQP4+. Scientific researches and the clinical trials on NMO with AQP4- will deepen the understanding of NMO pathogenesis and help to make an early accurate diagnosis and rational therapy for NMO with AQP4-. This review aims to summarize the progress in clinic diagnosis for NMO patients with AQP4-.

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a progressive disorder characterized by abnormally elevated blood pressure of the pulmonary circulation. PH progresses rapidly to right ventricular (RV) failure and even death without treatment. Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) is an accurate and reproducible tool for the assessment of RV morphology and function, which plays an important role in the prognosis of patients with PH. The aim of this study is to review the clinical application and research progress of CMR in evaluation of PH.

Lupeol,a triterpene,is found in various edible and medicinal plants.Lupeol has been shown to exhibit strong anti-inflammatory,anti-arthritic,gene mutation prevention and anti-malarial effect.Recently,it is found that lupeol is the main active ingredients of inhibiting the growth of a several kinds of cancers and carcinomas in some antineoplastic plants.Lupeol has antineoplastic effect.

ObjectiveTo explore the expressions of EGFR and Ki-67 in vulvar dystrophy and their clinical significance MethodsTissue specimens were collected from 160 patients with vulvar dystrophy.Immunohistochemical method was used to detect the expressions of EGFR and Ki-67 in these specimens.The expression levels of EGFR and Ki-67 were compared among different pathological subtypes of vulvar dystrophy,and the relationship of these expressions with clinical pathological characteristics was assessed.ResultsNo significant differences were observed in the expressions of EGFR or Ki-67 between vulvar dystrophy of squamous cell hyperplasia type,lichen sclerosus type and mixed type(P ＞ 0.05).The expression level of EGFR was positively correlated with that of Ki-67 in vulvar dystrophy (r =0.66,P ＜ 0.05).There was a significant difference in the expression rate of EGFR and Ki-67 between patients with different courses of vulvar dystrophy(both P ＜0.05),but not between patients with different age at onset of vulvar dystrophy(both P ＞ 0.05).Conclusion The expressions of EGFR and Ki-67 are different among patients with different courses of vulvar dystrophy.

Melanoma antigen A is a kind of rumor-associated antigen,which expresses in various types of hunman malignant tumor tissues especially in melanoma.Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a kind of malignant epithelial tumor with high incidence which occurs in liver.Searching for effective diagnosis and treatment methods of it become a pressing task.It is confirmed that MAGE-A gene is highly expressed in HCC tissues which has great significance to the diagnosis,treatment and prognosis for HCC.

Objective To observe the influence of peroxisome proliferator activated receptor-γligand (PPAR-γ, pioglatazone) on expression of PAI-1 and TGF-β mRNA and proliferation in fibroblast cells before and after X-ray radiation, and to study the effect of PPAR-γon normal cells during radiation induced fibrosis process. Methods RT-PCR method was used to measure PPAR-γgene expression in L929 cells.After X-ray irradiation of 10 Gy,4 Gy or 2 Gy, the expressions of PAI-1 and TGF-β mRNA in mouse lung fibroblast cells (L929) were measured using RT-PCR. After X-ray irradiation and pioglatazone treatment,the influence of pioglatazone on PAI-1 and TGF-β was measured using RT-PCR method. MTT method was used to test cell proliferation after the treatment of irradiation and pioglatazone. Results PPAR-γ mRNA expression was observed in L929 cells. Expression of PAI-1 and TGF-β mRNA reached the highest level 483.40,P =0. 090) ). At 48 h after the treatment of pioglatazone and 10 Gy radiation, pioglatazone decreased 0. 36, 0. 34 and 0. 32( F = 3.90, P = 0. 040) ). The inhibitory effect was significantly increased when L9292. 50,P =0. 005)). Conclusions X-ray irradiation can increase the expression of PAI-1 and TGF-β in L929 cells. Pioglatazone can decrease the expression of radiation-induced PAI-1 and TGF-β, and restrain the fibroblast proliferation.

BACKGROUND: Primary hypertension is in the category of "dizziness"and "dementia" in Chinese medicine. It is discovered in recent years that vascular dangerous factors, like hypertension affect the risk constitution of Alzheimer disease.OBJECTIVE: To probe into relationship between cognition and syndrome differentiation of primary hypertension.DESIGN: Case-control analysis was designed.SETTING: Jiangsu Staff University of Medical Science and Yangzhou Wenhe Hospital.PARTICIPANTS: Totally 90 cases of primary hypertension were employed from May to June 2000. They were from some city in the north of Jiangsu province, graduated from middle school and cooperated with the investigation. Totally 30 cases were collected from physical-check group and taken in the control.METHODS: The cases of primary hypertension were differentiated as excess-syndrome group (excessive phlegm and damp and hyperactivity of liver yang), deficiency-syndrome group (yin deficiency of liver and kidney and deficiency of yin and yang), excess within deficiency group (complicated with blood stasis and with turbid phlegm) and the control group. Neuropsychological method was used to evaluate the cognition.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Indexes of neuropsychology: Fuld object-memory Evaluation (FOM), rapid verbal retrieve (RVR), block design WISE (BD), digit span WISE (DS), Hachinski ischemic score (HACH), mini-mental state examination (MMSE) and activity of daily living scale among groups.RESULTS: The data of 90 cases of primary hypertension and 30 cases in physical-check group entered result analysis. Compared with the control group, significant difference was not indicated in every statistical index in excess-syndrome group (P ＞ 0.05). In deficiency-syndrome group, except MMSE and ADL, the rest observed indexes indicated statistical difference.In excess within deficiency group, statistical difference presented in every observed index (P ＜ 0.01), in which the results in the complication of turbid phlegm was worse than blood stasis (FOM was 11.3±3.7,13.5±2.5 respectively; DS was 6.4±3.9,8.3±3.5, respectively)CONCLUSION: Primary hypertension affects mental state of patient, in which, cognition is declined mildly in deficiency-syndrome group. Dementia symptoms present in excess within deficiency group which is severe in phlegm type compared with blood stasis type. Differentiation of syndromes in Chinese medicine integrated with neuropsychological assessment benefits early discovery and diagnosis of dementia.

BACKGROUND: Studies have proved that rotating magnetic field(RMF) can significantly increase bone mineral density(BMD) in rats, and such high BMD maintains for a long time which is independent of the actions of hormone.OBJECTIVE: To investigative the effect of RMF on bone calcium content and the correlation between bone-specific alkaline phosphatase(BAP) and deoxypyridinoline crosslinks (DPD) in rats.DESIGN: A randomized controlled study in rats.SETTING: A college of life sciences of a university.MATERIALS: The experiment was conducted in Shenzhen Key Lab of Microbiological Genetic Engineering from March 2004 to October 2004, using 90 healthy adult SD rats including 60 females weighing(259 ± 70) g and 30 males weighing (351 ± 104)g. The rats were randomly divided into 9 groups including 6 ovariotomy groups, namely female sham-operation group, normal calcium control group, low calcium control group, low calcium experimental group, normal calcium experimental group, and low calcium group with traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) treatment, besides a male control group,male low calcium experimental group, and male normal calcium experimental group, with 10 rats in each group.INTERVENTIONS: The female rats in each group, except for those in the sham-operation group, received ovariotomy. The rats in the ovariotomy control group had only ovariotomy. After metabolic exhaustion of the remnant estrogen on the 15th day, the rats in the ovariotomy experimental group were treated with RMF for 2 hours once a day for 15 days. The male rats, except for those in the control group, all bad RMF in identical manner. The rats were given food with normal calcium(containing 0.26% calcium), lower calcium (containing 0.1% calcium) and traditional Chinese medicine(powder of Fructus Psoraleae, Radix Astragali, epimedium herb, and herba cistanchis) .After RME treatment, the rats were fed for another 15 days before the femur was collected to measure the bone calcium content. Serum samples were also obtained for measuring the content of BAP and urine samples collected to measure the content of DPD.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The bone calcium content of each group and serum BAP and urine DPD.RESULTS: Of the 90 rats used, 4 died during the experiment and 86 entered the result analysis. The bone calcium content was increased after RMF treatment, and the content in rats in the low calcium group with ovariotomy and TCM treatment and lower calcium control group with ovariotomy was(0.226± 0. 015) and(0. 206 ± 0. 015) g/g, respectively( t =4.63, P ＜ 0. 05). The bone calcium content in the male normal calcium experimental group and male control group was(0. 206 ±0. 031) and(0. 199 ±0. 014) g/g respectively ( t = 4.21, P ＜ 0.05 ) . After treatment with RMF, serum BAP content was increased and was(20. 52 ± 1.78) and(15.68 ±3.68) U/L in normal calcium experimental and control groups with ovariotomy, respectively( t=4.76, P ＜0.05), and(17.69±3.78) and (8.53±2.54) U/Lin the male low calcium experimental and male control groups, respectively( t= 4. 59, P ＜ 0.05). Urine DPD after RMF treatment was (86.97 ± 37.19)and(401.57 ±79. 34) nmol/L in the low calcium experimental group with TCM treatment and ovariotomy and the low calcium control group with ovariotomy, respectively( t =7.45, P ＜ 0.01), and(97.87 ±31.97) and (168.71 ±53.19) nmol/L in the male normal calcium experimental and male control groups respectively( t = 8.31, P ＜ 0.01 ).CONCLUSION: RMF can effectively increase bone calcium content in a short time( 15 days), and the effect was positively correlated with increased blood BAP and decreased urine DPD.

BACKGROUND: Nerve fiber degeneration and horseradish peroxidase antrograde tracing methods are commonly used to study nerve pathway. However, both the methods cannot mark the area clearly and lack of sensitivity so that they cannot fully present the projection area of nerve fibers. It needs further efforts on developing new nerve pathway tracing methods to effectively research nerve pathway.OBJECTIVE: To look for a highly sensitive method of nerve pathway tracing in order to provide a simple, objective and reliable method to study regeneration.DESIGN: A randomized and controlled trial based on experimental animals.SETTING: Department of Internal Medicine of a hospital and the Experiment technique teaching section of a university.MATERIALS: The experiment was completed in the Experiment Technique Teaching Section of Chengdu Medical College. Six healthy male SD rats provided by Experimental Animal Centre of West China Medical University were used.METHODS: Using CB-HRP as tracer while using sodium tungstate as stabilizer of TMP to antrograde tracing the projection of optic nerve fibers on anterior region of hypothalamus and retrograde tracing the distribution of hypoglossal nerve fibers on the dorsal side of medulla.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Distribution and dyeing of neuron bodies and nerve fibers.RESULTS: The fibers of optic nerve projected to the dorsomedial side of suprachiasmatic nucleus and the fibers of hypoglossal nerve projected on the hypoglossal nucleus on dorsomedial portion of the medulla oblongate. The result shows that the neurons and axons are very clear.CONCLUSION: It is a highly sensitive method to trace nerve pathway by using CB-HRP as tracer and sodium tungstate as stabilizer of TMB.