Female ; Humans ; Liver Transplantation ; adverse effects ; Male ; Mycoses ; diagnosis

Objective:To determine the plasma level of apelin in patients of maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) and to explore the relationship between apelin level and carotid atherosclerosis (AS) in MHD patients.Methods:A total of 92 MHD patients and 36 sex-and age-matched healthy subjects were enrolled in this study.The plasma level of apelin was evaluated by radiation immunoassay;serum endothelial injury markers including thrombomodulin,von Willebrand factor (vWF),and CD 146,and inflammatory factors including high sensitive C-reactive protein (hsCRP),IL-6 and TNF-α were determined by ELISA.Common Carotid arteries intima media thickness (CCA-IMT),cross-sectional calculated intima-media area (cIM area) area and atherosclerotic plaque were measured by non-invasive high-resolution B-mode ultrasonography.Results:The plasma levels of apelin was significantly decreased in MHD patients compared with healthy subjects (P＜0.01),accompanied with elevated plasma levels of thrombomodulin,vWF,CD 146,hsCRP,IL-6 and TNF-α (all P＜0.01).The plasma levels of apelinin in MHD patients with carotid artery plaques were obviously lower than those without plaques [(43.16± 10.12) pg/mL vs (61.43±16.25) pg/mL,P＜0.01].Plasma level of apelin was inversely related with CCA-IMT and cIM area (r=-0.355 and r=-0.297 respectively,all P＜0.01).Multiple stepwise regression analysis showed that plasma level of apelin was an independent risk factor for CCA-IMT and cIM area.Conclusion:The plasma apelin in MHD patients might take part in vascular endothelial injury and the progress of atherosclerosis.It plays an important role in the initiation and development of uremia associated atherosclerosis through elevating inflammatory factors including hsCRP,IL-6 and TNF-α levels.

Euphorbia kansui (EK) is a toxic herbal drug, and often used after vinegar-processing to reduce its toxicity. In present study, a 1H-NMR based metabonomic approach was used to evaluate the detoxification effect of vinegar-processed EK. The water extracts of EK and VEK were administered orally to male SD rats at doses of 9 g x kg(-1) x d(-1) for 1 week, respectively, and one more week observation was further conducted. The control group was orally given with saline. Histopathological studies of liver samples on the 8th and 15th day were conducted, and the metabolites of rat urine and liver were analysed by 1H-NMR. Histopathological studies of liver samples from EK and VEK treated rats showed no negative impacts. In metabonomic analyses of urines, changes of metabolites indicated liver damages, kidney lesions and imbalance of gut microbes in the second week. VEK-treated rats showed a quite lower toxicity compared with EK-treated ones. The present study revealed that the metabonomic approach might be helpful for the evaluation of toxicity of EK and detoxic effect of VEK.
Acetic Acid ; chemistry ; Animals ; Chemistry, Pharmaceutical ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; pharmacokinetics ; toxicity ; Euphorbia ; chemistry ; Inactivation, Metabolic ; Liver ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy ; Male ; Metabolomics ; methods ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Urinalysis

Objective To observe the effect of Cordceps Sinensis (CS) on the expression of intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) in the kidney of spontaneously hypertensive rats(SHR), and to investigate the mechanism of CS. Methods Male SHRs (23 week old) were randomly divided into 4 groups: a group without any treatment (Group S), a group treated with Cordceps sinensis at 4 F), and a group received daily intragastric administration of CS at 4 male WKY rats were used as normals controls. At the end of 8 weeks, all rats were sacrificed. Serum creatinine(Scr), 24 h urinary protein count, and the expression of ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 were examined by immunohistochemical technique and RT-PCR. Results Compared with the WKY rats, blood pressure, 24 h urinary protein count, Scr,and the expression of ICAM-1 andVCAM-1 in the kidney of SHR significantly increased (P＜0.05).Compared with Group S, blood pressure decreased after treatment by fosinopril (P＜0.05). Compared with Group S, the levels of Scr, 24 h urinary protein count, and glomerular lesion were significantly reduced in the CS and/or fosinopril treatment group. The expression of ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 was significantly decreased in these groups (P＜0.05).Conclusion CS may play a role in the protection and anti-fibrosis in the process of renal injury in SHR through reducing the expression of ICAM-1 and VCAM-1.

Background and purpose:Epithelial ovarian cancer has the highest mortality rate of gynecologic cancers and overall survival rates have improved little in the last 20 to 30 years. CXXC ifnger protein 5 (CXXC5) plays an important role in AML (acute myeloid leukemia) and MDS (myelodysplasia). However, little is known about its clinical signiifcance and biological function in epithelial ovarian cancer. This study aimed to investigate the expression of the CXXC5 in ovarian cancer and the effect of the CXXC5 on ES-2 cell proliferation. Methods:①The alteration of CXXC5 in cancer genomics data of TCGA (Cancer Genome Atlas) was analyzed.②The CXXC5 protein in the tissue chips was detected containing 37 benign ovarian cyst and 173 malignant tumor samples. The relationship between the expression of the CXXC5 with the clinicopathological features of patients with ovarian cancer was analyzed by SPSS software;③The cells with the highest CXXC5 expression quantity from 5 ovarian cancer cells were selected by re-al-time quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR) and Western blot.④ES-2 cells with shRNA stable transfection were construted us-ing the strategy of lentivirus infection and analyzed cell proliferation by cell counting kit-8(CCK8). Results:①Through the TCGA database, CXXC5 ampliifcation was found in 7 of 563 cases.②The CXXC5 expression in ovarian malignant carcinoma (39.3%) was higher than that in benign ovarian cyst (13.5%, P=0.003), the histologic type was highly asso-ciated with CXXC5 (43%in serous, 22.9%in mucinous, 23.5%in endometrioid, 67%in clear cell, P=0.014) and there was a signiifcant correlation between CXXC5 and lymph node metastasis (positive vs negative, P=0.022).③The ES-2 cells with shRNA stable transfection had a growth disadvantage (P<0.05). Conclusion:The CXXC5 gene might have an advantage in proliferation of epithelial ovarian carcinoma and be expected to become the biomarker of poor prognosis.

AIM: To study the role of nitric oxide ( NO ) and γ-aminobutyric acid ( GABA) in the formation of amblyopia by establishing 2 different types of amblyopic models.METHODS:A total of 18 aged 3-week kittens were randomly divided into monocular deprivation, strabismus and normal groups. All types of amblyopia were developed in the experimental eyes that were detected by P-VEP 12wk later. The cats were killed and the immunocytochemistry staining method were applied to observe under the light microscope the changes of distribution and positive cells areas of NO and GABA across the amblyopic retinal, compared to that from the normal cats of identical age.
RESULTS: The P-VEP showed that the amplitude of wave P1 was lower (P<0. 05) and the P1 latent time was longer ( P<0. 05 ) in two types of amblyopic cats than those in the normal cats. Compared to the normal cats, the NO and GABA positive cells areas were obviously reduced ( P<0. 05 ) across the retina in the amblyopic cats. But no significant difference was found between two kinds of amblyopic cats.
CONCLUSION:The NO and GABA play an important role in the formation of amblyopia in the level of retinal.

A set of primers amplified the VP1 gene of foot-and-mouth disease vims (FMDV) was designed and synthesized. A reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) technique detected the RNA of FMDV was established after selecting the best purification method, reagents and reaction conditions. Samples of fresh milk, lymph node, spinal cord, vesicular skin, milk powder, cotton swab, mouse and meat in daughter-house were detected by RT-PCR, positive rates were41.4% (24/58), 13.33% (2/15), 20% (1/5), 100% (1/1), 100% (1/1), 37.5% (12/32), 100% (2/2) and 10% - 70%, respectively. However, positive rate of cockroach detected by RT-PCR was 0. The results showed that the established FMDV RT-PCR technique provided a more sensitive, specific and reliable method for diagnosis and epizootic study of the foot-and-mouth disease.

Background The pathological foundation of diabetic retinopathy is the breakdown of the bloodretina barrier induced by multifactors.Objective This study was to investigate the retinal morphologic change and the levels of serum vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF),endothelin(ET)and nitric oxide(NO)in diabetic rats.Methods Forty healthy female SD rats were randomly divided into experimental group and control group and 20 rats for each group.Acute diabetes models were established by the intraperitoneal injection of 60 mg/kg streptozotocin in experimental group and the equal volume of buffer solution was injected at the same way in the control group.The serum VEGF level,ET level and NO concentration of diabetic and control rats were detected using ELISA double antibody sandwich method,125I radioimmune method and nitrate reduction method respectively at 2,4,6 and 8 weeks after injection.The eyeballs of rats were enucleated at the eighth week for retinal pathologic examination.This experiment followed the Measures for the administration of experimental animals of Shanghai City.Results The retinal structure was normal throughout the experimental duration in the control group.However,retinal edema and cellular disorganization appeared at 4 months and retinal blooding could be seen with the extending of diabetes course.The levels of serum VEGF and ET in each experimental group were significantly higher than those in control groups(P＜0.05).The levels of serum NO elevated in 2-month experimental group compared with same-phase control group(Z =-2.193,P＜0.05),and those in 6-and 8-month experimental groups were significantly lower than in corresponding control groups(Z =-2.449,Z =-2.236,P＜0.05).With the progression of the disease,the levels of VEGF and ET increased gradually,but the levels of NO decreased gradually,showing statistically significant differences(P＜0.05).The level of serum VEGF showed a positive correlation with serum ET level and a negative correlation with the serum NO concentration(r=-0.814,r=-0.803,P＜0.01)in the experimental group.A negative leaner relation was also found between serum ET level and serum NO concentration(r=0.821,P＜0.01).Conclusions The serum VEGF,ET and NO levels are closely associated with the degree of retinal lesion in early diabetic models.These results suggest that serum VEGF,ET and NO levels may be the important indexes predicting the course of retinal disease in diabetic rats.

To investigate the mechanism of moxibustion in regulating cellular apoptosis in rat's precancerous lesion of primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods:Seventy-four rats were randomly allocated to normal group,model group and moxibustion group,and the diethylic nitrosamine (DEN) was used to establish HCC model. Moxibustion with moxa cone which is as big as a grain of wheat was performed on acupoint Zusanli (ST 36),3 cones for each acupoint and 0.5 mg for each cone,the treatment was given once a day,totally 16 weeks. Then the changes in the body weight,liver weight and thymus weight,a morphological change in the liver tissue and changes in γ-GT and GST were observed;Immunohistochemical staining method was adopted to observe the tendency of changes in relevant apoptosis genes such as C-myc,N-ras and mutant type P53,and the influence of moxibustion on cell cycle modulation genes such as cyclinD1,CDK4 and p16. Results:Moxibustion could reduce the activities of γ-GT and GST in the blood,obviously decrease the protein expression of relevant apoptosis genes such as C-myc,N-ras and mutant type P53 and markedly inhibit the over-expression of relevant cell cycle modulation genes such as cyclinD1 and CDK4 and the mutation of cell cycle modulation gene p16. Conclusion:Moxibustion might play a certain role in relieving HCC precancerous lesion and its action mechanism might be related to the regulation on partial apoptosis genes.

BACKGROUNDTrichosporon asahii (T. asahii) is one of the most important pathogenic fungus in the genus of trichosporon. Although the species identification of T. asahii was based upon the complicated results of morphologic, biochemical and biologic examination, the morphology characteristic is still the first clue to the species. Some common structures of T. asahii had been described such as arthrofilaments and arthroconidia, but other important structures of T. asahii were unclear.

METHODSSix strains of T. asahii were incubated on the slant and micro culture of Sabouraud's dextrose agar at 30 degrees C for 7 days. Samples were fixed using 2% paraformaldehyde and 2.5% glutaraldehyde. T. asahii was observed under scanning electron microscope and transmission electron microscope.

RESULTSThe detailed characteristics of the diverse sites of germination, as well as some uncommon structures such as giant cell, sarcinate, and club-shaped macroconidia, were presented. The pseudohyphae of T. asahii were noted to produce true hyphae, either along the longitude axis or on the flank. T. asahii was noted to have blastic and thallic conidiation. Digitated branches, trichoid structures and septa inside the spores were detected.

CONCLUSIONThese results may add our knowledge to the structure and development of T. asahii.