ObjectiveTo explore the protective methods to the patients with insensitive feet caused by leprosy.Methods295 patients affected by leprosy (PAL) with insensitive feet did self-care and wore protective shoes which were bought in general market and met the requireing of with soft and elastic insole,hard sole higher instep, et al.All the patients had been followed up for 3 years.ResultsAll cases persisted on wearing those shoes, only 1 case occured fresh ulcer and no ulcers relapsed.Cracks and ulcers on foot declined by 96.15% and 32.81% respectively, and bone loss had no change.ConclusionsThe protective foot-wears can prevent the fresh ulcers happening and the healed ulcers reappearing for PALs with numb feet. It is important to educate the PALs how to choose the kind of foot-wears and how to do self-care.

BACKGROUND:Stem cel transplantation has achieved good results in the treatment of cerebral ischemia, and how to reduce apoptosis of transplanted cel s has become the focus of the therapy.
OBJECTIVE:To investigate the injured effect of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) on bone marrow mesenchymal stem cel s and its mechanism.
METHODS:Primary cultured bone marrow mesenchymal stem cel s from Sprague-Dawley rats were treated with 200μg/L TNF-αfor 6 hours. Cel vitality was assayed by MTT, and cel apoptosis was observed by Hoechst33342 staining. Apoptotic rate was detected by Annexin-V/PI double staining. Level of oxidative stress was evaluated by determination of malondialdehyde and superoxide dismutase levels. The protein expressions of phosphorylated-Akt, Akt, phosphorylated-FoxO1, FoxO1 were detected by western blot analysis.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:After treatment with TNF-α, the cel vitality of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cel s decreased, the apoptotic rate increased, and the cel s were arrested in the S phase. Moreover, the oxidative stress level was elevated, and the protein expression of phosphorylated-Akt and phosphorylated-FoxO1 was significantly reduced compared with the control group (P<0.05). These results suggest that TNF-αat high level contributes to the S-stage arrest, responsible for the apoptosis processes of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cel s via the Akt-FoxO1 pathway.

The extracellular matrix metalloproteinase inducer (EMMPRIN) has been known to play a key regulatory role in pathological angiogenesis. A elevated activation of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) following radiation injury has been shown to mediate blood-brain barrier (BBB) breakdown. However, the roles of EMMPRIN and VEGF in radiation-induced brain injury after gamma knife surgery (GKS) are not clearly understood. In this study, we investigated EMMPRIN changes in a rat model of radiation injury following GKS and examined potential associations between EMMPRIN and VEGF expression. Adult male rats were subjected to cerebral radiation injury by GKS under anesthesia. We found that EMMPRIN and VEGF expression were markedly upregulated in the target area at 8-12 weeks after GKS compared with the control group by western blot, immunohistochemistry, and RT-PCR analysis. Immunofluorescent double staining demonstrated that EMMPRIN signals colocalized with caspase-3 and VEGF-positive cells. Our data also demonstrated that increased EMMPRIN expression was correlated with increased VEGF levels in a temporal manner. This is the first study to show that EMMPRIN and VEGF may play a role in radiation injuries of the central nervous system after GKS.
Animals ; Antigens, CD147/*metabolism ; Brain/blood supply/metabolism/pathology/*radiation effects ; Brain Injuries/metabolism/pathology ; Caspase 3/metabolism ; Gamma Rays/*adverse effects ; Immunohistochemistry ; Male ; Microscopy, Electron, Transmission ; Parietal Lobe/metabolism/pathology/radiation effects ; Radiation Injuries, Experimental/metabolism ; Radiosurgery/adverse effects ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar ; Time Factors ; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A/*metabolism

Medium spiny neurons (MSNs) in the striatum, which can be divided into D1 and D2 MSNs, originate from the lateral ganglionic eminence (LGE). Previously, we reported that Six3 is a downstream target of Sp8/Sp9 in the transcriptional regulatory cascade of D2 MSN development and that conditionally knocking out Six3 leads to a severe loss of D2 MSNs. Here, we showed that Six3 mainly functions in D2 MSN precursor cells and gradually loses its function as D2 MSNs mature. Conditional deletion of Six3 had little effect on cell proliferation but blocked the differentiation of D2 MSN precursor cells. In addition, conditional overexpression of Six3 promoted the differentiation of precursor cells in the LGE. We measured an increase of apoptosis in the postnatal striatum of conditional Six3-knockout mice. This suggests that, in the absence of Six3, abnormally differentiated D2 MSNs are eliminated by programmed cell death. These results further identify Six3 as an important regulatory element during D2 MSN differentiation.