Henoch-Schnlein purpura(HSP) is a common autoimmune small vessel vasculitis that primarily affects children.Although the pathogenesis of HSP is unknown,there are tantalizing clues on the immune abnormalities mediated by IgA,which mainly affects the vessels of the skin,gastrointestinal tract and kidneys.The reasons of deposition maybe involve in the increases of serum IgA,the abnormalities of IgA-specific autoantibodies,structures and acceptors of IgA1,complements,and so on,which mediates the abnormal expressions of adhesion molecules and cytokines.

BACKGROUND: Undergraduates from military medical universities face many psychological stresses. Poor coping style might affect the status of mental health. Mental health might also be associated with social support and personality.OBJECTIVE: To investigate the correlation of social support and coping style with mental health among undergraduates from military medical universities.DESIGN: Cluster sampling and questionnaire investigation.SETTING: The Center of Basic Medicine Eexperiment, School of Basic Medicine and School of Preventive Medicine of Fourth Military Medical University of Chinese PLA, and Xi'an Hospital of Sports Trauma.PARTICIPANTS: Totally 352 freshmen of a military medical university were chosen by cluster sampling in October 2004 as the subjects.METHODS: Investigationwas performed on subjects with Symptom checklist-90 (SCL-90), social support rating scale (SSRS), coping style questionnaire (CSQ) and revised Eysenck's personality questionnaires short scale for Chinese (EPQ-RSC).SCL-90 consists of 90 items, including 10 factors. SSRS consists of subjective support, objective support and the utilization of support 3 factors as well as total score of social support. CSQ consists of problem solving, self-reproach, asking for help, keeping out of the way, fancy, rationalization 6 factors. EPQ-RSC mainly consisted of extraversion-introversion (E), neuroticism (N), psychoticism/tough mindedness (P) and lie/social diserability (L) 4 dimensions. Data were performed statistical management with t test and correlation analysis.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: ①Comparison of the scores of various factors of social support, coping style and personality among undergraduates with different mental health levels from military medical universities. ② Correlation of different social supports, copying styles and personalities with SCL-90. ③ Comparison of scores of mental health,coping style and personality of military medical undergraduates under different social supports.RESULTS: Totally 352 questionnaires were handed out and all of them were retrieved and eligible, with responding rate of 100%. ① The total scores of SRSS were taken as the grouping index, and 25% of the undergraduates who had the highest scores and the lowest scores were respectively chosen as severe symptom group and mild symptom group.Total scores of social support, subjective support and the utilization of support were higher in the mild symptom group than in the severe symptom group, but no difference in the objective support existed between two groups; Compared with mild symptom group, self-reproach, fancy, keeping out of the way and other immature coping styles were more significantly used, but asking for help was less, the scores of E were lower, but those of N were higher in the severe symptom group. ② Various factors of mental health were significantly negatively correlated with the total scores of support, the utilization of support, asking for help, E and L (r=-0.131 to -0.306 ,P ＜ 0.05 or P ＜ 0.01 ), but positively correlated with self-reproach,fancy, keeping out of the way, rationalization and N (r=0.141-0.450, P＜ 0.05 or P ＜ 0.01). ③ Total scores of support was used as the grouping index, 27% of the subjects who had the highest scores and lowest scores were chosen respectively as high support group and low support group.Mental health level was superior in the high support group to in the low support group; Most of the undergraduates of high support group preferred active coping styles, and those of low support group preferred passive coping styles; Scores of E of high support group were higher than those of low support group, and the scores of N and P were lower than those of low support group (P ＜ 0.05).CONCLUSION: Social support, coping style and EPQ-RSC interact and co-influence mental health.

BACKGROUND: Sleep deprivation cannot only cause learning and memory impairment of animal and human, but also lead to increased content of nitric oxide in brain tissue of rats. Melatonin has the effects of antifreeradical and antioxidation. It has been reported that melatonin can improve aluminum chloride and morphine abstinence induced learning and memory impairment of animal, however, whether it has influence on sleep deprivation induced learning and memory impairment is not very clear. OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of melatonin on memory of rats after sleep deprivation and analyze its possible mechanism. DESIGN: Randomized controlled trial.SETTING: Teaching and Experiment Center of Basic Medicine and Department of Nursing, the Fourth Military Medical University.MATERIALS: The experiment was performed in Teaching and Experiment Center of Basic Medicine of the Fourth Military Medical University in January 2005. A total of 24 adult male Sprague Dawley rats were selected and randomly divided into 3 groups, namely, control group, small dosage of melatonin group and large dosage of melatonin group, with 8 in each group on the basis of random digits table.METHODS: To rats in small dosage of melatonin group and large dosage of melatonin group, the dosage of melatonin was 5 mg/kg and 15 mg/kg respectively, which was made into 2 mL solution and intraperitoneally injected into the rats at 17:00 o'clock every day, while rats in control group were injected with 2 mL physiological sodium at the same time, once a day for continuous 7 days. Then a 3-day sleep deprivation was given to the rats; melatonin or physiological sodium were also given according to different groups during these days. Rat model of sleep deprivation was established by "Flower Ppot" technique; water maze was used for detecting the memory of rats after 48-hour and 72-hour sleep deprivation; took escape latency (s) as indicator of changes of learning and memory of rats; the shorter the escape latency, the better the spacial memory of rats. When sleep deprivation was finished, all the rats were put to death and hippocampus and cerebral cortex were taken out in ice bath. The content of nitric oxide in cerebral cortex and hippocampus was detected with the method of nitrate reduction, and malondialdehyde (MDA) with the method of thiobarbital acid.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Results of escape latency after 48hour and 72-hour sleep deprivation. Contents of nitric oxide and MDA in cerebral cortex and hippocampus of rats.There was significant difference in escape latency in water maze after 48-hour and 72-hour sleep deprivation among each group (F=11.886, P=0.000)and (F=5.440, P=0.012); the escape latency after 48-hour and 72-hour sleep deprivation remarkably decreased both in small and large dosage of melatonin groups as compared with control group, and the latency after 48-hour sleep deprivation was shorter in large dosage group than that in small ide and MDA in brain of rats among each group, namely, nitric oxide in cerebral cortex (F=14.038, P=0.000), MDA in cerebral cortex (F=27.414,P=0.000), nitric oxide in hippocampus (F=22.692, P=0.000), MDA in hippocampus (F=14.316, P=0.000). Compared with control group, the contents of nitric oxide and MDA in cerebral cortex and hippocampus in the two experimental groups decreased significantly, and there was obvious difference in the content of nitric oxide in hippocampus between large and small dosage groups, which showed a dose-effect relationship.CONCLUSION: Melatonin can improve memory impairment of rats after sleep deprivation, which may be closely related to the effect of inhibiting the increase of nitric oxide and MDA in their cerebral cortex and hippocampus.

BACKGROUND: Poor mental health status of nursing students can affect their learning and living. OBJECTIVE: To explore mental health status of nursing students at different studying stages.DESIGN: Grouping stratified sampling survey on the basis of nursing students studying in higherschool.SETTING: Nursing Department of the Fourth Military Medical University of Chinese PLA, Laboratory Center of Basic Faulty, and Department of Rehabilitative Physioltherapy of Xijing Hospital.PARTICIPANTS: Totally 515 nursing students at different studying stages of three educational levels (the technical secondary school level, junior college level and undergraduate level) were observed with grouping stratified sampling in December 2004.METHODS: Symptom checklist-90(SCL-90) was used for survey. SCL-90 contained 90 items, being interpreted in the context of nine symptom dimensions, including somatization, obsessive-compulsive, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, and psychoticism. Each item was scored from grade Ⅰ to grade Ⅴ (symptomless, mild, moderate, little severe, and severe). Scores of total items and 9 symptoms were recorded. The more the scores of total items were, the lower the total level of mental health was; the more the scores of any symptom was, the severer the symptom of mental health was. Data were analyzed with t test. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Scores of total items and 9 symptoms. RESULTS: Totally 515 nursing students were randomly selected in this survey except 5 students because of uncompleted survey, and the response rate was 99.0%. There were 501 qualified questionnaires, which were accounted for 98.2%. Mental health status of nursing students at various stages was different: the score of nursing students in grade 1 and 3 was higher than that in grade 2 in technical secondary school; the score of nursing students was the highest in grade 2 in junior college; and the score of nursing students was the highest in grade 3 at undergraduate level. The order of SCL-90 scores was obsessive-compulsive, interpersonal sensitivity and depression from high to low.CONCLUSION: SCL-90 scores of nursing students are high in grade 1and grade 3 at the technical secondary school level and also in middle grade at junior college level and undergraduate level. The main mental psychological symptoms are obsessive-compulsive, interpersonal sensitivity and depression. Psychological predisposition of nursing students should be cultured according to different psychological characteristics at various learning stages.

AIM: To investigate the effects of EPA and DHA on oxidative stress of lipopolysaccharide-stimulated rat mesangial cells. METHODS: The glomerular mesangial cells (GMCs) were stimulated by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and incubated with EPA (10 μmol/L or 100 μmol/L) and DHA (10 μmol/L or 100 μmol/L) for 24 h, 48 h and 72 h. The activity of SOD, GSH-Px and the level of MDA was measured. The protein and mRNA expressions of MCP-1 and TGF-β_1 were detected by immunocytochemistry and real-time PCR method, respectively. RESULTS: The activities of SOD and GSH-Px were decreased and the concentration of MDA was increased when stimulated with LPS. EPA and DHA increased the activities of SOD and GSH-Px and decreased the concentration of MDA significantly. Meanwhile, the protein and mRNA expressions of MCP-1 and TGF-β_1 stimulated by LPS were decreased. DHA was more effective than EPA at the same concentration. CONCLUSION: EPA and DHA enhance the activities of antioxidant enzymes, decrease the concentration of MDA and inhibit the expression of TGF-β_1 and MCP-1, suggesting that the protective effect of EPA and DHA on kidney is related to the antioxidation and the inhibition of TGF-β_1 and MCP-1 expression.

BACKGROUND:Sleep deprivation, resulting in a series of physiological and psychological reactions, is a common phenomenon in our modem society. Recently, many physical and medical therapies are on their way to eliminate the negative influence the sleep deprivation exerted on our human beings, and a large number of cigarette smokers believe that cigarette smoke can obviously improve their abnormal behavioral performance and negative emotional fluctuation caused by sleep deprivation in short terms.However, there are few researches but many disputes when it comes to effect of passive smoking on the behavior and emotion of rats on the occasion of acute sleep deprivation.OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of passive smoking (PS) on the behavior and emotion of rats with acute sleep deprivation (SD).DESIGN: Completed randomized and controlled study.SETTING: Basic Medicine Experiment Center, School of Basic Medicine;Department of Radiation Medicine, School of Preventive Medicine, Fourth Military Medical University of Chinese PLA.MATERIALS: The experiment was carried out at Experiment Center of Basic Medicine, Fourth Military Medical University of Chinese PLA from April to June 2004. Totally 49 healthy adult male Sprague-Dawley rats,being 3 months old, weighting (180±15) g, were randomly divided into 5groups: sleep deprivation + 24-hour passive smoking group (n=8), 24-hour sleep deprivation group (n=8), sleep deprivation + 54-hour passive smoking group (n=8), 54-hour sleep deprivation group (n=8), and blank control group (n=7).METHODS: ① Rats in sleep deprivation + 24-hour passive smoking group, 24-hour sleep deprivation group, sleep deprivation + 54-hour passive smoking group and 54-hour sleep deprivation group were performed with sleep deprivation with flower pot method for 24 and 54 hours, and rats in sleep deprivation + 24-hour passive smoking group and sleep deprivation + 54-hour passive smoking group were treated with passive smoking at the same time at a frequency of 12 times/day, 120 minute/time, 3cigarettes were lighted at the same time and kept into ashes. ② Broad field test was conducted to determine the behavioral and emotional changes of the rats. We trailed their activities by video recorder for 5 minutes each time. Then we presented the image information to computer process and finally got the total distance and the average distance from the center of the broad field for each rat during the 5-minite test. Meanwhile, we also observed the emotional variety and excitability of the rats. The nearer the average distance from center was, the more the emotional behavior and the greater excitability were; and the longer the total distance was, the greater the excitability was. ③ All the data were expressed with Mean ± SD, the method of non-parametric rank sum test was adopte d for comparing among groups, P ＜ 0.05 was regarded as statistical significance.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Comparisons between DC and TD of rats in each group, and changes of behavior and emotion of rats in each group.RESULTS: Data of all the 49 rats was entered the final data analysis without any loss. ① Observation of emotional stage: Compared with sleep deprivation + 54-hour passive smoking group, rats in sleep deprivation+24-hour passive smoking group appeared more quiet and indifferent, and presented lower excitability, less sensitivity to outside stimulus and less aggressive behaviors towards other rats, and the same as 24-hour sleep deprivation group, compared with 54-hour sleep deprivation group. ② Results from the open field test: DC of 24-hour sleep deprivation group was significantly smaller than that of blank control group and sleep deprivation + 24-hour passive smoking group [(53.93±1.83, 58.21±4.45, 58.11±1.62) cm, (P＜ 0.01-0.05)]. DC of 54-hour sleep deprivation group was significantly bigger than that of 24-hour sleep deprivation group [(61.53±3.02, 58.11±1.62) cm, (P＜ 0.01)]; TD of 24-hour sleep deprivation group was significantly bigger than that of sleep deprivation + 24-hour passive smoking group [(3310.45±1 445.97, 1 818.20±733.25, 2 338.15±694.70) cm, (P ＜ 0.01-0.05)], and that of 54-hour sleep deprivation group was bigger than that of sleep deprivation + 54-hour passive smoking group andsmaller than that of 24-hour sleep deprivation group [(2 410.70t548.64, 1 473.50±945.89, 3 310.45±1 445.97) cm, (P＜0.05)].CONCLUSION: With the prolongation of sleep deprivation time, behavior and emotional reaction of rats are shown from exciting to inhibiting, however, passive smoking can inhibit behavior and emotional state of rats during the whole sleep deprivation.

Objective To explore the effect of melatonin(MT) on the behavior of rats treated with noise stress and the related bio-mechanism. Methods Fifty rats were randomly divided into a blank group,two experimental groups and two control groups. The blank group was untreated. The experimental and control groups were exposed to 120dB noise stress for 1 day or 3 days, 8 hours per day, and treated with 15 mg/kg melatonin by intraperitoneal injection,or the same volume of physiological saline 30 minutes before noise stress. After noise stress,the rats' behavior was measured by open field test, learning and memory ability of rats was investigated with the method of Morris water maze and then nitric oxide (NO), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and malondialdehyde (MDA) contents in cerebral cortex and hippocampus of the rats were measured by TBA and Griess method respectively. Results No matter noise stress time was 1 day or 3 days, the excitability and explorative behavior of the 2 experimental groups(total movement distance (TMD) (1322.50 ± 504.32) cm, (1819.55 ± 458.37) cm, faster movement time (FMT) (68.49 ± 23.90) s, (87.34 ± 16.01) s, distance to center (DTC) (63.56 ± 2. 75) cm, (60. 13 ±1.87)cm, inner toriod time(ITT) (7.87 ±2.06)s,(9.60 ±2.89)s) in the open field test decreased significantly compared with those of the control group (TMD (2042.03 ± 449. 19) cm, (2325.73 ± 384.90) cm,FMT (109.32 ±21.84)s,(124.65 ± 16.74)s, DTC (58.00± 1.53)cm,(55.05 ±5.13)cm, ITT (12.84 ±3.62) s, (14.92 ± 2.75) s, P ＜ 0. 05, P ＜ 0.01);the escape latency of the experimental groups (( 10. 69 ±3.37) s, (18.87 ± 4.74) s) in Morris water maze was significantly shorter than that of the control group (( 23.86± 7.66)s, (33.55 ± 7.20)s, P＜ 0.05, P＜0.01). The contents of NO or MDA in cerebral cortex and hippocampus of the experimental groups (NO in cerebral cortex (3.35 ± 0.40) μmol/gprot, (4.50 ± 0.41) μmol/gprot, NO in hippocampus (2.24 ±0.18) μmol/gprot,(3.15 ±0.21) μmol/gprot, MDA in cerebral cortex(1.34 ±0.44)nmol/mgprot, (2.39 ± 0. 18) nmol/mgprot, MDA in hippocampus (0. 13 ± 0. 07) nmol/mgprot, (0.53 ± 0. 10)nmol/mgprot) were lower than those of the control group (NO in cerebral cortex (3.35 ± 0. 40) μmol/mgprot,(5.03 ± 0.44)μmol/mgprot, NO in hippocampus (2.93 ± 0. 31) μmol/gprot, (3.38 ± 0.24) μmol/gprot, MDA in cerebral cortex (2.24 ± 0.26) nmol/mgprot, (4.21 ± 0.21) nmol/mgprot, MDA in hippocampus (0.47 ± 0.29)nmol/mgprot, (1.33 ± 0. 187) nmol/mgprot, P ＜ 0.05, P ＜ 0. 01) respectively and the contents of SOD in cerebral cortex and hippocampus of the experimental groups (in cerebral cortex (763.95 ± 214.36) U/mgprot, (491.33 ±35.85) U/mgprot, in hippocampus (817.02 ± 232.39) U/mgprot, (644.85 ± 28.02) U/mgprot) were higher than those of the control group(in cerebral cortex (556.50 ± 101.51) U/mgprot, (327.35 ± 30.54) U/mgprot, in hippocampus (279.74 ± 117.02) U/mgprot, (108.75 ± 15.52) U/mgprot, P ＜ 0.05, P＜ 0.01) respectively. Conclusion Melatonin is effective in improving the ability of learning and memory in the rats of noise stress,possibly by inhibiting the increase of NO and MDA and increasing the SOD activity in cerebral cortex and hippocampus of the rats.