Objective To speculate the precipitating factors,clinical features and histopathological changes in patients with granuloma annulare (GA).Methods A study was performed in 53 patients with GA . Results The incidence of female was more prevalent than male in our study. The exposure of sunlight was found more relatedly in GGA than LGA.The onset age of GGA was inclined to be elder and GGA seemed to last longer.The histopathological study showed that palisading granuloma pattern accounted for 71.7% in all patients,and scattered histiocytic infiltration accounted for 28.3%.Such as cryotherapy,topical steroids were used for LGA and systemic administration was an alternative to GGA. Conclusions Ultraviolet may be associated with the development of generalized GA. The most common pattern is the palisading granuloma though the histopathological changes were variable.Topical therapy is effective in LGA,while the systemic therapy is mainly used for GGA.

Objective To explore susceptibility of praziquantel(PQT) against Schistosoma japonicum in the repeated chemotherapy areas in Dongting Lake region of China. Methods Sixty mice were divided into two groups, and infected respectively by cercariae released from the infected snails which were collected from new and old endemic areas. After 5 weeks, the mice in each group were divided into control groups and treatment groups (PQT group). The mice in each PQT group were treated with a single oral dose of praziquantel (600 mg/kg). Three weeks post treatment, mice were dissected, and the number of adults, the stool eggs per gram (EPG), the liver EPG and the hatching rates were observed. Results The worm reduction rates of the PQT groups of new and old epidemic areas were 98.24% and 98.71% respectively, and the stool egg reduction rates 99.94% and 99.64%, the liver egg reduction rates 75.85% and 73.10%,and there were no significant differences between the new and old endemic areas. The stool hatching test was positive in the control groups, and negative in the PQT groups. Conclusion Susceptibility of praziquantel against Schistosoma japonicum does not decrease in repeated chemotherapy areas in Dongting Lake region.

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of the metformin on the formation of hepatic fibrosis in type 2 diabetic rats and discuss its mechanism of liver-protecting activity. After SD rats were fed with high-fat and high-sucrose diet for four weeks, low-dose streptozotocin (STZ) was injected intraperitoneally to make the animal mode of type 2 diabetes. Then, all diabetic rats was fed with the high-fat diet and metformin (ig, 100 mg x kg(-1)) was given orally to metformin group for four months. After the last administration, fasting blood glucose was determined. The livers were removed to calculate the hepatic coefficient and to make HE and Picro acid-Sirius red staining, immunohistochemistry (alpha-SMA and TGFbeta1) and TUNEL staining in order to evaluate the effect of metformin on the hepatic fibrosis. The animal model of type 2 diabetes with hepatic fibrosis was successfully made. Metformin can significantly alleviate the lesions of hepatic steatosis and fibrosis, markedly reduce the expressions of alpha-SMA and TGFbeta1 in liver tissue of type 2 diabetic rats. However, TUNEL staining result suggested that metformin could not reduce apoptosis of hepatocytes. The results suggest that metformin can inhibit the formation of hepatic fibrosis in type 2 diabetes.

For acquisition of the gene chip information, how to correctly locate the probe dots in the chip's scanning image is the base of the chip information processing. Here we present a new approach for locating the probe dots in the gene chip image. First, a medialness function, which is good at detection of circle area with radius given in advance, is used for calculating the medialness map in which the center of circle sample area of the gene chip image is disclosed prominently. Then, a method to locate the probe dots center is given based on the medialness map and the 2D space configuration of the probe dots. The experiments show that the new approach correctly locates the probe dots while against noise affection robustly.
Algorithms ; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted ; methods ; Imaging, Three-Dimensional ; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis ; methods