Objective To investigate the effect of short stature homeobox (SHOX) gene promoter-372G →A mutation on the promoter activity and its mechanism.Methods The luciferase report gene vectors containing human SHOX gene promoter-372G or -372A were contructed.Their transcription activities were detected in chicken chondrocytes.Double-stranded DNA probes containing-372G or-372A were produced by PCR,and used for detecting the affinity with nuclear transcription factors by electrophoretic mobility shift assay(EMSA).Results The transcription activity in a-372A promoter construct was significantly higher than that in the wild type-372G (P<0.01).The result of EMSA showed that-372A gene mutation resulted in loss of the binding affinity to nuclear transcription factors.Conclusion The-372A mutation increases SHOX promoter activity with decreased DNA binding affinity to transcription factors,which may contribute to impaired long bone growth in patients with idio pathic short stature.

Objective: To investigate the infection status and genotype distribution of cervical human papillomavirus (HPV) in women of different ethnic groups and different ages in Yili, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang). Methods: By using the convenient sampling method, 54 760 women from November 2015 to May 2017 seeking for service in gynecological clinics in a general hospital in Yili, Xinjiang, were selected as the research subjects, and 3 445 samples of cervical mucous exfoliative cells were collected, and the social information of their ethnic and age was collected at the same time. The inclusion criteria were those with sexual life, cervical integrity, and ethnic groups for Han or Uygur or Kazak. PCR-reverse dot blot hybridization was used to detect HPV genotyping in exfoliated cells, and chi-square test was used to compare the difference of HPV positive rate among different ethnic groups. Then, according to ethnicity and age, the differences in positive rates of different ages and ethnic groups were compared in each layer. Results: The positive rate of HPV was 25.6% (882 cases), of which the Han, Uygur and Kazakh were 27.9% (564 cases), 22.9% (196 cases) and 21.6% (122 cases), and the difference was statistically significant (χ²=13.80, P=0.001). The most prevalent high-risk genotypes of Han women were HPV16/52/58, accounting for 24.8% (140 cases), 17.7% (100 cases) and 9.8% (55 cases), respectively. The most prevalent high-risk genotypes of Uygur women were HPV16/52/53, accounting for 34.2% (67 cases), 12.8% (25 cases), 9.2% (18 cases), respectively. The most prevalent high-risk genotypes of Kazak were HPV16/52/53, accounting for 37.7% (46 cases), 17.2% (21 cases), 12.3% (15 cases), respectively. The highest rate of HPV in Uygur patients aged ≥61 years was 41.5% (22 cases), and the lowest in group 36-40 years old, 15.9% (21 cases), the difference between different age groups was statistically significant (χ²=35.01, P<0.001). Conclusion The positive rate of HPV infection among Han, Uygur and Kazak in Yili Prefecture of Xinjiang was different, and the HPV positive genotype differs among different ethnic groups.