Objective To investigate the effect of glucagon-like peptide-1 agonist (exendin-4) on expression of glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4) in the skeletal muscle of rats with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT).Methodis 54 Wistar rats were randomly assigned into normal glucose tolerance group (NGT group,n =18) and impaired glucose tolerance group(IGT group,n =36).The rats in NGT group were fed with routine diet and the rats in IGT group were fed with high-sugar high-fat diet.At the 12th week,IGT models were tested successful.Then,half of the rats were allocated to intervention group (Ex group) and the rest were set as IGT control group.The rats in Ex group were subject to exendin-4 subcutaneous injection (5 μg/kg,twice daily).Each rat in NGT group and IGT control group was given the same volume of saline as injection.FBG and 2 h BG were measured before intervention and after 4 weeks.The expression of GLUT4 mRNA and GLUT4 in the skeletal muscle were respectively measured by real time quantitative polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemistry.Inter-group comparison was conducted using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and least square deviation-test (LSD-t).Results Before intervention,compared with NGT-group,the 2 h BG in IGT control group and Ex group were higher,the GLUT4 mRNA of skeletal muscle in IGT control group and Ex group were lower (respectively P ＜ 0.05).The skeletal muscle cells in IGT control group and Ex group were less colored while the skeletal muscle cells in NGT group were colored extensively,and more colored granules.After 4 weeks of exendin-4 intervention,compared with IGT control group and Ex group of non-intervention,the 2 h BG level in Ex group was lower and the expression level of GLUT4 mRNA of skeletal muscle was higher (respectively P ＜ 0.05).After intervened with exendin-4 for 4 weeks,the GLU protein mainly expressed in cytoplasma of skeletal muscle cells.Its expression was higher in Ex group than in IGT group and in Ex group before intervention.Conclusion Exendin-4 may up-regulate the expression of GLUT4,increase glucose intake of the skeletal muscle,and reduce postprandial blood sugar.

Objective To explore the association between folic acid supplementation during periconcerptional period and congenital heart disease in newborns to provide scientific evidence for making intervening measures.Methods Using stratified random cluster sampling,a total of 30 counties were sampled from Shaanxi Province.A questionnaire survey was conducted among childbearing-aged women pregnant between January 2010 and November 2013.All of the included women had definite pregnancy outcomes and had signed the consent form.Logistic regression was performed to investigate the association between folic acid supplementation during pregnancy and congenital heart disease in newborns.Results In total,28 354 questionnaires were available for analysis.The overall prevalence of congenital heart disease among live-birth neonates in the present study was 7.3‰.The percentage of childbearing-age women who had taken folic acid supplementation during pregnancy was 64.4％,while only 17.2％ of them took folic acid according to the specification.Taking folic acid regularly during pregnancy was associated with a lower risk of congenital heart disease among the newborns (OR 0.502,95％ CI:0.279 0.902).The multiple-factor analysis results also showed that taking folic acid regularly during periconcerptional period could reduce the risk of congenital heart disease (adjusted OR=0.512,P=0.046) when we controlled the family background factors,mother factors and exposure risk factors during pregnancy.However,no association was found between irregularly taking folic acid during periconcerptional period and the risk of congenital heart disease.Conclusion Taking folic acid according to the specification during periconcerptional period (taking folic acid during 3 months before pregnancy to 3 months after pregnancy with a daily dose of 0.4mg for more than 90 days) may prevent congenital heart disease of newborns.

Objective To analyze the effect of special risk exposures during periconception period on birth defects of newborns.Methods From Jul.to Dec.2013,the multi-stage stratified random sampling method was adopted.Women of childbearing age between 15 and 49 who were pregnant during 2010 to 2013 in Shaanxi Province were selected as study subjects for investigation on special risk factors exposed during periconception period.The Logistic regression model was adopted to analyze the association between newborns' birth defects and special risk exposures.Results The study included 30 010 women of childbearing age and 29 550 newborns with 572 (193.57/ 10 000) cases of birth defects.After adjusting for demographic factors,the risk factors for birth defects were drinking [OR=2.29,95％ CI (1.22,4.29)] and passive smoking [OR=1.25,95％ CI (1.02,1.53)] during periconception.There was a higher risk of birth defects when exposure to medicine [OR =1.64,95％ CI (1.04,2.61)],pesticides [OR =2.41,95％ CI (1.09,5.35)],biological risk factors [OR-1.64,95％ CI (1.05,2.56)],physical risk factors [OR=1.15,95％ CI (1.13,2.34)] and chemical risk factors [OR =2.36,95％ CI (1.36,4.11)] 3 months both before and after pregnancy.Similarly,after adjusting for demographic factors and behaviors,we found that birth defects were related to antibiotics,salicylates,and antitussive,which could increase the risk of birth defects (P＜0.05).Conclusion Exposure to passive smoking and drinking during periconception and exposure to medicines and pesticides,as well as biological,physical and chemical risk factors 3 months before and after pregnancy could increase the risk of birth defects in newborns.

The relationship of cause-result between low selenium (Se) and Kashin-Beck disease (KBD) was probed by the prospective study of epidemiological method with regarding low-Se as an exposure factor in this paper. 597 healthy children lived in KBD areas with low, middle and high prevalence were divided into the low-Se exposed group and the non-low-Se exposed group according to their Se content in hair. The low-Se exposed group was divided into three subgroups, such as Se content in hair≤110 ng/g, 110 ng/g＜Se content in hair≤150 ng/g and 150 ng/g＜Se content in hair≤200 ng/g, respectively. Six new cases of the total with KBD (incidence was 0.574% person-year) were found in the low-Se exposed group during three years period of the investigation. No new case was found in the non low-Se exposed group . KBD incidence was not significantly different between those two groups. Two new cases were found in children with Se content in hair kept below 110 ng/g during three years (incidence: 1.21% person-year). SMR in each group indicated that the new cases observed in the low-Se exposed group was remarkable lower than the new cases expected. It was not observed that the dose-response relationship between low-Se and KBD, and was not supported that the low-Se was a predominant factor to cause KBD.

Objective To investigate the treatment effect of ginsenoside compound K (CK) on glucose and lipid metabolism in diabetic mellitus mice and the potential molecular mechanism.Methods A total of 36 mice were randomly divided into normal group,diabetic mellitus group,CK treatment groups (100 or 200 mg/kg body weight),dimethyldiguanide group and p38MAPK pathway agonist P79350 group,with 6 mice in each group.Diabetic mice were established by intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin combined with high-fat diet,and CK with different doses was administrated by gastric lavage for consecutive 8 weeks.The levels of fasting blood-glucose,triglyceride (TG),total cholesterol (TC),high-density lipoprotein (HDL C),fasting serum insulin were measured,and the insulin sensitive index (ISI) was calculated in different treatment groups.Glucose tolerance was detected by oral glucose tolerance test.The protein levels of ASK1,p-ASK1 and p38,p-p38,was detected by Western blot.The mRNA expression of apoptosis signal regulating kinase-1 (ASK1) was detected by real-time quantitative PCR.Results The fasting blood-glucose,TG,TC,HDL C,fasting serum insulin and ISI were (28.31 ± 3.40),(1.90 ± 0.28),(5.00 ± 0.72),(0.50 ± 0.08),(9.01 ± 1.70) mmol/L and-6.42 ± 0.76 in diabetic mice,respectively.The corresponding values were (12.02± 1.81),(0.97 ±0.09),(2.90 ±0.49),(0.91 ±0.08),(15.12 ± 1.93)mmol/L and-4.33 ± 0.46 in 200 mg/kg CK treatment diabetic mice,and were (12.87 ± 2.61),(1.09 ± 0.11),(3.08 ± 0.27),(0.87 ±0.08),(14.97 ± 1.27) mmol/L and-4.42 ± 0.35 in dimethyldiguanide group.All of the fasting blood-glucose,TG and TC in CK treatment groups were significantly lower than those of diabetic mellitus group (P ＜0.05 or ＜0.01),but the fasting serum insulin and ISI in CK treatment groups were significantly higher than that of diabetic mellitus group (P ＜ 0.05 or ＜ 0.01).There were no significant difference between 200 mg/kg CK treatment group and dimethyldiguanide group.The mRNA levels of ASK1 in normal group,diabetic mellitus group and 200 mg/kg CK treatment group were 1.00 ± 0.07,2.52 ± 0.14 and 1.25 ± 0.08,respectively.The mRNA levels of ASK1 in diabetic mellitus group and 200 mg/kg CK treatment group were significantly up-regulated than that of normal group (P＜0.01),but there was no significant difference between 200 mg/kg CK treatment group and diabetic mellitus group in the mRNA levels of ASK1.There was no significant difference in the protein expression levels of ASK1 and p38 among normal group,diabetic mellitus group and 200 mg/kg CK treatment group,but the protein expression levels of p-ASK1 and p-p38 were significant higher in diabetic mellitus group than that in normal group (P＜0.05 or ＜0.01),and were significant lower in 200 mg/kg CK treatment group than that in diabetic mellitus group (P ＜ 0.05 or ＜ 0.01),and were no significant difference between 200 mg/kg CK treatment group and normal group.Conclusions Ginsenoside CK effectively attenuates diabetic mellitus in mouse model,possibly by inhibiting the phosphorylation of ASK1-p38MAPK signaling pathway.

ObjectiveTo investigate the change of gene polymorphorism of surfactant protein-B (SP-B) intron 4 in infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD).MethodsForty-five infants with BPD (BPD group) and ninety-nine infants without lung diseases (control group) who admitted into Tongji Hospital,Tongji Medical College,Huazhong University of Science and Technology from July 2008 to July 2011 were selected into this study.Genotyping for fragment length polymorphism of SP-B intron 4 was performed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR),agarose gel electrophoresis,cloning and sequencing methods in both groups.Differences of allele frequencies (invariant allele and variant allele) and genotype frequencies (invariant genotype and variant genotype) between BPD group and control group were analyzed.The differences of gestational age and birth weight between the two groups were compared with Independent-Samples t test.The gender composition and differences of allele or genotype frequencies between the two groups were compared with Chi-square test.Results Invariant allele frequencies in BPD group and control group were 83.3％ (75/90) and 92.0％ (182/198),and variant allele frequencies were 16.7％ (15/90,including eight insertion alleles and seven deletion alleles) and 8.1％ (16/198,including eight insertion alleles and eight deletion alleles).There were significant differences between the two groups (x2 =4.75,P =0.029).In BPD group,there were 32 cases (71.1 ％,32/45) invariant genotypes and 13 cases (28.9 ％,13/45,including seven cases insertions and six cases deletions) variant genotypes; in the control group,there were 85 cases invariant genotypes (85.8％,85/99) and 14 cases (14.1％,14/99,six insertions and eight deletions) variant genotypes.Significant difference was found between the two groups (x2=4.42,P＜0.036). ConclusionsVariations of SP-B intron 4 were more in BPD infants,and the variation of SP-B intron 4 might be associated with BPD.

Objective To investigate the inlfuence of overexpression of miR-26b on the secretion of adipokines dur-ing human adipocyte differentiation. Methods Human preadipocytes were infected with the hsa-miR-26b over-expressing lentivirus and were induced to differentiate, and then the levels of adipokines (IL-6, leptin, resistin, TNF-α) at different time points during differentiation were measured by ELISA. Results Compared with control group, decreased secretions of both IL-6 and leptin, and increased secretion of resistin were found during the differentiation of human adipocytes in miR-26b overexpressed group. However, the secretion of TNF-αwas not measured in both groups. Conclusion The miR-26b can improve the inlfammation and insulin resistance of human adipocytes, which will provide potential targets for obesity treat-ment.

Objective To construct two kinds of eukaryotic ccll expression vcctors pIRES2-EGFP-SP-B-C/T 1580 and evaluate their expressions in 293T cells,for the further study of relationship between polymorphism of surfactant protein B (SP-B) gene and bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD).Methods The eukaryotic pIRES2-EGFP-SP-B-C/T 1580 expression vectors were constructed by gene recombination,and identified by gene sequencing.The recombinant expression vectors were transfected into 293T cells by lipofectamine2000.The expression of green fluorescence protein in 293T cells was observed by fluorescence microscopy.The mRNAs and proteins of SP-B-C/T 1580 were tested and identified by reverse transcriptionpolymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism(RT-PCR-RFLP) and western blot.Results Two recombinant plasmids contained the complete cDNA of SP-B with the same sequence as in gene bank.The base of SP-B 1580 gene of pIRES2-EGFP-SP-B-C 1580 was C,that of pIRES2-EGFP-SP-B-T 1580 was T.After being transfected into 293T cells,highly efficient expression of SP-B-C/T 1580 gene was detected at mRNA and protein levels.Conclusions The pIRES2-EGFP-SP-B-C/T 1580 eukaryotic cell expression vectors were successfully constructed.

Objective To study the effect of age and sex on physiological and biochemical indexes of SJ5-SPF chickens at the age of different weeks. Methods Blood biochemical indexes of SJ5-SPF chickens at the age of different weeks were measured using an automatic blood analyzer, including 19 items: ALT, ALP, GGT, AST, LDH, TP, GLB, ALB, TB, DB, IBIL, GLU, TG, TCH, BUN, CRE, K+, Na+, and Ca2+. At the same time, the body temperature (T), respiratory frequency (R), heart rate (HR), diastolic pressure (DBP) and systolic pressure (SBP) of the SJ5-SPF chickens were measured using a RM6240C multi-channel physiological signal acquisition and processing system. Results (1) Among the physiological parameters, the body temperature, respiratory rate, heart rate, diastolic blood pressure and systolic blood pressure showed significant differences between the 4-week old chickens and the chickens at ages of 20, 25, and 25 weeks (P ＜ 0. 05), but there were significant differences between the males and females at the same weeks of age except body temperature. The diastolic blood pressure was only significantly different in the 40-week old male and female chickens (P ＜ 0. 01). The heart rates showed significant differences between the male and female chickens at 4, 20 and 25 weeks of age (P ＜ 0. 01). The respiratory rate and systolic blood pressure in the 4-week old male and female chickens were significantly different (P ＜ 0. 05). (2) The 19 blood biochemical indexes showed significant differences between the male and female chickens: the GGT, ALT, AST, TB, DB, IBIL, GLU, BUN and Na+at an week-age (P＜ 0. 05), the LDH, TP, GLB, ALB and CRE at two different week-ages (P＜ 0. 05), the ALP, TG and Ca2+at three different week-ages (P＜ 0. 05), and the TCH and K+at four different week-ages (P＜ 0. 05). Conclusions The above results can provide a scientific basis for diagnosis of SJ5-SPF chicken disease, animal quarantine and other related research.

Objective To analyze the changes and gender differences of organ coefficients, intestinal length and body size of SJ5-SPF chickens at different weeks of age,and to provide experimental data for the sex selection of laboratory chickens. Methods The body weight,the weight of 15 main organs,and length of 5 main segments of intestine and the 6 main parameters of body size of SJ5-SPF chickens at the age of 4,20,25 and 40 weeks were measured,respectively,and the organ coefficients were calculated. In addition, the gender differences in body weights, organ coefficients, intestinal lengths and body sizes between the female and male SJ5-SPF chickens at the four different weeks of age were compared, respectively. Results There were significant differences in body weights between the male and female SJ5-SPF chickens at each of the four different weeks of age(P < 0.01). The organ coefficients varied between females and males to different extents at different weeks of age. As for the intestinal length,there were no significant differences in the length of jejunum and ileum as well as rectum between the male and female chickens, while the length of duodenum, left cecum and right cecum showed gender differences at some of the four different weeks of age. During the determination of body size, there were gender differences in body length,shank length,pelvic width,chest depth and chest width at two or three of the four different weeks of age. Conclusions The organ coefficients, intestinal length and body size of SJ5-SPF chickens are affected by both their age and gender.