Objective To investigate the effects of hydrogen inhalation on the brain injury after intestinal ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) in rats.Methods Fifty-four healthy male Sprague-Dawley rats aged 6-8 months,weighing 285-350 g,were randomly allocated to one of 3 groups (n =18 each):sham operation group (group S),intestinal I/R group (group I/R) and hydrogen inhalation group (group H2).Intestinal I/R was produced by occlusion of the superior mesenteric artery for 90 min followed by reperfusion.2％ hydrogen was inhaled for 3 h starting from the end of ischemia.The cognitive function was detected at 1,2 and 5 days of reperfusion using Morris water maze test.The animals were sacrificed after the test and brains were isolated for detection of the cerebral edema and morphology in brain tissues.The cerebral water content ((wet weight-dry weight)/ wet weight × 100％) was measured.The pathological changes in the prefrontal cortex was observed under light microscope.The neuronal apoptosis was detected by TUNEL.Results Compared with the S group,the number of normal neurons in the prefrontal cortex was significantly decreased,the latency and swimming distance were both prolonged,the frequency of crossing the original platform was decreased,and the cerebral water content and the number of apoptotic neurons were increased in groups I/R and H2 (P ＜ 0.05).Compared with I/R group,the number of normal neurons in the prefrontal cortex was significantly increased,the latency and swimming distance were both shortened,the frequency of crossing the original platform was increased,the cerebral water content and the nunber of apoptotic neurons were decreased in group H2 (P ＜ 0.05).The pathological changes were obvious in I/R group,however,they were significantly attenuated in H2 group.Conclusion H2 inhalation can reduce the brain damage and improve the cognitive dysfunction after intestinal I/R in rats.

Objective To explore the association of CD40 gene single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and haplotypes with the susceptibility to systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE),as well as the association of serum levels and genotypes of CD40 with the occurrence of SLE.Methods A multiplex PCR single-base extension assay (PCR-SBE) and DNA sequencing were performed to analyze 4 SNPs of the CD40 gene,including rs1883832 C/T,rs13040307 C/T,rs752118 C/T and rs3765459 G/A,in 205 patients with SLE (SLE group) and 220 healthy human controls (control group).Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was conducted to measure serum levels of CD40 in these subjects.Results Compared with the control group,the SLE group showed significantly increased serum levels of CD40 (P ＜ 0.05).There were significant differences in genotype and allele frequencies of the SNP rs1883832 C/T in the CD40 gene between the SLE group and control group (all P＜ 0.01).Relative risk analysis showed that the risk of developing SLE in rs1883832 T allele carriers was 1.517 times that in rs1883832 C allele carriers (OR =1.517,95％ CI:1.157-1.990,P=0.003).Moreover,serum levels of CD40 were significantly higher in rs1883832 T allele carriers than in rs1883832 C allele carriers (P ＜ 0.01).The risk of developing SLE was significantly increased in TCCA haplotype carriers compared with the healthy controls (OR =2.322,95％ CI:1.181-4.564,P=0.012).Conclusion The CD40 gene rs1883832 C/T polymorphism and its TCCA haplotype were both associated with the occurrence of SLE,and the rs1883832 T allele may be a gene predisposing to SLE.

Objective To investigate the effect of intravenous injection of 20% lipid emulsion on neurotransmitters imbalance in central nerve system induced by local anesthetics.Methods Thirty adult Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into two groups:normal group (group C,n =10) and local anesthetics group (group L,n =20).Based on different treatment,the rats in group L were assigned into two subgroup:control group (group S,n =10)and 20% long-chain lipid emulsion in-jection group (group I,n =10).The rats of group L were injected with 0.75% levobupivacaine at 50μl/min from the right ventricle of brain.When convulsions wave of electroencephalogram EEG ap-peared,20% long-chain lipid emulsion was administrated continuously 0.25 ml·kg-1 ·min-1 (group I)or normal saline (group S).The rats in group C were without any treatment.All the rats were con-tinously monitored by EEG,ECG and SpO 2 .The primary outcome included seizure duration and threshold and rats’mortality of postoperative 24 h.Secondary outcome included the concentrations of neurotransmitters GABA and Glu in cerebrospinal fluid,expression of NMDAR1 in cortex,Glu/GA-BA concentration ratio (Glu/GABA),and analysis the correlation between expression of Glu and NMDAR1.Results The convulsion time and mortality of rats in group S were significantly increased compared with those in group I (P <0.05).The seizure threshold of levobupivacaine was much lower in group S than group I (P <0.05).Compared with group C,the concentrations of Glu and GABA in cerebrospinal fluid,expression of NMDAR1 in hippocampus and Glu/GABA significantly increased in groups S and I(P < 0.05 ),and at same time these data in group S were significantly higher than group I (P < 0.05 ).There is a positive correlation between concentration of Glu in CSF and expression of NMDAR1 in hippocampus (r =0.884,P <0.01 ).Conclusion Intravenous infusion of 20% long-chain lipid emulsion can effectively improve neurotransmitters imbalance in central nerve system induced by intraventricular injection of local anesthetics.

Objective To observe the effects of three pretreatments of electroacupuncture with different waveforms for septic brain injury in rats, and to explore the optimal waveform. Methods Eighty male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided randomly into five groups (n = 16):sham group,cecal ligation and puncture group (group CLP),continuous wave group (group CW),dilata-tional wave group (group DW)and intermittent wave group (group IW).A rat sepsis model was pre-pared by cecal ligation and puncture.Brain water content was detected.Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α,interleukin(IL)-6,malondialdehyde (MDA)and superoxide dismutase (SOD)in serum and frontal cortex were detected 48 h after sham or CLP operation.Pathological changes of frontal cortex,ex-pression of Toll-like receptor-4 (TLR4),and apoptosis of nerve cells were observed by hematoxylin and eosin staining (H&E),immunohistochemistry and TUNEL assay,respectively.Results Com-pared with the sham group,encephaledema,as well as brain injury and neuron apoptosis increased in group CLP (P <0.05).Concentrations of tumor necrosis factor-α,interleukin-6,and malondialdehyde in serum and frontal cortex significantly increased,and the activities of superoxide dismutase significantly de-creased (P < 0.05 ).The expression of TLR4 significantly increased (P < 0.05 ).Compared with group CLP,the aforementioned indicators in the continuous,dilatational,and intermittent wave groups significantly improved (P < 0.05 ).Compared among the electroacupunctured groups,the effect of dilatational wave was the most significant,followed by intermittent wave,and continuous wave was the least one (P <0.05).Conclusion EA pretreatment with different waveforms at Baihui and Tsusanli acupoints could reduce the septic brain injury,and DW might be the best one.The mechanism might be related with the inhibition of inflammation and oxidative stress response and the decrease in nerve cell apoptosis.