0.05). The staining intensity of Smad4 in follicles changed in relation with their development. Its expression in oocytes of antral and mature follicles was significantly decreased, as compared to that of preantral follicles (P0.05). The RT-PCR demonstrated that Smad4 mRNA was expressed in all developmental stages of the rat ovary, and from the 3rd week on, the expression of Smad4 mRNA was significant higher than that of the 1 day postnatal. CONCLUSION: The expression of protein and mRNA of Smad4 in the rat ovary indicate that TGF-?_s may regulate the folliculogenesis by Smad signal transduction model.

The inverted terminal repeat (ITR) is the only cis element of AAV genome essential for rAAV rescue, replication and packaging. It is prone to mutation or loss when it is latent in host cell or in plasmid. Plasmids with different ITR types were cloned to compare the influence of ITR types on the AAV packaging and infectivity. The vector plasmids were transformed the competent SURE cells to get different colonies. The ITR types of plasmids were screened by digestion with SmaⅠ. AAV vector plasmid pScGFPud has two ITRs at both ends of AAV genome and plasmid pScGFPu has only one ITR at upstream end of AAV genome. When the two plasmids were co-transfected 293 cells to prepare rAAVs, 1.08?1013 viral particles (AAV1-GFPud) were produced from 20-dishes of 293 cells cotransfected with plasmid pScGFPud, 4.28?1012 viral particles (AAV1-GFPu) were produced from 20-dishes of 293 cells cotransfected with plasmid pScGFPu. Virus AAV1-GFPud infected 293, HeLa and NCI H446 cells more efficiently than did virus AAV1-GFPu. This suggests that defect ITRs in AAV genome is deleterious to AAV packaging and AAV infectivity and vector with complete ITRs is favorable to the yield and activity of rAAV.

AIM: To evaluate the effect and safety of Rhodamine 123 (Rh123)-mediated photodynamic treatment (PDT) on acute graft versus host disease. METHODS: An acute graft versus host disease (aGVHD) mice model was established using C57B/6 mice as donors and BALB/c mice as recipients. Mixed lymphocytic cells were cultured with Rh123 (50 nmol/L) and irradiated by argon laser 30 mW/cm2 for 3 min, then transplanted to BALB/c recipient mice mixed with donor bone marrow. Hepatopoietic recovery, aGVHD occurrence, survival time after transplantation and pathological changes were observed. In addition, CD3+CD69+ positive rates of MLC were examined by flowcytometry. RESULTS: Occurrence of aGVHD decreased, degree of pathological manifestation became milder, survival rates were higher than non PDT groups. CD3+CD69+ rates of MLC cells treated with photodynamic therapy (PDT) and cultured for 24 h significantly decreased. CONCLUSION: Rh123-mediated PDT can effectively prevent aGVHD of allogeneic bone marrow transplantation in mice.