OBJECTIVE To observe the therapeutic effects of hyperbaric oxygen(HBO) combined treatment on gas gangrene. METHODS Sixty cases with gas gangrene were treated by HBO after surgical combined treatment. RESULTS None of 51 cases was amputated.Nine amputated cases were not done again. CONCLUSIONS HBO combined treatment could maximally diminish the areas of necrotic tissues,save the limbs and reduce the amputation rate.Amputated patients also can avoid the possibility of being reamputated.

Objective To investigate roles of superoxide dismutase-1(SOD1),phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) /serine/ threonine protein kinase (AKT) signal transduction pathway in protection of propofol on spinal cord ischemic reperfusion injury (SCIRI) in rabbit model before and after ischemia. Methods Sixty Japanese male rabbits were randomly divided into 3 groups (n=20),namely sham-operation group (Group S),ischemia-reperfusion group (Group I/ R) and ischemia-reperfusion group with propofol treatment (Group P). Abdominal aorta of the rabbits in group I/ R and group P were blocked by clamp for 40 min and then the clamp was removed. Propofol (30 mg·kg-1 ) was intravenously infused 10 min before blocking the aorta and at the time of reperfusion. Normal saline was intravenously infused at the same time points in the other two groups. Four rabbits of each group were randomly executed 1,2,3,5,7 days after surgery. Spinal cord tissues at L3-L4 levles were harvested. Bioactivity of SOD1 was detected by ELISA and mRNA expression levels of SOD1,PI3K and AKT were detected by RT-PCR. Results On the 1st day after the surgery,the bioactivity of SOD1 increased significantly in Group I/ R and Group P as compared with that in Group S (P<0. 05). On the 2nd day,compared with Group S,the bioactivity of SOD1 increased significantly in Group P (P<0. 05),but there was no change in Group I/ R (P>0. 05). On the 3rd,the 5th and the 7th day,compared with Group S,the bioactivity of SOD1 decreased significantly in Group I/ R (P<0. 05),but there was no change in Group P (P>0. 05). Linear regression analysis indicated that there was a positive correlation between the changes of SOD1 activity and the mRNA expression of SOD1,PI3K and AKT respectively in spinal cord tissues. Conclusion Pre- and post-ischemic conditioning with propofol shows potent protective effects against SCIRI in the rabbit model. The mechanisms may be related to increased expression of SOD1 in the spinal cord tissues by activating PI3K/ AKT signal transduction pathway.

Objective To investigate the effects of remote ischemic preconditioning(RIPC)on the expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor(BDNF),Serine/threonine protein kinase Cε(PKCε)in spinal cord tissues and change in mRNA content after spinal cord ischemic reperfusion injury(SCIRI). Methods A total of 36 cases of Japanese white rabbits were randomly divided into sham(group S),is-chemic reperfusion injury(group IR)and group IR+ RIPC(12 rabbits in each group).Each group was further divided into two sub-groups according to time points after reperfusion(2 and 5 days),six rabbits of each group were sacrificed at each time point.In group S,abdominal aorta were only separated and ex-posed and were not camped.In group IR and group IR+RIPC,the abdominal aorta were camped for 30 min,and the SCIRI models were established.In group IR+RIPC,RIPC was performed 1 h before aortic calmping.Hind-limb neurological function of each group was evaluated using Tarlov Scale at 2,5 d after surgery,then rabbits were sacrificed,and L4-L6 spinal cord segments were taken.Pathological change in spinal cord tissues were observed,the protein and mRNA expression of BDNF and PKCε were detected by Western blotting analysis and PT-PCR.Results In comparison with group IR,hind-limb neurologic func-tion scores at the same time point were significantly higher(P<0.05),and the protein and mRNA expres-sion of BDNF and PKCε were significant increased in group IR+RIPC(P<0.05).Conclusion RIPC has an important role in prevention and treatment of SCIRI in rabbits.The mechanisms may be that RIPC activates the PKCε/PKC signaling pathway and up-regulates the expression of BDNF and PKCε in spinal cord tissues after spinal cord injury.

Objective:To compare the clinical effects of dexmedetomidine assisted lumbar plexus nerve block and propofol-remifentanil general anesthesia in the patients aged over 70 years undergoing total hip replacement. Methods:Totally 58 patients(≥70 years old) with selective total hip replacement were divided into dexmedetomidine assisted lumbar plexus nerve block group(group A,28 cases) and propofol-remifentanil general anesthesia group (group B,30 cases) according to the time order of operation. The perioperative stability of respiratory and circulatory,postoperative recovery,anesthesia complications in 24 h after the surgery and anes-thesia satisfaction were evaluated and compared between the groups. Results:The vital signs of group A during the operation had no significant difference among each time point(P>0.05). There was statistical signification in blood pressure and heart rate before and after the anesthesia induction and the tracheal intubation in group B(P<0.05). Perioperative cardiovascular drug use in group B was significantly more than that in group A(P<0.01). Totally 20 cases in group A were directly sent back to the ward after the operation, another 8 cases was in anesthesia recovery room for 0.5~1-hour observation. Totally 12 cases with postoperative controlled breathing in group B were directly sent back to the intensive care unit,another 7 cases pulled out the endotracheal tube and were sent back to the intensive care unit and another 11 cases were observed in anesthesia recovery room for 1-2 h. The occurrence of postoperative cognitive dysfunction in group B was significantly higher than that in group A(P<0.05),while the anesthesia satisfaction was extremely lower than that in group A(P<0.01). Conclusion:For the patients aged over 70 years undergoing total hip replacement,dexmedetomidine at moderate dose assisted lumbar plexus nerve block is more ideal anesthesia.

Objective:To propose and evaluate the cycle-constraint adversarial network (CycleGAN) for enhancing the low-quality fundus images such as the blurred, underexposed and overexposed etc.Methods:A dataset including 700 high-quality and 700 low-quality fundus images selected from the EyePACS dataset was used to train the image enhancement network in this study.The selected images were cropped and uniformly scaled to 512×512 pixels.Two generative models and two discriminative models were used to establish CycleGAN.The generative model generated matching high/low-quality images according to the input low/high-quality fundus images, and the discriminative model determined whether the image was original or generated.The algorithm proposed in this study was compared with three image enhancement algorithms of contrast limited adaptive histogram equalization (CLAHE), dynamic histogram equalization (DHE), and multi-scale retinex with color restoration (MSRCR) to perform qualitative visual assessment with clarity, BRISQUE, hue and saturation as quantitative indicators.The original and enhanced images were applied to the diabetic retinopathy (DR) diagnostic network to diagnose, and the accuracy and specificity were compared.Results:CycleGAN achieved the optimal results on enhancing the three types of low-quality fundus images including the blurred, underexposed and overexposed.The enhanced fundus images were of high contrast, rich colors, and with clear optic disc and blood vessel structures.The clarity of the images enhanced by CycleGAN was second only to the CLAHE algorithm.The BRISQUE quality score of the images enhanced by CycleGAN was 0.571, which was 10.2%, 7.3%, and 10.0% higher than that of CLAHE, DHE and MSRCR algorithms, respectively.CycleGAN achieved 103.03 in hue and 123.24 in saturation, both higher than those of the other three algorithms.CycleGAN took only 35 seconds to enhance 100 images, only slower than CLAHE.The images enhanced by CycleGAN achieved accuracy of 96.75% and specificity of 99.60% in DR diagnosis, which were higher than those of oringinal images.Conclusions:CycleGAN can effectively enhance low-quality blurry, underexposed and overexposed fundus images and improve the accuracy of computer-aided DR diagnostic network.The enhanced fundus image is helpful for doctors to carry out pathological analysis and may have great application value in clinical diagnosis of ophthalmology.

Objective To explore the influence of gender and age on auditory startle reflex in healthy adults.Methods A total of 150 healthy volunteers (92 males and 58 females) aged from 18 to 60 years were recruited for this study.A modified startle reflex paradigm was adopted.Furthermore,gender-age differences on startle magnitude,habituation,perceived spatial co-location induced prepulse inhibition (PSC-PPI) and perceived spatial separation-induced prepulse inhibition (PSS-PPI) in healthy volunteers were analyzed.Results ① There was no significant difference in amplitude and habituation of startie reflex between males and females (F=0.29,P=0.593;F=1.57,P=0.212).PSC-PPI and PSS-PPI were significantly higher in males (PSC-PPI:(34.68± 20.81) ％,PSS-PPI:(44.56 ± 23.19) ％) than those in females (PSC-PPI:(23.11±22.43)％,PSS-PPI:(35.21±25.09)％) (F=9.48,P=0.002;F=4.76,P=0.031).② There was a negative correlation between startle magnitude and age (r=-0.29,P＜0.01),however,no obvious correlations between age and PSC-PPI or PSS-PPI as well as habituation were observed.③Bivariate analysis of variance showed that no interaction between gender and age was found to the indexes of startle reflex(F=0.71-1.36,all P＞0.05).Conclusions There are differences for gender and age in the indexes of startle reflex.In detail,age chiefly influences startle magnitude,while gender mainly affects the prepulse inhibition.

During the gene editing process mediated by CRISPR/Cas9, precise genome editing and gene knock-in can be achieved by the homologous recombination of double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) donor template. However, the low-efficiency of homologous recombination in eukaryotic cells hampers the development and application of this gene editing strategy. Here, we developed a novel CRISPR/Cas9-hLacI donor adapting system (DAS) to enhance the dsDNA-templated gene editing, taking the advantage of the specific binding of the LacI repressor protein and the LacO operator sequence derived for the Escherichia coli lactose operon. The codon-humanized LacI gene was fused as an adaptor to the Streptococcus pyogenes Cas9 (SpCas9) and Staphylococcus lugdunensis Cas9 (SlugCas9-HF) genes, and the LacO operator sequence was used as the aptamer and linked to the dsDNA donor template by PCR. The Cas9 nuclease activity after the fusion and the homology-directed repair (HDR) efficiency of the LacO-linked dsDNA template were firstly examined using surrogate reporter assays with the corresponding reporter vectors. The CRISPR/Cas9-hLacI DASs mediated genome precise editing were further checked, and we achieved a high efficiency up to 30.5% of precise editing at the VEGFA locus in HEK293T cells by using the CRISPR/SlugCas9-hLacI DAS. In summary, we developed a novel CRISPR/Cas9-hLacI DAS for dsDNA-templated gene editing, which enriches the CRISPR/Cas9-derived gene editing techniques and provides a novel tool for animal molecular design breeding researches.
Humans ; Animals ; Gene Editing ; CRISPR-Cas Systems/genetics* ; HEK293 Cells ; Homologous Recombination ; DNA