Objective To investigate the aging-related changes in gap junction protein-connexin 43 (Cx 43) in rats and their effect on the high incidence rate of ventricular arrhythmia in aged rats. Methods The 64 healthy male Fischer 344 (F344) rats were randomly divided into four age groups (n=16,each): 3-6 months (juvenile), 9-12 months (young-adult), 18-21 months (middle-aged) and 24-26 months (aged). The incidence rate of ventricular arrhythmia was recorded by monitoring their limb-lead Electroa rdiogram(ECG). Morphological changes of ventricular myocardium were observed under optical microscope in Hematoxylin (HE) and Masson's stain. The distribution of connexins 43 (Cx43) and deophosphatase (NP) Cx43 was observed by confocal immunofluorescence microscopy and the Cx43 and NP-Cx43 protein expression was assessed by Western-Blot. Results The incidence rate of ventricular arrhythmia was much higher in aged group (75.0%) than in other three groups (0%,0%,12.5%), all P＜0.05, and the aged group showed that ventricular muscle cells were hypertrophy and arrayed sparsely and disorderly with hyperplasia of connective tissues. The distribution of Cx43 changed from end-to-end to disordered arrangement and the total expression amount of Cx43 decreased as age increased (P＜0.05). The expression amount of NP-Cx43 in middle-aged rats was notably decreased than in juvenile and aged rats (P＜0.05). Conclusions For aged rats, the high incidence rate of ventricular arrhythmia may be associated with ventricular myocardium reconstruction, disarrangement of ventricular muscle cells and gap junction proteins, decreased expression amount of Cx43 and relatively increased NP-Cx43.

0bjective To study the potency of Entecavir Maleate(ETVM),Entecavir(ETV) and Adefovir(ADV) on suppressing duck hepatitis B virus (DHBV) replication.Methods DHBV DNA positive ducks were used as experimental animal model.Ail these ducks were randomized to different arms and respectively given high,medium and low dosage of ETVM,ETV and ADV.ETVM and ETV were given orally daily respectively for six weeks and ADV orally 3 times every week for six weeks.The serum DHBV DNA levels were tested every 2 weeks at day 0 and,after that,at week 2,4.6 and 8 respectively by real-time fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction(PCR).The results were analyzed by paired-samples t test.Results The treatment resulted in the reduction of viral load among all ETVM.ETV or ADV treated groups.The viral load of DHBV DNA at pretreatment and week 6 in the ETVM high dosage group were(7.34±1.33)and(2.12±2.50)lg copy/mL,respectively(P

Objective Myocardial bridging is a congenital anomaly.However,little data is available for patients with myocardial bridging (MB) associated with acute myocardial infarction (AMI).The goals of this study are to evaluate characteristics of MB in patients with AMI.Methods From March 1999 to February 2006,137 patients with both MB and AMI,were identified by coronary angiography,including 117 men and 20 women with an average age of 60.77±12.01 years (range 30-83 years) were enrolled in the present study.Results There were 119 patients with MB at the middle segment of left anterior descending artery (LAD),15 patients at distal segment of LAD,2 patients at middle segment of left circumflex (LCX),and 1 at the proximal segment of the obtuse marginal branch (OM) of LCX.There are 36 patients with non-ST elevation acute myocardial infarction (NSTEAMI),38 patients with anterior ST elevation AMI (STEAMI),40 patients with inferior STEAMI and 23 patients with inferior-posterior STEAMI.Risk factors such as hypertension,diabetes,hyperlipidemia and smoking were not different among four groups.Patients with anterior AMI included 8 patients who showed no stenosis at the segment of MB.Conclusion Patients with MB and ST elevation AMI were mainly inferior AMI.MB might be one of the causes of AMI.

Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death among the elderly and the incidence of coronary artery disease progressively increases with advancing age.Traditional risk factors are incompletely predictive of cardiovascular disease development.With the advent of high-throughput next-generation genome sequencing technologies in recent years, some studies have indicated that aging is associated with an increased frequency of somatic mutations of hematological neoplasm-related genes in the hematopoietic system, providing a competitive growth advantage for mutant hematopoietic cells and thus allowing for their clonal expansion, a phenomenon known as clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential(CHIP). CHIP is common in middle-aged and elderly populations and is associated with increased risks of hematological cancer and all-cause death.There is growing evidence that CHIP is involved in the development and progression of multiple cardiovascular disorders through the activation of inflammatory responses.In this review, we will give an overview of current advances in the understanding of clonal hematopoiesis in cardiovascular disease.

BACKGROUND:Reconstruction of the medial patellofemoral ligament is the primary and basic treatment for patellofemoral dislocation.Generally,autologous or allogeneic tendons are used to fix the patellofemoral podogram area and the femoral insertion,respectively.There are various fixation methods.Patellar lateral insertion fixation methods are relatively diverse,mainly traditional transosseous fixation and recent anchoring methods,including single tunnel,double-tunnel transosseous fixation,and two-wire anchor fixation.However,which fixation method is more effective in reducing patellofemoral joint stress and is more biomechanical has not been determined. OBJECTIVE:To observe the mechanical effects of patellofemoral joint and medial patellofemoral ligament reconstruction with transosseous and wire anchor fixation. METHODS:A three-dimensional finite element model of the knee joint was constructed.The medial patellofemoral ligament was reconstructed by a single tunnel through the bony canal or two wire anchors at the medial edge of the patella.The femoral side was fixed by extrusion nails to the medial epicondyle of the femur and the midpoint of the adductor tubercle.We observed the effects of the two fixation methods on patellofemoral joint and medial patellofemoral ligament loading during knee flexion at 0°,30°,60°,90°,and 120°. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1)The stress on the patellofemoral joint was large when the knee was at flexion of 0-60°,peaked at 30°,and gradually decreased at 90° and 120°.The two fixation methods had little difference in the stress on the patellofemoral joint.(2)The stress on the medial patellofemoral ligament peaked at 30° and decreased significantly at 60°,and the load on the medial patellofemoral ligament was significantly greater at all angles with anchor fixation than with bony canal fixation.(3)The results showed that there was no significant difference in patellofemoral joint loading between the two fixation methods,but the stress on the medial patellofemoral ligament in anchoring was significantly greater than that in transosseous fixation.