Nerve injury including peripheral nerve injury and central nerve injury has been a global problem. With the development of technology, many innovative approaches for nerve repair have been tested and some of the results are meaningful. It becomes a hot point that repair nerve injured by biological scaffold (nerve conduit). This article reviewed and analyzed several kinds of biological scaffold materials and microenvironment with better effect in recent years. Some new ideas were raised from the three aspects: appropriate materials, microstructure, and bionic microenvironment. It is better to combine multiple measures and achieve the best effect. In addition, nerve scaffold have a bright future in repair of central nervous system.
Cellular Microenvironment ; Humans ; Neurobiology ; methods ; Tissue Scaffolds ; Trauma, Nervous System ; pathology ; therapy

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the effects on health-related quality of life after short-segment pedicle fixation of thoracolumbar fractures without neurologic injury.

METHODSA total of 55 patients suffered from thoracolumbar fractures without neurological deficit from January 2007 to October 2010 were included in this retrospective study. Of the 55 patients, 35 were male and 20 were female. The mean age was (44.0±10.5) years old (ranged, 7 to 75). Preoperatively, the main clinical symptoms in patients were thoracolumbar pain without neurologic injury and the imaging findings mainly showed that the injured vertebra became wedging or flat with the loss of height. Three questionnaires (ODI, EQ-5D and SF-36) were applied to follow-up in this study.

RESULTSAll operations were successful and incisions got primary healing. The function of thoracolumbar spine fully or basiclly restored and postoperative imagings showed fractures healed without loose screws, broken screws or broken rods. The completion rates of all the queasionnaires were 100% while the mean follow-up period was 4.2 years (ranged, 3 to 6). The ODI scores were 25.8±18.7, which were statistically higher than those of the general population in our country (P<0.05). The EQ-5D index scores were 0.70, which were statistically lower than those of the normal Chinese population (P<0.05). Compared with the normal scores in our country, the scores of 8 items in the SF-36 questionnaire were obviously lower with significant difference (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONCompared with the normal Chinese population, it should be paid more attention to that the health-related quality of life in patients after short-segment pedicle fixation of thoracolumbar fractures without neurologic injury because of lower scores.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Child ; Female ; Fracture Fixation, Internal ; methods ; Humans ; Lumbar Vertebrae ; injuries ; surgery ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Quality of Life ; Retrospective Studies ; Spinal Fractures ; psychology ; surgery ; Thoracic Vertebrae ; injuries ; surgery ; Young Adult

Acupressure ; Acupuncture Points ; Acupuncture Therapy ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Child ; Combined Modality Therapy ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Spasm ; therapy ; Stomach Diseases ; therapy ; Young Adult

Spinal cord injury is a serious disabling disease caused by a series of internal and external factors in the field of orthopaedics and neuroscience, which is a big problem for doctors all over the world. Lithium has been used to treat dipolar disorder for over 100 years. It has been reported that lithium is benefit for brain neuron. The treatment effect for spinal cord injury gets more and more attention. Researches indicate that lithium is benefit for spinal cord injury by protecting neuron,reducing after-injury inflammation increasing the produce and release of neurotrophins, stimulating neurogenesis, enhancing autophagy and inhibiting apoptosis. This article summaries advances in mechanism of treatment for spinal cord injury with lithium by reviewing and analyzing researches. Therapy combined with lithium has a good application prospect.
Animals ; Apoptosis ; drug effects ; Humans ; Lithium ; therapeutic use ; Neurons ; cytology ; drug effects ; Spinal Cord Injuries ; drug therapy ; physiopathology

Objective To assess excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) using the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) and to examine the main cause of EDS. Methods 96 consecutive PD patients and 98 age-matched healthy controls participated in the study. The severity of the disease was evaluated by Hoehn and Yahr stage (H&Y) and Unified Parkinson's disease Rating Scale-Ⅲ (UPDRS-Ⅲ), and information of anti-PD medications was collected. The correlations among EDS and age, severity of PD, PQSI score, duration of illness and medications were analyzed. Results The mean ESS score was 6.05 (S.D.3.83) in PD patients and 4.24 (S.D.3.21) in controls (P

Adult ; Female ; Hexanes ; poisoning ; Humans ; Immunity, Humoral ; Male ; Myelin Proteins ; blood ; immunology ; Peripheral Nervous System Diseases ; chemically induced ; immunology ; Young Adult

Objective To explore the anti-inflammatory mechanisms of purslane by evaluating its effects on the expression of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1).Methods A model of inflammation was developed in 45 mice by painting xylene to the auricle of the right ears,which were then divided into 3 groups to receive no treatment (negative control group),be topically treated with the extraction of purslane from South Korea (positive control group) or Yunnan province (experimental group).Fifteen mice receiving no sensitization nor treatment served as the blank control group.Two hours after the single topical treatment,skin tissue samples were obtained from the site of experimental inflammation and subjected to pathological examination by using hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining.Immunohistochemistry was performed to quantify the expression of TNF-α and ICAM-1 in the tissue samples.Results Pathological examination showed blood vessels and a small quantity of lymphocytes in murine dermis of the blank control group as well as loose and edematous dermis infiltrated with massive lymphocytes in the negative control group.However,there was only mild edema and perivascular infiltration with some inflammatory cells in the dermis of the positive control group and experimental group.Neither TNF-α nor ICAM-1 was expressed in the skin tissue of the blank control group,but an intense expression was observed for TNF-α in the vascular endothelial cell membrane and for ICAM-1 in the vascular endothelial cell membrane and lymphocyte membrane in the negative control group,which was significantly downregulated by the purslane from South Korea in the positive control group and by the purslane from Yunnan province in the experimental group (all P ＜ 0.01).Rank sum test showed a statistical difference in the expression level of TNF-α and ICAM-1 between the blank control group and experimental group (both P ＜0.01).Conclusion The purslane from Yunnan province may counteract inflammation by affecting the expression of TNF-α and ICAM-1.

Objective To investigate the clinical significance of diffusion tensor imaging of magnetic resonance imaging in the diagnosis of cerebral gliomas. Methods Diffusion tensor images were obtained in 23 patients with cerebral gliomas,meanwhile the routing T1-weighted(T1W) ,T2-weighted(T2W) ,contrast-enhanced T1W imaging, FLAIR imaging and diffusion tensor of the brain were acquired. Anatomic relationship between intracranial tumors and surrounding fibers was analyzed on fractional anisotropic(FA) map,color-coded directional map,three-dimensional white matter tractography. Results White matter fiber anatomy maps of the brain by means of FA maps of DTI at high resolution were successfully completed in all patients. The white matter tracts appeared as strongly hyperintense signal,while the grey matter presented an isointense area in contrast to the strongly hypointense signal of the CSF. Glioma boundaries were less sharper than on contrast-enhanced T1W images,but delineation could still be easily seen as hypointense lesion on FA map. The principal fiber tracts were well observed in all cases, including the tracts nearby the lesions. Apparently significant differences of MD were found in solid tumor,surrounding edema,compared with normal white matter regions(P ＜0.05). But there was no significant difference among solid tumor and surrounding edema region(P＞0. 05). There were significant differences of FA between solid tumor,surrounding edema and normal white matter region (P ＜0. 05). Conclusion The FA map of DTI offered the optimal visualization of white matter tracts. The combination of the DTI and other conventional MRI could accurately determine the tumor and surrounding proximity to the white matter fiber tracts in the diagnosis of cerebral glioma.

?Corneal collagen cross-linking ( CXL ) could increase the mechanical strength, biological stability and halt ectasia progression due to covalent bond formed by photochemical reaction between ultraviolet - A and emulsion of riboflavin between collagen fibers in corneal stroma. Corneal melting is an autoimmune related noninfectious corneal ulcer. The mechanism of corneal melting, major treatment, the basic fundamental of ultraviolet- A riboflavin induced CXL and the clinical researches status and experiment in CXL were summarized in the study.