Atherosclerosis is an inflammatory disease. However, its etiology has not been yet fully elucidated. Endothelial dysfunction is currently considered to be one of the most important steps in the initiation of atherosclerosis. In addition, vascular smooth muscle cells, which are the main cellular component of de novo and in-stent restenosis lesions, play an important role in the development of atherosclerosis. Promoting the regeneration of endothelial cells and inhibiting the proliferation of smooth muscle cells are pivotal for the prevention and treatment of vascular injury. Recently, some studies have demonstrated that mesenchymal stem cells can home to the site of injury and differentiate into endothelial cells to repair damaged blood vessels. On the contrary, other researches have revealed that mesenchymal stem cells can differentiate into vascular smooth muscle cells that are involved in the development of restenosis. Here, we review the fundamental researches of mesenchymal stem cell therapy for atherosclerosis and address the perspectives of mesenchymal stem cells in atherosclerosis treatment.
Animals ; Atherosclerosis ; therapy ; Cell Differentiation ; Cells, Cultured ; Endothelial Cells ; cytology ; Humans ; Mesenchymal Stem Cell Transplantation ; methods ; Mesenchymal Stromal Cells ; cytology

Aim To explore the effect of water extract of Radix Isatidis(WERI)on proliferation and differentiation of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes.Methods 3T3-L1 preadipocytes were cultured to explore the effect of WERI on their proliferation measured by MTT and flow cytometry.Oil red O staining was applied to investigate the effect of different concentrations of WERI on the differentiation of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes.

Objective To understand the academic atmosphere current situation of graduate students and put forward relevant countermeasures to protect the academic integrity of graduate students.Methods The graduate student'scientific ethics and academic atmosphere construction situation of graduate students in 10 colleges and universities in Chongqing were investigated by questionnaire survey and analyzed.Results Through 1555 questionnaires,it was found that the average investment of time on scientific research in gruduate students was insufficient,the motivation of learning was complicated,and the situation of preventing academic misconduct was serious.Conclusion This study suggests that colleges and universities should establish an academic integrity security system for graduate students,including establishment of academic integrity system and specializing academic integrity supervision institutions,and strengthing academic integrity education.

In order to find out the social attitude towards euthanasia and related issues,we conduct a questionnaire investigation on medical staff,patients,medical school students,and community groups in Beijing.From the survey,we find out that there is a relatively high degree of awareness of euthanasia,and the different attitudes for euthanasia are relevant to the educational backgrounds and professional backgrounds.In addition,by analyzing the mentality of people talking about the death,we find out that people with a healthy outlook on life and death are more inclined to agree with active euthanasia.

Objective To investigate the clinical characteristics and treatment of external auditory canal chol‐esteatoma (EACC) .Methods The clinical data of 38 cases(39 ears)with external auditory canal cholesteatoma from August 2006 to December 2014 were retrospectively analyzed .Results All the cases of EACC in this study had the external ear canal full of impacted squamous material or granulation tissue .The Holt and CT imaging examinations disclosed that 10 ears were phase I ,lesions were confined to the external auditory with no bone destruction .There were 23 ears were phase II ,the lesions were located in external auditory meatus with destruction of bone ,but with no involvement of the middle ear .There were 6 ears were phase III ,showing the lesions with disrupt external audi‐tory meatus and involvement of the middle ear ( mastoid and/or tympanic sinus) .Hearing impairment and aural fullness were the most common symptoms .The phase I cases were treated by removing cholesteatomas from the ex‐ternal auditory canal .Canaloplasty and/or tympanoplasty were performed in phase II cases .The phase III cases were successfully managed by modified radical mastoidectomy and/or tympanoplasty .There were 30 ears of tympan‐ic membrane were perfect and invaginate .There were 4 ears of ossicular chain were disrupted with one ear of facial nerve exposed .All surgeries were performed at once .No recurrence except in one patient was found during the fol‐low -up period .Conclusion The clinical stages can help identify the primary lesions and determine the choice of the best surgical approach .

Objective To evaluate the effects of silicone pessary treatment on relieving the symptoms and improving the life quality of the pelvic organ prolapse patients.Methods From November 2005 to March 2009,33 pelvic organ prolapse (POP-Q stage Ⅲ～Ⅳ) patients received silicone pessary coneervative treatment were followed up and required to complete the Pelvic Floor Distress Inventory-20 (PFDI-20) before and after initiating pessary treatment.Results 31 of 33(93.94%) patients finished the follow-up completely.23 of 31(74.19%) patients continually used the pessary.The follow up time was 3 to 17 (10.04±2.57) months.27 patients completed the PFDI-20 questionnaires.Before silicone pessary treatment, PFDI20 total score,POPDI6 (Pelvic organ prolapse distress inventory),CARDI8 (colorectal anal distress inventory 8) and UDI6 (urinary distress inventory 6) scores were (54.16±36.12),(27.78±17.30),(0.61±1.01) and (25.77± 24.10),respectively.After the treatment of pessary,the scores decreased to (20.20±25.98), (4.48±5.88), (0.45±0.84) and (15.28± 21.53),respectively.Except for CARDI8,the PFDI scores decreased significantly after the pessary treatment (P＜0.05).Conclusion Silicone pessary is a viable noninvasive treatment for pelvic organ prolapse.It could relieve the symptoms and improve the life quality of protrusion and voiding dysfunction patients.

Aim To study the molecular basis of protection on myocardial ischemic injuries of total flavones of choerospondias axiaris fructus(TFC). Methods The microarray analysis for the protein expression in myocardium provide a strong tool to explore the key protein candidates involved in the pathogenesis of ischemic injury.Surface enhanced laser desorption/ionization(SELDI) mass spectrometry with protein chip IMAC3,SAX2 and NP20 was used to compare the differentially expressed protein in TFC-treated and untreated ischemic myocardium in rats and the results were analysized with Proteinchip Software 3.0.2.Results Seven differentially expressed proteins were indentified in TFC treated myocardium.These differential effects correlated with the expression of five downregulated proteins and two upregulated proteins,and four of them were discovered on the IMAC3 chip and one of them was discovered on the SAX2 chip.Conclusions The myocardial protection of TFC may be mediated by the differential expression of these proteins which could be the key protein candidates for further investigation.

Objective To investigate the effect of Notch signaling during bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSC) differentiating into islet in vitro.Methods The specific inhibitor of γ-secretase DAPT was used to inhibit the Notch signaling pathway.Mter induction,DTZ staining,indirect immunofluorescence staining,RT-PCR and Westenn blotting were used to detect the expression of insulin,glucagon,Pdx-1 and Ngn3.Results (1) Identification of BMSCs:Indirect immunofluorescence staining showed that BMSCs could express CD59 and CD90,which both were makrers of mesenchymal stem cells.Besides,BMSCs could express nerve culluar markers such as NSE,GFAP,suggesting multi-directional differentiation.(2) The result of MTT showed DAPT could inhibit the cell proliferation in a time-dependent manner and a dose-dependent mannar.Besides,DAPT could inhibit the expression of target gene of Notch signal pathway in a time-dependent manner and a dosedependent mannar.After treated by 1,5,20 μmol DAPT,the expression of Hes1 had reached to 92.06％,71.40％ and 46.89％ of controls respectively,suggesting efficiency of inhibition on Notch reached 7.94％,28.6％ and 53.11％ respectively (all P＜ 0.05).(3) Indirect immunofluorescence staining showed the expression of pancreas-specific markers such as insulin and glucagon were much higher in DAPT treated BMSCs than that in controls,which was confirmed by RT-PCR and Western blotting analyses.The proportion of insulin-producing cells differentiated from DAPT treated BMSCs was (74.03 ± 3.96)％,which was higher than that from controls[(36.49 ± 3.24)％,P＜ 0.05].(4)Furthermore,RT-PCR and Western blotting analysis showed that the expressions of Pdx-1 and Ngn3 were earlier than that of insulin and glucagon,and the expressions of Pdx-1 and Ngn3 were higher in DAPT treated BMSCs than that in controls.Conclusions Notch signaling pathway plays a role in the differentiation of BMSCs into islet in vitro.Pharmacological interference with Notch signaling pathway may provide a novel method to obtain islet for therapeutic use.

Objective To study the effects of fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2) on the proliferation and gene expression profiles of rabbit articular chondrocytes in vitro after different time periods of stimulation.Methods The chondrocytes were isolated and cultured in vitro,and the 3rd generation cells were harvested.Cells were divided into three groups.In the group 1 (FGF2 short-time action group),chondrocytes were cultured in medium with FGF2 for one day,and then transferred to fresh culture medium without FGF2 and cultured for another 6 days.In the group 2 (FGF2 long-time action group),chondrocytes were cultured in medium with FGF2 for 7 days.In the Group 3 (control group),chondrocytes were cultured in culture medium without FGF2 for 7 days.After culture for 1,3,and 7 days,the proliferation of chondrocytes in the all groups was detected respectively.Following extraction of mRNA,the gene expressions of BMP2,BMP4,SOX9 and COL2A1 of the chondrocytes in the all groups were determined by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR).The content of type Ⅱ collagen was measured via immunofluorescence staining.Results Compared with the control group,FGF2 promoted the proliferation of chondrocytes in the short-and long-time action groups and there was no significant difference between the two FGF2-treated groups.The results of qRT-PCR indicated that different treatment induced different gene expression profile.Particularly,compared with the control group and the FGF2 long-time action group,the expression of BMP2,BMP4,SOX9 and COL2A1 in the short-time action group were significantly upregulated at the 7th day.Immunofluorescence intensity of type Ⅱ collagen in the group 1 was stronger than that in the control group and group 2.Conclusions Different administration of FGF2 for different time periods induced different responses of chondrocytes.Short-term FGF2 stimulation was more beneficial to maintain the phenotype of chondrocytes and the synthesis of extracellular matrix.

Objective To investigate the protective effects and mechanism of insulin(INS) on brain in septic rats,and explore the possible role of uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2) in these effects.Methods Fifty male specific pathogen free(SPF) Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into normal control (CN) group(n=10),lipopolysaccharide(LPS) group(n=20) and INS group (n=20) according to random number table.The septic rat model was established through an intraperitoneal injection of 15 mg/kg LPS of gram-negative bacteria.The rats in the INS group received a 1 U/kg INS injection subcutaneously 30 minutes before the injection of LPS,and the rats in the CN group were given equivalent 9 g/L saline in the same way.Eight rats in each group were killed,and their cerebral cortex were collected after the injection of LPS for 24 h.Pathological change of cerebral cortex was detected by Hematoxylin-Eosin(HE) staining.The cerebral cortex mitochondia were extracted for detecting the levels of reactive oxygen species(ROS),malondialdehyde (MDA) and the activity of superoxide dismutase(SOD).Neuronal apoptosis was detected by terminal dexynucleotidyl transferase(TdT)-mediated dUTP nick end labeling staining.UCP2 mRNA expression was detected by quantitative real-time(RT)-PCR.Apoptosis-associated protein B lymphocyte tumor-2(Bcl-2),Bcl-2 associated X protein(Bax),cleaved cysteinyl aspartate specific protease(cleaved Caspase-9) and UCP2 protein expression were determined by Western blot.Results (1)Compared with the CN group,obvious abnormal pathological change was revealed by HE staining in cerebral cortex of rats in the LPS group and the INS group,but the pathological change was attenuated in the INS group compared with the LPS group.(2)Compared with the CN group,the levels of mitochondrial ROS[(210.01±14.09) RFU vs.(49.06±7.28) RFU] and MDA[(2.19±0.18) nmol/mg pro vs.(1.25±0.11)nmol/mg pro]in the LPS group significantly increased,whereas SOD activity significantly decreased [(238.49±35.60) U/g pro vs.(446.66±24.90)U/g pro],and the differences were significant(all P<0.05).Compared with the LPS group,the levels of ROS [(152.69±15.83) RFU vs.(210.01±14.09) RFU] and MDA[(1.55±0.14) nmol/mg pro vs.(2.19±0.18) nmol/mg pro] in the INS group decreased,while SOD activity increased[(327.8±23.26) U/g pro vs.(238.49± 35.60) U/g pro],and the differences were significant(all P<0.05).(3)Compared with the CN group,the neuronal apoptosis index of cortex in the LPS group was elevated[(54.16±6.84)% vs.(5.45±1.43)%],while the expression of Bcl-2 decreased (627±0.018 vs.0.739±0.020),but the expressions of Bax(0.768±0.019 vs.0.520±0.010) and cleaved Caspase-9(0.739±0.016 vs.0.467±0.030) increased,and the differences were significant(all P<0.05).Compared with the LPS group,the neuronal apoptosis index of cortex in the INS group decreased [(33.30±3.07)% vs.(54.16±6.84)%],but the Bcl-2 expression increased (0.743±0.022 vs.0.627±0.018),and Bax (0.687±0.034 vs.0.768±0.019) and cleaved Caspase-9(0.551±0.013 vs.0.739±0.016) were reduced,and the differences were significant (all P<0.05).(4)Compared with the CN group,the mRNA (2.248±0.155 vs.1.000±0.100) and protein expression of UCP2 (0.659±0.016 vs.0.599±0.018) were elevated in the LPS group.Compared with the LPS group,the UCP2 mRNA (2.944±0.117 vs.2.248±0.155) and UCP2 protein (0.719±0.018 vs.0.659±0.016) increased,and the differences were significant(all P<0.05).Conclusions INS can protect the brain of septic rats through alleviating mitochondrial oxidative stress and inhibiting the mitochondrial-initiated apoptotic pathway to reduce neuronal apoptosis.INS upregulates UCP2 expression in the brain of septic rats,which may play a role in the protective effects mentioned above.