The morphological variations and congenital malformations of the auditoryossicles are not so rare as previously considered.The congenital anomalies of themhave sometimes been documented in the periodicals of the otorhinolaryngology,buttheir variations reported are scanty and incomplete.With dissecting microscope,weobserved 588 ossicles(200 mallei,224 incudis 164 stapes)from 120 full term foe-tuses without congenital defect except one case of anencephaly.We found that theauditory ossicles vary greatly in their form,length,size,angulation,curvature orthickness,etc.Those are variations of anterior fovea of caput mallei,anteriorcurvature of manubrium mallei,form of lateral margin of manubrium mallei,formof crus breve of incus,form of crus stapedis and patterns of basis stapedis.In 240 ears,five cases of congenital malformations of ossicular chain(2.1%)were discovered and listed as follows:1.One case of congenital stapes footplate fixation,2.One case of ring form stapes detached from the basis stapedis,3.Two cases of columella stapes,4.One case of triple fusion of ossicles by osteoid tissue.Embryology of auditory ossicles available for understanding the variability anddeformity was briefly reviewed.According to our investigations we come to the conclusion that the stapesis probably the most frequently involved in the morphological variation andmalformation.

The arteries of auditory ossicles of 40 ears from 20 full term feotuses weredemonstrated by injection of liquid latex containing a small amount of Chinese inkthrough common carotid arteries.We found that the malleus and incus possess thenutrient arteries as well as the mucosal arteries,whereas the stapes gets its bloodsupply from the mucosal arteries only.The anterior tympanic artery is the principal source of blood supply of the mal-leus and the incus.It enters the middle ear through the petrotympanic fissure andramifies into five branches:malleolar artery,incudal artery,superior branch,posteriorbranch and chorda tympani branch.The malleolar and incudal arteries are nutrientarteries.The vascular network in mucosa over the manubrium mallei is supplied bythe branches of the deep auricular and stylomastoid arteries over the tympanic mem-brane.The mucosal arteries of the long crus of the incus is supplied by the smallvessels given off by incudal artery before entering the nutrient foramen,the finevessels from the arteries around the chorda tympani and the vessels passing to it fromstapes.The blood supply of the stapes is derived from the vessels located in two majorareas:one from the facial canal and the other from the promontory.The arteries tothe stapes from the promontory vascular plexus are the artery of the head of thestapes,the artery of the posterior crus and the artery of the anterior crus.The for-mer two vessels have not been reported previously.In the facial canal there are thestylomastoid artery and the superficial petrosal artery.The arterial supply of incudostapedial joint and the distal portion of the incuscomes from the vessels passing to them from the stapes rather than from the incudalsource.From above account,it would appear that the head of the malleus and thebody and short crus of the incus derived from first branchial cartilage are mainlysupplied by the anterior tympanic artery,and the remainder of the auditory ossiclesderived from second branchial cartilage are supplied by the stylomastoid artery.

AIM: To investigate the effect of sodium nitroprusside (SNP) on activation of nuclear factor ?B. METHODS: The techniques of culture of human T lymphocytes, Western blot and RT-PCR were applied. The effects of NO donor sodium nitroprusside (SNP) at different concentrations on mRNA and protein expression of I?B ? in human T lymphocytes at 30 min or 120 min after stimulating with phytohaemagglutinin (PHA-P) were observed. RESULTS: SNP at middle or high concentrations reduced the degradation of I?B ? protein 30 min after stimulating with PHA-P, and increased the re-expression of I?B ? mRNA 120 min after stimulating with PHA-P significantly. CONCLUSION: The mechanism of inhibitory effect of SNP at middle or high concentrations may be due to the decrease in degradation and the increase in re-synthesis of I?B ?. The regulatory mechanism of SNP at low concentration may not be through I?B ?.

AIM: To study the role of hypoxia-inducible factor-1alpha(HIF-1?) on lung cancer cells A549 growth in vitro and in vivo. METHODS: To observe the growth rate of A549 cells after HIF-1? transfected, A549 cells (1?10~6/mouse) were inoculated subcutaneously into 20 nude mice, which were randomly divided into two groups: the control group (group A, n=10), the HIF-1? transfected group (group B, n=10). The weights of subcutaneous tumor were detected. The resected specimens were made into paraffin-embedded sections. The proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) was identified by immunohistochemistry(ISH). The expressions of HIF-1?? apoptosis-related protein survivin and bcl-2 were analyzed by Western blot. RESULTS: The growth rates of the HIF-1? transfected lung cancer cells A549 were significantly increased, and more importantly, the HIF-1? transfected lung cancer cells A549 was able to enhance lung cancer growth in nude mice(P

AIM: To investigate the effects of NF-?B decoy oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs) on apoptosis in lung cancer cell A549. METHODS: The treatments of lung cancer cells (A549) were divided into three groups: group A (control group); group B (decoy ODN group) and group C (scramble decoy ODN group). FITC-labeled NF-?B decoy ODNs was transfected into A549 with LipofectAMINE TM 2000. The activation was observed by electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSA). The proliferation was observed by growth curve. The apoptosis of cells were observed by flow cytometry and TdT mediated dUTP-biotin Nick End Labeling (TUNEL). The expression of Bcl-2 and Fas were observed by Western blot. RESULTS: After FITC-labeled decoy ODNs was transfected for 1 hour, the decoy ODNs was detected in the nuclei of A549 cells. EMSA performed the depression of the NF-?B binding to the nucleus. The growth curve showed the inhibition of the A549 cell growth and the percentage of apoptosis was increased compare with control group by flow cytometry and TUNEL. The amount of apoptosis inhibitor (Bcl-2) in group A and group C were 2.0 times and 2.1 times more than that in group B, respectively. The level of apoptosis accelerator (Fas) in group B were 2.6 times and 2.3 times more than that in group A and group C, respectively via Western blot. CONCLUSION: The NF-?B decoy ODNs accelerate the apoptosis of lung cancer cell A549 and the mechanism may be due to its inhibiting the expression of Bcl-2 and increasing the level of Fas. [

To resolve the problems of relativity translation variant and relativity rotation variant existed in the two medical images, combining the removing characteristics and rotating characteristics in image signal Fourier transform, a method of medical image registration combining with frequency domain and time domain is put forward based on the well-known Fourier property. The method decouples the estimation of rotation and translation. It determines rotation parameters based on amplitude spectrum correlation in frequency domain and estimation translation parameters based on intensity value correlation in time domain. The experimental results of nuclear medical image registration and multi-modality medical image registration show that this method is a very robust and fast registration method with high accuracy.

To study the effect of Erigeron breviscapini on chronic hypoxic pulmonary hypertension and mechanism，the hypoxic rats were injected intraperitoneally with Erigeron breviscapini. The mPAP，the content of serum nitric oxide (NO) and endothelin-1 (ET-1) were measured 5，14 and 28 days after intraperitoneal injection of Erigeron breviscapini in hypoxia respectively，and were compared with those in the single hypoxic group. The results showed that the contents of serum mPAP and ET-1 were higher，and serum NO was lower in single hypoxic group than in the normal rats (both P<0.01). The contents of serum mPAP and ET-1 were lower and NO was higher in the Erigeron breviscapini-treated group than in the single hypoxic group (P<0.01). It was suggested that Erigeron breviscapini could reduce the hypoxic pulmonary hypertension by increasing NO and decreasing ET-1 of serum. Erigeron breviscapini could be used to treat hypoxic pulmonary hypertension.

AIM To investigate the effect of Hemin on the expression of inducible heme oxygenase (HO 1) in hypoxic rat lung tissue. METHODS The rat model of hypoxic pulmonary hypertension was recreated by intermittent normal pressure hypoxia (10% O 2). The following assays were carried out: reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT PCR) were performed to determine the level of HO 1 mRNA in rat lung tissue, double wave length spectrophotometry was used to evaluate the quantity of COHb in arterial blood, cardiac catheterization was used to measure the right ventricular systolic pressure (RVSP). RESULTS After exposure to hypoxic enviorenment for 15 days, the level of HO 1 mRNA and COHb were higher than those of the control group ( P

AIM: The aim of this study is to investigate the possible role of potassium channel in hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction (HPV). METHODS: Fresh human lung tissues were obtained from the Division of Chest Surgery to establish a human model of HPV in vitro. Three groups, control group, COPD group and COPD plus chronic hypoxia group were divided. Human isolated pulmonary artery rings and specific blocking agent corresponding to K_V, K_ Ca, K_ ATP were used to investigate the possible role of the potassium channel in HPV. RESULTS: (1) In acute hypoxia, the vascular ring tension in three groups all increased (P

AIM: To investigate the amiloride-sensitive Na~+ channel current (Iamil) in primary cultured human bronchial epithelium cells of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients and the influence of interleukin 4 and interleukin 6. METHODS: Human bronchial epithelium cells were isolated and cultured from 18 patients undergone pueumonectomy in hospital. Interleukin 4 or interleukin 6 at concentration of 10 ?g/L was used to treat these cultured cells, and Iamil was measured by whole cell patch clamp techniques. RESULTS: There was no markedly difference among normal no-smoking group, normal smoking group and COPD group. Interleukin 4 down-regulated the Iamil in normal no-smoking group, normal smoking group and COPD group. The down-regulated percentages were 59.7%, 54.7% and 30.0%. Interleukin 4 down-regulated the Iamil in normal no-smoking group (44.8%) and normal smoking group (34.9%) but not in COPD group, and the current forms were not changed after IL-4 or IL-6 treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Interleukin 4 and interleukin 6 down-regulated the Iamil in primary cultured human bronchial epithelium cells. It may contribute to the hypersecretion of COPD, and the up-regulated interleukin 4 and interleukin 6 in COPD patients may cause them react weaker to the treatment of interleukin 4 and interleukin 6.