Leydig cells, located in the loose interstitial tissue of seminiferous tubules, are the major site for androgen synthesis and secretion, and play an important role in the reproductively and fertility of males. The dysfunction of Leydig cells may lead to various male diseases, such as primary hypogonadism, cryptorchidism, and hypospadias. This review outlines the recent findings concerning the generation, development and regulation of Leydig cells.
Cell Differentiation ; Humans ; Leydig Cells ; cytology ; Male

0.05).Conclusions Long-term or short-term use of OXC can affect serum levels of thyroid hormones in children with epilepsy,so serum levels of thyroid hormones shall be monitored regularly in epileptic children treated with OXC.

0.05).Thyroid follicular volume of VPA group slightly reduced;thyroid follicular volume of OXC group increased while epithelial cells thinning;thyroid structure of LEV group had no alterations;thyroid follicular volume of OXC plus LEV group and VPA plus LEV group had no consistent alterations.Conclusions Long-term application of VPA and OXC may arouse alterations of thyroid structure and hormone secretion.LEV has no effection on thyroid function,with VPA and OXC combined usage can reduce their effection on thyroid gland.Thyroid hormone level should be monitored when using anti-epileptic drugs(ADES) long-term in clinical work.

Glaucoma,especially common primary open-angle glaucoma and primary angle-closure glaucoma,shows high genetic heterogeneity. The causing-disease genes known are difficult to explain some glaucomatous cases,and the study on the susceptibial gene of glaucoma do not achieve new breakthroughs. Combined with the newest progression in genetic study of glaucoma,some views were proposed in this paper in order to better understand the updating study of the pathogenesis mechanism.

[Objective]To study the effect of intra-operative three-dimensional fluoroscopy-based spinal navigation guidance for vertebroplasty to treat osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture(OVCF).[Method]A clinical study was performed in which 41 patients suffering painful osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures underwent vertebroplasty procedure.During this procedure,cannulation of the pedicle and vertebral body was performed with the aid of isocentric 3D fluoroscopy-based spinal navigation(group A) and biplanar fluoroscopy(group B).RDQ and VAS of each group was compared between preoperation and postoperation.Total operating time,intra-operative fluoroscopy time and pedicle puncturation accuracy were compared between group A and group B.Possible complications such as cement extravasations were evaluated with X-ray fluoroscopy.[Result]Forty-six vertebrae were successfully injected with polymethyl methacrylate.The two groups had statistically significant difference in RDQ and VAS between preoperation and postoperation,but no statistically significant difference between the two groups.Mean operating time and intra-operative fluoroscopy times of group A were shorter than those in group B.There was no case of broken pedicle in group A.One vertebra was found to have bone cement leakage to soft tissue in group B,but the vertebral canal and pedicle intact.The author followed up for an average of 21 months(range 8～38 months) and found no severe complication or collapse of vertebra.[Conclusion]With the aid of intra-operative three-dimensional fluoroscopy-based spinal navigation,vertebroplasty can be performed more accuractly and securely.The shorter total operating time,intra-operative fluoroscopy times are convincing and less possible complication can be expected.

As the main part of the teaching activities,students play an important role in the teaching reform.The students were trained through 3 pathways,“Extending teaching activities from the classroom to the outside”,“Development from basic to clinical knoledge” and “Culturing students' innovative consciousness”,so as to allow them to give full play in teaching reform,to enhance their ability of practice and learning by themselves,to culture their innovative consciousness and to develop students' leading functions in the anatomy teaching reform.

Objective To study the clinical features of children with rotavirus enteritis complicated with respiratory infection.Methods The clinical features of 32 children with rotavirus enteritis were evaluated retrospectively complicated with respiratory infection (respiratory infection group) and 37 children with rotavirus enteritis complicated without parenteral infection (control group).Results 1. The respiratory symptoms became alleviative as the alimentary symptoms changed for better. 2. Duration of diarrhea weve(7.06?1.50)d in respiratory group was significantly longer than that in control group (4.73?1.31)d (t=6.90 P

Objective To explore the value of abnormal imaging findings on susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI) in delayed graft function (DGF). Methods The conventional MRI and SWI images of 26 cases with DGF and 20 cases with normal renal function of transplanted kidneys were retrospectively analyzed. Patients with cysts and angiomyolipomas were excluded. Normal structures of transplanted kidney were identified. If lesions of abnormal signal intensity were found in the transplanted kidney, the location, border and signal intensity compared to renal cortex would be analyzed. The differences in signal intensity between the abnormal signal lesions and normal renal cortex in the same SWI layer of DGF were compared by using independent-sample t test. The differences in positive detection rate of discovering the abnormal signal lesions in DGF between conventional MRI and SWI were compared by using McNemar test. Results Of the 26 cases with DGF, one case was found to exhibit abnormally low signal lesions with fuzzy boundary located at junctional zone between cortex and medulla on both conventional MRI and SWI images. Ten cases were found to exhibit abnormally low signal lesions with fuzzy boundary located at junctional zone between cortex and medulla on SWI images only. Fifteen cases exhibited no abnormal signal lesions on both conventional MRI and SWI images. Twenty cases with normal renal function of transplanted kidney, no abnormal signal lesions were found on both conventional MRI and SWI images. The differences in signal intensity between the abnormally low signal lesions (130±20) and normal renal cortex (177±25) in the same SWI layer of 11 cases with DGF were statistically significant (t=-4.582,P<0.01). The differences in positive detection rate of discovering the abnormally low signal lesions in DGF between conventional MRI [3.8%(1/26)] and SWI [42.3% (11/26)] were statistically significant (χ2=8.100,P=0.002). Conclusions Abnormally low signal lesions with fuzzy boundary located at junctional zone between cortex and medulla on SWI images suggest the presence of DGF. Compared with conventional MRI, SWI appears to be superior in detecting the abnormally low signal lesions.

Objective To probe the feasibility of susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI) for evaluation of renal blood oxygenation level of healthy volunteers after water loading.Methods SWI of 11 healthy volunteers,acquired before (group 1) and after water loading (group 2),were assessed retrospectively by two radiologists with more than 10 years abdominal work experience independently.In those images of the same section plane derived from two groups,the phase values in cortex ((φ)cor) and medulla ((φ)med),difference between the same vein and surrounding tissue on phase map (△(φ)) were measured using SPIN software package,and the oxygen extraction fraction changes (△OEF) was calculated.The (φ)cor,(φ)med and △(φ) between two groups were compared by paired t test.And the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC)was used to evaluate the consistency between two radiologists.Results For the radiologist 1,the (φ)cor,(φ)med and △(φ) were (0.046 ±0.019),(-0.014 ±0.003) and (1.3 ±0.4) rad in group 1,and were (0.047 ±0.014),(-0.012 ±0.005) and (1.1 ±0.4) rad in group 2 respectively,and no significant change was found in (φ)cor and (φ)med after water loading (t =-0.589 and-0.206,P ＞ 0.05 in all),except of in △(φ) (t =2.400,P ＜ 0.01).For the radiologist 2,the (φ)cor,(φ)med and △△(φ) were (0.049 ± 0.011),(-0.012 ± 0.004)and (1.5 ±0.4) rad in Group 1,and were (0.046 ±0.017),(-0.011 ±0.003) and (1.3 ±0.2) rad in group 2 respectively,there was no significant change in (φ)cor and (φ)med after water loading (t =0.590 and -0.974,P ＞ 0.05 in all),except of in △(φ) (t =2.760,P ＜ 0.05).Between two radiologists,the ICC of (φ)cor,(φ)med and △(φ) were 0.623,0.472 and 0.328 in group 1 and 0.599,0.442 and 0.445 in group 2 respectively.△OEF decreased about (-4.2 ± 2.3) c％ and (-4.3 ± 2.8) c％ measured by two radiologists respectively,and the consistency is good between two radiologists (ICC =0.784).Conclusion SWI provides a novel method to assess indirectly the oxygenation level of kidney,△OEF is an indicator with suitable reliability.

OBJECTIVETo explore material bases and neurobiological mechanisms of "Shen storing will" by observing learning and memory capacities and N-methyl-D-aspartic acid (NMDA) receptor expressions in Shen deficiency constitution (SDC) rats.

METHODSTotally 40 SD rats were randomly divided into the model group, the Zuogui Pill (ZP) group, the Yougui Pill (YP) group, the blank control group (consisting of normal pregnant rats), 10 in each group. SDC young rat model (inherent deficiency and postnatal malnutrition) was prepared by the classic way of "cat scaring rat". Medication started when they were scared by cat. Rats in the ZP group and the YP group were administered by gastrogavage with ZP suspension 0.1875 g/mL and YP suspension 0.0938 g/mL respectively. Equal volume of normal saline was administered to rats in the blank control group and the model group by gastrogavage. All medication was given once per day, 5 days in a week for 2 consecutive months. Learning and memory capacities were detected by Morris water maze test. Expressions of NMDA receptor subunits NR2A and NR2B in hippocamus were detected by immunohistochemical method.

RESULTSCompared with the blank control group, the latency period, total distance in Morris water maze test were longer in the model group (P < 0.05). All the aforesaid indices all decreased in the ZP group and the YP group, with statistical difference when compared with the model group (P < 0.05). The protein expressions of NR2A and NR2B in hippocamus were lower in the model group than in the blank control group (P < 0.05). But when compared with the model group, they were obviously higher in the ZP group and the YP group (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONSSDC rats had degenerated learning and memory capacities and lowered NMDA receptor expressions. ZP and YP could up-regulate learning and memory capacities and NMDA receptor expressions, thereby improving deterioration of brain functions in SDC rats.

Animals ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; Female ; Learning ; drug effects ; Memory ; drug effects ; Pregnancy ; Random Allocation ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate ; metabolism ; Up-Regulation