Leydig cells are the major source of androgens in males. Stem cells can be induced to differentiate into androgen-secreting Leydig like cells, whose functions are regulated by the hypothalamus and pituitary, so that they precisely secret the necessary hormones to maintain physiological function. Therefore, the establishment of an effective protocol to induce the differentiation of stem cells into androgen-secreting cells is very helpful for the treatment of hypogonadism caused by abnormalities of Leydig cells. This review outlines the recent findings concerning the differentiation of stem cells into androgen-secreting cells.
Androgens ; secretion ; Cell Differentiation ; physiology ; Humans ; Hypogonadism ; therapy ; Hypothalamus ; physiology ; Male ; Pituitary Gland ; physiology ; Stem Cells ; cytology ; secretion

Objective To explore the classification and surgical treatment of scapular neck frac-tures. Methods A retrospective analysis was done based on the clinical data of 18 patients (including 12 males and 6 females) who accepted operation in Tianjin Hospital from January 2000 to December 2007. The average age of the patients was 41 years (17-62 years). All patients accepted CT examina-tion. According to Hardegger classification, there were 10 patients with anatomical neck fractures and eight with surgical neck fractures. According to Miller system, there were five patients with type II A fractures, six with type II B fractures, six with type II C fractures and one with type II B + IIC fracture. Of all, 15 patients had associated injury. The operative approach included posterolateral approach in nine patients, modified Judet approach in six and anteroposterior conjoint approach in three. Reconstruction plates and lag screws were applied to fix the fractures. Results All patients were followed up consecu-tively with an average period of 25. 5 months (6-70 months). The mean Constant-Murley score was 73 points (35-95 points, meadian 75.5 points) after treatment. There were two patients with malreduction,one with shoulder instability and three with traumatic arthritis postoperatively. Conclusions The indi-cations for early operation include: (1) angular deformity in horizontal or coronal planes of fractures, ie,glenopolar angle (GPA) <20°(2) fracture displacement =10 mm;(3) associated with floating shoul-der injury or superior suspensory shoulder complex injury. The major factors influencing prognosis are as-sociated injuries, quality of fractures reduction, fixation stability, injury of rotator cuff and postoperative rehabilitation.

Acupuncture Points ; Acupuncture Therapy ; Adult ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; administration & dosage ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Pharyngitis ; drug therapy ; therapy ; Young Adult

Objective To observe the clinical efficacy of Tanreqing Injection combined with levofloxacin injection in treatment of acute episode of chronic bronchitis and its effect on bacterial clearance rate. Methods Totally 66 patients were randomly divided into treatment group and control group (33 cases for each). Both groups were given expectorant and antispasmodic treatment. The treatment group was given Tanreqing Injection combined with levofloxacin injection, while the control group was given levofloxacin injection only. The treatment course was 12 days. The clinical symptoms, signs, and sputum culture before and after treatment were observed. The clinical efficacy and the bacterial clearance rate of the two groups were compared. Results The markedly effective cases and the effective cases in the treatment group were 15 and 29 respectively, and those in the control group were 7 and 21 respectively, with statistical significance (P<0.05). The bacterial clearance rate was 89.5% (17/19) in the treatment group, while 55.6%(10/18) in the control group, with significant difference (P<0.05). Conclusion Acute episode of chronic bronchitis treated by Tanreqing Injection combined with levofloxacin injectcion is more effective than levofloxacin injection only.

Acute Disease ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Ethylene Dichlorides ; poisoning ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Occupational Diseases ; therapy ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo reveal the possible mechanism involved in patella-femoral degenerative arthritis (PFDA) in- duced by torsion-deformity of tibia via analyzing the relationship between torsion-deformity of the tibia in patients with PFDA and the disorder of patella-femoral joint under the static and dynamic conditions.

METHODSFrom October 2009 to October 2010, 50 patients (86 knees, 24 knees of male patients and 62 knees of female patients) with PFDA were classified as disease group and 16 people (23 knees, 7 knees of males and 16 knees of females) in the control group. The follow indexes were measured: the torsion-angle of tibia on CT scanning imagings, the patella-femoral congruence angle and lateral patella-femoral angle under static and dynamic conditions when the knee bent at 30 degrees of flexion. Based on the measurement results, the relationship between the torsion-deformity of tibias and the disorders of patella-femoral joints in patients with PFDA were analyzed. Finally,the patients were divided into three groups including large torsion-angle group, small torsion-angle group and normal group according to the size of torsion-angle, in order to analyze the relationship between torsion-deformity and disorders of patella-femoral joint, especially under the dynamic conditions.

RESULTSCompared with patients without PFDA, the ones with PFDA had bigger torsion-angle (30.30 ± 7.11)° of tibia, larger patella-femoral congruence angle (13.20 ± 3.94)° and smaller lateral patella-femoral angle (12.30 ± 3.04)°. The congruence angle and lateral patella-femoral angle under static and dynamic conditions had statistical differences respectively in both too-big torsion-angle group and too-small torsion-angle group. The congruence angle and lateral patella-femoral angle under static and dynamic conditions had no statistical differences in normal torsion-angle group.

CONCLUSIONTorsion-deformity of tibia is the main reason for disorder of patella-femoral joint in the patients with PFDA. Torsion-deformity of tibia is always accompanied by instability of patella-femoral joint,especially under the dynamic condition, thus causing PFDA. It can not only provide arrangement information and degenerative condition of patella-femoral joint,but also provide guidance through the analysis on the relationship for better clinical prevention and early treatment of degenerative bone and joint disease.

Adult ; Female ; Femur ; diagnostic imaging ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Osteoarthritis, Knee ; diagnostic imaging ; etiology ; Patella ; diagnostic imaging ; Radiography ; Tibia ; diagnostic imaging ; Torsion Abnormality ; complications ; diagnostic imaging

Objective To research the infections of respiratory syneytial virus(RSV)in children with respiratory tract inflammation and define its molecular epidemic features in Urumchi.Methods SamDles were collected from November 2006 to April 2007 in the People's General Hospital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region,including 112 respiratory secretions and 280 nasopharyngeal swabs. RSV and its subgroups were detected by nested PCR.The five positive amplicons selected randomly from all positive samples were sequenced and compared with other RSV in GenBank by BLAST and DNAStar.Results of all 392specimens.68 RSV G gene segments were tested.Among them,RSV lineage A occupied 93.3%,while B occuDied 6.7%.The identities between them were 63.1%-99.4%.Phylogenetic analysis defined that they belonged to two different clusters.Conclusion RSV was one of the important viruses leading to children's respiratory tract infections in the People's General Hospital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region during winter and spring from 2006 to 2007.RSV subtype A was the prevalent genotype in the hospital dunng this epidemics.

Silver nanoparticles were synthesized from the extract of Fagopyri Dibotryis Rhizoma and the optimization of synthesis was studied. The absorbance of UV-visible spectroscopy was determined under the different influencing factors such as extracting time of Fagopyri Dibotryis Rhizoma powder, reation temperature of synthesis, volume of Fagopyri Dibotryis Rhizoma extract and concentration of AgNO3 to seek the optimization conditions. By means of FT-IR, TEM, DLS and XRD, the silver nanoparticles were characterized. The results showed that when the boiling time of Fagopyri Dibotryis Rhizoma powder was 5 min, resultant temperature was 25 degrees C, the volume ratio of 0.1 g x mL(-1) Fagopyri Dibotryis Rhizoma extract and 1 mmol x L(-1) AgNO3 was 1 to 10, and the reaction time was 3.5 h, the obtained silver nanoparticles had mean size about 27 nm and Zeta potential about -34.3 mV with good uniformity and dispersivity. Therefore, the green synthesis method of silver nanoparticles using extract of traditional Chinese medicine is stable and feasible.
Fagopyrum ; chemistry ; Light ; Metal Nanoparticles ; chemistry ; ultrastructure ; Microscopy, Electron, Transmission ; Particle Size ; Plant Extracts ; chemistry ; Rhizome ; chemistry ; Scattering, Radiation ; Silver ; chemistry ; Silver Nitrate ; chemistry ; Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared ; Temperature ; X-Ray Diffraction

OBJECTIVETo detect mutations of human telomeric repeat binding factor 1 (TERF1) gene in 11 malignant hematopoietic cell lines, which have positive telomerase activity, and evaluate the significance of the mutations.

METHODSGenome structure of TERF1 was predicted by using biology information program, and verified by PCR and sequencing. Telomerase activity was detected by telomeric repeat amplification (TRAP)-ELISA. PCR and sequencing were used to detect mutation of each exon of TERF1 in 11 cell lines, including myelogenous leukemia cell lines K562, HL-60, U-937, NB4, THP-1, HEL and Dami; lymphoblastic leukemia cell lines 6T-CEM, Jurkat and Raji and MDS-RAEB cell line MUTZ-1. Five DNA samples from healthy volunteers were detected as normal controls.

RESULTSTERF1 gene has 10 exons and spans 38.6 kb. All the 11 cell lines showed positive telomerase activity. No mutation was found in all exons of TERF1 in the 11 cell lines. However, 4 variants were found in intron1, 2 and 8 near exon1, exon2 and exon9, respectively. The variants in MUTZ-1 was different from those in leukemia cell lines; but no difference was found between the variants in myelogenous and lymphoblastic leukemia cell lines.

CONCLUSIONTERF1 mutation is probably not among the main factors of the gene dysfunction in malignant hematopoietic diseases.

Base Sequence ; Cell Line, Tumor ; DNA Mutational Analysis ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Exons ; genetics ; HL-60 Cells ; Hematologic Neoplasms ; genetics ; metabolism ; pathology ; Humans ; Jurkat Cells ; K562 Cells ; Mutation ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Telomerase ; metabolism ; Telomere-Binding Proteins ; genetics ; metabolism ; U937 Cells

To study the expression of tankyrase (a positive regulator of telomerase activity) in malignant hematopoietic cells and its relation with telomerase activity, the method of realtime quantitative PCR with fluorescence probe hybridization were used to measure expression of tankyrase and hTERT in myeloid leukemia cell lines K562, HL-60, U937, NB4, THP-1, HEL, Dami and T lymphocytic leukemia cell lines 6T-CEM, Jurkat and B-cell lymphoma cell line Raji. CD3(+), CD19(+) and CD33(+) cells separated from normal human mobilized peripheral blood by immunomagnetic bead system and 10 mononuclear cell samples separated from bone marrow of normal individuals were served as normal controls. The results indicated that the expression of tankyrase in malignant hematopoietic cell lines was significantly higher than that in normal controls (U = 19, P < 0.01). Its expression in myeloid leukemia cell lines is higher than in normal CD33(+) cells, the expression in T lymphocytic leukemia and B-cell lymphoma cell lines is higher than in CD3(+) and CD19(+) cells respectively. Its expression in myeloid malignant hematopoietic cell lines is significantly lower than in lymphocytic ones (0.0032 +/- 0.0010 vs. 0.012 +/- 0.0016, F = 23, P < 0.01). The expression of tankyrase correlated positively with hTERT (Spearman correlation coefficient is 0.395, P < 0.05). It is concluded that tankyrase is overexpressed in malignant hematopoietic cell lines, that may be one of the causes of high-produced telomerase activity in malignant hematopoietic diseases.
DNA-Binding Proteins ; HL-60 Cells ; Humans ; K562 Cells ; Leukemia ; enzymology ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Tankyrases ; genetics ; Telomerase ; genetics ; U937 Cells