Face ; blood supply ; Hemangioma ; classification ; diagnosis ; therapy ; Humans ; Jaw ; blood supply ; Lymphatic Abnormalities ; classification ; diagnosis ; therapy ; Mouth ; blood supply ; Vascular Malformations ; classification ; diagnosis ; therapy

Face ; blood supply ; Hemangioma ; therapy ; Humans ; Vascular Malformations ; therapy ; Vasculitis ; therapy

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 investigate the association between serum N-terminal pro brain natriuretic peptide(NT-ProBNP) and creatine kinase myocardial(CK-MB),cardiac troponin I(cTnI) in children who were diagnosed as viral myocarditis(VMC),and to explore the clinical significance.Methods Fifty children with VMC were selected as VMC group who were further divided into cTnI(+)group and cTnI(-)group.Fifteen healthy children were selected as healthy control group.The levels of myocardial enzyme of the 2 groups were tested by automatic biochemical analyzer and level of NT-proBNP was detected by specific NT-proBNP enzymelink immunosorbent assay(ELISA) kit.SPSS 13.0 software was used to analyze the data.Results 1.There were 23 cases with positive cTnI and 27 cases with negative cTnI.The levels of NT-proBNP in VMC group including cTnI positive and cTnI negative were significantly higher than those in healthy control group (P0.05).2.In the group with positive cTnI,the level of NT-proBNP was correlated with cTnI.The coefficient of determination was 0.17.3.In the group with negative cTnI,the level of NT-proBNP was correlated with CK-MB.The coefficient of determination was 0.34.NT-proBNP presented a increasing trend during interval of 25-100 U?L-1 and 175-255 U?L-1 of CK-MB.Conclusions The levels in the serum NT-proBNP in VMC children were higher than those in healthy children.Serum detection NT-proBNP may be applied as a new approach in diagnosis of VMC in children.

OBJECTIVEEndothelial apoptosis plays an important role in the initiation of atherosclerosis. It would be useful to clarify whether activation of non-neuronal muscarinic receptor (NNMR) could prevent endothelial apoptosis and atherosclerosis. We investigated the effects of NNMR activation on regulating rat aortic endothelial cells (RAECs) apoptosis induced by homocysteine, an independent risk factor of atherosclerosis, and further studied its molecular mechanism.

METHODSRAECs were incubated using homocysteine at the concentration of 2.7 mmol/L for 36 h. RAECs were also pre-treated with carbachol or arecoline to examine their effects. RT-PCR was used to assess changes in the gene expression related to cell apoptosis.

RESULTSIncubation of RAECs with homocysteine at the concentration of 2.7 mmol/L resulted in morphologic changes, such as cellular shrinkage, membrane blebbing, chromatin condensation and margination. These could be attenuated by pretreatment with carbachol and arecoline at the concentration of 10 micromol/L for 12 h. Homocysteine induced apoptosis in RAECs and the molecular mechanisms were associated with the regulation of fas, fas-L and caspase-8 in the death receptor pathway, bcl-2, bcl-xL and bax in the mitochondrial pathway, caspase-12 in the endoplasmic reticulum pathway and caspase-3, caspase-6 and p53 as downstream effectors. Carbachol and arecoline attenuated the effects of homocysteine on genes in the death receptor pathway, in the mitochondrial pathway and in the downstream pathway. Atropine could reverse all of the effects of arecoline.

CONCLUSIONActivation of NNMR by carbacol and arecoline inhibits homocysteine-induced endothelial cell apoptosis mainly through regulation of death receptor pathway, mitochondrial pathway and downstream effectors.

Animals ; Aorta ; cytology ; Apoptosis ; Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins ; metabolism ; Arecoline ; Carbachol ; Cell Cycle ; Endoplasmic Reticulum ; metabolism ; Endothelial Cells ; cytology ; drug effects ; Homocysteine ; adverse effects ; Mitochondria ; metabolism ; Rats ; Receptors, Muscarinic ; metabolism

Objective To determine how genetic polymorphisms in norepinephrine transporter (NET) gene influence the response of antidepressant treatment and how they interact with childhood trauma and recent life stress in a Chinese depressive patients.Methods 281 Chinese Han depressive patients received single antidepressant drugs for 6 weeks.Hamilton Depression Scale-17 (HAMD-17),the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire short term (CTQ-SF) and the Life Events Scale (LES) were used to evaluate severity of depressive symptoms and the occurrence of stressful life events respectively.Three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in norepinephrine transporter were genotyped.Associations of single locus and haplotypes with antidepressant treatment response were analyzed using UNPHASED 3.0.13.The interaction of gene and life stress was analyzed by SPSS13.0 software.Results One NET SNP rs2242446 was significantly associated with antidepressant response in this Chinese male sample(0.4118vs0.2375,x2=7.046,P=0.0079,OR=0.445,95％ CI (0.243-0.815)),as was the haplotype CG(rs2242446 and rs5569;x2 =5.886,P=0.0153,OR=0.457,95％ CI (0.198-1.054)) and another haplotype CG-G(rs2242446,rs1532701 and rs5569;x2=5.360,P=0.0206,OR=0.530,95％ CI (0.202-1.386)) of NET in male samples.The NET SNPs rs5569 demonstrated interaction with childhood trauma to influence antidepressant response(β=-2.727,SE =1.195,P=0.023,OR=0.065,95％ CI (0.006-0.681)).Conclusion Antidepressant drug response was influenced by not only NET genetic polymorphisms in norepinephrine transporter gene but also interaction between the NET genetic polymorphisms and early life stress.

Objective To investigate the characteristics of Wegener granulomatosis in children and to improve its recognition. Methods Ten pediatric patients with Wegener granulomatosis were studied retrospectively by clinical manifestations, serum examination, pathological data, treatment, etc. Results All children had clinical evidence of upper respiratory tract and lungs involvement; kidney lesion occurred in 6 cases(6/10); joints, skin, eyes and nervous system were also involved with different degree, cANCA (PR3) showed positive in 8 cases; Pathological examination (1 kidney sample, 2 nasal mucosa samples, 2 skin samples) showed granulomatous vasculitis and crescents were found in renal biopsy; 7 cases were treated with corticosteroid plus cyclophosphamide, 1 case was treated with corticosteroid plus methotrexate, and improvement were seen in all of them. Conclusions Wegener granulomatosis in children have diverse clinical manifestations and clinical diagnosis is difficult. The upper and lower respiratory tract and kidney are most commonly involved organs. ANCA inspection is characteristic. Treatment with corticosteroid and immunosuppressive can achieve good outcome.

Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome virus (PRRSV) is the etiological agent of Por- cine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome. We summarized the recent research progress on molecular bi- ology of PRRSV including the structure of genome, viral structural and Non-structural protein.

Object To study comparatively the chromatographic fingerprint of Forsythia suspensa (Thunb ) Vahl in different producing aeras Methods Pyrolysis gas chromatography (PGC) was used Results The similar fingerprint of 13 samples (PGC) appeared The chromatographic overlap of them was over 89%, RSD