China ; epidemiology ; Humans ; Occupational Diseases ; epidemiology ; Occupational Health ; Rural Population ; statistics & numerical data

Adult ; China ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Mining ; Rural Population ; Silicosis ; mortality

This study investigated the correlation between and compared the effects of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase α (p38MAPKα) in the ex vivo expanded umbilical cord blood (hUCB) CD133(+) cells. hUCB CD133(+) cells were cultured in the hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) culture medium with N-acetylcysteine (NAC, an anti-oxidant), p38MAPKα-specific inhibitor (SB203580) or their combination. The levels of ROS and expression of phosphorylated p38MAPKα (p-p38) in CD133(+) cells were flow cytometrically detected. The efficacy of ex vivo expansion was evaluated by the density of CD133(+) cell sub-group colony-forming cells (CFC) and cobblestone area-forming cells (CAFC) assay. Our results showed decreased ROS levels in NAC, SB203580, and their combination treatment groups were almost 37%, 48%, and 85%, respectively. Furthermore, SB203580 abrogated the activation of p38MAPKα more obviously than NAC. Moreover, the CD133(+) cells in SB203580 treatment group had a 21.93±1.36-fold increase, and 14.50±1.19-fold increase in NAC treatment group, but only 10.13±0.57-fold increase in control group. In addition, SB203580 treatment led a higher level increase in the number of CFU and CAFC than NAC did. These findings suggested that, in expanded CD133(+) cells, ROS activates p38MAPKα, which, in turn, induces ROS production, and p38MAPKα might be the most suitable regulator in ROS-p38MAPKα pathway for the promotion of HSCs ex vivo expansion.

Leukemia seems to depend on a small population of "leukemia stem cells (LSCs)" for its growth and metastasis. However, the precise surviving mechanisms of LSCs remain obscure. Cellular senescence is an important obstacle for production and surviving of tumor cells. In this study we investigated the activated state of a pathway, in which reactive oxygen species (ROS) induces cellular senescence through DNA damage and phophorylation of p38 MAPK (p38), in myeloid leukemic CD34(+)CD38(-) cells. Bone marrow samples were obtained from patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML, n=11) and chronic myeloid leukemia (CML, n=9). CD34(+)CD38(-) cells were isolated from mononuclear cells from these bone marrow samples, and K562 and KG1a cells (two kinds of myeloid leukemia cell lines) by mini-magnetic activated cell sorting. Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) from human cord blood served as controls. Intracellular ROS level was detected by flow cytometry. DNA damage defined as the γH2AX level was measured by immunofluorescence staining. Real-time RT-PCR was used to detect the expression of p21, a senescence-associated gene. Western blotting and immunofluorescence staining were employed to determine the p38 expression and activation. The proliferation and apoptosis of CD34(+)CD38(-) cells were detected by MTT assay and flow cytometry. Our results showed that ROS and DNA damage were substantially accumulated and p38 was less phosphorated in myeloid leukemic CD34(+)CD38(-) cells as compared with HSCs and H(2)O(2)-induced senescent HSCs. Furthermore, over-phosphorylation of p38 by anisomycin, a selective activator of p38, induced both the senescence-like growth arrest and apoptosis of CD34(+)CD38(-) cells from K562 and KG1a cell lines. These findings suggested that, although excessive accumulation of oxidative DNA damage was present in LSCs, the relatively decreased phosphorylation of p38 might help leukemic cells escape senescence and apoptosis.

Quantitative NMR (qNMR) is a technology based on the principle of NMR. This technology does not need the references of the determined components, which supplies a solution for the problem of reference scarcity in the quantitative analysis of traditional Chinese medicines. Moreover, this technology has the advantages of easy operation, non-destructiveness for the determined sample, high accuracy and repeatability, in comparison with HPLC, LC-MS and GC-MS. NMR technology has achieved quantum leap in sensitivity and accuracy with the development of NMR hardware. In addition, the choice of appropriate experimental parameters of the pre-treatment and measurement procedure as well as the post-acquisition processing is also important for obtaining high-quality and reproducible NMR spectra. This review summarizes the principle of qHNMR, the various experimental parameters affecting the accuracy and the precision of qHNMR, such as signal to noise ratio, relaxation delay, pulse width, acquisition time, window function, phase correction and baseline correction, and their corresponding optimized methods. Moreover, the application of qHNMR in the fields of quantitation of single or multi-components of traditional Chinese medicines, the purity detection of references, and the quality analysis of foods has been discussed. In addition, the existing questions and the future application prospects of qNMR in natural product areas are also presented.
Biological Products ; chemistry ; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy ; methods ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Reproducibility of Results

Objective To detect the mutation of ATP7A gene in 2 families with Menkes disease.Met-hods Genomic DNA of 6 members from 2 families were extracted with salt fractionation.The encoding exons and 2 sides flanking intron of ATP7A gene were amplified from genomic DNA of the probands and their parents by PCR and directly sequence.Light microscope was used to test the hair of probands and normal healthy children.Results Proband 1 had a deletion mutation of c.3 045del T in exon 14 of ATP7A gene and resulted in a stop codon just several nucleotides behind the deletion site.His mother was a heterozygote of the mutation and had normal phenotype.Proband 2 had a nonsense mutation of c.2 956 in exon 14 of ATP7A gene and resulted in a stop of amino acid synthesis.His mother was not a heterozygote of the mutation.Genetype and phenotype in fathers of the 2 probands were normal.Hair of the probands in light microscope were tenuity,midheaven,the color of hair also turned to light.Conclusions The c.3 045del T mutation of ATP7A gene cause the phenotype of Menkes disease in proband 1.His mother is a heterozygote of the disease without symptoms and he is of familial inheritance.The c.2 956 nonsense mutation of ATP7A gene cause the phenotype of Menkes disease in proband 2.His mother is not a heterozygote of the disease and he is not of familial inheritance.

Mesenchymal stem cell-derived microvesicle (MSC-MV) is a membrane secretory system which includes microparticle and exosome, and MSC-MV is released by MSC in resting or activated state. MSC-MV selectively package the biological active substances such as lipids, proteins, mRNA and miRNA but not loads them randomly. It has definitive effect of reducing tissue injury, promoting morphological and functional recovery of the injured tissue, and this effect is probably mediated by miRNA. What is more, the MSC-MV may also possess the biological function of immunological regulation, modulation of cell growth and differentiation. The generation, constitution, and function of MSC-MV are reviewed in this article.
Animals ; Cell-Derived Microparticles ; metabolism ; Humans ; Mesenchymal Stromal Cells ; metabolism ; MicroRNAs ; metabolism

OBJECTIVESTo investigate the status of pre-marital reproductive health education, sexual psychology behavior, contraception and pre-marital abortion in unmarried young men to get the correct way for pre-marital guidence and education.

METHODSThe survey adopted the society-psychology-behavior methodology. Five hundred and ten objects who had pre-marital sexual living history were investigated randomly.

RESULTSThe reasons of making sexual pre-marital relations were thinking marriage and curiosity. 81.2% of them thought the best way of contraception is to use the condom. 34.8% of them used the prevenception when they had the first sexual experience. 39.7% of the objects adopted contraceptions every time, and 27.1% of the objects made the women pregnancy which resulted 22.4% women using the IUD for contraception. 63.6% of them thought the main reason of not using contraception was the fear to get trouble. The main source of contraceptives was pharmacy (59.8%).

CONCLUSIONSThis survey suggested that the prevalence of pre-marital sexual behavior is relatively high in Changshu. It should be taken several methods to give unmarried young men the reproductibe education.

Adult ; China ; Health Surveys ; Humans ; Male ; Psychology, Social ; Reproductive Medicine ; Sexual Behavior ; physiology ; Single Person

Objective To analyze the outcome of idarubicin-intensified myeloablastive conditioning regimen in allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (allo-PBSCT) in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). Methods From August 2004 to July 2009, 12 patients with MDS were treated with alIo-PBSCT following the idarubicin-intensified conditioning regimen. The conditioning regimen was idarubicin (15 mg/m~2), continuous intravenous infusion for 20 h, days-12 to-10; busulfan (0.8 mg/kg), intravenous infusion every 6 h, days-6 to-4; cyclophosphamide (1.8 g/m~2), intravenous infusion every 6 h, days-3 to-2; cyclosporine A combined with short-term methotrexate was used for the prophylaxes of acute graft versus host disease (aGVHD). Results All twelve patients achieved Trilineage engraftment, and were well tolerated to this regimen. Eight patients survived, and the overall survival was 66.7%, disease-free survival (DFS) 58.3%. Two patients relapsed. OS for neither WHO subgroups nor IPSS subgroups had statistically significant difference. Conclusion Allo-PBSCT with idarubicin-inteusified conditioning regimen is an effective treatment with reduction of the relapse rate for MDS patients.

Objective To retrospectively analyze and compare the curative outcome of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) from HLA identical siblings vs intensive immunosuppression therapy (IST) for severe aplastic anemia (SAA).Methods From January 2008 to December 2010,41 patients with severe aplastic anemia were treated with related HSCT (n =14) or IST (n =27) which combined antithymocyte globulin (ATG) with cyclosporine-A (CsA) therapy.Results All the patients receiving HSCT reached complete response.Among the patients receiving IST,21 patients could be responsive to the therapy,and 2 patients died.There was significant difference in the response rate between HSCT group and IST group (100 ％ vs 77.8 ％,P＜0.01 ).Conclusion With the improvement of HSCT technology,the curative outcome of HSCT from HLA identical siblings for SAA is much better than IST.