Owing to the profound impact of spinal cord injury, extensive studies have been carried out aimed at facilitating axonal regeneration following injury. Tissue engineering, as an emerging and rapidly growing field, has received extensive attention for nervous system axonal guidance. Numerous engineered substrates including biomaterial scaffolds, cells, biomolecules, have showed potential of supporting axonal regeneration and functional recovery. This article reviews current progresses on biomaterial scaffolds, cells, biomolecules for nerve repair, as well as therapeutic approaches that are being explored for spinal cord repairing.

Vitamin D deficiency is highly prevalent in the general population including rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients.Autocrine regulation of vitamin D modulates important immune response.Vitamin D deficiency may be involved in the pathogenesis of many autoimmune diseases including RA.Vitamin D regulates both the innate and adaptive immune responses.Vitamin D's effects on the innate immune system are mainly through the toll-like receptor and on the adaptive immune system through T cell differentiation,particularly the Helper T cell (Th) 17 response.As Thl7 cells are critical in the pathogenesis in RA,what effect will vitamin D deficiency lead to on the RA? Many data have indicated the relationship between vitamin D deficiency and RA disease activities,but not all the results are consistent.Here,we review the immune-modulatory roles of vitamin D and its effects on disease activity,osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease risk in RA.

Objective To investigate the feasibility of preparing HCV-1 diagnostic microarray probes using the technique of cDNA fragments library construction. Methods The full-length cDNAs of HCV of subtypes 1a and 1b were digested with restriction endonuclease Sau3A I, and the resulted fragments were cloned into the pMD18-T vector. Positive clones were isolated and identified by sequencing. Results A total of 57 different fragments were obtained, and sequence analysis showed that all the fragments ranging from 200 to 1000bp were specific gene fragments of HCV genotype 1, which can be efficiently used as probes in microarray prepapration. Conclusion The method of preparing microarray probes by construction of cDNA fragments library was effective, quick and simple.

Objective To investigate the levels of interleukin-1?,interleukin-6,tumor necro- sis factor-? in preterm labor with intraamniotic infection(IAI).Methods Plasma and amniotic fluid were sampled from 30 women with preterm labor(Group A),31 women with term labor(Group B) and 46 women without labor but after 37 weeks(Group C).Interleukin-6 in blood,interleukin-1?, interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-? in amniotic fluid were examined.IAI were diagnosed accord- ing to clinical criteria or bacterial culture or pathology.Results 1.The levels of IL-6 in blood in Group A were higher than in Group Band C(46.34 vs 20.53,6.67pg/ml,P

Objective To prepare the microarrays for joint detection of HBV and HDV. Methods The specific primers of PCR were designed with Primer Premier 5.0 program according to the conserved regions of HBV and HDV. The PCR fragments were purified and cloned into the pMD18-T vectors. The recombinant plasmids were extracted from positive clones and the target gene fragments were sequenced. The DNA microarray was obtained by spotting PCR products onto the surface of glass slides by robotics. Restriction display PCR (RD-PCR) was used to label the samples. Results After the sequences were aligned, we found that the products of PCR amplification were the specific gene fragments of HBV and HDV. The hybridized signals on gene chips indicated that the specificity and sensitivity of DNA microarray for joint detecting the HBV and HDV were satisfactory. Conclusion Using PCR amplification products to construct gene chips is a quick, simple and effective method for clinical diagnosis of HBV and HDV. Further application of restriction display PCR technique in labeling the sample may expedite and raise the sensitivity in multi-virus detection by microarray technology.

Objective To investigate the applieation of restriction display (RD) technique in the preparation of HCV probes of clinical genotyping microarray. Methods Restriction enzyme Sau3A Ⅰwas chosen to digest the full-length HCV cDNAs of three distinct subtypes, i.e.1a, 1b and 2a. The resultant restrictive fragments were then ligated with universal adapters. PCR primers were designed to match the universal adapters but with one "nesting" base overhanging at the 3′- end. The PCR reactions were performed by ten pairs of different primer combinations. The differential genes were separated through polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and silver staining. The second-round PCR was performed using the isolated bands as PCR templates. The purified PCR products were then cloned into T-vectors. The recombinant plasmids were extracted from positive recombinant clones and the target gene fragments were sequenced. Results The target HCV gene fragments ranging from 200 to 900bp were isolated and sequenced, which were correlated precisely with the RFLP (Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism) prediction. A total of 66 different fragments were obtained, averaging about 22 for each subtypes. These fragments could be further used as probes in HCV microarray preparations. Conclusion RD technique is of great value in obtaining a large number of equal sized gene probes, which provide a swift protocol in generating DNA probes for the preparation of microarrays.

To investigate the clinical characteristics of hypertension in patients with primary aldosteronism (PA), 112 cases of PA confirmed by pathological examination after operation were studied retrospectively. These included 111 cases of PA with unilateral adrenal adenoma and 1 case of bilateral adrenal adenoma. Incidence of hypertension in patients with PA was 100%. 14 3%, 37 5% and 48 2% of patients were at stage 1, 2 and 3 of hypertension, respectively. No relationship between hypertension and the age or duration of hypertension and the size of tumor. Complications of hypertension were found in 31 3% of patients with PA. Stroke was found in 4 5% patients, 3 6% patients with cerebral hemorrhage and 0 9% patients with cerebral infarction. Coronary artery disease as myocardial infarction was found in 1 8% of patients. Proteinuria and renal insufficiency were found in 22 3% of patients and 2 7% of patients, respectively. Complications of hypertension were independent of the age, duration of hypertension, the size of tumor, or preoperative highest systolic pressure and diastolic pressure. 83 9% of patients had taken antihypertensive drugs before operation, and 46 5% of patients still had persistent hypertension after operation. The results suggested that the incidence of hypertension in patients with PA was extremely high, and the majority of patients were suffering from moderate and severe hypertension. Complications of hypertension were common in patients with PA. Hypertension was difficult to control by using antihypertensive drugs before operation, and still persisted after operation in some of the patients with PA.