OBJECTIVE:To study the effects of taurine on oxidative stress and calcium overload induced by cerebral cortex contusion.METHODS:SD rats were randomly divided into normal control group,brain contusion model group,taurine groups(high dose,middle dose and low dose respectively),and nimodipine group.After being fed with corresponding drugs for7days,all rats were subjected to modeling by brain contusion.For intracellular calcium detection,rats were sacrificed2h after modeling,and the brain slices were prepared to fluorescence labeling and confocal microscopy detection.For the detection of oxidative stress,rats were sacrificed24h after modeling,the cortex of contusion side was homogenated and then the activity of superoxide dis?mutase(SOD)and content of malondialdehyde(MDA)were detected through biochemical method.RESULTS:Compared with model group,all taurine groups were shown to have markedly less MDA and intracellular calcium content,and the high dose group had markedly stronger SOD activity.CONCLUSION:Taurine is effective in counteracting the oxidative stress and calcium overload caused by brain contusion.

Adult ; Blast Injuries ; therapy ; Explosions ; Humans ; Male ; Multiple Trauma ; therapy

Objective To develop and evaluate a porcine model for training the single needle running suture method of laparoscopie urethrovesical anastomosis(LUA). Methods Twenty minipigs with mean weight of 30kg were general anaesthetized with Sumianxin solution 0. 1 ml/kg intramuscularly. Pneumoperitoneum was created by insufflation of carbon dioxide by a veress needle inserted through the umbilicus. One 10mm port and two 5mm ports were positioned after the establishment of pneumoperitoneum. The intestine was used as "bladder". The procedures were completed with the single needle running suture method of laparoscopic urethrovesical anastomosis. Six trainees performed the LUA procedure based on the models during a laparoscopic training course, following the technique used in the operation room. The learning curve was analyzed by operative time. Results The porcine model for laparoscopic training was established successfully and 3 LUAs could be performed on each pig. Each trainee performed 10 LUAs based on the models during the training course of laparoscopic urology. The operative time declined from (55.3±10. 4)min initially to (22.4±4.8)min (P＜0. 01) after the training course. At the end of training, all trainees could accomplish a watertight LUR procedure on the model. Conclusions The establishment of the training model is feasible. The trainees could acquire the skills necessary to perform LUA in vivo based on this model. The model provides a platform for training the basic techniques of LUA procedures.

Objective To explore effect of fetal lymphocyte on pathogenesis of intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy(ICP).Methods Twenty pregnant women with ICP and 20 normal pregnant women were enrolled in the study.The single mixed lymphocyte culture/reaction(MLC/MLR)was conducted using inactive lymphocyte obtained from maternal peripheral blood and lymphocyte of cord blood from fetus.Antigen-induced-lymphocyte-proliferation-reaction was used for dermic soluble antigen and decidual soluble antigen obtained from maternal blood and cord blood from fetus.The intense of proliferation was calculated and compared between normal and ICP-complicated pregnancies.Results(1)The level of intense of proliferation of fetal lymphocyte was significantly increased in ICP group 2.75?0.36 than those of normal control group 1.45?0.19 in single mixed lymphocyte culture(P＜0.05).(2)The level of intense of proliferation of fetal lymphocyte was significantly increased in ICP group 1.45?0.19 than those of normal control group 0.67?0.24 in decidual soluble antigen induced lymphocyte proliferation reaction(P＜0.05). (3)The level of intense of proliferation of fetal lymphocyte was significantly increased in ICP group(1.22?0.44)than those of normal control group(0.66?0.27)in dermic soluble antigen induced lymphocyte proliferation reaction.Conclusions(1)The fetal lymphocyte may be one of the effector cells in pathogenesis of ICP.(2)The disturbance of fatal-maternal immune-tolerance is one of the important mechanisms underlying ICP.

OBJECTIVETo study the clinical features and diagnosis of intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP).

METHODSDuring the last 10 years 1241 cases of ICP stayed in our hospital. Their clinical data were retrospectively reviewed.

RESULTS5.2% of all the maternity patients had ICP. It occurred more in winter and 3.5% of ICP occurred in multiple pregnancies. The recurrence rate of ICP was 30.2%. On the average, it occurred at gestational week 32.6. Skin pruritus was the characteristic manifestation and the presenting symptom in 1201 patients (96.8%). The other presenting features included elevated serum ALT and AST (2.3%), jaundice (8 patients), diarrhea (3 patients), deep yellow urine (2 patients) and right upper abdominal pain (1 patient). The serum transaminases levels were elevated, of which 60% were between 50-200 IU/L. Serum total bile acid (TBA) levels were elevated in 82.4% of the patients and bilirubin levels in 33.4%. The elevated bilirubin levels were 30 to 90 micromol/L in 85% of those patients with this condition, and it was never higher than 170 micromol/L.

CONCLUSIONThe basic diagnostic points of ICP are pruritus and abnormal liver function characterized by increased transaminases and TBA. Therefore paying attention to typical pruritus and other atypical features such as elevated serum transaminases, jaundice, diarrhea, deep yellow urine and right upper abdominal pain during antenatal care is important for an early diagnosis of ICP.

Adult ; Cholestasis, Intrahepatic ; Female ; Humans ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy Complications ; Retrospective Studies ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo investigate the relationship between the resuscitation promoting role of resuscitation promoting factor and the initial bacteria amount of dormant Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

METHODSMycobacterium tuberculosis (dormant bacteria) was cultured for 100 days, then diluted into 1 mg/ml concentration with 7H9, and further diluted into 0.5, 0.25, 0.125, 0.0625, and 0.03125 mg/ml. Twelve new tubes added with 5 ml 7H9 and divided into two groups: the first group was added with the resuscitation-promoting factor protein, and the second group as control was added with 7H9. In each group the above diluted solutions were added. The tubes were located at 37 degrees C for culture. Optical density (OD) was detected on day 15, 25, 30, and 35. From each tube 1 microl culture solution was plated on 7H11 medium for colony counting.

RESULTSOD detection showed that bacteria proliferation in each group had positive linear correlation (P < 0.05, P < 0.01), indicating that the resuscitation-promoting factor played a similiar role in solutions with different dilution concentrations. 7H11 results and the OD results show that these two detection methods in each group had linear correlation (P < 0.05, P < 0.01), indicating that these two methods showed consistent test results.

CONCLUSIONThe resuscitation-promoting factor has no effect on the resuscitation of dormant Mycobacterium tuberculosis and its initial bacteria amount.

Bacterial Proteins ; metabolism ; Cytokines ; metabolism ; Mycobacterium tuberculosis ; physiology ; Resuscitation

OBJECTIVETo establish a rapid, inexpensive, and simple drug susceptibility test (DST) for Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tb) and evaluate its feasibility.

METHODWe used nitrate reductase combined with mycobacteriophage assay (PhaB-NRA) to test 49 clinical M. tb isolates of, and the results were compared with those of PhaB-NRA and traditional absolute concentration method.

RESULTSThe sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of PhaB-NRA for rifampicin were 89.1%, 91.67%, and 89.8%; on the contrary, those of isonicotinyl hydrazide were 86.21%, 90.0%, and 87.8%, respectively. The coincidence between PhaB-NRA and traditional assay were 0.746 for rifampicin and 0.750 for isonicotinyl hydrazide.

CONCLUSIONSPhaB-NRA is an inexpensive, rapid, and simple DST method. It is a promising rapid screening technique for DST of M. tb.

Anti-Bacterial Agents ; pharmacology ; Biological Assay ; methods ; Humans ; Microbial Sensitivity Tests ; methods ; Mycobacteriophages ; physiology ; Mycobacterium tuberculosis ; drug effects ; Nitrate Reductase ; metabolism ; Rifampin ; pharmacology ; Sensitivity and Specificity

OBJECTIVETo detect the specific mutations in rpoB gene of Mycobacterium tuberculosis by oligonucleotide microarray.

METHODSFour wild-type and 8 mutant probes were used to detect rifampin resistant strains. Target DNA of M. tuberculosis was amplified by PCR, hybridized and scanned. Direct sequencing was performed to verify the results of oligonucleotide microarray.

RESULTSOf the 102 rifampin-resistant strains 98 (96.1%) had mutations in the rpoB genes.

CONCLUSIONOligonucleotide microarray with mutation-specific probes is a reliable and useful tool for the rapid and accurate diagnosis of rifampin resistance in M. tuberculosis isolates.

Antibiotics, Antitubercular ; pharmacology ; Bacterial Proteins ; genetics ; metabolism ; DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases ; Drug Resistance, Bacterial ; genetics ; Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial ; Mutation ; Mycobacterium tuberculosis ; drug effects ; genetics ; metabolism ; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis ; Rifampin ; pharmacology

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of melatonin (MT) on the abnormal reactivity of thoracic aorta and pulmonary artery induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in rats. Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into four groups randomly: (1) Vehicle group; (2) LPS group: LPS (4 mg/kg, i.p.); (3) LPS+MT group: MT (5 mg/ml, i.p.) was given 30 min before LPS and 60 min after LPS (4 mg/kg ,i.p); (4) MT group: received two doses of MT, 90 min after the first injection of MT another dose of MT was given. Six hours after LPS injection,the rats were killed and both thoracic aortic rings (TARs) and pulmonary artery rings (PARs)were prepared. The reactivity of TARs and PARs in the four subgroups was tested separately. The contraction response to phenylephrine (PE) and the endothelium-dependent relaxation response (EDRR) to ACh were observed with the isolated artery ring technique. Concentration-response curves were generated with ACh or PE (1 x 10(-8) - 1 x 10(-5) mol/L). Superoxide dismutes (SOD) activity and the content of malondialhyde (MDA) in artery tissues were detected. For TARs, LPS significantly reduced the contraction response to PE compared with the vehicle group (P<0.01) and the curve of cumulative dose responses to PE in the LPS group shifted downward. Although EDRR to ACh in the LPS group had the tendency to decrease but still showed no significant difference compared with the vehicle group (P>0.05). For PARs, EDRR to ACh was depressed significantly in the LPS group (P<0.01), while no effect on contraction response to PE in the LPS group was observed, compared with the vehicle group (P> 0.05). Compared with the LPS group, TARs in the LPS+MT group exhibited an increased contraction response to PE, but were still lower than that in the vehicle group. Similarly, EDRR to ACh of PARs in the LPS+MT group was improved significantly and there was no difference between the LPS+MT group and the vehicle group. The vascular reactivity was unaffected in MT group compared with the vehicle group in both TARs and PARs. SOD activity in the LPS +MT group increased significantly and the content of MDA decreased markedly compared with the LPS group. These results suggest that MT may improve the vascular reactivity in endotoxemia rats due to its antioxidant properties.
Animals ; Aorta, Thoracic ; physiopathology ; Endotoxemia ; chemically induced ; physiopathology ; Free Radical Scavengers ; pharmacology ; Lipopolysaccharides ; Male ; Melatonin ; pharmacology ; Pulmonary Artery ; physiopathology ; Random Allocation ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Superoxide Dismutase ; metabolism ; Vasoconstriction ; drug effects ; Vasodilation ; drug effects

OBJECTIVETo study the molecular types of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from a severe food-poisoning and to trace the possible strains.

METHODSReal-time PCR was applied to detect nuc gene as a specific marker for S. aureus, mecA gene encoding methicillin resistance and 5 other genes encoding staphylococcal enterotoxins (sea, seb, see, sed, see). Isolates were also performed with 16S rRNA oligonucleotide sequence analyzing by DNAStar MegAlign 5.0 software and pulse-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) by BioNumerics Version 4.0 software.

RESULTSThe nuc gene was detected from the 10 isolated strains, sea and seb genes were detected from 7 strains. There were 4 16 S rRNA types and 5 PFGE types found from all the strains.

CONCLUSIONSThree relative S. aureus strains were involved in the severe food-poisoning at least. Molecular subtyping might give a molecular epidemiological evidence and support the source tracing of an outbreak.

Bacterial Typing Techniques ; China ; Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field ; Enterotoxins ; Humans ; Staphylococcal Food Poisoning ; epidemiology ; microbiology ; Staphylococcus aureus ; classification ; genetics ; isolation & purification