Animals ; Cadmium Radioisotopes ; toxicity ; Female ; Fetal Development ; drug effects ; Fetus ; Maternal-Fetal Exchange ; Pregnancy ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley

Objective To study the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome(SARA). Methods Clinical data from 682 patients with SARS were retrospectively analyzed. Results The patients ranged from 13 to 76 years old, 387 male and 295 female. A total of 356 patients (52.2) had a history of close contact with diagnosed SARS patients, and 113 (25.1%) had been to hospital ever. The most common symptom was fever (99.3%), followed by cough (44.4%), shortness of breath (12.2% ), diarrhea (8.9%). 596 patients (87.4%) had normal or decreased white blood cell counts. Serum ALT and CPK levels were elevated in 112 patients (16.4%)and 17 patients (2.5%) respectively. Infiltrates on chest radiography were seen in all patients, with 69.8% involved both lungs. Six patients (0.9%) died of SARS. Conclusion SARS is infectious. Hospital is an important place where SARS transmits. Fever, cough and infiltrative changes on chest radiography are mainly symptoms and signs.

Objective To investigate the developmental characters of neural stem cells(NSCs) in occipital of cortex from human fetal brain at different age.Methods Ninety cases of embryoes at gestational age 16-32 weeks and by induction of labor with water bag were collected for determining distribution,shapes,growth modes and the number of NSCs in the occipital of cortex with immunohisto- chemical method under light microscope.Results It was noted that NSCs existed in the occipital of cortex from human fetal brain at different ages.NSCs mainly distributed in layers of cone cells and inner granule cells.NSCs existed in the occipital of cortex of different fetal age included middling round cells,NSCs had enations from 0 to 1.Nucli were larger than plasm.Each NSC had nucleoli from 2-4 and rarefaction chromatin.Most of NSCs distributed in three growth modes including crowd,cluster and clone,occasionally with a single growth mode among other nerve cells.There were no differences including distribution,shapes,growth modes and the number of NSCs in the occipital of cortex between groups,but,NSCs gradually decreased with increasing of age.Conclusion NSCs exists in the occipital of cortex from different gestational age,and the number of NSCs decreases with increasing of age.

Objective To evaluate the clinical value of electron beam computed tomography (EBCT)in the diagnosis of atherosclerotic aortic ulcer.Methods Sixty-eight consecutive patients(55 men and 13 women,aged 40—85 years,mean 65.12?9.55 years)with atherosclerotic aortic ulcer,who underwent EBCT scans from December 2001 to December 2004,were studied retrospectively.Contrast- enhanced continuous volume scanning(CVS)was performed by Imatron C-150XP EBCT scanner with 6 mm or 3 mm slice thickness and 100 milliseconds acquisition time.The scan was started 18—30 s after the injection of 80—100 ml contrast medium at the rate of 3.5—4.5 ml/s.Results In sixty-eight patients with atherosclerotie aortic ulcer,50 patients had acute aortic syndromes,36 had intramural hematomas,15 had atherosclerotic aortic aneurysms,3 had aortic dissections.46 patients with progresive ulcer usually had acute aortic syndrome while 22 patients with stable ulcer didn't(P

AIM: To evaluate the effect of binocular visual function training in pediatric ocular trauma. METHODS: There were 76 patients (76 eyes) that were hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of ocular injury at the Affiliated Hospital of Medical College, Qingdao University between January 2006 and December 2009. Binocular visual function training was given after primary wound repair. Far stereopsis function were checked using AIT-1000 synoptophore fusion, and near stereopsis function was checked using Titmus stereogram.Binocular visual function was compared before and after training. RESULTS: Before binocular visual function training,26 eyes（34%）had no binocular vision, after training there were only 16 eyes（21%） without binocular vision. Before undertaking binocular visual function training with fusion, only 27 eyes (36%) had binocular vision, after the training there were 48 eyes (63%) with binocular vision. Before undertaking binocular visual function training with far stereopsis ,there were 23 eyes (30%) with binocular vision, after the training there were 29 eyes (38%). Before binocular visual function training with near stereopsis, there were 14 eyes (18%) with binocular vision, after the training there were 33 eyes (43%) with binocular vision. There was a significant difference in the number of patients with binocular vision before and after binocular visual function training. CONCLUSION:The training is useful for the reconstruction of binocular visual function in pediatric ocular trauma.

In this study, the general bacterial probe and specific cellulolytic bacterial probes were used to quantify the bacteria in rumen. The total RNA were extracted and then hybridized with general bacterial probe after a dilution of concentration. The result showed that there was a high correlation between the hybridization signal and the dilution of total bacterial RNA. Based on the result above, the quantities of three cellulolytic bacteria in rumen sample were detected. The comparative RNA percentage of three cellulolytic bacteria to total bacterial RNA were similar to the previous reports. It can be concluded that the quantification of bacteria in rumen could be conducted by this approach, and which could be used in future research.

The strain F12-11-1-2 was isolated from the East China Sea,which had antimitosis activity using Pyricularia oryzae mode.Ac- cording to phenotypical study,salt-aggregation test and 16S rDNA sequence analysis,the strain F12-11-1-2 has been identified to be Bacillus subtilis.

Objective To investigate the relationship between expression of surfactant protein B (SP-B) gene product and neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (NRDS) in Han ethnic group.Methods Unrelated 20 cases with NRDS of Han ethnic group were selected as NRDS group while unrelated 20 cases of Han ethnic group with other diseases were selected as a control. The cases in the control group had congenital heart disease or bronchopulmonary dysplasia or persistent pulmonary artery hypertension. Blood sample was taken from each case. Lung tissues were taken from the patients in half an hour after their death in the two groups. Expression of SP-B in the lung tissues was determined with immunohistochemical technique. Genetic deficiency variant of SP-B intron Ⅳ was screened with polymerase chain reaction (PCR).Results Two cases at gestational age of 26 weeks, one at 34 weeks and two at 42 weeks in the NRDS groups had lower expression level of SP-B in the lung tissues than those at the same age in the the control group. Expression of SP-B in the lung tissues of the control group increased with gestational age, but no such phenomenon was found in NRDS group. Further two cases at gestational age 42 weeks of NRDS group had genetic deficiency variant of SP-B intron Ⅳ with gene analysis of five cases who had lower expression of SP-B. Clinical data suggest that patients at 42 weeks of gestational age had severe illness.Conclusion Decrease of SP-B expression may be involved in occurrence of NRDS, genetic deficiency variant of SP-B intron Ⅳ exists in NRDS cases of Han ethnic group of China.

OBJECTIVE To develop a simple and reproducible high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method for determination of cyclosporine A (CsA, also known as cyclosporin A) in aqueous humor of rabbit eyes using CsD as internal standard. METHODS The pretreatment involved one step of liquid- liquid extraction with ether from aqueous humor samples. Chromatography was carried out using an ODS column which was controlled at 75℃ under isocratic elution with the mobile phase of acetonitrile-deionized water (89:11, v/v)at the flow rate of 0.1mL·min-1 and the detector set at 200 nm. RESULTS The mean absolute recovery of CsA from aqueous humor was 86% and the mean relative recovery was 100.7%.The linearity was assessed in the range of 25～500 ng·mL-1, with a correlation coefficient of 0.9986. The limit of quantification and detection of the present method were 25 and 10 ng·mL-1, respectively. CONCLUSION This method has been used to analyze large numbers of aqueous humor samples of rabbit eyes for ophthalmic research and proved to be rapid with good accuracy and precision.

The present study aimed to investigate the effects of interleukin-1β (IL-1β) at different doses on collagen synthesis and decomposition in cultured cardiac fibroblasts from neonatal Sprague-Dawley rat. Cardiac fibroblasts were treated with IL-1β (0.01, 0.1, 1, 10, 100 ng/mL) for 24 h. Cell DNA synthesis was measured by (3)H-thymidine ((3)H-TdR) incorporation and collagen synthesis was measured by (3)H-proline ((3)H-Pro) incorporation. Matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) activity was measured by gelatinase zymography. MMP-2, MMP-9 protein expressions were measured by Western blot. mRNA expressions of MMP-2 and MMP-9 were detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Compared with that in the control group, the incorporation of (3)H-TdR and (3)H-Pro decreased in high-dose IL-1β groups (≥0.1 ng/mL) but not in low-dose IL-1β group (0.01 ng/mL). IL-1β significantly increased MMP-2 and MMP-9 activities. IL-1β (0.01-100 ng/mL) also dose-dependently increased the protein and mRNA expressions of MMP-2 and MMP-9 (P<0.05, P<0.01), respectively. These results suggest that IL-1β decreases collagen synthesis and MMP activities through transcriptional and posttranslational processes via degrading collagen in a dose-dependent way. Elevation of IL-1β is possibly involved in the process of ventricular remodeling after myocardial infarction, and the concentration of IL-1β is possibly a major factor which affects the extent of ventricular remodeling.
Animals ; Cells, Cultured ; Collagen ; biosynthesis ; Fibroblasts ; cytology ; metabolism ; Interleukin-1beta ; pharmacology ; Matrix Metalloproteinase 2 ; metabolism ; Matrix Metalloproteinase 9 ; metabolism ; Myocardial Infarction ; Myocardium ; cytology ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Ventricular Remodeling