ObjectivesTo observe correlation between serum vitamin A status and prevalence or severity of NRDS. MethodsRecruited into this study were 166 preterm infants admitted to our neonatal department. The serum concentration of vitamin A was measured, and the prevalence of NRDS at different levels of vitamin A was compared. According to the clinical manifestation and X-rays, there were 30 infants diagnosed as NRDS. Another 30 patients from the rest 133 infants without NRDS were randomly selected as control group according to the gestational ages, then the difference between NRDS group and control group were observed according to gestational ages. The 30 preterm infants with NRDS were divided further into mild group (in-cluding stagesⅠandⅡ,n=18) and severe group (including stageⅢ andⅣ,n=12) according to ifndings chest X-ray, then the difference between these two groups were observed.ResultsIn the 166 preterm infants recruited, 65/166 had serum vitamin A lower than 0.35 μmol/L, in which 14/65 (21.54%) were NRDS patients. Another 93/166 patients had serum vitamin A ranged from 0.35 μmol/L to 0.7 μmol/L, in which 15/93 (16.13%) were NRDS patient. The rest 8/166 had serum vitamin A higher than 0.7 μmol/L, in which 1/8 (12.50%) were NRDS patient. However, the differences between each two groups were not signiifcant. When gestational ages ranged from 34 to 37 weeks, the serum concentrations of vitamin A of NRDS group were lower than that in controls (P<0.05). No signiifcant difference between the serum concentrations of vitamin A and the severity of NRDS were ob-served (P>0.05).ConclusionsThe prevalence of NRDS for those preterm infants lacking of vitamin A was tended to increase. And the late preterm infants (34 w≤ GA <37 w) with vitamin A deifciency are prone to NRDS.

Objective To elucidate clinical and pathological features of obesity-associated focalsegmental glomerulosclerosis(FSGS). Methods Clinicopathological data of thirteen obese cases (BMI3≥28kg/m2) with FSGS(OB-FSGS) and thirteen non-obese cases(BMI

Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Terminology as Topic ; Translations

Objective To analyze clinical and radiological characteristics in 5 cases of neuromyelitisoptica (NMO) with tumefactive-like demyelinating lesions (TDLs).Methods Five NMO patients with TDLs hospitalized during November 2007 and March 2012 were retrospectively analyzed for clinical and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features,as well as therapeutic efficiency and prognoses.Results The male-to-female ratio is 1∶4 and the range of onset ages is 15-44 years old.The median time when TDLs was developed was 36 months after the onset of NMO.The anti-aquaporin 4 was seropositive in all NMO patients with TDLs.Four patients had clinical manifestations of encephalopathy symptoms including coma (n =2),seizures (n =1),narcolepsy (n =1),homonymous hemianopia (n =1).All TDLs grew unilaterally.Two TDLs were located at parietal-occipital,1 at parietal,I at the cerebellum and 1 at the temporal.On MRI,there was no enhanced signal in 4 TDLs,and there was open-ring-like enhanced signals in 1 case.Three TDLs revealed mixed signals intensities on diffusion-weighted images and an increase in the apparent diffusion coeficient values.On the subsequent MRIs,the sizes of 5 TDLs were markedly reduced in 3 cases,disappeared in 1 and another 1 case remained the same.Meanwhile,3 lesions subsequently developed cavity forming.Five cases improved after treatment of high-dose corticosteroid and intravenous immune globulin.Conclusions TDLs is not uncommon in NMO.Encephalopathysymptoms are more frequently affected in NMO with TDLs.TDLs often accompany with extensive vasogenic edema,but without enhancement in acute stage.NMO-IgG antibody testing and brain MRI are important in the diagnosis of TDLs.The therapy of corticosteroid and intravenous immune globulin is recommended.

Objective This study aimed to assess the effects of active and passive smoking on chronic kidney disease (CKD) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).Methods Seven hundred and five patients with T2DM were recruited in the study and were divided into three groups based on smoking status as active smokers,passive smokers and non-smokers.Twenty-four hour urinary albumin excretion (24hUAE) was measured,and estimate glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was calculated with age and blood creatinine levels.Results (1) The proportion of CKD in T2DM in the present study was 31.63％ (223/705) with 28.6％ (22/77),30.0％ (15/50) and 29.6％ (73/247) for non-smokers,passive smokers and active smokers in men,and 29.9％ (40/134),35.9％ (66/184) and 7/13 for non-smokers,passive smokers and active smokers in women,respectively.In comparison with non-smokers,a higher risk of CKD was found in both passive and active smokers (OR =1.07 and OR =1.05 in men ; OR =1.31 and OR =2.74 in women,respectively).(2) Compared with non-smokers,passive smokers had a significant higher risk for albuminuria in women (OR =2.02,P =0.016).(3) After adjusting for gender,age,duration of T2DM,BMI,systolic blood pressure,glycosylated hemoglobin A1C and lipids,there was a significant decrease in eGFR between active and never smokers (P =0.018)or passive smokers (P =0.000) in women.No differences could be found in eGFR between each smoking statues in men.Conclusions Smoking exposure alone confers a high risk for CKD in patients with T2DM.Our results highlight an importance in implementation of a smoke-free environment for patients with T2DM.

Aim To investigate endoplasmic reticulum stress ( ERS)-mediated high-fat diet and palmitic acid-induced insulin resistance ( IR) in skeletal muscle and interventional effects of fenofibrate both in vivo and in vitro tests. Methods Female SD rats were randomly subjected to a standard control diet ( SCD) or high-fat diet ( HFD) for 20 weeks, then the HFD group was di-vided into high-fat-diet group and high-fat-diet group treated with fenofibrate ( HFD +FF, 30 mg · kg-1 · d-1 ) for another 8 weeks. The changes of IR and ex-pression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α( PPARα) , glucose regulated protein 78 ( GRP78 ) and transcription factors GADD153 ( CHOP ) were as-sessed respectively. C2C12 myotubes were divided into normal control group ( NC ) , model group ( palmitic acid, PA) , postive control drug group ( tunicamycin, TM) and treatment group ( fenofibric acid, FA+PA) , the expressions of GRP78 and CHOP were assessed re-spectively. Insulin-stimulated phosphorylation of Akt was also analyzed to detect changes of insulin sensitivi-ty in C2 C12 . Results The high-fat diet induced obvi-ous IR and upregulated ERS markers GRP78 and CHOP in skeletal muscle of rats, and these responses were attenuated by treatment with fenofibrate. Incuba-tion of myotubes with palmitic acid or tunicamycin sig-nificantly increased expression of ERS markers GRP78 and CHOP. Meanwhile, insulin-stimulated phosphoryl-ation of Akt was inhibited obviously. Pre-incubation with FA markedly inverted PA-induced ERS and insu-lin-stimulated phosphorylation of Akt. Conclusion Fenofibrate ( fenofibric acid) has obvious effects of IR on skeletal muscle tissues and cells, which may be re-lated with reduced expression of GRP78 and CHOP in ERS.

Objective To study the mRNA expression of myelin basic protein (MBP) and myelin oligodendregha glyeoprotein (MOG) in hippocampus of rats following global brain ischemia.Method The four- vessel occlusion animal model in the Sprague-Dawley rats was used in this study.The mRNA expression levels of MBP and MOG in the hippocampus of rats were analyzed by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT- PCR) at day 2,4,7,14 and 28 days after global brain ischemia.There were eight rats at each time-point and sham operated group.Results The mRNA expression of both MBP and MOG in hippocampus of rats decreased at 2 days after global brain ischemia.The gene expression of myelin gene decreased significantly at 7 days and it reached to the lowest level at 28 days.Compared with sham operated group,the gene expression of MBP and MOG in hippocampus of rats decreased significantly at 7,14 and 28 days after global brain ischemia (P

Aim To study whether the mechanisms in-volved in resveratrol′s protective effects on vascular en-dothelial injury induced by high-calorie and high-chol-estrol diet are concerned with ERS and the change of eNOS expression. Methods Twenty-four male C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into standard control diet (SCD),high-calorie and high-cholestrol diet(HCD)and HCD group treated with resveratrol (HCD +RES,400 mg·kg -1 ·d -1 ,1 2 weeks).Then the thoracic aorta was separated,embedded and sliced to analyze the pathological changes by HE and resor-cinol staining.The protein distribution of eNOS was measured with immunohistochemical analysis.The up-stream and downstream genes of ERS in thoracic aorta were detected by RT-PCR.After the pretreatment with different concentrations of resveratrol,the mouse aortic endothelial cells (MAECs)were treated with palmitic acid,then the changes of cell proliferation in each group were compared.Western blot,immunofluores-cence and immunohistochemistry were used to deter-mine the protein expressions of GRP78,CHOP and eNOS respectively.Results Mice fed with HCD showed thickening of thoracic aortic wall and disorgan-ized elastic fibers as compared with those in SCD group.The mRNA levels of ERS related genes were all increased obviously (P <0.05),while the protein expression of eNOS was decreased.Compared with HCDgroup,the thickened wall and the disorganized elasticfibers were improved significantly,the mRNA levels ofERS related genes were all decreased obviously (P <0.05)and the expression of eNOS protein was increased in HCD +RES group.Compared with NCgroup, the cell proliferation was significantly decreased,meanwhile GRP78 and CHOP was significantly increased (P <0.05)and the protein expression ofeNOS was decreased in PA group.The cell proliferation was increased significantly (P <0.05),the mRNA and protein expression of GRP78 and CHOP wasobviously decreased (P <0.05),meanwhile the protein expression of eNOS was increased in the mediumand large dose of RES pretreatment groups.Conclusion Resveratrol has obvious effects of improving endothelial damages induced by HCD and decreasing cellproliferateion of MAECs induced by PA, and themechanisms are possibly related with decreased ERSand increased level of eNOS protein.

Objective To investigate the relationship between tubular cells transdifferentiation and renal interstitial fibrosis in patients with chronic aristolochic acid nephropathy (CAAN). Methods Specimens from renal biopsies of 10 CAAN patients with serum creatinine level of (309. 41 ? 164. 44) ?mol/L were performed to examine the extent of renal interstitial fibrosis by Masson staining, the expression of collagen types Ⅰ and Ⅲ by sirius red staining, and the expression of cytokeratin(CK), ?-smooth muscle actin (a-SMA), vimentin (Vim) and transforming growth factor-? 1 (TGF-?1) by immunohistochemical staining. Quantitative analysis by computer image analytic system or semi-quantitative analysis were used to evaluate the data. Results There was positively significant correlation between interstitial collagen types Ⅰ and Ⅲ and serum creatinine level ( r =0. 890, P

Objective To investigate the protective effects of Wnt-7a protein on renal interstitial fibrosis in mice of unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO)model.Methods Eighteen male C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into 3 groups:sham-operation group,the UUO model group and Wnt-7a treatment group.The body weight of mice was measured everyday.All the mice were sacrificed at thc seventh day after the operation.The left kidney was taken for histology evaluation and molecular biology assay.Masson's stain was performed as a main indicator of interstitial fibrosis.The expression of vimentin,α-smooth muscle actin,and E-adherin in renal tissue was detected by immunohistochemistry staining and the expression of α-smooth muscle actin and E-cadhe(nn) in renal tissue was detected by Western blotting.Results Compared with sham-operation group,body weight of the (,)odel group was significantly lower (P＜0.05),and the relative area of interstitial fibrosis was significantly larger (P＜0.05).Furthermore,the expression of vimentin and α-SMA was significantly up-regulated (P＜0.05),and the expression of E-cadherin was significantly down-regulated (P＜0.05).Compared with model group,all the above-mentioned abnormalities were restored to some extent and showed significant differences (P＜0.05) in Wnt-7a treatment group.Conclusion Wnt-7a protein can decrease the interstitial fibrosis by inhibiting epithelial to mesenchymal transition in UUO mice.