The armor vehicle such as a tank is not only a weapon of shock troops, but also a main target for attack during modern high technological limited warfare, therefore the management of casualties of the armored troops has become a major concern. The main aim of this paper is to discuss the demand, reality and guide in the study of characteristics of injuriesandtheirmanagement of woundedinaconfined armored space. At the same time, the paper points out the ideal way of collaborated study of the ordnance and medical personnels, including both military and civilian.

Using microsurgery techniques, we transplanted a piece of embryonic spinal cord (E_(14)) into spinal cord of adult rats that were hemisectly injured, with a small cavity left in it. The results were observed at days 7, 15. 30, 60, 120 and 240 after operation. The findings showed that 74% of the transplants could survive under pathological environment of the host spinal cord. They not only grew and differentiated continuously but also connected tightly with the host tissue. It is suggested that the defect tissue of injured adult spinal cord may at least be repaired with homotypic tissue by transplanting embryonic spinal cord cautiously with suitable age.

Objective To observe effects of BMP-4 gene combined with TGF-β1 in repairing rabbit femur defect resulted from firearm wound. Methods The femur defect was made with firearm steel ball. Plasmid encoded BMP-4 gene identified in vitro and TGF-β1 were injected into the tissue of upper, lower and central parts of the defects at the second week after wound. The mRNA and protein expressions of BMP-4 in vivo were detected by real time-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blot. Activity of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and calcium content were measured for evaluating osteogenetic ability. The process and quality of osteogenesis were determined by pathological and X-ray examinations. Results mRNA and protein of BMP-4 could continually express for six weeks in vivo after injection. Activity of ALP in the experimental group was increased to ( 13.17 ±0.51 ) U/100 ml at the 8th week, which was significantly higher than (8.77 ± 0.44) U/100 ml in the control group, indicating that osteogenetic ability was markedly enhanced, which accorded with determination of calcium content. Pathological observation and X-ray proved prominent improvement of osteogenesis, with a shorter time and better quality, in the experimental group. Conclusion BMP-4/TGF-β1 can promote repair of firearm femur defect.

Spinal sensory evoked potential(SSEP)and spinal motor evoked potential(SMEP)of the injured spinal cord of the host rats were determined on the 7th,15th,30th.60th,120th and 240th day after they received implantation of the embryonic spinal cord from the fetus of E14 rats.The motor function of the hind limbs of the host rats were also observed.The rats with simple cord injury and those with cord injury and implantation of a piece of skeletal muscle served as the controls.It was found that the locomotor function of the host rats could be recovered on the 30th day after implantation,but the latent period of both SSEP and SMEP became normal on the 240th day.At that time,the latent period of evoked potentials of the 2 control groups also recovered gradually.It is believed that embryonic spinal cord may have effects on the recovery of the locomotor function of the host rats but more sophisticated methods are imperative to clarify the interela-tionship between the host tissue and the graft.

The number of nerve fibers in the spared dorsal root of the L4 spinal nerve and the number of nerve terminals in the Lamina Ⅲ of the segment of the spinal cord between L2 and S1 were determined with electron microscopic morphometry,and the distribution and density of nerve fibers in the spinal cord were observed with silver staining.It was found that the distribution and density of nerve fibers in the spinal cord showed no difference between the operated and the control sides under optical microscopy;morphometric analysis revealed a significant increase of the number of unmyelinated fibers and a tendency to increase of their diameter;and the number of both simple and complex terminals in the Lamina Ⅲ of the spinal cord could return to the normal level on the 35th day after operation with a significant increase of their diameter.The importance of these changes was preliminarily discussed.

Objective To observe the characteristic, mechanisms and the change of pathophysiology about thoracic explosive injury from an explosive device. Methods Seventy-three millimetres prefabricated steel-ball bomb was used to be the center of explosion. According to the distance from each group to the center of explosion, 30 sheep were randomly divided into 5 groups. The injuries of thoracic wall, lung and surrounding organs were observed from fragments and blast wave. Results The mortality of thoracic explosive injury on the ground testing was 56.7%.Most of fragment wounds were blind wound. The track of wounds was often complicated and curved. The major associated injuries were myocardial contusion, splenic-hepatic rupture and gastric-enteric rupture. There were much severe pulmonary hemorrhage and lung edema. The parameters of trauma were well correlated with the severity of thoracic injury.　Conclusion The parameters of trauma were well correlated with the severity of thoracic injury. The characteristic of thoracic injury from explosive device was more complicated and severe.

Transplantation of embryonic spinal cord was performed with microsurgical technique in rats after they were inflicted with acute spinal cord injury.Then the favorable factors affecting the acceptance of the transplanted cord were investigated with morphological technique.It was found that among the gestation ages from EH to E20,the spinal cord taken from the rats with the gestation age of E14 showed the highest survival rate of 70.83%.None of the transplants taken from the rats with the gestation age older than E14 survived.The connective tissue attached to transplants severely interfered with their acceptance and growth.The severity of the pathological manifestations of the injured spinal cord exerted unfavorable influence on the survival and growth of the transplants too.It is believed that in order to assure the success of the transplantation,besides the attention on the technical performance of the surgery,it is essential to determine the differentiation state of the embryonic spinal cord to be transplanted.

To reconstruct 3 D images of microstructure and ultrastructure of regenerated sciatic nerve of rats with serial cross sections. The 6 mm defects of the sciatic nerve of 90 Wistar rats were bridge connected with silicone tube and were sampled at 3, 7, 15, 30, 60, 90 days respectively after injury. The images of optical and electronic microscope were taken by micro photograph system and scanner, then they were input into the computer, by which the image registration and segmentation were completed. The direct volume rendering model was used to realize the 3 D reconstruction and display. The results showed the morphological changes in degenerated and regenerated sciatic nerve fibres and their appendicular structures could be observed with the 3 D images. It is suggested that the reconstructing results could reveal the differences between the regenerated and normal sciatic nerve fibres of rats intuitively and visually, so it could be used as a new method in the study of peripheral nerve injury.

Objective To observe the migration and distribution of OECs in injured spinal cord and discuss their relation with the recovery of spinal cord function. Methods The rats were contused by a force of 10 g · 25 mm with NYU-impactor at T10 level. The OECs acutely isolated from green fluorescence protein (GFP) rats were purified, identified and then transplanted into the injured site and the rostral and caudal parts of the spinal cord one week after injury, with total volume of the transplanted OECs for 90 000/μl. Within 13 weeks after transplantation, the migration and distribution of OECs were qualitatively observed on the cryo-sections under fluorescence light microscope. The area and the length of OECs distribution were semi-quantitatively determined. The locomotor function of the spinal cord was appraised by BBB score. Results OECs were located collectively in the transplanted site at early stage after transplantation and then spread gradually mainly along the long axis of the cord. OECs could be found in the cavity of the contused spinal cord. The area and the length of OECs distribution were increased from 1.33 mm2 and 4.23 mm respectively at one week to 3.30 mm2 and 7.68 mm respectively at 13 weeks after transplantation. In the meantime, the locomotor function was gradually improved. Conclusion OECs can migrate within the contused spinal cord, as may contribute to the recovery of locomotor function.

Neural crest stem cells originated from hair follicle (epidermal neural crest stem cell, EPI-NCSC) are easy to obtain and have potentials to differentiate into various tissues, which make them eminent seed cells for tissue engineering. EPI-NCSC is now used to repair nerve injury, especially, the spinal cord injury. To investigate their effects on repairing peripheral nerve injury, EPI-NCSC from a GFP-SD rat were primarily cultured on coated dishes and on a poly lactic acid coglycolic acid copolymer (PLGA) membrane. Methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) assay showed that the initial adhesion rate of EPI-NCSC was 89.7% on PLGA membrane, and the relative growth rates were 89.3%, 87.6%, 85.6%, and 96.6% on the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th day respectively. Cell cycles and DNA ploidy analysis demonstrated that cell cycles and proliferation indexes of cultured EPI-NCSC had the same variation pattern on coated dishes and PLGA membrane. Then cultured EPI-NCSC were mixed with equal amount of extracellular matrix and injected into a PLGA conduit to connect a 10 mm surgery excision gap of rat sciatic nerve, Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's medium (DMEM) was used to substitute EPI-NCSC in the control group. After four weeks of transplantation, the defected sciatic nerve achieved a histological restoration, the sensory function of rat hind limb was partly recovered and the sciatic nerve index was also improved. The above results showed that a PLGA conduit filled with EPI-NCSC has a good repair effect on the peripheral nerve injury.
Animals ; Cells, Cultured ; Neural Crest ; cytology ; Neural Stem Cells ; cytology ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Sciatic Nerve ; pathology ; Spinal Cord Injuries ; Stem Cell Transplantation ; Tissue Engineering