A comparison of plant and animal stem cells can highlight core aspects of stem-cell biology. In both kingdoms, stem cells are defined by their clonogenic properties and are maintained by intercellular signals. The signaling molecules are different in plants and animals stem cell niches, but the roles of argonaute and polycomb group proteins suggest that there are some molecular similarities.
Animals ; Plant Cells ; Signal Transduction ; Stem Cells ; cytology ; metabolism

Objective To obtain and identify dendritic cell (DC) from mouse bone marrow in vitro. Methods Recombinant mouse granulocyte and macrophage colony stimulus factor (GM-CSF) induction was used to induce mouse bone marrow cells to form dendritic cells in vitro. The morphological changes were observed with light inverted microscope and scanning electron microscope (SEM). CD11c, MHCⅡ, and CD86 were identified with flow cytometry. The biological function was studied with antigen phagocytosis test and mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR). Result The cultured DC from mouse bone marrow displayed the typical morphological characteristics of DC. Immature DC, which had high expression in CD11c and low expression in MHCⅡ and CD86, could phagocytize antigen. Mature DC, which had high expression in CD11c, MHCⅡ and CD86, could stimulate allogenic mixed lymphocyte proliferation. Conclusion DC can be generated from mouse bone marrow cells through cytokine induction in vitro and be used for further study associated with DC.

ObjectiveTo investigate advantage and disadvantage of different rehabilitation therapies used for cerebral palsy (CP) children complicated with epilepsy (EP).Methods140 CP children complicated with EP screened from 1402 CP cases, were analyzed for CP and EP types, MRI or CT, brain stem auditory evoked potentials (BAEP). All cases were treated with anti-epilepsy drugs (AEDs). Different rehabilitation therapies, including electrotherapeutic modalities, acupuncture, point injection, cerebroprotein hydrolysate injection, manual therapy, functional training, Chinese herb braising therapy, and cattle encephalon glycoside and ignotin injection were assessed.ResultsIn all 140 cases, a majority of EP types were myoclonic seizure and west syndrome, CP type was spasticity. Abnormality showed in MRI or CT (98%) and BAEP (90%). AEDs were effective for all 140 cases. Electrotherapeutic modalities, acupuncture, point injection, and cerebroprotein hydrolysate injection could make EP severely, but manual therapy, functional training, Chinese herb braising therapy, cattle encephalon glycoside and ignotin injection had no adverse effects on EP cases.ConclusionThe principles of rehabilitation treatment for the CP children complicated with EP are taking AEDs early and in a long term, avoiding electrotherapeutic modalities, acupuncture, point injection, and cerebroprotein hydrolysate injection, using manual therapy, functional training, Chinese herb braising therapy, and cattle encephalon glycoside and ignotin injection.

BACKGROUND:Astragaloside and tanshinone IIa are the effective components of traditional Chinese medicine treatment of myocardial ischemia, and its role in bone marrow mesenchymal stem cel s differentiation into myocardium-like cel s remains unclear.
OBJECTIVE:To investigate the effect of tanshinone IIa and astragaloside on the differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cel s into myocardium-like cel s.
METHODS:The maximal non-toxic concentrations of tanshinone IIa and astragaloside were measured using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay, to define the dose of the two in the induced differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cel s into myocardium-like cel s. The isolated and purified bone marrow mesenchymal stem cel s were divided into five groups:astragaloside group, tanshinone IIa group, astragaloside+tanshinone IIa group, 5-azacitidine group, and blank control group. The expression of gap junction connexin 43 and troponin was determined with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:The expression of gap junction connexin 43 and troponin in astragaloside group, tanshinone IIa group, astragaloside+tanshinone IIa group, 5-azacitidine group was higher than that in blank control group (P<0.01). The astragaloside+tanshinone IIa group showed a higher expression of gap junction connexin 43 and troponin than astragaloside group and tanshinone IIa group (P<0.01). There was no significant difference in the expression of gap junction connexin 43 and troponin between astragaloside+tanshinone IIa group and 5-azacitidine group (P>0.05). A combined use of astragaloside and tanshinone IIa can induce bone marrow mesenchymal stem cel s to differentiate into myocardium-like cel s, and their joint role is better than the role of a single ingredient.

Objective To analyze the type of acid-base disturbance caused by severe pneumonia in newborn infants .Methods Venous blood of neonate with severe pneumonia(SP group) were collected to detect serum electrolyte and blood gas analysis 12 hours before and after oxygen therapy .The results of serum electrolyte and blood gas were compared 12 hours before and after oxygen therapy ,and the results of acid-base disturbance between SP group and control groups were compared.Results There were mostly metabolic acidosis incorporated respiratory acidosis in all neonate in SP group,which were with increased anion gap (AG) and obviously higher than that of control group(t=1.27 P

The ultimate goal of post-genome research is to understand a complete set of proteins in a living organism for their expression pattern and biological function,which is called proteomics.One of the major challenges in proteome research is to study the protein-protein interactions,and the emerging bioinformatics approaches present us tremendous advantages when dealing with protein interaction networking and data analysis.Useful bioinformatics tools include protein-protein interaction network mapping,topology of the network,structure of the module and comparison of the network.The technology advancement in this field brings further understandings to the structure and function of cells at the proteome level,which may eventually lead to the discovery of new drug targets and design methods.This paper attempts to review the current researches on protein-protein interaction with an emphasis on bioinformatics intervention,and also summarizes some widely used methods for network analysis.

Objective Based on the published articles,this paper aims to study the pattern and probability of lymph nodes metastasis in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and establish a radiotherapy standard for selecting and delineation of clinical target volume of neck lymphatics for NPC patients with N0 or N1.Methods Clinical trials about NPC by MRI as the main or only diagnostic imaging way were collected and extracted from database,such as WanFang,CBM,PubMed,Cochrane Library.Statistical analyses were performed using Stata software,version 12.0.Results Twenty-one clinical trials from 963 original articles were included in this analysis.The most commonly involved regions included retropharyngeal (67％) and level Ⅱ lymph nodes (71％).The overall probability of levels Ⅲ,Ⅳ and Ⅴnodal involvement were 37％,14％ and 21％,respectively.Low-risk node groups included levels ⅠA,ⅠB,Ⅵ nodes,and the rates of lymph node metastasis were 0,2％,2％ and 1％,respectively.Nodal metastases followed an orderly pattern of top-down,and the probability of skip metastasis between levels varied between 0.5％ ～7.9％.Conclusion Lymph node metastasis in NPC follows a predictable and orderly pattern.The rarity of metastasis in certain nodal groups andskip metastasis suggest that reduced treatment volume is feasible in conformal radiotherapy for NPC patients with No or N1.

Objective:To observe the effects of effective parts of Acanthopanax senticosus on the expression of LRRK 2 in injured PC12 cells induced by MPP+ to explore the mechanism of neuroprotection of the effective parts of Acanthopanax senticosus.Methods:The PC12 cell model of Parkinson's disease (PD) was constructed by MPP+,and intervened by the effective parts of Acanthopanax senticosus.The cell survival rate was detected by MTT,the mRNA expression level of LRRK 2 was studied by PCR,and the protein expression of LRRK 2 was determined by immunohistochemistry and Western Blot.Results:Compared with that of the model group,the survival rate of the drug group increased with significant difference (P<0.01).Compared with those in the model group,the LRRK 2 gene and protein expression all decreased with significant differences (P<0.01).Conclusion:The effective parts of Acanthopanax senticosus show protective effects on the PC12 cell model of PD,and one of the mechanisms may be related with the decreased expression level of LRRK2 caused by the effective parts of Acanthopanax senticosus.

Cholesteatoma ; diagnosis ; Ear, Middle ; Humans ; Otitis Media ; diagnosis

Objective To explore the serum levels of growth differentiation factor-15 (GDF-15) in patients with acute exacerbation of chronic heart failure (CHF) and its correlation with other common indexes,to provide reference for its clinical diagnosis,treatment and prognosis.Methods Two hundred patients with acute exacerbation of CHF were selected as CHF group,and 100 matched healthy volunteers were selected as control group.Serum levels of GDF-15 and N-terminal pronatriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) were detected,and left ventricular end diastolic diameter (LVESD),left ventricular end diastolic diameter (LVEDD),and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) were measured by echocardiography within 2 hours after admitted to hospital,and after the symptoms improved of CHF group,and on health examination day of control group.Patients in CHF group were followed up to record CHF related adverse events.Correlations between GDF-15 and other indicators were analyzed by Spearman correlation analysis,and the clinical value of serum GDF-15 on diagnosing CHF was analyzed by the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) and the area under the curve (AUC).Results The serum levels of GDF-15 and NT-proBNP in each time-point of CHF group were all higher than those of control group (t =4.70 ～ 7.11,P ＜ 0.05 orP ＜ 0.01).The serum levels of GDF-15 and NT-proBNP had negative correlation with LVEF (r =-0.539,-0.572,P ＜ 0.01),and had positive correlation with LVESD,LVEDD,and NYHA cardiac functional grading (r =0.505 ～ 0.861,P ＜ 0.01).Serum GDF-15 had positive correlation with serum NT-proBNP (r =0.528,P ＜0.01).With the increase of serum GDF-15 level,CHF group's readmission (rate) and death (rate) were both increased (x2 =36.86,26.59,P ＜0.01).AUC of predicting readmission risk by serum GDF-15 was 0.822 (95％ CI:0.719 ～0.890,P ＜0.01),and the best predictive cutoff point was 2 876.30 ng/L (sensitivity was 91.86％,specificity was 73.27％).AUC of predicting mortality risk was 0.816 (95％ CI:0.715 ～ 0.885,P ＜ 0.01),and the best predictive cutoff point was 3 487.05 ng/L (sensitivity was 91.72％,specificity was 69.05％).Conclusions Serum GDF-15 level in patients with acute exacerbation of CHF is higher,decreases with symptoms improvement,has positive correlation with LVESD,LVEDD,and NYHA cardiac functional grading,and has negative correlation with LVEF,has higher sensitivity on predicting CHF-related adverse events,and the mechanism may be related to the activation of SMAD pathway.Therefore,it may be a promising biomarker for clinical diagnosis and prognosis of cardiovascular diseases.