Objective. The anti-atherosclerotic effect of fluvastatin at doses insufficient to lower serum cholesterol on the catheter-induced intimal thickening and possible mechanism were investigated in abdominal aorta of rabbits. Methods. Fifty-six rabbits were randomly divided into eight groups(n = 7, each). Fluvastatin was given mixed with food at daily dose of 8mg/kg starting 5 days before catheterization, Light microscope, immunohistochemistry, transmis-sion electron microecope and RT-PCR assay were applied to assess vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC)proliferation and apoptosis, as well as oncogene expression in vascular wall. Results. At day 10 and day 15 after catheter induced denudation intima/media(I/M)thickness ratio was obviously higher, and also the percentage of PCNA-positive cells and TUNEL-positive cells in media was significantly higher compared with controls. The intimal hyperplasia was mostly composed of α-SM-actin-positive cells. In rabbits given flu-vastatin I/M ratio and the percentage of these positive cells significantly decreased compared with those without fluvas-tatin. The overexpression of proto-oncogene H-ras mRNA and decreased expression of anti-oncogene p53 mRNA were found after vascular injury, whereas fluvastatin significantly reduced H-ras mRNA and increased p53 mRNA expres-sion. Conclusion. Proliferation of VSMC in the media and the migration to the intima can be inhibited, and apoptosis of VSMC be induced by short-term use of fluvastatin after balloon catheter denudation, independent of serum lipid change. The underlying mechanism is presumably associated with the influence of fluvastatin on oncogene expression in the injured vascular wall.

Objective To evaluate the relationship between the cytokine levels in the serum and cerebrospinal fluid and the brain injury in preterm infants. Methods From August of 2012 to August of 2013,51 preterm infants were included and 46 infants were survived. All of them were born at the Maternal and Child Hospital of Hubei Pro-vince,with GA≤32 weeks and high risk factors of intrauterine infection and suffering from early onset sepsis. Ac-cording to the screening findings of cerebral ultrasound and/or MRI,the infants were divided into normal group(n=28) and abnormal groups(n=18) with intracranial hemorrhage or white matter damage. The levels of interleukin(IL)-6,IL-1β and tumor necrosis factor-α( TNF-α) in the serum within 12 hours after birth and in cerebrospinal fluid within 72 hours after birth were investigated. The differences in cytokines between two groups were compared with t-test and Chi-square test,and high risk factors of brain injury were analyzed by Logistic regression models. Results The ab-normal group had higher incidence of clinical maternal chorioamnionitis[44. 44%(8/18 cases) vs 14. 29%(4/28 ca-ses),χ2=5.168,P=0.038] and higher white blood cell count[(11.51±9.03)×109/L vs(6.95±5.64)×109/L,t=-2. 107,P=0. 041]. In the abnormal group,the levels of serum IL-6 [(44. 83±16. 31) ng/L],and IL-6,IL-1βand TNF-αin cerebrospinal fluid [(51. 85±15. 65) ng/L,(11. 95±2. 58) ng/L and(193. 11±67. 25) ng/L] were higher than those in the normal group[(36.83±8.76) ng/L,(42.56±12.89) ng/L,(10.26±2.91) ng/L and(160.56± 29. 02) ng/L,respectively] with the statistical difference(t=-2. 687,-2. 250,0. 269,-2. 243,P=0. 010,0. 029,0. 044, 0. 030). Maternal chorioamnionitis,higher serum TNF-αand cerebrospinal fluid IL-6 were high risk factors for brain in-jury(P=0. 014,0. 031,0. 047). Conclusion Increased systemic and cerebrospinal fluid cytokine levels are possibly re-lated to the preterm brain injury when intrauterine infection occurred.