This study is to establish a simple and practical co-culture method of cortical neurons and astrocytes of rats. The cortex of the new-born SD rats was digested by 0.125% pancreatic enzyme, and the differential adherence was applied to obtain the mixed cell suspension of neurons and astrocytes. A low concentration of cytarabine was used to inhibit the astrocytes in a moderate way to get neuronal and astrocyte co-culture. The morphological characteristics of the cells in different times were observed under the inverted microscope. The cells began to adhere the wall 2 h after the inoculation. Neurons and astrocytes grew in a good condition under the inverted microscope 9 days after the inoculation. The results of the immunofluorescence staining and Rosenfeld's staining indicated that the co-culture of neurons and astrocytes was successful and the ratio of neurons and astrocytes was close to 1:1. A new neurons and astrocytes co-culture method, which is simple and convenient, was successfully established. It will be an efficient method for the related researches about neuronal and astrocyte co-culture in vitro.

OBJECTIVE To study the toxicity of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) on murine macrophage Ana-1 cells and the mechanism.METHODS Ana-1 cells were incubated with ZnO-NP (2.5-160 mg· L-1).Cell viability was investigated by MTT assay.The integrity of cell membrane was investigated by acridine orange-ethidium bromide (AO-EB) staining.The intracellular uptake of ZnO-NP and the percentage of sub-G1 of Ana-1 cells were detected by flow cytometry.Zinc ions were determined by fluorescent probe.The change of cell viability was studied after chelating zinc ions with ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA).RESULTS ZnO-NP 2.5,5,10 and 20 mg· L-1 decreased cell viability of Ana-1 cells (r=0.905,P＜0.05) in a concentration-dependent manner.The cell viability was decreased to 27.9％ after exposure to ZnO-NP 20 mg· L-1.Intracellular uptake of ZnO-NP was increased after Ana-1 cell incubated with ZnO-NP at concentrations ranging from 40 to 160 mg· L-1 (P＜0.05).There were obvious free zinc ions in the cells.EDTA 2.5 mmol· L-1 significantly increased the cell viability decreased by ZnO-NP 20 mg· L-1 (P＜0.05).Chelating free zinc ions significantly mitigated ZnO-NP induced cell toxicity (P＜0.05).CONCLUSION Cytotoxicity and apoptosis of Ana-1 cells induced by ZnO-NP might be related to intracellular uptake of ZnO-NP and release of zinc ions.

Objective:To review the current research and existing problems of symptom cluster sentinel symptoms in cancer patients both domestically and internationally, so as to provide reference for future research.Methods:The literature on sentinel symptoms of cancer symptom clusters, from the establishment of the database until November 8, 2023, was electronically searched on platforms such as China National Knowledge Infrastructure, WanFang Data, VIP, China Biomedical Database, PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Embase and so on. Descriptive statistical analysis was conducted.Results:Sixteen articles were included, with an overall upward trend in publication volume, including 10 Chinese articles and 6 English articles. The sentinel symptom hotspots of cancer patients' symptom clusters mainly included: (1) the number of symptoms included in the analyzed symptom clusters was 3 to 13, the number of symptom clusters was 1 to 8, and the number of sentinel symptoms explored in each literature was 1 to 8; (2) Identification and dynamic changes of sentinel symptoms in symptom clusters; (3) Differences in sentinel symptoms among different symptom groups of cancer patients; (4) Analyzing specific sentinel symptoms of symptom groups based on different statistical methods; (5) Intervention based on sentinel symptoms of symptom clusters.Conclusions:In recent years, the symptom cluster sentinel symptoms of cancer patients have received attention from researchers at home and abroad, but there are problems such as uneven development and inconsistent research methods. High quality identification research is needed to make the included population specific and the methods scientifically unified, and to focus on the impact and mechanism of symptom cluster sentinel symptoms on patient outcomes in symptom clusters, so as to investigate potential mechanisms and promote effective symptom management.