Objective To investigate the effect of macrophage-conditioned medium on the growth of mouse myoblasts. Methods After a 3-day intraperitoneal injection with a mixture of muscle homogenate and starch,macrophages were obtained from mouse peritoneal cavity and cultured for 48 hours in serum-free DMEM/F12.Then the cultured medium was harvested.Myoblasts were obtained from newborn mice skeletal muscle and grown in DMEM/F12 supplied with 10% FBS for 36-48 hours,and then exposed to 0.5% FBS medium with or without macrophage-conditioned medium.Cells were harvested at 72 hours later,their growth was observed with Wright staining,LDH cytochemistry and immunocytochemistry. Results Macrophage-conditioned medium can maintain the normal morphology and the activity of myoblasts grown in low concentration of serum and promote their proliferation.There was a significant difference between average absorbance and integral absorbance of LDH positive cells of the two groups(P

INTRODUCTION: The National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS), originally designed in the United States of America, contains items on dysphasia and dysarthria that are deemed culturally unsuitable for the Singapore context. We compared the error rates of dysphasia objects, dysphasia phrases and dysarthria words between the original and alternative items in a cohort of Singaporean subjects without dysphasia or dysarthria. METHODS: In this prospective study, 140 English-speaking Singaporean subjects without impairments of dysphasia or dysarthria had an assessment of NIHSS items 9 and 10 using the original and alternative items. Paired analyses were conducted for comparison of error rates. RESULTS: The error rates were high for four original dysphasia objects (Hammock: 62.9%, Cactus: 38.6%, Feather: 23.6%, Glove: 20.7%) and significantly lower for alternative items (Snail: 5%, Horse: 1.4%, Hanger: 1.4%, Car: 0%) (P < 0.001). For dysphasia phrases and dysarthria words, the error rates were low and there were no differences in error rates between the original and alternative items. CONCLUSION There are cultural issues with several dysphasia objects in the original NIHSS as evidenced by the high error rates, which were lowered with more culturally suitable alternatives. This study formed a basis to derive a more suitable version of the NIHSS for English-speaking subjects in Singapore.
Humans ; United States ; Animals ; Horses ; Stroke/diagnosis* ; Singapore ; Dysarthria/diagnosis* ; Prospective Studies ; National Institutes of Health (U.S.) ; Aphasia/diagnosis* ; Severity of Illness Index