OBJECTIVE Through researching the ABR threshold, the cochlear morphology and miR-96 expression in the cochlear of BALB/c mice at different month's age, to find out if the miR-96 can regulate the age related hearing loss of BALB/c mice.METHODS ABR testing, AO/PI staining and scanning electron microscope were used to observe the ABR threshold and cochlear morphology of the BALB/c mice at the ages of 3 months, 6 months, 12 months and 18 months. Real-time PCR was used to detect the expression of miR-96 in the cochlea of BALB/c mice at the ages of 3 months, 6 months, 12 months and 18 months.RESULTS The ABR thresholds of BALB/c mice were (18.5±8.3), (45.8±7.8), and (85.6±15.6) dB SPL separately at the age of 3, 6 and 12 months. At the age of 18 months, no response was observed in the ABR testing with 120 dB SPL acoustic stimulation. In the AO/PI staining, we found that the outer hair cells was apparently lost since the age of 6 months and the loss of hair cells aggravated as the month's age increased. At the age of 12 months, no outer hair cells was left, inner hair cells was lost apparently too. With the scanning electron microscope, we found the changes of deficiency, lodging, fusion, shortening and inversion in the hair cell cilia. And these changes were aggravated as the month's ages increased. At the age of 3 months, the relative expression of miR-96 (2-△CT) was 0.0225±0.0073. The relative expression of miR-96 (2-△CT) in the cochlea were 0.0162±0.0048, 0.0116±0.0048, and 0.0050±0.0014 at the age of 6 months, 12 months and 18 months separately, comparing with the relative expression of miR-96 at the age of 3 months, the differences were significant(P<0.05).CONCLUSION The hearing loss, hair cells loss, and cilia damage aggravated as the month's age increased, but the miR-96 expression in the cochlea decreased. Which suggest that miR-96 might play an important role in the age related hearing loss.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy of Ethosomes encapsulated with 5-FU in treatment of laryngotracheal stenosis in rabbit models. METHOD: The 5-FU ethosome was prepared by the thin film hydration method, and the size distribution and the encapsulation efficiency was investigated. The tracheal mucosa was scraped about 0.5 cm in width with a nylon brush to induce the scar formation in the airway,then animals were divided into three groups: 5-FU ethosome group,5-FU group and saline group. Drugs were injected into scar by paracentesis under endoscope in each group respectively. The severity of stenosis was observed under laryngofiberoscope immediately, 7, 14, 21 days after administration. RESULT: Airway stenosis of 5-FU ethosome group was not significantly different compared with 5-FU group at 7 days after administration, but 5-FU ethosome significantly reduced the airway stenosis at 21 days after administration when compared with 5-FU group and no restenosis was noticed during the observation period. CONCLUSION Ethosomes encapsulated with 5-FU was effective for laryngotracheal stenosis. It is a potentially new method for ameliorating airway stenosis originated from granulation tissue.
Animals ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Fluorouracil ; therapeutic use ; Liposomes ; therapeutic use ; Rabbits ; Tracheal Stenosis ; pathology ; surgery

OBJECTIVE To identify key factors involved in the regulation of hypoxia-induced inflammation-related signaling pathways using a combination of bioinformatics methods and experiments. METHODS A cellular model of hypoxia-induced hippocampal neuronal damage was prepared by treating mouse hippocampal neuronal HT22 cells with CoCl2. The cells were then collected for transcriptome sequencing. Based on the sequencing results,key molecules were identified using differential analysis,gene ontology(GO) function and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genomes(KEGG) pathway analysis,and protein-protein interaction network(PPI) analysis. The effects of key molecules on cells were investigated. RESULTS Differential analysis revealed a total of 8975 differential genes,which were subjected to GO and KEGG analysis. KEGG analysis revealed that these genes were involved in signaling pathways such as pancreatic cancer,EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor resistance,animal mitosis,base excision repair,and chronic myeloid leukemia. PPI networks were constructed for genes enriched in these pathways,and the MCC algorithm screened the top 5 key genes,which were shown to be HRAS,KRAS,PTEN,VEGFA,and SRC. HRAS and VEGFA were selected for subsequent experiments,and the results showed that after CoCl2 treatment,the viability of HT22 cells was significantly decreased(P<0.05),HRAS was significantly down-regulated and VEGFA was significantly up-regulated in CoCl2-treated cells(P<0.05),the levels of TNF-α,IL-1β,and IL-6 were significantly increased(P<0.001). However,treatment with overexpression of HRAS or low expression of VEGFA led to an increase in the activity of cell growth(P<0.05) as well as a significant decrease in TNF-α,IL-1β,and IL-6 levels(P<0.001). CONCLUSION In sleep apnea,HRAS or VEGFA may lead to cognitive impairment by affecting inflammatory factors.