Two novel isocoumarins, erigeronone C (1) and D (2), were isolated from the ethanol extract of the whole plant of Erigeron breviscapus (Vant.) Hand.-Mazz (Compositae). Their structures were respectively elucidated as 8, 9-dihydroxypyrano [3, 2-c] isochromen-4, 6-dione (1) and 4, 7-dihydroxy-3-(3-hydroxy-4-oxo-4H-pyran-2-yl)-1H-isochromen-1-one (2) on the basis of spectral analyses. Both structures of 1 and 2 possess a gamma-pyrone moiety and that is rare in natural products.

Objective To assess the value of muhichannel epidural somatosensory evoked potential (SEP) in cortical mapping of primary sensorimotor areas for electrode implantation of motor cortex electrical stimulation.Methods Intraoperative multichannel epidural SEP was recorded in 13 patients with intractable neuropathic pain.SEP mapping was used for determining the location of sensorimotor areas.Results The typical phase reversals of N20 and P20 were recorded and the location of the central sulcus and the primary sensorimotor area were accurately determined in 11 patients.The location of the primary sensorimotor failed to be determined in the other 2 patients because of the atypical SEP.Conclusion The intraoperative muhichannel epidural SEP is reliable in the cortical mapping.

AIM: Previous studies paid more attention to the effect of fibroblast immigration in normal surrounding tissue or blood on wound healing. This study explored the morphological character of fibroblasts after heat injury to support the new operation of autogenous epidermis overlapping denatured dermis. METHODS: The experiment was performed at the State Key Laboratory of Trauma, Burn and Combined Injury in the Third Military Medical University of Chinese PLA from April 2006 to April 2007. The dermal fibroblast from the infant prepuce disposed after surgery was cultured in vitro, and divided into 2 groups. In normal group, the dermal fibroblasts were put in water bath at 37 ℃ for 30 seconds; the cells in experimental group were stimulated at different temperatures (50, 51, 52, and 53 ℃) for different time (30, 60, 90, and 180 seconds). Cell survival was detected by MTT; morphology of injured cells were observed under inverted microscope and transmission electron microscope at 3 hours, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 days; cell cycle was detected by flow cytometry. RESULTS: At different temperatures and different time, there were significant differences in the survival rate of fibroblast between the experimental groups and normal group (P

Objective To observe the protective effect of Ulinastatin in rat islet isolation and advance an improved method in rat pancreas islet isolation.Methods Rat pancreas was perfused with Hanks solution containing collagenase. The rats were divided into 3 group according the Ulinastatin concentrations in collagense: low-concentration Ulinastatin ( 2500 U/ml) group, high-concentration Ulinastatin ( 5000 U/ml) and control group (no Ulinastatin). The isolated pancreases were compared among the groups. Results The shape and number of the isolated pancreases in low-concentration Ulinastatin and high-concentration Ulinastatin groups were superior to those in control group (P

By tracing of ~(75)Se-Na_2SeO_3 incubating and irrigating of the isolated myocardial slices of rats, the numeric relationship between the free selenics in the serum and the serum sdenics, the sodium sdenite doses injected were observed; the absorption of the frce selenics and the serum selenics was compared; the setenics metabolic rate and quantities of the myocardial tissue in different duration after injecting of selcnite, the effect of selenics concentration to the participating were calculated, It is suggested that there is a very close relationship between the free selenics and the selenium metabolism in the myocardium; the ratio betwen the values of the free selenics and the serum selenics may become a stable indicator of the selenium metabolism; the free selenics in the serum may be where the important mediates of selenium metabolism are.

Objective To evaluate the role of combined use of tacrolimus and leflunomide (Lef) in prevention of acute allograft rejection in rats.Methods The rats were randomly divided into control group, tacrolimus treated group, Lef treated group and tacrolimus +Lef treated group. The drugs were given by gavage from day 0 to day 9 after transplantation. Graft survival was observed. Some cases of allografts were examined histologically 7 days after transplantation. At the same time, the levels of CD4 + , CD8 + T cell subsets in peripheral blood were examined by using flow cytometry and the hepatic function as well as renal function of recipents were also tested. Results The graft survival time in control group, tacrolimus treated group, Lef treated group and tacrolimus+Lef treated group was 7.14 ? 1.07 days, 11.14 ? 1.73 days, 11.29 ? 1.80 days and 14.00 ? 2.49 days, respectively. The histological study revealed the rejection in the tacrolimus+Lef treated group was slighter than the tacrolimus treated group and Lef treated group. The levels of CD4 + T cell subsets in the peripheral blood of the tacrolimus+Lef treated group were much lower than those of the tacrolimus treated group and Lef treated group 7 days after transplantation. The levels of CD8 + T cell subsets and the hepatic function and renal function had no significant difference.Conclusion Combined use of tacrolimus and Lef had better effect in prevention of acute rejection in allograft rats than monotherapy without increasing side effects.

Objective To investigate the relationship between EphA7 protein and carcinogenesis and development of pancreatic cancer by detecting the expression of EphA7 protein in pancreatic cancer tissues. Methods The expression of EphA7 in 10 cases of normal pancreatic tissue, 51 cases of pancreatic cancer and its adjacent tissues were detected with immunohistechemieal methods and the relationship between EphA7 and pathologic features of pancreatic cancer were analyzed. Results The rate of expression of EphA7 protein in normal pancreatic tissue was 10% (1/10), 47.1% (24/51) in adjacent pancreatic cancer tissues, 94.1% (48/51) in pancreatic cancer tissues. There were significant difference among the three groups (P <0.05). There was no significant correlation between the expression of EphA7 protein and the age, sex, tumor location, tumor size in patients with pancreatic cancer (P > 0.05). However there was significant correlation between the expression of EphA7 protein and the degree of differentiation, clinical staging, lymph node metastasis, or distant metastasis (P < 0.05). Conclusions The abnormally high expression of EphA7 may be relevant with the occurrence and development of the pancreatic cancer.

Objective To observe the role of nitric oxide(NO) in the immune regulatory effect of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells(MSCs). Methods Bone marrow MSCs were isolated from Lewis rats by adherence screening. Concanavalin A (ConA) was adopted as the stimulator and T-lymphocyte isolated from peripheral blood of SD rats as the reactive cells. The changes of the ability of T-lymphocyte proliferation, when co-cultured with MSCs, were measured by CCK-8 assay. The inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) mRNA and protein expression on MSCs and were detected by RT-PCR, Western blot. The contents of nitrites and the levels of Th1 type cytokine IFN-γand Th2 type cytokine IL-4 were measured by Griess test and ELISA respectively, in the co-cultured supernatant. Results T-lymphocyte proliferation was inhibited by co-cultured MSCs, which was concentration-dependent. In this study, the inhibition was most obviously group[ (79.03 ± 1.70)% ] (P ＞ 0.05 ). The I NOS mRNA expression, protein and nitrite levels were signifigroups, the proliferation rate of T-lymphocyte recovered. The content of IFN-γwas increased with the ratio decline of MSCs in the experimental group and IL-4 in each group has no significant difference( P ＞ 0.05 ).Conclusion MSCs inhibited T-lymphocyte proliferation by influencing Th1/Th2 balance, and the secretion of soluble factor NO, which secreted by MSCs, may plays an important role in the immune regulation.

A novel subtype of influenza A virus 09H1N1 has rapidly spread across the world. Evolutionary analyses of this virus have revealed that 09H1N1 is a triple reassortant of segments from swine, avian and human influenza viruses. In this study, we investigated factors shaping the codon usage bias of 09H1N1 and carried out cluster analysis of 60 strains of influenza A virus from different subtypes based on their codon usage bias. We discovered that more preferentially used codons of 09H1N1 are A-ended or U-ended, and the intra-genomic codon usage bias of 09H1N1 is quite low. Base composition constraint, dinucleotide biases and translational selection are the main factors influencing the codon usage bias of 09H1N1. At the genome level, we find that the codon usage bias of 09H1N1 is similar to H1N1 (A/swine/Kansas/77778/2007H1N1), H9N2 from Asia, H1N2 from Asia and North America and H3N2 from North America. Our results provide insight for understanding the processes governing evolution, regulation of gene expression, and revealing the evolution of 09H1N1.

BACKGROUND: Studies have shown that adipose-derived stem cells have pluripotent differentiation potential, but only 30%-40% of cells can differentiate into mature adipocytes with low adipogenic differentiation potential. Therefore, how to improve the adipogenic differentiation ability of adipose-derived stem cells is a key problem to be solved in the process of soft tissue regeneration. OBJECTIVE: To observe the relationship between the surface marker CD54 of rabbit adipose-derived stem cells and their adipogenic capacity, and to explore the adipogenic differentiation of CD54+/CD54- adipose-derived stem cells underthe same induction. METHODS: We successfully isolated and cultured the adipose-derived stem cells from inguinal subcutaneous fat pads (3 ml) of New Zealand white rabbits, aged 8-12 weeks, which were induced into multi-differentiation and used to detectsurface markers. We sorted the passage 3 adipose-derived stem cells by immunomagnetic beads and divided into two categories including CD54+ and CD54- adipose-derived stem cells. After 14 days of adipogenic induction, the cells in the two groups were subjected to oil red O staining and were compared by detecting the density of mature adipocytes and lipid droplet contenT.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The cultured adipose-derived stem cells possessed the characteristics of mesenchymal stem cells that could differentiate into mature adipocytes, osteoblasts and chondrocytes, with CD29, CD44, CD49d, CD54, CD73, CD90 and CD105 positive expression while CD31, CD34 and CD45 negative expression. Fourteen days after adipogenic induction, the density of mature adipocytes and the intracellular lipid droplet content in the CD54+ group were significantly higher than those in the CD54- group (P < 0.05). We also found that the mRNA expressions of PPARγ,ADD1, C/EBPα related to adipogenic differentiation in the CD54+ group were significantly higher than those in the CD54- group (P < 0.05). Taken together, CD54+ adipose-derived stem cells have excellent adipogenic differentiation capacity.