Background Glaucoma is primarily characterized by the damage of retinal ganglion cells.The macular ganglion cell complex (GCC)thickness can be quantitatively measured using spectral domain optical coherence tomography(SD-OCT). Objective This clinical study was to explore the macular GCC thickness change in primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) patient with SD-OCT. Methods A serial case-controlled study was designed.A total 101 eyes of 101 POAG patients and 41 normal eyes of 41 age- and refract power-matched normal subjects were cnrolled in the study.POAG patients were assigned to normal perimetry POAG group,early stage POAG group,advanced POAG group and late stage POAG group.Average macular GCC thickness(GCC-Avg),superior GCC thickness(GCC-Sup) and inferior GCC thickness (GCC-Inf)of subjects were measured by SD-OCT and compared among POAG patients and normal controls.Peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer(RNFL) thickness was measured with time domain OCT(TD-OCT).The correlation between GCC thickness with RNFL thickness or mean deviation(MD) of perimetry were evaluated and analyzed.Informed consent was obtained from each patient prior to entering this study.Results GCC-Avg thickness,GCC-Sup thickness and GCC-Inf thickness were significantly decreased in the normalperimetry POAG group and early stage POAG group compared with the normal control group (GCC-Avg:t =5.411,10.247,P ＜ 0.01 ; GCC-Sup:t =6.171,9.484,P＜ 0.01 ; GCC-Inf:t =5.281,8.592,P ＜ 0.01 ).Also,GCC-Avg thickness,GCC-Sup thickness and GCC-Inf thickness were significantly decreased in the advanced POAG group compared with the early stage POAG group ( GCC-Avg:t =4.246,P＜0.01 ; GCC-Sup:t - 2.419,P - 0.019 ; GCC-Inf:t =4.636,P＜0.01 ),and GCC-Avg thickness,GCC-Sup thickness and GCC-Inf thickness were significantly decreased in the late stage POAG group compared with the advanced POAG group (GCC-Avg:t=2.095,P=0.040;GCC-Sup:t=2.756,P＜0.01:GCC-Inf:t =2.018,P =0.040 ).The positive correlations were seen between GCC-Avg thickness,GCC-Sup thickness,GCC-Inf thickness and RNFL-Avg thickness,RNFL-Sup thickness,RNFL-Inf thickness respectively( r =0.802,0.825,0.856,P ＜ 0.01 ).MD value of perimetry was positive correlated with GCC-Avg thickness in POAG patients ( r =0.601,P ＜ 0.01 ). Conclusions SD-OCT can quantitatively measure and differentiate the GCC thickness in POAG patients.The GCC thickness gradually decreases with the development of POAG.There exist a well correlation between visual field defect and RNFL thinning.

Objective To study the curative effect and the prognostic factors of endoscopic traumatic optic neuropathy (TON). Methods The clinical data of 53 patients with TON from 2010 to 2015 years was retrospectively analyzed. Divided the patients into the surgery group and the non-surgery group, according to whether or not accept the treatment of endoscopic optic decompression. And evaluating the potential prognostic factors in chi-square test, group t-test and multiple regression analysis. Results In 53 patients (55 eyes ), 31 eyes have no visual acuity before treated: 8 eyes’ visual acuity was improved in 16 eyes (8/16) that accepted operation; 3 eyes’ visual acuity was improved in 15 eyes (3/15) that with non-operation;24 eyes have visual acuity before treated:11 eyes’ visual acuity was improved in 14 eyes (11/14) that accepted operation;3 eyes’ visual acuity was improved in 10 eyes (3/10) that with non-operation;19 eyes’ visual acuity was improved in 30 eyes (19/30) that accepted operation, the total effective rate was 63.3%, and there was no complications happened in the patients who accepted operation. The age, eye-side, sex, visual acuity, optic canal fracture , orbit fracture , all these factors have no correlation to the prognosis (P>0.05), but the interval time between injury and operation (less than 3 days) and the way of the treatment are benefit to improve vision (P<0.05). Conclusions The endoscopic optic decompression is an effective treatment in TON, and it’s better to improve vision in 3-day after TON.

Six bacterial strains were isolated from lead-zinc mine tailings with the age of about 100 years, and their phylogenetic position was determined by the analysis of partial 16S rRNA gene sequence. Three strains belonged to genus Arthrobacter, and were close to A. nicotinovorans and A. histidinolovorans. Other three strains belonged to genus Agromyces, and were close to Ag. mediolanus. All of them were resistant to Pb(NO_(3))_(2), CdCl_(2), ZnSO_(4), CuSO_(4) and CoCl_2. Relatively, minimal inhibitory concentration(MIC)of Zn~(2+) and Co~(2+) of three Arthrobacter strains was significantly higher than that of three Agromyces strains. Additionally, these strains displayed strong adsorption of Pb(NO_(3))_(2), CdCl_(2), ZnSO_(4). Averagely three Arthrobacter strains could adsorb about 400mg of Pb~(2+), 177mg of Cd~(2+) or 80mg of Zn~(2+) per gram of dried cells. Therefore, these strains were important candidates for application in bioremediation of heavy metal-contaminated environment.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the effect of subcutaneousimmunotherapy(SCIT) on levels of the serum human beta defensin-2 in children with allergic rhinitis. METHODS 30 cases of children with allergic rhinitis who were treated by SIT were selected as the treatment group, 20 cases of healthy children as the control group. Serum HBD-2 concentration of the control group was tested. Serum HBD-2 concentration of the treatment group was tested at three different time points: before SCIT, half a year after SCIT and one year after SCIT. And total nasal symptom scores(TNSS) and medication scores were recorded at each time point. RESULTS The serum HBD-2 concentration of the control group, that of the treatment group before SIT, half a year after SIT and one year after SIT were 4.62[4.08; 4.87], 3.74[3.37; 4.61], 4.62[4.13; 5.54], 4.79[4.45;6.19]ng/ml. The HBD-2 concentration gradually increased after SCIT. The TNSS of the treatment group before SCIT, half a year after SCIT and one year after SCIT were 7.43±2.15, 4.17±2.16, 4.20±1.92, The medication scores of the treatment group before SCIT, half a year after SCIT and one year after SCIT were 1.25[0.75; 1.38], 0.25[0; 0.75, 0.25[0; 0.75].There was no correlation (all P>0.05) between the serum HBD-2 concentration and TNSS or medication scores of the treatment group. CONCLUSION The serum levels of HBD-2 in patients with allergic rhinitis were lower than those in normal persons. The specific immunotherapy raised the serum HBD-2 levels of allergic rhinitis patients.

16 and the distribution of severe trauma more than 2 anatomic parts.They were randomly divided into two groups:intensive insulin treatment group(n=31)and control group(n=31).Intensive insulin treatment group received insulin with insulin pump in order to maintain blood glucose levels at 4.0-6.1 mol/L,while the control group received routine insulin treatment in order to mmaintain blood glucose levels at 10.0- 11.0 mol/L.Plasma levels of TNF-?,IL-1,IL-6, CRP,APACHEⅡscores and cure rate were analyzed before and after the treatment.Data was expressed as mean?standard deviation.Two- tailed T test and ANOVA were used for comparison in SPSS 10.0,and changes were considered as statistically significant if P value was less than 0.05.Results After the intensive insulin treatment, patient's hemodynamic parameter apparently improved,APACHEⅡscores descended,and the levels of TNF-?, Ib-1,IL-6,CRP all declined,in comparison with control group,there were significant differences. Intensive insulin treatment might improve patient's general condition and decrease complications and mortality of severe multiple trauma.

AIMTo demonstrate the specific killing of folate receptor (FR)-positive tumor cells can be achieved by folate-targeted penicillin-G amidase (PGA) combined with its prodrug substrate N-(phenylacetyl) doxorubicin (DOXP).

METHODSFolic acid was covalently linked to PGA and folate content value was determined by quantitative UV spectrophotometry. The ability of folate conjugated PGA to hydrolyze DOXP was measured by RP-HPLC. Visual demonstration of uptake by FR (+) HeLa and SKOV3 cells was detected by using FITC labeled folate-PGA and a fluorescence microscopy. The cytotoxicity of DOXP towards the cells in the presence or absence of folate-PGA was assayed by using MTT method.

RESULTSThe folate-PGA has a specific activity of 29. 8 U x mg(-1) (protein). FR selectivity was confirmed by fluorescence microscopy. The combination of DOXP prodrug with folate-PGA generated higher cytotoxicity towards the FR (+) cells than free doxorubicin. The IC50 was 0.72 micromol x L(-1) for HeLa cells and 0.75 micromol x L(-1) for SKOV3 cells, respectively. Further, the enhanced cytotoxicity reduced greatly with the addition of free folic acid.

CONCLUSIONFolate conjugated PGA did not significantly compromise PGA catalytic activity and enabled binding prodrug-activating enzyme PGA to folate receptor expressing cells, and increased the sensitivity of the cells to doxorubicin followed by administration of its prodrug substrate.

Antibiotics, Antineoplastic ; pharmacology ; Carrier Proteins ; metabolism ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Doxorubicin ; analogs & derivatives ; pharmacology ; Drug Delivery Systems ; Female ; Folate Receptors, GPI-Anchored ; Folic Acid ; chemistry ; pharmacology ; HeLa Cells ; Humans ; Inhibitory Concentration 50 ; Ovarian Neoplasms ; pathology ; Penicillin Amidase ; chemistry ; pharmacology ; Prodrugs ; pharmacology ; Receptors, Cell Surface ; metabolism

Objective: To investigate the effects of ethylbenzene on growth morphology、proliferation ability and mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) of cochlear progenitor cells (CPCs) , and to lay a foundation for the mechanism of hearing loss induced by ethylbenzene. Methods: We can use the fluorescence microscopy to identify the original CPCs isolated from the newborn rats, and followed by the addition of different concentrations of ethylbenzene (0, 15, 30, 45 μmol/L) for 24 hours. The morphological changes of cell injury were observed by inverted optical microscope. The proliferation ability of cells was detected by MTT colorimetry, and the change of MMP was detected by fluorescent probe JC-1. Results: The results of CPCs identification showed the expression of Myosin VIIa and Epsin positive; The results observed by inverted optical microscope showed all groups of CPCs morphological changes compared with the control group; MTT results showed that the decreased significantly proliferation ability of CPCs groups compared with the control group and a dose effect relationship with statistically significant difference (P<0.05) ; JC-1 test results showed the decreased significantly mitochondrial membrane potential in the treated group compared with the control group, and there was a statistically significant difference (P<0.05) . Conclusion Ethylbenzene may cause damage to CPCs, inhibition of cell proliferation and decrease of MMP in rats.

Objective: To construct a recombinant short-hairpin RNA (shRNA) lentiviral vector targeting the β-catenin gene in cochlear precursor cells (CPCs) in mice, and to investigate its inhibitory effect. Methods: PCR was used for the multiplication of the β-catenin gene, and shRNA oligo was designed based on the β-catenin gene to construct an interference vector. Gateway Technology was used to construct shRNA lentiviral vector which carried the β-catenin gene, and then 293FT cells were transfected with the constructed lentiviral vector and helper plasmids pLV/helper-SL3, pLV/helper-SL4, and pLV/helper-SL5. The virus supernatant was collected to obtain viral particles, and then mouse CPCs were transiently infected with the recombinant lentivirus with four different concentrations (0, 5, 10, and 20 μl) . The shRNA control group was established. Quantitative real-time PCR and Western blot were used to investigate the inhibitory effect of shRNA β-catenin lentiviral vector on β-catenin. Results: The recombinant shRNA β-catenin lentiviral vector was successfully constructed, and the virus titers of shβ-catenin and shβ-catenin-control were 5.05×10⁷ and 4.34×10⁷, respectively. The results of in vitro experiments showed that in CPCs transfected with four different concentrations of recombinant lentivirus, the content of β-catenin protein gradually decreased with the increase in concentration, and there was a significant difference between groups (P<0.05) ; the CPCs transfected with shβ-catenin had significantly lower mRNA expression of β-catenin than those in the shβ-catenin-control group (P<0.05) . Conclusion The constructed lentiviral vector targeting the β-catenin gene has a high infection efficiency, and the successful construction of lentiviral vectors provides a technical support for analyzing the role of β-catenin in the differentiation of CPCs into auditory hair cells.

Objective To generate hemogenic endothelial cells(HECs)from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs)in vitro in order to learn more about the mechanism by which the vascular niche affects HECs production and self -renewal.Methods hiPSCs with reporter gene runx1c were differentiated to hematopoietic cells by spinEB method.The CD34 positive cells were sorted by magnetic-activated cell sorting(MACS)at day 10 after hematopoietic differentiation. Afterwards,these CD34 positive cells were co-cultured with DLL4 overexpressed vascular niche cells VeraVec to further differentiate to HECs.The HECs derived from the hiPSCs were characterized by FACS.Results We first established an hiPSCs single cell culture method for spinEB differentiation.Single cell cultured hiPSCs with reporter gene runx 1c were differentiated to form embryonic bodies(EBs)by spinEB method.The HECs were enriched from the day 10.Meanwhile, we cultured the E4ORF1 transfected human umbilical vein endothelial cell(HUVEC)line(VeraVec)and examined the expression of NOTCH signaling pathway related genes.According to the results, VeraVec had a high expression level of NOTCH ligand DLL4 at both mRNA and protein levels.And the CD34 positive HECs were co-cultured with DLL4 overexpressed VeraVec cells,which promoted the expression of tdTomato during hematopoitic differentiation and increased HSCs production.Conclusion A method of inducing hiPSCs differentiation by spinEB has been established, which can enrich HECs.This model can be applied to study the mechanism by which the vascular niche promotes hematopoietic differentiation from hPSCs.The generated functional HSCs are of great social and military values for HSCs transplantation and battlefield radiation injury treatment.

BACKGROUNDInvasive intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) is current diagnostic standard for myocardial bridging (MB). Non-invasive multislice computerized tomography coronary angiography (MSCT) technique has provided a good anatomical view of the tunnel artery now.

METHODSA total of 51 consecutive patients with atypical or typical angina scheduled for IVUS were enrolled in this study and MSCT was performed 7 days before IVUS. Coronary imaging was quantified using IVUS and MSCT. Four main vessels (left main artery (LMA), left anterior descending (LAD), left circumflex (LCX), right coronary artery (RCA)) were examined.

RESULTSForty-one out of 51 (80%) patients received metaprolol (25 mg) before the MSCT scan and 25 of them were current beta-blocker users. The mean heart rate was (64 +/- 3) beats per minute. A total of 51 patients underwent IVUS examination (30 with MB and 21 without MB) were chosen for this study. Twenty-eight out of 30 MB cases were correctly diagnosed by MSCT and 2 patients with MB were not detected. Comparison with IVUS, the sensitivity of detection by MSCT was 93%, specificity was 100%. The lumen diameter of the tunnel artery derived from MSCT and IVUS significantly decreased from (2.9 +/- 0.3) mm to (2.4 +/- 0.4) mm (P < 0.001) and from (3.3 +/- 0.3) mm to (2.6 +/- 0.5) mm (P < 0.001), respectively. Minimal and maximal diameters of MB derived from MSCT were significantly smaller than those from IVUS ((2.4 +/- 0.4) mm vs (2.6 +/- 0.5) mm, P < 0.05 and (2.9 +/- 0.3) mm vs (3.3 +/- 0.3) mm, P < 0.05), respectively.

CONCLUSIONSMSCT offers a reliable non-invasive method for MB in LAD and atherosclerosis diagnosis with diagnostic accuracy comparable with invasive IVUS.

Adult ; Aged ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Myocardial Bridging ; diagnostic imaging ; Tomography, Spiral Computed ; methods ; Ultrasonography, Interventional ; methods