To investigate the correlation between cognitive function and the Chinese medicine syndrome characteristics of vascular cognitive impairment (VCI).

Vascular dementia (VaD) is the second common subtype of dementia after Alzheimer's disease. However, there is still a lack of medication that demonstrates clinically relevant symptomatic improvement. Static blood obstructing the brain is the main Chinese medicine syndrome of VaD.

The methods of purification, expanding, marking, conservation, induced differentiation and identification of neural stem cells (NSCs) in vitro were explored for further research and treatment of tethered cord syndrome in children and other neural system diseases. The cells derived from the cerebral cortex of frontal lobe in 14.5 d rat embryos were maintained in serum-free DMEM/F12 medium containing 20 ng/ml bFGF, 20 ng/ml EGF and B27 supplement. The NSCs of suspending single-cell-colon were isolated and passaged, were purified by limited dilution, and were expanded numerously with sub-colon in consecutive generations. Then, Nestin antigen expression was detected by immunohistochemistry techniques. The cells of the purified and expanded NSCs were frozen, recovered and incubated in BrdU, and the NSCs were induced to differentiate in serum or feeder layer. These revived NSCs from frozen cells could express Nestin antigen and could be induced in serum or feeder layer to differentiate into neurons and glias expressing tubulin-III and GFAP respectively. It is good and simple for purification and proliferation of NSCs numerously by the limited dilution and consecutive generations suspending single-cell-colon of NSCs from the cerebral cortex of frontal lobe in rat embryos. The NSCs could be induced on feeder layer to differentiate into neural cells numerously. BrdU can mark and trace NSCs for the research and treatment of the animal model of neural system diseases. By good command of the technlogies for the purification proliferation, and induced differentiation of NSCs in vitro, it is possible to find a new way for further research of the biologic specificity and the treatment of the disease in nervous system.
Animals ; Cell Differentiation ; Cell Separation ; Cells, Cultured ; Cerebral Cortex ; cytology ; Embryo, Mammalian ; Female ; Frontal Lobe ; cytology ; Male ; Neurons ; cytology ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar ; Stem Cells ; cytology

Objective:To investigate the clinicopathological features and molecular characteristics of β-catenin-deficient colorectal cancer.Methods:The clinical, pathological and molecular features of 11 colorectal cancers with β-catenin protein loss diagnosed at the 960th Hospital of People′s Liberation Army of China, from January 2012 to November 2022 were analyzed.Results:Among the 11 patients, 3 were males and 8 were females. Their age ranged from 43 to 74 years, with the median age of 59 years. Six were in the left colon and 5 were in the right colon. One of the 11 cases had lymph node metastasis, 10 cases were well and moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma, and 1 was mucinous adenocarcinoma. Eight cases were of TNM stage T4, 2 of T1 stage and 1 of Tis stage. β-catenin protein was not detected using immunohistochemistry. Sanger sequencing revealed the presence of fragment-deletion mutation in exon 3 of CTNNB1 gene, resulting in loss of β-catenin protein expression.Conclusion:β-catenin deficiency is present in a small number of colorectal cancers and may be associated with exon 3 mutations of CTNNB1 gene.

Genome miniaturization drives key evolutionary innovations of adaptive traits in verte-brates,such as the flight evolution of birds.However,whether similar evolutionary processes exist in invertebrates remains poorly understood.Derived from the second-largest animal phylum,scallops are a special group of bivalve molluscs and acquire the evolutionary novelty of the swimming lifestyle,providing excellent models for investigating the coordinated genome and lifestyle evolution.Here,we show for the first time that genome sizes of scallops exhibit a generally negative correlation with loco-motion activity.To elucidate the co-evolution of genome size and swimming lifestyle,we focus on the Asian moon scallop(Amusium pleuronectes)that possesses the smallest known scallop genome while being among scallops with the highest swimming activity.Whole-genome sequencing of A.pleuronectes reveals highly conserved chromosomal macrosynteny and microsynteny,suggestive of a highly con-tracted but not degenerated genome.Genome reduction of A.pleuronectes is facilitated by significant inactivation of transposable elements,leading to reduced gene length,elevated expression of genes involved in energy-producing pathways,and decreased copy numbers and expression levels of biomineralization-related genes.Similar evolutionary changes of relevant pathways are also observed for bird genome reduction with flight evolution.The striking mimicry of genome miniaturization underlying the evolution of bird flight and scallop swimming unveils the potentially common,pivotal role of genome size fluctuation in the evolution of novel lifestyles in the animal kingdom.