This study investigates whether kappa-opioid receptor and ORL1 receptor may interact to form a heterodimer. In immunofluorescence and co-immunoprecipitation experiments, differentially epitope-tagged receptors, colocalization and heterodimerization of kappa-opioid receptor and ORL1 receptor were used and examined in primary culturing rat neurons, Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) or human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK293) cells. The results show that fluorescence of both kappa-opioid receptor and ORL1 receptor were overlapping in primary culturing hippocampal and cortical neurons. Similarly in co-expressing CHO or HEK293 cells, HA-KOR and Myc-ORL1 were almost exclusively confined to the membranes, revealing extensive colocalization. When Flag-KOR and Myc-ORL1 were co-expressing in CHO cells, heterodimerization was identified to have the ability to co-immunoprecipitate ORL1-receptors with kappa-opioid receptor and vice versa. In the current study, further evidence was provided for the direct interaction of two subtypes of opioid receptors, kappa-opioid receptor and ORL1-receptor, to form the heterodimerization. The finding represents the novel pharmacological mechanism for modulation of opioid receptor function as well as diversity of G protein-coupled receptors.

Objective To investigate the clinical efficacy and indication of surgical treatment of L5S1 tuberculosis us?ing a medial edge of rectus abdominal muscle and retroperitoneal approach. Methods From Jan. 2010 to Nov. 2014, totally 18 cases of L5S1 tuberculosis were surgically cured by debridement, fusion and internal fixation via a medial edge of rectus ab?dominal muscle and retroperitoneal approach. There were 10 males and 8 females, with an average age of 35.6±10.1 years (21 to 55). The mean course of disease was 5.3±2.2 months. The primary destruction lesions were located at L5S1, and one patient of whom L4 was also involved, three cases S2 involved, and one S3 involved. Abscess pre sacrum was noticed in all cases. Six patients were combined with abscess in vertebral canal. Neural deficiency was detected in 3 patients, all grading as Frankel D. Dubousset's lumbosacral angle was 104°-126°, mean 114.6°±6.0°. Formal anti?tuberculosis medicine treatment was given for at least 2-3 weeks. All patients were treated using a medial edge of rectus abdominal muscle and retroperitoneal approach. Af?ter debridement, a tri?cortical iliac bone was used for structural inter?vertebrae fusion. The iliac bone was fixed to the sacrum by one cortical screw. Operation time, volume of blood loss, and surgery complications, including wound infection, looseness and shift of internal fixation, sinus occurrence, vascular injury, retrograde ejaculation in male patients were evaluated. The X?ray and 3D CT of lumbosacral spine, together with ESR and CRP were used to evaluate the control of tuberculosis during fol?low?up. The Dubousset's lumbosacral angle, visual analogue score, and the Frankel grade were compared between preoperative and postoperative. The bone graft fusion were also observed. Results The operation time was 147±16 min in average. The mean blood lose was 275 ± 77 ml. No vascular or neurological injury was noticed. There was also no retrograde ejaculation happened in this group. All patients were followed up from 18 to 28 months. Dubousset's lumbosacral angle was 122.4°±3.8° post?operatively and 121.4°±3.7° at the final follow?up. There was a significant difference between the lumbosacral angles pre and post operation, whereas no statistical difference between the post operation and the final follow?up. Bone fusion was noticed in all cases. All pa? tients have intact neurological function at the final follow?up. No screw breakage or graft bone migration occurred. VAS was 5.6± 1.09 pre?operation and 0.83±0.71 at the 3rd month's follow?up, and there was a significant difference between them. Conclusion Surgical treatment of L5S1 tuberculosis by debridement, fusion and internal fixation via a medial edge of rectus abdominal muscle and retroperitoneal approach is an effective method in terms of minimal trauma, low rate of modality, good ability in restore and maintenance of lumbosacral junction alignment and high fusion rate.

OBJECTIVETo explore the effectiveness of absorbable hemostatic fluid gelatin in preventing postoperative cerebrospinal fluid leakage.

METHODSThe clinical data of 17 patients with dura mater tear were retrospectively analyzed from March to September in 2003. There were 16 males and 1 female, aged from 16 to 67 years old with an average of (39.6 ± 15.4) years. The injury site was at cervical vertebrae in 1 case, thoracic vertebrae in 9 cases, thoracolumbar junction in 4 cases, lumbar vertebrae in 3 cases. There were burst fracture in 4 cases and fracture-dislocation in 13 cases. According to ASIA grade, 12 cases were grade A, 2 cases were grade B, 2 cases were grade D, 1 case were grade E. Two cases caused by traffic accident, 10 by high falling, 4 by heavy parts crash, 1 by stairs fell during the earthquake. Absorbable hemostatic fluid gelatins were used to plug the dura mater tear,in order to prevent postoperative cerebrospinal fluid leakage. Postoperative drainage were recorded every day.

RESULTSOf 17 patients, 15 cases did not develop with cerebrospinal fluid leakage. Two cases develop with cerebrospinal fluid leakage after operation and their drainage were removed at 6 to 7 days after operation. In all cases, no complications related with cerebrospinal fluid leakage occurred, such as headache, dizzy, fever,neck resistance, rash, incision disunion, incision infection, hematoma, neurologic symptoms aggravation. No abnormal phenomena was found on incision surrounding at follow-up of 9 months.

CONCLUSIONUsing absorbable hemostatic fluid gelatin to plug the dura mater tear during operation is an effective method in preventing postoperative cerebrospinal fluid leakage.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Cerebrospinal Fluid Leak ; prevention & control ; Female ; Gelatin ; administration & dosage ; Hemostatics ; administration & dosage ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Postoperative Complications ; prevention & control

Objective To analyze the etiologies,clinical characteristics and prognostic factors of patients with acute renal failure(ARF)admitted to the hospital at high altitude.Method This retrospective study included clinical data of patients with acute renal failure in the General Hospital of Tibet Military Command from May 2001 to April,2006.Results There were 85 male patients and 63 female patients with mean age(42.4?18.1)years old.Among 148 patients with acquired ARF,52.7% was iatrogenic or nosoeomal origin, demonstrating a trend of increasing.The ARF included pre-renal(n=48,32.4%),renal parenchymal(n= 90,60.8%)and post-renal(n=10,6.8%)in origin.Acute high altitude sickness(n=20)was the major causes of pre-renal ARF.Renal parenchymal ARF could be classified into glomerular vascular lesions(n=24), acute tubular necrosis(n=53),acute interstitial nephritides(n=12),and contusion of unitesticle(n=1).of 90 cases of renal parenchymal ARF,39 patients(43.3%)were induced by medicines.Lithiasis was the major causes of post-renal ARF.The mortality of ARF in our study was 42.6%.The mortality of patients contracted ARF in hospital was much higher than that of patients community ARF in community(55.1 vs 23.6%;P=0.01). There was no significant differences of the mortality between the patients with and without dialysis treatment. Univariate analysis showed that prognosis was correlated with age,the presence of hematuria and oliguria or anuria Hb,and the number of organ system failures.The logistic regression showed that age,Hb and the number of organ system dysfunction were the predictors of mortality.Conlusions The major causes of ARF at high altitude were acute high altitude sickness and the use of medicines with nephrotoxicity.The morbility and mortality of nosocomisl ARF increased significantly.Prevention of MODS is a key management to decrease mortality in severe ARF.

Objective To establish analysis methods for fingerprint of Chuanxiong Rhizoma by HPLC. Methods Thermo C18 chromatographic column (4.6 mm×250 mm, 5 μm) was used with methanol-0.1% Formic acid in gradient elution. The flow rate was 1 mL/min, the detection wavelength was set at 323 nm, and the temperature was 25 ℃. The similarities of the 18 batches of samples were compared by similarity evaluation, cluster analysis and principal component analysis. Results Based on the fingerprints of 18 batches of Chuanxiong Rhizoma, 11 common peaks were identified, the similarities were almost greater than 0.9 among all batches. The samples were clustered into 3 categories. Conclusion The method is simple, steady and repeatable. It provides a basis for the quality control and evaluation of Chuanxiong Rhizoma.

ObjectiveTo prospectively compare the effects of Prestige LP cervical disc replacement with those of anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) in treatment of cervical disc herniation.MethodsFrom January 2008 to March 2010,a total of 87 patients were enrolled at our site as study investigating ACDF versus Prestige LP cervical disc prosthesis.Forty-four patients received the investigational device (arthroplasty group) and 43 underwent a single-level ACDF (fusion group).Visual analogue scale(VAS) neck/arm pain,Japanese Orthopedics Association (JOA) score,Short Form-36 (SF-36) both physical and mental,flexion-extension range of motion of operative and adjacent segments were evaluated preoperatively and 1 week and 3,6,12,24 months postoperatively.ResultsA total of 78 patients (89.7％) were followed up for an average 12.4 months(range,6-24).Both groups have favorably demonstrated improved functional outcomes for JOA,VAS scores and SF-36.The improvement in the VAS and JOA scores were equivalent at each follow-up point between the two groups(P＞0.05).However,arthroplasty group had statistically significant improvement as assessed by the SF-36 scores compared with the fusion group at some follow-up points (P＜0.05).In arthroplasty group,the postoperative range of motion of operative and adjacent segments showed no statistical difference with the preoperative counterpart(P＞0.05),and fusion was successful in 92.1％ of control patients.ConclusionPrestige LP cervical disc replacement is a feasible alternative to ACDF for patients with persistently symptomatic cervical disc disease and matching the inclusion criteria.

Objective To analyze the relationship of the lateral angulation with the incision level after anterior approach operation for thoracolumbar fractures by evaluating the Cobb' s angle at different approach levels.Methods A retrospective study was done on 154 patients with thoracolumbar fractures treated consecutively with anterior operation from May 2004 to January 2008.The preoperative,postoperative and follow-up angle of coronal Cobb and the postoperative angle between screws and endplates on the anteroposterior radiograph were measured.According to the relationship between the injury vertebrae and the incision level,the patients were divided into two groups,ie,incision level ≥2 vertebrae group and incision level ≤ 1 vertebra group.Results All patients were followed up for 6-47 months(mean 37 months),which showed significant postoperative lateral angulation(P ＜ 0.01)especially at follow-up (P ＞ 0.05).The coronal Cobb' s angle showed insignificant difference before operation between two groups but it was increased after operation and during the follow-up(P ＜0.01).The screws A or B were more parallel to the endplate in two groups(P ＜ 0.01),while the parallel of the screws C or D to the endplate showed no statistical difference(P ＞ 0.05).Conclusions Compared with the operation with incision level ≥2 vertebrae,the operation with incision level ≤ 1 vertebra can more easily induce postoperative lateral angulation and exert a significant impact on implantation orientation of the vertebral screws A and B,which may indirectly lead to postoperative lateral angulation.

Objective To evaluate cause,treatment and prevention of esophageal fistula caused by anterior cervical spine surgery.Methods Between January 2004 and December 2011,2348 patients underwent anterior cervical spine surgery.Among them,5 patients suffered from esophageal fistula owing to operation,including 3 males and 2 females,with an average age of 34 years (range,14 to 48 years).The diagnosis of these patients included 3 cases of cervi(c)al injury,1 case of cervical spondylosis and 1 case of cervical tuberculosis.There was 1 patient whose esophageal injury was founded during the surgery,and that was directly repaired.For another 4 patients,esophageal fistulas were founded after operation; one case underwent debridement and orificium fistulae repair; one case only underwent debridement; one case underwent debridement and second-stage removal of hardware; and one case underwent debridement and second-stage removal of hardware and esophageal repair with sternocleidomastoid flap.Postoperative treatment included esophageal rest,enteral nutrition,wound drainage,and antibiotic administration.Methylene blue was used to evaluate status of orificium fistulae.Results All patients with esophageal fistula were cured 9 to 61 weeks after treatment,and oral intake was achieved.They were followed up for 6-48 months.There was no recurrence of esophageal fistula,cervical instability and infectious spondylitis in any ease.All patients were satisfied with swallowing function and outcome of cervical spine diseases.The Frankel grade was improved averagely one grade in patients with cervical injury,and the JOA score was improved from preoperative 9 points to postoperative 15 points in patients with cervical spondylosis.Conclusion Successful management of esophageal fistula caused by anterior cervical spinal surgery depends on primary closure of the perforation with or without muscle flaps,surgical drainage,esophageal rest and nutrition support,and removal of hardware if necessary.Prevention consists of the careful operation and gentle tissue handling.

AIM: Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) was an important pathogen recognition receptor in the innate immune system. The aim of this study was to investigate the distribution of TLR4 polymorphisms in the general population of China. METHODS: Peripheral blood samples were collected from 191 unrelated healthy Chinese Cantonese individuals. The functional regions of TLR4 locus,including promoter region and all three exons with their surrounding intronic regions were amplified using polymerase chain reaction. After purified,the amplified products were directly sequenced on both strands. RESULTS: A total of eight single nucleotides polymorphisms (SNPs) were detected,five of which were novel. The most common SNP were -1607 C/T with the minor allele frequency of 0.283. Two nonsynonymous substitutions Asp299Gly and Thr399Ile,which were common in Caucasus,were not detected in Cantonese. Neutrality test revealed that TLR4 in Chinese Cantonese was not significantly deviated from the neutral model. CONCLUSION: This is the new finding on the distribution of TLR4 SNPs in the general population of China. It provides several ethnic specific SNPs for further disease association studies of TLR4 polymorphisms in Chinese populations.

OBJECTIVETo summary the characteristics of cervicothoracic junction (C7T1) fracture-dislocation,and explore the surgical treatment of combined anterior-posterior procedure.

METHODSFrom January 2005 to March 2010,8 cases of cervicothoracic junction (C7T1) fracture-dislocation were treated by stage I operation through anterior and posterior approacheg, supplemented by non-structural bone graft. All patients were male with a mean age of 45.0 years old ranging from 32 to 68 years. Six cases were diagnosed clearly by CT scan but with normal cervical spine X-ray film at admission. According to AO classification, 4 cases were of type B, 4 cases of type C, with unilateral locked articular process in 2 cases, bilateral in 2 cases. Preoperative MRI showed intervertebral disc injury in 6 cases.

RESULTSThe average operation time was 246.3 min ranging from 150 to 320 min. The blood loss was with an average of 307.5 ml (150 to 600 ml). One patient got hoarseness but recovered without special treatment 6 months later; No other complications happened. One patient of preoperative Frankel grade A died, the remaining patients were followed up from 12 to 63 months (38.6 months in average). These fracture-dislocations were completely reduction after operation, healed with bony union 12 months later, and no pseudoarthrosis. The function of the spinal cord improved obviously at the final follow-up, 1 patient of preoperative grade A had died,and the spinal cord function of the other one had no significant changes,the 2 cases of grade B recovered to C and D respectively, 1case recovered from grade C to D, and 3 case recovered from D to E.

CONCLUSIONCervicothoracic junction (C7T1) fracture-dislocation is a rare clinical spine trauma, and missed easily. The CT is a necessary complement to these patients highly suspected C7T1 fracture-dislocation but with negative cervical spine X-ray film. The patients diagnosed clearly could receive stage I operation of anterior and posterior approaches, supplemented with non-structural bone graft.

Adult ; Aged ; Cervical Vertebrae ; injuries ; surgery ; Female ; Humans ; Joint Dislocations ; surgery ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Spinal Fractures ; diagnostic imaging ; surgery ; Thoracic Vertebrae ; injuries ; surgery ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed