Prostaglandin E_2(PGE_2)is one of the major metabolic products of arachidonic acid.PGE_2 plays important roles in various important physiological processes by binding to its G protein-coupled receptors designated EP1,EP2,EP3,and EP4,respectively.EP receptors are highly expressed in the kidney and cardiovascular system,and PGE2-mediated activation of EP receptors plays important roles in the regulation of blood pressure.The abnormal expression of EP receptors in the kidney and cardiovascular system is associated with some blood pressure disease such as salt-sensitive hypertension,renal hypertension,and myocardial hypertrophy.

Background Researches showed that triterpenoids,with a similar structure to lanosterol,has therapeutical effect on many systemic diseases,and lanosterol was determined to have a therapeutical effect on cataract recently.However,how the lanosterol plays effects on other eye diseases is still unelucidated.Understanding the distribution of lanosterol in ocular tissue is helpful for us to elucidate the relationship of lanosterol with eye diseases.Objective This study attempted to investigate the distribution of lanosterol synthase (LSS) and lanosterol in cornea,lens and retina tissue of rats and offer a basis for the targeting treatment of eye diseases.Methods Fifteen SPF male SD rats were sacrificed by excessive anesthesia to obtain the eyeballs.The relative expressions of LSS protein and gene in the cornea,lens and retina tissue of the rats were detected by Western blot and reverse transcription (RT)-PCR,respectively.Immunofluorescence staining technology was used to locate the distribution of LSS in cornea,lens and retina tissue.The contents of lanosterol in the cornea,lens and retina tissue were analyzed by liquid chromatograph mass spectrometer (LC-MS).Results No LSS protein and mRNA was expressed in the retinal tissue in normal rats.The mean relative expression of LSS protein in the lens and cornea was 0.43±0.05 and 0.25±0.03,respectively,showing a significant difference between them (t =-5.35,P＜ 0.01).The relative expression of LSS mRNA was 0.51 ±0.04 and 0.29 ±0.02 in the lens and cornea,respectively,with a stronger expression in the lens in comparison with the cornea (t =-8.34,P＜0.01).Immunofluorescence staining showed that LSS primarily located in corneal epithelial layer,stromal layer and endothelial layer as well as lens epithelial cells and shallow cortex layer and hardly expressed in retina,and no co-expression of LSS with the neuron marked by NeuN and the Müller cell marked by glutamine synthetase (GS) in retinal tissue.LC-MS analysis revealed that the contents of lanosterol in lens and cornea was (24.37 ±2.91) ng/mg and (5.31 ±0.58) ng/mg,respectively,with a significant difference between them (t =-11.13,P＜0.01).Conclusions LSS and lanosterol extensively distribute in cornea and lens of normal rats,but not in retina tissue.These results offer new strategies for the target treatment of relevant eye diseases.

AIM:To investigate the prevalence of age-related macular degeneration (ARMD) among people aged 50 years and above in Funing county,Jiangsu province.METHODS:Survey research.Random cluster sampling was used in selecting individuals aged ≥ 50 years in 30 clusters in Funing county.Proportions were compared by using the x2 test and the means compared by using the ttest.Logistic regression was used to detect possible factors of ARMD such as age and gender.RESULTS:A total of 6145 persons aged 50 years were enumerated and 5947 (96.78％) participants were received visual acuity test and eye examination.The prevalence of ARMD was 7.53％,with a total of 448 individuals (633 eyes).The prevalence of blindness and visual impairment for presenting visual acuity were 4.13％ and 11.96％,respectively.The prevalence of blindness and visual impairment for presenting visual acuity were 4.45％ and 7.79％,respectively.Older were significant risk factors of ARMD (OR=1.01,P=0.04).CONCLUSION:The prevalence of ARMD was higher among people aged 50 years and above in Funing county,Jiangsu province.ARMD is one of the leading cause of visual impairment.

BACKGROUND:The production and release of a large amount of inflammatory factors caused by immune system inflammatory response mainly contributes to secondary spinal cord injury. OBJECTIVE:To investigate the effects of umbilical cord Wharton’s jely mesenchymal stem cel transplantation on repair of injured neurological function and expression of inflammatory factors monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 and interleukin 10 in rats with acute spinal cord injury. METHODS: Eighty-one healthy adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly and equaly divided into sham operation, model and cel transplantation groups, with 27 rats per group. Rats in the latter two groups were subjected to hemisection of the spinal cord to establish acute spinal cord injury models. Rat models in the cel transplantation group received umbilical cord Wharton’s jely mesenchymal stem cel injection (1×106)via the tail vein. Rat neurological function was evaluated using the BBB score at different time points after spinal cord injury. The expression of monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 and interleukin 10 in injured spinal cord tissue was detected using ELISA assay at different time points after spinal cord injury. Migration and neuronal differentiation of umbilical cord Wharton’s jely mesenchymal stem cels in the injured spinal cord tissue were determined using immunohistochemical staining method. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Compared with the sham operation and model groups, rat neurological function was significantly recovered in the cel transplantation group (P < 0.05). Compared to the model group, monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 level in the serum and monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 mRNA and protein expression in the injured spinal cord tissue were significantly lower (P < 0.05), but interleukin 10 mRNA and protein expression in the injured spinal cord tissue was significantly higher (P < 0.05), in the cel transplantation group. In the cel transplantation group, umbilical cord Wharton’s jely mesenchymal stem cels could migrate to the injured region and express glial fibrilary acidic protein. These findings suggest that umbilical cord Wharton’s jely mesenchymal stem cels promote rat neurological function recovery by regulating the inflammatory response in the injured spinal cord tissue, which is likely to be one of mechanisms by which transplantation of umbilical cord Wharton’s jely mesenchymal stem cels treats spinal cord injury.

Objective To investigate the correlation of single nucleotide poly morphisms (SNP) of silent information regulator 1 (SIRT1) gene with age-related cataract (ARC) in Jiangsu Har population.Methods Population-based case-control study was conducted in 720 cataract cases and 701 healthy controls,who were selected from the database of Funing County of Northern Jiangsu and Binhu District of Wuxi city of Southern Jiangsu.Five SNPs of SIRT1 gene (rs2236319,rs1885472,rs10997868,rs2273773 and rs4746720) were genotyped by Taq-Man RT-PCR methods.Results The genotype of 2 SNPs in SIRT1 (rs2236319 and rs1885472) was AA/AG/GG and CC/CG/GG respectively,and the genotype frequency in the controls was 40.08％,52.60％,7.32％ and 35.81％,35.23％,28.96％ respectively,while the frequency in ARCs was 36.94％,56.25％,6.81％ and 36.67％,32.92％,30.42％,respectively.The genotype of another 2 SNPs in SIRT1 (rs2273773 and rs4746720) was both CC/CT/TT,and the genotype frequency in the controls was 38.37％,54.78％,5.85％ and 74.75％,17.69％,7.56％ respectively,while the frequency in ARCs was 39.58％,54.17％,6.25％ and 71.81％,20.97％,7.22％,respectively.And there was no significant difference between the two groups (P ＞ 0.05).Conclusion All the five SNPs of SIRT1 gene are not associated with ARC in the Jiangsu Han population.

BACKGROUND: In recent years, with the progress of shock therapy as well as the establishment and promoted application of arterial bypass grafting, thrombolytic therapy, percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty, extracorporeal circulation on cardiac surgery, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, limb replantation, and organ transplantation, blood reperfusion in multiple organs after ischemia has been achieved. However, the organs which undergo a period of ischemia appear to have the performance of damage aggravation.OBJECTIVE: To summarize the research progress of MG53 protein in protecting five organs from ischemia/reperfusion injury, thereby providing reference for further in-depth study.METHODS: A computer-based online search of PubMed, Duxiu Knowledge Search and CNKI databases was performed for relevant literatures puldished between 1986 and 2016. The key words were MG53, TRIM, Mitsugumin53, ischemic, reperfusion, preconditioning, postconditioning, RISK, membrane damage, Connexin43, KChIP2 in English and MG53, ischemia/reperfusion in Chinese. Finally 61 eligible articles were reviewed in accordance with the inclusion and exclusion criteria. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: As a muscle-specific TRIM family protein, endogenous MG53 is involved in the repair of muscle cytomembrane damage, and the protective effects of ischemic preconditioning and postconditioning. Exogenous recombinant human MG 53 protein not only repairs membrane damage of various muscles and non-muscle cells, but also protects the myocardium, skeletal muscle, brain, lung and kidney from ischemia/reperfusion injury.

Background The transplantation of limbal epithelial cells cultivated on amniotic membrane is a newly developed treatment for limbal stem cell deficiency. The purpose of our study was to investigate the biological characteristics of limbal epithelial cells and evaluate the effect of transplantation of cultivated human limbal epithelial cells on ocular surface reconstruction in limbal stem cell deficiency rat model. Methods Human limbal cells were isolated and cultivated in vitro. Cytokertins 3, 12, and 19 (K3, K12 and K19) and p63 were detected by immunofluorescent staining or RT-PCR. BrdU labelling test was used to identify the slow cycling cells in the cultures. Limbal stem cell deficiency was established in rat cornea by alkali burn. Two weeks after injury, the rats received transplants of human limbal stem cells cultivated on amniotic membrane carrier. The therapeutic effect was evaluated by slit lamp observation, Hemotoxin and Eosin (HE) staining and immunofluorescent staining.Results On day 7 in primary culture, p63 and K19 were strongly expressed by most cells but only a few cells expressed K3. On days 14 and 21, p63 and K19 were still expressed by a majority of cells, but the expressive intensity of p63 decreased in a number of cells, while the proportion of K3 positive cells increased slightly and some cells coexpressed p63 and K3. RT-PCR showed that gene expression of both p63 and K12 were positive in cultivated limbal cells, but in mature superficial epithelial cells, only K12 was detected. BrdU labelling test showed that most cells were labelled with BrdU after 7 days' labelling and BrdU label retaining cells were observed after chasing for 21 days with BrdU free medium. For in vivo test, slit lamp observation, HE staining and immunofluorescent staining showed that the rats receiving transplant of human limbal stem cells cultivated on amniotic membrane grew reconstructed corneas with intact epithelium, improved transparency and slight or no neovascularization. A majority of epithelial cells of the reconstructed cornea were positive to antihuman nuclear antibody and cells expressing K3 were found mainly in superfacial epithelium.Conclusions Limbal stem cells can be cultivated in vitro: the cells are characterized by high proliferation and slow cycling and identified as p63/K19 positive and K3/K12 negative. During culture, some stem cells can proliferate and differentiate into mature cornea epithelial cells. Amniotic membrane is a suitable carrier for limbal stem cells. Transplantation of human limbal stem cells cultivated on amniotic membrane can functionally reconstruct rat cornea with limbal stem cell deficiency.

Objective To evaluated the prevalence of pterygium among people aged ≥40 in China by using Meta analysis.Methods A literature retrieval was performed in China biology medicine disc (CBMdisc),China national knowledge infrastructure (CNKI),VIP database,WanFang database,PubMed,excerpta medica database (EMBASE),Web of Science from 1990 to 2016 according to designed searching strategy.Tailored quality evaluation standard of epidemiological research was used to evaluate the study quality of each included study.Stata 13.0 software was used to estimate the prevalence of pterygium,subgroup analysis of age,sex and region was also carried out.Results Thirty-six studies were involved in this Meta analysis,including 8 English researches and 28 Chinese researches.The random effect model was used to merge 36 research data.The prevalence of pterygium among people aged over 40 in China was 13.4％ [95％ confidence interval (CI):10.6％-16.5％].Subgroup analysis results showed that the prevalence of pterygium increased with age.The prevalence of pterygium in rural region was 15.3％ (95％ CI:12.1％-18.8％),which was higher than 4.0％ (95％ CI:2.4％-6.1％) in urban region.The prevalence of pterygium among rural people aged ≥ 40 was 12.1％ (95％ CI:8.6％-16.2％),which was lower than 14.7％ (95％ CI:10.5％-19.5％) among rural people aged ≥50.The highest prevalence of pterygium in different age and sex subgroups was in the west region of China,followed by the east region of China and the lowest was in the central region of China.Conclusion The prevalence of pterygium among people aged ≥ 40 in China was high.Over the past decade,the prevalence of pterygium were different among different ages,and places of residence.

AIM: To investigate the effect of glycine on endotoxin and hypoxia-induced necrotizing exterocolitos (NEC) in rats. METHODS: In glycine+NEC group, twenty anesthetized and artificially ventilated rats received 1g/kg glycine (20%, iv). Five minutes later, the rats were treated with 2 mg/kg lipopolysaccharide (LPS). In control group (NS+NEC), twenty rats were treated with normal saline as a substitute for glycine. In all animals, FiO 2 was reduced after 90 min from 21% to 5% and ventilation continued until 180 min or death. At the end of the experiment, the samples of blood and intestine were obtained immediately. Serum TNF? was measured with ELISA, serum NO was determined by nitrate reductase. The histopathology of the necrotic lesions were categoried: grade Ⅰ, focal mild injury confined to villous tips; grade Ⅱ, partial loss of villi; grade Ⅲ, necrosis extending to submucosa; grade Ⅳ, transmural necrosis. RESULTS: The survival time [(159 25?22 78) min vs (138 75?19 05) min] was shorter in the NS+NEC group ( P