Child ; Crush Syndrome ; complications ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Pulmonary Edema ; complications

The purpose of this study is to identify the electrical activity of neuron, the existence of the transition from bursting pattern to spiking pattern and the ion mechanism of the bursting pattern. The intracellular electrical activity patterns of single neurons in the stomatogastric ganglion (STG) of crayfish were recorded when the extracellular calcium concentration ([Ca(2+)](o)) or calcium-dependent potassium channel blocker tetraethylammonium concentration ([TEA](o)) were changed, using intracellular recording method. These single neurons were also functionally isolated from the ganglion by application of atropine and picrotoxin which could block the inhibitory acetylcholine synapses and glutamatergic synapses respectively. When [Ca(2+)](o) was decreased by increasing EGTA, the membrane potential of the neuron was increased, and the electrical activity patterns were changed from the resting state with lower potential value (resting state of polarization) to the bursting pattern firstly, and then to the spiking pattern, at last to the resting state with higher potential value (resting state of depolarization). When [TEA](o) was increased, the membrane potential of the neuron was increased, and the electrical activity pattern was changed from the resting state with lower potential value (resting state of polarization) to the bursting pattern firstly, and then to the spiking pattern. The duration of the burst of the bursting pattern was increased. When [Ca(2+)](o) was increased or [TEA](o) was decreased, an inverse procedure of the electrical activity pattern was exhibited. On one hand, the results indicate that a single neuron can generate various electrical activity patterns corresponding to different physiological conditions, and the regularity of the transitions between different electrical activity patterns. On the other hand, the results identify that the initiation and termination of the burst in bursting pattern are determined by calcium-activated potassium conductance, which is adjusted by intracellular calcium concentration influenced by inward calcium current. It may be the ionic mechanism of generation of the bursting pattern in a single neuron.
Action Potentials ; physiology ; Animals ; Astacoidea ; physiology ; Calcium ; metabolism ; Calcium Channels ; metabolism ; Ganglia, Invertebrate ; physiology ; Neurons ; physiology ; Potassium Channels, Calcium-Activated ; metabolism

OBJECTIVETo assess the response in THP-1 treated with Rv3671c protein in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tuberculosis).

METHODSThe gene encoding Rv3671c protein of M.tuberculosis was cloned into pET-28a vector and then expressed in Escherichia coli. The Rv3671c was purified with Ni-NTA affinity and ion exchange chromatography. The detection of protein concentration was by Lowry method.THP-1 cell was stimulated with Rv3671c protein and cells were analyzed by Hochest staining under fluorescence microscopy to assay cell death (apoptosis and necrosis). TNF-α and IL-1β were detected by ELISA at each stimulating time.

RESULTSThe Rv3671c protein of M.tuberculosis was successfully expressed in Escherichia coli. The purity of recombinant Rv3671c protein was 95%, and the protein concentration was up to 0.4 mg/ml. The nucleus of THP-1 was isolated and necrosis-like under fluorescence when cells were stimulated by Rv3671c protein. The levels of TNF-α and IL-1β in supernatant were 19 000 and 16 500 pg/ml respectively, and were significantly higher than control cells with the levels of 2100 and 3800 pg/ml separately.

CONCLUSIONThe necrosis of THP-1 cells could be stimulated by Rv3671c protein of M.tuberculosis and it was probably associated with high cytokines TNF-α and IL-1β levels.

Bacterial Proteins ; pharmacology ; Cell Death ; Cell Line ; Humans ; Interleukin-1beta ; metabolism ; Macrophages ; cytology ; metabolism ; Mycobacterium tuberculosis ; genetics ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha ; metabolism

OBJECTIVETo report the results of repair of skin defects in the extremities with arterialized venous flap harvested from the lateral aspect of the dorsum of the foot.

METHODSSix cases of skin and soft tissue defects over the foot and hands were resurfaced by free arterialized venous flaps, including five patients with skin defects of the hands, and one with defects at the dorsum of the foot. The flaps were harvested from the lateral aspect of the dorsum of the foot with the sizes ranging from 2 cm multiply 5.5 cm to 6 cm multiply 11 cm. Two veins at the proximal margin of the flap were retained, one of which was anastomosed to a recipient bed artery to provide arterial inflow and the other was anastomosed to a recipient bed vein for venous outflow.

RESULTSAll flaps demonstrated mild edema and survived completely. Blisters appeared on four flaps. Using this technique, we achieved good functional and cosmetic results in this series.

CONCLUSIONSDorsalis pedis arterialized venous flap with rich vascular communications could enhance peripheral perfusion and decrease congestion of venous flaps, thereby improves reliability and utility for extremity reconstruction.

Humans ; Orthopedic Procedures ; Reconstructive Surgical Procedures ; Reproducibility of Results ; Surgical Flaps ; Veins

Both severed legs were replanted in a 41-year-old man. Bilateral tibia and fibula were shortened by 4 cm equally. Tibial fixation was performed with reconstruction plate. Four weeks after the replantation, active and passive exercises were initiated in both of the knee joints. Four months after surgery, the patient was capable of walking independently for 20-30 m without the aid of crutches. After 28 months' follow-up, plantar sensitivity was defined as S3. This patient was satisfactory with the cosmetic and functional results.
Amputation, Traumatic ; surgery ; Fibula ; Humans ; Leg ; Male ; Replantation ; Tibia

The degloving injuries of the digits and palm remain a persistent challenge. We used an antero- lateral thigh flap to treat an 18-year-old, right-handed male worker with degloving injuries of the index, middle and ring fingers. The flap was designated to wrap the entire circumference of three fingers sustaining degloving injury and to form mitten-hand. The total lengths of the distal phalanxes of three fingers were retained almost complete. The donor defect was covered with split-thickness skin graft. Three months after the first operation, roentgenograms revealed terminal phalanxex resorption in three injured fingers, and the surgical syndactyly between the middle and ring finger was separated at the same time. One month later, the syndactyly between the index and middle fingers was also separated. Good coverage of the soft tissue defects with good function and appearance was achieved. Therefore, we considered that the length of the degloved finger could be preserved using free flap.
Adolescent ; Finger Injuries ; surgery ; Humans ; Male ; Surgical Flaps

AIMTo explore the effect of rat myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury on leptin levels in serum and myocardium, and discuss the role of leptin in myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury.

METHODSA myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury model of rats was established, serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and leptin levels were detected, and histopathological changes and leptin expressions in myocardium were investigated by hematoxylin-eosin staining and immunohistochemistry, respectively.

RESULTSSerum LDH of ischemia and reperfusion groups increased significantly (P < 0.05), suggesting the model was successfully established and a certain degree of local myocardial injury was induced. Serum leptin of ischemia group (6.34 +/- 2.49) ng/ml was significantly lower than control group (7.50 +/- 2.93 ng/ml, P <0.05). Leptin levels recovered gradually after reperfusion, reached (8.32 +/- 1.74)ng/ml at 2 h after reperfusion, which recovered to the level before injury (8.38 +/- 2.56) ng/ml, and showed a trend to increase as reperfusion time was elongated. Immunohistochemistry results showed that as compared with sham-operation group, myocardial leptin protein expressions of the other four groups were all significantly lower (P < 0.01), and decreased in order by 45 min ischemia/1 h reperfusion, 45 min ischemia/3 h reperfusion, 45 min ischemia and 45 min ischemia/2 h reperfusion.

CONCLUSIONLeptin level in the blood decreases significantly at the early 45 min after myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury, and its expression in myocardium also decreases significantly. There may be a certain relationship between the pathological injury of myocardium and the changes of leptin.

Animals ; L-Lactate Dehydrogenase ; metabolism ; Leptin ; blood ; metabolism ; Male ; Myocardial Reperfusion Injury ; metabolism ; physiopathology ; Myocardium ; metabolism ; Random Allocation ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley

OBJECTIVETo study the changes of cognitive attention-related brain function in the heroin addicts before and after electro-acupuncture (EA) intervention for exploring the concerned neuro-mechanism of addictive relapse and the central action role of EA intervention.

METHODSAdopting event-related potential (ERP) technique, the ERP at 64 electrode spots in 10 heroin addicts (test group) were recorded before and after EA intervention with dot-probe experimental form during implementing cognitive task on positive emotional clue (PEC), negative emotional clues (NEC), and heroin-related clue (HRC). The P200 amplitude components on the selected observation points (Fz, Cz, and Pz) were analyzed and compared with those obtained from 10 healthy subjects as the control.

RESULTSBefore EA, the ERP of attention on HRC in the test group was higher than that on PEC and NEC (P<0.05) and significantly higher than that in the control group (P<0.05); after EA, the P200 amplitude of attention on HRC at Cz and Pz was significantly lowered (P<0.05) and that on PEC at Fz was significantly elevated (P<0.05). After EA, the P200 amplitude at Pz was ranked as NEC > PEC > HRC, but in the control group, it showed PEC > HRC at all three observation points and PEC > NEC at Pz.

CONCLUSIONHeroin addicts show attention bias to HRC, which could be significantly reduced by EA intervention, illustrating that EA could effectively inhibit the attention bias to heroin and so might have potential for lowering the relapse rate.

Adult ; Attention ; Case-Control Studies ; Cognition ; Electroacupuncture ; Evoked Potentials ; Heroin Dependence ; physiopathology ; therapy ; Humans ; Male ; Substance Withdrawal Syndrome ; physiopathology ; therapy

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the effect of post-treatment PSA kinetics on the prognosis of prostate cancer (PCa).

METHODSWe retrospectively reviewed the clinical data of 114 cases of locally advanced PCa treated by maximal androgen blockade (MAB) combined with brachytherapy, and analyzed the association of the changes in PSA kinetics with the prognosis of the patients.

RESULTSThe median survival time of the patients was 81 (15 - 144) months, with 1-, 3- and 5-year survival rates of 91. 23%, 78.07% and 68.42% , respectively. Univariate analysis indicated that the baseline PSA level, PSA nadir, the time of PSA decreasing to nadir, PSA doubling time, and the extent of PSA declining were all predictive factors for the survival time of the PCa patients. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that PSA nadir, the time of PSA decreasing to nadir, and the extent of PSA declining were three independent prognostic factors, which prolonged the long-term survival of the patients by 1.7, 3.2 and 6.8 times, respectively.

CONCLUSIONFor locally advanced PCa treated by MAB combined with brachytherapy, PSA nadir <1 micro g/L, the time to nadir <3 months, and the extent of PSA declining >96% are independent prognostic factors.

Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Androgens ; administration & dosage ; therapeutic use ; Brachytherapy ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Prognosis ; Prostate-Specific Antigen ; metabolism ; Prostatic Neoplasms ; metabolism ; therapy ; Retrospective Studies

OBJECTIVETo investigate the synergistical killing effect of docetaxel combined with ABT-737 on human prostate cancer cell line PC-3 by inducing apoptosis and further to determine the mechanism underlying such effect.

METHODSPC-3 cells were treated with various concentrations of docetaxel or (and) ABT-737. Cell viability was determined using MTT assay. Apoptosis was assessed by fluorescence microscopy analysis of cells with condensed and segmented nuclei following staining with 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI). Cellular DNA was stained with propidium iodide and flow cytometric analysis was performed to analyze the cell cycle distribution. Bcl-2, Bax, Bcl-xL and Mcl-1 protein changes were detected by Western blot. The activity of caspase-3 was measured using a colorimetric assay.

RESULTSDocetaxel (20 nmol/L) combination with ABT-737 (400 nmol/L) for 48 hours, the cell viability was decreased to 19.7% ± 3.2% to compare with 44.2% ± 4.4% (t = 4.45) of docetaxel and 93.2% ± 1.8% of ABT-737 separately and there was a synergistic effect between the two drugs (CI = 0.8). Apoptosis rate of the combination group was higher than other two drugs. Docetaxel increased the cell number arrested in G(2)/M phase compared with control group (P < 0.05), but the combination treatment resulted in a significant arrest in the G(0)/G(1) phase. The combination treatment could significantly reduced the Bcl-2, Bcl-xL and Mcl-1 expression (F = 369.53, 57.89 and 32.77, all P < 0.05) and enhanced the activity of caspase-3 (419.7% ± 15.6%) (F = 207.33, P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONSThe combination of ABT-737 with docetaxel can synergistically inhibit the proliferation of PC-3 cells through inducing apoptosis, which may be associated with cell cycle arrest, down-regulation of Bcl-2, Bcl-xL and Mcl-1 expression and activation of caspase-3.

Apoptosis ; drug effects ; Biphenyl Compounds ; pharmacology ; Caspase 3 ; metabolism ; Cell Cycle ; drug effects ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Drug Synergism ; Humans ; Male ; Myeloid Cell Leukemia Sequence 1 Protein ; metabolism ; Nitrophenols ; pharmacology ; Piperazines ; pharmacology ; Prostatic Neoplasms ; metabolism ; pathology ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 ; metabolism ; Sulfonamides ; pharmacology ; Taxoids ; pharmacology ; bcl-X Protein ; metabolism