Objective To investigate the effects of taurine on the expression of stem cell factor mRNA of the focal cerebral ischemia in rat.Methods 63 adult male rats were randomly divided into taurine-treated group (Taurine, 80 mg/kg, began at the day of MCAO and continuously intravenous injection for 10 min, daily for 7 days) and controlled group (0.9% normal saline, 1 ml, continuously intravenous injection for 10 min daily for 7 days). The rats received right middle cerebral artery occlusion at 2h and different hours of reperfusion. Expression of SCF was detected by in situ hybridization in the rats subjected to2h,24h,3d,7d, 14 d of reperfusion and sham-operated group (n=3). Results Low level SCF mRNA expressions were found in cortex, striatum and extraventricular zone in sham-operated group. The expression of SCF mRNA in ischemic hemisphere of controlled group increased markedly compared with sham-operated group (t=2.16~25.19, P＜ 0.05), besides that of 2 h in cortex, 2 h in striatum, 2h and 14d in extraventricular zone. SCF mRNA expression in the treatment group increased markedly in cortex,striatum and extraventricular zone at 3d and 7d(t=5.19~ 26.17,P＜0.05). Conclusion Taurine increased the SCF mRNA expression in MCAO rats, therefore it might promote the creation of neural stem cell.

Objective To optimize the exposure parameters and reduce the irradiation dose level in infants and young children during digital radiography (DR) chest radiography under the premise of satisfied image quality.Methods The thoracic thickness of 100 patients were measured.Determined the aluminum equivalent of the thoraxes of the infants and young children by comparing the grayscale value and the aluminum step wedge.Another 100 infants and young children of experimental exposure were performed with the aluminum step wedge as a phantom,under AEC control,kV was the only variant to explore the optimal exposure parameters with dose monitor simultaneously.At last,clinical validation was performed.Images quality was compared with x2 test.The radiation dose of two groups was compared with t test.Results The maximum,minimum,average thoracic thickness and their correspondent aluminum equivalent were 13.5 and 2.3 cm,8.0 and 1.4 cm,(10.6 ± 1.3) and 2.0 cm,respectively.The average thoracic thickness of experimental group was (10.1 ± 2.2) cm.The range of entrance surface dose was 0.068-0.056 mGy while the tube voltage range was 55-65 kV.The exposure index range was 0.60-0.74.The visual inspection of aluminum step wedge was from grades 8 to 11 with satisfying image quality at lower radiation.The infant chest X-ray photography exposure parameters formula have been optimized,that was kV =thoracic thickness (cm) × 2 + 38 (constant),mAs (0.8-1.0) with SID =100 cm,without filter grid.Compare to the conventional parameters,the image quality of new method had no significant differences (P ＞ 0.05).The actual average entrance surface dose was (0.048 ± 0.007) mGy,lower than AEC group (0.066 ± 0.008) mGy.The difference was statistically significant (t =16.781,P ＜ 0.001).Conclusions The optimized formula kV =thoracic thickness (cm) ×2 + 38(constant),mAs (0.8-1.0) with SID =100 cm was credible for lowering the radiation exposure with good image quality for clinical diagnosis.