BACKGROUND: Carboxymethyl chitosan is a water-soluble derivate modified from chitosan, with various biological activities. It is a good ligand of metal ion and can integrate Ca~(2+) to prepare a novel biological material. OBJECTIVE: To explore a method for preparing carboxymethyl chitosan calcium (CCC) and analyze its properties and structure. METHODS: CCC was produced by carboxymethyl ohitosan reacting with solution of calcium chloride. The solubility, carboxymethylation degree, rotational viscosity, and calcium content of CCC were determined, and infrared and ultraviolet spectral analyses were performed.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The calcium content of CCC was approximately 15%. Compared with carboxymethyl chitosan, infrared spectrum and ultraviolet spectrum of CCC were changed. The prepared CCC is a new calcium compound through property and structural analysis.

Objective To explore gene polymorphism of the C/T genotype of rs1143627 in the promoter of IL-1β gene in male population living in the coastal area of Shandong, and thus to investigate the relationship between the gene polymorphism of IL-1β and gout. Methods A total of 208 gout patients and 210 healthy controls were enrolled. The possible association between the polymorphism of IL-1 β -3 1C/T and gout in Chinese were investigated and genotype frequencies and allelic frequencies was calculated by polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) method. Hardy-Weinberg was used to verify the representativeness of the sample. Comparisons between the groups were performed with χ2 test and t-test. Results The frequencies of CC, CT, and TT genotypes were 32.7%, 43.3% and 24.0%,respectively among gout patients, while they were 31.9%,46.2% and 21.9%, respectively among the controls.There was no statistically difference in IL-1β -31C/T genotype frequencies between gout patients and controls (χ2=0.427, P>0.05). The allele frequencies of C and T in gout cases were different from those in the controls (54.3%, 55.0%; 45.7%, 45.0%; χ2=0.038, P>0.05). Moreover, no association between IL- I β-31 C/T genotypes and risk factors for gout were observed in gout cases by χ2 test. Conclusion Results of the present study suggest that the C/T genotype of rs1143627 in the promoter of IL-1β gene is not associated with gout in male population living in the coastal area of Shandong.

Objective To observe the effect of carboxymethyl chitosan calcium(CCC) on the concentration of lead,calcium,and liver antioxidative capacity in lead poisoned mice.Methods mice were randomly divided into 6 groups.Three test groups were treated with CCC at three doses.The lead poisoned mice model was established by giving water containing lead acetate,and then CCC was administered to mice once a day.After 30 days,the mice were killed and the content of lead in blood,liver,brain and femur were determined by atomic absorption spectrophotometer,and antioxidative capacity in liver was measured using assay kit.Results CCC could reduce the contents of lead in blood,brain,liver and femur significantly,decrease the level of maleicdialdehyde(MDA),increase activities of superoxide dismutase(SOD),glutathione peroxidase(GSH-Px)and total antioxidative capacity(T-AOC) in liver markedly. Conclusion CCC can promote the excretion of lead,increase the content of calcium in femur and antioxidative capacity in lead poisened mice.

Plasma endothelin-1 (ET-1),von Willebrand factor ( vWF) and fibrin D-dimer (D-D) were determined in 14 children with schnlein-henoch purpuric nephritis (SHN),17 children with schnlein-hen och purp ura (SHP, no abnormal finding in the examination of the urinary system) and 12 children as normal controls, respectively. The results showed that plasma ET-1( 88.48±22.96ng/L),vWF(1.59±0.38U/ml) and D-D(1.45±0.39)mg/L in the SH N group were all significantly higher than those in both of the control group (4 3.73±17.89)ng/L, (0.99±0.3)U/ml and (0.28±0.23)mg/L and the SHP group (57. 54±20.92)ng/L, (1.5±0.31)U/ml and (0.64±0.34)mg/L although no significa ntly difference in the levels of vWF was observed between SHN and SHP groups. It was noticed that the levels of three parameters decreased significantly in the SHN g roup after treatment (all P＜0.01). There was a positive correlati on between the levels of plasma ET-1 and D-D with serum creatinine (all P＜0.01). It is suggested that excessive ET-1 induced by endothelial dam age of renal vessels, intravascular coagulation and secondary fibrinolysis are p robably involved in the process of renal damage.

Objective: to observe the clinical efficacy of acupuncture on diabetic nephropathy.Methods: altogether 54 cases were randomly allocated into acupuncture group (30 cases) and control group of western medications (24 cases), the latter was treated with routine western medication, while the former was combined acupuncture based on routine western medication,and the treatment course of the two groups were both 30 days. Results: the effect of treatment group was superior to the control group (P＜0.05). Conclusion: acupuncture can improve symptoms of diabetic nephropathy, lower blood glucose, urine albumin, blood urine nitrogen,and creatinine and improve the function of kidney.

Objective To observe and analyze the causes and prognosis of postoperative vitreous hemorrhage (PVH) after vitrectomy for proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR).Methods A total of 160 PDR patients (171 eyes) were enrolled in this retrospective study.There were 85 males and 75 females.The patients aged from 33 to 73 years,with the mean age of (56.40±8.97) years.All the patients were performed 25G pars plana vitrectomy by the same doctor.Fibrovascular membrane peeling and panretinal photocoagulation were performed during the operation.Combined phacoemulsification was performed in one hundred and five patients.Vitreous tamponade was used at the end of surgery,including silicone oil (43 eyes),C3F8 (63 eyes),air or fluid (65 eyes).The follow-up ranged from 6 to 22 months,with the mean follow-up of (9.34±6.97) months.The features of PVH were observed.The difference of age,HbA1 c,creatinine level,the severity of the fundus lesions,whether received treatment of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF),whether received combined cataract phacoemulsification were analyzed to find out the cause and prognosis of PVH.Results The corrected vision of all the patients after the primary PPV at the latest follow up was finger counting/1 meter.PVH occurred in 15 eyes of 15 patients,the incidence was 8.77％.The PVH occurred 2 weeks to 6 months after surgery.There were significant difference in age (t=2.551),proportion with tractional retinal detachment (x2=7.431),progressive fibrovascular proliferation (x2=4.987) and using anti-VEGF (x2=9.742) between the patients with and without PVH (P＜0.05).There was no significant difference in HbAlc (t=0.501),creatinine level (t=1.529),and the proportion of cataract phacoemulsification (x2=0.452) between the patients with and without PVH (P＞0.05).During follow-up,neovascularization of iris (NVI) occurred in 1 eye and neovascular glaucoma (NVG) occurred in 4 eyes.Seven eyes underwent reoperation,7 eyes were spontaneous recovered,1 eye with NVG give up treatment.Fibrovascular membrane was the major cause of recurrent hemorrhage.At the end of follow-up,hemorrhage was absorbed in all the 14 eyes which were treated,12 eyes had same visual acuity compared to that before postoperative hemorrhage,2 eyes with NVG had decreased vision.There was significant difference in the corrected vision between the patients with and without NVI or NVG (P=0.022).Conclusions PVH after PPV for PDR is closely related to the severity of diabetic retinopathy,fibrovascular membrane is the major cause of recurrent hemorrhage.NVG is an important factor related to vision acuity prognosis.

Aim To investigate the pharmacokinetic characteristics of silibinin in Chinese healthy volunteers.Methods Nine Chinese male healthy volunteers were divided into receiving orally a single dose of silibinin capsule corresponded 70,140 and 280 mg of silibinin,respectively,in Latin square design study.After administration of silibinin capsule,the plasma concentrations were determined by HPLC with UV detection.The pharmacokinetic parameters were analyzed by Topfit 2.0 program.Results The linearity of this method was found to be from 3.125 to 10 000 μg·L~(-1) with a lower limit of quantitation(LLOQ) of 3.125 μg·L~(-1) for silibinin.The pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated as the follows:at the three different dosages(70,140 and 280 mg),T_(1/2) was 2.44,2.38 and 2.47 h;C_(max) was 1135.6,2841.1 and 3946.9 μg·L~(-1);T_(max) was 1.35,1.26 and 1.39 h;AUC_(0-11 h) was 1287.2,3337.8 and 5398.5 μg·h·L~(-1);AUC_(0-∞)was 1300.7,3377.1 and 5453.9 μg·h·L~(-1);CL/F was 1062.1,824.7 and 943.2 ml·min~(-1);And V_d was 219.9,167.1 and 212.0 L,respectively.Conclusions The developed method is shown to be sensitive,accurate and simple,and can satisfy the requirement of pharmacokinetic study of silibinin in human.The C_(max),AUC_(0-11 h) and AUC_(0-∞) of silibinin in Chinese healthy volunteers(in ranges of 40～120 mg)are fitted with non-linear kinetic model,while there are no significant differences in T_(1/2) at the three different dosages.

Background Deficiency of neurotrophic factor is associated with the damage of optic nerve in glaucoma.Reaserches showed that ectopically applied neurotrophic factor has a transient neuroprotective effect in glaucoma model,and the viral expression of adeno-associated neurotrophie factor may provide long-term supplementation of neurotrophic factor and neuroprotection in tissues.Objective The present study Was to investigate the neuroproteetive effect of adeno-associated viral(AAV)-mediated brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)on retinal ganglion cells(RGCs)in DBA/2J mice with experimental glaucoma. Methods 10 clean DBA/2J mice were administered intravitreal injection with 1 microliter of AAV-BDNF-GFP in the left eyes at the age of 6 months,and the right eyes were injected with the same volume of saline solution as control.Intraocular pressure (IOP)was measured with Tonolab in the mice every month.Retinas were obtained after 3 months for the investigation of GFP expression in RGCs using fluorescence microscopy.Immunohistochemistry Was performed by applying TUJ1 and Cy3 antibodies to identify surviving RGCs. Results The IOP of DBA/2J mice were 11.90 mmHg and 11.40 mmHg in the right eyes and left eyes,respectively,at 4 months.The IOP of DBA/2J mice began to rise at 5 months and reached its peak in 8 month-old mice.There was no statistically significant difference in IOPs between the right eyes and the left eyes from 4 month-through 9 month-old mice(t=-1.78-0.61,P=0.11-0.90).Three months after intrlavitreal injection of AAV-BDNF-GFP,GFP was positively expressed in RGCs of retinas with the expression rate of 46.33%±8.08%.The over-expression of BDNF led to more RGCs survival than the control eyes (3168.13±1319.33/mm2 vs 2024.81±796.38/mm2,t=2.75,P=0.02). Conclusion These data suggest that BDNF can exert a protective effect in DBA/2J glaucoma mice.

A method for measuring 13C isotopic abundance of intracellular metabolites of Saccharopolysporaerythraea by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (UPLC)-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry was established.First, the chromatographic conditions of UPLC were optimized, and then the MS conditions such as unique tube lens voltage, collision energy, and ion pair were optimized.On the bases of length of the parent and daughter ions carbon chains and whether the daughter ions contain 13C atoms, the one-to-one method, one-to-many method and SIM method were established for measuring 13C isotopic abundance.Then these methods were used to measure naturally labeled intracellular metabolite standards and 13C labeled samples, and according to the gap between the experimental value and the theoretical value, the best method was established for each metabolite of different characteristics.The results showed that one-to-one method was most effective for measuring the metabolites of daughter ions not containing 13C atoms represented by sugar phosphates, one-to-many method was the best for measuring the metabolites of both parent and daughter ions containing 13C short carbon chains represented by carboxylic acids, SIM method could play a role in measuring the metabolites of both parent and daughter ions containing 13C long carbon chains represented by coenzyme A.This method had a good measurement precision and could be applied to the measurement of Saccharopolysporaerythraea intracellular metabolites, which contributed to the consequent study of metabolic mechanism and the efficient expression of erythromycin.

OBJECTIVE To investigate antimicrobial resistance and molecular epidemiology profiles of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus(MRSA)sampled from lower respiratory tract.METHODS Totally 107 MRSA strains were isolated from lower respiratory tract specimens at Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital between Dec 2005 and Dec 2006.PVL genes were detected by PCR.The genotypes of SCCmec were identified by multiplex PCR.The antimicrobial resistance of MRSA were tested by Kirby-Bauer agar dilution.We also performed the homology of 32 MRSA strains using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis(PFGE).RESULTS All of the 107 MRSA strains were negative in the PVL locus detection and the most frequent SCCmec types were type Ⅲ(81.3%),the others including type Ⅱ(15.9%),type Ⅳ(2.8%),type Ⅰ and type Ⅴ were not found in this group.Those 3 different types of SCCmec were all resistant to ?-lactam antibiotics,less resistant to rifampin,and susceptible to vancomycin,teicoplanin and daptomycin.The resistant rate of those 3 types were different to the non-?-lactam antimicrobial drugs such as trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole,clindamycin,erythromycin,gentamicin,levofloxacin,and tetracycline,the resistant rate in the types Ⅱ and Ⅲ was significantly higher than the type Ⅳ.PFGE analyses assorted the 32 MRSA strains into 4 PFGE patterns:pulsotype A(25 strains),including subtypes A1(17strains),A2(1 strain)and A3(7 strains);pulsotype B(5 strains),pulsotype C(1 strain),and pulsotype D(1 strain).CONCLUSIONS This study does not found positive PVL locus in the MRSA strains in our hospital,the most frequent SCCmec types are type Ⅲ and some are type Ⅱ.PFGE presented that there are outbreaks of MRSA in ICU ward and TB ward No 5 at that time and the pandemic strains are subtypes A1 and A3,most of these MRSA strains are multiple resistant,which deserves attention from both the clinical staff and infection-control department of the hospital.