BACKGROUND:Studies have shown that Wnt signaling pathways play an important role in the osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells.
OBJECTIVE:To review the mechanism and regulation of the Wnt signaling pathways, as wel as Wnt signaling pathway effects on osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells.
METHODS:A computer-based search of PuMed database and CNKI database from September 1998 to March 2013 was performed to search related articles. The key words of“Wnt, mesenchymal stem cells, Wnt signaling pathways, osteoblastic differentiation, canonical wnt signaling pathway, non-canonical signaling pathway”in English or Chinese were used to search the articles in the title and the abstract. A total of 31 articles were included to review.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Wnt signaling pathways play a critical role in the osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells. Canonical Wnt signaling pathway, non-canonical Wnt signaling pathway, and their mutli-factors were involved in regulating the proliferation and differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells. The osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells can be promoted effectively via specific induction of Wnt signaling pathways. Wnt11, FZD6, sFRP2, sFRP3 and Ror2 expressions increase, while Wnt9a and FZD7 decreases during the regulation. However, the relations of factors in Wnt signaling pathways and how to use the mechanism of Wnt signaling for promoting mesenchymal stem cells faster, more accurate differentiation need further studies.

Objective To observe and compare the short-time outcome in meniscal lesions with radiofrquency coblation technology or normally mechanical technology under the arthroscopy. Methods Thirty-eight patients with mentisci injury was selected, and divided into radiorfequency and normal group according to the standards. The patients in former group were treated with menisci reformation by radiofrequency, while in later group by menisci parthial excision. Some criteria were analysised and evaluated by comparison of operation-time, post-operation effusion of joint and improvement on the degrees of flexion and extension, clinical symptoms, functional restoration of knee joint of both groups. Results The average operation-time in radiofrequency group was less than that of normal group apparently. It was less possible for effusion of joint happened in the radiofrequency group after operation. The improvement on the degrees of flexion and extension and functional restoration of joint in the radiofrequency group exceeded in another group. Conclusion The radiofrequency under the arthroscopy is simper and less leading the surrounded tissue injury with more excellent functional restoration fo knee joint, also it has more advantage than the normal menisci partial excision mechanically.

AIM:To study the expression level of S100 calcium-binding protein A4 (S100A4) in synovial tissue of the knee joint in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and normal persons, and the effect of S100A4 on the angiogenesis induced by rheumatoid arthritis fibroblast-like synoviocytes (RAFLSs).METHODS:The synovial tissue was taken from the knee joint of the RA patients (RA group) and the normal persons (control group).The protein expression of S100A4 and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in the synovial tissue of the 2 groups was observed by immunohistochemistry.RAFLSs were isolated from synovial tissue of patients with active RA.ELISA was used to detect the effect of S100A4 on the secretion of VEGF by RAFLSs.The effect of S100A4 on the angiogenesis of HUVECs cultured with conditioned medium from RAFLSs was also detected.RESULTS:The protein of S100A4 and VEGF was highly expressed in the synovial tissues of RA group (P<0.05).rhS100A4 significantly stimulated the secretion of VEGF in RAFLSs in a time-and dose-dependent manner (P<0.05).Cultured with conditioned medium from RAFLSs, rhS100A4 significantly promoted HUVECs to form tube-like structures in vitro.CONCLUSION:S100A4 protein is highly expressed in synovial tissue of the knee joint in RA patients, and S100A4 stimulates synovial angiogenesis by promoting RAFLSs to generate VEGF, indicating that S100A4 may be used as a potential target for the treatment of RA.

BACKGROUND: The skill to culture osteoblasts primarily has been well developed. However, trypsinase can affect membrane protein of osteoblasts if the time of digestion is long. Therefore, it is of great significance to select an ideal method to avoid the damage from trypsinase to cells as possible when culturing osteoblasts.OBJECTIVE: To explore a novel method to isolate and culture SD rat osteoblasts in vitro, and identify the functions of the cells.DESIGN: Observational study.SETTING: Department of Orthopaedics, First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University.MATERIALS: This experiment was carried out in the Department of Orthopaedics, First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University from March to May in 2007. Eight SPF 24-hour old SD rats were used in the experiment. The rats, irrespective of gender, were provided by the Experimental Animal Center of Nanfang Medical University. The experimental animals were disposed according to ethical criteria. The main reagents were detailed as follows: collagenase Ⅱ (Sigma Company);trypsin (Sigma Company); alkaline phosphatase (ALP) kit (Nanjing Jiancheng Biological Products Company); SABC-1021(Wuhan Boster Biotechnology Company).METHODS: 24-hour old SD rats were chosen for experiment. The newly born SD rats were sacrificed by anesthesia and the cranial bones of the rats were obtained cleanly, erased completely of the periosteum and cut to blocks of I mm3. The cranial bones were digested by 0.25 % trypsinase for 20 minutes, then by 0. 1% type Ⅱ collagenase for 60 minutes. The digestive time of trypsinase was controlled in the process of digestion to avoid to harm the cells. The liquid was gathered and centrifuged. The cells were cultured in culture flask and were purified by many times adhered.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Morphology observations under the inverted phase contrast microscope, transmission electron microscope, and scanning electron microscope were performed. The phenotype, calcium tuberculation and the expression of alkaline phosphatase were studied with alizarin red staining and modified Gomori Ca-Co assays respectively.The cells were also evaluated with collage Ⅰ immunohistochemical staining.RESULTS: The cultured cells had active proliferation ability. Cells showed multi-angle or fusiform shape. Nucleus was immature and organell was plentiful. Therefore, they had typical morphological characters of osteoblasts. Moreover, they showed the osteoblastic phenotypes such as their synthesis of alkaline phosphatase, collage Ⅰ and formation of calcium tuberculations.CONCLUSION: The cells cultured by our modified enzymatic digestion method had typical morphological and biological characteristics of osteoblasts.

Objective Investigate the clinical features of the neurological disorders in patients after pulmonary thromboendarterectomy (PTE) for chronic pulmonary thromboembolism , analyze the factorial. Methods A retrospective study was made of 26 patients who underwent PTE between 2002 and 2010 in Beijing Chao-Yang hospital. The symptom of neurological system disorders occurred in the survivors were been investigate. The preoperative conditions and the perioperative conditions of all survivors were investigated. Compared the differences between the groups with neurological system disorders and the groups without. Results There were 22 patients of 26 survived after the surgery. Cardiac function of the survivors improved, and the quality of life improved significantly. 5 cases of the 22 survivors had symptoms of neurological system disorders. 3 patients showed lethargy, delirium, memory disorders, brain CT found no abnormal, symptoms recovered within 2 weeks. The fourth patient showed ataxia, unsteady gait, dance-like movements symmetry, in addition to the above symptoms, brain CT no abnormal showed,brain MRI showed bilateral abnormal signal in the midbrain, basal ganglia, symptoms improved and discharged after 8 weeks, the symptoms completely disappeared 6 months, and the abnormal signals in brain in MRI disappeared. The fifth patient with similar symptoms to the fourth, brain CT no abnormal found, be discharged 10 weeks after the operation, recovery is poor, living part of themselves. The postoperative neurological disorders occurred in the patients of Jamieson surgery type Ⅲ type, Ⅳ type of larger proportion, (P = 0.024), longer circulatory arrest surgery (P = 0.034). Conclusion The neurological disorders postoperative PTE often showed diffuse symmetric cerebral cortex and basal ganglia nerve dysfunction, brain MRI showed abnormal signal corresponding region, the majority of symptoms disappeared in 2 - 8 weeks, abnormal signal in brain MRI could disappeared after 6 months. Neurological dysfunction occurs in patients with more difficult surgical procedure, longer circulatory arrest, suggesting that with the surgery cerebral ischemia and hypoxia related.

Based on the principles of the in vitro staining technique, hypotonic swelling test, and water test, the Eosin Y-water test method was developed to simultaneously detect the integrity of the sperm head and tail and sperm membrane structure and function. As a widely used method in clinical laboratories in China, the Eosin Y-water test is methodologically characterized by three advantages. Firstly, both the sperm head and tail can be detected at the same time, which allows easy and comprehensive assessment of membrane damage in different parts of sperm. Secondly, distilled water is used instead of the usual formula solution to simplify and standardize the test by eliminating any potential effects on the water molecules through the sperm membrane due to different osmotic pressure or different sugar proportions and electrolyte solutions. Thirdly, the test takes less time and thus can be repeated before and after treatment. This article focuses on the fundamental principles and modification of the Eosin Y-water test and its application in sperm function examination and routine semen analysis for male infertility, assessment of the quality of sperm retrieved by testicular fine needle aspiration, semen cryopreservation program development, and evaluation of sperm membrane integrity after microwave radiation.
Cell Membrane ; China ; Cryopreservation ; Eosine Yellowish-(YS) ; Fluorescent Dyes ; Humans ; Infertility, Male ; diagnosis ; Male ; Osmotic Pressure ; Semen Analysis ; methods ; Sperm Head ; Sperm Motility ; Sperm Tail ; Spermatozoa ; Staining and Labeling ; Water

This paper introduces a programming cardiac trigger apparatus used for the study of quantitative measurement of myocardial blood flow with myocardial contrast echocardiography.The design of hardware circuit based on MCU and the scheme of software based on Keil C51 are mainly discussed.With stable and reliable working,this apparatus provides a kind of technical support for the study of quantitative measurement of myocardial blood flow with continuous intravenous injection of sonicated microbubbles.

AIM: To determine whether the viartrils could provide a beneficial effect on the prevention of early/middle stage osteoarthritis(OA) and affect the proliferation of chondrocytes. METHODS: An OA model was produced with severing the anterior, posterior cruciate ligaments of the knee in 24 adult New Zealand rabbits. The animals were then randomly divided into viartrils group and control group. After surgical operation, viartrils (mainly contains glucosamine sulphate) 2 pills per day were administered to the animals in viartrils group. The animals were sacrificed and specimens were taken from the weight-bearing portion of the femoral condylar seven weeks after operation. Each case was evaluated according to a modified histological-histochemical grading system(HHGS) using HE and safranin O/fast green staining slides, and immunohistochemical method was used to detect the proliferation of chondrocytes in articular cartilage. RESULTS: The method of severing the anerior, posterior cruciate ligaments of the knee could successfully induce the early/middle stage model of OA. The pathological remark in control group was significantly higher than that in the viartrils group (P

Objective To evaluate the appropriateness of hospitalization days at a tertiary hospital in 2014 by means of the Appropriateness Evaluation Protocol ( AEP ) , and to analyze the causes of inappropriate stays. Methods Medical records of inpatients admitted at a tertiary hospital in 2014 were randomly selected. AEP( US version) was used to evaluate the appropriateness of every hospitalization day, while the causes of inappropriate hospitalization day were also analyzed. Results A total of 1 641 days of stay from 148 medical records were reviewed, and 129 days of stay (7. 9%) were seen as inappropriate. Two major factors for inappropriate stays were waiting for surgery and waiting for test, roughly 89. 1% of the inappropriate hospitalization days. The proportion of inappropriate hospital stays reduced to 4. 8% after adjustment of two-day weekend. Inappropriate hospital stays mostly appeared during the second day to the eighth day after admission(93. 8%). Logistic analysis results showed that with concomitant symptoms, preoperative waiting days > 5 days, high level surgery, non-emergency admission were significantly associated with appropriateness of hospital stays (P<0. 05). Conclusions The rate of inappropriate stays will be reduced and the quality of medical services will be improved if comprehensive measures could be carried out according to the causes of inappropriate stays.

BACKGROUND:There is a great difference of grade size of macrobead in various joint diseases; therefore, it can be used to determine state of joint diseases initially.OBJECTTVE : To explore the physical properties of synovial fluid nano-particles and their correlations with the occurrence of knee osteoarthritis (KOA).DESIGN: Controlled experimental study based on synovial fluid samples.PARTICIPANTS: A total of 99 synovial fluid samples were collected from normal subjects and KOA patients with various KOA severities. Among them, 41 were normal synovial fluids, 58 were KOA.METHODS: Synovial fluid samples from individuals with and without KOA were obtained. Using the technology of quasi-elastic laser scattering, nano-particle size and its distribution were estimated, and the dynamic/static light scattering spectrometric analyzer allowed the measurement of particles Zeta potentials. A correlation analysis between the particle size, Zeta potentials and the onset of KOA was attempted.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:① Grade size and distribution of microsome in synovial fluid;② Zeta potentials and distribution of microsome in synovial fluid; ③ grade size and clinical correlation of microsome in synovial fluid.RESULTS: ① The mean nano-particle diameter in the synovial fluid of KOA patients were significantly greater than those of normal joints [(297±84), (63±23) nm, P ＜ 0.001]. The distribution curve of KOA synovial fluid nano-particle size was normal knee and (-15.84 ±3.34) mV of KOA patients, and there was a significant difference (P ＜ 0.001). This suggestedthat the Zeta potentials in the synovial fluid of KOA patients were significantly greater than those of normal joints. ③ The average particle size and Zeta potential of synovial fluid strongly correlated with the integrity of the joint of KOA (rp =0.797 2,0.631 9, P＜ 0.01).CONCLUSION: The nano-particle size and Zeta potential of synovial fluid are significantly correlated with the development of KOA, and this can reflect the severity of KOA.