Aim To study the relationship between theeffects of saponins of panax notoginseng(PNS)on fir-ing frequency and hyperpolarization potential in neu-rons.Methods Applieation of a depolarizing currentpulse to stellate ganglion(SG) neurons of rat evokedaction potentials(AP).These neurons were classifiedas phasic or tonic neurons on the basis of their firingpatterns.Then we investigated the effects of PNS on fir-ing pattern and frequency,after hyperpolarization po-tential(AHP) and fastexcitatory postsynaptic potential(f-EPSP) in high Ca2 +Krebs’solution of SG neuronsin rat.Results The firing frequency of tonic neuronswas reduced by PNS.At the concentration of0.12 ~0.16 g.L-1,PNS reversibly depressed AHP in a dosedependentmanner.And the aggrandizing action of highCa2 +on f-EPSP was antagonized by PNS.Conclusion PNS can reduce the firing frequency of rat SG neu-rons,but this action was not caused by reinforcement ofAHP potential.The restraining regulation of excitabili-ty of neurons by PNS may underlie its inhibitory actionon calcium influx.

No abstract available.
Hearing Loss, Sensorineural*

BACKGROUND:Lipoic acid, with a closed circle structure composed by sulphur and carbon atoms, exerts strong anti-oxidation, and has been extensively applied in the prevention and treatment of oxidative stress, diabetic cataract, diabetic neuropathy and cardiovascular diseases. OBJECTIVE:To investigate the protective effect of lipoic acid on peripheral nerve function during peripheral nerve ischemia/reperfusion injury. METHODS:Models of peripheral nerve ischemia/reperfusion injury were established in rabbits, and then rabbit models were then allotted to treatment and non-treatment groups. The treatment group was subdivided into experimental (injection of lippoic acid) and control groups according to the use of lipoic acid at 1, 3 and 6 hours after ischemia and before reperfusion. The ultrastructural changes of the sciatic nerve were observed under electron microscope, and the electrophysiological changes of the sciatic nerve were detected using evoked potential instrument. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:With the ischemic time increasing, the number of vacuoles in the axon increased gradually, accompanied by axonal atrophy, and Waller's degeneration in the aggregated microfilaments. The myelin sheath thickening and dissolving were visible. All above phenomena became severest at 6 hours after ischemia. Compared with the control groups, lipoic acid reduced the number of the vacuoles in the axon and all eviated axonal atrophy, Waller's degeneration and demyelination. As the ischemic time increasing, the latency of sciatic nerve was significantly increased, and peaked at 6 hours of ischemia;while the amplitude was significantly decreased, and reached a minimum at 6 hours of ischemia. Compared with the control groups, in the experimental groups, the latency of sciatic nerve was significantly decreased, but the amplitude was significantly increased. These results suggest that lipoic acid provides neuroprotection against peripheral nerve ischemia/reperfusion injury.

Conjugal plasmid pGH112 has been developed based on the replicons of Streptomyces coelicolor plasmid SCP2 and E. coli ColE. The plasmid contains ampicilin resistance gene(amp) for selection in E. coli and thiostrepton resistance gene (tsr) for selection in Streptomycetes, and a 0.76 kb oriT fragment of (IncP) RK2. Conjugal transfer of pGH112 was performed from E. coli to S. coelicolor A3(2), S. avermitilis, S. lividans TK54, S. toxytricini NNRL15443, S. venezuelae ISP5230 and Sacc. erythraea by conjugation, results show that the plasmid was able to transfer efficenctly from E. coli to Streptomycetes, was stably inherited in the recipients. pGH113 was constructed from pGH112 by combining the constitutive ermE promoter with green fluorescent protein gene(gfp).
Ampicillin Resistance ; genetics ; Conjugation, Genetic ; Escherichia coli ; genetics ; Green Fluorescent Proteins ; genetics ; Plasmids ; Streptomycetaceae ; genetics ; Thiostrepton ; pharmacology

OBJECTIVETo observe the effects of electroacupuncture (EA) on circadian rhythm of temperature and melatonin (MT) in depression rats model induced by chronic stress, so as to explore the biological mechanism of EA for depression.

METHODSTwenty-four SD rats were randomly divided into a control group, a model group and an EA group, 8 cases in each one. Rats in the control group were treated with normal diet for 21 days without any treatment. In the model and EA group, rat model was established by chronic unpredictable stress combined with solitarily feeding method, and rats in the EA group was treated with EA at "Baihui" (GV 20), "Yintang" (GV 29) 1 h before stress stimulation everyday, 2 Hz in frequency and intensity was favorable with the head of rat slightly shivering. The needles were retained for 20 min, once a day for totally 21 days. After EA treatment, open-field experiment was adopted to observe the behavioral improvement; the rats temperatures were monitored at six time points (2:00, 6:00, 10:00, 14:00, 18:00, 22:00) and orbital blood sampling was collected. The level of serum MT was tested by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. The circadian rhythm changes of temperature and serum MT in each group were compared.

RESULTSThe numbers of horizontal movement and vertical movement in the model group were obviously lower than those in the control group (both P < 0.05), while those in the EA group were significantly improved compared with those in the model group (both P < 0.01). The circadian rhythm of temperature and MT disappeared in the model group, which was improved into normal level after EA treatment.

CONCLUSIONThe electroacupuncture has regulation effects on circadian rhythm of temperature and melatonin in depression rat model induced by chronic stress.

Animals ; Circadian Rhythm ; Depression ; metabolism ; physiopathology ; therapy ; Electroacupuncture ; Humans ; Male ; Melatonin ; metabolism ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley

Aggressive digital papillary adenoma is a rare neoplasm of eccrine sweat gland origin. We report a case of aggressive digital papillary adenoma of the fifth finger, together with a literature review.
Adenoma ; Fingers ; Sweat Glands

Objective To investigate the prevalence, etiology, rehabilitation demands and service condition of hearing disorders based on the whole population in Jilin Province, China. Methods Using the probability proportion to size (PPS) sampling, 9246 (93.3%) out of 9909 residents sampled form 36 counties were targeted for investigation from August, 2014 to January, 2015, followed the WHO Ear and Hearing Disorders Survey Protocol. The hearing loss and disability were classified as WHO recommended and Classification and Grading Criteria of Disability (GB/T 26341-2010). Results The standardized prevalence of hearing loss and disability was 16.41%and 4.78%, re-spectively. Age, sex, residence, occupation and marriage status, education level and household income were significantly associated with hearing loss prevalence, while nationality was not. The main etiologies included non-infectious disease (47.33%), ear disease (14.17%), un-known causation (13.89%), and noise (8.59%). Among all people with hearing loss, those who accepted intervention service accounted for 11.02%. Among all people with hearing disability, those who used hearing aids accounted for 5.58%, and 0.67%used artificial cochlea. Con-clusion Demographics and socioeconomic factors are significantly associated with the prevalence of hearing loss. The main etiology con-tains non-infectious disease, ear disease and noise. Both the rate of service utilization among people with hearing loss and the rate of adopt-ing hearing aids among people with hearing disability are low. It is needed to do more in prevention and rehabilitation of hearing impairment.

Objective To investigate the effectiveness of task-oriented bilateral arm training on upper limb function in children with spastic hemiplegia. Methods 27 children within 4-6 years with spastic hemiplegic were randomly divided into control group (n=13) and experiment group (n=14). The children in control group received routine occupational therapy. The bilateral arm task-oriented training was added for children in experiment group. The Peabody development motor scale-2 (PDMS-2) and Upper Limb Physician's Rating Scale (ULPRS) were used to assess the upper limb function before and after 10 weeks intervention. Results After treatment, the scores of grasping function and visual-motor integration in PDMS-2 were significantly higher than those before treatment (P＜0.05), and the scores of experimental group werehigher than that of control group (P ＜0.05), and the difference of the added value between two groups were statistically significant (P＜0.05).The ULPRS scores of both groups increased after treatment (P＜0.05), scores between the treatment group and the control group were not statistically significant (P＞0.05), and the difference of the added value between two groups was not statistically significant (P＞0.05). Conclusion The task-oriented bilateral arm training can promote recovery for upper limb and hand function in children with spastic hemiplegia compared with routine occupational therapy.

Neural network plasticity is fundamental for learning and memory. Its abnormal change underlies some neural diseases. Measurement of the plasticity of cortex can help understand the mechanism of plasticity, and provide a quantitative way to observe the neural process of natural aging and neurodegenerative diseases, which may lead to a new approach for evaluation of anti-aging drugs and new medical treatments for neurodegenerative diseases. In this study, a systematic method was established based on whisker pairing (WP) experiment to measure the network plasticity in the barrel cortex in rat. WP experiment is a classical experiment to study the effect of innocuous bias of the flow of sensory activity from the whiskers for certain periods in awake and behaving rats on the receptive field organization in S1 barrel cortex neurons. In the experiment, one pair of adjacent whiskers D2 and D3 remained intact while others were being trimmed throughout a certain period. After that, receptive fields of single cells in the contralateral barrel were analyzed by post-stimulus time histogram after certain days of WP and compared with the controls. In the control group, response magnitudes to surrounding whiskers D1 and D3 deflection were not significantly different. However, after WP, a bias occurred in response to paired surrounding whisker D3 relative to the opposite trimmed surrounding whisker D1. In this study, by comparing the bias degree in rats in different groups after WP, a quantitative method was established to compare cortical plasticity. Example of corical plasticity comparison between adolescent and mature rats was employed in this paper to illustrate our method. The key techniques of this method such as the identification of D2 barrels, supragranular (L2-3) and barrel layer (L4) in real-time were described in details. The feasibility of this approach was further verified by compendious report of results and our previous study regarding cortical plasticity comparison between adolescent and mature rats.
Animals ; Neuronal Plasticity ; Rats ; Somatosensory Cortex ; physiology ; Vibrissae

OBJECTIVE: To determine the effect of different concentrations of glucose on the differentiation of 3T3-L(1) and the expression of insig-1 and insig-2 mRNA, and to explore the effect of insulin-induced gene in the differentiation and formation of adipocytes and lipogenesis. METHODS: The 3T3-L(1) cells were induced to differentiate in high glucose concentration (25 mol/L G.S), low glucose concentration (5.5 mol/L G.S), and mannitol (19.5 mol/L Mannitol +5.5 mol/L G.S), respectively. The differentiation of 3T3-L(1) cells was examined by oil red "O" straining, and the expression of insig-1,insig-2 mRNA and AP2 mRNA was examined by RT-PCR and in situ hybridization. RESULTS: With the differentiation of 3T3-L(1) cells, the expression of insig-1 and insig-2 mRNA was gradually up-regulated. The expression of insig-1 and insig-2 mRNA significantly increased while AP(2) mRNA decreased in the low glucose concentration inducing group and mannitol inducing group. In the high glucose concentration inducing group, the cell differentiation was poor (P<0.05). There was no difference between the low glucose concentration and the mannitol group in the differentiation of 3T3-L(1) cells, and in the expression of insig-1 and insig-2 and AP(2) mRNA. CONCLUSION Different concentrations of glucose may influence the cell differentiation and the low glucose concentration promotes insig-1 and insig-2 gene expression, which may lead to the inhibition of the differentiation and lipogenesis of preadipocytes.
3T3-L1 Cells ; Animals ; Cell Differentiation ; drug effects ; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug ; Glucose ; pharmacology ; Membrane Proteins ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; Mice ; RNA, Messenger ; biosynthesis ; genetics