Acupuncture ; instrumentation ; methods ; Acupuncture Therapy ; Adult ; Aged ; Female ; Humans ; Knee Joint ; physiopathology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Pain ; etiology ; Pain Management ; Patella ; injuries

The authors studied 16 cases of craniopharyngioma who admitted to the Department of Neurosurgery of Dong San Medical center, Keimyung university, during the past 5 years from 1981 to 1985. Of these 16 cases, 9 belonged to a juvenile group with ages under 20 based on full pubertal development, and 7 cases belonged to an adult group. It was observed the difference between the age groups of the clinical, neuroradiogical and histopathopathological findings. Raised ICP symptoms were showed in juvenile group and decreased vision and visual field defect in adult group, respectivelly, as the chief complaint. All cases of the juvenile group were classified as juvenile type and three cases out of seven in the adult group were adult types in their histopathological pattern. Four juvenile types of adult group showed poor outcome. We concluded that subtotal resection with radiotherapy gave a better prognosis in both group and that hormone therapy before and operation decreased mortality and morbidity and improved the quality of survival significantly.
Adult* ; Child* ; Craniopharyngioma ; Humans ; Mortality ; Neurosurgery ; Prognosis ; Radiotherapy ; Visual Fields

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Endothelin (ET)-1, a potent endothelium-derived vasoconstrictor peptide, has a potential pathophysiologic role in pulmonary hypertension. Bosentan, a dual ET receptor (ET(A)/ET(B)) antagonist, is efficacious in treatment of pulmonary hypertension. The objectives of this study were to investigate the expression of ET-1 and ET receptor A (ERA) genes and to evaluate the effect of bosentan in monocrotaline (MCT)-induced pulmonary hypertension. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Four-week-old male Sprague-Dawley rats were treated as follows: control (n=36), subcutaneous (sc) injection of saline; MCT (n=36), sc injection of MCT (60 mg/kg); and bosentan (n=36), sc injection of MCT (60 mg/kg) plus 25 mg/kg/day bosentan orally. RESULTS: Serum ET-1 concentrations in the MCT group were higher than the control group on day 28 and 42. Quantitative analysis of peripheral pulmonary arteries revealed that the increase in medial wall thickness after MCT injection was significantly attenuated in the bosentan group on day 28 and 42. In addition, the increase in the number of intra-acinar muscular arteries after MCT injection was reduced by bosentan on day 14, 28 and 42. The levels of ET-1 and ERA gene expression were significantly increased in the MCT group compared with control group on day 5, and bosentan decreased the expression of ET-1 on day 5. CONCLUSION: ET-1 contributes to the progression of cardiopulmonary pathology in rats with MCT-induced pulmonary hypertension. Administration of bosentan reduced ET-1 gene expression in MCT-induced pulmonary hypertension in rats.
Animals ; Arteries ; Endothelin-1 ; Endothelins ; Gene Expression ; Humans ; Hypertension, Pulmonary ; Male ; Monocrotaline ; Pulmonary Artery ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Receptors, Endothelin ; Sulfonamides

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: There have been several reports suggesting close relationships bet- ween problem behavior syndrome scale and/or social competence scale and pediatric allergic disorders such as bronchial asthma and atopic dermatitis. The aim of the present study was to confirm these relationships. We compared the behavioral symptoms and social competence scale between allergic and non-allergic patient groups using Korean-Child Behavior Checklist (K- CBCL). MATERIALS AND METHOD: One hundred and seventy-one subjects(aged 4-11 years) were enro- lled in this study. Allergy patient group(N=84) was divided into 4 subgroups, according to the allergic diseases such as atopic asthma(Group 1, BA), allergic rhinitis(Group 2, AR), atopic dermatitis(Group 3, AD), and chronic urticaria(Group 4, CU). Eighty-seven non-allergic patients (Group 5, NA) included those with pediatric general disorders, except psychomotor retardation, neurologic deficit, malignancy or other chronic disorders. K-CBCL which was filled in by parents or guardian, included eight dimensions of problem behavior: withdrawal, somatic problems, anxiety/ depression, social problems, thought problems, attention problems, delinquent behavior, and aggressive behavior. The first three scales were classified as an Internalizing broadband group and the last two scales as Externalizing group. In addition, the questionnaire included social scale, school scale, and total competence scale. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in age, sex, social economic status between 5 subgroups of allergic and non-allergic patients(p>0.05). The mean problem behavior scores tended to be higher in allergic patient group, but no statistical significance was noted(p>0.05). The mean school scale, social scale, total competence scale of allergic patient group were not significantly higher than those of non-allergic patient group(p>0.05). Combined disease group with more than 2 allergic disorders showed problem behaviors compared to non-allergic group or asthma only group. Total social competence scale was lower in allergic patient group with 1-3 years of disease duration than for shorter(less than 1 year) and longer(more than 3 years) durations. CONCLUSION: Taken together, combined disease group and allergic disease group with 1-3 years of duration showed more problem behaviors and the lowest total social competence scales, respectively.
Asthma ; Behavioral Symptoms ; Checklist* ; Child ; Child Behavior* ; Child* ; Depression ; Dermatitis, Atopic ; Humans ; Hypersensitivity ; Mental Competency ; Neurologic Manifestations ; Parents ; Social Problems ; Weights and Measures ; Surveys and Questionnaires

To investigate the kinship between the Inner Mongolia pandemic strain and representative strains of the Jaagsiekte sheep retrovirus (JSRV), total DNA from the lung tissue of a JSRV-infected sheep in Inner Mongolia was used to clone fragments of gag, pro and pol genes. The recombinant plasmid pMD-JSRV (including complete genomic sequence of the JSRV strain isolated from Inner Mongolia) was constructed by linking all the cloned fragments with long terminal repeat (LTR) and env gene fragments (cloned previous and reserved by our research team). Sequence analyses revealed that the genome was 7690 bp in length and contained several typical molecular markers for exogenous form of JSRV. These included the Sca I restriction site in the gag gene, two predicted "CCHC" motifs of zinc finger in the encoded nucleocapsid protein and the predicted "YXXM" motif in the TM region of Env. Homology analyses showed that the virus strain belonged to the JSRV type II. pMD-JSRV and AF105220 strains shared a nucleotide identification of 95%. The full length genomic clone of JSRV could provide a molecular basis for an infectious JSRV molecular clone as well as an experimental platform to study the detection and pathogenesis of JSRV.
Amino Acid Sequence ; Base Sequence ; Cloning, Molecular ; Genome, Viral ; Jaagsiekte sheep retrovirus ; genetics ; Pandemics ; Plasmids ; Proviruses ; genetics

In this article, the items from 1999 to 2003 of pharmaceutics of Chinese medicine accepted and supported by subject of traditional Chinese medicine, No.9 department of life science, national natural science foundation of China (NSFC) have been reported, in several aspects, such as extracting process, preparation, biopharmaceutics, pharmacokinetic, etc. The problems in these items have also been analyzed briefly.
Biopharmaceutics ; China ; Dosage Forms ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; Pharmacokinetics ; Research ; Research Support as Topic ; Technology, Pharmaceutical

The applications accepted and approved by general program, young scientist fund and fund for less developed region of national natural science funds in the discipline of Chinese materia medica, NSFC in 2012 have been introduced. The research contents of the funded projects in the popular research areas have been summarized and the problems in the applications have been analyzed to give a reference to the scientists in the field of Chinese materia medica.
China ; Financing, Organized ; organization & administration ; Humans ; Laboratory Personnel ; economics ; Materia Medica ; chemistry ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; economics ; Natural Science Disciplines ; economics ; manpower ; organization & administration

OBJECTIVETo observe long-term outcomes of patients with invasive giant prolactinomas (IGPs) treated with bromocriptine followed by comprehensive treatments.

METHODSThirty-four patients met the criteria of IGPs were treated with bromocriptine initially. Among of them, 11 had radiotherapy at the same time. During the treatments, transsphenoidal surgery or/and Gamma Knife were considered to apply to the patients according to the location, shrinkage of residual tumors and resistance of bromocriptine. Small dosage of bromocriptine was kept after operation.

RESULTSThe average follow-up duration is 33.6 months. Thirty-three patients obtained significant improvement, but one failed recovery of vision due to side-injury by radiotherapy. Tumor volume on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was decreased on average by 91.4%, PRL by 97.1%. The number of patients with low testosterone level restored from 17 to 6 and hypoadrenalism from 10 to 6 after combined treatment with priority of medical therapy. Rhinorrhea occurred in 2 cases, 1 restored in two weeks, 1 had transsphenoidal combined with transcranial surgery to remove the tumor and repair the fistula.4 had resistance to bromocriptine to some extend.

CONCLUSIONSDopamine agonist medications are effective as a first-line therapy for IGPs. In some patients treated by bromocriptine only, the tumor may disappear on MRI. Combined with surgery and Gamma Knife, the duration of treatment could be shortened and the dosage may be minimized, but using radiotherapy should be cautions.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Bromocriptine ; therapeutic use ; Combined Modality Therapy ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hormone Antagonists ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Hypophysectomy ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Pituitary Neoplasms ; drug therapy ; surgery ; Prolactinoma ; drug therapy ; surgery ; Radiosurgery ; Retrospective Studies ; Time Factors ; Treatment Outcome

OBJECTIVETo investigate the influence of exposure to different concentrations of ethanol on neural progenitor cells and the differentiation of neurons and glial cells in zebrafish embryos.

METHODSZebrafish embryos were exposed to 1%, 2%, and 2.5% (V/V) ethanol at 5 hpf by adding ethanol to the egg water. In situ hybridization and real-time PCR were used to detect the changes in the mRNA expression profiles of the markers of different cells to examine the effects of alcohol on neural development.

RESULTSThe number of neural precursor cells, neurons and mature glial cells was significantly reduced in the zebrafish embryos following ethanol exposure, and this reduction became more prominent as the ethanol concentration increased. The expression of the early glial marker slc1a3a was down-regulated in the spinal cord but increased in the brain after exposure to increased ethanol concentrations. The expression of the mature glial markers was significantly lowered in response to exposure to increasing ethanol concentrations.

CONCLUSIONSEthanol can reduce neural precursor cells and inhibits neuronal and glial differentiation in zebrafish embryos.

Animals ; Brain ; Cell Differentiation ; drug effects ; Embryo, Nonmammalian ; drug effects ; Ethanol ; adverse effects ; Neural Stem Cells ; drug effects ; Neurogenesis ; drug effects ; Neuroglia ; drug effects ; Neurons ; drug effects ; Spinal Cord ; Zebrafish ; embryology

OBJECTIVETo characterize the profile of chromosomal imbalances of rhabdomyosarcoma(RMS).

METHODSComparative genomic hybridization (CGH) was used to investigate genomic imbalances in 25 cases of primary RMS including 10 cases of alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma (ARM), 12 cases of embryonic rhabdomyosarcoma (ERMS), 3 cases of polymorphic rhabdomyosarcoma (PRMS) and 2 RMS cell lines (A240 originated from ARMS and RD from PRMS), with correlation to histological type, pathologic grading, clinical staging, gender and age, respectively.

RESULTSAll twenty-five rhabdomyosarcomas showed evidence of increased or decreased DNA sequence copy numbers involving one or more regions of the genome. (1) The frequently gained chromosome regions in RMS were 2p, 12q, 6p, 9q, 10q, 1p, 2q, 6q, 8q, 15q, 18q, and the frequently lost chromosome regions were 3p, 11p, 6p. (2) The frequently gained chromosome arms in ARMS were 12q, 2p, 6, 2q, 4q, 10q, 15q. The frequently lost chromosome arms were 3p, 6p, 1q, 5q. The frequently gained chromosome regions in ERMS were 7p, 9q, 2p, 18q, 1p, 8q. The frequently lost chromosome arms in ERMS were 11p. (3) The frequently gained chromosome arms in translocation associated RMS were 12q, 2, 6, 10q, 4q and 15q (> 30%), 3p, 6p, 5q (> 30%) were the frequently loss chromosome arms. The frequently gained chromosome regions in non-translocation associated RMS were 2p, 9q, 18q (> 30%), and 11p, 14q (> 30%) were the frequently loss chromosome regions. Gain of 12q was significantly correlated with the translocation-associated tumors (P < 0.05). (4) Gains of 9q was significantly correlated with clinical staging (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONSGain of 2p, 12q, 6p, 9q, 10q, 1p, 2q, 6q, 8q, 15q, 18q and loss of 3p, 11p, 6p may be involved in the tumorigenesis of RMS. Gains of 12q may be correlated with gene fusion/chromosomal translocation in ARMS. Gains of 9q may be correlated with an early tumor stage of RMS.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; genetics ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Chromosome Aberrations ; Chromosome Deletion ; Chromosomes ; Comparative Genomic Hybridization ; methods ; Female ; Gene Fusion ; Humans ; Infant ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Staging ; Rhabdomyosarcoma ; genetics ; Spectral Karyotyping ; methods ; Young Adult