AIMTo investigate whether mitochondrial calcium uniporter participates in the cardioprotection of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha) pretreatment in isolated rat hearts subjected to ischemia/reperfusion.

METHODSIsolated perfused rat hearts were subjected to 30 min regional ischemia (occlusion of left anterior descending artery) and 120 min reperfusion. The infarct size, coronary flow (CF) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release during reperfusion were measured. The mitochondria of the heart were isolated and suspended in the swelling buffer for measurement of absorbance at 520 nm.

RESULTSPretreatment with TNFa at 10 U/ml for 7 min followed by 10 min washout reduced the infarct size and LDH release, and improved the recovery of CF during reperfusion. Administration of spermine (20 micromol/L), an opener of mitochondrial calcium uniporter, for 10 min during early reperfusion attenuated the reduction of infarct size and LDH release, and improvement of CF induced by TNFalpha. In isolated mitochondria of the heart pretreated with TNFalpha, the absorbance at 520 nm decreased less than that of mitochondria without TNFalpha pretreatment. Administration of spermine (50 micromol/L) attenuated the change of the absorbance induced by TNFalpha.

CONCLUSIONThe findings indicate that TNFalpha protects myocardium against ischemia/reperfusion injury via inhibiting mitochondrial calcium uniporter opening as well as mitochondrial permeability transition pore opening.

Animals ; Calcium Channels ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Cardiotonic Agents ; pharmacology ; In Vitro Techniques ; Ischemic Preconditioning, Myocardial ; methods ; Male ; Mitochondrial Membrane Transport Proteins ; drug effects ; Myocardial Reperfusion Injury ; prevention & control ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Spermine ; pharmacology ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha ; pharmacology

OBJECTIVETo assess the diagnostic value of multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) for detection of common chromosome aneuploidy in amniotic fluid (AF) cells in order to obtain an accurate, rapid, cost-effective and high-throughput method in routine prenatal clinical practice.

METHODSThe MLPA test was performed on 500 AF samples by using kit P095 and the results were obtained by using analysis software RH-MLPA-v511. The results were compared with that from fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and traditional karyotyping (TK). The technical critical issues were analyzed in routine diagnostic application.

RESULTSThe absolute specificity and sensitivity of the MLPA test to detect the aneuploidy were 100%. For the 500 AF samples, the success rate of the MLPA tests was 97%. Among them 92% were finished within three working days and 5% required more days for repeating. The test failure rate was 3%. The results confirmed that for the 38 detectable aneuploid samples, the probe reliability weighted mean ratio values were more than 4SD compared to normal diploids and the 2 suspected trisomy samples were more than 2SD. In this study, authors analyzed hybridization efficiencies of 8 probes for chromosome 21, and the presence of a trisomy was considered if at least 4 of the 8 probes gave probe ratio of >1.3.

CONCLUSIONThedata suggested that MLPA is a rapid, simple and reliable method for large scale testing for aneuploidy of chromosomes 13, 18, 21, X, or Y in AF. The MLPA technology is complementary to AF culture and valuable for prenatal diagnosis.

Amniotic Fluid ; cytology ; Aneuploidy ; Chromosomes, Human, Pair 21 ; Female ; Humans ; Nucleic Acid Amplification Techniques ; methods ; Pregnancy ; Prenatal Diagnosis ; methods ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Trisomy ; diagnosis ; genetics

To investigate the distribution of ticks and to detect the new bunyavirus in ticks and infection rate in animals in Shanghai,outdoor free ticks were captured by flag method and ticks on animals were collected by animal capture.SFTSV in ticks were detected by real-time RT-PCR.Total antibodies against SFTSV in host animal sera were tested by double antigen sandwich method.Results showed that during 2012-2014,free ticks were captured in Chenshan Park and Jinshan Island,which were all Haemaphysalis longicornis.Ten of seventeen districts found ticks on animals which were dominantly Rhipicephalus sanguineus.No nucleic acid of SFTSV was detected in 143 ticks.Main host animal for ticks was dog,sheep was in the second.Sera in 198 dogs from 6 urban districts,120 swine from Pudong and Fenxian districts and 36 sheep from Chongming District were all SFTSV antibody negative.Ticks were not found with SFTSV in Shanghai during 2012-2014.No SFTSV infection was found in host animals.Therefore,there is no evidence that Shanghai is the natural foci of SFTSV.Further surveillance and investigations should be carried out in the future.

Objective To explore the factors associated with severe hand-food-mouth disease (HFMD) case in Shanghai.Methods A total of 105 severe HFMD cases diagnosed from May to July,2011 in Shanghai were enrolled as case group while another 210 mild HFMD cases were randomly selected as control group in the same period.All subject' s parents or babysitters were asked to fill in the questionnaire in which including demography,ways of babysitting,behavior and the like.All HFMD cases were diagnosed by both clinical symptom and nuclear acid testing.Data was processed by EpiData (V3.0) and analyzed by SPSS (V17.0).Results Factors as age,gender,Diaspora pattern,migrant,size of house,numbers of family member,numbers of children,frequency of seeing doctor,dishware that sharing with babysitter,food chewed by babysitter,dirty hand,EV71 virus type and diagnosis on HFMD in the fist visit to hospital were found associated with severe HFMD by univariate analysis.Results through multivariate logistic regression showed that factors including:being the only male kid,more than 3 children in the family,dirty hands,unable to be diagnosed as HFMD in the first visit to the hospital,visiting doctor during the past 6 months for 2 and 3 times etc.could be kept in the model with statistical threshold of 0.05.Adjusted ORs and confidence intervals of them were 2.431 ( 1.317-4.487),2.661 (1.332-5.315),3.403 ( 1.871-6.191 ),6.607 (3.011-14.500),2.431 ( 1.111-5.321 ),2.628 ( 1.137-6.071 ) respectively.Being Infected by EV71 was also found a very important risk factor compared with CoxA16 or other enteroviruses,and its adjusted OR was 5.614 (2.409-13.082).Conclusion It was necessary to implement molecular diagnosis for identifying the virus type of HFMD,together with improvement on the capacity of clinical diagnosis in order to diagnose the HFMD cases earlier.More attention should be paid to these HFMD cases with EV71 infection as well as prompting frequent visits to hospitals on those families with more children.

Since December 2019, the corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) has been reported in Wuhan, Hubei Province. Almost 70% of patients susceptible to 2019-nCoV are over age of 50 years, with extremely large proportion of critical illness and death of the elderly patients. Meanwhile, the elderly patients are at high risk of osteoporotic fractures especially osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures (OVCF). During the prevention and control of COVID-19 epidemic, orthopedists are confronted with the following difficulties including how to screen and protect OVCF patients, how to accurately diagnose and assess the condition of OVCF patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19, and how to develop reasonable treatment plans and comprehensive protective measures in emergency and outpatient clinics. In order to standardize the diagnosis and treatment of patients with OVCF diagnosed with COVID-19, the authors jointly develop this expert consensus. The consensus systematically recommends the standardized emergency and outpatient screening and confirmation procedures for OVCF patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 and protective measures for emergency and outpatient clinics. Moreover, the consensus describes the grading and classification of OVCF patients diagnosed with COVID-19 according to the severity of illness and recommends different treatment plans and corresponding protective measures based on the different types and epidemic prevention and control requirements.