AIM: To study the effect of propolis on the expression of CD54 and activation of NF-?B p65 in lung tissue of acute lung injury (ALI) rats. METHODS: 40 male Wistar rats were divided into 5 groups: normal control, model control, dectancyl group, water soluble derivative of propolis (WSP) group and ethanol extracted propolis (EEP) group. ALI animal model was performed by oleic acid and LPS twice attack. The pathologic slice was observed with light microscope and the NF-?B p65 activity and CD54 expression were tested by immunohistochemistry (SABC and SP). RESULTS: Both EEP and WSP antagonized the lung edema, decreased the inflammation and inhibited the expression of CD54 and activation of NF-?B p65. CONCLUSION: The increase in the expression of CD54 and the activation of NF-?B p65 in the lung tissues of ALI were involved in the formation of ALI. Propolis ameliorated the lung damage, which maybe related to the inhibition of CD54 expression and NF-?B p65 activation.

Objective To establish a detection method of Salmonella in laboratory animals based on a high-throughput sequencing technology, and to apply it in detection of Salmonella in laboratory animals.Methods DNA samples were extracted from mouse feces.Universal primers for 16S rDNA, 23S rDNA, 16S-23S rDNA, 23S-5S rDNA region, gyrB preferred area were designed, respectively.Each primer was tested and analyzed to determine the best amplification conditions and build a database.Forty-two samples of Salmonella were assayed by Illumina high-throughput sequencing technology and evaluated the specificity and stability of this method.Results The species preferred region of Salmonella was gyrB gene region.The primers for gyrB gene were FP5 ’-AACCACCGCAATCAGACCTT3‘ and FP5 ’-AGCCACGAAACCTTCACYA-3’.The primers were optimized and determined, through a high-throughput sequencing, and the sequence analysis detected very small amount of Salmonella in the 42 samples, indicating that this detection method is stable, highly sensitive, and the limit of detection reached to 0-102 CFU.Conclusions We have established a complete detection system for detection of Salmonella in laboratory animals based on a high-throughput sequencing technology, This system can detect trace amounts of Salmonella in laboratory animals, and this detection method is stable and highly sensitive, which can be also used in detection of other kinds of pathogenic microorganism in laboratory animals.

Objective: To investigate the anti-inflammatory effect and the possible mechanism of water and ethanol extracts of propolis. Method: Forty male Wistar rats were divided into 5 groups: normal group, model group, medicine groups, two groups treated with water and ethanol extracts of propolis. The acute pleurisy model was established by injecting carrageenan. The effects of propolis on acute pleurisy was studied by counting leukocytes, measuring the content of MDA, lysozyme and activity of SOD in serum and the content of NO, protein and PGE2 in pleural effusion. Results: The propolis solutions extracted by water and ethanol presented obvious effect on inflammation. It could antagonize the purulent pleurisy, reduce the number of leukocytes and the content of MDA, lysozyme and activity of SOD in serum and the contents of NO, protein and PGE2 and decrease the inflammation. Conclusion: Propolis displays anti-inflammatory effects by decreasing the action of NO and PGE2 and preventing the activation of protein kinase.

An ECG waves separation technique based on math ematical morphology is suggested and discussed in this paper. Without detection of QRS complexes, the QRS complexes can be eliminated by series morphological o perations. Then the start points and end points of P-wave and T-wave can be de cided and the waves of ECG are separated qualitatively and quantitatively. The r esults of qualitative separations are rather satisfied and the SDs of quantitative separation results are not very large. Also, ECG signals are filtered and bas eline is normalized by morphological method.

In the paper, iridology and computer-aided iridiagnosis technologies are briefly introduced and the extraction method of the collarette contour is then investigated. The iris map can be overlapped on the original iris image based on collarette contour extraction. The research on collarette contour extraction and iris map overlap is of great importance to computer-aided iridiagnosis technologies.
Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted ; methods ; Humans ; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted ; methods ; Iris Diseases ; diagnosis ; Software

OBJECTIVE:To establish the method for the content determination of rapamycin (RAPA) in human monocyte THP-1 derived foam cells,and to study the effects of RAPA targeting preparation(RAPA-NP-Apt)targeting at foam cells. METH-ODS:Foam cells model were established through THP-1 cells were induced by oxidized low density lipoprotein. Foam cells were incubated with 200 ng/mL RAPA or 200,400,800 ng/mL RAPA-NP-Apt for 60 min. The content of RAPA was determined by HPLC. The determination was performed on Diamonsil C18 column with mobile phase consisted of acetonitrile-water(90:10,V/V) at flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. The column temperature was set at 40 ℃,and the detection wavelength was 278 nm. The sample size was 20 μL. RESULTS:The concentration of RAPA ranged 50-6400 ng/mL (r=0.99996) with average recovery of 98.72%(RSD=0.62%,n=3). RSDs of inter-day and intra-day were not more than 6.15%(n=6),RSD of stability was lower than 2%(n=6),and RSD of repeatability was 1.64%(n=6). After foam cells were incubated with RAPA or low-concentration,medi-um-concentration and high-concentration of RAPA-NP-Apt,the contents of RAPA were 12,43,98,140 ng/106 cells. CONCLU-SIONS:The method is simple,stable and reproducible. It can be used for content determination of RAPA in foam cells. RA-PA-NP-Apt can improve the effects of RAPA targeting at foam cells.

Objective: To determine the effect of neoadjuvant chemotherapy on the overall survival (OS) in patients with International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (IFGO) stage I B cervical cancer. Methods: The randomized controlled trials and retrospective casecontrol studies on neoadjuvant chemotherapy plus radical surgery vs initial radical surgery in patients with IFGO stage I B cervical cancer were searched in PubMed, EMBASE and CENTRAL (Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials) databases, and the subgroup analysis was performed according to the type of the study. The hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were used to describe the effect of neoadjuvant chemotherapy on OS of FIGO stage I B cervical cancer patients. The quality of randomized controlled trials was evaluated by Cochrane Collaboration's tool for assessing the risk of bias. The quality of retrospective studies was evaluated according to the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) scoring system. The publication bias was tested. Results: Three randomized controlled trials and three retrospective observational studies involving 1 080 stage I B patients with cervical cancer were included in this Meta-analysis. The combined HR estimate of OS for stage I B patients with cervical cancer receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy plus surgery was 0.71 (95% CI: 0.55-0.93) using fixed effect model. In Meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials, the combined HR estimate of OS for stage I B patients with cervical cancer receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy plus surgery was 0.77 (95% CI: 0.58-1.03) using fixed effect model. In Meta-analysis of retrospective observational studies, the combined HR estimate of OS for stage I B patients with cervical cancer receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy plus surgery was 0.45 (95% CI: 0.23-0.88). The funnel map showed no publication bias. Conclusion: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy can significantly improve the OS of stage I B cervical cancer patients. Additional randomized controlled studies with large-scale sample are needed to verify this survival beneft.

In order to investigate the ipsilateral lymphadenectomy for inhibiting rejection in rat corneal transplantation, corneal allogenic transplantation models were established in rats. Eighteen female Wister rats were used as donors, and 36 Sprague Dawley rats as recipients. After penetrating corneal transplantation, recipients were randomly divided into 3 groups: group A (control group);group B, the ipsilateral lymphadenectomy group; group C, the bilateral lymphadenectomy group.Among 12 rats in each group, the corneas of 2 rats in each group were used for pathological study at day 14 after the transplantation, and the remaining 10 rats were used for studying corneal rejection by a slit lamp. The time points when allograft rejection occurred were recorded and mean survival time (MST) was compared. The results showed that MST in groups B and C was 46.30±9.464 days and 44.43 ± 7. 604 days, respectively, which was significantly prolonged as compared with that in group A (10.71±1. 567 days, P＜0.01). There was no significant difference in MST between groups B and C (P＞0.05). Itwas concluded that both bilateral and ipsilateral lymphadenectomy therapies could effectively inhibit the corneal allograft rejection. Ipsilateral lymphadenectomy is a less complex surgical procedure and is just as effective in preventing rejection.

In order to further investigate the mechanisms of action of berberine (Ber), we assessed the effects of Ber on the mRNA expression of nitric oxide synthases (NOS) in rat corpus cavernosum. After incubation with Ber for 1 or 3 h respectively, the levels of NOS mRNA were examined by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Our results showed that there were iNOS and eNOS mRNA expressions in rat corpus cavernosum. Ber enhanced eNOS mRNA expression in rat penis, but exhibited no effect on the expression of iNOS mRNA (P＞0.05). The present study indicated that the relaxation of Ber involved the NO-cGMP signal thansduction pathway. The enhancing effect of Ber on eNOS mRNA expression might associated with its relaxation of corpus cavernosum.

Summary: To investigate the underlying mechanism of the exacerbation of myasthenia gravis by aminoglycoside antibiotics. C57/BL6 mice were immunized with acetylcholine receptor (AChR), extracted from electric organ of Narcine timilei according to Xu Haopeng's methods, in complete Fruend's adjuvant (CFA) to establish experimental autoimmune myasthenia gravis (EAMG). EAMG mice were divided randomly into 5 groups: MG group, NS group and three antibiotics groups. The clinical symptom scores of mice were evaluated on d7 after the last immunization and d14 of antibiotics treatment. Repetitive nerve stimulation (RNS) was performed and the levels of anti-AChR antibody (AChR-Ab) were tested at the same time. The mean clinical symptom grades of gentamycin group (1.312, 2.067), amikacin group (1.111, 1.889) and etimicin group (1.263, 1.632) were significantly higher than those of MG group (1.000, 1.200) (P<0.05). The positive rates of RNS of three antibiotics groups were 69.23 %, 58.82 % and 63.16 % respectively, which were significantly higher than those of MG group and NS group (40.00 %, 40.00 %, P<0.05). The AChR-Ab level in serum and the expression of AChR on neuromuscular junction (NMJ) of mice in three antibiotics groups were also higher than those of MG group. Our results indicated that aminoglycoside antibiotics could aggravate the symptom of myasthenia gravis. The exacerbation of myasthenia gravis by these antibiotics probably involves competitively restraining the release of acetylcholine from presynaptic membrane, impairing the depolarization of postsynaptic membrane, depressing the irritability of myocyte membrane around the end-plate membrane and consequently leading to the blockade of neuromuscular junction.