BACKGROUND:Neural stem cells(NSCs)are characterized by widely resources,convenient harvesting,easy culture and prone to import and express exogenous genes,which can be served as carriers of gene therapy for neural system disease.OBJECTIVE:To review the application of NSCs in spinal cord injury.METHODS:Databases of PubMed(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed)and Wanfang(http://www.wanfangdata.com.cn)were searched by the correspondence author using key words of "neural stem cells,spinal cord injury,cellular transplantation" both in English and Chinese to retrieve papers concerning isolation,identification,differentiation of NSCs as well as its application in repairing spinal cord injury.A total of 82 documents were initial obtained by computer,after repetitive studies were excluded,23 papers were included in the final analysis.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:The NSCs transplantation has been widely used in animal experiments.Currently,the applications of NSCs in repairing spinal cord injury are concentrated on the following aspects:Firstly,cellular replacement therapy,namely,direct transplanting NSCs or activating in vivo NSCs to differentiate into neurons and glial cells,and then integrating transplanted cells with the existed neural cellular structure to cure the disease.Secondly,NSCs were utilized as gene carriers,which carrying target gene to body and reach the aims of cellular replacement and gene therapy.Thirdly,autologous NSCs were induced differentiation for self neural repair via studying growth factors and cytokines.

Objective To study the pathologic characteristics of eutopic endometrium in patients with endometriosis.Methods Pathologic characteristics of eutopic endometrium were studied in 176 patients with endometriosis in Peking Union Medical College Hospital from January 2007 to December 2008 retrospectively.Results About 72.2％(127/176)of eutopic endometrium were in proliferative phase,19.9％(35/176)of were observed as endometrial polyp,including 32 cases with simple endometrial polyp and 3 cases with abnormal hyperplasia combined with endometrial polyp.And 4.0％(7/176)showed abnormal hyperplasia.The incidence of pathologic changes in eutopic endometrium was 22.2％(39/176).Among 53 endometriosis patients combined with infertility,the incidence of pathologic changes of eutopic endometrium was 35.9％(19/53),which was significantly higher than 16.3％ in non-infertile patients (x2 =8.24,P =0.004).Among 65 cases with irregular menstruation,the incidence of endometrial polypus and endometrial hyperplasia were 20.0％(13/65)and 10.8％(7/65),which were significantly higher than 17.1％(19/111)and 0 in normal menstruation patients(x2 =13.839,P =0.003).Conclusions The eutopic endometrium of endometriosis were in proliferative phase state.The pathologic changes of eutopic endometrium were more in patients combined with infertility and irregular menstruation.

Objective To investigate the differences in susceptibility to Lewis lung carcinoma and T lymphocyte subsets in the immune microenvironment between young and elderly mice.Methods Six C57/B6 mice at two months(young)and six mice at twelve months(aged)were injected with Lewis lung carcinoma cells at the dose of 1 × 106 in the left armpit to establish a murine model of lung carcinoma.The weight and tumor growth were monitored.Blood samples for routine blood tests were collected after 24 days.The proportions of CD4+ and CD8+T cells in the spleen were detected by flow cytometry,and the infiltration of CD4+,CD8+ T cells and related effector T cells in the tumor microenvironment were determined in the same way.Results The body weight of tumor bearing mice in the aged group was significantly higher than that in the young group(P ＜0.001);The tumor weight in the aged group(5.084±0.528)g was significantly higher than that in the young group(2.963 ±0.378)g(t =3,349,P =0.012);Routine blood tests showed that the numbers of leukocytes and subsets(except mononuclear)in the aged group were significantly lower than in the young group(P ＜0.05);Flow cytometry found that the effector and memory/effector CD4+T cell ratios in the spleen were significantly higher in the aged group than in the young group(P ＜0.001)and the expression of effector and memory/effector CD8+T cells in the tumor microenvironment was also significantly higher than in the young group(P ＜0.05);Quantitative expression values of IL-6 and IL-10 in the tumor microenvironment were 25090±3820 and 10670± 1793 in the aged group and 6252±864 and 3061±451 in the young group,respectively.Moreover,the expression levels of IL-6 and IL-10(t =3.925,P =0.01;t =3.552,P =0.02)in the tumor microenvironment in the aged group were significantly lower than those in the young group.Conclusions Young mice are more susceptible to Lewis lung carcinoma,probably as a result of differences in inflammation and immunity.

Objective We aimed to investigate the hemostatic effect and mechanism of modified Sijunzi Decoction(MSJZT),consisting of tangshen,India bread,largehead atractylodes rhizome,liquorice root,milkvetch root,ass hide glue,and India madder root,on the zebrafish intestinal bleeding model through 5-hydroxytryptamine(5-HT)and its receptors(5-HT2aR,5-HT2bR).Methods Zebrafish at 4 days post fertilization were used as the research object.An intestinal bleeding model was established by induction with 6 μmol/L simvastatin for 24 hours.The zebrafish were divided into normal group,model group,MSJZT low-,mid-and high-concentration groups(55.6,167,500 mg/L),and after modeling,the corresponding concentration of MSJZT was administered.The samples were collected after 24 hours.Platelet count(PLT)and bleeding status were observed.The content of 5-HT and Caspase 3/7 activity were detected by colorimetry.The gene expressions of 5-HT2aR,5-HT2bR and serotonin transporter(SERT)were detected by real-time PCR.The protein expressions of protein kinase B(AKT),phosphorylated AKT(p-AKT),extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase(ERK),and phosphorylated ERK(p-ERK)were detected by Western blotting.Results The intestinal bleeding rate in the model group was 70.0%,and that in the MSJZT low-,mid-and high-concentration groups was 36.7%,40.0%,and 80.0%,respectively;the intestinal hemostatic effect was 54%,52%,and 7%,respectively.Compared with the model group,the PLT in the MSJZT low-and mid-concentration groups decreased;the content of 5-HT in all MSJZT groups increased,and the gene expressions of 5-HT2aR and 5-HT2bR were up-regulated.The gene expression of SERT was up-regulated in the low-and mid-concentration groups;the Caspase 3/7 activity in the mid-and high-concentration groups was reduced;the expressions of p-AKT and p-ERK proteins were up-regulated in the low-and mid-concentration groups(all P<0.05).Conclusion MSJZT can reduce the incidence and severity of intestinal bleeding in zebrafish intestinal bleeding models.The mechanism may be achieved by activating AKT and ERK signaling pathways through 5-HT and its receptors.

Objective To investigate the role and mechanism of circular RNA(circRNA)has_circ_0003304(circAZIN1)in regulating chondrocyte degeneration in osteoarthritis(OA).Methods Gene chip was used to detect the expression level of circRNA during the chondrogenic differentiation of human adipose-de-rived stem cells(hADSC).The circAZIN1 was further screened through the chondrocyte inflammation model constructed with interleukin-β(IL-β)and tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α)from the top 10 circRNAs with the most differentiated expression detected by gene chip.Real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain re-action PCR(qPCR)was used to detect the effect of circAZIN1 overexpression(transfected with pcDNA3.1-circAZIN1-EF1-ZsGreen plasmid)on the metabolism of chondrocyte extracellular matrix(ECM).RNA-Pull down test was conducted to detect the protein bound by circAZIN1,miRNA-circRNA Interactions predicted the microRNAs(miRNAs)and their sites that circAZIN1 may be sponge-adsorbed,further TargetMiner,miRDB and TargetScan databases were applied to predict miRNAs which circAZIN1 may sponge-adsorbed.circAZIN1,miRNA and downstream mRNA were detected to find whether there was mirror regulation phe-nomenon after overexpression of miRNA.Results CircAZIN1 had the most significant differential expression during the chondrogenic differentiation of hADSC(day 3 and day 21)and in the chondrocyty inflammation model constructed by IL-β,TNF-α(day 3 group vs.day 21 group,the conttrol group vs.the IL-β group,the control group vs.the TNF-α group).Overexpression of circAZIN1 could promote the ECM synthesis in chon-drocytes and inhibit its decomposition.RNA-Pull down test result showed that circAZIN1 obviously bound AGO2 protein,suggesting that circAZIN1 had a high possibility of sponge adsorbing miRNAs.Further data-base predicted that its downstream was hsa-miR-654-3p,and the downstream mRNA of hsa-miR-654-3p was CACNA1I.After the overexpression of hsa-miR-654-3p,qPCR test found that circAZIN1,hsa-miR-654-3p and CACNA1I had a mirror image regulation phenomenon.Conclusion circAZIN1 inhibits the silencing effect of CACNA1I through sponge adsorption of hsa-miR-654-3p and thus plays a role in inhibiting chondrocyte de-generation,which provides a reference for the study of the regulatory mechanism of circRNA in the develop-ment of OA.

BACKGROUND: Tri-ponderal mass index (TMI) has been reported to be a more accurate estimate of body fat than body mass index (BMI). This study aims to compare the effectiveness of TMI and BMI in identifying hypertension, dyslipidemia, impaired fasting glucose (IFG), abdominal obesity, and clustered cardio-metabolic risk factors (CMRFs) in 3- to 17-year-old children. METHODS: A total of 1587 children aged 3 to 17 years were included. Logistic regression was used to evaluate correlations between BMI and TMI. Area under the curves (AUCs) were used to compare discriminative capability among indicators. BMI was converted to BMI- z scores, and accuracy was compared by false-positive rate, false-negative rate, and total misclassification rate. RESULTS: Among children aged 3 to 17 years, the mean TMI was 13.57 ± 2.50 kg/m 3 for boys and 13.3 ± 2.33 kg/m 3 for girls. Odds ratios (ORs) of TMI for hypertension, dyslipidemia, abdominal obesity, and clustered CMRFs ranged from 1.13 to 3.15, higher than BMI, whose ORs ranged from 1.08 to 2.98. AUCs showed similar ability of TMI (AUC: 0.83) and BMI (AUC: 0.85) in identifying clustered CMRFs. For abdominal obesity and hypertension, the AUC of TMI was 0.92 and 0.64, respectively, which was significantly better than that of BMI, 0.85 and 0.61. AUCs of TMI for dyslipidemia and IFG were 0.58 and 0.49. When 85th and 95th of TMI were set as thresholds, total misclassification rates of TMI for clustered CMRFs ranged from 6.5% to 16.4%, which was not significantly different from that of BMI- z scores standardized according to World Health Organization criteria. CONCLUSIONS TMI was found to have equal or even better effectiveness in comparison with BMI in identifying hypertension, abdominal obesity, and clustered CMRFs TMI was more stable than BMI in 3- to 17-year-old children, while it failed to identify dyslipidemia and IFG. It is worth considering the use of TMI for screening CMRFs in children and adolescents.
Adolescent ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Body Mass Index ; Dyslipidemias ; East Asian People ; Hypertension ; Obesity, Abdominal ; Pediatric Obesity/diagnosis* ; Cardiometabolic Risk Factors