Objective To investigate the phenotypes and expression of activated T-cell membrane molecules on lymphocytes in the peripheral blood(PB) of children with aplastic anemia (AA) and find out its clinical significance.Methods The lymphocytes from PB of the 115 AA patients were analyzed by flow cytometry and compared with normal group.Results The expression of CD8+ increased and the expression of CD4+ decreased. The ratio of CD4/CD8 cells decreased ,and was more significant in the patients with serious AA(SAA). The expression of HLA-DR and ??T-cell also increased, and was more significant in SAA patients. The expression of CD3+ was not significantly changed.Conclusions There is significant immune abnormal in AA patients and more important in SAA patients. The immunosuppressant is useful in clinical treatment.

OBJECTIVECysteinyl leukotriene (CysLTs) plays an important role in airway inflammation and remodeling in asthma. Measurement of urinary leukotriene E(4) (LTE(4)) is a sensitive and noninvasive method of assaying total body CysLTs level. This study aimed to evaluate the clinical significance of urinary leukotriene E(4) (LTE(4)) in childhood asthma.

METHODSSixty children with acute asthma were randomly divided into montelukast (leukotriene receptor antagonist) treatment and conventional treatment groups (n = 30 each). Urinary LTE(4) levels were measured using ELISA and the airway resistance Rint was assessed by the lung function instrument at the acute and the convalescence phases. Twenty healthy children were used as the control group.

RESULTSUrinary LTE(4) levels in asthmatic children at the acute and the convalescence phases were significantly higher than those in the control group (p<0.01). The urinary LTE(4) levels at the convalescence phase were significantly reduced compared with those at the acute phase in asthmatic children (p<0.01). More significantly decreased urinary LTE(4) levels were noted in the montelukast treatment group than the conventional treatment group at the convalescence phase (p<0.01). In the acute phase, there was no correlation between urinary LTE4 level and Rint in asthmatic children.

CONCLUSIONSUrinary LTE(4) level is significantly increased in children with acute asthma. Urinary LTE(4) is a useful marker for the diagnosis of asthma and can be as a predictor of asthma control and marker of susceptibility to treatment with leukotriene receptor antagonists.

Airway Resistance ; Asthma ; diagnosis ; physiopathology ; urine ; Child, Preschool ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Female ; Humans ; Infant ; Leukotriene E4 ; urine ; Male

Objective To investigate Helicobacter pyloric (Hp) infection in children who underwent gastroscopy in Nanjing area.Methods From Jan.2001 to Dec.2010,2 990 pediatric patients with gastrointestinal symptoms who underwent endoscopy and Hp rapid urease test of gastric mucosa specimens.Results There were 2 990 patients who underwent gastroscopy during the 10 years including 1 718 cases of male and 1 272 cases of female.The rate of Hp infection was 53.8％ (924/1 718 cases) and 52.4％ (667/1 272 cases) in male and female,respectively.There was no significant difference (x2 ＝ 0.532,P ＞ 0.05).From Jan.2001 to Dec.2005,611 patients were tested and the rate of Hp infection was 66.9％ (409/611 cases).From Jan.2006 to Dec.2010,2 379 patients were tested and the rate of Hp infection was 49.7％.There was significant difference(x2 =58.13,P =0.01) between the 2 groups.The rate of Hp infection were 49.6％,48.1％,55.2％,60.0％ in 0-6 years group,＞6-9 years group,＞9-12 years group,and ＞ 12 years group,respectively.There was significant difference among the 4 different age groups (x2 =23.66,P ＜ 0.01).The rate of Hp infection in nodular gastritis(61.4％) was higher than that in chronic superficial gastritis (50.6％).There was significant difference between the 2 groups (x2 ＝ 7.42,P ＜ 0.01).The rate of Hp infection in allergic purpura (46.2％) was higher compared with the children with normal gastroscopy results (15.9％).There was significant difference between the 2 groups (x2 =10.19,P ＜ 0.01).Conclusions There is gradually downward trend by year in the rate of Hp infection of children who underwent gastroscopy in Nanjing area by year.The rate of Hp infection is increasing with the age after the age of 6 years.Hp infection may play a role in the nodular gastritis and allergic purpura.

Ergosterol is the important component of the fungal membrane, and having stable structure. This makes it a suitable indicator for growth of fungi. In the paper, isolation and determination techniques of ergosterol as the indicator of the fungal biomass were reviewed. The methods of extracting ergosterol include traditional saponification and refluxing, rapid physical disruption, rapid ultrasonication, supercritical fluid extraction and so on. The ergosterol determination methods are high performance liquid chromatography, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, and thin-layer chromatography, et al. The application of these techniques was also introduced. Finally, the paper prospected the feasibility of applying the ergosterol as the indicator of fungal biomass in composting.

In order to demonstrate the taxonomic position of paramyxovirus Tianjin strain and explore its mechanism of pathogenesis. Bioinformatics methods were used to analyze the deduced amino acid sequences of NP, P, M, and L protein of Tianjin strain. Phylogenetic analysis based on NP, P, M, and L protein sequences demonstrated that Tianjin strain belonged to the genus Respirovirus, in the subfamily Paramyxovirinae and most likely a new genotype of Sendai virus. Sequence similarities comparisons indicated that Tianjin strain P protein was poorly conserved, sharing only 78.7%~91.9% amino acid identity with 6 known Sendai viruses, while L protein was the most conserved, having 96.0%~98.0% amino acid identity with other Sendai viruses. Multiple-sequence alignments of Tianjin strain NP, P, M, and L protein with those of 6 known Sendai viruses showed that Tianjin strain possessed a lot of unique amino acid substitutions in protein sequences, 15 in NP, 29 in P, 6 in M, and 29 in L. The presence of these unique amino acid substitutions suggests that Tianjin strain maybe has a significant difference in host or pathological characteristics from the known Sendai viruses.

High-performance liquid chromatographic coupled with variable wavelength detection (HPLC-VWD) has been developed for simultaneous determination of 5 analytes including ellagic acid, quercetin, kaempferol-3-O-beta-D-rutinoside, tiliroside and kaempferol, and high-performance liquid chromatographic with an evaporative light scattering detector (HPLC-ELSD) has been established to determine goshonoside-F5 in extract of Rubi Fructus. Chromatographic separations were carried out on an Agilent ZORBAX SB-C18 column (4.6 mm x 250 mm, 5.0 microm). All calibration curves of reference standards revealed good linearity (R2 > 0.999 5) within the concentration ranges tested. The method limits of detection ranged 0.297-90.144 ng and the method limits ofquantitation ranged 0.990-300.480 ng, respectively. Recoveries of 6 analytes were from 97.11% to 101.7%, with RSD less than 2.1%. The result shows that amounts of the 6 analytes in the samples from 16 localities were found to be different. The higher latitude of growing environment, the more ellagic acid in herb. The content of total flavonoids in sample from east localities were higher than that in middle and west localities, and the content of goshonoside-F5 in Bozhou, Anhui province was higher than others. This method was found to be simple, accurate, sensitive with good repeatability. Those results might serve as a sound foundation for further study, quality control and application of Rubi Fructus.
Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; Ellagic Acid ; analysis ; Flavonoids ; analysis ; Geography ; Rosaceae ; chemistry

Euphorbia kansui (EK) is a toxic herbal drug, and often used after vinegar-processing to reduce its toxicity. In present study, a 1H-NMR based metabonomic approach was used to evaluate the detoxification effect of vinegar-processed EK. The water extracts of EK and VEK were administered orally to male SD rats at doses of 9 g x kg(-1) x d(-1) for 1 week, respectively, and one more week observation was further conducted. The control group was orally given with saline. Histopathological studies of liver samples on the 8th and 15th day were conducted, and the metabolites of rat urine and liver were analysed by 1H-NMR. Histopathological studies of liver samples from EK and VEK treated rats showed no negative impacts. In metabonomic analyses of urines, changes of metabolites indicated liver damages, kidney lesions and imbalance of gut microbes in the second week. VEK-treated rats showed a quite lower toxicity compared with EK-treated ones. The present study revealed that the metabonomic approach might be helpful for the evaluation of toxicity of EK and detoxic effect of VEK.
Acetic Acid ; chemistry ; Animals ; Chemistry, Pharmaceutical ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; pharmacokinetics ; toxicity ; Euphorbia ; chemistry ; Inactivation, Metabolic ; Liver ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy ; Male ; Metabolomics ; methods ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Urinalysis

Herpetin (HPT) is an active monomer constituent isolated from lignanoid in seeds of Herpetospermum caudigerum. HPT shows inhibitory effects in hepatic injury and HBV-DNA and the replication. In the study, we successfully prepare herpetin liposomes by film dispersion method for the first time. The prescription process was optimized, with the entrapment efficiency as the index. According to the optimized prescription, the mass ratio of HPT: phospholipids: cholesterol was 2.44:78.05: 19.51, the hydration and de-molding process was performed with 0.5% F68 solution at 50 degrees C, and the water-bath ultrasonic time was 20 min. The HPT liposomes prepared by this method showed an average entrapment efficiency of (94.50 +/- 2.15)% and a particle size of (119.2 +/- 10.7) nm, which was consistent with the trial expectations and will lay a solid foundation for the hepatic targeting delivery system in future.
Chemistry, Pharmaceutical ; methods ; Cholesterol ; chemistry ; Drug Compounding ; methods ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; Lignans ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; Liposomes ; chemistry ; Phospholipids ; chemistry ; Ultrasonics

Objective To observe the morphological changes of macular capillary in type 2 diabetic mellitus (DM) patients without clinical features of diabetic retinopathy (DR) by optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA). Methods This is a prospective clinical case-control study. Forty-three eyes of 22 patients with DM without clinical features of DR (case group) and 40 control eyes of 20 age-and sex-matched healthy physical examination subjects (control group) were enrolled in this study. All subjects underwent OCTA examination with mode of retinal blood flow imaging, macular 3 mm×3 mm and 6 mm×6 mm area, signal strength>45. Foveal avascular zone (FAZ) area, foveal capillary density, parafovea capillary non-perfusion, and micro-aneurysm in shallow capillary vessel layer were evaluated. Results In case group, the mean FAZ area was (0.397±0.141) mm2 and the mean foveal capillary density was (44.6±0.62)%. In control group, the mean FAZ area was (0.253±0.112) mm2 and the mean foveal capillary density was (48.6±0.58)%. FAZ area of eyes in case group was larger than that in control group (t=1.017, P<0.05). There was no difference of foveal capillary density between two groups (t=1.499, P>0.05). The spider web-like FAZ and normal foveolar avascular zone were observed in eyes of control group. The parafovea capillary non-perfusion, abnormal foveolar avascular zone, micro-aneurysm and tortuosity of vessels were observed in eyes of case group. Parafovea capillary non-perfusion (χ2=4.542), micro-aneurysms (χ2=5.183) were seen more often in case group than control group (P<0.05). Conclusion Type 2 DM patients have abnormal retinal vascular microcirculation before DR using OCTA, including larger FAZ area, parafovea capillary non-perfusion, abnormal foveolar avascular zone, micro-aneurysm and tortuosity of vessels.