Objective: To investigate whether acanthopanax senticosus saponins(ASS) has a protective effect on anoxia-damaged rat spinal cord motoneurons(SMNs) in vitro and to reveal the possible mechanism of this effects. Methods: SMNs were obtained from the spinal cord of embryonic day 15 rats and were cultured in vitro. The cultured cells were immunohistochemically identified and were subjected to anoxia exposure to establish apoptosis model. In this study, SMNs were divided into the following 4 groups: normal control group;anoxia-induced apoptosis group;ASS pre-treated group, SMNs were treated with ASS (50 μg/ml) 24 h before anoxia exposure; and glial-cell-line-derived neurotrophic factor(GDNF) pre-treated group, SMNs were treated with GDNF(0.1 μg/ml) 24 h before anoxia exposure. The morphology of SMNs was observed with phase-contrast microscope and electron microscope; the viability of SMNs was detected with MTT method; and the influence of ASS on the stablility of SMNs membrane was observed through detection of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) level in the extracellular solution. The influence of ASS on the expression of HIF-1α in anoxia-damaged SMNs was studied by Western blot analysis. Results: The morphological damage of SMNs in ASS and GDNF pre -treated groups was slighter than that in anoxia-induced apoptosis group. The results showed that the viability of SMNs was higher in ASS pre-treated group (0.21±0.028) compared with that in anoxia-induced apoptosis group (0.15 ± 0.012) (P < 0.05), while the level of LDH was lower in ASS pre-treated group (28.6±1.309) than that in anoxia-induced apoptosis group (40.7±1.885) (P<0.01). The expression of HIF-1α in ASS pretreated group was the highest (1.15±0.016) (P<0.01) and that in anoxia-induced apoptosis group (0.72±0.027) was higher than that in the control group (0.16±0.003) (P<0.01). Protective effect of ASS on anoxia-damaged SMNs in rats was similar to that of GDNF. Conclusion: AS S can increase the viability of hypoxia-damaged SMNs in vitro and has obvious protective effects on them, which may be related to the enhanced stability of cell membrane and the up-regulation of HIF-1α expression.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the mechanisms of sirolimus inducing γ-globin gene expression in K562 cells. METHODS: K562 cells were cultured in the presence of 10 nmol · L-1 sirolimus, butylate, or DMSO for 3 d. Western blot and real time PCR-based chromatin immunoprecipitation was employed to measure the levels of p38MAPK and acetylated histone H3 (acH3) at γ-globin gene promoter regions, respectively. RESULTS: In K562 cells with 10 nmol · L-1 sirolimus treatment, phospholylated p38MAPK (p-p38MAPK) was 2.8-fold greater and acH3 was 9.8-fold greater than that in untreated K562 cells, and there was a 2.9-fold in p-p38MAPK and a 9.1-fold in acH3 increase comparing with K562 cells treated with DMSO, no significant difference in p-p38MAPK and acH3 level was found between cells treated with sirolimus and with butylate. SB203580 completely abolished induction of p38MAPK activation and acH3 increase by sirolimus. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that sirolimus actives p38MAPK signal and increases acetylation of H3 at γ-globin gene promoter regions, which may be the mechanisms of induced expression of γ-globin genes by sirolimus in K562 cells.

Zinc-fingers and homeoboxes 2 (ZHX2) is a novel transcriptional repression factor participating in regulating the expression of alpha fetal protein (AFP). ZHX2 has been confirmed to be largely correlated with development and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and invasion of multiple myeloma.

Chitosan have applied extensively in the field of medicine. We review the mechanism of chitosan hemostasis. The effect of chitosan on hemostasis is independent of all known“Cascade-like”coagulation pathways,induding platelets and soluble coagulant factors. Chitosan induce hemostasis by coalesce erythrocytes to one another to form a blood clot. In addition,the use of chitosan in hemostat is indicated in this paper.

Objective To observe the effect of comprehensive community intervention on cardiovascular risk factors in metabolic syndrome (MS) high risk group.Methods One hundred MS high risk patients were divided into intervention group (50 patients) and control group (50 patients) by random digits table.The intervention group accepted intervention on health education,health action,health habit and individual intervention on drug.The control group accepted natural intervention.The changes of waistcircumference,body mass index (BMI),blood pressure,fasting plasma glucose (FPG),lipids and serum uric acid (UA) were observed.Results In intervention group,the number of physical exercise,alimentary control and medication compliance increased 12％,16％ and 18％,and the number of smoking and alcohol drinking decreased 8％ and 6％.But in control group,the number of physical exercise,alimentary control,medication compliance increased 2％,0 and 4％,and the number of smoking and alcohol drinking decreased 4％ and 2％.There was significant difference (P＜ 0.05).Before treatment,the level of waist circumference,BMI,systolic pressure,diastolic pressure,FPG,total cholesterol,triacylglycerol,high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C),low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and UA between two groups had no significant difference (P ＞ 0.05).After 1 year's intervention,except HDL-C,the level of other index had significant difference between two groups (P ＜ 0.05 or ＜ 0.01).Conclusion Comprehensive community intervention can improve the status of obesity and dyslipidemia,and reduce blood pressure,plasma glucose and UA.

The completion of sequencing human genome creates a new era of biological science and technology. Although the sequence of the human genome has been known, it is still hard to rapidly explore the whole functional genes, especially, their interaction with each other and the meaning to the body. However, the "reverse biology" which comes into being in the recent years provides us a series of novel ideas and technologies for discovering new functional gene, among which the immune-related genes have attracted more attentions, clarifying how functional gene works and their potential value in application.

Objective To determine the effects of tacrolimus (FK506) pretreatment on the liver ischemia reperfusion (IR) injury.Methods 32 mature SD rats were randomly assigned into four groups,which were sham-operated group (S),ischemia reperfusion group (IR),low-dose FK506-treated group (L) and high-dose FK506-treated group (H).After the treatment of liver ischemia for 60 minutes and reperfusion for 6 hours,the levels of serum ALT and AST in rats were tested.The TNF-α and IL-1β levels were evaluated by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay.Liver damage was assessed by paraffin sections stained with H&E.The quantitative real-time PCR,the immunohistochemistry and Western blot were used to detect the expression of HMGB1 mRNA and protein with or without FK506 pretreatment.Results The levels of serum ALT [(424.0 ± 137.4)U/L,(291.0 ±42.0)U/L],AST [(554.2 ± 127.7)U/L,(410.2 ±7.0)U/L],TNF-α [(115.1±49.0)ng/L,120.4±28.5) ng/L] and IL-1β [(424.5 ±105.2) ng/L,(612.1 ± 49.6) rig/L] decreased markedly in the group L and group H compared with the group IR (P ＜ 0.05).The liver in the IR group showed hepatic sinusoids congestion,neutrophil infiltration and necrosis.In contrast,tissue damage of the L group and the H group was significantly decreased.The expressions of HMGB1 mRNA and protein reduced significantly when pretreatment with FK506 after reperfusion (P ＜ 0.01).However,there was no significant difference between the group L and group H (P ＞ 0.05).Conclusion FK506 pretreatment can protect the liver by reducing the expression of HMGB1,inhibiting the release of inflammatory cytokines and alleviating cell necrosis after the liver ischemia reperfusion injury in rats.

The effects of chitosan and N,O-carboxymethyl chitosan on blood hemostasis are tested.The dynamic blood coagulation experiments show chitsan with low deacetylation degree has higher absorption ability.The experiments can't find that any altered red blood cell morphology or an unusual affinity between erythrocytes appears evidently in the ACD blood treated with chitosan.The concentration of the platelets on the chitosan surface may be one of causes that platelets produce blood coagulation.Chitosan is substituted by the carboxymethyl and has water solubility.But N,O-carboxymethyl chitosan can lead torouleau and not toaltering the morphology of the erythrocyte.The blood hemostasis effect is not obvious.The values of TT,PT,APTT and FIB are measured from blood and the results fail toprove that chitosan and N,O-carboxymethyl chitosan can activate the coagulation factors.

Objective To report the surgical technique and preliminary clinical results of bilateral decompression under microscope via unilateral approach for the treatment of lumbar stenosis. Methods Sixteen eases of lumbar stenosis were treated in our institute. For the surgical treatment, only one side paraspinous muscle was dissected. The upper and lower margins of the adjacent laminae were drilled, and the underlying ligament flavum was exposed. By changing the direction of the microscopy, the base of the spinous process and the internal side of the contralateral laminae were also drilled off till the lateral recess. Finally, decompression of the spinal canal was achieved by removing the ligament llavum. Results Follow-up ranged from 6 to 47 months. Intermittent claudication was totally relieved in 14 out of 16 cases, and markedly relieved in 2 cases. Back pain was relieved totally in 6 cases, marked improved in 8 cases, not change in 2 cases. Pain was significantly relieved in all 5 cases with sciatica, among them, diseetomy had to be performed in 3 cases. During follow-up, there was no symptom recurrence, and dynamic X ray did not show lumbar in-stability. Conclusion Bilateral decompression under microscope via unilateral approach for the treatment of lumbar stenosis is minimally invasive surgery, the effect of the operation is good. The technique has little in-fluence on spinal stability.