Aim To investigate the effects of isoliquiritigenin(ISL) on cognition dysfunction and brain energy metabolism following repeated cerebral ischemia-reperfusion in mice.Methods Mouse models of learning and memory deficits were made by repeated occlusion of bilateral common carotid arteries and reperfusion. Step-down test and Y-maze task were used to examine the learning and memory abilities of mice. The brain energy state was analyzed by reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatogra phy. Results ISL 10, 20 and 40 mg?kg -1 ig reduced the n umber of errors and extended the latency of memory in step-down test, decreased the number of cumulated stimulation and increased the number of right choices i n Y-maze task. ISL(10, 20, 40 mg?kg -1) increased the levels of ATP, ener gy charge (EC) and total adenine nucleotides(TAN) in a dose-dependent manner. Conclusion The results suggest that ISL improves cognition dysfun ction induced by repeated cerebral ischemia-reperfusion in mice, which may be r elated to the improvement of brain energy metabolism.

Objective Prepare biomimetic muitilayered scaffold which has similar structure of natural cartilage.Method By lyophilizing the scaffolds which were prefrozen at-20℃ and in liquid nitrogen successively,we prepared double-layered spongy scaffolds.By partially thawing the prefrozen samples and refreezing them in liquid nitrogen before the final liyophilization,we prepared biomimetic multilayered scaffolds with about 2mm thickness.XRD and FT-IR were used to confirm the interaction between collagen and chitosan.SEM was used to observe the morphologies of the scaffolds.The mechanical properties of pure chitosan scaffolds,pure collagen scaffolds,composite single-layered scaffolds and biomimetic multilayered scaffolds were compared both in dry and wet conditions.Results There was chemical interaction between collagen and chitosan.Composite materials will form better pore structure.The biomimetic multilayered scaffolds have upright pores,round pores and a dense layer from bottom to top of the scaffolds.The scaffolds have quite different mechanical properties between dry and wet state.Under wet state,the different layers of the biomimetic muitilayered scaffold have different mechanical properties.Results The biomimetic structure of the multilayered scaffold is very close to that of the natural articular cartilage,and the different layers of the biomimetic muitilayered scaffold had different mechanical properties under wet state.These are hopefully beneficial to help maintain the phenotypes of chondrocytes and promote the repairing effect of cartilage defects.

Objective Prepare biomimetic muitilayered scaffold which has similar structure of natural cartilage.Method By lyophilizing the scaffolds which were prefrozen at-20℃ and in liquid nitrogen successively,we prepared double-layered spongy scaffolds.By partially thawing the prefrozen samples and refreezing them in liquid nitrogen before the final liyophilization,we prepared biomimetic multilayered scaffolds with about 2mm thickness.XRD and FT-IR were used to confirm the interaction between collagen and chitosan.SEM was used to observe the morphologies of the scaffolds.The mechanical properties of pure chitosan scaffolds,pure collagen scaffolds,composite single-layered scaffolds and biomimetic multilayered scaffolds were compared both in dry and wet conditions.Results There was chemical interaction between collagen and chitosan.Composite materials will form better pore structure.The biomimetic multilayered scaffolds have upright pores,round pores and a dense layer from bottom to top of the scaffolds.The scaffolds have quite different mechanical properties between dry and wet state.Under wet state,the different layers of the biomimetic muitilayered scaffold have different mechanical properties.Results The biomimetic structure of the multilayered scaffold is very close to that of the natural articular cartilage,and the different layers of the biomimetic muitilayered scaffold had different mechanical properties under wet state.These are hopefully beneficial to help maintain the phenotypes of chondrocytes and promote the repairing effect of cartilage defects.

Objective To investigate the usefulness of 99Tcm-MDP whole body bone scintigraphy (WBBS) in patients with synovitis,acne,pustulosis,hyperostosis,osteitis (SAPHO) syndrome.Methods 99Tcm- MDP WBBS was performed in 25 patients (6 males,19 females,mean age =(55.1 ±9.8) years)with SAPHO syndrome.Bone lesions were classified into five categories:anterior chest wall,spine,mandible,sacroiliac joint,and limbs.The typical scintigraphic manifestations of SAPHO syndrome were summarized and compared to other radiological imaging data.Results Among 25 patients,32％ of cases (8/25)were associated with skin lesion; 48％ ( 12/25 ) were pathologically diagnosed with chronic nonspecific bone inflammation by bone biopsy.On 99Tcm-MDP WBBS,abnormal metabolic foci at anterior chest wall were found in all cases,most of which located in the sternocostoclavicular region (96％,24/25 ),including sternoclavicular joints (60％,15/25),first costosternal junctions (48％,12/25),and manubriosternal junctions (44％,11/25 ).Only 20％ of the patients (5/25) demonstrated the typical scintigraphic characteristic:“bull's head” sign.The second most frequent part was spine (44％,11/25).Appendicular skeleton was affected in 16％ (4/25) patients.WBBS also demonstrated additional skeletal lesions in 68％ (17/25 ) of the patients,mainly in first costosternal junctions (7 patients),sternoclavicular joints (6 patients),manubriosternal junctions (5 patients) and spine (4 patients).Conclusions Abnormal metabolic foci in sternocostoclavicular region and other imaging manifestations on 99Tcm- MDP WBBS can be used to diagnose,differentiate,and localize the insidious lesion and evaluate the lesion activity in patients with SAPHO syndrome.

BACKGROUNDMiddle mediastinal masses comprise a wide variety of tumors but may also reflect lymphadenopathy, and thus remain an interesting diagnostic challenge. We performed positron emission tomography (PET) of mediastinal masses in order to evaluate the ability of PET to predict the malignancy of these tumors. We compared histologic findings, videomediastinoscopy, computed tomography (CT), and PET-CT in patients with mediastinal disease.

METHODSThirty-two patients were evaluated with CT, PET-CT and videomediastionoscopy, and all studies were performed within four weeks in each patient. (11)C-choline as a PET tracer was used to visualize masses. PET data were evaluated using the standardized uptake value (SUV) and were compared with pathologic data.

RESULTSThere were 13 men and 19 women aged from 21 to 74 (mean 45.2) years. Among the patients with mediastinal diseases, sarcoidosis was diagnosed in 12 patients, tuberculosis in 5 patients, lymphoma in 5 patients, and noncaseating granulomata without classical "sarcoid" finding in 3 patients. N2 or N3 nodal metastasis was revealed in 6 of 7 patients who had non-small cell lung cancer or suspected lung cancer, and one was negative (the pathological diagnosis was reactive hyperplasia). The accuracies for correctly diagnosing mediastinal masses for CT, PET-CT and videomediastinoscopy were 38% (12/32), 63% (20/32), and 91% (29/32) respectively. The diagnostic accuracy of videomediastinoscopy was superior to that of PET-CT (chi(2) = 11.130, P < 0.001). The SUVs were similar among these diseases. On the other hand, if the diagnostic classification was benign vs malignancy, the accuracies for CT, PET-CT and videomediastinoscopy were 53% (17/32), 75% (24/32), 100% (32/32) respectively. The diagnostic accuracy of videomediastinoscopy was superior to that of PET-CT (chi(2) = 22.042, P < 0.001). The SUV of malignant lesions (6.9, 3.2 - 9.8; n = 11) appeared to be higher than that of benign lesions (4.9, 2.9 - 8.3; n = 21), however, this difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.054).

CONCLUSIONSTo diagnose lesions located in the middle mediastinum, videomediastinoscopy possesses the highest diagnostic accuracy, and therefore remains the gold standard. PET-CT is valuable for differential diagnosis of benign vs malignant lesions, CT alone or PET alone (SUV) may provide misdiagnosis in a substantial proportion of patients with mediastinal masses.

Adult ; Aged ; Carbon Radioisotopes ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Mediastinal Diseases ; diagnosis ; Mediastinoscopy ; methods ; Middle Aged ; Positron-Emission Tomography ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; Video Recording

Adult ; Female ; Hernia ; etiology ; Herniorrhaphy ; Humans ; Lumbar Vertebrae ; injuries ; surgery ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Postoperative Complications ; etiology ; surgery ; Spinal Fractures ; complications ; surgery ; Young Adult

Although the ‘self-matched case-only studies' (such as the case-cross-over or self-controlled case-series method) can control the time-invariant confounders (measured or unmeasured) through design of the study,however,they can not control those confounders that vary with time.A bidirectional case-crossover design can be used to adjust the exposure-time trends.In the areas of pharmaco-epidemiology,illness often influence the future use of medications,making a bidirectional study design problematic.Suissa' s case-time-control design combines the case-crossover and the case-control design which could adjust for exposure-trend bias,but the control group may reintroduce selection bias,if the matching does not go well.We propose a "case-case-time-control" design which is an extension of the case-time-control design.However,rather than using a sample of external controls,we choose those future cases as controls for current cases to counter the bias that arising from temporal trends caused by exposure to the target of interest.In the end of this article we will discuss the strength and limitations of this design based on an applied example.

Objective: To investigate the associations between early life exposure to particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 μm (PM 2.5 ) and the risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) among school aged children. Methods: A total of 165 children with ASD and 165 age and gender matched typical development (TD) children were recruited. Children s basic information were obtained via questionnaires, and the severity of ASD symptoms was assessed with Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS). Early life PM 2.5 exposure (preconception, entire pregnancy, and the first two years after birth) were extracted from the Tracking Air Pollution in China (TAP) datasets. Conditional Logistic regression and generalized linear model were used to evaluate the associations of early life exposure to PM 2.5 with the risk and the ASD severity symptoms, respectively. Results: The PM 2.5 exposure of ASD group during preconception[(55.08±9.34)μg/m 3], entire pregnancy[(50.44±8.71)μg/m 3], the first year after birth [(45.04± 8.25 )μg/m 3] and the second year after birth [(40.19±7.12)μg/m 3] were significant higher than those in TD children [(47.66± 7.63 , 44.19±7.16, 38.95±6.07, 35.76±5.65)μg/m 3]( t =7.94, 7.13, 7.70, 6.32, P <0.05). After adjusting for potential confounding, each increase of 1 μg/m 3 in PM 2.5 was associated with higher risk of ASD during preconception ( OR=1.21, 95%CI =1.13-1.29), entire pregnancy( OR=1.18, 95%CI =1.11-1.26), the first year after birth ( OR=1.30, 95%CI =1.18-1.43) and the second year after birth ( OR=1.29, 95%CI =1.17-1.42). No similar results were observed regarding the analyses of SRS total and sub scale scores( P >0.05). Conclusion Early life exposure to PM 2.5 is relate to the risk of ASD, these findings indicated that more attention should be paid to ambient PM pollution in the early life prevention and control of ASD.

Objective To investigate the infection and genotype of hantaviruses in rodents from Wuhan area,Hubei province.Methods Rodents were trapped in fields and residential areas of Xinzhou and Jiangxia districts of Wuhan in autumn and winter seasons,from 2000 to 2003 and from 2009 to 2011.Trapped rodents were identified,and hantavirus antigens were detected in the lung tissues with indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA).Partial S segment sequences were amplified with RT-PCR in hantavirus antigen positive samples and then sequenced.Phylogenetic tree was constructed to analyze the genetic characteristics of hantaviruses.Results From 2000 to 2003,437 rodents were trapped,with 24 (5.49％) lung tissues showed hantavirus antigen positive.From 2009 to 2011,173 rodents were trapped and 7 (4.05％) were hantavirus antigen positive.Rattus norvegicus were the dominant species of rodents.Partial S segment sequences were amplified from 22 samples with Hantaan and Seoul viruses specific primers and sequenced.Partial S segments of Seoul viruses (nucleotide 588-1147) were amplified from 17 rodents (13 R.norvegicus and 4 Apodemus agrarius).Seven of these sequences belonged to 3 genetic lineage,while two novel genetic lineages were formed by 9 and 1 sequences,respectively.Partial S segments of Hantaan viruses (nucleotide 615-1141 ) were amplified from 5 A.agrarius.One of these sequences belonged to 7 genetic lineages,and 4 sequences formed one novel genetic subtype.Conclusion Hantaan and Seoul viruses co-circulated in Wuhan area.Hubei province.Novel genetic lineages were identified in this study and Seoul virus might have caused spillover infection in A.agrarius.

Objective Prepare biomimetic multilayered scaffold which has similar structure of natural cartilage. Methods By lyophilizing the scaffolds which were prefrozen at -20℃ and in liquid nitrogen successively, we prepared double-layered spongy scaffolds. By partially thawing the prefrozen samples and refreezing them in liquid nitrogen before the final liyophilization, we prepared biomimetic multilayered scaffolds. XRD and FT-IR were used to confirm the interaction between collagen and chitosan. SEM was used to observe the morphologies of the scaffolds. The mechanical properties of pure chitosan scaffolds, pure collagen scaffolds, composite single-layered scaffolds and biomimetic multilayered scaffolds were compared. Results There is chemical interaction between collagen and chitosan. Composite materials eill form better pore structure. The biomimetic multilayered scaffolds had upright pores, round pores and a dense layer from bottom to top of the scaffolds. The scaffolds had quite different mechanical properties between dry and wet state. Under wet state, the different layers of the biomimetic multilayered scaffolds have different mechanical properties. Conclusions The biomimetic structure of the multilayered scaffold is very close to that of the natural articular cartilage, and the different layers of the biomimetic multilayered scaffolds had different mechanical properties under wet state. These are hopefully beneficial to help maintain the phenotypes of chondrocytes and promote the repairing effect of cartilage defects .