Aim To observe the effects of activation of aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 ( ALDH2 ) by ethanol on testis injury of type 2 diabetic rats. Methods Type 2 diabetic rats model were established by high-fat diet combined with low-dose streptozotocin ( STZ ) injec-tions. After the success of modeling, the rats were ran-domly divided into 3 groups ( n =6 ): normal control group (NC), type 2 diabetes group (T2DM) and eth-anol+type 2 diabetes group (EtOH+T2DM). Rats of EtOH + T2DM were treated with low-dose ethanol, then rats of NC and T2 DM were given normal diet for 8 weeks. After 8 weeks, the levels of the fasting blood glucose ( FBG ) , glycosylated hemoglobin ( HbA1 c ) and testosterone were tested, and the ratio of testis weight to body weight ( TW/BW ) was calculated. Morphological changes of testis tissue were observed by optical microscope. The levels of ALDH2 mRNA and transforming growth factorβ1 ( TGF-β1 ) mRNA in tes-tis tissue were measured. The expression of TGF-β1 in testis tissue was observed by immunohistochemical stai-ning, then the positive rate of TGF-β1 was calculated. Results Compared with NC, the levels of FBG, HbA1 c and TW/BW increased significantly and the level of testosterone decreased significantly in T2DM. The morphological observation showed that some semi-niferous tubules atrophied, spermatogenic cells de-creased and arrangemented loosely, Leydig cells de-creased in testicular interstitial. The level of ALDH2 mRNA in testis tissue decreased significantly, and the level of TGF-β1 mRNA and the positive rate of TGF-β1 in testis tissue increased significantly. However, compared with T2DM, the levels of FBG, HbA1c and TW/BW decreased, and the level of testosterone in-creased and the damage of testis tissue was attenuated in EtOH+T2DM. The level of ALDH2 mRNA in testis tissue increased significantly, and the level TGF-β1 mRNA and the positive rate of TGF-β1 in testis tissue decreased significantly. Conclusion Activating AL-DH2 can protect testis in type 2 diabetic rats, which may be related to the downregulation of TGF-β1 ex-pression.

Objective:To study the feasibility of 3-D reconstruction model in the observation of tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin(TCDD) effected palatal organ development of fetal mouse.Methods:Kunming mice treated 40 ug/kg TCDD by lavage on day 12.5 of pregnancy were used as in the experimental group,isodose corn oil treated in the control group.On day 13.5,14.5 and 15.5 of pregnancy heads of the fetal mice were taken out and fixed.Conventional paraffin serial sections of palatal organ were preparated and dyed by hematoxylin-eosin,images of the palatal organs were collected and photoshop treated,3-D reconstruction of the palatal organ was performed by 3D-DOCTOR software.Results:3-D reconstruction images showed that palatal organs moved from on both sides above the tongue and gradually closed and merged in the control group.In the experimental group,the palatal organs moved from on both sides above the tongue was later than control group,gradually closed,but not merged,formed cleft palate.Conclusion:3D-DOCTOR software reconstruction can be used for the study of the development process effected by TCDD in the pregnant mouse.

It has been known that the Alzheimer's disease(AD)is related closely with a synaptic failure,and the p21-activated kinase(PAK)is well documented to play an important role in the regulation of the synaptie functions.However,the relationship between thePAK and the pathology of AD is unclear.In the present study,we examined the expressions of the PAK3(one subtype ofPAK),phospho-rylated-PAK(pPAK) and β-amyloid42(Aβ42,β-amyloid with 42 peptides)in an APP/PS1 double transgenie mouse model of AD andthe morphologies of geurOtlS in the hippocampus at different ages.The Western Blot results showed that the expression of PAK remainedunchanged,while,the expression of pPAK decreased largely at the age of 32 weeks and further decreased significantly with aging in thehippocampus of the APP/PS1 transgenic mouse.A1342 levels in the hippocampus were detected to increase as early as the age of 22 weeks,and kept the increase to continue with aging.The morphological results showed no obvious neuron loss in the sections of Nissl staining,while serious distonion and disorder of the dendrites of the hippocampal neurons were observed on the sections of Gelgi staining in theAPP/PS1 transgenic mouse.The present results suggested that it seemed something wrong in the processes of phospholization of PAK,butnot in the expression of the PAK itself;the toxic Aβ42 might affect the PAK in its phospholization,which in turn directly influence thedendritic development in the hippocampal neurons and cause the dendrites distorting and disordering.