Pericellular matrix (PCM) is a narrow tissue region surrounding chondrocytes, which "chondron" with its enclosed cells. A number of studies suggested that PCM is rich in proteoglycans, collagen and fibronectin, and plays an important role in regulating microenvironment of chondrocytes. Direct measures of PCM properties through micropipette aspiration technique showed that PCM was different from mechanical property of chondrocytes and nature extracellular matrix. However, the function of PCM is not clear, and need further study.
Animals ; Biomechanical Phenomena ; Chondrocytes ; chemistry ; cytology ; metabolism ; Extracellular Matrix ; chemistry ; metabolism ; Humans

Objective To evaluate the susceptibility of itraconazole-resistant Aspergillus fumigatus isolates to four other antifungal drugs.Methods Six strains of Aspergillus fumigatus were serially isolated from a patient with lung aspergilloma,who was resistant to itraconazole therapy.Clinical Laboratory Stan- dard Institute broth microdilution method M38-A and E-test were applied to test the susceptibility of A.fumi- gatus strains to amphotericin B,itraconazole,voriconazole,caspofungin and micafungin.Results With M38-A method,the minimal inhibitory concentration(MIC)of itraconazole was 0.5?g/mL for 2 strains and more than 16?g/mL for the other 4 strains;the MICs of amphotericin B and voriconazole were 1?g/mL and 0.25-1?g/mL respectively for all the 6 strains;and the minimal effective concentration(MEC)of caspofungin and micafungin were no more than 0.03?g/mL for all the 6 strains.Moreover,E-test results also revealed that caspofungin and voriconazole had a good antifungal activity against all the strains,including the 4 itraconazole-resistant ones.Conclusion The itraconazole-resistant A.fumigatus strains isolated from a patient with lung aspergilloma are susceptible to amphotericin B,voriconazole,caspofungin,and micafungin.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the antitumor activities of kushen (Sophora flavescens) flavonoids (KS-Fs) in vivo and in vitro. METHODS: Cell proliferation was assayed by using methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) method. H22 hepatocellular carcinoma and S180 sarcoma were induced in ICR mice. Lewis lung carcinoma was induced in C57BL/6 mice. H460 and Eca-109 tumor were induced in Balb/c nude mice by injecting 5x10(5) or 5x10(6) tumor cells in the right flank, respectively. RESULTS: KS-Fs could inhibit the growth of a variety of human tumor cell lines (A549, SPC-A-1, NCI-H460, etc.) in vitro. The antitumor efficacies were confirmed in the mice models of H22, S180 and Lewis lung tumors and the nude mice models of human H460 and Eca-109 xenografted tumors. The oral or intravenous maximum tolerated dose of KS-Fs was more than 2.8 g/kg or 750 mg/kg respectively, far more than the oral medial lethal dose of kushen alkaloids (< or = 1.18 g/kg). No adverse reactions were observed. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that KS-Fs or kurarinone may be developed as a novel antitumor agent.

Objective To explore the role of hydrogen peroxide in mesenteric artery contraction of cirrhotic rats with portal hypertension,which was induced by bile duct ligation.Possible mechanism in RhoA/ROCK signal pathway was also part of the focus.Methods The bile duct ligation-induced cirrhotic rats and normal rats (control group) were treated equally with PEG-catalase(10 000 U/kg-1 · d-1,ip.) or by its vehicle for 8 days.Then the level of H2O2 in mesenteric arteries was detected.The contractile response to norepinephrine of arterioles was analyzed by vascular perfusion system.The protein expressions of the α1 adrenergic receptor,β-arrestin-2 and Rho kinase-1 (ROCK-1),and the activity of ROCK-1 were measured by western blot.In addition,the interaction of α1-adrenergic receptor with β-arrestin-2 was assessed by co-immunoprecipitation.Results Compared to normal rats,the dose-response curve of the mesenteric arterioles in response to norepinephrine shifted to the right,and the EC 50 increased in the rats with portal hypertension.PEG-catalase treatment can decrease the hydrogen peroxide level in arteries,thus significantly lowered EC50 and improved the reactivity to norepinephrine of the mesenteric arterioles in portal hypertension rats.No significant difference in the α1-adrenergic receptor amounts was observed among groups.There was remarkable decreases in the protein expressions of β-arrestin-2 and its interaction with the α1-adrenergic receptor in cirrhotic rats with PEG-catalase treatment.PEG-catalase also increased the amount and activity of ROCK-1 in cirrhotic rats.Conclusions The level of hydrogen peroxide increases in the mesenteric arteries in bile duct ligation-induced cirrhotic rats.And it enhances the β-arrestin-2 expression and its interaction with the α1-adrenergic receptor,which subsequently decreases the amount and activity of ROCK as well as the contractility of mesenteric arteries in response to vasoconstrictors.

Sodium houttuyfonate (SH) is a derivative of effective component of a Chinese material medica, Houttuynia cordata, which is applied in anti-infection of microorganism. But, the antimicrobial mechanisms of SH still remain unclear. Here, we firstly discovered that SH effectively inhibits the three types of virulence related motility of.Pseudomonas aeruginosa, i.e., swimming, twitching and swarming. The plate assay results showed that the inhibitory action of SH against swimming and twitching in 24 h and swarming in 48 h is dose-dependent; and bacteria nearly lost all of the motile activities under the concentration of 1 x minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) (512 mg x L(-1) same as azithromycin positive group (1 x MIC, 16 mg x L(-1)). Furthermore, we found that the expression of structural gene flgB and pilG is down-regulated by SH, which implies that inhibitory mechanism of SH against motility of P. aeruginosa may be due to the inhibition of flagella and pili bioformation of P. aeruginosa by SR Therefore, our presented results firstly demonstrate that SH effectively inhibits the motility activities of P. aeruginosa, and suggest that SH could be a promising antipseudomonas agents in clinic.
Alkanes ; pharmacology ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; pharmacology ; Bacterial Proteins ; genetics ; metabolism ; Biofilms ; drug effects ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; Fimbriae, Bacterial ; drug effects ; genetics ; metabolism ; Houttuynia ; chemistry ; Pseudomonas aeruginosa ; cytology ; drug effects ; genetics ; pathogenicity ; Sulfites ; pharmacology ; Virulence ; drug effects

To obtain the genome sequence of human bocavirus 2 (HBoV2), different regions of HBoV2 genome were amplified through PCR in fecal specimens which had been identified as single-positive for HBoV2 in 2010. A genome sequence of HBoV2 (HBoV2-NC, 5444 bp) was obtained after sequence assembly. The phylogenetic analysis showed that HBoV2-NC had the closest evolutionary relationship with HBoV2 Lanzhou strain. The predication of inverted terminal repeats of HBoV2-NC by DINAMelt showed that inverted terminal repeats were contained in HBoV2-NC 5' terminal, which had the typical stem-loop structure in other parvoviruses. Finally, some flanking sequences of HBoV2-NC were amplified by linker-PCR.
Base Sequence ; Gene Amplification ; Genome, Viral ; Human bocavirus ; chemistry ; classification ; genetics ; Humans ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Nucleic Acid Conformation ; Parvoviridae Infections ; virology ; Phylogeny ; RNA, Viral ; chemistry ; genetics ; Terminal Repeat Sequences

Objective To investigate the development of early myocardial perfusion with myocardial contrast echocardiography (MCE) combined with dipyridamole stress echocardiography in diabetic rats . Methods The diabetes mellitus (DM) group comprised 40 male diabetic rats ,induced with streptozotocin . The control group comprised 40 normal male rats ,comparable body weights with the DM group .The DM group was divided into four subgroups (0 week ,2 weeks ,4 weeks and 8 weeks after diabetic model established) and the control group was also divided into four subgroups matched with the DM group .Each rat was performed with conventional echocardiography ,MCE at baseline and after dipyridamole stress .The reserve parameters were compared between the control group and the DM group .In addition ,the differences among four subgroups in the control group and the DM group were compared ,respectively .Results MCE demonstrated that the 4 weeks and 8 weeks DM subgroup had lower myocardial blood velocity reserve and myocardial blood flow reserve than the control subgroup .The myocardial blood volume reserve was reduced in the 8 weeks DM subgroup ,too .Conclusions The impairment of myocardial perfusion in the DM rats are detected earlier with the MCE combined with dipyridamole stress .

Aim To investigate the time-dependent effect of insulin on the expression of SREBP-1(sterol regulatory element binding protein-1),FAS(fat acid synthase)and lipid droplet formation in HKC cells(human renal proximal tubular epithelial cells line).MethodsHKC cells were respectively treated with 100 nmol·L~(-1) insulin for 0,2,4,6,12 h and 24 h.The analysis of SREBP-1 and FAS mRNA was performed by RT-PCR and the expression of SREBP-1 protein was detected by Western blot and immunocytochemistry.Furthermore,Oil Red O staining was used to determine cellular lipid droplet formation.ResultsCompared with HKC cells of 0 h group,there was no difference of SREBP-1 and FAS mRNA in HKC cells of 2 h group.However,the expression of SREBP-1 and FAS mRNA was significantly increased in HKC cells of 4,6 h and 12 h group.Further,the most expression of SREBP-1 and FAS mRNA was at 6 h group and was respectively increased by 3.578 and 4.272 times compared with 0 h group.The results of Western blot showed that the precursor and mature segments of SREBP-1 protein in 4,6 h and 12 h group HKC cells were increased and those of 6 h group HKC cells were the highest and about 4.106 and 5.167 times than those of 0 h group HKC cells.Immunocytochemistry presented the result that SREBP-1 protein was located in the plasma and the expression of 4,6 h and 12 h group HKC cells was significantly higher than that of 0,2 h and 24 h group HKC cells.The result of Oil Red O staining showed that lipid droplet markedly deposited in 6 h group HKC cells,contrarily,no lipid droplet was found in HKC cells of other groups.ConclusionAbove results suggested that insulin up-regulated SREBP-1 and FAS in time-dependent manner that led to cellular lipid droplet deposit,which may play an important role in the pathogenesis of renal lipid accumulation in metabolism syndrome.

Aim To investigate the effects of suppressor of cytokine signaling-1(SOCS-1)on advanced glycation end products(AGEs)induced-renal tubular epithelial-myofibroblast transdifferentiation and activation of JAK/STAT in cultured human renal tubular epithelial cells(HKC).Methods Stable transfections of HKC with pCR3.1 vector and pCR3.1/SOCS-1 were performed with Lipofectamine 2000,and cells were selected with geneticin.Cells were stimulated with BSA and AGEs. The protein expressions of SOCS-1,α-SMA,E-cadherin,Col I,signal transducer and activatior of transcription 1,3(STAT1,STAT3),p-STAT1 and p-STAT3 were observed by Western blot.The protein synthesis of TGF-β_1 in the supernatants of the HKC was detected by enzyme-linked immunoadsorbent assay(ELISA).α-SMA and E-cadherin mRNA were measured by reverse transcription and polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR).Results Compared with control group,the expression levels of α-SMA protein and mRNA and Col I were significantly increased in HKC with AGEs stimulation and there was a higher concentrations of TGF-β_1 in the supernatants.However,the expression of E-cadherin protein and mRNA were decreased with AGEs stimulation.Overexpression of SOCS-1 inhibited AGEs-induced activation of STAT1 and STAT3 and high expression of α-SMA protein and mRNA and Col I,and reversed the expression of E-cadherin protein and mRNA induced by AGEs.Meanwhile,overexpression of SOCS-1 reduced the concentration of TGF-β_1 in the supernatants of HKC with AGEs stimulation.Conclusion Overexpression of SOCS-1 inhibits AGEs-induced renal tubular epithelial-myofibroblast transdifferentiation maybe partly through blocking activation of JAK/STAT.

Objective To design a novel electronic device for measuring the pressure in the cuff of the artificial airway; and to study the advantage of this device on continuous and intermittent cuff pressure monitoring. Methods ① a portable electronic device for cuff pressure measurement was invented, which could turn pressure signal into electrical signal through a pressure transducer. Meantime, it was possible to avoid pressure leak from the joint and the inside of the apparatus by modified Luer taper and sophisticated design. If the cuff pressure was out of the normal range, the apparatus could release a sound and light alarm. ② Six traditional mechanical manometers were used to determine the cuff pressure in 6 tracheal tubes. The cuff pressure was maintain at 30 cmH2O (1 cmH2O =0.098 kPa) by the manometer first, and repeated every 30 seconds for 4 times. ③ Study of continuous cuff pressure monitoring: We used a random number generator to randomize 6 tracheal tubes, 6 mechanical manometers and 6 our products by number 1-6, which has the same number of a group. Every group was further randomized into two balanced groups, one group used the mechanical manometer first, and the other used our product first. The baseline pressure was 30 cmH2O, measurement was performed every 4 hours for 6 times. Results When traditional mechanical manometer was used for cuff pressure monitoring, cuff pressure was decreased by an average of 2.9 cmH2O for each measurement (F = 728.2, P = 0.000). In study of continually monitoring, at each monitoring point, the pressure measured by electronic manometer was higher than the mechanical manometer. All the pressures measured by mechanical manometer were dropped below 20 cmH2O at 8th hour, and there was no pressure decrease below 20 cmH2O measured by electronic manometer in 24 hours by contrast. In study of intermittent monitoring, the same result was found. The pressure was dropped significantly with time when measured by mechanical manometer (F = 61.795, P = 0.000), the drops below 20 cmH2O began at 8th hour; but when measured by electronic manometer, all the value stayed unchanged around the baseline in 24 hours (F = 0.511, P = 0.796). Conclusions Compared with traditional mechanical manometer, cuff pressures monitored by our novel electronic manometer were steadier in both continuous and intermittent monitoring. The device is compact and convenient, and can provide a good solution for continuously monitor of the tracheal cuff pressure.