Acupuncture Therapy ; Adult ; Aged ; Female ; Humans ; Irritable Bowel Syndrome ; therapy ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Scalp ; Young Adult

In order to explore the dormancy physiological and biochemical mechanism of Paris seeds, the seed embryo growth courses, and the dynamic change of 5 enzymes, include SOD, POD, CAT, MDH, G-6-PDH were measured during variable temperature stratification. The results indicated that Paris seeds embryo grew quickly after 40 d in warm-stratification (18 ± 1) °C, at the meantime the metabolic activity was significantly strengthened. These facts showed that Paris seeds turned into physiological after-ripening process. After 60-80 d, the morphological embryo after-ripping process basically completed, and the following cold-stratification (4 ± 1) °C furthered Paris seed to finish physiological after-ripening. After 40 d, the activity of MDH decreased while G-6-PDH increased significantly. This showed that the main respiratory pathway of seed changed from TCA to PPP, which benifited breaking seed dormancy. In the whole period of stratification process, the activity variation of SOD and CAT was insignificantly and the activity of POD was enhanced significantly after shifting the seed in cold stratification process. This showed that SOD, CAT had no direct effects on breaking Paris seed dormancy but keeping the seed vigor, while the POD might involve in the process of Paris seed dormancy breaking.
Germination ; Liliaceae ; chemistry ; embryology ; enzymology ; Plant Proteins ; metabolism ; Seeds ; chemistry ; enzymology ; growth & development ; Temperature

Standardized Manipulation of Acupuncture and Moxibustion Part 8: Intradermal Needle was compiled with the following principles. The compiling standard, technical features and clinic manipulations of intradermal needle were taken as the basic principle for compiling. Literature research, expert survey and clinic practice verification were applied as the drafting methods. The key issues were focused on the relationship between standardization and individualization, normalization and effectiveness, qualification and quantification. And the postural selection, reinforcing and reducing manipulations, fixing materials and embedding duration involved in intradermal needling were emphasized particularly. At the same time, details and the future way of thinking of intradermal needle were expounded in this article as well.
Acupuncture Therapy ; instrumentation ; standards ; China ; Humans ; Moxibustion ; standards ; Needles ; standards ; Reference Standards

OBJECTIVETo study the effect of C5-siRNA on pathological changes after myocardial ischemia in rats.

METHODSThirty healthy Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into sham-operated group, ischemia group and C5-siRNA group. The cardiac ischemia models were established in ischemia group and C5-siRNA group by ligating the proximal end of the left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery. The rats were infused with 100 microl/kg of C5-siRNA into myocardial tissue in C5-siRNA group and equal amount of normal saline in ischemia group and sham-operated group after ligating the LAD coronary artery for 30 min and then performed of ischemia for 4 hours. The cardiac index and left ventricular mass index were determined, morphological changes of myocardial tissue observed under optical microscope and the expression of C5 was detected by immunohistochemical staining and image analysis system.

RESULTSThere were no statistically significant difference between the three groups in the left ventricular mass index and cardiac index in the rats after ischemia for 4 hours. Light microscopy indicated edema and degeneration of the myocardial tissue were milder in C5-siRNA group than in ischemia group, a small amount of red blood cells existed in the myocardial stroma of the former. The expression of C5 was increased more significantly in ischemia group and C5-siRNA group than in sham-operated group (P<0.001), but was decreased in C5-siRNA group more than in ischemia group with no statistically significant difference between the two groups (P=0.132).

CONCLUSIONC5-siRNA could attenuate myocardial ischemia injury in rats by reducing inflammatory cell infiltration and expression of C5.

Animals ; Complement C5 ; genetics ; Male ; Myocardial Ischemia ; genetics ; pathology ; Myocardial Reperfusion Injury ; prevention & control ; RNA Interference ; RNA, Small Interfering ; genetics ; Random Allocation ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Receptor, Anaphylatoxin C5a ; genetics

The aim of study was to investigate the injury of bone marrow microenvironment after γ ray irradiation conditioning in mouse allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). The mononuclear cells collected from mice bone marrow for culture in vitro, were identified by flow cytometry with double staining when cultured for 5 - 7 days. Mice were separated randomly into 4 groups, namely, the control group, irradiation group, endothelial progenitor cell (EPC) transplantation group and irradiation combined EPC transplantation group. Peripheral blood was collected to assay the circulating white blood cells. The histological, electron microscopic and immunofluorescence analyses of bone marrow were performed in the same time, furthermore the distribution of labeled EPC was determined. The results showed that EPC were identified as CD45(low/-)CD133(+)CD31(+), double positive of Dil-Ac-LDL and FITC-UEA-1. The bone marrow microenvironment injury of recipient mice was shown in the irradiation group in which the number of WBC began to decrease after conditioning, and the mice were all died at 8 days (p < 0.05). The intramedullary hemorrhage could be detected by light microscopy at 3 days after irradiation, when the destruction of connection between endothelial cell and the basement membrane was observed by TEM. There were CFSE labeled cells in bone marrow in irradiation combined EPC transplantation group at 18 hours after transplanted cultured EPC in vitro, the number of CFSE(+) cells was 58-folds of EPC transplantation group (p < 0.05). It is concluded that the irradiation can cause the severe endothelium injury that drives extrinsic EPC homing to the injured bone marrow microenvironment.
Animals ; Bone Marrow ; pathology ; radiation effects ; Bone Marrow Cells ; cytology ; radiation effects ; Bone Marrow Transplantation ; methods ; Cells, Cultured ; Endothelial Cells ; cytology ; radiation effects ; Gamma Rays ; adverse effects ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred BALB C ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; Stem Cells ; cytology ; radiation effects ; Transplantation Conditioning ; adverse effects

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the association between vasectomy and prostate cancer.

METHODSWe searched comprehensively the databases, CBMDisc, CMCC, CMAC, CNKI (from 1978 to January 6, 2009), and PubMed (from 1965 to January 6, 2009) using the key words "vasectomy" and "prostate cancer", screened the retrieved literature according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, performed a Meta-analysis with the software RevMan 4.2 after identification of the relevant data, and calculated the overall pooled OR (95% CI) as well as that of the association of prostate cancer with <20 and > or =20 yr vasectomy.

RESULTSA total of 20 088 cases and 232 506 controls in 27 reports (7 cohort and 20 case-control studies) were included in this investigation. The overall pooled OR (95% CI) was 1.10 (0.97-1.24), and those of <20 and > or =20 yr vasectomy were 0.94 (0.83-1.06) and 1.05 (0.90-1.23), respectively.

CONCLUSIONNo existing literature show any positive association between vasectomy and prostate cancer.

Humans ; Male ; Prostatic Neoplasms ; epidemiology ; etiology ; Risk Factors ; Vasectomy ; adverse effects

Shigella flexneri is an infectious pathogen that causes dysentery to human, which remains a serious threat to public health, particularly in developing countries. In this study, the global protein expression patterns of S. flexneri during transition from exponential growth to stationary phase in vitro were analyzed by using 2-D PAGE combined with MALDI-TOF MS. In a time-course experiment with five time points, the relative abundance of 49 protein spots varied significantly. Interestingly, a putative outer membrane protein YciD (OmpW) was almost not detected in the exponential growth phase but became one of the most abundant proteins in the whole stationary-phase proteome. Some proteins regulated by the global regulator FNR were also significantly induced (such as AnsB, AspA, FrdAB, and KatG) or repressed (such as AceEF, OmpX, SodA, and SucAB) during the growth phase transition. These proteins may be the key effectors of the bacterial cell cycle or play important roles in the cellular maintenance and stress responses. Our expression profile data provide valuable information for the study of bacterial physiology and form the basis for future proteomic analyses of this pathogen.
Bacterial Proteins ; analysis ; Computational Biology ; Electrophoresis, Gel, Two-Dimensional ; Gene Expression Profiling ; methods ; Kinetics ; Peptide Mapping ; Proteome ; analysis ; Proteomics ; methods ; Shigella flexneri ; growth & development ; metabolism ; pathogenicity ; Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization ; Temperature ; Trypsin ; pharmacology ; Virulence

OBJECTIVETo identify cancer-related genes in diffuse-type gastric cancer and to explore its molecular mechanism by cDNA microarray analysis.

METHODSA total of 22 pairs of diffuse-type gastric cancer tissue and the corresponding normal mucosa were taken and freshly frozen. cDNA microarray with 14,592 genes/ESTs was used. Genes were considered to be up- or down-regulated when the fluorescent intensity ratio between tumor and normal mucosa was over 2-fold in over 50% of the samples (P < 0.05). Hierarchical clustering of regulated genes was performed as a measure to study expressional similarity. Validation of array results was carried out by real time quantitative PCR (QPCR).

RESULTSCompared with those of corresponding normal mucosa, there were a total of 153 genes/ESTs up-regulated and 204 down-regulated in diffuse-type gastric cancer. Hierarchical clustering demonstrated that the genes belonging to the same subgroup displayed similar function. Most of the overexpressed genes were those related to cell adhesion, cell motility, matrix reconstruction, cell proliferation and/or signal transduction; while genes related to defense response, toxicoid metabolism, DNA repairing, nuclear-cytoplasmic transport and/or anti-apoptosis made up the main list of the underexpressed genes. Seven genes showed higher expression in TNM (T I + T II) group than in (T III + T IV) group. QPCR confirmed the array analysis results.

CONCLUSIONGene expression profiling by cDNA microarray analysis provides not only molecular understanding of biological properties of cancer, but may also be helpful in discovering new diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets in gastric adenocarcinoma.

Adenocarcinoma ; genetics ; metabolism ; Biglycan ; Collagen Type I ; metabolism ; Expressed Sequence Tags ; Extracellular Matrix Proteins ; metabolism ; Female ; Gene Expression Profiling ; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic ; Humans ; Male ; Microfilament Proteins ; metabolism ; Middle Aged ; Muscle Proteins ; metabolism ; Neoplasm Staging ; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis ; Pepsinogen C ; metabolism ; Proteoglycans ; metabolism ; Stomach Neoplasms ; genetics ; metabolism

OBJECTIVETo investigate the relationship of seminal plasma levocarnitine with sperm concentration, vitality and motility.

METHODSEnrolled in this study were 64 infertile men, who were divided according to the results of routine sperm tests into a normozoospermia (n = 12), an oligozoospermia (n = 16), an asthenozoospermia (n = 20) and an oligoasthenozoospermia group (n = 16). The level of seminal plasma levocarnitine was detected by LC-MS-MS, the concentration of seminal plasma testosterone measured by chemiluminescence immunoassay, the correlation of seminal plasma levocarnitine with sperm concentration, motility and vitality determined by bivariate correlation analysis with SPSS15.0, and so was the correlation between the carnitine and sperm concentration by partial correlation analysis with seminal plasma testosterone as a control variable to exclude the influence of testosterone.

RESULTSThe concentrations of total seminal plasma levocarnitine, free seminal plasma levocarnitine and seminal plasma acetolevocarnitine were (91.33 +/- 40.49) mg/L, (40.89 +/- 24.13) mg/L and (50.44 +/- 21.90) mg/L; the Pearson coefficients of correlation of the levocarnitine level with sperm motility, vitality and concentration were 0.161 (P = 0.235), 0.114 (P = 0.370) and 0.637 (P < 0.001), those of free seminal carnitine with sperm motility and vitality were 0.325 (P = 0.024) and 0.316 (P = 0.029), respectively, with the oligozoospermia group excluded, and that of partial correlation between the concentrations of seminal levocarnitine and sperm was 0.641 (P < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONThe level of seminal plasma levocarnitine is positively correlated with sperm motility and vitality, and more significantly with sperm concentration.

Adult ; Carnitine ; analysis ; Humans ; Infertility, Male ; physiopathology ; Male ; Semen ; chemistry ; cytology ; Sperm Count ; Sperm Motility ; physiology ; Spermatozoa ; cytology ; physiology ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo investigate the correlation between Ureaplasma urealyticum infection and infertility in Chinese males.

METHODSAccording to the results of the heterogeneity test, a comprehensive quantitative analysis was made of 49 papers on Ureaplasma urealyticum infection and Chinese male infertility by RevMan 4.2.2. The impacts of different sample volumes on the research findings were compared, and the sensitivities of culture and PCR detections analyzed respectively.

RESULTSUreaplasma urealyticum had a significant negative impact on Chinese male fertility. Based on different samples of literature, two rounds of screening and analysis were carried out and two different conclusions derived. The first was OR = 4.43 (95% CI: 3.77-5.22), with the OR values of culture and PCR detections as 4.25 (95% CI: 3.59-5.03) and 5.35 (95% CI: 3.37-8.47), and the second was OR = 4.28 (95% CI: 3.52-5.20), with the OR values of culture and PCR detections as 4.24 (95% CI: 3.41-5.28) and 4.42 (95% CI: 2.73-7.17).

CONCLUSIONThere is a significant correlation between Ureaplasma urealyticum and Chinese male infertility. The conclusion of study is significantly influenced by the sample volume, which should be reasonably designed. The sensitivity of PCR detection is higher than that of culture detection.

China ; epidemiology ; Humans ; Infertility, Male ; epidemiology ; Male ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Ureaplasma Infections ; epidemiology ; microbiology ; Ureaplasma urealyticum ; genetics ; isolation & purification