Objective To evaluate the clinical value of transoesophageal echocardiography on perventricular closure of ventricular septal defects(VSD).Methods Transoesophageal echocardiography (TEE)was performed in 27 patients with VSD diagnosed by the transthoracic echocardiography examination (TTE)and prepared to receive perventricular closure of VSD for the purposes of choosing the appropriate occluder before VSD closure and guiding occluder release during the operation and evaluating the post operative effects of VSD closure 1 week post operation.Results Three patients with VSD not suitable for perventrieular VSD closure according to TEE results were not operated,perventricular closure of VSD were successfully performed in 20 patients and minimal residual shunt was seen in 1 patient post operation,perventricular closure of VSD failed in 4 patients and these patients received surgical closure.TEE at 1 week post successfully with perventricular closure of VSD in the 20 patients showed that there were no residual shunts and the pulmonary artery pressure was significantly lower post operation compared to that of preoperation value.Conclusion TEE is helpful in choosing the suitable patients and occlude size,guiding occlude release and evaluating the post operative results for perventricular closure of ventricular septal defects.

OBJECTIVETo investigate the influence of total flavonoids of epimedium (TFE) on the streptozocin (STZ)-induced kidney injury in diabetic rats and discuss the possible mechanism.

METHODSDiabetes was produced by a single injection of streptozocin (40 mg/kg, iv) in male SD rats. The rats were randomly divided into three groups (n = 10): control group, model group and TFE group (100 mg/kg, ig). Animals were sacrificed 12 weeks later. The level of blood glucose, blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine (Cr) as well as the renal index were determined. Detect the specific biochemical of renal tissue: superoxide dismutase (SOD), malondialdehyde (MDA). Use masson staining to observe the morphology of the renal tissue. Immunohistochemistry was employed to determine the protein levels of transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1).

RESULTSCompared to control group, the enhancement of blood glucose, renal index, BUN and Cr was found in model group, which was significantly attenuated by treatment with TFE. Meanwhile, elevated MDA level in renal tissue as well as decreased SOD activities in renal tissue were significantly remitted by TFE. Furthermore, TFE decreased the expression of TGF-beta1.

CONCLUSIONTFE can evidently relieve renal damage in rats with diabetic nephropathy induced by STZ, which might be related to antioxidation and modulating the expression of TGF-beta1 protein.

Animals ; Diabetes Mellitus, Experimental ; metabolism ; Diabetic Nephropathies ; metabolism ; prevention & control ; Epimedium ; chemistry ; Flavonoids ; pharmacology ; Kidney ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Male ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley

The lack of effective in vitro infection model for hepatitis E virus (HEV) has greatly hindered the quantitative analysis of neutralizing titers of anti-HEV antibodies and human sera, thus impeding further studies of HEV-stimulated antibody responses and the immunological mechanisms. In order to improve this situation, the infection of HepG2 cells that are inefficient for HEV replication was continuously monitored until the viral load reached the limit of detection on day 13, the results of which confirmed the feasibility of using this cell line to establish the infection model. Then, neutralization assays of five anti-HEV murine monoclonal antibodies and serum samples collected from four HEV vaccine recipients (collected before and after vaccination) were performed by 96 multi-channel parallel infections, nucleic acid extraction, and qPCR. The results showed that the cell model can be applied for quantitative evaluation of the neutralizing capacity of different antibodies and antiserum samples from HEV vaccine recipients. In this study, we have successfully established a high-throughput in vitro HEV replication model, which will prove to be useful for the evaluation of HEV vaccines and studies of HEV epitopes.
Animals ; Antibodies, Viral ; analysis ; immunology ; Hepatitis Antibodies ; analysis ; immunology ; Hepatitis E ; immunology ; virology ; Hepatitis E virus ; chemistry ; immunology ; physiology ; High-Throughput Screening Assays ; methods ; Humans ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred BALB C ; Neutralization Tests ; methods ; Virus Replication

AIMTo establish a resolution method for alpha-cyclohexyl mandelic acid enantiomers by enantioselective extraction and to observe the effects of all kinds of tartaric esters, pH, the concentration of D-tartaric esters and beta-cyclodextrin on the enantioselectivity.

METHODSResolution of alpha-cyclohexyl mandelic acid enantiomers by enantioselective extraction with tartaric esters and beta-cyclodextrin has been studied.

RESULTSThe distribution behavior of alpha-cyclohexyl mandelic acid enantiomers in the separation system was studied. The effects of all kinds of tartaric esters, pH, the concentration of D-tartaric esters and beta-cyclodextrin on the enantioselectivity has been examined in the two-phase.

CONCLUSIONResults showed that the complex formed by D-iso-butyl-D-tartaric ester with R enantiomer is stabler than that with S enantiomer. With the increase of pH, the partition coefficient and separation factor decreased. The concentration of beta-cyclodextrin and D-tartaric ester had visible effect on the enantioselectivity.

Esters ; Mandelic Acids ; chemistry ; Stereoisomerism ; Tartrates ; chemistry ; beta-Cyclodextrins ; chemistry

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a multifactorial disease in which inflammation plays a central role.This study aimed to investigate the association of inflammatory markers such as the neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR),the Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE) score with in-hospital mortality of elderly patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in an attempt to explore the prognostic value of these indices for elderly AMI patients.One thousand consecutive CAD patients were divided into two groups based on age 60.The laboratory and clinical characteristics were assessed retrospectively by reviewing the medical records.The NLR and GRACE score were calculated.In the elderly (≥60 years),patients with non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) and ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) had significantly higher NLR than did those with unstable angina (UA) and stable angina pectoris (SAP) (P＜0.01).The NLR was considerably elevated in older AMI patients compared with their younger counterparts (＜60 years) (P＜0.05).In elderly AMI patients,the NLR was considerably higher in the high-risk group than in both the low-risk and medium-risk groups based on the GRACE score (P＜0.05 and P＜0.01,respectively),and the NLR was positively correlated with the GRACE score (r=0.322,P＜0.001).Either the NLR level or the GRACE score was significantly higher in the death group than in the surviving group (P＜0.05).By curve receiver operator characteristic curve (ROC) analysis,the optimal cut-off levels of 9.41 for NLR and 174 for GRACE score predicted in-hospital death [ROC area under the curve (AUC) 0.771 and 0.787,respectively,P＜0.001].It was concluded that an elevated NLR is a potential predictor of in-hospital mortality in elderly patients with AMI.

Objective To compare the differences of electrical activity in calf muscle of children with growing pains from normal children when standing and heel raising. Methods 32 children with growing pains and foot pronation were as growing pains group, and 32 normal children as control group. All the children were measure with surface electromyography (sEMG) of tibialis anterior, peroneus longus, medial gastrocnemius and tibialis posterior when standing and heel raising. Results The root mean square (RMS) of peroneus longus increased significantly in growing pains group when standing (P<0.01). The RMS decreased significantly in medial gastrocnemius (P<0.05) and increased significantly in tibialis posterior (P<0.01) when heel raising. Conclusion The characteristics of electrical activity in calf muscle is difference from the normal in the growing pains children with foot pronation during standing and heel raising.

Objective To establish a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry(LC-MS/MS)method for the determination concentration of duloxetine in human plasma and study on its pharmacokinetics in healthy human.Methods The separation of duloxetine was performed on Phenomenex C_(18) column with fluoxetine as the internal standard.The mobile phase was composed of 5 mmol L~(-1) ammonium acetate with 0.02% formic acid acetonitrile(55:45).Electrospray ionization source was applied and operated in positive ion mode.A single dose of 60 mg duloxetine hydrochloride was given to 5 male and 5 female healthy volunteers and the plasma was separated.The concentration of duloxetine was determined by HPLC-MS/MS and the pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated.Results The linear range of duloxetine was 0.89-106.80 ng·mL~(-1)(γ=0.9977).The methodological recovery and the extraction recovery ranged between 93.19%-107.27% and 72.81%-89.96%,respectively.Both the inter-day RSD and intra-day RSD were less than 11%.The main pharmacokinetic parameters after a single dose of 60mg duloxetine are as follows: C_(max) was(44.40 ±17.78)ng·mL~(-1),t_(max) was(6.10±1.29)h,t_(1/2) was(12.81 ±2.31)h;AUC_(0-60) and AUC_(0-∞) were (696.04±337.82),(733.82±343.40)ng·h·mL~(-1),respectively.Conclusion The method is simple,accurate and reliable,and suitable for the determination of duloxe-tine in therapeutic drug monitor and its pharmacokinetics study.

OBJECTIVETo study the changes of serum interleukin-2 (IL-2), interleukin-8 (IL-8) and immunoglobulin (IgG, IgA, IgM) in patients with esophageal cancer, and to probe the relationship between the levels of IL-2, IL-8, IgG, IgA and IgM and the progress of cancer.

METHODSThe serum levels of IL-2 and IL-8 were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for 72 case of primary esophageal cancer, 68 advanced esophageal cancer and 120 healthy controls, and the level of immunoglobulin (IgG, IgA, IgM) in patients with esophageal cancer was dynamically observed.

RESULTSThe IL-2 level in patients with early esophageal cancer [(1.69 +/- 0.53) ng/ml] or late esophageal cancer [(1.11 +/- 0.60) ng/ml] was lower than the control group [(2.78 +/- 0.51) ng/ml] (P < 0.01), the late esophageal cancer group was lower than early esophageal cancer group (P < 0.05). The level of IL-8 in patients with early esophageal cancer [(85.48 +/- 6.14) ng/L] or late esophageal cancer [(121.41 +/- 6.22) ng/L] was much higher than the control group [(54.48 +/- 12.20) ng/L] (P < 0.01), the late esophageal cancer group was much higher than early esophageal cancer group (P < 0.01); There was correlation between the levels of IL-2 and IL-8 and the worsen-extent of the tumour in patients with early esophageal cancer or late esophageal cancer. But the level of IgG [(12.23 +/- 2.50) g/L], IgM [(1.60 +/- 0.80) g/L] in the patients with esophageal cancer compared with the level of IgG [(11.65 +/- 3.70) g/L], IgM [(1.46 +/- 0.71) g/L] in the health control group have no significant difference (P > 0.05), the level of IgA [(3.50 +/- 1.10) g/L] in patients with esophageal cancer Compared with the control group [(1.88 +/- 1.08) g/L] has significant difference (P < 0.01), and along with the worsen-extent of the tumor in patients the level of IgA has the increased tendency.

CONCLUSIONThe IL-8 might accelerate the pathogenesis of esophageal cancer, and the IL-2 might restrain. The positive correlation between the level of IgA and the patients with esophageal cancer is observed in this study; the immune maladjustment of IL-2, IL-8 and IgA might be correlative to esophageal cancer, and the IL-2, IL-8 and IgA levels might be an available index for the severity of esophageal cancer, Which may be of some help for clinic practitioners to judge the progress, curative effect and prognosis of the cancer.

Adult ; Aged ; Case-Control Studies ; Esophageal Neoplasms ; blood ; pathology ; Female ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin A ; blood ; Immunoglobulin G ; blood ; Immunoglobulin M ; blood ; Interleukin-2 ; blood ; Interleukin-8 ; blood ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Staging

OBJECTIVETo construct eukaryotic expression vector of the truncated septin2 and investigate the influence on the cultured mouse epidermal cell and fibroblast in vitro exerted by the transgenic expression product.

METHODSThe short splicing fragment was obtained by amplifying the reverse transcription product of the fetal mouse skin mRNA with PCR. Then its recombinant expression vector pcDNA3.1 (-)/septin2s was constructed and used to transfect the mouse epidermal cell and fibroblast cultured in vitro. The expression of the foreign gene was detected with RT-PCR and the changes of cell proliferation were observed and analysed.

RESULTSRT-PCR results indicated that pcDNA3.1/septin2 was expressed in the cultured mouse epidermal cells and fibroblasts in vitro. We found that the epidermal cells accelerated their reproduction, but the fibroblasts had no obvious changes.

CONCLUSIONWe successfully constructed eukaryotic expressive vectors of pcDNA3.1/ septin2s and transfected it into mouse epidermal cells and fibroblasts in vitro. The results settle a basis for showing effect of septin2s on fetal mouse skin.

Animals ; Cell Line ; Cytoskeletal Proteins ; genetics ; DNA, Recombinant ; Epithelial Cells ; cytology ; Fibroblasts ; cytology ; GTP-Binding Proteins ; genetics ; Genetic Vectors ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred BALB C ; Septins ; Skin ; cytology ; Transfection

The Oncomelania hupensis snails were dually infected with Exorchis mupingensis and Schistosoma japonicum at different intervals for 21 d,37 d,55 d,70 d and 85 d.The results indicated that the development of all S.japonicum larvae were blocked in the snails of co-infection,and the complexity and number of secretions in and around all the wrecked S.japonicum larvae is proportional to the intervals of co-infection.In addition,we also described and compared the detailed change of snails' secretions in different conditions of infection,and determined that the snail's secretions may involve in the destruction and damage of S.japonicum larvae.The attack degrees on larval S.japonicum in O.hupensis snails dually infected by E.mupingensis and S.japonicum with longer intervals were stronger than that of shorter intervals,and snail haemo-lymphocytes numbers were more few in that of shorter intervals.But the secretions remarkably increased in more longer interval model experimental snail tissue.This finding may provide an alternative strategy for reducing and controlling the transmission of S.japonicum,and are very helpful for better understanding the host-parasite relationship.