OBJECTIVETo explore the effects of high altitude on cognitive flexibility.

METHODSSimulated hypoxia at an altitude of 3 600 m was performed in a hypobaric chamber. Twenty-three volunteers without hypoxic experience were selected and the mean age was about 25.1 years. The physiological parameters (heart rate, blood pressure and oxygen saturation) were measured. Task switch paradigm was used to explore the cognitive flexibility in each phase, and the changing anxiety state was evaluated simultaneously.

RESULTSReaction time (RT) switch cost in hypoxia phase showed a significant increase compared with the baseline; anxiety level in hypoxia phase was higher than the adaptation phase; a remarkable negative correlation between anxiety level and RT switch cost was found in adaptation phase, whereas a positive correlation was found in landing phase.

CONCLUSIONHigh altitude (3 600 m) affects cognitive flexibility and anxiety state. Anxiety before the hypoxia exposure improves the cognitive flexibility performance, while anxiety after the hypoxia exposure hampers the performance because of the post-hypoxia effect.

Adult ; Altitude ; Anxiety ; Cognition ; physiology ; Humans ; Hypoxia ; psychology ; Male ; Reaction Time

Objective To investigate the effect of self-care management in chroniv diseases and nursing intervention on discharged postoperative patients with laryngeal cancer with trachea casing. Methods A retrospective analysis was performed in 40 cases as a control group and 43 cases as a intervention group. The later group was given a variety of interventions in hospital and after hospital. The control group adopted the routine nursing. Patients in the two groups were assessed on anxiety conditions and health status. Results There were significant differences on the health status and anxiety conditions between the two groups (P<0.01). Condusions The nursing intervention of self-care management on discharged patients with laryngeal cancer with trachea casing, not only changes the patients' activities of simple dependence and passive receipt, but also enables the patients to participate in the disease management and learn the problem-solving skills, whereby self-adjusting the mental state and increasing the quality of life.

OBJECTIVETo observe the effects of acute hypoxia on the cell adhesion molecule close homologue of L1 (CHL1) expression in different brain areas and main organs (heart, lung, kidney) of mice, and provide a basis for the role of CHL1 in hypoxia injury.

METHODSMice were randomly divided into two groups (n=10): normoxia group and hypoxia group. Hypoxia group were treated by acute hypoxia (8% O2, 8 h). Protein expression changes in different tissues were evaluated by Western blot.

RESULTSIn central nervous system, CHL1 protein expressions were down-regulated in cerebral cortex, hypothalamus and brain stem by acute hypoxia and up-regulated in cerebellum. In heart and lung, CHL1 protein expression were down-regulated by acute hypoxia.

CONCLUSIONCHL1 protein expressions were changed in different tissues after acute hypoxia, which suggested CHL1 might play an important role in hypoxia damage regulation.

Animals ; Brain ; metabolism ; Cell Adhesion Molecules ; genetics ; metabolism ; Hypoxia ; metabolism ; Lung ; metabolism ; Male ; Mice ; Myocardium ; metabolism ; Tissue Distribution

Objective To investigate the ways of recovery guidance for aged patients with vertigo. Methods 450 aged patients with vertigo were divided into two groups. Patients in the experimental group were those coming to our ENT outpatient department in the odd months and patients in the control group were those coming to our ENT outpatient department in the even months. The 234 patients in the experimental group were treated with recovery training of standing balance training, head-moving, visual balance training and psychological counseling. The 216 patients in the control group weren't given any guidanco of balance training but medical treatment and psychological counseling. Evaluations were conducted after the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd months of treatment respectively. Results The relieving rate was 17.09%, 82.05% and 88.03% respectively in the experimental group and 2.78%, 26. 85% and 41.67% respectively in the control group after the 1st, 2rd, and 3th months of treatment(P < 0. 001 ). Condusions Standing balance training, head-moving, visual balance training and psychological counseling are effective in the treatment for aged patients with vertigo.

OBJECTIVETo investigate the regulation of different hypoxia on cell survival and autophagy.

METHODSPC12 cells were treated with different hypoxia. The cell survival was measured by MTT assay, expressions of LC3 and p62 were marked for autophagy detected by Western Blot, and the level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) was analyzed by flow cytometry.

RESULTSThe cell viability was different under different hypoxia: moderate hypoxia promoted cell viability, and severe hypoxia caused a decrease in cell viability; autophagy marker molecules, p62 and LC3-II expressions were different: moderate hypoxia increased p62 and LC3-II expressions, in contrast, severe hypoxia led to the decrease of p62 and LC3-II expressions; compared to normoxia, moderate hypoxia did not change the levels of ROS, while severe hypoxia increased the levels; 3-MA, the inhibitor of autophagy, elevated the levels of ROS in the three oxygen concentrations, additionally, the increased amplitudes in the moderate and severe hypoxia groups were higher than that in the normoxia group.

CONCLUSIONModerate hypoxia promotes cell survival, severe hypoxia causes the cell death, and the autophagy activity may mediate the effects of different hypoxia.

Animals ; Autophagy ; physiology ; Cell Death ; Cell Hypoxia ; Cell Survival ; PC12 Cells ; Rats ; Reactive Oxygen Species ; metabolism

OBJECTIVERecent study demonstrated that hypoxia could regulate the proliferation and differentiation of neural stem cells in vitro. In the present study, effects of low glucose and/or hypoxia on the proliferation and metabolism of neural stem cells were investigated in vitro.

METHODSThe neural stem cells were isolated from the rat embryonic mesencephalon (E13.5), and exposed to different oxygen concentrations (low oxygen: 3% O2 or normoxia: 20% O2) and different glucose concentrations (high glucose concentration: 4.5 g/L and low glucose concentration: 1.4 g/L) for 3 days. The proliferation of neural stem cells were examined by CCK-8 assay. Furthermore, the content of glucose, lactate, and pyruvic acid in the medium were measured after cultured in different condition for 1, 3, 5 days.

RESULTSLow oxygen and low glucose could increase the proliferation of neural stem cells respectively; in addition, the number of neurospheres under both low oxygen and glucose was the most among the four groups. The content of glucose and pyruvic acid in the medium from low oxygen or low glucose condition decreased, while the lactate concentration increased compared with the control group.

CONCLUSIONThe results indicate the neural stem cells prefer grow under the low glucose and low oxygen condition, and that is mainly under going glycolysis to maintain its self-renew ability. This study may provide us a useful clue for application of neural stem cells transplantation.

Animals ; Cell Hypoxia ; Cell Proliferation ; Cells, Cultured ; Female ; Glucose ; metabolism ; Glycolysis ; Neural Stem Cells ; cytology ; metabolism ; Pregnancy ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley

OBJECTIVETo study the chemical constituents of Microtropis triflora.

METHODThe compounds were isolated by chromatography on silica gel and Sephadex LH-20. There structures were elucidatedby by chemical methods and spectral analysis.

RESULTFive triterpenoids were isolated and elucidated as friedelin (1), 3-oxo-28-friedelanoic acid (2), 29-hydroxy-3-friedelanone (3), salaspermic acid (4), orthosphenic acid (5).

CONCLUSIONCompounds 1-5 are all isolated from M. triflora for the first time.

Celastraceae ; chemistry ; Plant Stems ; chemistry ; Plants, Medicinal ; chemistry ; Triterpenes ; chemistry ; isolation & purification

Objective To investigate the interference of thyroglobulin antibodies ( TgAb ) on the measurement of thyroglobulin ( Tg) by 2 chemiluminescence immunoassays ( CLIAs) .Methods Data of 199 315 individuals with determined TgAb and Tg , including physical checkup subjects , differentiated thyroid carcinoma ( DTC) patients and patients with other diseases , were retrospectively collected in Peking Union Medical College Hospital from November 2012 to April 2015.The correlation between serum Tg level and serum TgAb concentration was analyzed and the positive rate of TgAb in physical checkup subjects was calculated.Furthermore, 290 serum samples with different TgAb concentration were applied in the recovery test by adding in confirmed serum Tg .The correlation between the recovery of confirmed serum Tg and TgAb concentrations was evaluated using Pearson correlation analysis .Results The serum Tg was all decreased with the elevated TgAb concentration in each group of subjects .The positive rate of TgAb was 10.84%(8 416/77 634) in physical checkup subjects .It was higher in females than in males and was increased with age.Recovery test showed that the average recoveries of confirmed serum Tg in TgAb-negative serum were 107.28%(86.30%-117.60%) and 107.94% (85.60%-124.10%) respectively in Roche and Beckman systems.But in TgAb-positive serum samples , the average recoveries in Roche and Beckman systems were 88.59% (35.85% -141.53%) and 95.77% (36.48% -131.78%) respectively, and 12.63%(24/190) and 13.68%(26/190) samples displayed a recovery less than 80%.The recovery rate of confirmed serum Tg showed a significantly negative correlation with elevated TgAb concentration , with r=-0.239 (P=0.001) in Roche and r=-0.251 (P<0.001) in Beckman.Conclusions TgAb-positive serum, especially with high concentration of TgAb , significantly interfered the measurement of Tg .Thus, serum TgAb should be determined together with serum Tg to explore whether there was an interference .To avoid misdiagnosis and inappropriate therapy , clinician should be informed once serum TgAb displayed positive.

BACKGROUNDRecent studies have demonstrated that dexamethasone (DEX) interferes with immune responses by targeting key functions of dendritic cells (DCs) at the earliest stage. However, the cellular and molecular mechanisms are still incompletely understood. This study aimed to explore the possible mechanisms by investigating the roles of DEX on differentiation, maturation & function of murine DCs and the effects of DEX on DCs via Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4)-nuclear factor (NF)-kappaB mediated signal pathway.

METHODSImmature DCs (imDCs) were cultured from murine bone marrow (BM) cells. We added DEX into culture medium at different time. The expression of CD11c, CD86 and I-A(b) (mouse MHC class II molecule) was determined by flow cytometry. We determined the expression of NF-kappaB and its inhibitory protein I-kappaBalpha by electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) and Western blotting, respectively. The productions of interleukin (IL)-12p70 and IL-10 in cell culture supernatants were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).

RESULTSDEX impaired differentiation of DCs from murine bone marrow progenitors, and inhibited lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induced maturation of DCs. DEX significantly inhibited NF-kappaB expression of normal DCs, the higher the DEX concentration or the longer the DEX treatment time, the more obvious the effect. However, DEX had little effect on LPS-induced NF-kappaB activation, and partially impaired LPS-induced I-kappaBalpha degradation. DEX significantly decreased LPS induced IL-12p70 production by DCs. Interestingly, our results showed a synergistic effect between DEX and LPS on the production of IL-10 by DCs.

CONCLUSIONSDEX inhibits the differentiation and maturation of murine DCs involved in TLR4-I-kappaB-NF-kappaB pathway, and also indirectly impairs Th1 development and interferes with the Th1-Th2 balance through IL-12 and/or IL-10 secretion by DCs.

Animals ; Blotting, Western ; Bone Marrow Cells ; cytology ; Cell Differentiation ; drug effects ; Cells, Cultured ; Dendritic Cells ; cytology ; metabolism ; Dexamethasone ; pharmacology ; Electrophoretic Mobility Shift Assay ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Flow Cytometry ; Male ; Mice ; NF-kappa B ; metabolism ; Signal Transduction ; drug effects ; Toll-Like Receptor 4 ; metabolism

Objective To explore the nursing of embolization with tissue adhesive NBCA (n-butyl-2-cyano-acrylate) for patients with esophageal-gastric fundus varices in portal hypertension. Methods The clinical data and nursing of 28 cases with NBCA embolization for esophageal-gastric fundus varices in portal hypertension were retrospectively analyzed during and after the intervention. Results 27 cases were embolized successfully with obtaining hemostatic effects, and the other one case failed. Among the 26 successful cases, there were 4 cases with pulmonary thromboembolism, 2 cases with one-off cough, 20 cases with vomiting and mild abdominal pain, and no case with puncture and intraperitoneal hemorrhage. Conclusions It is important for nurses to give patients pertinent psychological nursing before operation, to closely observe the disease situation during embolization and to careftdly observe and nurse after operation to increase the success rate of operation and reduce the complications.