: ObjectiveTo compare the clinical significance of motor unit number estimates (MUNE) and conventional electromyogram (EMG) in the evaluation of neuromuscular disorders. MethodsUnder the model of MUNE or quantity of motor unit potential (QMUP), 53 patients with various neurogenic disorders were tested with EMG at extensor digitorum brevis, thenar, or hypothenar eminence. ResultsFor 8 patients with amyotrophic lateralizing sclerosis, large and long-duration polyphasic potentials were detected in needle electrode EMG tests, and the motor unit numbers reduced. For 45 patients with peripheral neuropathies, few distinctive features could not be detected by needle electrode EMG, but motor unit numbers reduced in 2 patients; spontaneous activities were the only abnormality in the other 2 patients, and there were no obviously abnormal changes in the configuration and size of motor unit potentials and in motor unit numbers; EMG tests revealed neurogenic features and motor unit numbers significantly reduced in the remaining 41 patients. ConclusionConventional EMG and MUNE can work for the diagnosis of neuromuscular disorders, and do better in combination.

Background Researches demonstrated that dendritic cells(DCs) are uniformly immature in the central cornea but mature in the peripheral region of cornea.So an important question is which factor impact the maturation of DCs,especially in terms of corneal transplant rejection and the known roles of DCs in the development and persistence of some corneal diseases.Objective This study aimed to examine whether corneal stroma cells (CSCs) inhibit DCs maturation through secreting transforming growth factor beta 2 (TGF-β2) and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2).Methods DCs,T cells and CSCs were isolated and cultured from clean BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice.The level of PGE2 and TGF-β2in CSCs culture supernatant and the fresh RPMI 1640 medium were then analyzed by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).During the DCs maturation stage,the neutralizing TGF-β2 antibody and the EP2 receptor antagonist AH6809 were added in the CSCs culture supernatant respectively.According to the different treatment,cultured cells were assigned to different groups as follows:control group,CSCs culture supernatant group,AH6809 group,TGF-β2 antibody group,AH6809 +TGF-β2 antibody group.Subsequently,the cellular surface markers for DCs,including CD11c,CD80,CD86,and MHC- Ⅱ,were analyzed by flow cytometry.The capability of stimulating the proliferation of T lymphocytes was evaluated by allogeneic mixed lymphocyte reactions,and the function of endocytosis was assessed by fluorescein isothiocyanate-dextran(FITC) uptake.Results The data of ELISA showed a higher concentration of TGF-β2 and PGE2 in murine CSCs culture supernatant than in the fresh RPMI 1640 medium.Compared with the CSCs culture supernatant group,the expression of CD80,CD86,and MHC- Ⅱ was up-regulated ( P ＜ 0.05 ),the expression of dextran was down-regulated ( P ＜ 0.05 ),and the stimulate index was increased( P＜ 0.05 ) in the TGF-β2 antibody group; the expression of CD86,and MHC-Ⅱ was up-regulated (P＜0.05),the expression of dextran was down-regulated ( F =13.740,P =0.006 ),and the stimulate index was increased(P＜0.05) in the AH6809 group;the expression of MHC-Ⅱ was up-regulated and the stimulate index was increased with statistical difference in interaction(P＜0.05 ) in the AH6809+TGF-β2 antibody group.Compared with the control group,the expression of CD80 and CD86,and the stimulate index was still lower(P＜0.05 ).Conclusions TGF-β2 and PGE2 contribute to the inhibitory effects on DCs maturation mediated by murine CSCs in vitro and further have additive effect on the immunosuppression of DCs.

Objective To observe the effect of hypoxia reoxygenation on activity of superoxide dismutase(SOD)and MDA content as well as[Ca~(2+)],concentration and mitochondria membrane poten- tial of intestinal epithelial cell-6(IEC-6)in IEC culture medium and explore the protective effect and mechanism of serum containing Ziqi-liquid(a preparation of Chinese herbal medicine)on hypoxia reoxy- genation damaged IEC-6.Methods Hypoxia reoxygenation damage model of IEC-6 was made.SOD activity and MPA content in IEC-6 culture medium were determined by ultraviolet spectrometry after hy- poxia reoxygenation and treatment with Ziqi-liquid.Meanwhile,MMP changes and[Ca~(2+)]concentration were detected by laser scanning confocal microscopy.Results After hypoxia reoxygenation,SOD and MMP were significantly decreased,but MDA content and[ Ca~(2+)] concentration significantly increased (P＜0.01),and significantly facilitated by serum containing Ziqi-liquid.Conclusion Hypoxia reoxy- genation can damage IEC-6,but the serum containing Ziqi-liquid has significant protective effect on it.

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the tolerability for safflower peony ointment and determine its safe dosage, by selecting health volunteers and testing from the initial safety dosage, in order to provide basis for formulating administration scheme of the drug in clinical trial phase II.

METHODForty-six healthy volunteers were included in the open, random, dose escalation, self control clinical trial on tolerability for single dosage scheme or multi-dosage. In the single dosage scheme, dosages of test drugs were 2.16 g (four people), 4.32 g (6 people), 6.48 g (6 people), 8.62 g (6 people), 11.46 g (6 people), 15.24 g (including crude drug) for 24 hours, once everyday. In the multi-dosage scheme, dosages of test drugs were 8.62 g (6 people), 11.46 g (including crude drug) once everyday for 7 days.

RESULTThe maximum safe dosage of single administration was 15.24 g (including crude drug) , while that of multiple administration 8.62 g (including crude drug). The occurrence rate of side effect was as low as 2.17%, which was recovered by medicines, without severe adverse event.

CONCLUSIONThe study proves the safe application of single administration and multiple administration of safflower peony ointment in human bodies, which lays a foundation for the application in the clinical trial phase II.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Carthamus tinctorius ; chemistry ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; administration & dosage ; adverse effects ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Ointments ; administration & dosage ; adverse effects ; Young Adult

Recent years have seen an increasing incidence of prostate cancer (PCa) and a more frequent occurrence of the disease in younger men. Damage to cavernous nerves caused by radical prostatectomy is the main reason for post-operative erectile dysfunction. So reconstruction of cavernous nerves at the time of radical prostatectomy may restore the patient's erectile function. At present, clinical studies of using autologous sural nerve grafts to bridge transected cavernous nerves have achieved modest success, and laparoscopic sural nerve grafting during radical prostatectomy has also been proved safe and feasible. Besides, various grafts have been used to reconstruct cavernous nerves in animal models, among which biodegradable conduits containing growth-promoting factors or cells are a promising option for the repair of damaged cavernous nerves.
Animals ; Erectile Dysfunction ; etiology ; surgery ; Humans ; Male ; Nerve Regeneration ; Neurosurgical Procedures ; methods ; Penis ; innervation ; Prostatectomy ; adverse effects ; Prostatic Neoplasms ; surgery ; Rats ; Sural Nerve ; transplantation

Tissue engineering techniques, with their potential applied value for penile reconstruction, are of special interest for andrologists. The purpose of this review is to appraise the recent development and publications in this field. In the past few years, great efforts have been made to develop corpus cavernosum tissues by combining smooth muscle and endothelial cells seeded on biodegradable polyglycolic acid polymer (PGA) or acellular corporal collagen matrices scaffolds. Animal experiment demonstrated that the engineered corpus cavernosum achieved adequate structural and functional parameters. Engineered cartilage rods as an alternative for the current clinical standard of semirigid or inflatable penile implants could be created by seeding chondrocyte cylindrical PGA. A series of studies showed that, compared to commercially available silicone implants, the engineered rods were flexible, elastic and stable. Besides, a variety of decellularized biological materials have been used as grafts not only for substitution of tunica albuginea but also for penile enhancement, with promising results. For treating erectile dysfunction, a new approach to recovering erectile function by cell-based therapy could be the injection of functional cells into corpus cavernosum, which seemed to be promising when combined with cell manipulation by gene therapy prior to cell transfer.
Cell Transplantation ; Endothelial Cells ; transplantation ; Erectile Dysfunction ; surgery ; Humans ; Male ; Muscle, Smooth ; cytology ; Penile Prosthesis ; Penis ; physiology ; surgery ; Tissue Engineering

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the effect of sodium tanshinone IIA sulfonate (STS) in preventing postoperative peritoneal adhesions in rats and explore the mechanisms.

METHODSSixty SD rats were randomized into 4 equal groups, including a blank control group, adhesion model group, and high-, moderate-, and low-dose STS-treated groups, and were subjected to injuries of the parietal peritoneum and cecum to induce peritoneal adhesions, followed by intraperitoneal administration of saline and STS at the doses of 20, 10, and 5 mg/kg for 7 consecutive days, respectively. Another 15 untreated rats served as the blank control group. The adhesion scores in each group were recorded after the treatments; the activity of tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA) in peritoneal lavage fluid was measured, tPA/PAI-1 protein ratio in the peritoneal tissue was determined by ELISA, and the expressions of TGF-β1 and collagen I were detected by immunohistochemistry. The anastomotic healing model was used to assess the impact of STS on wound healing.

RESULTSIntraperitoneal administration of STS effectively prevented peritoneal adhesion without affecting anastomotic healing in the rats. Compared with the adhesion model group, the STS-treated groups showed increased peritoneal lavage fluid tPA activity and tPA/PAI-1 ratio in the ischemic tissues with lowered TGF-β1 and collagen I expressions in the ischemic tissues.

CONCLUSIONSIntraperitoneal administration of STS can prevent peritoneal adhesion and enhance local fibrinolysis in rats, and these effects may be mediated by TGF-β signaling pathway.

Animals ; Cecum ; injuries ; pathology ; Collagen Type I ; metabolism ; Fibrinolysis ; Injections, Intraperitoneal ; Peritoneum ; injuries ; pathology ; Phenanthrenes ; pharmacology ; Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor 1 ; metabolism ; Postoperative Complications ; prevention & control ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Tissue Adhesions ; prevention & control ; Tissue Plasminogen Activator ; metabolism ; Transforming Growth Factor beta1 ; metabolism ; Wound Healing

OBJECTIVETo study the effect of ZGDHu-1 on proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis in SHI-1 human leukemia cell line and explore its possible mechanism. Methods SHI-1 cells were cultured with different concentration of ZGDHu-1 and for different time. The cell proliferation was analysed by cell counting, alive cell count, MTT assay and Brdu-ELISA. Cell apoptosis was analysed by morphology, DNA content, Annexin-V/PI and Hoechst 33258 labeling method. Cell differentiation were assayed by morphology,expression of CD11b,CD14 and CD64 and NBT reduction. The expressions of phosphorylated p38MAPK or STAT3 were analysed by flow cytometry.

RESULTSZGDHu-1 inhibited SHI-1 cell proliferation in a time and dose dependent manner, the IC50- 48 h and IC50- 72 h were 250 ng/ml and 85 ng/ml, respectively. The majority of SHI-1 cells were arrested in G2/M phase. 48h after treated with 200 ng/ml ZGDHu-1, and those in G2/M phase accounted for (48.4 +/- 2.1)%. The SHI-1 cells apoptosis was increased with a time- and does-dependent manner. The morphology of SHI-1 cells cultured with 2-50 ng/ml ZGDHu-1 for three days become more mature with higher NBT positivity and up-regulated expressions of CD11b,CD14 and CD64. The expression of phosphor-p38MAPK was increased and phosphor-STAT3 down-regulated by the treatment of ZGDHu-1.

CONCLUSIONZGDHu-1 can inhibit SHI-1 cell proliferation and induce the cell differentiation and apoptosis. The mechanism may associate with its up-regulation of phosphor-p38MAPK and down-regulation phosphor-STAT3.

Antineoplastic Agents ; pharmacology ; Apoptosis ; drug effects ; Cell Differentiation ; drug effects ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug ; Formamides ; pharmacology ; Heterocyclic Compounds, 1-Ring ; pharmacology ; Humans ; Leukemia ; pathology ; Phosphorylation ; STAT3 Transcription Factor ; biosynthesis ; p38 Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases ; biosynthesis

This study was aimed to investigate the cytogenetic characteristics of hematopoietic cells (HC) and bone marrow mesenchymal stoma cells (BMMSC) isolated from patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and healthy individuals as normal controls, and to clarify whether HC and BMMSC are simultaneously involved and participate in pathogenesis and development of MDS. Both marrows of 22 newly diagnosed patients with MDS and 7 healthy individuals were collected; BMMSC were isolated and amplified by using established culture system, as well as were identified according to morphologic features and surface antigens detected by flow cytometry; the characteristics of BMMSC from MDS patients were analyzed; the BMMSC karyotyping analysis of MDS patients was performed by banding of HC and BMMSC with pancreatin-Giemsa technique (GTG) and in accordance with ISCN (2005) requirements; the cytogenetic characteristics of HC and BMMSC were compared. The results showed that in vitro culture system for isolation and amplification was successfully established. The light microscopy and flow cytometry confirmed that BMMSC possessed characteristics showing long and thin spindle form and expressing CD29, CD73, CD90 antigens, and unexpressing CD34, CD45 antigens. In BMMSC of 14 MDS patients (64%), the cytogenetic abnormalities were found usually involving the loss of chromosomal material (92%), among which clonal loss was observed in 7 cases (50%). The detection indicated a random loss of chromosomal material in significant proportion of BMMSC. A high proportion of chromosomal material random loss may be a marker of chromosomal instability in BMMSC of MDS patients, the detection also showed that completely consistent aberration types did not exist between HC and BMMSC. The aberrations were observed in 3 cases of MDS with normal karyotype of HC, its aberration rate (33%) was obviously lower than that in MDS patients with abnormal karyotypes (92%). It is concluded that the cytogenetic abnormalities exist in BMMSC of MDS patients, the unbalanced aberration of chromosomal materials may be a genetic instability marker of BMMSC. The difference of aberration types in BMMSC from HC suggests that genetic susceptibility of BMMSC and HC is similar, but no completely identical, which indicates the potential involvement of BMMSC in pathogenesis of MDS. Studying this potential role of BMMSC can be helpful to further understanding of MDS biological characteristics and provide the new approaches for diagnosis and therapy of MDS.
Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Bone Marrow Cells ; pathology ; Case-Control Studies ; Chromosome Aberrations ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Mesenchymal Stromal Cells ; pathology ; Middle Aged ; Myelodysplastic Syndromes ; genetics ; pathology ; Young Adult

Objective To compare the differences in cardiac functions and myocardial injury between asphyxia and trans-oesophageal pacing induced rat cardiac arrest models.Methods Healthy adult male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were randomly divided into sham group,asphyxia group and electrical stimulation group by random number table.The rats in the latter two groups were randomly divided into two subgroups (24 hours and 72 hours)according to the sampling time after successful resuscitation,with 6 rats in each group.All rats were mechanically ventilated for 20 minutes,in electrical stimulation group,cardiac arrest was induced by trans-oesophageal cardiac pacing for about 3 minutes (intensity 30 V,frequency 50 Hz,pulse duration 2 ms),and in asphyxia group,cardiac arrest was induced by clipping trachea for about 3 minutes.Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was initiated 4 minutes after cardiac arrest.Echocardiographic examination was performed at 2 hours after return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) with cardiac color ultrasound apparatus.Cardiac tissues were harvested at 24 hours and 72 hours after ROSC,hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining was performed,and myocardial damage was observed under light microscope.The levels of cardiac troponin I (cTnI) and B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) in serum were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).Results There was no significant difference in ROSC rate between the asphyxia group and electrical stimulation group [94.4％ (17/18) vs.88.9％ (16/18),P ＞ 0.05].The heart rate (HR),mean arterial pressure (MAP),left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and left ventricular fractional shortening (LVFS) at 2 hours after ROSC in asphyxia group and electrical stimulation group were significantly lower than those in sham group [HR (bpm):401.50± 19.76,370.67± 18.63 vs.430.17± 18.38,MAP (mmHg,1 mmHg =0.133 kPa):107.17± 12.92,92.50±9.35 vs.125.67±5.72,LVEF:0.60±0.02,0.54±0.03 vs.0.63±0.01,LVFS:(48.40±2.52)％,(40.33±3.32)％ vs.(55.47 ± 2.38)％,all P ＜ 0.05],and the decrease in electrical stimulation group was more significant (all P ＜ 0.05).Compared with sham group,the levels of cTnI and BNP in serum of electrical stimulation group were significantly increased at 24 hours after ROSC [cTnI (ng/L):51.57±13.04 vs.38.23±5.57,BNP (ng/L):1 919.61±823.22 vs.977.47 ±445.18,both P ＜ 0.05],but there was no significant difference in cTnI or BNP of serum between asphyxia group and sham group [cTnI (ng/L):46.84 ± 11.04 vs.38.23 ± 5.57,BNP (ng/L):1 144.13±390.05 vs.977.47 ± 445.18,both P ＞ 0.05].There was no significant difference in cTnI or BNP of serum at 72 hours after ROSC among all the groups.The results of HE stain showed that the pathological injury of myocardium in electrical stimulation group was more serious than that in asphyxia group,characterized by more severe myocardial edema and partial myocardial cell lysis.Conclusion The cardiac function after cardiac arrest-CPR was decreased in both asphyxia group and electrical stimulation group,but electrical stimulation had a heavier cardiac function injury than asphyxia.