Objective To investigate the possible effects and underlying mechanisms of desferroxamine (DFO) preconditioning against hypoxia in neurons. Methods Cortical neurons were cultured in DFO under ischemia condition of oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD). Cell viability was determined by cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) method; apoptotic cell ratio was examined with Hoechst 33342 staining; the morphological change was observed. Middle cerebral artery was occluded with or without DFO administration to establish the cerebral ischemia rat model. Infarct sizes were examined by TIC staining, and the neurological severity score was evaluated. Meanwhile immunofluorescent staining was employed to detect the protein synthesis of hypoxia inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) and erythropoietin (EPO), RT-PCR was performed to detect the mRNA expression of HIF-1 and EPO as well Results Neuronal viability kept in 49% (OGD group was 25%, t =8. 544, P<0. 05), the rate of apoptosis was 38% (OGD group was 30%, t = 4. 409, P <0.05 ) after administration of DFO (post-DFO) , the morphology of neurons improved. In the model of focal cerebral ischenfia of 30 mg/kg group, neurological severity score was reduced, the percentage of brain infarct decreased 8.5% (t=4.649, P<0.05) 3 days post-DFO(vs control). In the 100 mg/kg group, neurological severity score was 7.44 ±0.39 (t=2.903, P<0.05 ) ,5.60±0.47 (t=10.143, P < 0.01 ) ,6.97 ±0.73 (t=3.142, P<0.05 ), the percentage of brain infarct decreased 12. 0% (t=5.056, P<0.05), 32.3% (t =10.993, P<0.01), 10.6% (t =4.385, P<0.05)2,3 and7 days post-DFO(vs control), respectively. Immunofluorescent staining found synthesis of HIF-1α and EPO in cultured cortex neurons after DFO pretreated; HIF-1α and EPO were upregulated in the neurons of rat brain after DFO pretreated. The mRNA of HIF-1α and EPO upregulated in vivo and in vitro. Conclusion DFO preconditioning can protect the brain against ischemic damage, which is related to the protective effect on neurons. The mechanism of DFO preconditioning may be involved in the expression of HIF-1α and EPO in vivo and in vitro.

Prostate cancer, bladder cancer, and rectal cancer are common malignancies in the male pelvis. The incidence rate of erectile dysfunction (ED) following radical prostatectomy, cystectomy or rectal cancer surgery is about 25% - 100%. The main cause of post-surgery ED is mainly attributed to injury of neurovascular bundles, which may lead to reduced oxygenation in and fibrosis of the penile tissue. Early penile rehabilitation after surgery can improve or restore the erectile function of the patients. This article focuses on penile rehabilitation after radical pelvic surgery.
Cystectomy ; Erectile Dysfunction ; etiology ; rehabilitation ; Humans ; Male ; Pelvic Neoplasms ; surgery ; Penile Erection ; Penis ; Postoperative Complications ; rehabilitation ; Postoperative Period ; Prostatectomy ; adverse effects ; Prostatic Neoplasms ; surgery ; Rectal Neoplasms ; surgery ; Urinary Bladder Neoplasms ; surgery

BACKGROUND: Compared to those original viruses systems, adeasy adenovirus, a recombinant adenoviral system widely used in recent years, based on viruses with a deletion of both El and E3, reported by T.C. He in 1998, is an improved one. It simplifies the generation and production of such viruses and expedite the process of generating and testing recombinant adenoviruses using homologous recombination in bacteria rather than in eukaryotic cells. Moreover, it can be conveniently followed with the aid of green fluorescent protein encoded by EGFP gene incorporated into the viral backbone.OBJECTIVE: To construct the recombinant adenovirus and to evaluate them by transfect them to mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs)and detect the expression of target gene hlGF-I at gene and protein levels.DESIGN: Repetitive measurement wail.SETTING: The Institute of Pediatric Research, Chongqing University of Medical Science.METHODS: The study was performed at the Institute of Pediatric Research, Chongqing University of Medical Science from November 2004 to March 2005. After the amplification of truncated hlGF-1 gene from pcDNA3.l-hlGF-I by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), the gene fragment was inserted into the shuttle plasmid pAdtrack-CMV for homologous recombination with backbone plasmid pAdeasy-I in bacteria BJ5183 to get adenovirus.Ad-hlGF-1. The high titer adenovirus supernatant was obtained by repeated transducing of HEK 293 cells by adenovirus harvested after confirmation of the adenovirus structure. As target cells,MSCs were infected with adenovirus earned target gene, hIGF-1, to determine the expression of hlGF-1 gene.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: ① The construction of recombinant adenovirus vector;② the expression of target gene hIGF-1 in HEK 293 cells and the proper multiplicity of infection (MOI); ③ hIGF-1 gene expression in MSCs.RESULTS: The adenovirus vector based on adeasy system was constructed successfully and the Ad-hlGF transducing was successfully or efficiently expressed in MSCs cells. The ideal expression of harvested recombinant adenovirus in MSCs was detected by fluorescence microscope, RT-PCR, immunocytochemistry, and Western Blot.CONCLUSION: Adenovirus vector is an effective vector tools for gene expression and wansfection of MSCs. MSCs transduced with Ad-hIGF-1 maybe another option to gene-modified seed cells for articular cartilage tissue engineering.

Objective To investigate the relation between the expression of toll receptor-4 (TLR-4) and the increase of blood brain barrier (BBB) permeability in the rats with acute pancreatitis.Methods Male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into 8 groups:control group;acute edematous pancreatitis (AEP) 2 h,6 h groups;acute necrotizing pancreatitis (ANP) 2 h,6 h,12 h,24 h,48 h groups with 8 rats in each group.The BBB permeability,pathological score of pancreas,TLR-4 expression were determined and the relationships between them were analyzed.Results The BBB permeability in control group;acute edematous pancreatitis (AEP) 2 h,6 h groups;ANP 2 h,6 h,12 h,24 h,48 h groups were 1.55±0.29,1.64±0.17,1.69±0.24,1.89±0.12,2.66±0.32,2.91±0.29,2.89±0.69 and 1.84±0.07,respectively;the pathological scores of pancreas were 0,2.38±0.92,3.13±0.64,8.50±1.07,9.75±0.71,10.25±1.28,11.13±1.25 and 10.13±1.13,respectively;there was no significant difference between AEP groups and control group,while there was significant difference between AEP groups and ANP groups (P＜0.05 orP ＜0.01).BBB permeability was correlated with pancreatic injury ( r = 0.626,P ＜0.01).There was no TLR-4 mRNA and protein expression in the control and AEP group,while they were significantly expressed in ANP groups,and the expression were positively related with BBB permeability ( r =0.208,P = 0.027 ).Conclusions BBB permeability was present in the course of ANP.Activation of TLR-4 signal pathway may be involved in the BBB permeability increase caused by ANP.

Objective To observe the change of six cytokines in mice infected with Echinococcus multilocularis as part of the study on immunological mechanism in the infection. Methods Mice were infected by abdominal inoculation of echinococcus protoscoleces. The change of serum level of the cytokines IL-2、IFN-?、TNF-?、IL-4、 IL-5 and IL-10 was determined by ELISA during the infection which lasted for 260 d. Results Compared with uninfected control, the levels of the cytokines all significantly increased in the 260 d. The level of IL-2 reached a peak after 80 d post-infection (p.i.), then decreased quickly after 140 d p.i., High level of TNF-? was detected after 40 d, compared to uninfected control, reached a peak at 100 d p.i., and decreased quickly after 140 d. The level of IFN-? reached a peak after 80 d p.i., and decreased slowly after 140 d p.i., The levels of IL-4, IL-5 and IL-10 remained lower before 80 d, and increased sharply after 100 days. The levels of IL-4 and IL-10 reached peaks at 100 d p.i., and that of IL-5 at 140 d p.i. Conclusion The data suggest that the induction of Th2 antibody-mediated immunity (AMI) with a parallel expansion of Th1 cell-mediated inflammatory (CMI) responses are important mechanism of the host in defending against the metacestodes. Th1 CMI plays an important role at the early stage of infection, and Th2 AMI is important in the later stage of infection.

Objective Nrf2 is an important neuroprotective factor and the ubiquitin proteasome system ( UPS) , as a highly specific intracellular protein degradation pathway, plays an important role in maintaining gene and protein functions.This paper pres-ents a preliminary study on the relationship between Nrf2 and the ubiquitin proteasome system in the mouse model of traumatic brain in-jury ( TBI) . Methods Forty-two healthy male ICR mice were randomly divided into three groups: control, TBI +sulforaphane ( SFN) and TBI+vehicle, and 12 Nrf2-knockout mice were included in the TBI+Nrf2 -/-group.The animals of the TBI+SFN group were treated with SFN while those of the TBI+vehicle group with the same volume of 10%corn oil at 5 minutes after TBI.At 24 hours after TBI, brain samples were collected from the mice for determining the Nrf2 expression and ubiquitinated protein content by Western blot and the changes in the Nrf2 and ubiquitinated proteins were observed by immunohistochemistry and electron microscopy. Results Compared with the controls, the mice in the TBI+vehicle group showed significantly increased expressions of Nrf2 ( 0.09 ± 0.02 vs 0.66 ±0.09, P<0.05) and ubiquitinated proteins (3.27 ± 0.21 vs 10.58 ±0.75, P<0.05).In comparison with animals in the TBI+vehicle group, those in the TBI+SFN group exhibited a signifi-cant increase in the Nrf2 protein level (0.66 ±0.09 vs 1.22 ±0.14, P<0.05) but a decrease in the ubiquitinated protein level (10.58 ±0.75 vs 6.97 ±0.86, P<0.05), and those in the TBI+Nrf2 -/-group showed a markedly decreased expression of the Nrf2 protein (0.66 ±0.09 vs 0.17 ±0.02, P<0.05) but increased expression of the ubiquitinated protein (10.58 ±0.75 vs 14.35 ± 0.65, P<0.05).Similar results were observed by immunohistochemistry and electron microscopy. Conclusion Nrf2 played a neu-roprotective role in the mouse model of traumatic brain injury by regulating the ubiquitin proteasome system.

Objective: To observe the effect of ivabradine (IVA) on atrial and ventricular monophasic action potential duration (MAPD) and its proarrhythmic action at presence of sea anemone toxin-II (ATX-II) in isolated rabbit heart modelin vitro. Methods: The perfusion of isolated heart from female New Zealand white rabbit was conducted by Langendorff method in vitro. Left atrial and left ventricular endo- , epi-cardial action potential were recorded when pacing with ifxed frequency of 350 ms (in correspondence with the heart rate of 171 times/min) to observe the effect of IVA alone and ATX-II (3 nmol/L) with IVA on MAPD90. In addition, to observe the action of IVA alone and ATX-II with IVA on proarrhythmia when IVA reducing the heart rate to autonomous cardiac rhythm as (156±10) times/min. Results: IVA at (3-10) μmol/L prolonged atrial and ventricular endo- , epi-cardial MAPD90 by (15.9 ± 2.0) ms, (31.5 ± 4.0) ms and (23.9 ± 3.0) ms (n=6,P<0.01), respectively. ATX-II at 3 nmol/L prolonged atrial and ventricular MAPD90 by (36.5 ± 5.0)ms and (19.9 ± 3.0) ms, (19.5 ± 4.0) ms (n=6,P<0.01) respectively. With ATX-II treatment, IVA at (6-10) μmol/L decreased atrial MAPD90 by (14.4 ± 4.0) ms (n=6,P<0.01), it induced atrial arrhythmia. With 3 nmol/L of ATX-II treated ventricle, IVA at (3-10) μmol/L obviously prolonged endo- and epi-cardial MAPD90 by (36.2 ± 7.0) ms and (27.5 ± 5.0) ms(n=6,P<0.01), respectively. IVA didn’t increase ventricular beat-to-beat variability and transmural dispersion of MAPD90 no matter with or without ATX-II treatment, no ventricular arrhythmia occurred. Conclusion: IVA prolongs both atrial and ventricular MAPD, with increased late sodium current, IVA may induce atrial arrhythmia but not ventricular arrhythmia in experimental rabbits in vitro.

Background:Fenretinide,which is capable of generating reactive oxygen species( ROS ),has emerged as a promising antineoplastic agent based on numerous in vitro and in vivo studies and clinical chemoprevention trials. Preliminary studies showed that fenretinide could induce apoptosis in human hepatocellular carcinoma( HCC)cells in vitro, however,the precise mechanism was not clarified. Aims:To elucidate the effect of ROS on apoptosis of human HCC cells induced by fenretinide and the underlying mechanism. Methods:Human HCC cell line Huh-7 was treated with antioxidant vitamin E,fenretinide or their combination,respectively. ROS in live cells was evaluated by confocal microscopy and flow cytometry;cell viability and apoptosis were assessed by CellTiter-Glo Luminescent Cell Viability Assay Kit and Caspase-Glo3/7 Assay Kit;expression and intracellular localization of nuclear receptor Nur77,as well as expression of stress-induced transcription factor GADD153 were measured by immunofluorescence staining and Western blotting,respectively. Results:Vitamin E pretreatment fully blocked the fenretinide-induced ROS production. In Huh-7 cells pretreated with vitamin E,cell apoptosis induced by fenretinide was significantly reduced(P<0. 05). Furthermore,effect of vitamin E pretreatment was noteworthy on reducing fenretinide-induced GADD153 expression, while no significant impact on fenretinide-induced Nur77 expression and translocation was observed. Conclusions:Elimination of ROS by vitamin E can abrogate the pro-apoptotic effect of fenretinide on Huh-7 cells,which indicates the participation of ROS in fenretinide-induced apoptosis of human HCC cells. Its mechanism might be associated with induction of GADD153 protein expression.

BACKGROUND: Ephedra, a Chinese medicine, is often used to treat obesity with relatively satisfying results recently. However, the effects of Ephedra on the perimenopausal and postmenopausal obese women remain unclear.OBJECTIVE: To observe the effects of oral Ephedra decoction on body mass and the levels of blood lipids, blood glucose and hormone in ovarietomized obese rats.DESIGN: A completely randomized and controlled experiment.SETTING: Institute of Physiology and Psychology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Lanzhou University.MATERIALS: The experiment was performed in the Key Laboratory of Pre-clinical Study for New Drugs of Gansu Province and the Laboratory of Institute of Physiology and Psychology, School of Basic Medical Sciences,Lanzhou University from February 2006 to June 2006. Forty-four healthy female SD rats were randomly divided into four groups with 11 rats in each group, namely sham-operated group, ovariectomized group, estrogen replacement therapy group and Ephedra group.METHODS: ① After having been narcotized by cloraminone (110 mg/kg),rats were underwent a bilateral ovariectomy except those in the sham-operated group, which were also operated, but their ovaries were not cut off. ②Rats in the sham-operated group and ovariectomized group were subcutaneously injected with sesame oil (0.2 mL/each rat) every day postoperatively till the end of the experiment. ③ The rats in the estrogen replacement therapy group were given estradiol (1 mg/kg) by subcutaneous injection every day postoperatively till the end of the experiment. ④ The rats in the Ephedra group freely drank 1% water extracts from Ephedra postoperatively, later the concentration of Ephedra gradually increased to 8% on the sixth day, which lasted until the end of the experiment. ⑤ The food intake was monitored daily, and body mass was measured every ten days. ⑥ At the end of the experiment, all the rats were fasted for 12 hours and collected blood samples for the measurement of serum indexes. The body mass and body length were measured to calculate the Lee's index [(g)×103/body length (cm)] at the same time.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: ① Body mass and Lee's index at different time points in each group. ② Food intake at different time points in each group. ③ Levels of blood lipids and blood glucose in each group. ④Levels of estrogen, progesterone and insulin in each group.RESULTS: Forty-four rats all entered the analysis of results. ① Result of body mass and Lee's index at different time points: The body masses on the 20th, 30th, 40th and 50th days in the ovariectomized group were (256.4±14.3),(271.3±16.1), (276.4±12.7), (285.7±24.2) g, which were significantly higher than those in the sham-operated group [(226.5±11.5), (241.8±12.6),(243.1±13.5), (251.1±22.4) g, P ＜ 0.05-0.01], and the Lee's index in the ovariectomized group was greater than that in the sham-operated group(317.2±13.5, 280.4±11.2, P ＜ 0.01). The body masses on the 40th and 50th days in the estrogen replacement therapy group were (243.7±14.8) and(246.2±11.9) g, which were significantly lower than those in the ovariectomized group (P ＜ 0.05-0.01), and the Lee's index (289.9±13.5) was lower than that in the ovariectomized group (P ＜ 0.01). The body masses on the 40th and 50th days in the Ephedra group were (245.4 ±14.1) and(252.4±14.9) g, and the Lee's index was 294.4±11.0, which were all lower than those in the ovariectomized group (P ＜ 0.05). ② Result of Food in take at different time points: The food intakes on the 30th, 40th and 50th days in the Ephedra group were (17.8±2.4), (22.3±3.9), (26.1±3.5) g per day,which were decreased as compared with those in the ovariectomized group[(25.9±4.7), (28.5±5.3), (32.8±5.5) g per day, P ＜ 0.05]. ③ Levels of blood lipids and blood glucose: The levels of triglyceride, cholesterol and low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) in the ovariectomized group were (1.73±0.32), (1.45±0.50), (0.78±0.19) mmol/L, which were higher than those in the sham-operated group [(0.94±0.29), (1.05±0.30), (0.08±0.11) mmol/L, P ＜ 0.01]. After the estrogen replacement therapy, the levels of triglyceride, cholesterol, LDL-C and blood glucose were (1.10±0.34),(1.14±0.30), (0.17±0.05), (5.88±1.21) mmol/L, which were lower than those in the ovariectomized group (P ＜ 0.05-0.01), but the level of high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) was higher than that in the ovariectomized group [(1.11±0.31), (0.88±0.21) mmol/L, P ＜ 0.05]. The levels of triglyceride, cholesterol, LDL-C and HDL-C in the Ephedra group were (0.97±0.16), (1.11±0.20), (0.59±0.07) and (0.45±0.061) mmol/L, which were lower than those in the ovariectomized group (P ＜ 0.05-0.01). ④ The serum levels of estrogen, progesterone and insulin in each group: The serum levels of estrogen and progesterone in the ovariectomized group were lower than those in the sham-operated group [(17.09±9.00), (28.51 ±7.99) μg/L;(58.69±12.11), (62.73±10.93) μg/L, P ＜ 0.01], the serum level of insulin was higher than that in the sham-operated group [(31.74±6.69),(23.75±6.66) mU/L, P ＜ 0.01]. The serum levels of estrogen in the estro gen replacement therapy and Ephedra group were (36.03±8.83) and (30.18±8.61) ng/L, which were higher than those in the ovariectomized group(P ＜ 0.05-0.01), the level of insulin were (21.34±4.57), (24.86±6.20) mU/L,which were lower than those in the ovariectomized group (P ＜ 0.05-0.01).The serum level of progesterone in the Ephedra group [(17.68±6.19) μg/L]was lower than that in the ovariectomized group (P ＜ 0.01).CONCLUSION: Ephedra can promote loss of body mass, reduce levels of the blood lipids and insulin, and increase the serum levels of hormones in ovariectomized obese rats.

Objective To investigate the protectve effects and underlying mechanisms of deferroxamine on glutamate-induced injury in cultured hippocampal neurons.Methods Primarily cultured hippocampal neurons from fetal rat were used in a model of glutamate induced neurotoxicity.There were two experimental groups.Neurons were pretreated with deferroxamine before glutamate in the deferroxamine group, and neurons were treated with glutamate only in the control group.The morphological change was examined under microscope.Hoechst 33342 DNA staining method was used to study the ratio of condensed nuclei.The levels of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), malonaldehyde (MDA) and hydroxyl radical were determined using biochemistry.The change in calcium signal was detected using microfluorescent technique.Results The neurons pretreated by deferroxamine had intact morphology with the ratio of condensed nuclei at 14% ± 6% compared to 58% ± 6% (t= 8.98, P ＜0.01 ) in the control group.LDH level was (36.42 ± 8.99) U/L in the deferroxamine group and was (68.06 ± 11.26) U/L in the control group ( t =3.25,P＜0.05).The respective levels of hydroxyl radical were (34.21 ±4.23) U/L and (47.06 ±8.79) U/L (t = 3.11, P ＜0.05 ).The respective levels of MDA were (12.26 ± 2.78 ) nmol/mg and (28.86±5.19) nmol/mg(t =4.88,P＜0.01).Conclusion Deferroxamine can protect neurons from glutamate induced damage.The mechanisms include an inhibition of Ca2+ overload and reduction in the levels of MDA and hydroxyl radicals.