Adenosine Triphosphatases ; metabolism ; Animals ; Antioxidants ; metabolism ; Muscle, Skeletal ; drug effects ; enzymology ; Rats ; Sulfinic Acids ; pharmacology

To study the chemical constituents from the stems and leaves of Isodon eriocalyx. Methods The chemical constituent of I. eriocalyx was separated and purified by chromatographic methods and structurally elucidated by physicochemical characteristics and spectral data. Results One new compound was isolated from the stems and leaves of I. eriocalyx, and it was identified as 15β-acetoxy-1α-hydroxy-7α,20-epoxy-ent-kaur-16-en-6-one (1). Conclusion Compound 1 is a new ent-kaurane diterpenoid named as eriocalyxin H.

In April of 2008 water samples were collected from four different rivers,which were Wuchao gang River,Henggang River,Chaoyang River and Caoyanghuanbang River.During the sampling the physi-cal and chemical parameters were measured.The abundance and the diversity of the bacteria of these four rivers were studied.The results showed that the population level increased in the more severely polluted river while the bacterial diversity decreased;the bacterial community structure was also affected by the dif-ferent ecological conditions of each sampling spot.The bacterial composition and abundance was closely related to the water quality in the river.

Objective To improve the level of early detection and treatment of pyonephrosis. Methods This study included 41 cases(17 men and 24 women;mean age,49 years)of pyonephrosis.A variety of examinations,including urinary analysis,blood analysis,kidney nuclear medicine scan,ultrasonog- raphy,intravenous urography(IVU),and CT were used for the early diagnosis of pyonephrosis.Pereutaneous nephrostomy(PCN)drainage was done for the interim management of pyonephrosis,then phase 2 operation was performed in 28 cases.The double-J tube was placed in ureter by ureteroscope for drainage,and then phase 2 operation was done in 2 cases.Emergency operation was done in 10 cases.The remaining 1 case un- derwent ESWL after anti-infective therapy.Results Definite diagnosis of pyonephrosis before operation was made by invasive examinations in 31 cases(75.6%),and by percutaneous drainage in 4 cases;the other 6 cases were detected during operation.Only 6 cases(14.6%)underwent nephrectomy;the other 35 cases (85.4%)underwent kidney-sparing operation.Follow-up of 3 months to 9 years was available in 37 cases. No nephrectomy was needed in 33 cases with spared kidney.Serum creatinine was normal in the 4 cases un- dergoing nephrectomy.Conclusions The key to the treatment of pyonephrosis by kidney-sparing surgery is early diagnosis,timely drainage and relief of obstruction.Ultrasonography plays an important role in the early diagnosis of pyonephrosis,and CT has a high sensibility in the diagnosis.Pereutaneons nephrolithotomy (PCNL)secondary to drainage through pereutaneous nephrostomy was beneficial to the patients with kidney stones or upper ureter stones.

Accidents, Traffic ; statistics & numerical data ; China ; epidemiology ; Humans ; Wounds and Injuries ; epidemiology

Objective To investigate the prevalence of tuberculosis among silicosis patients and silica exposure patients,and to analysis the risk factors of tuberculosis among these population.Methods A total of 1 227 silica exposure patients from Wenling,Zhejiang were enrolled in this field study.Basic demographic information was collected and chest X-ray was taken for each patient.Sputum was collected for Mycobacterium tuberculosis culture and strain identification. In univariate analysis,t test was performed for continuous variables andχ2 test for categorical variables.In multivariate analysis,the odds ratio (OR )was calculated along with a 95 % confidence interval (CI )by binary Logistic regression. Results A total of 1 204 silica exposure patients had full basic information and 99.8% were male patients with mean age of (59.4 ± 6.8 )years.The patients in phase 0 + to phase Ⅲ were 172 (14.3%),255 (21 .2%),160 (13.3%)and 617 (51 .2%),respectively.The tuberculosis prevalence rate was about 7.3% among these population.The risk factors for tuberculosis including phase Ⅱ silicosis (OR =2.96, 95 %CI :1 .05 -8.32,P =0.04)and phase Ⅲ silicosis (OR=3.88,95 %CI :1 .58-9.56,P <0.01),and contacting with tuberculosis patients (OR=4.14,95 %CI :1 .91 -8.98,P <0.01).Patients complicated with tuberculosis lacked specific symptoms,but fever and weight loss were more frequent.Conclusion Tuberculosis is highly prevalent in silicotic patients,especially in patients with phase Ⅱ/Ⅲ silicosis and in patients with tuberculosis contact history.

The attenuating effect of daidzein (DAI) on oxidative toxicity induced by Aroclor 1254 (A1254) was investigated in mouse testicular cells. Cells were exposed to A1254 alone or with DAI. The oxidative damage was estimated by measuring malondialdehyde (MDA) formation, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and glutathione (GSH) content. Results show that A1254 induced a decrease of germ cell number, an elevation in thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) but a decrease in SOD activity and GSH content. However, simultaneous supplementation with DAI decreased TBARS level and increased SOD activity and GSH content. Consequently, dietary DAI may restore the intracellular antioxidant system to attenuate the oxidative toxicity of A1254 in testicular cells.
Animals ; Chlorodiphenyl (54% Chlorine) ; toxicity ; Hypoxanthine ; toxicity ; Isoflavones ; pharmacology ; Male ; Malondialdehyde ; metabolism ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred ICR ; Oxidation-Reduction ; Testis ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Xanthine Oxidase ; toxicity

OBJECTIVETo investigate the effects of formaldehyde inhalation on the morphological damage, and Glu, GABA and NOS contents in olfactory bulb and hippocampus of rats.

METHODSTwenty SD rats were equally divided into two groups: rats in the control group inhaled fresh air, while the animals in experimental group were exposed to the air containing formaldehyde (12.5 mg/m(3), 4 h/d) for 7 days. Then rats were sacrificed and frozen sections of olfactory bulb and hippocampus were prepared. The morphological changes were examined and the Glu, GABA and NOS contents were detected using Nissl-staining, immunohistochemistry and Western blot, respectively.

RESULTCompared with the control group, there was a significant confusion and shrink of neuron morphology in experimental group, the number and staining intensity of Glu and NOS positive cells and protein contents were reduced. The protein expression of GABA was also decreased in the formaldehyde group.

CONCLUSIONFormaldehyde inhalation can cause a severe morphological damage of olfactory bulb and hippocampus in SD rats,which may further impair memory and learning ability through the reduction of Glu, GABA and NOS expression.

Animals ; Formaldehyde ; toxicity ; Glutamic Acid ; metabolism ; Hippocampus ; drug effects ; metabolism ; pathology ; Inhalation Exposure ; Learning ; drug effects ; Neurons ; drug effects ; metabolism ; pathology ; Nitric Oxide Synthase ; metabolism ; Olfactory Bulb ; drug effects ; metabolism ; pathology ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; gamma-Aminobutyric Acid ; metabolism

S1 nuclease (from Aspergillus oryzae) is a specific enzyme to degrade single stranded DNA or RNA molecules. It has been reported to be able to convert superhelical circular DNA molecules into open circle or linear forms under certain conditions, but this function has not been well explored. In order to use the action of S1 nuclease to linearize circular DNA and develop a novel way of cloning microcircular DNAs, the pUC19 was used to investigate the relationship between the linearization efficiency of S1 nuclease and the amount of enzyme used. By this way the optimal conditions for linearization of circular DNAs by S1 nuclease would be determined. 0.3u to 17u S1 nuclease per 100ng pUC19 DNA was added into a 25 microL system, respectively, to perform the reaction. The effectiveness of enzyme digestion was realized by electrophoresis in a 1.2% agarose gel. The results showed that along with the increase in enzyme amount from 0.3u to 17u a gradual decrease in the superhelical form, a gradual increase in the linear form and then in the circular form was obvious. The conversion from superhelical form to linear and circular form was directly related to the enzyme amount used. A higher proportion of linear DNA molecules was achieved by using 5 to 17u S1 nuclease per 100ng DNA. Besides, electrophoretic mobility of the S1 nuclease-linearized pUC19 was the same as that of the linear form produced by restriction enzyme digestion. According to the result of phiX174 digested by S1 nuclease it has been proposed that the enzyme cleaves first randomly on one site of one strand, thus converting the superhelical molecules into open circle form, and then on the same site of the complementary strand to produce the linear form. Therefore, the S1 nuclease-linearized DNA molecules are intact in the sense of their length and can be used for cloning. The plasmid-like DNA pC3 from cucumber mitochondria is a double stranded circular DNA molecule with about 550bp and the smallest known plasmid-like DNA in eukaryotic mitochondria. Many attempts have been made to linearize the molecule by using restriction enzymes but failed. Therefore, S1 nuclease was used to linearize pC3 based on the results obtained with pUC19. The linearized pC3 DNA molecules formed a very sharp band in a 2.5% agarose gel after electrophoresis. They were then recovered from the gel, added an "A" tail and ligated with T-vector. After transformation into E. coli JM109 cells, the positive clones were, screened by the blue-white selection. The insert was then cut using restriction enzymes EcoRI and Pst I. The result of electrophoresis shows that the electrophoretic mobility of the insert is just the same as that predicted. A 32 P-labled probe was synthesized using pC3 as the template and Southern blot analysis was carried out. The result shows that the inserted DNA is hybridized to the probe, which indicates that the cloned DNA fragment is from pC3. The sequence information of the insert shows that the plasmid-like DNA pC3 was 537bp in length. The nucleotide sequence was deposited in the GenBank (the accession number is AF522195).
Blotting, Southern ; Cloning, Molecular ; methods ; DNA, Circular ; genetics ; metabolism ; Fungal Proteins ; genetics ; metabolism ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Single-Strand Specific DNA and RNA Endonucleases ; genetics ; metabolism

Objective To explore the effects of psychological intervention on the mental status and life quality of hepatolenticular degeneration patients during the perioperative period of splenectomy.Methods 64 cases hepatolenticular degeneration patients during the perioperative period of splenectomy were randomly divided into two groups,the intervention group and the control group,each with 32 cases.Both groups received conventional comfortable nursing,and the intervention group had psychological intervention for eight weeks in addition.Symptom checklist (SCL-90) was used to assess their changes of mental health,while the World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale (WHOQOL-100) was used to assess their quality of life before and after psychological intervention.Results Before psychological intervention,there was no statistically siguificant difference between two groups' SCL-90 scores (P ＞ 0.05).After eight weeks of psychological intervention,the sores of somatization,force,interpersonal relationship,depression,anxiety,hostility,paranoid and psychotic factors in SCL-90 of the intervention group were respectively (1.26 ± 0.43),(1.72 ± 0.44),(1.74 ± 0.45),(1.59±0.43),(1.58±0.52),(1.66±0.74),(1.44±0.57),(1.61±0.68),(1.51±0.43),all of which were lower than those of the control group [(1.60 ± 0.49),(2.06 ± 0.50),(1.74 ± 0.45),(1.85 ±0.49),(1.90±0.55),(2.07±0.66),(1.71 ±0.57),(1.95 ±0.64),(1.82 ±0.56)],and the differences were statistically significant (t =2.950,2.888,2.466,2.256,2.386,2.339,2.060,2.484,respectively; P ＞ 0.05).Before psychological intervention,there was also no statistically significant difference between two groups' WHOQOL-100 scores (P ＞ 0.05).And after eight weeks of psychological intervention,the score of every dimension was higher in the intervention group than in the control group,and the differences were statistically significant (t =4.401,4.694,3.242,5.410,4.576,4.847,3.834,respectively;P ＜0.01).Conclusions Psychological intervention can effectively improve the mental health and quality of life of hepatolenticular degeneration patients during the perioperative period of splenectomy,and thus should be strengthened.