BACKGROUND: Although pulmonary diffusion capacity (PDC) has been substantially proved in a declining tendency in age-dependent manner, the effects of such related factors as body mass,sex and height within an age range on pulmonary membrane conductance (Dm) and capillary blood volume(CBV),as well as the correlation of Dm with CBV and PDC deserve further investigation.OBJECTIVE:To study the correlation of Dm and CBV with PDC,age,body mass, height and sex in normaladults.DESIGN: With healthy adults as subjects, multiple factor linear correlation and regression analysis was used to elicit correlation coefficient and regression equation while F-test and Q-test were used for comparing the differences between groups.PARTICIPANTS:We randomly selected 100 healthy adults,50 males and 50 females, who came to the clinic of the General Hospital of Chinese PLA for routine physical examination between April and October 1997.The 100 volunteers were divided into five groups according to their age:20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59 and 60-69 years old groups with 20 in each group, half males and half females.METHODS: PDC and Dm of the healthy adults were examined with Sensormedics 2200 pulmonary function detector. CBV was calculated with the following formula (1/PDC=I/ Dm +1/θCBV, θrefers to the combined velocity of CO with Hb,which was in inverse proportion to the inhaled partial oxygen pressure,Dm and CBV were unaffected by θ).Multiple factor linear correlation and progressive regression analysis was used to elicit correlation coefficient of PDC, Dm and CBV. Meanwhile, regression equation was used to reveal the correlation of age,body mass and height with pulmonary functions.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Correlation ofDm and CBV with PDC and age, body mass, height and sex in normal adults.RESULTS:Data of the 100 healthy adults were processed according to the objective and statistically analyzed.① PDC and Dm were proved to decline in age-dependent manner from the onset of 40 years old in the 100 healthy adults (P＜ 0.05), and CBV also declined after 50 years old (P ＜ 0.05).②Relationship between women's age and pulmonary function:Age was proved to have significant negative correlation with PDC,Dm and CBV (r= -0.646 0 to -0.814 6, P＜ 0.01).By contrast,PDC was found to be positively correlated with Dm,CBV and alveolus ventilation volume (AVV) (r=0.949 7, 0.740 0, 0.735 6, P＜ 0.01), and AVV was found to be positively correlated with PDC, Dm and CBV (r=0.482 1-0.740 6,P＜ 0.01).③ Relationship between men's age and pulmonary function:Age had significant negative correlation with PDC, Dm and CBV (r=-0.712 to -0.830 5, P＜ 0.01). However, PDC was found to be moderately or highly positively correlated with Dm,CBV and AVV(r=0.585 2 to 0.946 0, P＜ 0.01), and AVV had moderately positive correlation with PDC, Dm and CBV (r=0.431 3-0.585 2, P＜ 0.01). ④ Regression analysis revealed that age and height were the main variables of the predicting equation of PDC,Dm and CBV.Body mass could not enter regression equation in females,and it was only proved to be correlated with PDC and CBV in males with the regression coefficient of 0.009 4 and 0.654 3, respectively.CONCLUSION:① PDC and Dm begin to decline from the onset of 40 years old in healthy adults (P＜ 0.05),and CBV declines after 50 years old.② PDC, Dm and CBV of healthy adults are proved to decline in age-dependent manner. ③ PDC increases with the increment of Dm and CBV. ④ Age and/or height are the main variables in the regression equation of PDC, Dm and CBV, but body mass is not the key predictor for Dm and CBV.

Diterpenes, an important class of natural compounds, are widely distributed in nature. As the valuable diterpenoids continue to be found, diterpene synthase in the course of diterpene synthesis get as much attention as possible. The multiformity of end-product-diterpenoids were also due to the diversity of diterpene synthase. This paper focuses on the advances in recent biosynthesis pathway of diterpene and types, cloning, catalytic mechanism, synthetic biology application.

Objective::To understand the resources distribution and varieties of crude drug Coptis chinensis Franch. on Chinese market to provide scientific basis for the resource conservation and variety collection and studies of the Chinese medicine. Methods:On the basis of literature survey, field investigation, mandatory survey and interview survey were conducted. Results:Due to the chan-ges in environment for many years and the predatory development in Coptis resources at the end of 20th century, the ecological environ-ment of wild Coptis resources changed significantly with destructed resources and decreased reserves, especially wild Yalian and Yun-lian were on the verge of extinction. The mainstream product on Chinese market was Weilian followed by Yunlian mainly used in small-scale medical clinic and medicine market in the distribution area, while Yalian commodity medicine could not found. Conclusion::The supply and demand on Coptis market should be stabilized to ensure herbalist interests. The production technology of Coptis need further improvement, cultivated area and suitable variety should be confirmed to guarantee the quality of Coptis medicinal materials. State should pay attention to the changes in Coptis resources and strengthen protection for wild Coptis resources to ensure the sustainable development of Coptis resources. Relevant government departments should guide the production of Coptis reasonably.

This study was designed to creat a new method for detecting the degree of cross-linked allogenic tissue based on fluorescent technique. The thoracic aorta of New Zealand rabbits were divided randomly into four groups according to the concentration of Glutaraldehyde (GA), which were group A (control group-with no GA), group B (cross-linked with GA of 0.625%), group C (1.25%), and group D (2.5%). Each group was cross-linked with GA and reacted with 5-FAMSE, and then the fluorescence intensity was observed via fluorescence microscopy (analyzed with Image-Pro Plus 6.0, a professional image analysis software). The differences between groups in order of fluorescence intensity were found to be: group A > roup B > group C > group D (P < 0.01). Meanwhile, the tissue proteins extracted from aorta in each group were submitted to conventional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PGE) after being cross-linked with GA; the result from this method was compared with that from the method of 5-FAMSE. In group A, the tissue proteins extracted from the aorta cross-linked with GA were obviously less than those not cross-linked with GA. However, this phenomenom was not clearly seen among the B, C and D groups. Nevertheless, 5-FAMSE can detect the degree of cross-linkage more conveniently and directly.
Animals ; Aorta, Thoracic ; drug effects ; transplantation ; Bioprosthesis ; Blood Vessel Prosthesis ; Cross-Linking Reagents ; pharmacology ; Esters ; Female ; Fluoresceins ; Fluorescence ; Glutaral ; pharmacology ; Male ; Microscopy, Fluorescence ; Rabbits

This study evaluated the biological stability and cytotoxicity of rabbit thoracic aorta cross-linked by dye-mediated photooxidation in vivo environment of blood flow. Rabbits, whose allogenic thoracic aorta was cross-linked by dye-mediated photooxidation (DMP, n=6) and glutaraldehyde (GA, n=6), were in the DMP group and GA group, respectively; rabbits, whose homogenic abdominal aorta was orthotopic transplanted (OT, n=6), were in the OT group. Then the donor arteries were transplanted into the position of the abdominal arteries of rabbits. After operation, the animals were fed for 1 month, then each of graft arteries was removed for observation. Biological stability was evaluated through histological analysis under optical microscope. Cytotoxicity was evaluated through ratio of coverage of endothelial cell (ES) under scanning-electron microscope. The results showed that no statistically significant difference was noted between DMP group and OT group (P>0.05); however, there was a significant difference between DMP group and GA group (P<0.01). The stability index in DMP group was much higher than that in GA group. There was a statistically significant difference between DMP group and GA group (P<0.01). Ratio was much higher in DMP group than in GA group. In conclusion, the arteries cross-linked by dye-mediated photooxidation treatment appeared to have higher biological stability and lower cytotoxicity in rabbit allogenic transplation model.
Animals ; Aorta, Abdominal ; transplantation ; Aorta, Thoracic ; cytology ; drug effects ; surgery ; Bioprosthesis ; Blood Vessel Prosthesis ; Coloring Agents ; chemistry ; Cross-Linking Reagents ; Endothelial Cells ; cytology ; Female ; Male ; Oxidants, Photochemical ; pharmacology ; Oxidation-Reduction ; Photochemistry ; Rabbits ; Random Allocation

Objective To investigate the relationship between axillary lymph node status and molecular pathological features in breast cancer and its clinical significance. Methods A retrospective analysis was performed to study the relationship of axillary lymph node metastasis (LNM), positive lymph node (PLN), and lymph node ratio (LNR) with clinical and molecular pathology features in 300 patients with breast cancer. Results Of 300 cases of breast cancer, the positive rate of axillary LNM was 31.0% (13/42) in the Luminal A subtype of breast cancer, yielding a statistically significant difference (P < 0.05), compared with that of other molecular subtypes. Of 144 patients with positive axillary LNM , there were no significant difference of LNR and PLN between different molecular subtypes of breast cancer (P > 0.05). PLN and LNR were all negatively correlated with E-cadherin expression in breast cancer (P < 0.01 and P < 0.05, respectively), correlated with tumor size and TNM staging (P < 0.05), but not with age, menopausal status, and histological grade (P > 0.05). Conclusion The combined phenotype expression of ER, PR, HER-2, and Ki67 (molecular subtypes) are associated with the incidence of axillary lymph node metastases , and E-cadherin expression deficiency and tumor size growth promote the progression of lymph node metastases in breast cancer.

Simple and effective methods are needed for the identification of Chinese medicinal material species and their variety. Lonicera japonica Thunb. is one of Chinese herbal medicines widely demanded. A total of 3 705 EST-SSRs of L. japonica and 2 818 EST-SSRs of L. japonica var. chinensis Thunb. were identified from EST database in our lab. In average, there was one EST-SSR per 4.05 kb in L. japonica ESTs and per 7.49 kb in L. japonica var. chinensis ESTs, separately. The identified SSRs in L. japonica were consisted of 51.98% dinucleotide and 34.61% trinucleotide repeats, while SSRs in L. japonica var. chinensis had 57.45% dinucleotide and 30.09% trinucleotide. The results reviewed that the classes AG/TC and GAG/TCT were predominant in the dinucleotide motifs and the trinucleotide motifs, respectively. Total 87 EST-SSRs were identified of significant difference between L. japonica and L. japonica var. chinensis. PCR products were obtained from 52 L. japonica samples in 13 out of 15 SSR markers tested. The polymorphism in L. japonica, L. japonica var. chinensis and other honeysuckles could be distinguished by three markers (jp.ssr4, jp.ssr64 and jp.ssr65) tested.

Objective:To investigate the present situation of humanity education for medical students and to provide theoretical evidence for establishing appropriate interventions. Methods:This paper surveyed and analyzed the present situation of humanity education for medical students in a medical university using questionnaires. Re-sults:18. 7% of medical students entirely remembered the specific content of Hippocratic Oath, 7. 3% of medical students had never heard about the concepts such as humanistic quality, 31. 7% of medical students had never bor-rowed humanity and social science books from the school library, 79. 3% of medical students thought it necessary to strengthen humanity education. Some results showed that there were significant differences in different grades and specialties. Conclusion:It is necessary to further strengthen humanity education for medical students, improve the quality of humanity curriculum, and make a fusion of humanity education and the medical professional education. At the meantime, the humanity courses should be increased and the educational program should be diversified.

Patent documentation is a kind of high-value scientific literature, which has caught the attention of more and more scholars. In this paper, the World Traditional Medicine Patent Database (WTMPD) was used to retrieve patents of the traditional medicines used in the treatment and prevention of influenza worldwide in the past 30 years. A total of 2 423 patents were further screened by a series of processes. Finally, multi-angle analysis was carried on the dataset to form a patent analysis report on traditional anti-flu drugs. From the analysis, we found that China had a rapid increase in the number of patent applications, which was in the leading role in the world, though the number of PCT applicant from China is relatively low. A large amount of applicants from the USA, Japan, and Korea have entered into China. Pharmaceutical company is the core group of patent applicant, who had applied a lot of quality patent about their products to protect their commercial interests. Honeysuckle, licorice, isatis root, forsythia and skullcap are five kinds of herbs, which have been most frequently used in anti-influenza patents.

By reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), an open reading frame of pathogenesis-related protein 1 (PR1) was isolated from Panax notoginseng and named as PnPR1. Molecular and bioinformatic analyses of PnPR1 revealed that an open reading frame of 501 bp was predicted to encode a 166-amino acid protein with a deduced molecular mass of 18.1 kD. Homology analysis showed that the deduced amino acid sequence of PR1 protein of Panax notoginseng had a high similarity with other higher plants had the same conservative structure domain of cysteine-rich secretory protein (CAP). The recombinant expressed plasmid pET28a(+)-PnPR1 was expressed in Escherichia coli BL21. The expression conditions were optimized by induction at different times, different temperatures, different IPTG concentrations and different giving times. The optimum expression condition was 0.4 mmol.L-1 IPTG at 28 degrees C for 20 h. The successful expression of PnPR1 provides some basis for protein purification and preparation of the monoclonal antibody.