Objective To discuss the relationship between peptic ulcer in children and food-specific IgG, and to evaluate the effect of avoiding the intolerant food on treatment of peptic ulcer. Method Fourteen kinds of food specific IgG in 69 cases of peptic ulcer were tested by ELISA. The patient′s intolerance to different foods and its relationship with age , sex and different ulcer were analyzed. The efficacy of avoiding the intolerant food was assessed after 8 weeks. Results Total positive of food-specific IgG in children with peptic ulcer was 94.2%. For preschool children, the highest intolerance rates were in milk and eggs; for school-age and adolescence children, the highest intolerance rate was in eggs. As the age increases, kinds of intolerant food increased too. Ulcer healing rate in observation group was higher than that in the control group after 8 weeks. Conclusions High positive percentage of food- specific IgG was found in children with peptic ulcer , indicating a possible correlation of peptic ulcer and food-intolerance. Kinds of intolerant food correlates with the age group , but not with sex and ulcer sites. Avoiding the intolerant food may increase ulcer healing rate.

Ammopiptanthus mongolicus shows very strong resistance to severe environments. To isolate drought-resistant genes and elucidate drought-resistant molecular mechanisms of the plant, we constructed a drought-induced full-length cDNA library using SMART (Switching mechanism at 5'-end of RNA transcript) technique. The phage titer of the unamplified library was 1.6 x 10(7) PFU/mL; the recombination percentage was 97.7%; and the sizes of most cloned cDNA fragments were around 1 kb. Three thousand positive clones were randomly selected and sequenced from their 5' ends, and a total of 1 450 Unigenes were identified. By Blast searches against the Nt, Nr and Swissprot databases, we found that 919 Unigenes (amount to 63.4%) showed significant similarity to the annotated genes, and the remaining 531 Unigenes (amount to 36.6%) represented novel genes without any annotation. Among the functional categories of the GO (Gene Ontology) classification, the terms related to physiological process, cellular process, binding, catalytic activity and cellular components were dominant. The next abundant terms were for organelle, protein complex, transporter activity and structural molecule activity. In addition, there were a significant proportion of the terms involved in stimulus response, gene expression regulation, regulation of physiological and biochemical processes and signal transduction. Many of the annotated Unigenes were found to be related to plant resistance to abiotic stresses, and expression analyses of 6 out of these genes by semi-quantitive RT-PCR confirmed their involvements in the response of A. mongolicus to drought stress. These results laid a foundation for the expression profile analysis and the cloning and characterization of drought-resistant genes from the plant in the future.
Droughts ; Fabaceae ; genetics ; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant ; Gene Library ; Genotype ; Sequence Analysis, DNA ; Stress, Physiological ; genetics

OBJECTIVETo analysis the pathological demography in Chinese patients undergoing renal biopsy from our nephrology center.

METHODSBetween January 1979 and October 2000 in Jinling Hospital, Nanjing, China, 10,002 attempts of percutaneous renal were performed in patients with renal disease from 33 provinces of China. The pathological classifications were made according to the WHO criteria of 1982 for renal pathology or the modified WHO criteria of 1995 by a panel of pathologists and nephrologists during routine clinical-pathological rounds. The pathological demography between those specimens collected from 1979 - 1989 and those from 1990 - 1999 was compared.

RESULTSThe mean age of the 10,002 subjects undergoing renal biopsy was 31.4 +/- 13.0 years (ranging from 1 to 78 years), with a male to female ratio of 1.3:1; for the 592 renal transplant recipients, the mean age was 37.5 +/- 9.1 years (ranging from 16 to 66 years), with a male to female ratio of 2.36:1. Primary glomerular diseases (PGD) accounted for 71% of the total patients undergoing renal biopsies, secondary glomerular nephritis (SGN) 23%, tubular-interstitial diseases 3.2%, unclassified renal diseases 1.3%, hereditary and congenital renal diseases 1.0%, end stage renal diseases 0.96%, and recently realized or rare renal diseases 0.15%. IgA nephropathy (IgAN) was the most frequent pathological pattern (40%) of PGD, followed by mesangial proliferative lesion (MsPL) (30%), membranous nephropathy (MN) (10%), and focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) (6%). Lupus nephritis (LN) was the most pathology common seen (74%) in SGN. During the 22 years of the study period, there was a steady increase in patients with SGN discovered during pathological evaluation of renal disorders. A rise in prevalence was found in IgA nephropathy, MN (both P < 0.001), crescentic glomerulonephritis (P < 0.0001), anti-GBM disease, and hemolytic-uremic syndrome/thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura related renal damages (both P < 0.001). There was a decrease in endocapillary proliferative glomerulonephritis (P < 0.001) and IgM nephropathy (IgMN) (P < 0.01) from 1990 - 1999 as compared to 1979 - 1989. Infrequent renal pathological entities were also diagnosed in this group, including Niemann Pick disease, Fabry's disease, POEMS syndrome, and lipoprotein glomerulonephropathy.

CONCLUSIONSThis is the largest series of renal biopsy data in China, and therefore may reflect the demographic picture of renal diseases in this country. Changes in prevalence of renal pathological entities were reflected in this group of patients over the last 22 years. In primary glomerular diseases, IgA nephropathy is still the most frequently observed pathological pattern. In SGN, LN appeared the most often. Increased prevalence was found in anti-GBM nephritis and HUS/TTP.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Female ; Humans ; Infant ; Japan ; epidemiology ; Kidney Diseases ; epidemiology ; pathology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Prevalence

Dehydration-responsive element binding proteins (DREBs) are an important class of transcription factors related to plant stress tolerance. Ammopiptanthus mongolicus is an evergreen broadleaf shrub endemic to desert areas of northwest China, and it has a very high tolerance to harsh environments. In order to reveal the functions and mechanisms of the AmDREB1F gene from this species in enduring abiotic stresses, we performed subcellular localization test, expression pattern analysis, and stress tolerance evaluation of transgenic Arabidopsis harboring this gene. The protein encoded by AmDREB1F was localized in the nucleus. In laboratory-cultured A. mongolicus seedlings, the expression of AmDREB1F was induced significantly by cold and drought but very slightly by salt and heat stresses, and undetectable upon ABA treatment. In leaves of naturally growing shrubs in the wild, the expression levels of the AmDREB1F gene were much higher during the late autumn, winter and early spring than in other seasons. Moreover, the expression was abundant in roots and immature pods rather than other organs of the shrubs. Constitutive expression of AmDREB1F in Arabidopsis induced the expression of several DREB-regulated stress-responsive genes and improved the tolerance of transgenic lines to drought, high salinity and low temperature as well as oxidative stress. The constitutive expression also caused growth retardation of the transgenics, which could be eliminated by the application of gibberellin 3. Stress-inducible expression of AmDREB1F also enhanced the tolerance of transgenic Arabidopsis to all of the four stresses mentioned above, without affecting its growth and development. These results suggest that AmDREB1F gene may play positive regulatory roles in response to abiotic stresses through the ABA-independent signaling pathways.
Arabidopsis/metabolism* ; Droughts ; Ectopic Gene Expression ; Fabaceae/genetics* ; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant ; Plant Proteins/metabolism* ; Plants, Genetically Modified/genetics* ; Stress, Physiological/genetics*