Cardiovascular Diseases ; epidemiology ; metabolism ; pathology ; Fatty Acids, Omega-3 ; Humans

Objective To investigate the clinical manifestation of hMPV in infants and young chil-dren presented with acute respiratory tract infection and to identify the molecular character. Methods Na-sopharyngeal aspirates were taken from 310 hospitalized pediatric patients from February to May in 2006, March to April in 2008, and September 2008 to February 2009, and the N gene fragments of hMPV were de-tected by nested PCR amplification. Phylogenetic analysis of 17 strains hMPV N genes was performed. The clinical materials of patients were collected and analyzed. All hMPV-positive samples were examined by multi-PCR for other respiratory viruses. Results Of 310 pediatric patients, 20 (6.5%) were positive for hMPV. The median age of hMPV infected children was 15.0 months(from 16 days to 9 years old), 90% (18/20)of the cases were under 2 years, and 60% were male. Phylogenetic analysis of 17 N gene fragments showed that 11 hMPV strains were A2b subtype. 20 hMPV-positive children were subjected to pneumonia, accounting for 7.1% (20/282) among all pneumonia subjects in this study. The common clinical manifesta-tions of hMPV infected patients were cough, wheezing, shortness of breath and fever. 35% (7/20) needed intensive care, 15% (3/20) were given oxygen therapy. The median length of hospital stay was (11.9 ±4.8) d. No significant seasonal distribution of hMPV was displayed. Two patients were coinfected with ade-novirus and rhinovirus respectively. Conclusion hMPV was an important respiratory pathogen in young children subjected to pneumonia in Tianjin. Three subtypes(A2a/A2b, B1, B2) were prevalent in Tianjin, and A2b was the predominant subtype. No significant difference of clinical characters was observed between A and B type hMPV infected patients.

Technological improvement for microorgnism isolation is important since isolation provides substantial materials for the exploitation of new microbial resources. In this study, a new approach, dispersion and differential cetrifugation (DDC), was applied in the isolation of acidophilic and acidoduric streptomycetes from 12 acid soil samples. Contrast with traditional method, the new approach yielded satisfying results with 2 - 20 times isolation efficiency and good selectivity. 45 representatives out of 249 streptomycetes isolates, which belonged to 12 color groups, showed morphology and cell wall type consistent with streptomycetes. The optimum pH range for their growth were between pH 4.5 - 5.5. It is proved that we succeeded in the rare-streptomycetes isolation using DDC approach.

AIM:To observe the inhibition effect of endostatin ( endostar ) on mice choroidal neovascularization model ( CNV) and compare with the Avastin.
METHODS: Using 532nm laser photocoagulation to establish a mouse model of CNV. We observed the formation of CNV by histopathological examination after 2wk later. Forty successful models of mice were randomly divided into control group (group 1, 10 rats), normal saline group ( group 2, 10 rats ), endostatin group (group 3, 10 rats) and avastin group (group 4, 10 rats) . The drugs were injected into the mice' vitreous after photocoagulation 2wk later. Then 1wk later, we took the mice eyeballs to perform the HE and immunohistochemical staining to observe. The statistical analysis of ANOVA was done by SPSS 16. 0 and the LSD-t test was used for multiple samples, taking P<0. 05 as the test standards.
RESULTS: Two weeks later, HE histopathological examination was done , light microscope showed large amount of new vessels' formation, the positive rate for CNV was 72. 8%. The blank control group compared with the normal saline group P>0. 05, had no inhibitory effect on CNV;endostatin treated group compared with control group, P<0. 05, had a certain inhibitory effect; avastin group compared with the control group, P<0. 05, had an inhibitory effect on CNV; the LSD-t was performed on Avastin group and endostatin group, P<0. 05, which were statistically significant. We thought that the two drugs have different inhibitory effect on mice' CNV, because xAvastin=26. 90 ,xendostatin=29. 13,xAvastin CONCLUSION: Laser-induced CNV animal models of colored mice C57BL/6J is of short time and high rate establishment and it is an ideal model for CNV study. Endostar has certain inhibitory effect on CNV, and it is likely to become one of the important drugs for CNV-related diseases in the future.

Animals ; Behavior, Animal ; Reproduction ; physiology ; Social Behavior ; Tupaiidae ; physiology

OBJECTIVETo explore the effect of Bushen Huoxue Compound (BHC) on lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) leakage, expressions of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and VEGF mRNA in retinal Muller cells under high glucose condition or advanced glycosylation end products (AGEs) condition by using serum pharmacological method.

METHODSThe retinal Müller cells of 5-7 days post-natal Sprague Dawley (SD) rats were cultured with modified enzyme-digestion method. Purified retinal Muller cells were cultured in normal conditions, high glucose condition (50 mmol/L) or AGEs (50 mg/L and 100 mg/L) conditions, and BHC-containing serum was added to culture medium. The LDH leakage and VEGF expressions were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). In addition, the relative expression of VEGF mRNA was tested by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).

RESULTSCompared with the normal control group, expressions of VEGF and VEGF mRNA were significantly increased in the high glucose group, the low dose AGEs group and the high dose AGEs group (all P < 0.01). The LDH leakage was obviously increased in the high dose AGEs group, when compared with the normal control group and the high glucose group (P < 0.01). The LDH leakage, expressions of VEGF and VEGF mRNA were obviously decreased by BHC-containing serum both in high glucose and AGEs conditions (P < 0.05, P < 0.01). BHC-containing serum had no significant effect on the LDH leakage and expressions of VEGF and VEGF mRNA in normal conditions (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONSAGEs intervention could obviously lower the stability of Müller cell membrane. Up-regulated expressions of VEGF and VEGF mRNA in cultured Müller cells could be induced by AGEs or high glucose. BHC-containing serum could stabilize the stability of Müller cell membrane, inhibit the transcription of VEGF mRNA and decrease the protein expression of VEGF, which might be one of important mechanisms for preventing and treating diabetic retinopathy.

Animals ; Cells, Cultured ; Diabetic Retinopathy ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; therapeutic use ; Ependymoglial Cells ; Glucose ; L-Lactate Dehydrogenase ; RNA, Messenger ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A

Objective To study the expression of MCP-1 and its correlation with SSc.Methods Twenty-seven patients with SSe and 21 healthy control subjects were examined for MCP-1 expressions by ELISA.mRNA and protein of MCP-1 in fibroblast cells from 5 SSc patients and 3 healthy subjects were also measured by RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry.At the same time,the correlation between the expression levels of MCP-1 and SSc was analyzed.Results The plasma level of MCP-1 was significantly higher in pa- tients with SSc than in healthy control subjects(787?393)pg/ml versus(426?266)pg/ml,P

The genome of a new SV40 strain(SV-IMB)isolated from a rhesus monkey was completely sequenced and compared with other isolates.The results showed that the whole genome contains 5246bp,and the average identity of SV-IMB was 98.1% as compared to other SV40 isolates.Its regulatory region is composed of a complete enhancer and a defective enhancer.Amino acid changes occurred to some extent in both the large T antigen (T-Ag) and VP1 region.The findings demonstrate that the SV-IMB is a new SV40 isolate.

To develop an analytic method for qualitative and quantitative analysis of dodecatetraenamides A, B in 42 samples of two official species of Asari Radix et Rhizoma( ARR) (37 samples of Asarum heterotropoides var. mandshuricum with different collection time and 5 samples of Asarum sieboldiivar. seoulense). The HPLC-IT-TOF-MS/MS methods for the qualitative and UPLC-PDA methods for the quantitative analysis were established. Dodecatetraenamides A, B were identified by comparing the retention time, UV absorption spectrum and quasi-molecular ion peak [ M + H]+ with the reference compound using HPLC-IT-TOF-MS/MS. The content of dodecatetraenamides A and B in ARR were determined by UPLC-PDA. The separation was successfully carried out on a ACQUITY UPLC BEH C18 (2.1 mm x 100 mm, 1.7 µm) column eluted with mobile phases of water (A) and acetonitrile (B) in gradient program (0-3 min, 35% B; 3-5 min, 35%-36% B; 5-6 min, 36%-43% B; 6 min-11 min 43% B; 11-12 min, 43%-100% B). The column temperature was 45 °C, and the detection wavelength was set at 254 nm. The flow rate was 0.6 mL · min(-1). On one level mass spectrometry scanning, the results showed that the quasi-molecular ion [M + H] + of both dodecatetraenamides A and B were m/z 248.20. The quantitative method with UPLC-PDA has made the baseline separation of the constituents, which were reported as mixtures in the most literatures. The average recovery of dodecatetraenamides A and B were 97.90% and 99.86%, the relative standard deviation were 0.4% and 1.1%, respectively. The contents of dodecatetraenamides A, B in all ARR samples was in the range of 0.11-3.89 and 0.24-6.65 mg · g(-1). Their contents reduced with the extension of storage time. Compared with the samples of 2013, the average content of the two constituents in the samples collected in year 2002-2003 reduced 34% and 36%, respectively (P < 0.05). Compared the A. sieboldii var. seoulense and A. heterotropoides var. mandshuricum with the same collective time and production area, the average contents of the two constituents in latter were up to (1.59 ± 0.75) mg · g(-1) and (2.90 ± 1.17) mg · g(-1), respectively, significantly higher than that in A. sieboldii var. seoulense (dodecatetraenamide A were (0.78 ± 0.52) mg · g(-1), dodecatetraenamide B were (1.69 ± 0.83) mg · g(-1)) (P < 0.05). The content of the dodecatetraenamide A in overground part was in the range of 0.11-0.33 mg · g(-1), dodecatetraenamide B was 0. 24-0.60 mg · g(-1), which were much lower than that of the underground part of ARR (dodecatetraenamide A was in the range of 0.73-3.89 mg · g(-1), dodecatetraenamide B was 2.11-6.24 mg · g(-1)). The method was certified to be simple, accurate and reliable and could be used for qualitative and quantitative analysis of dodecatetraenamide A and B in different species of ARR, also can be used for the comprehensive quality control of traditional Chinese medicine, Asari Radix et Rhizoma.
Amides ; chemistry ; Asarum ; chemistry ; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; Mass Spectrometry ; Molecular Structure ; Rhizome ; chemistry

OBJECTIVETo investigate the effects of catecholamine hormone on the blood and brain of heroin addicts.

METHODSRats were divided into three groups and treated with the glucose (control group), the heroin (im) (heroin group), and the combination of the intramuscular injection of reserpine and heroin (reserpine group). Changes in the levels of the dopamine (DA), cAMP, and cGMP were detected by the radioimmunoassay (RIA) method in the blood and brain tissue.

RESULTSNo significant withdrawal symptoms were observed in the reserpine group. Compared with the control and heroin groups, the blood cAMP levels were increased by 35.36% and 15.53% in the reserpine group, respectively; the cAMP levels in the midbrain ventral tegmental area (VTA), prefrontal cortex (PFC), and hippocampus (Hipp) were increased by 24.08% & 8.53%, 15.66% & 8.13%, and 21.95% & 8.40%, respectively. While compared to the control and heroin groups, the DA levels of the PFC, Hipp, striatum, and nucleus accumbens (NAc) were significantly reduced in the reserpine group, decreasing by 74.09% & 82.86%, 81.06% & 82.23%, 91.62% & 86.55% and 84.35% & 90.63%, respectively. The concentrations of cGMP of the brain tissues in the reserpine group were lower than those in the control group. In addition, the neural electrophysiological testing showed that the electroencephalogram (EEG), electrocardiogram (ECG), and muscle spindle discharge diagram of rats in both the reserpine and heroin groups were apparently changed.

CONCLUSIONCatecholamine hormone plays an important role in heroin addiction.

Animals ; Brain ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Catecholamines ; physiology ; Cyclic AMP ; blood ; metabolism ; Cyclic GMP ; blood ; metabolism ; Dopamine ; blood ; metabolism ; Heroin Dependence ; metabolism ; physiopathology ; Male ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar