Humans ; Myocardium ; Stem Cell Transplantation ; Stem Cells ; Tissue Engineering

To investigate the clinical improvement of limping gait in patients with ankylotic hips and limb length discrepancy.Methods:From 1996 to 2005,12 patients with ankylotic hips and limb length discrepancy were treated by distraction osteogenesis with a mono-lateral external fixator and an intramedullary nail.The limb length discrepancy was 6.20-12.50 (median 8.45) cm.Limping gait was classified according to the recommendations of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons/Hip Society and scored according to Harris:no limping scored 11 points,mild limping scored 8 points,moderate limping scored 5 points,while severe limping scored 0 points.Limping gait was severe in all patients pre-operatively and the total score was 0.Results:All patients were followed up for 30.00-46.00 (median 38.55) months,and all reported improvement in limping gait.The gain in length was 6.00-12.50 (median 8.20) cm,and the mean residual limb length discrepancy was 0-0.50 (median 0.20) cm.The total treatment time was 41.00-82.00 (median 61.50) weeks,the lengthening time was 14.00-38.00 (median 29.55) weeks.At the last follow-up,10patients had mild limping gait and 2 had moderate limping gait; the total score was 90.00.The median score was 7.50 (P25 was 8.00,P75 was 8.00).According to Wilcoxon signed rank test,the post-operative limping gait scores were significantly higher than pre-operative (P=0.001 ).Conclusion:Femoral lengthening can improve the limping gait significantly in ankylotic hips and limb length discrepancy.

BACKGROUND: In the field of organ transplantation, patients often take immunosuppressants after organ transplantation, such as CsA, FK506, DEX and MPA. However, their mechanisms of immunosuppression are different. The effect of immunosuppressive drugs on monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) remains poorly understood. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of different immunosuppressants on the secretions of MCP-1 in whole blood. METHODS: The whole blood of healthy volunteers was mixed with different immunosuppressants for 6 hours, such as CsA, FK506, DEX and MPA, which included low, middle and high concentrations, followed by PMA and IONO stimulation for 6 hours. MCP-1 levels in whole blood samples were compared. The whole blood cultured alone served as control. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: MCP-1 secretion was inhibited by DEX (1, 10 mg/L) and CsA (0.25,1.25 mg/L)- However, FK and MPA exhibited no such effect. Therefore, DEX and CsA may inhibit the function of monocytes and macrophages in immune system by diminishing the secretion of MCP-1. The combination of FK (5 μg/L), MPA (10 mg/L) and DEX (1 mg/L) or CsA (0.25 mg/L), MPA (10 mg/L) and DEX (1 mg/L) can inhibit the secretion of MCP-1, but only DEX among all the immunosuppressants mentioned above exhibited significant effect on inhibiting the secretion of MCP-1 when using alone.

OBJECTIVETo investigate the pathogenic infection and its drug resistance in expressed prostatic secretion (EPS) and its correlation with serum PSA, and provide some evidence for the systematic and normalized diagnosis and treatment of prostatitis.

METHODSThree EPS swabs were collected from each of the 320 prostatis patients following measurement of the serum PSA level, 1 for bacterial culture and identification, 1 for detection of Mycoplasma and drug sensitivity, and the other for examination of Chlamydia trachomatis antigen by colloidal gold immunoblot.

RESULTSTotally 244 strains were isolated from the 320 EPS samples, including 188 bacterial strains (dominated by Staphylococcus and sensitive to vancomycin or linezolid) and 44 Mycoplasma and Chlamydia strains (mainly Ureaplasma urealyticum and susceptible to josamycin or doxycycline). The serum PSA level was significantly higher in the pathogen-positive than in the pathogen-negative group ([6.98 +/- 0.56] microg/L vs [2.32 +/- 0.12] microg/L, P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONProstatitis may lead to the elevation of the serum PSA level and the pathogens involved vary in their resistance to different antibacterial spectrums. Therefore, appropriate and individualized antibiotic therapy should be selected according to etiological diagnosis and the results of drug sensitivity test.

Adult ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Prostate ; microbiology ; secretion ; Prostate-Specific Antigen ; blood ; Prostatitis ; blood ; microbiology ; Young Adult

BACKGROUND:Endothelial progenitor cells from the peripheral blood and umbilical cord blood are an essential source to repair vascular endothelial cells damaged by various diseases.
OBJECTIVE:To compare the biological characteristics of endothelial progenitor cells from peripheral blood and umbilical cord blood in vitro.
METHODS:Mononuclear cells were isolated from the umbilical cord blood and peripheral blood with density gradient centrifugation method and 6%hydroxyethyl starch precipitation combined with density gradient centrifugation method, respectively. Mononuclear cells were counted. Then the cells were implanted on the culture plate pre-paved with rat tail col agen at the concentration of 1×106/cm2, and cultured in an endothelial cellculture medium for 7 days.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Isolated and cultured endothelial progenitor cells from the peripheral blood and umbilical cord blood had similar morphological characteristics in vitro. Under the optical microscope, with the increase of culturing days, most adherent cells were changed from round to spindle-shaped. Peripheral blood endothelial progenitor cells had cellcolony formation, and spindle cells from the umbilical cord blood arranged typical y in a line structure. After trypan blue staining and drawing of cellgrowth curves, the number of mononuclear cells and endothelial progenitor cells, survival rate and proliferative ability of endothelial progenitor cells from the peripheral blood were al lower than those from the umbilical cord blood (P<0.05). At day 3 after incubation, the proliferation of endothelial progenitor cells from the peripheral blood and umbilical cord blood reached the peak, and then showed a decreased tendency. Flow cytometry and Immunofluorescence staining showed that endothelial progenitor cells from the peripheral blood and umbilical cord blood could express CD34, CD133, and vascular endothelial cellfactor receptor 2. The endothelial progenitor cells from the peripheral blood and umbilical cord blood could swal ow acetylated low density lipoprotein and be combined with ulex europaeus agglutinin Ⅰ. The results confirmed that the endothelial progenitor cells from the peripheral blood and cord blood have similar biologicla characteristics, but the proliferation ability of endothelial progenitor cells from the cord blood is higher.

Objective To examine the neural basis of item memory and source memory with fMRI approach.Methods Eight male and eight female healthy fight-handed native Chinese speakers were involved in this study.The item memory and source memory task were conducted with 504 highly frequent Chinese double-character words in the Block-designed experiment.Participants underwent such a double- round procedure as fMRI scanning following study.The fMRI data collected from a GE 1.5T MRI system were analyzed to generate corresponding activation maps for females and males respectively(P20)using statistical parametric mapping software(SPM).Results For females,item memory task activated the bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex(BA6,the number of activated voxel clusters was 62 or 11 in the left and the right,respectively),source memory more activated the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex(BA6/46,the number was 59).For males,item memory activated the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex(BA6/46,the number was 64),source memory activated the bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex(BA6,9 and 40 in the left and the right).Conclusion On the neural basis of item or source memory,there exists dissociation,which is that right dorsolateral prefrontal areas are more activated by item memory while left dorsolateral prefrontal areas by source memory.For the difference of gender,it is suggested that left dorsolateral prefrontal areas(BA6/46)are more activated in females while right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex(BA6/46)more in males.

BackgroundOur previous study determined that tetrandrine (Tet) has an inhibitory effect on the proliferation of human Tenon capsule fibroblasts ( TCFs ) in vitro,but its mechanism is poorly understood.ObjectiveThis study was to investigate the effect mechanism of Tet on human TCFs.MethodsHuman TCFs were isolated and cultured from scleral tissue of donor using explant technique.The cells were identified by vimentin antibody staining and morphology.The third generation of cells were seeded in the culture plate at the density of 1 × 105 cells/ml.Twenty-four hours after inoculation,the Tet of 1 × 10-5 mol/L was added in the well of culture plate,and the cells cultured only in 1640 medium served as the control group.The apoptosis of the cells was assessed by TUNEL,and the expressions of bax,bel-2,transforming growth factor-β2 (TGF-β2 ) in TCFs were detected using immunochemistry.Results The cultured cells showed the features of the fibroblasts in shape with the positive response for vimentin.A number of TUNEL positive cells were seen in Tet group and no TUNEL positive response was found in control group.The expression levels (A value) of bax,bcl-2 and TGF-~ protein in TCFs were 0.577 ± 0.009,0.430±0.012 and 0.341 ±0.017 in Tet group,and those in control group were 0.320±0.015,0.819±0.021 and 0.624±0.014 respectively,showing statistically significant differences between two groups( t =33.277,-35.356,-28.093,P＜0.01 ).Conclusions Tet suppresses the proliferation of human TCFs through up-regulating the expression of bax and down-regulating the expressions of bcl-2 and TGF-β2 in vitro.

0.05), but the level of albumin dropped significantly(P

This paper presents a wireless mobile monitoring system based on Bluetooth technology. This system realizes the remote mobile monitoring of multiple physiological parameters, and has the characters of easy use, low cost, good reliability and strong capability of anti-jamming.
Equipment Design ; Monitoring, Ambulatory ; instrumentation ; Radio ; instrumentation ; Software Design ; Telemedicine ; instrumentation

Amifostine ; pharmacology ; Animals ; Benzene ; toxicity ; Blood ; drug effects ; Blood Cell Count ; Male ; Mice ; Random Allocation