Humans ; Psoriasis ; metabolism ; Receptors, Notch ; metabolism ; Signal Transduction

Animals ; Humans ; Models, Animal ; Myocytes, Cardiac ; cytology ; Stem Cells ; cytology ; Tissue Engineering

Adult ; Enhancer of Zeste Homolog 2 Protein ; Female ; Humans ; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute ; genetics ; Male ; MicroRNAs ; genetics ; Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 ; genetics

OBJECTIVETo investigate the clinical effects and operative options for the treatment of Forestier disease.

METHODSFrom June 2005 to May 2012, 8 patients with progressive dysphagia due to Forestier disease were treated through anterior approach, their clinical data were retrospective analyzed. There were 6 males and 2 females, aged from 65 to 83 years old with an average of 73 years. Among the patients, osteophytes removal was performed in 3 cases, osteophytes removal with discectomy and fusion was performed in 2 cases, osteophytes removal with corpectomy and fusion was performed in 3 cases. According to Bazaz dysphagia score to assess the improvement of the patients' symptoms before and after operation.

RESULTSAll patients were followed up from 12 to 40 months with the mean of 18.5 months. Seven cases were asymptomatic and 1 case had mild symptom in the last follow-up. Radiographs showed the space enlargement between vertebral body and trachea.

CONCLUSIONIt is effective to treat patients with progressive dysphagia due to Forestier disease through surgical method. And the operative options depend on the stability of cervical spine and the neurological symptoms of the patients.

Appropriate selection and measurement of lead biomarkers of exposure are critically important for health care management purposes, public health decision making, and primary prevention synthesis. Lead is one of the neurotoxicants that seems to be involved in the etiology of psychologies. Biomarkers are generally classified into three groups: biomarkers of exposure, effect, and susceptibility.The main body compartments that store lead are the blood, soft tissues, and bone; the half-life of lead in these tissues is measured in weeks for blood, months for soft tissues, and years for bone. Within the brain, lead-induced damage in the prefrontal cerebral cortex, hippocampus, and cerebellum can lead to a variety of neurological disorders, such as brain damage, mental retardation, behavioral problems, nerve damage, and possibly Alzheimer's disease, Parkinsons disease, and schizophrenia. This paper presents an overview of biomarkers of lead exposure and discusses the neurotoxic effects of lead with regard to children and adults.
Alzheimer Disease ; chemically induced ; metabolism ; pathology ; physiopathology ; psychology ; Animals ; Behavior ; drug effects ; Biomarkers ; metabolism ; Brain ; metabolism ; pathology ; physiopathology ; Brain Diseases ; chemically induced ; pathology ; physiopathology ; Environmental Exposure ; adverse effects ; Humans ; Lead ; pharmacokinetics ; toxicity ; Lead Poisoning ; etiology ; metabolism ; pathology ; physiopathology ; psychology ; Neurotoxicity Syndromes ; etiology ; metabolism ; pathology ; physiopathology ; psychology ; Parkinson Disease, Secondary ; chemically induced ; metabolism ; pathology ; physiopathology ; psychology ; Schizophrenia ; chemically induced ; metabolism ; pathology ; physiopathology

AIM: To observe the effects of six common traditional Chinese herbs of activating blood, paeoniae rubra radix, salviae miltiorrhizae radix, ligustici, rhizome, notoginseng radix, pruni persicae semen and wine staemed radix et rhizome, on atherosclerotic plaque structure and stabilization in ApoE gene-deficient mice. METHODS: Four sections of the aortic root were choosen and stained with hematoxylin and masson. All sections were measured with Image-ProDR○ Plus Version 4.5.1 (IPP) software. RESULTS: Compared with the model group, plaque area corrected by cross-sectional vessel wall area reduced significantly in salviae miltirrhizae radix treatment group, lipid core area reduced in paeoniae rubra radix group, pruni persicae semen and wine steamed radix et rhizome treatment group, minimum thickness of fibrous cap became thicker significantly in salviae miltiorrhizae radix, ligustici, rhizome, pruni persicae semen and wine steamed radix et rhizome treatment group. CONCLUSION: These Chinese herbs may stabilize the atherosclerotic plaques in ApoE gene-deficient mice by interfering their structure, but their effects do not parallel with their activating blood efficacy in traditional Chinese medicine.

Objective: To construct the expression plasmid of a novel gene human NBEAL1 (neurobeachin like 1), and to study its relationship with the pathological grades of glioma. Methods: Total RNA of human glioma cell line U251 was extracted. NBEAL1 expression plasmid pGEX-KG/NBEAL1 was constructed and transferred into E. coli BL21. Recombinant NBEAL1 protein was induced by IPTG and further purified by GST affinity chromatographic column. The purity of recombinant NBEAL1 protein was examined by Western blotting analysis. A NBEAL1 protein specific monoclonal antibody was prepared and was used to study the relationship of NBEAL1 expression with pathological grades of glioma. Results: The NBEAL1 gene fragment was successfully cloned into pGEX-KG expression plasmid and verified by DNA sequencing. The recombinant NBEAL1 protein was expressed in inclusion bodies, with a yield of more than 30% of total bacterial proteins; the purity of purified NBEAL1 protein was above 95%. Western blotting analysis confirmed that the purified protein containing GST tag and NBEAL protein. NBEAL1 protein was lowly expressed in normal brain tissues and highly expressed in low grade glioma tissues; and the expression of NBEAL1 decreased with the increase of glioma malignancy. Conclusion: The NBEAL1 protein has been successfully cloned, expressed and purified. NBEAL1 protein expression in glioma tissues is negatively associated with the pathological grades of glioma.

A method was proposed for the separation and determination of paraffin waxes in food by HPLC-evaporative light scattering detection (ELSD). A normal-phase column was used to separate nonparaffinic and paraffinic materials without resolving the latter into individual components. The t-test method was adopted for the evaluation of mean difference between response factors of n-alkanes in paraffin waxes on ELSD detector. No mean difference was obtained between response factors, which can be used for quantitative determination of paraffin waxes in food. The determination results obtained by HPLC-ELSD were compared with those by GC-MS. The linear range for the determination of paraffin waxes was in the range from 10 to 500 mg/L with a correlation coefficient of 0.9988, and the limit of detection was 1.0 mg/L. With the spiking level of 10, 50 and 100 mg/kg, the recovery ranged from 84.6% to 105.4% and the relative standard deviation ranging from 5.4% to 7.2%. The proposed method is simple, fast and sensitive.

Background Channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2)is a cation channel isolated from the eyespot of Chlamydomonas algae and has been used to control neuron activity.The light stimulation is a more precise fashion whether space or time than that of electrical,magnetic and ultrasound stimulation. Objective This study was to construct a replication deficient recombinant adenovirus cxpression vector of ChR2 and to determine its function.Methods Human embryo kidney 293 (HEK293) cell line was cultured and passaged in DF12 medium containing 10％ fetal bovine serum(FBS).The ChR2 gene was cloned at the downstream of cytomegalovirus(CMV)promoter of the adenoviral shuttle plasmid pSB291 in sense direction,and the resultant recombinant plasmid pSB291-hChR2- GFP was transfected into HEK293 cell together with plasmid pBHG lox ( deltaE1,3 ) containing adenoviral genome,then small amounts replication deficient recombinant adenovirus expression vector of ChR2 (Ad-ChR2) was obtained.Through amplification gradient centrifugation and dialysis,pure Ad-ChR2 was obtained.Visual cortex cells derived from 4 1-day-old clean Long Evans rats were primary cultured with serum-free culture media and infected by AdChR2.When expressing green fluorescencc,those cells received the stimulated of blue light with 460 nm.Patch clamp technique was applied to record an action potential. Results After purification and concentration,the titer of AdhCHR2 reached 7.9×1010 PFU/ml.Twenty-four hours after transfect of Ad-ChR2,HEK293 cell membrane showed the green fluorescence for the recombinant plasmid with green fluorescence protein under the inversed fluorescence microscope.The HEK293 cells change their shape from flat to round 13 days after transfected.The primary cultured visual cortex cells exhibited the green fluorescence 3-5 days after infected by Ad-ChR2.The action potentials evoked by blue light stimulation were recorded with patch clamp on those cells expressing green fluorescence. Conclusions Ad-ChR2 expressing vector is constructed successfully in this study.It is verified that Ad-ChR2 expressing vector can infect visual cortex cells with visual function.This result is very important for visual plasticity study.

Background Lasein situ keratomileusi(LASIK) imainstream surgery forefractive correction,and femtosecond laseimuch often used to create thin corneal flap.The measuremenof OPTOVUE RTVue-100 OCto flap and stromal bed thicknesseofferuseful basifoLASIK.Ican be used in measuring the thicknesand shape of the corneal flap.Buthe study on the comparison of flap thicknesbetween WavelighFS200 femtosecond laseand MoriM2 microkeratome 90 μm-knife (Mori90 microkeratome) LASIK by OCilack.Objective The aim of thitrial wato compare the featureof corneal flapcreated by the WavelighFS200 femtosecond laseand Mori90 microkeratome.Methodpiloand prospective study wadesigned.Written informed consenwaobtained from each patienprioto LASIK.Sixty righeyeof 60 patientwith myopiomyopiastigmatism were enrolled in thiclinical trial.The patientwere randomized into the FS200 femtosecond lasegroup and Mori90 microkeratome group with matching demography.RTVue OCwaused to measure flap thicknesusing 10 settingon the 60 eye1 month afteoperation.The featureof the LASIK flapwere analyzed based on the measuring outcomes.ResultThe central flap thickneswa(112±3) μm and the mean flap thickneswa(112 ±3) μm in the FS200 femtosecond lasegroup,which wasignificanlowethan the central flap thicknesa(121±7) μm and the mean flap thicknesa(128±11) μm in the Mori90 microkeratome group respectively (P=0.031,0.030).Corneal flapin the FS200 femtosecond lasegroup showed flashape and thain the Mori90 microkeratome group wameniscushape.The central flap thickneswanoevidently differenfrom thaof peripheral thicknesin the FS200 femtosecond lasegroup (P =0.320).However,in the Mori90 microkeratome group,the central flap thickneswaobviously thinnethan thain the peripheral thicknes(P=0.038).The mean deviation between the actual and predicted flap thicknes(110 μm) wa(3±4)μm in the FS200 femtosecond lasegroup and (17±10) μm in the Mori90 microkeratome group,showing significandifference between them (P =0.009).ConclusionRTVue OCdeterminethathe shape of flapcreated by the FS200 femtosecond laseimore uniform and closeto the expected thicknesof 110 μm than the onecreated by the Mori90 microkeratome.OPTOVUE RTVue-100 OCiuseful tool to evaluate the flap shape and thicknesafteLASIK.