A promising genetic marker, sag5b, was cloned and expressed and the difference of the genes between highly virulent strain (RH) and less virulent strain(Prugniaud) of Toxoplasma gondii was compared. The PCR-generated product of sag5b was subcloned into T easy vector and plasmid pET28a consecutively. The fusion expression was induced by IPTG and identified by SDS-PAGE and Western blotting. The immunoreactivity of recombinant SAG5B was identical to that of native SAG5B on the membrane of tachyzoites of RH strain. The brains of mice infected with Prugniaud strain of T. gondii were homogenated. Sag1 was successully cloned by PCR from both RH strain tachyzoites and the homogenized brain tissues of mice infected with low virulent strain of Prugniaud,whereas sag5b was only detected in RH strain but not in Prugniaud strain, indicating that sag5b could be used as a genetic marker for differentiation of strain virulence. Expression and vaccination of the virulence-associated gene into mice failed to induce obvious protective immunity against the challenge of RH strain.

Objective To construct and assess the competency scale for emergency physicians in our country. Methods Learning from the milestone project in America, we developed the scale through Delphi method . The application effect was evaluated among 81 emergency physicians by questionnaire survey. Excel was used to do data entry. SPSS 20.0 was adopted to do data analysis. Factor analysis method was employed to verify the structure validity of the scale. Results The competency scale comprises six dimensions and 13 items. The scale of total Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.98 and the split half reliability was 0.95. Two factors were extracted by principal component analysis with cumulative contribution rate of 86.5%. The differ-ences of competency score on six aspects of different ages, titles, working years and training situation were tested and all had statistically significant differ-ence (P<0.01). Conclusion The scale developed in our study can reflect the growth stage of the emergency physicians and serve the purpose as an evaluation tool for the competency of emergency physicians in our country.

Objectives To optimize the curriculum for better education quality. Methods By literature review, the curriculum of the bio-medical English program of Peking University was summa-rized. Interviews were conducted on 8 sophomores of the program based on convenience sampling for their concerns over the curriculum and a questionnalre was designed based on such concerns. Ques-tionnalre survey was used for the remarks and suggestions of the 129 graduates of year 2002, 2003 and 2004 on the curriculum, with 79 valid questionnalres collected and the data analyzed by Microsoft Excel. Results Respectively 64 (81.02%), 52 (65.82%), 53 (67.09%) respondents believe the se-quence, duration and connection of the English courses are appropriate and 65 (82.27%), 46 (58.22%), 50 (63.29%) respondents believe the sequence, duration and connection of the medical courses are appropriate. 63 (81.77%) respondents hoped that they could do experiments in the medical courses, but 18 of them (23.08%) worried that the experiments would make the curriculum more tense. 71 (89.97%) respondents thought that the internship at hospital in the curriculum was conducive to better understanding of medical course contents . Suggestions on the improvement of the curriculum were also made by respondents. Conclusions The curriculum could be further optimized, especially on the connection between different courses, although most of the respondents by and large believe that the curriculum of the program is rational and hold positive attitude towards the internship in hospital and experiments in the curriculum.

Animals ; Base Sequence ; Gene Expression Regulation ; Humans ; MicroRNAs ; genetics ; metabolism ; Molecular Sequence Data ; RNA, Viral ; genetics ; Virus Diseases ; genetics ; metabolism ; virology ; Virus Physiological Phenomena ; Viruses ; genetics ; metabolism

Acute Disease ; Autonomic Nervous System Diseases ; Child ; Humans ; Male

Objective To assess the efficacy of radiofrequency scalpel in the treatment of rhinophyma.Methods Twenty-three patients diagnosed with rhinophyma were randomly divided into radiofrequency group (13 patients) and routine surgery group (10 patients).Hypertrophic nasal tissue was removed by a radiofrequency scalpel in the radiofrequency group,and by a scalpel followed by dermabrasion in the routine surgery group.Several parameters,including operation time,intraoperative blood loss,surgical wound healing time,postoperative erythema duration,scarring incidence rate and appearance improvement value,were compared by t test or chi-square test between the two groups.Results All the patients completed the treatment.Compared with the routine surgery group,the radiofrequency group showed shorter operation time ((24.4 ± 2.8) vs.(44.0 ± 4.7) minutes,P ＜ 0.01)and less blood loss ((10.4 ± 1.4) vs.(39.0 ± 5.7) ml,P ＜ 0.01).No significant difference was observed in the surgical wound healing time,erythema duration,postoperative appearance improvement value and scarring incidence between the two groups.Conclusion Radiofrequency scalpel is effective and safe in the treatment of rhinophyma with shorter operation time and less intraoperative blood loss.

Objective To observe the positional relationship of lumbar nerve roots and its main adjacent structures with CT data, and to conduct 3D construction and measurement,so as to provide anatomical basis for percutaneous lumbar diskectomy(PLD).Methods CT serial tomography dataset of 30 healthy adults' lumbosacral portions were imported into Mimics 17.0 software to segment related structures and obtain the layers of different structures.The structures were 3D reconstructed and virtually demonstrated.The lumbar nerve roots and their main surrounding structures were observed and measured.Results The minimum distances between the lumbar nerve roots and the superior articular processes increased gradually from L3 to L4 intervertebral disc layer to L5 to S1 intervertebral disc layer.The 3D model clearly displayed the morphology and spatial relationship of the lumbar nerve roots and their adjacent structures in lumbosacral portion.The lower the lumbar intervertebral discs were,the thicker they were.The distances from the middle point of the back of lumbar intervertebral disc to the end of the superior spinous process of lumbar vertebra increased at first and decreased then,and the distance in L3 to L4 intervertebral disc layer was the farthest.Conclusion The relationship between lumbar nerve roots and superior articular processes,the intervertebral disc thickness variance and the change of the distances from lumbar intervertebral disc to the end of the superior spinous process have been analyzed in this study,and the clinic basis has been laid for percutaneous lumbar diskectomy.

Mitochondria, the power house of cells, are important organelles in eukaryotic cells. Having their own unique and complete DNA (mtDNA) and genetic system, mitochondria play an essential role in cellular energy metabolism, intracel?lular signaling and apoptotic pathways, as well as many other biological functions, which are closely related with cellular met?abolic network. A disruption of mitochondrial genes can therefore result in mitochondrial dysfunction and human diseases, thus they have been widely used in molecular biology, development biology, genetics, forensic identification and clinical diag?nosis. Consequently, sequencing mitochondrial genome has shown great significance in mitochondrial structure and function research. In this review, research progress in mitochondrial genome sequencing method is summarized, mainly focusing on Sanger sequencing, long-PCR and next-generation sequencing. Also rolling circle amplification and indirect sequencing of mtDNA are reviewed. The ambiguities caused by numts in indirect sequencing are mentioned and resolved.

BACKGROUND:Drug therapy can partly reduce and delay the progress of Alzheimer’s disease, but only 30%with the single drug treatment obtain clinical cure. OBJECTIVE:To study the therapeutic effect of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cel s transplantation for rats with Alzheimer’s disease. METHODS:Amyloidβ-protein was injected into the hippocampus of Sprague-Dawley rats to construct the model of Alzheimer’s disease. And bone marrow stromal stem cel s were transplanted into the hippocampus of the rat models. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:At 2 weeks after modeling, compared with the control group, the escape latency in the model and experimental groups was significantly longer (P<0.05), which indicating that Alzheimer’s disease models were successful y established. At 4 weeks after cel transplantation, compared with the model group, the average escape latency in the experimental group was significantly decreased, but retention time on the platform quadrant was significantly prolonged (P<0.05). Besides, at 4 weeks after cel transplantation, expression of choline acetyltransferase in the experimental group was significantly higher than that in the model group (P<0.05). In conclusion, bone marrow mesenchymal stem cel s cannot only differentiate and survive in the hippocampus of rats with Alzheimer’s disease, but also improve the learning and memory ability.

Objective To study the relationship between genotypes and phenotypes,geographical distribution,and the sites of infection of Trichophyton rubrum(T.rubrum).Methods The genotypes were determined by Southern blotting with a probe amplified from the small-subunit rDNA and adjacent internal transcribed spacer(ITS)regions.The phenotypes of T.rubrum were determined by conventional method.Results Twenty genotypes(DNA type A to T)and5phenotypes(villous,furrowed,granular,powdery,and woolly)were recognized among49strains of T.rubrum.Genotype A prevailed in all phenotypes except granu-lar type.Type B represented the most common genotype among the strains of villous type and furrowed type.Type A took the first place in powdery type and woolly type.All of the type A strains were from Dalian.Seven of9type B strains were from Nanjing.Six type C strains were all from Nanjing.The majority strains of21strains isolated from tinea unguium were type C,most of the16strains isolated from tinea cruris and tinea corporis were type A,8strains from tinea pedis were type B,and4strains from tinea capitis were type C.Conclusion There are certain possible relationships between genotypes and phenotypes,geographical distri-bution and sites of infection of T.rubrum.