· AlM: To study the effect of bone mesenchymal stem cells ( BMSCs ) and chondroitinaseABC ( ChABC ) on photoreceptor apoptosis in the retina of sodium iodate-induced rats.
·METHODS:Forty Sprague Dawley rats ( SD rats) were intraperitoneally injected with NalO3 (30g/L, 100mg/kg) to establish the retinal degeneration models ( postnatal 28d).These rats were devided into 4 groups.Group A was not injected, group B was injected with BMSCs, group C was injected with BMSCs and ChABC, and group D was injected with phosphate buffer saline ( PBS).After 28d, subretinal injection were applied. Hematoxyln - eosinstaining ( HE ) , tunel and immunohistochemistry were performed at 21d after subretinal injection.
· RESULTS: Photoreceptor number and photoreceptor apoptosis rate of B and C groups were more than those of A and D groups, and there was significant difference statistically ( P <0.05 ) . Photoreceptor number and photoreceptor apoptosis rate of group B were compared with those of group C, and there was no statistical significance between B and C groups ( P>0.05 ) .Glial fibrillary acidic protein ( GFAP) was expressed by BMSCs after intraocular injection.
· CONCLUSlON: BMSCs and ChABC injected into subretinal space may alleviate photoreceptor apoptosis so as to protect retinal photoreceptor cells in degenerated rats.

OBJECTIVETo investigate the blood lead levels (BLLs) in children after 10-year use of unleaded gasoline in Guangzhou and evaluate the effect of this measure.

METHODSThrough stratified random sampling method, 4 kindergartens and 4 elementary schools were selected from each of three districts among 12 districts of Guangzhou. Totally 2373 children were recruited into this survey and 1-2 ml blood was sampled from each child through vein. The lead concentration in blood samples was determined with Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) after diluted with 0.1% Triton X-100 and 0.1% HNO(3) in the ratio of 1:20.

RESULTSAmong 2373 children, the highest BLL was 330 microg/L, while the lowest was 10 microg/L. Geometric mean (GM) of BLL was 58.28 microg/L with 61.11 microg/L of male and 55.37 microg/L of female (t=8.671, P=0.000). Sixty (2.51%) children were identified as elevated BLLs (>or=100 microg/L), including 36 (2.90%) male and 24 (2.09%) female (chi2=1.594, P=0.207). Compared to the surveys conducted in China 10-year ago, the children with elevated BLLs decreased 96.28% and the GM of BLLs reduced 58.37%. BLLs in suburb children (60.33 microg/L) were higher than those in downtown (58.09 microg/L) or in countryside (56.72 microg/L).

CONCLUSIONThe BLLs in children and the ratio for children with elevated BLLs, had declined dramatically after 10-year implement of unleaded gasoline in Guangzhou.

Child ; Child, Preschool ; China ; Data Collection ; Environmental Exposure ; Female ; Gasoline ; Humans ; Lead ; blood ; Male

OBJECTIVETo explore the operative skills and effect of unilateral pedicle screw combined with contralateral percutaneous transfacet screws fixation in treating degenerative low lumbar disease.

METHODSFrom January 2009 to December 2011,22 patients with degenerative low lumbar disease were treated with transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion, during the operations, unilateral pedicle screw and contralateral percutaneous transfacet screw fixation were performed. There were 16 males and 6 females, aged from 32 to 71 years old with an average of (51.1 ± 10.6) years, including single segment in 20 cases and two segments in 2 cases. Clinical effects were evaluated according to visual analogue score (VAS) and Oswestry Disability Index (ODI).

RESULTSAll patients were followed up from 1 to 2.5 years with an average of 18 months. One case complicated with leakage of cerebrospinal fluid after operation and 1 case with lower limb pain of decompression-side on the 3rd day after operation. Twenty-two patients got bony fusion. There were no instability and evidence of instrument failure during follow-up. The VAS and ODI score decreased from preoperative 8.24 ± 0.72, 36.72 ± 6.84 respectively to 3.18 ± 0.66, 4.36 ± 1.12 at the final follow-up (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONUnilateral pedicle screw combined with contralateral percutaneous transfacet screw fixation is safe and feasible surgical technique in treating low lumbar degenerative disease. It has advantages of little trauma, rigid fixation, high fusion rate, and less complication. etc.

Adult ; Aged ; Biomechanical Phenomena ; Female ; Humans ; Intervertebral Disc Degeneration ; physiopathology ; surgery ; Lumbar Vertebrae ; surgery ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Pedicle Screws ; Spinal Fusion ; methods

Histocytochemistry ; methods ; Humans ; Pathology, Clinical ; methods ; Specimen Handling ; methods ; Staining and Labeling ; methods

Objective To investigate the situation of urine albumin measurement of clinical laboratory in Tianjin.Methods Control materials from patient mixed urine samples were made to validate precision in the clinical laboratories in Tianjin.Reference Material ERM-DA470K was prepared as the first external quality assessment ( EQA) sample, and the bias between laboratories was calculated.Then we give some advice about the methods of routine maintenance, calibration, standardized operation, internal quality assessment and so on to the laboratories which were not qualified in the first EQA.Then the second EQA was carried out and CV and bias were culculated.Results 52 clinical laboratories has 12 series of instruments and 17 series of reagents.The precision research showed that most laboratories ( 93.55%) had good precision for urine albumin measurement, while CV of inter-laboratory was great:the range of low level of control sample was 8.91 -43.95 mg/L, 34.46% for CV; and the high level was 36.32 -281 mg/L, 28.51% for CV.Only 36.5% laboratories were qualified in the first EQA. The qualified rate for nephelometry and turbidimetry was higher (55.6%, 42.9%).The qualified rate of trueness verification was 58.6%in the second EQA, and the CV between laboratories was significantly decreased, Inter-laboratory CV of the five samples were:19.83%, 13.57%, 13.41%, 13.08%, 11.37%. The qudified rate for nephelomety and turbidimetry was 71.4% and 56.3%.Conclusions There are a mide variety of measurement systems of urine albumin in Tianjin, and the CV between these systems is great.Clinical laboratory should strengthen the laboratory standardization operation and upgrade calibration testing to improve the testing consistency.

Objective To investigate the features of lymph node metastasis and its effects on the prognosis of patients after radical operation for thoracic esophageal squamous cell cancer, and investigate the reasonable postoperative adjuvant protocol. Methods Multivariate analysis of the clinical data of 204 patients was carried out by Spearman correlation analysis, Cox model and Kaplan-Meier method. Results The lymph node metastasis rate was 40.2% (82/204), and 166 out of 2193 dissected lymph nodes had metastasis with the rate of 7.57%. The analysis of related factors revealed that the invasion depth, tumor length and differentiation grade were significantly associated with the postoperative lymph node metastasis (χ2 = 17.466, 11.494, 6.767, P <0.05), while age, tumor site were not significantly correlated with the postoperative lymph node metastasis (χ2=1.086, 3.897, P > 0.05). Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that the 1-, 3-, 5-year survival rates of patients with < 4 lymph nodes metastasis were significantly higher than those with ≥4 lymph nodes metastasis (χ2=4.493, 4.494, 4.450, P < 0.05). The recurrence and metastasis were more often occurred in patients with lymph node metastasis compared with those without lymph node metastasis (r=-2.060, -4.296, P <0.05). Multivariate analysis confirmed that the pathological stage, tumor differentiation grade, and the postoperative adjuvant treatment were the independent prognostic factors. Conclusions The invasion depth, tumor length and differentiation grade are significantly associated with the postoperative lymph node metastasis. The lymph node metastasis state and the number of involved lymph nodes affect the prognosis of patients. Oral administration of 5-FU is benefit to the patients without lymph node metastasis.

Immunohistochemical technique was an essential tool of conventional diagnosis,therefore,the application of immunohisto- chemistry in reformation of pathology laboratory teaching would boost pathological experimental teaching standards to a higher level.

OBJECTIVETo investigate the relationship between B-type natriuretic peptides (BNP) and subclinical target organ damage in essential hypertensive (EH) patients.

METHODSA total of 317 EH patients were divided into 3 groups according to BNP levels, namely normal (BNP<600 ng/L) group (n=102), moderate (600-883.5 ng/L) group (n=116), and elevated BNP (>883.5 ng/L) group (n=99). The blood pressure, left ventricular mass index (LVMI), the intima media thickness (IMT) of the common carotid artery, the plaque size in the coronary artery (CS) and microalbuminuria levels were analyzed in these patients.

RESULTSThe EH patients with moderate and elevated BNP showed significantly higher LVMI, IMT, CS and microalbuminuria levels than those with normal BNP level (LVMI: 102.8∓23.12 and 123.9∓26.47 vs 91.09∓18.71 g/m2; IMT: 0.95∓0.32 and 1.16∓0.37 vs 0.84∓0.28 mm; microalbuminuria: 31.36∓20.55 and 36.73∓22.07 vs 23.21∓18.68, P<0.01). After adjustment, BNP was positively correlated to LVMI, IMT, CS and microalbuminuria level (r=0.45, 0.43, 0.39 and 0.41, respectively, P<0.01). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that age, systolic blood pressure, BNP, FPG, and microalbuminuria, LDL-C, and BMI were all related to the occurrence of subclinical target organ damages.

CONCLUSIONBNP is positively correlated to subclinical target organs damages in EH patients.

Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Albuminuria ; pathology ; Carotid Artery, Common ; pathology ; Carotid Intima-Media Thickness ; Female ; Humans ; Hypertension ; blood ; pathology ; Hypertrophy, Left Ventricular ; pathology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Natriuretic Peptide, Brain ; blood

Objective: To explore the status of lymph node metastasis of middle third thoracic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and its influence on the prognosis and to seek the reasonable range of lymphade-nectomy. Methods: A total of 129 patients who underwent curative esophagectomy with modern two-field lymphadenectomy of middle third thoracic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma were reviewed. Results: The lymph node metastasis rate was 56.6% and the upper mediastinal lymph node metastasis rate was 43.4%. The lymph node metastasis ratio (positive nodes/total dissected nodes, LMR) was 11.3%. Paraesophageal lymph nodes, lymph nodes near the right recurrent nerve, the left gastric and infracadnal lymph nodes were most commonly involved when the tumor was located in the middle thoracic esophagus. Tumor differentiation, the depth of tumor invasion and the length of tumor were influencing factors for lymph node metastasis. The 5-year survival of N_0, N_1 (LMR≤20%) and N_1 (LMR>20%) patients were 50.4%, 31.0% and 6.8%, respective-ly, with a significant difference among the three groups (P=0.000). Conclusion: LMR was one of the key fac-tors affecting the prognosis, of esophageal cancer. Patients with middle third thoracic esophageal carcinoma should be treated with radical surgery with modern two-field lymphadenectomy.

OBJECTIVETo investigate the protective effect and action mechanism of petroleum ether extracts from Saussurea involucrate on brain tissues of hypoxia rats under constant pressure and closed conditions.

METHODThe PESI dosage-dependent experiment for hypoxia rats was conducted under constant pressure and closed conditions by intraperitoneally injecting 125, 250, 500 mg x kg(-1) to finalize that the optimum dosage is the high dose of PESI. Afterwards, 90 Wistar rats were randomly divided into the hypoxic model group, the acetazolamide 250 mg x kg(-1) group and the PESI high dose group. Each group was further divided into three subgroups according to different hypoxia times, with 10 rats in each subgroup. Under the same hypoxia and administration conditions, the rats were sacrificed after 0, 3, 6 h respectively. Their brain samples were collected for common pathological observation and immunohistochemical staining of HIF-1alpha. Real-time RT-PCR was used to detect HIF-1alpha, EPO, HO-1 and Caspase-3 gene expressions. And the Western blot assay was adopted to detect HIF-1alpha protein expression.

RESULTThe brain tissues of the hypoxia model group were severely damaged with the increase in the hypoxia time. The acetazolamide group and the PESI high does group were damaged in a much lower degree. According to the gene expression and the Western blot assay, high dose of PESI could inhibit HIF-1alpha expression. According to the pure gene expression test, high dose of PESI could increase EPO and HO-1 mRNA expressions, but inhibit Caspase-3 mRNA expression.

CONCLUSIONPESI's protective mechanism for brain tissues of hypoxia rats under constant pressure and closed conditions may be related to its effects in inhibiting HIF-1alpha expression, increasing EPO expression and resisting cell apoptosis.

Alkanes ; chemistry ; Animals ; Brain ; cytology ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Caspase 3 ; genetics ; Cell Hypoxia ; drug effects ; Cytoprotection ; drug effects ; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; Erythropoietin ; genetics ; Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic ; drug effects ; Heme Oxygenase-1 ; genetics ; Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1, alpha Subunit ; genetics ; metabolism ; Male ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar ; Saussurea ; chemistry