Objective To assess the effects of captopril on renal perfusion of diabetic mellitus(DM)rabbits at early stage by contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS).Methods Of 58 rabbits,6 were control group,37 were made as DM model successfully by alloxan and were randomly divided into 4 groups:untreatment group (n =16) and treatment group A,B and C (n =7 averagely).The treatment groups were given captopril(25 mg/kg weight) everyday by intragastric administration after the DM model established and renal pathology appeared Mogensen DN Ⅰ,Ⅱ or / and Ⅲ respectively.The treatment lasted 12 week.Then CEUS was performed on bilateral kidney to observe the renal perfusion,the parameters included:curve ascending slope(K1),time to peak intensity(PIT),peak signal intensity(PSI),area under the curve(AUC) and time to half of peak intensity(HPT).Results At the end of 12 weeks,compared with control group,PIT and HPT delayed,PSI and K1 decreased in untreatment group and group C,AUC of untreatment group increased.Compared with untreatment group,PIT,HPT and AUC decreased,PSI and K1 increased in group A,B and C.Compared with group C,HPT of treatment group A,B decreased.Compared with control group,renal's size increased and the cortex was thickened in untreatment group and group A,B,C.The pathological examination showed:renal were damaged more seriously in untreatment group than that in group A and B.There was no significant difference in Scr and BUN between all groups.Conclusions Assessment of CEUS for renal perfusion of diabetic mellitus rabbits at early stage is feasible and captopril can improve renal perfusion of DM rabbits.

Objective To assess the renal perfusion of different severity of hepatic cirrhosis by contrast-enhanced ultrasound with time-intensity curve.Methods Forty hepatic cirrhosis patients with normal conventional renal function enrolled the study and were subdivided into Child-Pugh A group ( n =14),Child-Pugh B group ( n =14) and Child-Pugh C group ( n =12).Thirty healthy subjects were selected as the control group.The parameters of perfusion were compared among the groups.The correlations between parameters and score of Child-Pugh were analyzed using Pearson correlation.Results The cirrhosis groups showed a decrease of peak intensity,increase of time to peak,and reduce of area under the curve in the renal cortex( P ＜0.05).Compared with Child-Pugh A group,the peak intensity decreased in both ChildPugh B and C groups,time to peak increased in Child-Pugh C group( P ＜0.05 or P ＜0.01 ).The peak intensity had negative correlation with Child-Pugh score( r =- 0.506,P ＜0.01 ).Conclusions Contrastenhanced ultrasound combined with time-intensity curve can assess renal perfusion of hepatic cirrhosis quantitatively.The peak intensity was correlated to the severity of cirrhosis.

Objective To explore the relationship between the polymorphism of methionine synthase reductase(MTRR) A66G and the susceptibility to unexplained repeated spontaneous abortion (URSA).Methods Total of 200 Henan Han couples with URSA (URSA group) and 76 Henan Han healthy couples without URSA (control group)were enrolled in this study.Their MTRR A66G genotypes were determined by PCR restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP).Results (1) The allele frequencies of MTRR A66G:the frequencies of allele A and allele G in URSA group were 76.5％ (153/200)in husband and 72.8％ (146/200) in wife,23.5％ (47/200) in husband and 27.2％ (54/200) in wife,respectively.The frequencies of allele A and allele G in control group were 78.9％ (60/76) in husband and 78.3％ (59/76) in wife,21.1％ (16/76) in husband and 21.7％ (16/76) in wife,respectively.The frequencies of allele A and allele G were not significantly different between female and male subjects within the same experimental group (P ＞ 0.05),and also there were not significantly different between the same gender subjects at URAS and control groups(P ＞ 0.05).(2) The genotype frequencies of MTRR A66G:the frequencies of genotype AA,AG and GG in URSA group were 57.0％ (114/200) in husband and 52.0％ (104/200) in wife,39.0％ (78/200) in husband and 41.5％ (83/200) in wife,4.0％ (8/200) in husband and 6.5％ (13/200) in wife,prepectively.The frequencies of genotype AA,AG and GG in control group were 59.2％ (45/76) in husband and 59.2％ (50/76) in wife,39.5％ (30/76) in husband and 38.2％ (29/76) in wife;1.3 ％ (1/76) in husband and 2.6％ (2/76) in wife,prepectively.The frequencies of genotype AA,AG and GG were not significantly different between female and male subjects within the same group (P ＞ 0.05),and also there were not significantly different between the same gender subjects at URSA and control groups (P ＞0.05).(3) Combined genotype of couples:the combined genotype frequencies of GG + GG,GG + AG,GG +AA,AG + AG,AG + AA and AA + AA in URSA group were 1.0％ (2/200),2.5％ (5/200),6.0％ (12/200),20.0％ (40/200),38.0％ (76/200),and 32.5 ％ (65/200),prepectively ; the combined genotype frequencies in control group were 0,1.3％ (1/76),2.6％ (2/76),17.1％ (13/76),42.1％ (32/76),36.8％ (28/76),prepectively.The combined genotype analysis between the two groups were also not significantly different (P ＞ 0.05).Conclusion The polymorphism of MTRR A66G gene was not associated with the susceptibility to URSA (P ＞ 0.05),and so it was not the inherited genetic risk factor of URSA.

Objective To investigate the role of lncSIL in transforming growth factor-β1(TGF-β1)-induced alveo-lar epithelial interstitial transformation(EMT)and its related signaling pathways.Methods Western blot was used to detect the effect of lncSIL silencing on the expression of E-cadherin(E-cad),alpha-smooth muscle actin(α-SMA)and Collagen I(Col I)in the process of EMT induced by TGF-β1.LncSIL interacting proteins were ana-lyzed by RNA pulldown.Western blot was used to detect the effect of overexpression or silencing of lncSIL on the expression of its target gene enhancer of zeste homolog 2(EZH2)and its downstream factors P21 and cyclin-de-pendent kinase 6(CDK6).Flow cytometry was used to analyze the effect of lncSIL on cell cycle progression.Re-sults After lncSIL silencing,the expression of α-SMA and Col I increased,the expression of E-cad decreased.RNA pulldown assay showed that EZH2 was the target protein that interacted with lncSIL,and the expression of EZH2 increased after silencing lncSIL,the expression of EZH2 downstream gene P21 decreased,CDK6 increased.Flow cytometry showed that the number of cells in S phase significantly increased.When lncSIL was overexpressed,the expression of EZH2 and CDK6 was down-regulated,the expression of P21 was up-regulated,and the number of S phase cells significantly decreased.Conclusion LncSIL inhibits TGF-β1-induced alveolar epithelial cell mesen-chymal transition by negatively regulating EZH2/P21/CDK6 signaling pathway to inhibit cell cycle progression.