Acupuncture Points ; Acupuncture Therapy ; Adult ; Constipation ; therapy ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged

OBJECTIVETo map the regulatory domain of Escherichia coli T-protein.

METHODSFragmentation cloning was employed in cloning of 11 fragments from T-protein. The regulatory activity of each fragment was determined respectively.

RESULTSThe regulatory domain of T-protein was located in the C-terminal 270 amino acids, which was the same location as PDH domain.

CONCLUSIONT-protein has no independent regulatory domain.

Cloning, Molecular ; Deoxyribonucleases, Type I Site-Specific ; analysis ; chemistry ; genetics ; Escherichia coli Proteins ; analysis ; chemistry ; genetics ; Nucleic Acid Conformation ; Peptide Fragments ; chemistry ; genetics ; Protein Binding ; genetics ; Regulatory Elements, Transcriptional ; genetics

OBJECTIVETo investigate the effect of cryptoporus polysaccharide(CP)on lipopolysaccharide(LPS)-induced production of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1(MCP-1)in human lung epithelial A549 cells.

METHODSA549 cells were stimulated with LPS in the presence or absence of CP. The protein concentration and mRNA expression of MCP-1 were determined by enzyme-linked-immunosobent assay(ELISA)and semi-quantitative RT-PCR, respectively.

RESULTThe protein concentration of MCP-1 was significantly increased by LPS 1000 microg/L at 24 h. There were no effects on the growth and viability of A549 cells in the presence of CP 100 microg/L or dexamethasone 1 mumol/L. However, CP 100 microg/L or dexamethasone 1 micromol/L significantly inhibited the protein concentration and mRNA expression of MCP-1 induced by LPS.

CONCLUSIONCP can regulate MCP-1 production, which may be associated with its effects on lung inflammation.

Cell Line ; Chemokine CCL2 ; genetics ; metabolism ; Epithelial Cells ; cytology ; metabolism ; Humans ; Lipopolysaccharides ; pharmacology ; Polyporaceae ; chemistry ; Polysaccharides ; isolation & purification ; pharmacology ; Pulmonary Alveoli ; cytology ; RNA, Messenger ; metabolism

OBJECTIVETo observe the effect of Tangke Decoction (TD) on the expression of TGF-beta1/Smad4 of rats with early diabetes and to explore the effect and mechanism of TD against the renal injury induced by diabetes.

METHODSSD rats were randomly divided into the normal control group (n = 12), the model group (n = 10), the Chinese herbs prevented group (n =10), the Chinese herbs treated group (n = 10), and the Western medicine control group (n = 10). TD (18 mg/kg) was given by gastrogavage to rats in the Chinese herbs prevented group immediately after successful modeling for 12 weeks, once daily. At the 4th week of successful modeling, rats in the rest 4 groups were administered by gastrogavage. Equal volume of normal saline was given to rats in the model group and the normal control group. Benazepril suspension (1 mg/kg) was administered by gastrogavage to rats in the Western medicine control group for 8 weeks, once daily. TD (18 mg/kg) was given by gastrogavage to rats in the Chinese herbs treated group for 8 weeks, once daily. The body weight, kidney weight, index of kidney weight, fasting blood sugar, 24 h urinary albumin excretion rate were examined after experiment. The pathological changes of the renal tissue were observed by HE staining, Masson staining, and electron microscope. The expression of renal transforming growth factor-beta1, (TGF-beta1) and Smad4 were detected using immunohistochemical assay.

RESULTSCompared with the normal control group, the body weight of rats decreased significantly; the kidney weight, index of kidney weight, blood sugar, 24 h urinary protein excretion, the urinary albumin excretion rate,TGF-beta1 and Smad4 expression increased significantly in the model group (all P < 0.01). Compared with the model group, the aforesaid indices were improved in each treatment group with statistical difference (P < 0.05, P < 0.01). Compared with the Western medicine control group, the kidney weight, index of kidney weight, blood sugar, 24 h urinary protein excretion, and the urinary albumin excretion rate were obviously improved in the Chinese herbs prevented group (P < 0.01). The renal pathological changes were most obvious in the model group significantly, but they were improved in all treatment groups.

CONCLUSIONTD could obviously improve the symptoms of diabetes and down-regulate the expression of renal TGF-beta1 and Smad4 of early diabetic nephropathy rats, which suggested that TD had certain preventive effect on early diabetic nephropathy.

Animals ; Diabetes Mellitus, Experimental ; drug therapy ; metabolism ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; therapeutic use ; Kidney ; metabolism ; Male ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar ; Smad4 Protein ; metabolism ; Transforming Growth Factor beta1 ; metabolism

Objective To evaluate the melancholia incidence in the convalescence period of cerebral hemorrhage and its correlated factors.Methods Ninety-eight cerebral hemorrhage patients in the convalescence period were involved in this study.Melancholia was assessed by Hamilton depression scale (HAMD),neural functional deficiency was assessed by the national institute of health stroke scale (NIHSS),cognitive function deficiency was assessed by the Montreal cognitive assessment (MoCA) and neural functional deficiency recovery was assessed by modified Rankin scale (mRS).Hemorrhagic site and blood quantity were detected with CT.The blood flow of middle cerebral artery (MCA),anterior cerebral artery (ACA),posterior cerebral artery (PCA) was detected by TCD.Results The melancholia incidence in the convalescence period was 51.0％(50/98),34.0％(17/50) in males and 68.8％(33/48) in females,there was significant difference between the two (P ＜ 0.05 ).The scores of NIHSS and mRS had significantly positive correlation with HAMD (P ＜ 0.05 ),and had significantly negative correlation with MoCA (P ＜ 0.05 ).When the hemorrhagic site was in frontal lobe and blood quantity was 20-40 ml,the melancholia incidence was increased [76.2％ (16/21),62.5％ (25/40)].The average blood velocity of MCA,ACA and PCA in melancholia patients was significantly slower than that without melancholia patients,while resistance index was significantly higher in melancholia patients (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions Melancholia incidence in the convalescence period of cerebral hemorrhage has positive correlation with sex,NIHSS,MoCA,hemorrhagic site and blood quantity.The average cerebral blood flow in the melancholia patients is significantly slower and resistance index is significantly higher.

The enzyme activity of ?- Acetolactate Decaroboxylases (ALDC) from different microbes was studied, the results demonstrated that it was quite different among them. There were diversities of their enzyme reaction velocities. It was clear that the enzyme activity was affected by the pH of the enzyme reaction system, for example, the optimum pH of ALDC from Lactococcus lactis was 6. 6, while for Aerobacter Aerogenes it was 5. 8. Addition leucine,valine and isoleucine into enzyme reaction system obviously affected the enzyme activity of ALDC from different microbes.

Objective: To examine the modalities of treatment and clinical outcomes of emphysematous pyelonephritis (EPN), in order to improve the survival rate of EPN patients. Methods: Totally 14 patients diagnosed as EPN between October 2011 and November 2020 at Department of Urology, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine were included in this article. Data collection including patient demographics, clinical manifestations, management and clinical outcomes were conducted by retrospective charts review, after receiving the institutional review board's approval. There were 11 females and 3 males with a median age of 59 years (range: 52 to 73 years). The lesions were located on the left side in 10 patients and right side in 4 patients. All the 14 patients suffered from fever, and present with severe sepsis or septic shock. The median time from symptom onset to admission to hospital was 3 days(range: 2 to 5 days). All cases had diabetes mellitus. Escherichia coli was the most common organism been cultured (11 cases), while Klebsiella pneumonia was the second (3 cases). CT scan showed bubbly or located gas in the renal parenchyma in 5 cases and presence of steaky or mottled gas in the renal parenchyma in 9 cases. All patients had been admitted to ICU for anti-septic shock therapy. Three patients had undergone percutaneous catheter drainage along with broad-spectrum antibiotics therapy while 3 patients had immediate nephrectomy, the other 8 cases had a combination of an initial percutaneous catheter drainage and second stage nephrectomy. Results: In this case series, 3 patients were died from EPN while the other 11 were survived. The median ICU stay time was 6 days (range: 3 to 11 days). Of the 3 patients died from EPN, 2 had undergone percutaneous catheter drainage along and 1 had received immediate nephrectomy. Among the 11 patients who were survived, only 1 had received percutaneous catheter drainage while the other 10 received nephrectomy (8 patients had staged nephrectomy). Follow-up was performed 6 months after discharge. Of the 11 surviving patients, 2 were lost to follow-up, and the remaining 9 patients had an creatine level of (118.4±29.4) μmol/L (range: 89 to 176 μmol/L). Conclusions: For patients coupled with diabetes who were initially diagnosed as acute pyelonephritis, the possibility of EPN should be considered when the disease progressed rapidly especially septic shock occurred. On the basis of empirical broad-spectrum antibiotics therapy and standardized anti-septic shock treatment, a combination of an initial percutaneous catheter drainage and second stage nephrectomy could be efficacious.
Aged ; Emphysema/therapy* ; Escherichia coli Infections ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Pyelonephritis/therapy* ; Retrospective Studies ; Treatment Outcome

Proteasome inhibitors have shown remarkable success in the treatment of hematologic neoplasm. There has been a lot of attention to applying these drugs for solid tumor treatment. Recent preclinical study has signified the effectiveness on cell proliferation inhibition in lung adenocarcinoma treated by carfilzomib (CFZ), a second generation proteasome inhibitor. However, no insight has been gained regarding the mechanism. In this study, we have systematically investigated the CFZ functions in cell proliferation and growth, cell cycle arrest, and apoptosis in lung adenocarcinoma cells. Flow cytometry experiments showed that CFZ significantly induced G2/M cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in lung adenocarcinoma. MTS and colony formation assays revealed that CFZ substantially inhibited survival of lung adenocarcinoma cells. All results were consistently correlated to the upregulation expression of Gadd45a, which is an important gene in modulating cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in response to physiologic and environmental stresses. Here, upregulation of Gadd45a expression was observed after CFZ treatment. Knocking down Gadd45a expression suppressed G2/M arrest and apoptosis in CFZ-treated cells, and reduced cytotoxicity of this drug. The protein expression analysis has further identified that the AKT/FOXO3a pathway is involved in Gadd45a upregulation after CFZ treatment. These findings unveil a novel mechanism of proteasome inhibitor in anti-solid tumor activity, and shed light on novel preferable therapeutic strategy for lung adenocarcinoma. We believe that Gadd45a expression can be a highly promising candidate predictor in evaluating the efficacy of proteasome inhibitors in solid tumor therapy.
Adenocarcinoma of Lung/pathology* ; Apoptosis/drug effects* ; Cell Cycle Checkpoints/drug effects* ; Cell Cycle Proteins/genetics* ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Forkhead Box Protein O3/physiology* ; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic/drug effects* ; Humans ; Lung Neoplasms/pathology* ; Oligopeptides/pharmacology* ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt/physiology* ; Up-Regulation

OBJECTIVEDiabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM), an important cause of heart failure, is characterized by microvascular pathologies and interstitial fibrosis. Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are pluripotent, which can differentiate into cardiomyocytes and vascular endothelial cells. They also secrete angiogenic and antiapoptotic factors. However, little information is available about the effect of MSCs transplantation on diabetic heart.

METHODSMSCs were isolated from bone marrow of isogenic adult rats and cultured ex vivo. Eight weeks post streptozotocin injection, saline or exogenous MSCs labelled with 4'6-Diamidino-2-Phenylindole (DAPI) were injected into the femoral vein of diabetic rats and examined 4 weeks later by echocardiography, histopathologic analysis, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction analysis for matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2, MMP-9 and tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinase (TIMP)-1, zymography analysis for activities of MMP-2 and Western blot analysis for troponin T.

RESULTSLeft ventricular posterior wall thickness and myocardial arteriolar density as well as the TIMP-1 mRNA and MMP-2 activity were significantly decreased in DCM group (P < 0.01 versus control group respectively), these changes were significantly attenuated by MSCs transplantation (P < 0.05 versus DCM). MSCs transplantation also significantly reduced fibrosis and downregulated MMP-9 mRNA in diabetic myocardium.

CONCLUSIONIntravenous MSCs transplantation could attenuate LV remodeling in DCM rats.

Animals ; Bone Marrow Transplantation ; Cardiomyopathies ; etiology ; metabolism ; therapy ; Diabetes Mellitus, Experimental ; complications ; Male ; Matrix Metalloproteinase 2 ; metabolism ; Matrix Metalloproteinase 9 ; metabolism ; Mesenchymal Stem Cell Transplantation ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Tissue Inhibitor of Metalloproteinase-1 ; metabolism ; Troponin T ; biosynthesis ; Ventricular Remodeling

OBJECTIVE: To identify the factors to transurethral resection of prostate (TURP) perioperative hypotension. METHODS: The study group included 130 patients undergoing TURP. The control group included 50 patients who had suprapubic prostatectomy. Absorption of irrigation fluid was measured by determining the serum gentamycin level. Blood loss of PURP patients was calculated as the product of the irrigation fluid volume and hemoglobin concentration (determined with a photometer) divided by the preopreative blood hemoglobin concentration. Body temperature was recorded using a rectal probe. Serum electrolytes were determined pre-and postop. RESULTS: The blood loss in study group (380.2+/-98.3)ml was significantly less than in the control group (460.1+/-52.5)ml, P<0.05. However, the incidence of hypotension was significantly higher than the control group 28%, 8%), P<0.01. Factors associated with TURP hypotension included volume of irrigation fluid absorption, blood loss, reduction in core temperature, decrease of serum sodium, operating time, prostate weight and volume and history of cardiovascular disease. After Logistic regression analysis, the most significant factors were excessive absorption of irrigation fluid and rapid central cooling. CONCLUSION: In our study TURP hypotension most closely correlated with volume of irrigation fluid absorbed and reduction in core temperature.