Calcium ion is involved in many processes of cellular living activities. It is critically important for maintaining normal functions of human body. The review will discuss intracellular calcium regulation, distribution changes of calcium in ischemic cerebravascular and cardiovascular diseases, and intracellular intervention of calcium by specific drugs.

This study investigated the effects of benazepril administered in the morning or evening on the diurnal variation of renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) and clock genes in the kidney. The male Wistar rat models of 5/6 subtotal nephrectomy (STNx) were established. Animals were randomly divided into 4 groups: sham STNx group (control), STNx group, morning benazepril group (MB) and evening benazepril group (EB). Benazepril was intragastrically administered at a dose of 10 mg/kg/day at 07:00 and 19:00 in the MB group and EB group respectively for 12 weeks. All the animals were synchronized to the light:dark cycle of 12:12 for 12 weeks. Systolic blood pressure (SBP), 24-h urinary protein excretion and renal function were measured at 11 weeks. Blood samples and kidneys were collected every 4 h throughout a day to detect the expression pattern of renin activity (RA), angiotensin II (AngII) and aldosterone (Ald) by radioimmunoassay (RIA) and the mRNA expression profile of clock genes (bmal1, dbp and per2) by real-time PCR at 12 weeks. Our results showed that no significant differences were noted in the SBP, 24-h urine protein excretion and renal function between the MB and EB groups. There were no significant differences in average Ald and RA content of a day between the MB group and EB group. The expression peak of bmal1 mRNA was phase-delayed by 4 to 8 h, and the diurnal variation of per2 and dbp mRNA diminished in the MB and EB groups compared with the control and STNx groups. It was concluded when the similar SBP reduction, RAAS inhibition and clock gene profile were achieved with optimal dose of benazepril, morning versus evening dosing of benazepril has the same renoprotection effects.
Animals ; Antihypertensive Agents ; administration & dosage ; Benzazepines ; administration & dosage ; CLOCK Proteins ; metabolism ; Circadian Rhythm ; Drug Chronotherapy ; Gene Expression Profiling ; Hypertension, Renal ; drug therapy ; physiopathology ; Kidney ; drug effects ; physiopathology ; surgery ; Male ; Nephrectomy ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar ; Renin-Angiotensin System ; drug effects ; Treatment Outcome

Using overlapping and mutant oligonucleotides as probes, gel mobility assays and competition experiments identified a sequence from -47 to -32 bp upstream of the LIM2 CAP site, which a lens protein complex bound with high affinity which appeared to bind only to the "sense" strand of the double-stranded DNA molecule. This sequence consisted of a string of four guanine residues followed by seven other nucleotides (AACCTAA) and followed by another four guanines, i.e. GGGGAACCTAAGGGG, called the Hsu element. Promoter-CAT constructs containing this sequence or mutations of the sequence indicated that the Hsu element is located within the basal promoter, and is essential for expression of the LIM2 gene. The trans factors binding to the Hsu element are present throughout development, and appear to be lens-specific. Since the LIM2 gene promoter does not contain a classic TATA box, the Hsu element may serve as the site for binding the RNA polymerase complex.
Base Sequence ; Eye Proteins ; genetics ; Humans ; Membrane Proteins ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Promoter Regions, Genetic ; TATA Box

OBJECTIVETo investigate the relationships between the severity of childhood allergic rhinitis (AR) and the peripheral blood eosinophil count, serum eosinophil cationic protein (ECP), total IgE (tIgE), and allergen-specific IgE (sIgE) levels.

METHODSA total of 138 children with AR aged 3 to 17 (9.96 ± 3.78, x() ± s) years old were enrolled in the study. All children had persistent AR sensitized to house dust mites with a clinical history of 3 months to 12 (4.21 ± 2.72) years. The disease severity was evaluated using 10 cm-visual analogue scale (VAS), and the serum levels of ECP, tIgE and sIgE were determined using an ImmunoCAP system. Statistical analysis was conducted with SPSS11.0 software.

RESULTSAmong 138 children with AR, the VAS scores for global severity of rhinitis and nasal obstruction symptom were 5.32 ± 2.16 and 4.78 ± 2.45, respectively. Blood eosinophil count was 0.39 [0.24; 0.63] (M[P(25); P(75)]) ×10(9)/ml. Serum levels of ECP and total IgE were 10.60 [3.26; 30.80] µg/L and (2.50 ± 0.53) log kU/L, respectively. Serum levels of allergen-sIgE against Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus and Dermatophagoides farinae were 58.20[24.75; > 100] kUA/L and 54.95 [24.55; > 100] kUA/L, respectively. The VAS scores of nasal obstruction symptom, but not global severity of rhinitis, were positively related to the duration of AR (r = 0.215, P = 0.011) and the levels of serum ECP (r = 0.196, P = 0.022) in bivariate correlation analysis. There was also a significant correlation between the serum ECP level and the blood eosinophil count (r = 0.295, P = 0.000). No relationships of blood eosinophil count, and serum tIgE and sIgE levels with global severity of rhinitis as well as nasal obstruction symptom were found (all P > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONSThese results suggested that the severity of nasal obstruction was positively correlated with the duration of rhinitis and the levels of serum ECP in childhood persistent AR due to house dust mites, indicating the disease severity might be related to chronic inflammatory process.

Adolescent ; Animals ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Eosinophil Cationic Protein ; blood ; Female ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin E ; blood ; Male ; Pyroglyphidae ; immunology ; Retrospective Studies ; Rhinitis, Allergic ; Rhinitis, Allergic, Perennial ; blood ; immunology

OBJECTIVETo find out the prevalence of sleep disturbances for children aged 2 to 12 years old in Chengdu.

METHODSTotally 1 600 children aged 2-12 years old were selected from 5 districts in Chengdu and investigated by using questionnaire.

RESULTSAll 1 526 survey papers were returned. The average time of every day sleep in each age group (infant group, pre-school age group and school age group) were 12.12 hours, 10.42 hours and 9.47 hours. The sleep time of the children in those three groups were much less than the standard one. The proportion of the prevalence of sleep disturbance was 37.88%. Among them, there were snoring in 5.57%, choke/gargling in 1.25%, sleep inquietude in 7.86%, mouth breathing in 4.59%, sweating in 21.36%, member spasm in 2.82%, molar teeth in 8.26%, night talking in 4.02%, somnambulate in 0.2%, bedwetting in 1.95%, and difficulty falling asleep in 10.75%. There were significant differences shown in different sexes and ages, and in incidence of symptoms of some sleep disturbances. The affecting factors were the co-sleeping, tonsillitis, bronchitis, pollen allergy and their parent's snore.

CONCLUSIONThe prevalence of sleep disturbances being higher and more severe than before might be due to the less sleeping time in Chengdu in children aged 2 to 12 years old. More attention should be paid by parents, the Ministry of Education and the children's doctors.

Child ; Child, Preschool ; China ; epidemiology ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Prevalence ; Sleep Wake Disorders ; epidemiology ; Surveys and Questionnaires

OBJECTIVETo analyze and compare the differences of clinical characteristics and comorbidities between patients with non-allergic rhinitis (NAR) and allergic rhinitis (AR).

METHODSA total of 556 out-patients were enrolled from January 2010 to June 2011. The chief complaints of the patients included at least two of the following nasal symptoms: nasal congestion, rhinorrhea, sneezing, and nasal itching. Based on the results of the disease history, physical examination and allergen skin prick test, the patients were classified into NAR group (n = 206) and AR group (n = 350). Detailed information including general data, nasal symptoms and signs, accompanied symptoms and comorbidities were obtained by questionnaires. A scoring was adopted to estimate the severity of disease. SPSS 13.0 software was applied for statistical analysis.

RESULTSThe mean age of NAR patients (31.8 ± 16.7) was older than that of AR patients (26.3 ± 14.8), and the difference was significant (t = 4.01, P = 0.0001). While there was no significant difference on gender distribution between two groups (χ² = 0.12, P = 0.73). The percentage of nasal congestion was not significantly different between NAR and AR patients (89.8% and 92.0%, respectively; χ² = 0.26, P = 0.611). However, the symptoms of rhinorrhea, sneezing, nasal itching, eyes itching, lachrymation, wheeze and cough were more popular in AR patients than those in NAR patients (all P < 0.05). Moreover, above symptoms (except cough) were more serious in AR patients, and the symptom scores were significantly higher than those in NAR patients (all P < 0.05). Most of patients with NAR (67.0%) and AR (62.9%) were moderate-severe persistent (χ² = 1.25, P = 0.264). Accompanied asthma were more common in patients with AR (12.6%) compared with NAR (2.4%), while hypertension were more common in patients with NAR (7.3%) compared with AR (1.7%), and the differences were significant (both P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONNAR and AR are two different disease entities, which have different clinical characteristics, as well as different comorbidities. Further clinical study should be done on the rhinitis phenotypes.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Rhinitis ; diagnosis ; Rhinitis, Allergic, Perennial ; diagnosis ; Rhinitis, Allergic, Seasonal ; diagnosis ; Young Adult

Objective· To investigate the relationship between pathological myopia and classification of vitreoretinal interface features using enhanced vitreous imaging optical coherence tomography (EVI-OCT). Methods · High myopia patients were included from 2015 to 2016. All participants underwent standardized medical interviews and ophthalmic examination. Results · The included eyes were divided into two groups of pathological myopia and simple high myopia based on myopic macular degeneration observed on fundus photography . There were four types of vitreoretinal interface changes demonstrated on EVI-OCT scans in included eyes: Type1, posterior precortical vitreous pockets (PPVP), Type2, partial posterior vitreous detachment with vitreous adhesion (VA), Type 3, epiretinal membrane (ERM), and Type 4, no traction (NT). Pathological myopia was mostly detected in VA, ERM, and NT groups. Conclusion · EVI-OCT was able to demonstrate the early changes of vitreoretinal interface in high myopia eyes. Vitreous adhesions and traction detected by OCT may facilitate the occurrence of pathological myopia.

BACKGROUNDChronic stress contributes to increased risks of atherosclerotic diseases including heart disease, stroke, and transient ischemic attack. However, its underline mechanisms are poorly understood. This study aimed to elucidate the mechanism via which chronic stress exerts its effect on atherosclerosis (AS).

METHODSFifty male New Zealand white rabbits were used. Aortic balloon-injury model was applied. Both social stress and physical stress methods were adopted to establish chronic stress models. The lumen stenotic degree, intimal and medial areas, maximum fibrous cap thickness, and plaque contents were measured with histological sections. Proteomic methods were applied to detect protein changes in abdominal aortas to identify the specialized mediators. Real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction was used for further verification and investigation.

RESULTSThe stress rabbits exhibited lower body weight, worse fur state, more inactivity behavior, and higher serum cortisol level. Chronic stress was significantly associated with the decreased medial area and increased plaque instability, which was manifested by thinner fibrous caps, larger lipid cores, more macrophages, and new vessels but fewer smooth muscle cells and elastic fibers. After chronic stress, the apoptosis-related genes UBE2K, BAX, FAS, Caspase 3, Caspase 9, and P53 were upregulated, and BCL-2/BAX was down-regulated; the angiogenesis-related genes ANG and VEGF-A were also highly expressed in atherosclerotic arteries.

CONCLUSIONSRabbit models of chronic stress were successfully established by applying both social stress and physical stress for 8 weeks. Chronic stress can reduce AS tunica media and accelerate plaque instability by promoting apoptosis and neovascularization.

Objective:To observe the effect of isopimpinellin on primary hippocampal neuron cells γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) and receptor genes expressions, in order to explore its hypnotic mechanism. Method:The primary hippocampal neurons of neonatal Sprague-Dawley rats were cultured in vitro. And subsequent experiments were conducted in the optimal state of cell growth, and the purity was identified by immunohistochemistry of neuron-specific enolase. Hippocampal neurons were randomly divided into five groups, namely blank control group, diazepam group (25 mg·L^-1), and low-dose (5 mg·L^-1), moderate-dose (10 mg·L^-1) and high-dose (20 mg·L^-1) isopimpinellin groups. Early apoptosis of hippocampus neuron cells were detected using flow cytometry technique after 24 h administration, and the changes in the levels of GABA and 5-HT were detected using enzyme-linked immunosorbent. The changes in mRNA expressions of receptor genes relating to gamma-aminobutyric acid type A receptor(GABAA) genes GABRA₁,GABRA₅,GABBR₁, gamma-aminobutyric acid type B receptor genes (GABAB) GABRB₂, 5-hydroxytryptamine 1A receptor (5-HT1_A)5-HT1_A(A),5-HT1_A(B),5-HT1_A(C) were detected by real-time quantitative PCR(Real-time PCR). Result:On the 7^th day, the hippocampal neurons grew in a good condition, and the purity was above 90%. Apoptosis rates of hippocampal neurons in the low-dose and moderate-dose groups were significantly lower than that in the blank control group (P<0.01). The level of GABA secreted by hippocampal neurons in the high-dose isopimpinellin group were significantly higher than that in the blank control group (P<0.01). The mRNA expression levels of GABRA₁,GABRA₅,5-HT1_A(A),5-HT1_A(C) in the moderate-dose and high-dose isopimpinellin groups were significantly higher than those in the blank control group (P<0.05, P<0.01). The mRNA expression levels of GABBR₁,5-HT1_A(B) in the low-dose, moderate-dose and high-dose isopimpinellin groups were significantly higher than those in the blank control group (P<0.05, P<0.01). Conclusion:The hypnotic mechanism of isopimpinellin may be related to the inhibition of hippocampal neuron apoptosis, the increase of the content of inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA, and the up-regulation of GABA and 5-HT-related receptor genes.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the expression of CSF3R mutation in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and analyze its clinical characteristics and prognosis. METHODS: A retrospective study was conducted in 212 patients with AML who were newly diagnosed in the Second Hospital of Shanxi Medical University from January 1th 2018 to June 30th 2021, including 22 patients with CSF3R mutations as mutation group and 190 patients with CSF3R wild type ［66 cases of them were screened by propensity score matching (PSM), as control group］. The early efficacy and survival between the two groups were compared. RESULTS: The median age of patients in the mutation group was 50(17-73) years old, and the ratio of male to female was 1.2:1 The main types were AML with maturation (11 cases) and acute myelomonocytic leukemia (9 cases). Prognostic stratification was carried out according to the risk stratification system of the European leukemia network in 2017, with 16 cases (72.73%) in the middle and high-risk group. At the initial diagnosis, the median count of white blood cell (WBC) was 44.75(1.30-368.71)×10⁹/L, among which 15 cases (68.18%) were >10×10⁹/L, and the median count of platelet (PLT) was 24(4-55)×10⁹/L. CSF3R T618I (68.18%) was a common mutation site, which had concomitant gene mutations, in which CEBPA mutation was the most common (10 cases, 45.45%), but only existed in CSF3R T618I mutation. The CR/CRi rate was 68.18% and 71.21% in the mutant group and the control group (P >0.05), the median over all survival time was 15 months and 9 months (P >0.05), and the median disease-free survival time was 8 months and 4 months (P >0.05), respectively. CONCLUSION Most AML patients with CSF3R mutation are middle-aged patients, the main types are AML with maturation and acute myelomonocytic leukemia, and most of them have middle and high-risk prognosis. CSF3R mutation may not be an independent prognostic marker for newly diagnosed AML patients.
Middle Aged ; Humans ; Male ; Female ; Aged ; Leukemia, Myelomonocytic, Acute ; Retrospective Studies ; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute/diagnosis* ; Prognosis ; Mutation ; Receptors, Colony-Stimulating Factor/genetics*