Objective To analyze the difference and correlation of the evaluation of the medical students' communication ability between the examiners,standardized patients (SP) and medical students themselves in objective structured clinical examination (OSCE),and to provide scientific basis for the appropriate evaluation method of medical students' communication ability.Methods OSCE was used to evaluate the communication ability of 90 medical students in Daping Hospital,Chongqing,and the three parties were evaluated by the examiners,SP and medical students themselves.Excel and SPSS 17.0 statistical analysis software were used,through Friendman M.test,t test and correlation analysis to analyze the differences and correlation of the three parties evaluations.Results The different evaluation between the three parties on the communication ability of medical students was as follows.Examiner's evaluation was the lowest (8.39 ± 1.18),SP's evaluation was the highest (9.62 ± 0.73),Medical students themselves' evaluation was higher (9.28± 1.09);The examiner's evaluation of Medical students' empathy,verbal communication ability,nonverbal communication ability and etiquette was lower (P=0.00).The correlation analysis of the three parties' evaluation showed that there was a significant correlation between the three parties on the connnunication ability,empathy and nonverbal communication ability (P＜0.05).The evaluation of SP and medical students themselves on medical students' language communication ability and etiquette was significantly correlated (P＜0.05).Conclusions Using examiner or SP or medical students themselves only to evaluate the communication ability of medical students is not accurate,The Examiner and SP as the main trial test personnel should collaborate to evaluate medical students' communication ability.The examiner can evaluate three projects such as what is medical ethics and law,empathy,nonverbal communication ability,while the SP can evaluate the two projects:what is language communication ability and etiquette.The collaborative evaluation of the two sides can be more accurate to reflect the doctor-patient communication ability of medical students.

The transcription factor Oct-4 is expressed specifically in mammalian preimplantation embryos and its function is related to the maintenance of embryonic stem cell pluripotency. The functional role of the heterogenous expression of Oct-4 remains unclear however. A GFP reporter construct, pOct-4(p)-GFP was generated, containing the upstream regulatory regions of bovine Oct-4 gene and its expression pattern was evaluated in the developing embryos of mouse, pig and rabbit following intracytoplasmic sperm injection. GFP fluorescence was visible early at the 2-cell stage and then became stronger in the blastocysts of all three species. However, the distribution of the GFP signals was restricted to the cells of inner cell mass and no fluorescence was detectable in trophectoderm cells. These results suggest that the bovine Oct-4 promoter is functional and that its embryonic expression activity is similar in different mammalian species.

Mammalian fertilization begins with the fusion of two specialized gametes, followed by major epigenetic remodeling leading to the formation of a totipotent embryo. During the development of the pre-implantation embryo, precise reprogramming progress is a prerequisite for avoiding developmental defects or embryonic lethality, but the underlying molecular mechanisms remain elusive. For the past few years, unprecedented breakthroughs have been made in mapping the regulatory network of dynamic epigenomes during mammalian early embryo development, taking advantage of multiple advances and innovations in low-input genome-wide chromatin analysis technologies. The aim of this review is to highlight the most recent progress in understanding the mechanisms of epigenetic remodeling during early embryogenesis in mammals, including DNA methylation, histone modifications, chromatin accessibility and 3D chromatin organization.
Animals ; Chromatin Assembly and Disassembly ; DNA Methylation ; DNA Transposable Elements ; Embryo, Mammalian ; Embryonic Development/genetics* ; Epigenesis, Genetic ; Epigenome ; Female ; Fertilization/physiology* ; Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental ; Histone Code ; Histones/metabolism* ; Male ; Mice ; Oocytes/metabolism* ; Spermatozoa/metabolism*

Human pluripotent stem cells provide an inexhaustible model to study human embryogenesis in vitro. Recent studies have provided diverse models to generate human blastoids by self-organization of different pluripotent stem cells or somatic reprogramming intermediates. However, whether blastoids can be generated from other cell types or whether they can recapitulate postimplantation development in vitro is unknown. Here, we develop a strategy to generate human blastoids from heterogeneous intermediates with epiblast, trophectoderm, and primitive endoderm signatures of the primed-to-naïve conversion process, which resemble natural blastocysts in morphological architecture, composition of cell lineages, transcriptome, and lineage differentiation potential. In addition, these blastoids reflect many features of human peri-implantation and pregastrulation development when further cultured in an in vitro 3D culture system. In summary, our study provides an alternative strategy to generate human blastoids and offers insights into human early embryogenesis by modeling peri- and postimplantation development in vitro.
Humans ; Pluripotent Stem Cells/metabolism* ; Embryo, Mammalian/metabolism* ; Cell Differentiation ; Blastocyst ; Cell Lineage ; Embryonic Development

Chemically defined medium is widely used for culturing mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs), in which N2B27 works as a substitution for serum, and GSK3β and MEK inhibitors (2i) help to promote ground-state pluripotency. However, recent studies suggested that MEKi might cause irreversible defects that compromise the developmental potential of mESCs. Here, we demonstrated the deficient bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signal in the chemically defined condition is one of the main causes for the impaired pluripotency. Mechanistically, activating the BMP signal pathway by BMP4 could safeguard the chromosomal integrity and proliferation capacity of mESCs through regulating downstream targets Ube2s and Chmp4b. More importantly, BMP4 promotes a distinct in vivo developmental potential and a long-term pluripotency preservation. Besides, the pluripotent improvements driven by BMP4 are superior to those by attenuating MEK suppression. Taken together, our study shows appropriate activation of BMP signal is essential for regulating functional pluripotency and reveals that BMP4 should be applied in the serum-free culture system.
Animals ; Bone Morphogenetic Protein 4/metabolism* ; Cell Differentiation ; Chromosomal Instability ; Endosomal Sorting Complexes Required for Transport ; Mice ; Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Kinases/metabolism* ; Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells/cytology* ; Pluripotent Stem Cells/cytology* ; Signal Transduction ; Ubiquitin-Conjugating Enzymes

N

Self-organized blastoids from extended pluripotent stem (EPS) cells possess enormous potential for investigating postimplantation embryo development and related diseases. However, the limited ability of postimplantation development of EPS-blastoids hinders its further application. In this study, single-cell transcriptomic analysis indicated that the "trophectoderm (TE)-like structure" of EPS-blastoids was primarily composed of primitive endoderm (PrE)-related cells instead of TE-related cells. We further identified PrE-like cells in EPS cell culture that contribute to the blastoid formation with TE-like structure. Inhibition of PrE cell differentiation by inhibiting MEK signaling or knockout of Gata6 in EPS cells markedly suppressed EPS-blastoid formation. Furthermore, we demonstrated that blastocyst-like structures reconstituted by combining the EPS-derived bilineage embryo-like structure (BLES) with either tetraploid embryos or tetraploid TE cells could implant normally and develop into live fetuses. In summary, our study reveals that TE improvement is critical for constructing a functional embryo using stem cells in vitro.
Pregnancy ; Female ; Animals ; Mice ; Tetraploidy ; Blastocyst ; Embryo, Mammalian ; Cell Differentiation ; Embryonic Development