Objective To explore the age-and sex-specific body composition of normal children in Beijing area.Metheds The subjects were a total of 587 children of 6-14 years old,who were recruited from Beijing schools.All of them had relative weight within normal range(80%～120%),and no chronic disease.The relative weight was obtained,according to standard weight,using the follo-(wing) formula: relative weight(%)=(body weight/standard weight) ?100.Body compositions were estimated with a bioelectrical impedance analyser,which had been proved to be reliable and valid for determining the percentage of body fat.Results Not only fat free mass(FFM) but also fat mass(FM) increased monotonically with age in both sexes.FFM was higher in boys than that in girls at all ages.FM was significantly higher in girls than that in boys aged 6 to 8 years old;however,there was no significant difference for FM between sexes aged 9-14 years old.Patterns of change in mean ratio of body fat(%BF),with age differed by sex.Percent age of BF was significantly higher in girls than that in boys at all ages except at 10 and 11 years old. In boys,%BF increased with age,while in girls it remained nearly constant from age 6 to 10 years old,and gradually increased from age 10 to 14 years old.Body mass index(BMI) increased steadily with age in both sexes,and boys had consistently higher BMI than girls.In boys,the increase in BMI was steeper from age 10 to 14 years old.Even in the subjects with BMI

Objective To determine the association of acanthosis nigricans(AN) with values for estimating insulin resistance and adipocytokine levels in simple obese children. Methods These subjects concluded 38 simple obese children. AN was present in 17 of 38 children. Height, weight and abdominal circumference were recorded and fasting blood sample was obtained for measurement of blood glucose, plasma insulin, leptin, and plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 (PAI-1) levels which were known as the risk factors of cardiovascular disease. We obtained homeostasis model assessment insulin resistance index (HOMA-R) by fasting blood glucose and plasma insulin levels. Results The severity of obesity, abdominal circumference, fasting insulin levels and HOMA-R were significantly higher in obese children to AN compared to those without AN. There was the tendency that children with AN had higher levels of leptin and PAI-1 compared to children without AN. Conclusions These results suggest that obese children with AN may have a risk of cardiovascular disease as well as type 2 diabetes mellitus.

BACKGROUNDThe stem-cell compartment is the primary target for the accumulation of oncogenic mutations. Overexposure to solar ultraviolet radiation is responsible for the development and progression of > 90% of skin cancers. Ultraviolet B (UVB) light-induced keratinocyte apoptosis is a strong preventive mechanism against carcinogenesis. The aim of this study was to isolate keratinocytes enriched with putative human epidermal stem cells and to investigate their apoptotic induction by UVB.

METHODSKeratinocytes enriched with putative human epidermal stem cells were isolated by adherence to collagen IV and the expressions of β1-integrin and p63 were investigated. Keratinocytes enriched with putative human epidermal stem cells and normal keratinocytes were irradiated with UVB at 0 - 80 mJ/cm(2). The apoptotic response was investigated with phase-contrast microscopy, Hoechst 33342 staining, flow cytometry of annexin V/PI, and procaspase-3 Western blotting.

RESULTSKeratinocyte enriched with stem cells expressed high levels of p63 protein and β1-integrin and low level of pan-keratin (C11). In comparison to non-irradiated cells, significant apoptosis of keratinocyte enriched with stem cells was found with 40 and 80 mJ/cm(2) UVB. However, significant apoptosis of normal keratinocytes was only found for 80 mJ/cm(2) UVB.

CONCLUSIONSHuman epidermal stem cells can undergo apoptosis in response to UVB radiation and are more susceptible than other keratinocytes. The method could be used in vitro studies of human epidermal stem cells.

Apoptosis ; radiation effects ; Blotting, Western ; Cells, Cultured ; Flow Cytometry ; Humans ; Keratinocytes ; cytology ; radiation effects ; Stem Cells ; cytology ; radiation effects ; Ultraviolet Rays

During the process of growth, harvesting, transportation, processing and storage, Chinese herbal medicines (CHMs) can be easily contaminated by fungi and their metabolites like mycotoxins, which not only express negative effects on the quality and safety of CHMs and their processed products, but also pose great threats to human health. Now, some chemical synthetic fungicides have been frequently used to control the growth of fungi and accumulation of mycotoxins in the preservation of CHMs. However, the concentration and type of chemical fungicides allowed for postharvest application are restricted due to the disadvantages of their high residual toxicity, long degradation period and pollution to the environment and so on. Therefore, it is critical to research and develop some highly effective, safe and non-toxic, natural, environment-friendly fungistatic agents from plants to prevent CHMs from being contaminated by fungi and mycotoxins. The paper reviews mycotoxins and their harmfulness, the effective compounds of fungistatic plants as well as the antifungal mechanism to provide scientific evidences for developing novel and effective fungistatic agents plants. Then, the application prospect of fungistatic agents from plants in the preservation of CHMs was discussed.
Animals ; Fungi ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Fungicides, Industrial ; pharmacology ; Humans ; Mycotoxins ; metabolism ; toxicity ; Plant Diseases ; microbiology ; prevention & control ; Plant Extracts ; pharmacology ; Plants, Medicinal ; chemistry ; microbiology ; Preservation, Biological ; methods

The choice of specific promoters used within a transgene construct is a vital strategy to achieve the transgene regulation in the temporal, spatial and measurable manner. The strategy has been widely used in diverse aspects of plant gene engineering, such as quality improvement, resistance breeding and bioreactor. In this paper, we describe the structure feature, classification and research method of the specific promoter and its application progresses in plant gene engineering.
Animals ; Bioreactors ; Breeding ; Genetic Engineering ; methods ; Humans ; Immunity, Innate ; Plants ; genetics ; immunology ; Promoter Regions, Genetic ; genetics

Inosine 5′-monophosphate dehydrogenase (IMPDH) is a key enzyme catalyzing the rate-limiting step of de novo nucleotide synthesis in vivo. In recent years, it has become a therapeutic target for anti-virus, anti-bacterial, anti-cancer, anti-parasitic and other diseases. IMPDH inhibitors have been shown to inhibit viral prolife-ration in host cells by depleting guanosine 5′-monophosphate (GMP), the raw material required for viral replication in host cells, with broad-spectrum antiviral properties. In order to find novel anti-coronavirus drugs, this study screened 22 potential IMPDH inhibitors from 70 000 natural small molecule libraries based on IMPDH protein structure using molecular docking and ROC calculation for virtual screening. With ribavirin as the positive control drug, Huh7 cell and H460 cell models were used to verify the anti-coronavirus HCoV-229E and HCoV-OC43 activities of 22 selected target compounds. Among them, compounds 11, 12, 15 and 16 showed inhibitory activity against coronavirus HCoV-229E. The compounds 4, 12, 13 and 15 showed inhibitory activities against coronavirus HCoV-OC43. 12 and 15 showed significant inhibitory activity against both two coronaviruses, and their efficacy was similar to ribavirin at the same dose, which can be further studied as a lead compound for IMPDH inhibitors.

Objective The 4-and 16-hydroxylated metabolites of estrogens have been implicated in carcinogenesis,whereas its 2-hydroxylated metabolites have been shown to have antiangiogenic effects.We aimed to examine whether the polymorphisms of catechol-O-methyltransferase(COMT)involved in the estrogen metabolism are associated with endometrial cancer risk.Methods Polymerase chain reaction- restrictive fragment length polymorphism(PCR-RFLP)analysis was used to study the variant allele frequency distributions of COMT Val158Met genetic polymorphism in a population based case-control study with 132 endometrial cancer cases and 110 controls.Odds ratios(OR)and 95% confidence intervals(CI) were estimated by unconditional logistic regression after adjustment for known or suspected risk factors for endometrial cancer.Results The most frequent genotype was COMT~(Val/Val)(47.2%,52/110)in control group and COMT~(Mal/Met)(58.3%,77/132)in endometrial cancer group.The difference between the two groups was of statistical significance(P

PBL teaching method is a new mode of teaching which is originated from the West and implemented into China in recent years with an expectation that it would mainly develop the students’ self-learning ability,and enhance their skills of comprehensive thinking and solving actual problems.The author summarizes the practical experience of using PBL teaching methods in the theory teaching in Department of Medical Microbiology and Human Parasitology,China Medical University in the past three years,and then proved this method is very helpful to improving the students’integrated thinking by analysis of sample.At the same time the results also suggested that the students showed high enthusiasm in discussing the cases.By this way,the students showed great subjective intiative in their studies.

Objective To analyze obese children serum lipid level in order to understand the relationship between serum lipid and cardiovascular disease in obese children.Methods One hundred and fifty-three children(109 male and 44 female)aged 4-16 years old with obesity who attended the outpatient clinic of Beijing Children′s Hospital were collected.Percentage body fat (%BF),body fat (BF),fat-free mass (FFM) was estimated by using bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) and calculate.Waist and hip circumference,waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) was estimated by soft tape measure and calculate.Skinfold thickness of scapular bone below (S) and triceps muscle (T),S/T rate was estimated by skin fold meter and calculate.Serum total cholesterol (TC),triglyceride(TG),high density lipoprotein(HDL-C),low density lipoprotein(LDL-C),apolipoprotein(Apo) AI and Apo B levels were also measured.SPSS 11.0 software was used to analyzed the data.Results The cardiovascular disease related was the prevalence of high TC levels(3.3%)or high LDL-C level(6.0%) and high TG level(24.7%) was rather low.HDL-C level was reduced in 31.3% of obese children.In children over 10 years old,%BW and %BF showed a weak correlation with HDL-C(r=-0.202,-0.211).Conclusions In obese children,serum lipid as well as Apo level should be exa-mined in order to evaluate angiocardiopathy.

Objective To investigate the association between cutaneous adverse drug reactions (CADRs) caused by antiepileptic drugs and HLA-B*1502 allele. Methods In 31 epileptic patients presented to the Epilepsy Clinic of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical College between January 2007 and May 2008, 13 had CADR to carbanazepine (CBZ) including 6 with Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) and 7 with mild maculopapular exanthona (MPE);15 were CBZ-tolerant, and 3 had lamotrigine (LTG)-indueed MPE. All the patients underwent examinations using polymerase chain reaction with sequence specific palmers to analyze HLA -B*1502 allele frequencies, with 30 healthy subjects without a history of using CBZ or LTG as the control. Results HLA-B*IS02 allele frequency was 100% (6/6) in patients with CBZ-SJS, 57% (4/7) in patients with CBZ-induced MPE, and 33% (1/3) in patients with LTG-induced MPE. The frequency was 7% (1/15) in CBZ-tolerant patients and 10% (3/30) in the control subjects. Compared with the CBZ-tolerant patients and the control subjects, the patients with CBZ-induced SJS and MPE had significantly increased HLA -B*1502 allele frequency (P<0.05). Conclusions HLA-B*1502 allele is associated with CADRs to CBZ in epileptic patients.