Objective:To investigate the demographic characteristics and the causes for pulmonary hypertension (PH) in adult patients.Methods:A total of 2 508 adult patients diagnosed as PH,who came from the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University from January 2010 to December 2014,were retrospectively investigated.All subjects underwent the clinical diagnosis,or the echocardiographic diagnosis,or thetraditional hemodynamic criteria by right heart catheterization (RHC).The patient's data including hospital numbers,gender,ages,primary diseases,etc,are collected and analyzed.Results:In this study,the number of patients diagnosed as PH was increased year by year.The median age of 2 508 patients was 47 (18-93) years old,and there were 933 males (37.2％),the ratio of male to female was 1:1.69 (P＜0.05).Female was more common in Class Ⅰ PH (pulmonary arterial hypertension) and Class Ⅱ PH (pulmonary hypertension due to left heart disease)(＞70％),but there were more male patients (74.5％) in Class Ⅲ PH (pulmonary hypertension due to lung diseases and/or hypoxia).In our study,896 cases (35.73％) were the Class Ⅰ PH,1 163 cases was the Class Ⅱ PH (46.37％),411 cases was the Class Ⅲ PH (16.39％),and the Class Ⅳ PH (chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension) and the Class Ⅴ PH (PH with unclear and/ or multifactorial mechanisms) were diagnosed in 32(1.27％) and 6 patients (0.24％),respectively.The diseases with largest number of patients for the top 7 primary PH were rheumatic heart disease (1 090,43.48％),congenital heart disease (692,27.60％),chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (358,14.28％),connective tissue related disease(156,6.22％),valvular heart disease (66,2.63％),idiopathic PH (46,1.83％) and pulmonary embolism (27,1.08％).Conclusion:Adult PH patients' peak incidence age is 41-50 years old.This disease is more common among women,and the Class Ⅰ/Ⅱ PH are common in women while the Class Ⅲ is more common in men.Rheumatic heart disease and congenital heart disease may be the most common cause for pulmonary hypertension in China,and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is the most common cause for the Class Ⅲ PH,in which the patients are old.

Migraine headache causes significant burdens for both the individual and society.The pathogenesis of migraine is incompletely understood until now.The clinical therapies mainly include medical treatment,surgical treatment,behavior therapy,acupuncture and so on.However,drug treatment could only relieve symptom temporary and bring many side effects for long term use including nausea,vomiting.Surgical therapy maybe becomes an efficient method for migraine headache.The authors have reviewed the pathogenesis of migraine,anatomical basis for surgical therapy and clinical application in this article.

The purpose of this study was to fabricate decelluarized valve scaffold modified with polyethylene glycol nanoparticles loaded with transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1), by which to improve the extracellular matrix microenvironment for heart valve tissue engineering in vitro. Polyethylene glycol nanoparticles were obtained by an emulsion-crosslinking method, and their morphology was observed under a scanning electron microscope. Decelluarized valve scaffolds, prepared by using trypsinase and TritonX-100, were modified with nanoparticles by carbodiimide, and then TGF-β1 was loaded into them by adsorption. The TGF-β1 delivery of the fabricated scaffold was measured by asing enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Whether unseeded or reseeded with myofibroblast from rats, the morphologic, biochemical and biomechanical characteristics of hybrid scaffolds were tested and compared with decelluarized scaffolds under the same conditions. The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay revealed a typical delivery of nanoparticles. The morphologic observations and biological data analysis indicated that fabricated scaffolds possessed advantageous biocompatibility and biomechanical property beyond decelluarized scaffolds. Altogether this study proved that it was feasible to fabricate the hybrid scaffold and effective to improve extracellular matrix microenvironment, which is beneficial for an application in heart valve tissue engineering.

Animals ; Biopterin ; analogs & derivatives ; therapeutic use ; Genetic Therapy ; Humans ; Phenylalanine Ammonia-Lyase ; administration & dosage ; Phenylketonurias ; therapy

Acupuncture and moxibustion treatment has good therapeutic effects on the intractable eye diseases including pigmentary degeneration of retina, macular degeneration, glaucoma and optic atrophy, etc. This paper reviews acupuncture and moxibustion treatment of these diseases from selection of acupoints, treatment methods, effectiveness and mechanism studies, and raises the problems in existence and the prospect.
Acupuncture Points ; Acupuncture Therapy ; methods ; Eye Diseases ; therapy ; Humans ; Moxibustion ; methods

Objective: To explore whether acupuncture can improve sleep disturbance, cognitive impairment and emotional disorders caused by sleep deprivation, and its association with the attenuation of oxidative stress injury in prefrontal cortex. Methods: Fifty-two male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into a control group (n=10), a model group (n=14), a manual acupuncture (MA) group (n=14), and a sham-MA group (n=14). All the groups were established as sleep deprivation models via the modified multiple platform method, except for the control group. Rats in both the MA group and the sham-MA group received corresponding intervention, respectively. After modeling and intervention, the four groups received three behavioral tests, namely sleep monitoring, by comprehensive lab animal monitoring system (CLAMS), Morris water maze (MWM) test and open-field test (OFT), followed by oxygen free radical level test and Western blot (WB) detection for the expression levels of Bax and Bcl-2. Results: The MA group derived more sleep time within 24 h than either the model group or the sham-MA group (both P<0.05). On MWM orientation navigation test day 1, there were no significant differences in escape latency among the control, MA and sham-MA groups (P>0.05), and the escape latency was significantly shorter in these three groups than that in the model group (all P<0.05). On test day 4, the escape latency was markedly shorter in the MA group than that in either the model group or the sham-MA group (both P<0.05); meanwhile, the MA group showed significantly better performance compared with these two groups in space probe test (both P<0.05). In OFT, compared with the control group, there was a significant decline in the horizontal movement score in the other three groups (all P<0.05), and the decrease was more significant in the model group and the sham-MA group than that in the MA group (both P<0.05). The superoxide dismutase (SOD) content was markedly higher and the malondialdehyde (MDA) content was markedly lower in the MA group than those in the model group and the sham-MA group (all P<0.05). Compared with the model group and the sham-MA group, the expression of Bax was significantly lower and the expression of Bcl-2 was significantly higher in the MA group (all P<0.05). Conclusion: MA therapy can lengthen the sleep time in sleep-deprived rats and improve learning and memory impairments induced by sleep deprivation, and the underlying mechanism may be associated with the enhancement of antioxidant capacity in the prefrontal cortex and the inhibition of hippocampal neuronal apoptosis.

OBJECTIVETo compare the efficacy difference in treatment of acute gouty arthritis between acupuncture combined with infrared irradiation and Indomethachin as well as observe the impacts on liver function.

METHODSOne hundred and sixty cases of gout were randomized into an acupuncture group (80 cases) and an Indomethachin group (80 cases). In acupuncture group, acupuncture was applied to Zusanli (ST 36), Sanyinjiao (SP 6), Quchi (LI 11), Xuehai (SP 10), Yanglingquan (GB 34) and Ashi points. Additionally, infrared irradiation was used in the local area. The treatment was given once daily. In Indomethachin group, Indomethachin was taken orally, 25 mg each time, three times per day. The treatment lasted for 5 days in either group. Separately, before and after treatment, pain severity and the levels of blood uric acid (BUA), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) were detected. Additionally, the efficacy and the impacts on liver function were assessed.

RESULTSThe curative rate was 52.5% (42/80) in acupuncture group, which was superior to 22.5% (18/80) in Indomethachin group (P < 0.01). In acupuncture group, the analgesia efficacy was better than that in Indomethachin group (P < 0.01) and the effect on reducing BUA and ERS levels was same as that in Indomethachin group (all P > 0.05). After treatment, ALT and AST levels had no changes in acupuncture group, but they increased apparently in Indomethachin group (all P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONAcupuncture combined with infrared irradiation achieves superior efficacy on acute gouty arthritis as compared with oral medication of Indomethachin and the therapy provides a significant effect on analgesia and does not bring the damage of liver function.

Acupuncture Therapy ; Adult ; Aged ; Arthritis, Gouty ; therapy ; Combined Modality Therapy ; Humans ; Infrared Rays ; therapeutic use ; Male ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Middle Aged

We induced embryogenic calli (EC) and non-embryogenic calli (NEC) from flower filaments of Vitis vinifera L. cv. Chardonnay about 10 days before full bloom. The callus were sub-cultured, observed and verified by somatic embryo induction. PCR primers for VvSUC12 and VvSCU27 were designed according to the corresponding sequences in GenBank. After RNA extraction with RNAplant for EC and NEC cell lines, we synthesized the 1st strand DNA for semi quantitative RT-PCR, and normalized the density of the bands against house-keeping gene Actin. The results of 31 cycles semi-quantitative RT-PCR showed that VvSUC12 was highly expressed in both EC and NEC, with higher expression intensity in NEC than in EC, but not reached the significant level; while the expression of VvSUC27 was only detected in EC, and the expression level was significantly lower than that of VvSUC12. We increased the semi-quantitative RT-PCR cycle number to 35 and found that VvSUC27 gene was weakly expressed in NEC, in EC the intensity of the band was increased comparing with 31 cycles, and the expression level was higher than that of NEC. The paper discussed the differential expression of the two sucrose transporters and their relationship with the sucrose in the tissue culture medium.
Culture Techniques ; methods ; Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental ; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant ; Genes, Plant ; Membrane Transport Proteins ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; Plant Proteins ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Vitis ; embryology ; genetics ; growth & development ; metabolism

The clinical data of 2 infants with infantile glycogen storage disease type II (GSD II) from one pedigree were collected. The method of dried blood spots (DBS) was applied to collect peripheral blood samples, and the activity of acid alpha-D-glucosidase (GAA) in leukocytes was measured. The coding region of GAA gene in this pedigree was amplified by polymerase chain reaction and then direct sequencing was used to analyze mutations in GAA gene. The two infants were twins, who were admitted to the hospital due to feeding difficulties, generalized muscle weakness and hypotonia, cardiomegaly, and cardiac insufficiency when they were 10 months old. The GAA activity in leukocytes in the two infants was significantly lower than in normal controls. Gene sequencing revealed 2 compound heterozygous mutations in the two infants, i.e., G1942A and G2214A, respectively. G1942A had been proved pathogenic, and the latter one, G2214A, was a nonsense mutation, resulting in the change of tryptophan, the 738th amino acid of GAA, into a stop codon. The two infants were diagnosed with GSD II by gene detection and no enzyme replacement therapy could be provided to them. Follow-up visits showed that the two infants died at home at the age of 15 months and 17 months, respectively. GSD II is caused by deficiency of GAA activity resulting from mutation of GAA gene. The detection of GAA activity in peripheral blood by DBS and GAA gene detection are effective and feasible methods for diagnosis of GSD II.
Female ; Glycogen Storage Disease Type II ; genetics ; Humans ; Infant ; Mutation ; Pedigree ; alpha-Glucosidases ; genetics

OBJECTIVETo study the effect of chronic rapid eye movement sleep deprivation on energy metabolism, FT3, FT4 in serum.

METHODSRapid eye movement sleep deprivation of rats were deprived by flower pot, and then the energy metabolism were detected. The FT3, FT4 level in serum was determined by radioimmunoassay kit.

RESULTSRats after sleep deprivation displayed food intake increased from (75.06 +/- 25.37)g/(d x kg) to (122.30 +/- 20.43)g/(d x kg), body weight substantially decreased from (360.89 +/- 43.01) g to (295.97 +/- 37.95) g, body temperature from (37.62 +/- 1.12) degrees C up to the first (39.00 +/- 0.87) degrees C and then reduced to (37.72 +/- 0.84) degrees C, the basal metabolism rate increased significantly from (1.69 +/- 0.36) mlO2/(g x h) to (2.40 +/- 0.09) mlO2/(g x h), compared with the control group( P < 0.05). Sleep deprivation also resulted significantly lower serum thyroxine levels in comparison with the control, serum free triiodothyronine (FT3) level reduced from (3.38 +/- 0.88) pmol/L to (2.38 +/- 0.83) pmol/L, then free thyroxine(FT4) decreased from (14.62 +/- 3.62) pmol/L to (8.26 +/- 2.80) pmol/L (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONRapid eye movement sleep deprivation can change energy metabolism remarkable, as well as the alteration of FT3, FT4 levels in serum.

Animals ; Energy Metabolism ; physiology ; Male ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar ; Sleep Deprivation ; blood ; metabolism ; Sleep, REM ; physiology ; Thyroxine ; blood ; Time Factors ; Triiodothyronine ; analogs & derivatives ; blood