Objective To reconstruct the perfusion parameters of murine hindlimbs peripheral tissue by using fluorescence reflectance imaging technique. Methods BALB/c mice were injected with intravenous bolus injection of indocyanine green (ICG) (10μg) into the tail vein. Time-series fluorescence intensity images were obtained for 200 s immediately after the injection. After the serial imaging, silhouette images of the mice were taken under white light to obtain the region of interest (ROI) of the murine hindlimbs. Bi-exponential model was applied to analyze the dynamic fluorescence parameters and the peripheral tissue perfusion parameter images were reconstructed. Results The fitted perfusion curves obtained from bi-exponential model were in good agreement with the measured ones. The parametric images which reflected the vascular sufficiency of murine hindlimbs were reconstructed. Conclusions A novel method for parametric images of murine hindlimbs peripheral tissue blood perfusion is proposed in this paper, which is noninvasive with higher resolution and little damage to biological tissues.

OBJECTIVETo explore the significance of plasma levels of mannan-binding lectin (MBL)-associated serine protease 2 (MASP2) in children with upper respiratory tract infection (URTI).

METHODSA total of 103 children with URTI and 35 healthy children were examined for plasma levels of MASP2 and C-reactive protein (CRP). According to CRP levels, white blood cell count (WBC), stage of infection, and administration of treatments, the children with URTI were divided into the elevated CRP group (n=48) and the normal CRP group (n=54), elevated WBC group (n=61) and normal WBC group (n=40), the early stage of infection without treatment group (n=68) and mid-late stage of infection with treatment group (n=35).

RESULTSPlasma MASP2 levels was significantly higher in URTI group than in the healthy control group (P<0.001) and showed a close correlation with age (r=0.302, P<0.01). Plasma MASP2 level was significantly correlated with CRP level in elevated CRP group (r=0.310, P<0.05) but not in normal CRP group (P>0.05), correlated with WBC in elevated WBC group (r=0.392, P<0.01) but not in normal WBC group (P>0.05), and was significantly higher in early stage infection without treatment group than in mid-late stage of infection with treatment group (P<0.01). MASP2, MBL2 and CRP genes had a common binding site for the transcription factor HNF-4α.

CONCLUSIONSMASP2 may be an acute-phase protein, and its plasma level might serve as a new reference index in the diagnosis of URTI in children.

C-Reactive Protein ; metabolism ; Case-Control Studies ; Child ; Humans ; Leukocyte Count ; Mannose-Binding Protein-Associated Serine Proteases ; metabolism ; Respiratory Tract Infections ; blood