Based on detailed analysis of the status of and problems in the use and management of implantable medical devices and equipment in clinical departments of hospital, we propose some clinically operable solving strategies and methods. It is important to further regulate the use and management of implantable medical devices for timely and safe use the devices in clinical departments.

Objective To construct an immortalized rat astrocyte strain expressing enkephalin which can be regulated by doxycycline.Methods pRevTet-On and recombinant plasmid pRevTRE/hPPE were transfected into packaging cell PT67 respectively by standard lipofectamine methods.The supernatant containing RevTet-On virus was used to infect immortalized rat astrocyte strain(IAST)and RevTRE/hPPE virus was used to infect the IAST/Tet-On cell.Immortalized rat astrocyte strain that stably expressed Tet-regulated enkephalin was established. hPPE gene expression level of IAST/Tet-On/hPPE cell strain was detected by real time-PCR,immuno- cytochemistry and radio-immunoassay.Results Real time-PCR,immuno-cytochemistry and radio-immunoassay confirmed the level of enkephalin expression was regulated by doxycycline in a dose-dependent manner.Conclusion An immortalized rat astrocyte strain which secrets enkephalin as controlled by doxycycline has been constructed successfully.

Objective To investigate the clinical features of primary retroperitoneal fibrosis (RPF), and to find out better method for diagnosis and therapy. Methods Nine patients with primary RPF in Peking Union Medical College Hospital since 1990 to 2003 were analyzed retrospectively. Results All patients had abnormal findings in CT or MRI, and 8 of them had chronic non-specific inflammation of the retroperitoneum in pathology. Six patients had renal involvement and 2 of them had severe renal failure. Eight of the patients had received therapy with corticosteroid or tamoxifene. Conclusions RPF is an uncommon collagen vascular disease characterized by a chronic non-specific inflammation of the retroperitoneum.Because of the atypical manifestations of RPF, awareness of the disease is important.CT and (or) open biopsy remains the gold standard for diagnosis.Management typically includes surgery and drug treatment.Corticosteroid therapy or more recently,tamoxifen has been used successfully. The clinical and radiographic improvement with drug treatment has been seen in several patients and confirmed the diagnosis,thereby early diagnosis and treatment can bring the patient more excellent renal and general outcome.

Objective To investigate the related risk factors,clinical features and prognosis of hospital-acquired acute kidney injury (AKI) in intensive care unit (ICU).Methods We retrospectively analyzed 48 patients with both acute kidney injury and multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS),who received renal replacement therapy from October 2006 to February 2011 in our ICU.According to whether the occurrence time of AKI was 48 hours after admission,they were divided into hospital-acquired AKI (HA-AKI) group and community-acquired AKI (CA-AKI) group,with 13 and 35 cases respectively.We compared the differences between these two groups in gender,age,acute physiology and chronic health evaluation Ⅲ (APACHE Ⅲ),primary diseases,days of mechanical ventilation,times of renal replacement therapy,number and indicators of organ failure,prognosis,renal function recovery,length of stay in ICU and hospital.Results The mean age of HA-AKI group is ( 64.5 ± 21.4) years,which is older than that in CA-AKI group ( 50.2 ± 17.5 ) years (P=0.022).The top three primary diseases in CA-AKI group are severe infection(42.8％ ),chronic kidney disease (CKD) concurrency of AKI ( 11.4％ ) and multiple trauma without head injury ( 8.6％ ).However severe infection still occupies the first in HA-AKI group ( 30.8％ ),followed by stroke (23.1％,P=0.024),multiple trauma with head injury( 15.4％,P=0.018 ) and gastrointestinal bleeding( 15.4％ ) ;Patients in HA-AKI group with more than four organ failures account for 84.6％,significantly higher than 65.7％ in CA-AKI group (P=0.000).On the first day,the levels of serum sodium ( P =0.036 ) and bicarbonate ( P=0.001 ) in HA-AKI group are higher than that in CA-AKI group,and the urinary volume is more(P =0.046).In HA-AKI group,the level of urea nitrogen on the seven day increases so progressively that it becomes significantly higher than that on the first day(P=0.015),but in CA-AKI group,there is no significant change in the levels of serum creatinine and urea nitrogen after AKI,while the levels of seruum sodium ( P=0.023 ) and bicarbonate ( P=0.030) increase significantly;APACHE Ⅲ score in HA-AKI group after admission 24 hours is significandy lower than that in CA-AKI group(53.2 ±22.8) point vs (89.1±25.7) point,P=0.000),and the length of stay in ICU and hospital and days of mechanical ventilation in HA-AKI group are significantly longer than that in CA-AKI group,but there are no significant differences in times of RRT therapy,prognosis and recovery of renal function.Conclusion APACHE Ⅲ score after 24 hours of admission does not accurately reflect the prognosis of patients with MODS and HA-AKI.There are great differences in age,primary diseases,organ function changes and other aspects of HA-AKI when compared with CA-AKI.

Objective To investigate the osteogenesis capability of different frequency extracorporeal shock wave.Methods 39 rabbits received different frequency extracorporeal shock wave at the middle potion of tibia for 3 or 7 days,these rabbits were then sac rificed and the tibia bones were collected to process for HE and toluidine blue staining,the pathological changes were observed under the light microscope.Results After different frequency extracorporeal shock wave treatment,the typical periosteal reaction were observed,external periosteum bleeded and thickened but there was no reaction at internal periosteum,marrow cavity opened and fibrosed.the osteoblast-1iking cell proliferated,however,no cartilage cells were observed;The rabbits received 7 days shock wave treatment showed more severe reaction than those for 3 days.The shock wave at lower frequency showed more severe reaction than higher frequency.Conclusion shock wave induced osteogenesis through the periosteal reaction of external periosteum;the osteogenesis capability of different frequency extracorporeal shock wave were affected by the frequency.Higher frequency of shock wave was not the ideal way to promote osteogenesis.

Objective To construct the recombinant yeast expressing PreS2 120-146-hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg),and to evaluate the immune effects of whole yeast cells.Methods PreS2 120-146 and HBsAg gene sequence were optimized according to the yeast cell codon preference,and were recombined and cloned into pPIC3.5K yeast expression vector to construct pPIC3.5K/PreS2 120-146 plasmid.After digested and linearized by Bgk Ⅱ restriction enzyme,pPIC3.5K/PreS2 120-146-HBsAg recombinant plasmid was electrotransformed into GS115 strain to screen PreS2 120-146-HBsAg-recombinant Pichiapastoris .The expression of PreS2 120-146-HBsAg was identified by sodium doclecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophogesis (SDS-PAGE),Western blot and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)analysis. BALB/c mice were vaccinated by inactivated whole recombinant yeast cells expressing target protein. Specific antibodies to HBsAg were detected by ELISA.Cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL)response induced by interferon (IFN)-γ was detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)when immune spleen cells of mice were stimulated by CTL epitope on HBsAg.Independent sample t test was used. Results Data of PCR detection,restriction enzyme digestion and sequencing analysis showed that recombinant pPIC3.5K/PreS2 120-146-HBsAg plasmid was successfully constructed.SDS-PAGE,Western blot and ELISA verified the expression of PreS2 120-146-HBsAg in the lysate of the recombinant Pichiapastoris induced by methanol.Levels of specific anti-HBsAg IgG antibodies produced by inactivated yeast cells vaccinated mice were comparable to purified HBsAg immunization (t =0.946,P =0.381 ). Analysis of HBsAg-specific CTL responses revealed that the level of IFN-γwas significantly higher when the immune spleen cells of mice were stimulated by CTL epitope peptides on HBsAg (t =2.305 ,P =0.044).Conclusions PreS2 120-146-HBsAg target protein is successfully expressed by construction of recombinant Pichiapastoris . The specific humoral and cellular immune responses are induced by recombinant whole yeast cells vaccinated mice.

Water soluble extract (WSE) is an important index for the quality evaluation of Astragali Radix (AR). In this study, the WSE of the wild AR from Shanxi province (SX) and the cultivated AR from Gansu Province (GS) were compared. The WSEs of two types of AR were determined according to the appendix of Chinese pharmacopoeia. Then the WSEs were subjected to NMR analysis, and the obtained data were analyzed using HCA, PCA, OPLS-DA, microarray analysis, and Spearman rank analysis. In addition, the Pearson correlation of differential metabolites were also calculated. The results showed that the WSE content of GS-AR (37.80%) was higher than that of SX-AR (32.13%). The main constituent of WSE was sucrose, and other 18 compounds, including amino acids, organic acids, were also detected. Multivariate analysis revealed that SX-AR contained more choline, succinic acid, citric acid, glutamate, taurine and aspartate, while GS samples contained more sucrose, arginine and fumaric acid. In addition, the Pearson correlations between different metabolites of the two types of AR also showed apparent differences. The results suggested that the WSE of two types of AR differs not only in the content, but also in the chemical compositions. Thus, the cultivation way is important to the quality of AR. This study supplied a new method for the comparison of extract of herbal drugs.
Arginine ; analysis ; Aspartic Acid ; analysis ; Choline ; analysis ; Citric Acid ; analysis ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; analysis ; chemistry ; Fumarates ; analysis ; Glutamic Acid ; analysis ; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy ; Multivariate Analysis ; Phylogeography ; Plant Roots ; chemistry ; Plants, Medicinal ; chemistry ; Succinic Acid ; analysis ; Sucrose ; analysis ; Taurine ; analysis

Though parched Chinese herbal medicines contain less effective or index components, their pharmacological actions do not reduce or even become improved to some extent. However, the current studies related to material basis could not explain the changes in property, flavour and efficacy of parched Chinese herbal medicines. Meanwhile, due to the lack of objective and specific evaluation indexes, the quality evaluation could not reflect features of parched Chinese herbal pieces. Therefore, how to break the bottleneck for the studies on parched Chinese herbal pieces, make further innovation and conduct in-depth studies on the material basis of parched Chinese herbal medicines are common problems that medical scholars are facing. According to the findings in the previous studies, the author proposed to explain the material basis of parched Chinese herbal medicines by studying Maillard reaction and establish specific quality evaluation indexes according to the features of parched Chinese herbal pieces, and conducted relevant studies.
Drug Compounding ; methods ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; Maillard Reaction ; Quality Control

The present study aims to predict the action targets of antidepressant active ingredients of Xiaoyaosan to understand the "multi-components, multi-targets and multi-pathways" mechanism. Using network pharmacology, the reported antidepressant active ingredients in Xiaoyaosan (saikosaponin A, saikosaponin C, saikosaponin D, ferulic acid, Z-ligustilide, atractylenolide I, atractylenolide II, atractylenolide III, paeoniflorin, albiflorin, liquiritin, glycyrrhizic acid and pachymic acid), were used to predict the targets of main active ingredients of Xiaoyaosan according to reversed pharmacophore matching method. The prediction was made via screening of the antidepressive drug targets approved by FDA in the DrugBank database and annotating the information of targets with the aid of MAS 3.0 biological molecular function software. The Cytoscape software was used to construct the Xiaoyaosan ingredients-targets-pathways network. The network analysis indicates that the active ingredients in Xiaoyaosan involve 25 targets in the energy metabolism-immune-signal transmutation relevant biological processes. The antidepressant effect of Xiaoyaosan reflects the features of traditional Chinese medicine in multi-components, multi-targets and multi-pathways. This research provides a scientific basis for elucidation of the antidepressant pharmacological mechanism of Xiaoyaosan.
Antidepressive Agents ; pharmacology ; Benzoates ; Bridged-Ring Compounds ; Coumaric Acids ; Drug Evaluation, Preclinical ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; Flavanones ; Glucosides ; Glycyrrhizic Acid ; Lactones ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Monoterpenes ; Sesquiterpenes ; Software

AIM and METHODS: To study the culture met ho d of human neural stem/progenitor cells, these cells derived from human fetal fo rebrains were maintained and expanded in serum-free defined medium containing ba sic fibroblast growth factors (bFGF), epidermal growth factor (EGF) and B27. Whe n they formed neurosphere, these three factors and supplemented FBS were removed to induce differentiation. Cell were cultured for 12-14 d, then fixed for immun ocytochemistry examination. RESULTS: This period of expansion resulted in a 107-fold incre ase in this heterogeneous population of cells. Upon differentiation, they form n eurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes, the three main phenotypes in the CNS. CONCLUSION: These results demonstrate the feasibility of long-t erm in vitro expansion of human neural progenitor cells. The advantages of s uch a population of neural precursors for allogeneic transplantation, including t he ability to provide an expandable, well-characterized, defined cell source, ca n form specific neuronal or glial subtypes.