OBJECTIVE To investigate the expiry date of sterile articles packed by 4 different materials and preserved in different conditions after pressure steam sterilizing. METHODS The bacteria growth of the materials sterilized by pressure steam sterilizing method and stored in the supply department,treatment room,dressing room,nursing cabinet and ambulance vehicle was observed. RESULTS The axenic periods of the sterile materials in the supply department preserved by methods A,B,C,D were 14 days,14 days,7 months and 8 months,respectively in summer;while the sterile periods of the materials in the treatment room,dressing room,nursing cabinet and ambulance vehicle preserved by methods A,B,C,D were 11 days,11days,6 months and 7 months,respectively. CONCLUSIONS Management of expiry date of sterile materials is an important measure to guarantee safe use of sterile materials and prevent against nosocomial infection.

Objective · To investigate the effects of insulin on high glucose-cultured humanmononuclear cell line THP-1 and macrophage phenotype transformation in diabetic wounds. Methods · THP-1 cells were cultured with normal (5.6 mmol/L) and high (25 mmol/L) glucose, respectively,stimulated with PMA for differentiation, and induced to M1 macrophages with LPS. After treated with insulin for 6 h, expression changes of M1 type macrophage markers inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α), and interleukin-1β (IL-1β), as well as M2 type macrophage markers arginase1 (Arg1) and IL-10 were detected using real-time PCR andWestern blotting. High fat diet feeding plus multiple intraperitoneal injections of low dose streptozotocin (STZ) were used to induce type II diabetes rat model. After blood glucose level has been stable for five weeks, two fullthickness skin wounds with the diameter of 1cm were made on the back of DM rats. Wounds were randomly assigned to being treated with insulin (0.2 U insulin /20 μL saline) or saline (20 μL saline) using the random number table. Characteristics of macrophagephenotypes were observed 3, 7, and 25days after wounds were made. Normal rats (n=3) served as controls. Results · After being cultured with high glucose, the mRNA levels of M1 markers iNOS and TNF-α were up-regulated in LPS-induced THP-1 cells, while the mRNA levels of M2 markers Arg1 and IL-10 were down-regulated.Afterbeing treated with insulin for 6 h, mRNA levels of iNOS and TNF-α weredown-regulated, protein levels of iNOS, IL-1β were down-regulated too, while mRNAand protein levels of Arg1 and IL-10 were up-regulated. In addition, the expression level of phosphorylated NF-κB-p65 was significantly increased after high glucose culture and was significantly decreased after insulin intervention. Compared to normal rat skin wounds, the expression of iNOS in macrophages was significantly increased in wounds of diabetic rats. The expression of iNOS in macrophages was high in saline treated wounds 3 and 7 days after the wounds were made and the expression of Arg1 was low 25 days after the wounds were made. In insulin treated wounds, the expression of iNOS started to decrease on day 7 after the wounds were made and the expression of Arg1 was significantly higher than that in saline treated wounds on day 25 after the wounds were made. Conclusion · Insulin can induce macrophage phenotype transformation from M1 to M2 under high glucose condition and the mechanism may be associated with the phosphorylation of NF-κB-p65.

Aim To investigate the in vitro vasorelax-ant effect of DL0805-0, a Rho kinase inhibitor, on iso-lated rat thoracic aorta and explore its underlying mechanism. Methods Tension was measured to eval-uate the vasorelaxant effect of DL0805-0 on rat endo-thelium-intact and endothelium-denuded thoracic aorta rings. Rho kinase inhibitor fasudil, nitric oxide syn-thase inhibitor Nω-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester ( L-NAME), guanylate cyclase inhibitor methylene blue, cyclooxygenase inhibitor indomethacin, calcium-activa-ted potassium channel blocker tetraethyl ammonium ( TEA ) , ATP-sensitive potassium channel blocker glibenclamide and voltage-dependent potassium chan-nel blocker 4-aminopyridine ( 4-AP ) were used to il-lustrate the mechanisms of vasorelaxant effect of DL0805-0 . Results DL0805-0 exerted vasorelaxation in a dose-dependent manner in KCl (60 mmol·L-1 ) or NE ( 0. 1 μmol · L-1 ) -induced contraction. DL0805-0-induced vasorelaxation was significantly re-duced by L-NAME. However, methylene blue and in-domethacin did not significantly affect vasorelaxation of DL0805-0. In endothelium-denuded rings, TEA re-markably attenuated the vasorelaxant effect of DL0805-0 , while glibenclamide and 4-AP did not affect vasore laxation of DL0805-0 significantly. DL0805-0 also re-duced NE-induced transient contraction and inhibited contraction induced by increasing extracellular calci-um. Conclusion These results suggest that DL0805-0 induces vasorelaxation through an endothelium-depend-ent pathway. The opening of calcium-activated K+channels and blocking of Ca2+ channels in vascular smooth muscle cells may be one of the mechanisms of DL0805-0-induced vasorelaxation.

Objective: To study the effect of cellular immune in the pathogenesis of chronic urticaria, and to clarify the immunological mechanism of chronic urticaria. Methods: A total of 68 patients with chronic urticaria and 70 normal controls were selected as the subjects. The patients with chronic urticaria were divided into four different subgroups according to the different complications; there were 11 patients in autoimmune disease group (3 case of rheumatism, 2 case of lupus erythematosus, 4 cases of thyroid diseases, 2 cases vitiligo), 13 patients in Helicobacter pylori infection group, 10 patients in hepatitis B and hepatitis C group, and 6 patients in tumor group. The expressions of T cell surface markers CD3, CD4 1, and CD8 in the peripheral blood were detected with flow cytometry. Furthermore, the T cell subsets in the peripheral blood of the patients with chronic urticaria with different complications were detected by flow cytometry. Results: Compared with control group, the ratio of CD4 T cells of the patients in chronic urticaria group was significantly decreased (P<0. 05), the ratio of CD8 1 T cells was increased (P<0. 05), and the ratio of CD4 T cells/CD8 1 T cells was decreased (P<0. 05); but the ratio of CD3 T cells had no changes (P>0. 05). Compared with the patients with the disease duration less than 12 months, the ratio of CD4 1 T cells of the patients with the disease duration more than 12 months was significantly decreased (P<0. 05), the ratio of CD8 1 T cells was increased (P<0. 05), and the ratio of CD4 1/CD8 1 was decreased (P<0. 05); but the ratio of CD3 1 T had no changes (P>0. 05). Compared with the patients without complications, the ratios of CD4 T cells and CD3 T cells of the patients with complications were decreased (P< 0. 05), the ratio of CD8 T cells was increased (P<0. 05), and the ratio of CD4 1/CD8 was decreased (P< 0. 05). Conclusion: The unbalance of cellular immune exists in the patients with chronic urticaria, especially the decreasing of the ratio of CD4 T cells in peripheral blood of the patients might be one of the mechanisms of pathogenesis of chronic urticaria.

DNA barcoding is a rapidly developing frontier technology in the world and will be useful in promoting the quality control and standardization of traditional Chinese medicine. Until now, many studies concerning DNA barcoding have focused on leaf samples but rarely on Chinese herbal medicine. There are three issues involved in DNA barcoding for traditional Chinese medicinal materials: (1) the extraction methods for total DNA of the rhizomes of the medicinal materials; (2) intra-specific variation among samples from different places of origin; (3) accuracy and stability of this method. In this study, Gentianae Macrophyllae Radix was used to verify the stability and accuracy of DNA barcoding technology. Five regions (ITS2, psbA-trnH, matK, rbcL, and ITS) were tested for their ability to identify 86 samples of Gentianae Macrophyllae Radix and their adulterants. After improving the DNA extraction method, genomic DNA from all samples was successfully obtained. To evaluate each barcode's utility for species authentication, PCR amplification efficiency, genetic divergence, and species authentication were assessed. Among all tested regions only ITS2 locus showed 100% of PCR amplification and identification efficiencies. Based on the established method, we successfully identified two samples of Gentianae Macrophyllae Radix bought in pharmacy to the original species.

The sigma-1 receptor is a molecular chaperone protein highly enriched in the brain. Recent studies linked it to many diseases, such as drug addition, Alzheimer's disease, stroke, depression, and even cancer. Sigma-1 receptor is enriched in lipid rafts, which are membrane microdomains essential in signaling processes. One of those signaling processes is ADAM17- and ADAM10-dependent ectodomain shedding. By using an alkaline phosphatase tagged substrate reporter system, we have shown that ADAM10-dependent BTC shedding was very sensitive to both membrane lipid component change and sigma-1 receptor agonist DHEAS treatment while ADAM17-dependent HB-EGF shedding was not; and overexpression of sigma-1 receptor diminished ADAM17- and ADAM10-dependent shedding. Our results indicate that sigma-1 receptor plays an important role in modifying the function of transmembrane proteases.
ADAM Proteins ; metabolism ; ADAM10 Protein ; ADAM17 Protein ; Amyloid Precursor Protein Secretases ; metabolism ; Animals ; Betacellulin ; COS Cells ; Cercopithecus aethiops ; Gene Expression ; HEK293 Cells ; Heparin-binding EGF-like Growth Factor ; Humans ; Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins ; metabolism ; Membrane Microdomains ; metabolism ; Membrane Proteins ; metabolism ; Receptors, sigma ; agonists ; metabolism

Objective:To explore the three long non-coding RNA (long non-coding ribonucleic acid, the expression of lncRNA NR_002578, NR_038264 and NR_046252) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of patients with primary gout arthritis (GA) and their clinical value.Methods:Peripheral venous blood, clinical data and laboratory data were collected from 60 gout patients (including 30 AG patients in acute stage and 30 IG patients in intermittent stage) and 50 healthy subjects (HC group). Quantitative reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR) was used to detect the expression levels of PBMCs of 3 lncRNAs in GA and HC groups, and the differences of 3 lncRNAs expression levels in different groups were compared and the correlation analysis was conducted with clinical indicators. Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was constructed to evaluate the possible efficacy of lncRNAs in gout diagnosis. The measurement data conforming to normal distribution were tested by t test or variance analysis, and non-normal distribution were tested by Mann-Whitney U test or Kruskal-Wallis H test. The comparison among the three groups was conducted by SNK. Results:① The expression of NR_002578 in GA was significantly lower than that in HC [60.2(16.8, 100.1)×10 -3vs 149.5 (92.6, 221.8)×10 -3, Z=-5.75, P<0.001], subgroup analysis showed that the expression of NR_002578 in AG was significantly lower than that in IG and HC [34.3(8.6, 72.8)×10 -3vs 88.3(47.7, 109.6)×10 -3vs 149.5(92.6, 221.8)×10 -3, H=40.12, P<0.001], and lower in IG than that in HC ( P<0.001). The expression of NR_046252 in GA was significantly higher than that in HC [6.5(2.1, 21.5)×10 -3vs 2.1(1.2, 3.5)×10 -3, Z=-4.21, P<0.001]. The expression of NR_046252 in AG and IG were higher than that of the HC group [6.3(2.0, 12.0)×10 -3vs 7.2(2.4, 30.6)×10 -3vs 2.1(1.2, 3.5)×10 -3, H=21.33, P<0.001], but there was no significant difference between the AG and IG group ( P>0.05). ② Spearman correlation analysis showed that NR_002578 expression was negatively correlated with erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) ( r=-0.29, P=0.024)and hypersensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) ( r=-0.35, P=0.006) in gout patients. ③ The areas under ROC curve of NR_002578 and NR_046252 for diagnosing gout were 0.819 and 0.750, respectively. Conclusion:The abnormal expression of NR_002578 and NR_046252 in gout patients suggests that NR_002578 may be involved in the pathogenesis of gout.

Objective: Heart failure (HF) patients are usually associated with liver function impairment, Child-Turcotte-Pugh (CTP) scores can evaluate liver function, but its effect in HF patients has been unclear. We want to study the application of CTP scores in predicting the risk of death for in-hospital HF patients. Methods: A total of 1180 consecutive in-hospital HF patients were enrolled. According to CTP scores evaluated liver function at admission, the patients were divided into 3 groups: CTP grade A group, n=951, CTP grade B group, n=206 and CTP grade C group, n=23. The endpoint of this study was all-cause death. Results: There were 180 patients died at 1 year follow-up period, the in-hospital and 1 year mortalities were increased with the elevated CTP grades accordingly: for in-hospital mortalities in CTP grade A, B and C groups were (0.8%, 11.7% and 56.5%) respectively, P< 0.001; for 1 year mortalities were (9.6%, 34.5% and 78.3%) respectively, P< 0.001. Multivariable Cox regression analyses indicated that the higher CTP grades, the higher risk of in-hospital and 1 year mortalities in HF patients. The area under curve for CTP scores in predicting the in-hospital and 1 year mortalities were 0.88 and 0.74 respectively. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis presented that the patients with improved CTP scores from grade B or C to grade A at discharge had the higher 1 year survival rate than those without improvement, P=0.028.
Conclusion: CTP scores may independently predict the risk of death for in-hospital HF patients, the levels of CTP scores might be used for evaluating the efficacy of in-hospital treatment.

Objective:To explore effective schemes for improving cognitive function in patients with subjective cognitive decline (SCD) by EEG neurofeedback (NF) technique.Methods:Ten SCD patients recruited in Department of Neurology, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University from April 2019 to August 2019, were chosen in our study; all patients were subjected to neuro-regulation of mismatched negativity (MMN) for 5 times in 2 weeks by EEG NF technique. By using the midlines of frontal zone (Fz), central zone (Cz) and peak zone (Pz) as training electrodes, auditory tones (1000 Hz as standard stimulus, individual hearing discrimination threshold as deviation stimulus) were used to induce MMN characteristics of event-related potential (ERP) via Oddball paradigm. SCD patients received visual disc stimulation feedback with dynamic neural signal activity. ERP waveforms and standard MMN characteristics (amplitude and latency) before and after training were used to evaluate the changes in neural activity of these patients; nine N-Back working memory tasks (three types×three gradients) and hearing discrimination ability tests were used in these patients to evaluate the improvement of cognitive competence.Results:ERP analysis showed that the MMN waveforms in SCD patients after training were obviously different as compared with those before training; their standard stimulus and deviant stimulus in the point-by-point paired t-test analysis were significant different ( P<0.05). The MMN amplitudes at the Fz, Cz and Pz electrodes in these patients after training were significantly higher than those before training ( P<0.05). The accuracy of auditory tone 3-Back task in SCD patients was statistically significant before and after training ( P<0.05). Conclusion:NF based on MMN can significantly improve the MMN amplitude and accuracy of auditory working memory task in patients with SCD, which might provide a potentially effective cognitive intervention method for patients with early AD and the elderly with normal memory decline.

Objective To investigate the effects of qigong abdominal breathing training on human brain function.Methods Seventy-two university students were recruited and randomly divided into the control and treatment groups in a 1:1 ratio. Both the control and treatment groups underwent the same standing pile work operation. However,only the treatment group received additional abdominal breathing training. The intervention process comprised two phases:2 weeks of intensive training and 6 weeks of counseling training. Electrocardiogram and electroencephalogram (EEG) tests were performed before (baseline period) and after training respectively. Sample entropy algorithm and empirical mode decomposition were used to analyze the EEG signals. The sample entropy complexity index and the correlation between EEG changes and respiratory curves were calculated to explore the brain function regulation effect. Results The complexity of different brain regions in the treatment group was higher than that of the control group after training. A large difference was observed when comparing the brain complexity in the temporoparietal junction,posterior temporal,parietal,parietal-occipital junction,and occipital regions. The brain complexity in the posterior temporal region of the treatment group was significantly higher than that of the control group after the intervention,with a significant difference (P<0.05). In the control group,the brain complexity in the frontal pole,anterior temporal,frontal reion,frontal-temporal junction,frontal-central junction,middle temporal,central,and temporal-parietal junction regions decreased to different degrees. However,the comparison between before and after was not significant. Furthermore,brain complexity in the central-parietal junction,posterior temporal,parietal,parietal-occipital junction,and occipital regions increased to different degrees in the control group;however,the difference was not significant. The brain complexity of the treatment group in the frontotemporal junction,middle temporal,and temporoparietal junction areas decreased slightly;however,the before-and-after comparison was not significant. The brain complexity of the treatment group in the frontal pole,frontotemporal,frontal,frontal-central junction,central,central-parietal junction,posterior-temporal,parietal,parietal-occipital junction,and occipital areas increased. The posterior-temporal,parietal,parietal-occipital junction,and occipital areas had more significant increases than the other areas. However,the before-and-after comparison was not significant. In both groups,brain complexity decreased in the frontotemporal junction,middle temporal,and temporoparietal junction areas and increased in the parietal,parieto-occipital junction,and occipital areas. The comparison of complexity between the treatment and control groups in P3 and PO3 leads after training was significant. P3 and PO3 are situated in the parietal region and parieto-occipital junction areas,respectively,indicating that antebellum breathing also affects brain function in these regions. The correlation between the respiratory curve and EEG components was enhanced after training. Conclusion Abdominal breathing training can significantly increase the complexity of the corresponding brain regions (posterior temporal,parietal,and parieto-occipital junction regions),and a significant correlation was observed between the two.