Adult ; Frontal Lobe ; diagnostic imaging ; Humans ; Male ; Radiography ; Tuberculoma ; diagnosis ; diagnostic imaging

Acinetobacter baumannii ; drug effects ; isolation & purification ; Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial ; Female ; Humans ; Infant, Extremely Low Birth Weight ; Infant, Newborn ; Pneumonia, Ventilator-Associated ; etiology

BACKGROUND: There are different methods to isolate and culture human nucleus pulposus cells, and the differences in digestive enzymes components and digestion time quite are significant. So how to rapidly and efficiently harvest human nucleus pulposus cells has become a research hotspot. OBJECTIVE: To optimize the digestive enzymes components and digestion methods for the preparation of human nucleus pulposus cells. METHODS: Nucleus pulposus tissue specimens were selected from three adult discs in the Department of Orthopedics, China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University. The acute traumatic disc tissues that outstanding to the spinal canal were taken under aseptic conditions, and then the peripheral white annulus and jel y-like nucleus pulposus in the center could be seen. According to different mixed enzyme concentration ratio, the samples were divided into two groups. The enzyme Ⅰ group was treated with 0.2% Ⅱ col agenase; and the mixed enzymeⅡ group was digested with 0.25% trypsin for 30 minutes, and then treated with 0.2% Ⅱ col agenase. According to digestion time, each group was divided into three subgroups: 2 hours group, 4 hours group, and overnight group. Final y, suspended cel volume was decided as 2 mL to count cells. Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium containing fetal bovine serum was used for cel culture in vitro. Trypan blue staining was performed to count total cel number and ratio of living cells. Methylthiazolyldiphenyl-tetrazolium bromide assay was used to detect the growth curve of nucleus pulposus cells. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Based on the two digestion enzyme concentration, the number of digested cells in the enzyme Ⅰ group was larger than that in the enzyme Ⅱ group after digested for 2 and 4 hours, but the difference was not significant (P > 0.05). Overnight, cellsurvival rate was decreased in the enzyme Ⅰ group after digested for 2 and 4 hours when compared with the enzyme Ⅱ group, and the difference was significant (P < 0.05). After digested for 4 hours, tissue blocks disappeared, and the number of cells reached maximum. The results indicate that enzyme Ⅰgroup composite with Ⅱ col agenase is benefit for the separation of nucleus pulposus cells, and the digestion time is appropriate to 4 hours. This condition has the advantages of simple operation, high efficiency and low cost, and it considered that digestion of nucleus pulposus tissues with 0.2% Ⅱ col agenase for 4 hours is the best condition to obtain nucleus pulposus cells.

BACKGROUND:Advancement in bioengineering based upon tissue engineering techniques may offer the possibility of repairing degenerative intervertebral disc.
OBJECTIVE:To summarize the research progress in the scaffolds of tissue engineered intervertebral disc.
METHODS:A computer-based retrieval was performed to search manuscripts describing tissue engineered intervertebral disc scaffolds published between January 1st, 1900 and December 31st, 2012 in PubMed database with the key words of“tissue engineering, intervertebral disc, scaffold”in English.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Scaffold is an important part of tissue-engineered research. There are three kinds of materials for intervertebral disc scaffolds:natural biomaterials, synthetic materials, and composite materials. A variety of scaffold materials have their own advantages and disadvantages. Up to now, none of these scaffold materials is accepted as the most suitable one. The selection of scaffold materials is stil to be further studied. The study and development of nanoscale biomaterials is an inevitable trend. Otherwise, with the help of bionics, improving scaffolds is also an inexorable trend in progress of simulating human intervertebral disc. Furthermore, injectable scaffold is also an research hot spot, and the selection range of injectable scaffold materials mainly focuses on chitosan, typeⅡcolagen,hyaluronic acid,fibrin,elastin,and alginate.C urrently, studies on chitosan as a scaffold material are relatively more.

To solve separating problem of natural soda, fifty-seven strains screened from soil, floul water and activated mud were of flocculating activity. Two strains of bacteria, which were screened from above mentioned strains have higher activity and better steady than the whole culture liquid of bacteria was observed that its flocculating use to natural soda was strong and the mean flocculating rate of two strains were 79.80% and 87.% respectively.

Pneumoconiosis is the most common occupational disease in China, which severely endangers people's health. Depending on the inhaled air pollutants, pneumoconiosis is classified as anthracosis, silicosis, asbestosis, etc., among which silicosis is the most common and serious. Silicosis is a systemic, poor prognostic disease characterized by diffuse fibrosis of lung tissue, which is caused by long-term exposure to dust with high levels of free silicon dioxide (SiO₂) in the occupational environment. Appropriate treatment in time is important for the disease. Unfortunately, no effective drugs have been approved to delay or even reverse pulmonary fibrosis caused by SiO₂. This review briefly classifies potent therapeutic drugs and compounds in term of mechanisms, providing the probability for clinical treatment of silicosis.

Objective To investigate the value of the dynamic susceptibility contrast enhanced MRI (DSC-MRI) in differential diagnosis of glioblastoma,solitary cerebral metastatic tumors and cerebral lymphoma.Methods Seventeen patients with glioblastoma,15 cases with solitary cerebral metastatic tumor and 17 cases with cerebral lymphoma were analyzed retrospectively.All patients underwent conventional MR imaging,contrast enhancement and DSC-MRI preoperatively.Pseudo color pictures of cerebral blood volume (CBV) and the time signal intensity curve were obtained from the raw data of DSC MRI.The relative CBV (rCBV)were measured from regions of enhanced solid parts of the tumors,peritumoral region and contralateral normal white matter regions respectively.The percentage of signal intensity recovery (PSR) of enhanced solid parts of the tumors were measured.ROC curve analysis was performed to determine optimum indicator in differential diagnosis of three types of tumors,and the sensitivity and specificity were calculated.Results Three types of tumors all showed enhancement of solid area with obvious peritumoral edema.Besides the no difference between glioblastoma and metastasis in rCBV of solid parts of the tumors,there were statistically significant differences in comparisons of two types of tumors (all P＜0.05).Besides the no difference between single brain metastases and lymphoma in rCBV of peritumoral regions,there were statistically significant differences in comparisons of two types of tumors (all P＜0.05).The PSR of the solid parts of the tumors had no difference between glioblastoma and single brain metastases,while there were statistically significant differences in comparisons of two types of tumors (all P＜0.05).ROC curve analysis showed sensitivity and specificity of the PSR values of solid parts of the tumors in differentiating lymphoma and non lymphoma were 100 ％and 81.3 ％.The rCBV of peritumoral regions was the optimum indicator for differentiating glioblastoma and solitary brain metastasis,the sensitivity and specificity were respectively 94.1％ and 86.7％.Conclusion The combination of rCBV and PSR can improve the efficiency for diagnosing the three types of brain tumors.

Abstract: Toxoplasma gondii, an opportunistic pathogenic protozoan, is widely distributed worldwide and can cause zoonoses, which is a serious threat to human health. Nowadays, the relationship between T. gondii infection and neuropsychiatric diseases has attracted researchers' attention increasingly. T. gondii infection is related to the pathogenesis of many neuropsychiatric diseases by affecting the nervous system, such as schizophrenia, depression, Alzheimer's disease, and so on. This review will focus on the relationship between T. gondii infection and neuropsychiatric diseases and summarizes the possible mechanisms of disorders resulting from T. gondii infection． It is expected that the study on the related pathogenic mechanism of T. gondii will lead to new therapeutic directions and feasible solution for the clinical treatment of neuropsychiatric diseases caused by T. gondii infection.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a degenerative disease of the central nervous system due to the loss or death of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. Clinically, levodopa is the most effective and commonly used drug for PD treatment. However, long-term levodopa therapy is prone to motor complications and other side effects caused by excessive peripheral dopamine production, which has become an urgent problem to be solved in PD treatment. Dopamine receptor (DR) agonists are similar to dopamine. They can directly stimulate postsynaptic dopamine receptors, produce the same effect as dopamine, delay the application of levodopa as much as possible, and reduce complications caused by long-term use of levodopa. Therefore, screening effective dopamine receptor agonists has become a key issue in the study and treatment of PD. In order to establish a rapid, stable and reliable method for dopamine receptor agonist screening, this study used the human dopamine receptor 2 (DRD2) gene fused with a circular permuted EGFP (cpEGFP) to construct a recombinant gene, packaged with lentiviral vector, and the vector replaced the parted inner transmembrane domain of the third intracellular loop (ICL3) of genetically-encoded GPCR-activation based (GRAB) sensors. The fluorescence of GPCR-fused cpEGFP is regulated by conformational changes mediated by the interaction of dopamine receptor agonists with GPCRs without altering GPCR activity. The HEK293T cells were infected with viral vector, screened by puromycin to select highly expressed cells. Dopamine receptor agonists (including dopamine, bromocriptine mesylate, cabergoline, pramipexole) were used as positive drugs to explore the best screening and detection conditions, establishing a stable model to evaluate the dopamine receptor agonist. The results showed that the optimal filter for the dopamine receptor agonist in this study was the cell seeding count of 7×10⁴, and the effective concentration of the positive drug was 1-100 µmol·L^-1. In addition, pretreated with 10 µmol·L^-1 dopamine receptor antagonists (including chlorprothixol hydrochloride, domperidone, and sulpiride), the positive fluorescence signal of overexpressed DRD2-cpEGFP HEK293T cells could not be detected when exposed to 10 µmol·L^-1 dopamine receptor agonists, which proved that dopamine receptor antagonists could block the activity of dopamine receptor agonists, so they cannot activate dopamine receptor allosteric, indicating that the model has good specificity and can also be used for the screening and detection of new dopamine receptor antagonists. In summary, the study constructs a stable dopamine sensor detection system, which can effectively screen potential dopamine receptor agonists. The operation procedures are simple and rapid. And it can be used for a large-scale screening providing a fundamental methodology for drug development and PD treatment targeted on DRD2.

Objective To investigate the regular pattern of dynamic changes of insulin sensitivity in fetal growth restriction (FGR) rats. Methods Twenty pregnant female rats were randomly divided into two groups as normal-protein group (NP) and low-protein group (LP), which respectively received normal protein diet (20% protein) and low protein diet (8% protein) during pregnancy. Weights of newborns were measured within 6 hours after birth, and the LP offspring whose birth weights were at least 2 standard deviations below the mean of NP offspring (≤2 standard deviations) were defined as FGR rats. At day 3, 7, 14, 30, 60 and 90 after birth, rats were fasted for 12 hours and then angular vein blood was collected to measure fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and fasting serum insulin (FINS) level. At 90 days of age, intraperitoneal glucose tolerance test (IPGTT)was performed; and blood triglyceride ( TG ), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol ( LDL-C ),high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and glycosylated hemoglobin Alc (HbAlc) were measured. Insulin sensitivity was evaluated by FINS, insulin resistance index (HOMA-IR), insulin sensitivity index (ISI) and IPGTT. Results (1) Birth weights of LP offspring [(4. 92 ± 0. 36) g]were significantly lower than those of NP ones [(6. 43 ± 0. 59) g] (t = 14. 73, P＜0. 05). The incidence of FGR in LP was 88. 2% ; and for the male and female rats, the FGR rate was 94. 1% and 83. 1%, respectively. (2) FPG levels in the male FGR rats were significantly higher than in the NP from the age of 60 days [(9.38 ± 1.57) mmol/L vs (5. 58 ± 1.24) mmol/L] to 90 days [(8. 95 ±1.83) mmol/L vs (6. 21± 1.14) mmol/L] (t=-3. 291, P＜0. 05), while FPG levels in female FGR rats increased significantly only at 90 days of age [(9. 08±1.65) mmol/L vs (6.73±0. 67) mmol/L](t=-3. 226,P＜0. 05). FINS levels were significantly higher in FGR rats than in the NP from the age of 30 days (male FGR rats) or 60 days (female FGR rats) to 90 days (P＜0. 05, respectively).Similarly, HOMA-IR was significantly higher in FGR rats than in the NP at the age of 30 days (male FGR rats) or 60 days (female FGR rats) to 90 days (P＜0. 05, respectively). ISI in male FGR rats showed a reduction in comparison with the NP from the age of 30 to 90 days, while as to the female FGR rats it was significantly lower than in the NP only at 60 days of age and continued to 90 days (P＜0. 05, respectively). IPGTT showed that after injection of glucose, blood glucose at all four points (from 0 min to 120 min) in both male and female FGR rats were higher than that in the NP (P＜0. 05). (3) No significant difference was observed in TG, LDL-C and HDL-C at 90 days of age between the FGR rats and NP ones, while HbA1c in the male FGR rats was significantly higher than that in the NP [(7. 03±0. 54) % vs (4. 37±0. 64)%,t= -8. 028, P＜0. 05]. Conclusions FGR rats are able to maintain glucose balance and normal insulin levels during their earlier age, while insulin sensitivity decreased from adolescence to adulthood. The change of insulin sensitivity is different between male and female FGR rats, and male FGR rats are more likely to develop insulin resistance.