Objective: To determine the role of cross-talk between calcineurin-dependent signal transduction pathway and protein kinase C (PKC), mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and protein kinase A (PKA) in airway remodeling in asthma. Methods: Male guinea pigs were sensitized with intraperitoneal injections of ovabumin (OVA), then treated with cyclosporin A (CsA,5 mg/kg), an inhibitor of calcineurin, then inhaled OVA for 2 weeks 14 days later. Activities of calcineurin, PKC, MAPK, and PKA were was analyzed by phosphorylation and dephosphorylation. In primary cultures of rat airway smooth muscle cells (ASMC), activities of calcineurin, PKC, MAPK, and cross-talk induced by urotensin Ⅱ (UⅡ), a recently identified strong mitogen, were measured. Results: (1) The activities of calcineurin, MAPK and PKC increased by 19% (P0.05). (4) CsA 10 -6 mol/L inhibited UⅡ-stimulated PKC activity by 14% (P0.05). Conclusion:The signal transduction pathways between calcineurin and other protein kinases such as PKC, MAPK and PKA have cross-talk in airway remodeling in asthma.

Objective:To investigate the changes and clinical implications of serum procalcitonin in exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD).Methods:We have evaluated PCT measurement in 45 patients with an exacerbation of COPD(group A) and 25 patients with stable COPD(group B),quantitative sputum culture was performed,too.PPMs were only regarded as significant if they reached a growth of ≥10~7cfu/mL,indicating the presence of bacterial infection.Results:In patients with an exacerbation,15 patients,sputum yielded a high(≥10~7cfu/mL) bacterial load(group A_1),30 patients,sputum yielded a low(0.05).Using a cut-off point of 0.155?g/L for PCT,the sensitivities and specificities for bacterial infection in patients with an exacerbation of COPD were 93.3% and 60% respectively.Conclusion: Serum procalcitonin measurements in patients of an exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease play a role in the diagnosis of bacterial infection.

Objective:To investigate the role of endogenous hydrogen sulfide(H2S)in patients with asthma.Methods:Levels of serum H2S,lung function and cell differential count in induced sputum were studied in 44 patients with acute exacerbation of asthma,33 patients with stable asthma and 12 health subjects.Of the 33 patients with stable asthma,3 failed to achieve induced sputum.Results:The serum H2S level was(75.2?13.0)?mol/L in controls(12 cases),(55.8?13.6)?mol/L in patients with stable asthma(33 cases),(57.8?6.3)?mol/L in patients with mild of acute exacerbation asthma(9 cases),(40.8?5.1)?mol/L in that with moderate of acute exacerbation asthma(13 cases),and(31.3?2.9)?mol/L in that with severe of acute exacerbation asthma(22 cases,F=44.592,P

Objective:To investigate the role of anaphylatoxin C 5 a in patients with asthma .Methods:A prospective study was performed between September 2006 and February 2007.A total of 33 patients with acute exacerbation of asthma and 13 healthy subjects were recruited into the study .The patients with acute exacerbation of asthma were also studied when they returned to the remission state .Levels of lung function, levels of C5a in induced sputum and cell differential count in induced sputum were determined . Results:The level of C5 a in induced sputum was significantly higher in patients with acute exacerbation of asthma [0.85(0.68-2.13) μg/L] than that in patients with stable asthma [0.45(0.26-0.88)μg/L, Z=-2.193, P=0.013];Sputum C5a levels in stable asthma patients were significantly higher than those in healthy controls [0.14(0.06-0.45) μg/L, Z=-2.141, P=0.015].The level of C5a in patients with severe exacerbation [2.21(1.27 -9.0) μg/L] was significantly higher than those in patients with mild exacerbation [0.34(0.17-0.63) μg/L] and moderate exacerbation [0.85(0.55-1.67) μg/L,χ2 =12.330, P=0.001].The level of C5a in induced sputum was positively correlated with the number of total cells count (r=0.797, P=0.004), neutrophils (r=0.504, P=0.032) and macrophages ( r =0.424, P=0.036 ) in acute exacerbation of asthma .Conclusion: C5a levels in induced sputum could be identified as an important prognostic biomarker , which involved in asthma ’ s pathogenesis .

Objective To investigate behavioral and endocrinal changes following the conflict-related stress. Method Male SpragueDawley rats were exposed to stressors using Vogel conflict test. Body weight and behavioral responses in open field test were investigated during the whole procedure. Serum corticosterone level was analyzed using immunoassay. Results Compared with the control, the rats of the 1-week, 2-week and 4-week stressed group showed significantly decreased body weight. There was increasing tendency or significant difference in locomotion between the 1 -week, 2-week and 4-week stressed group and their control. And the hormone levels for the stressed animal were reliably high. Conclusions The increased locomotion, and high corticosterone level and reduced body weight in stress animal,was consistent with the features of anxiety-like disorders. Furthermore, the behavioral and endocrine changes produced by conflict-related stress could maintain a long time. The conflictrelated stress paradigm may be used as psychological stress animal mode in the future.

Objective:To study the role of interleukin 9 in the airway inflammation from patients with COPD. Methods: Induced sputum was obtained from 30 COPD patients with stable disease(group A) ,31 asthmatics patients with stable disease(group B) and 15 healthy individuals(group C). IL 9,IL 5 and IL 8 in sputum supernatants were measured by sandwich enzyme linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA) and IL 9 positive expression and quantitative analysis were conducted by Streptavidin peroxidase method and image analysis technology. Results:The levels of IL 9 in group A and B were all significantly higher than those in groups C. IL 9 positive expression mainly located in the cytoplasm of macrophages. The positive rates of IL 9 in group A and B were all significantly higher than that of group C(? 2=20.821, 19.908, P

Background: It is unknown if medication-overuse headache, clinically similar to chronic tension-type headache, has pre-attentive problems which may be related to pain or substance abuse. Methods: Auditory frequency deviance elicited mismatch negativity was recorded from 22 patients with chronic tension-type headache, 26 with medication-overuse headache from underlying chronic tension-type headache and 41 healthy volunteers as controls. Their depression and anxiety scores were noted. Results: There were no signifi cant differences in the N1 latency or amplitude to both standard and deviant stimuli for the different groups. However, the latency and amplitude of mismatch negativity were signifi cantly shortened and reduced at Fz, Cz, and Pz in medication-overuse headache as compared to chronic tension-type headache and normal subjects. Anxiety levels were elevated in chronic tensiontype headache and medication-overuse headache subjects compared to healthy controls but were not correlated with mismatch negativity latency or amplitude in a given group. Conclusions: In medication-overuse headache subjects, the shortened mismatch negativity latency indicates quick involuntary attention switching to auditory change, while its reduced amplitude indicates poor accuracy in discriminating early stimuli, which may be related to medication overuse rather than to the head pain experienced.

OBJECTIVE To explore the drug-resistant situation of clinical isolated Escherichia coli in our hospital from Jun to Dec in 2007,the aim is to offer evidence for drug-resistant monitoring and clinical antibiotics usage in our hospital. METHODS All clinical specimens isolated and cultured from patients were identified by using the automatic microorganism analyzer VITEK-2 as well as bacteria's drug susceptibility tests were performed using counterparts panel. RESULTS A total of 352 strains E. coli were isolated. The isolated ratio of extended spectram-?-lactamases (ESBLs) producing E. coli was 66.2% (233/352),no ESBLs producing E. coli was 33.8% (119/352). From them 111 strains E. coli were isolated in sputum and 89 strains were ESBLs producing and 22 strains were no ESBLs producing; 111 strains E. coli were isolated in urine and 62 strains were ESBLs producing and 49 strains were no ESBLs producing. The drug-resistance difference was obvious between them as well as between strains isolated from different sites. Better to select piperacillin/tazobactam,cefotetan,ertapenem,imipenem,amikacin,and nitrofurantoin to cure all isolated E. coli infection.CONCLUSIONS The drug-resistance of ESBLs producing E. coli is severe (66.2%) so that hospital administers should strengthen antibiotics usage management and improve antibiotics rational usage,inorder to decrease occurrance of bacterial resistance.

Objective To investigate the clinical effect and the prospect of Infliximab in treatment of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG)-resistant Kawasaki disease (KD) patients.Methods Clinical features,inflammatory markers and coronary changes were observed in 2 cases of IVIG-resistant KD patients hospitalized in Peking University First Hospital,who were treated effectively by Infliximab.Relevant researches on the mechanism and progress of the Infliximab treatment for IVIG-resistant KD in the last 10 years were reviewed at the same time.Results Two KD patients hospitalized in Peking University First Hospital had been treated with 2 g/kg IVIG for 2 times and followed by methylprednisolone treatment.However,fever and other clinical manifestations occurred again after 2 days and 6 days when temperature returned normal.They both defervesced and all the symptoms were improved after 1 dose of Infliximab (5 mg/kg) by laboratory examinations.Four published literatures of the basic research and 9 retrospective or prospective clinical researches of Infliximab treatment of KD showed that Infliximab alleviated the inflammatory level in the KD patients significantly.Complete remission was up to 72.73％-92.11％.Those KD patients defervesced within 12 h,with dramatic improvement of symptoms and signs.Arthralgia also disappeared in the patients with arthritis.Only 1 case was complicated with hepatitis in the acute phase and cholecystitis in recovery time.A phase 3 randomised,double-blinded,placebo-controlled trial had been done to assess the addition of Infliximab to the standard therapy.Conclusions Infliximab is a feasible choice for IVIG-resistant KD patients.Efficacy and safety of Infliximab for KD treatment have been proved in the literature.However,Infliximab for KD treatment has not been indicated in the drug instruction,so the informed consent from the guardians and Ethics Committee is needed.

Objective To investigate the role of endogenous Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) in airway inflammation and responsiveness in a rat model of chronic passive-smoking.Methods Male SD rats were randomly divided into a control group (breathing fresh air) and a passive smoking group [cigarette smoking (CS) passively] ,with 18 rats in each group.Six rats in each group were randomly intraporitoneally injected with normal saline, sodium hydrosulfide (NailS) or propargylglycine (PPG, an irreversible inhibitor of cystathionine-γ-lyase).The animals were divided into six subgroups,ie.Con group, Naris group, and PPG group, CS group, CS + Naris group, and CS + PPG group.After 4 months,lung histological change and airway tension were measured.The H2 S levels of plasma and lung tissue were analyzed by the sensitive sulphur electrode assay.The expression of cystathionine-γ-lyase (CSE) was measured by western blot.Results Compared with the Con group, CSE protein expression in lung tissues was increased in CS group(P < 0.05) ; the H2S levels of plasma were significantly higher in GS group,NariS group and CS + Naris group,and much lower in PPG group (P < 0.05, respectively).Compared with CS group, the H2 S levels of plasma were significantly higher in CS + Naris group, and much lower in CS + PPG group (P < 0.05, respectively).The H2S level of lung tissue in each group had no significant difference (P > 0.05).Compared with Con group, score of lung pathology was significant elevated, and the responsiveness of airway smooth muscles to Ach and KCI was significant augmented in CS group.Compared with CS group, the score of lung pathology was decreased, and the responsiveness of airway smooth muscles was decreased in CS + NariS group(P < 0.05), and vise versa in CS + PPG group (P < 0.01).Conclusion H2 S can alleviate airway inflammation and hyperresponsiveness induced by CS, and administration of H2S might be of clinical benefit in airway inflammation and airway responsiveness.