Parkinson’ s disease ( PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder primarily characterized by resting tremor, muscular rigidity, akinesia and postural reflex impairment.Behavioral tests of PD in animal models are essential for under-standing the pathogenesis of PD as well as for the development and testing of potential therapeutics .Here we mainly use the 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA)-induced rat model, to introduce a review on the research progress in non-drug-induced be-havioral tests of motor function in PD rats.

Humans ; Olfaction Disorders ; genetics ; Smell ; genetics

Genetic Predisposition to Disease ; Humans ; Olfaction Disorders ; congenital ; genetics

AIM: To investigate the postoperative changes of binocular visual function in patients with congenital superior oblique palsy.METHODS: Eye position and binocular visual function were examined in 28 patients with congenital superior oblique palsy pre- and post-operatively. The results were statistically analyzed.RESULTS: The normal eye position rate after operation was 89.3%. There were 9 patients who gained simultaneous perception after operation, while 13 patients gained fusion as many as that gained stereoacuity. There was statistically significant difference between postoperative and preoperative eyes (P<0.05). Near stereoacuity was improved after operation. Patients who had better visual acuity and low strabismus degrees as well as fusion had a better recovery.CONCLUSION: The operation could improve the eye position and rebuild the binocular visual function of the congenital superior oblique palsy. The recovery of binocular visual function was related to visual acuity and strabismus degrees of the patients and whether they had fusion function.

Animals ; Electrical Synapses ; Male ; Membrane Potentials ; physiology ; Neurons ; physiology ; Parietal Lobe ; cytology ; Patch-Clamp Techniques ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar

Adult ; Breast ; pathology ; Breast Neoplasms ; diagnostic imaging ; pathology ; Female ; Humans ; Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin ; diagnostic imaging ; pathology ; Ultrasonography

BACKGROUND: Herbal wines are an important part of the traditional Chinese medicine. The traditional medicated wine, lishizhen herbal wine,which can strengthen the immune function, has long been used for some chronic diseases. But,its mechanism remains unclear.OBJECTIVE: To explore the immune pharmacodynamics of lishizhen herbal wine and to observe its effect on the immune organs (spleen,pancreas) and lymphocyte transformation rate in mice.DESIGN: A randomized controlled experiment based on the observation of the experimental animals.SETTING: Department of integrated traditional Chinese and western medicine and the department of pharmacology of a university hospital MATERIALS: The experiment was completed at the Central Laboratory of Zhongnain Hospital of Wuhan University from September 2000 to December 2000. A total of 90 healthy Kuming mice were involved in the study.METHODS: Different doses of the herbal wine,cartinellin and the same volume of distilled water were given to the experimental animals. The drug administration was orally injected directly to the stomach of the animals once a day and 10 days consecutively. One hour after the last administration,the animals were put to death. Then,the thymus gland and the spleen were taken out and weighed to calculate the indexes of the thymus gland and the spleen. In the last three days of the administration phytohemagglutinin(PHA)was injected intramuscularly at a dose of 10 mg/kg once per day. Two hours after the last administration, the tails of the mice were cut out, the blood samples were taken to perform the Wright' s staining,and 100 lymphocytes were counted under immersion and the transformation rate was calculated.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Primary results: ① The effect on the immune organs of normal mice; ② The effect of PHA on stimulating the lymphocyte transformation in mice. Secondary results: ③ The death condition of the experimental animalsRESULTS: Different doses of the herbal wine increased the spleen index in different degrees. The effect of medium dose group was obvious[(3.71± 0.78) g/kg] (P <0.05),and the thymus gland index increased a little (P>0.05). The cartinellin in the positive control group increased the spleen index[(3.79±0.91 ) g/kg] and there was no impact on thymus gland index. The transformation rates of the lymphocytes of different groups were increased to a different degree and presented a good quantity-effect relationship,especially the group administered a large dose[(45±14)%] (P<0. 01).CONCLUSION: Lishizhen herbal wine has an effect of increasing cellular immune function.

Objective To investigate the in vitro effects of acitretin on the apoptosis and expressions of insulin-like growth factor binding protein 7 (IGFBP7) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in HaCaT cells.Methods Cultured HaCaT cells were treated with various concentrations (10-5,10-64,10-7,10-8 mol/L) of acitretin for various durations,with those cultured in acitretin-free medium serving as the control group.Then,CCK-8 assay was performed to evaluate the proliferation of cells after 24-,48-and 72-hour treatment,flow cytometry to detect the apoptosis of HaCaT cells,and Western blot and reverse transcription-PCR to quantify the protein and mRNA expressions of IGFBP7 and VEGF in HaCaT cells,respectively,after 48-hour treatment.Statistical analysis was carried out by one-way analysis of variance and Pearson correlation analysis.Results The proliferation of HaCaT cells was inhibited by the treatment with acitretin,and the inhibitory effect increased with the elevation of concentration and prolongation of treatment duration of acitretin.A significant decrease was observed in the proliferative activity of HaCaT cells treated with acitretin of 10-8 mol/L for 48 hours,and when the concentration of acitretin was 10-5 mol/L,the proliferation of HaCaT cells was inhibited by 39.94％ ± 2.27％ and 49.77％ ± 1.87％ at 48 and 72 hours respectively,compared with the control cells.The HaCaT cells treated with acitretin of 10-5 mol/L for 48 hours showed a significant elevation in apoptosis rate (7.617％ ± 0.767％ vs.1.803％ ± 0.313％,P ＜ 0.05),IGFBP7 protein and mRNA expressions (0.939 ± 0.040 vs.0.436 ± 0.013,0.872 ± 0.079 vs.0.190 ± 0.056,both P ＜ 0.05),but a significant reduction in VEGF protein and mRNA expressions (0.213 ± 0.032 vs.0.798 ± 0.036,0.274 ± 0.041 vs.0.933 ± 0.054,both P ＜ 0.05) in comparison to the control cells.Conclusions Acitretin can induce the apoptosis of HaCaT cells,and up-regulate IGFBP7 but down-regulate VEGF expressions in HaCaT cells at protein and mRNA levels.

Objective To investigate the awareness of non-respiratory physicians to the diagnosis and medical treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted in 370 non-respiratory physicians from 9 hospitals of Beijing.All the subjects were required to complete a self-administrated questionnaire.Chi-square test and analysis of variance were used for data analysis.Results The physicians in the first-grade hospitals had lower awareness of COPD than those in the second-or third-grade hospitals (57.5 ± 17.1,67.1 ± 15.0 and 68.9± 13.6,respectively; F=18.75,P＜0.05).Moreover,the residency and attending physicians were found to have lower awareness of COPD than chief physicians (61.4± 12.9,61.4± 15.0 and 79.3± 13.2,respectively; F=34.82,P＜0.05).Conclusion The medical knowledge on the management of COPD might be poor among non-respiratory physicians in Beijing.Primary healthcare workers and non-respiratory physicians should pursue intensive COPD training in the furture.

Objective To explore the clinical characteristics and medicine treatment of patients with severe ulcerative colitis (UC),the efficacy of rescue treatment in patients with glucocorticoid (GCS) resistant severe UC,and the clinical risk factors in patients with GCS-refractory severe UC.Methods From January 2001 to December 2012,clinical,laboratory,endoscopy,imaging data and medication of treatment of 106 patients with severe UC were retrospectively analyzed.Then the patients were followed up,and the clinical efficacy and under endoscopic presentation of Mayo score were evaluated.Logistic regression analysis was performed to analyze the high risk factor of GCS-refractory severe UC.Results Among 106 patients with severe UC,95 were chronic relapse type accounting for 89.6 ％.The percentage of patients with defecation times over six was 73.6％ (78/106),with severe purulent bloody stool was 51.0％ (54/106),and with moderately or severe abdominal pain was 83.0％ (88/106).The percentage of diffuse colon type was 83.0％ (88/106),endoscopic presentation of Mayo score over two was 87.7％ (93/106).Hemoglobin decreased in 65.1％ (69/106) patients,blood platelet increased in 48.1％ (51/106) patients,C-reaction protein elevated in 88.7％ (94/106) patients,and hypoalbuminemia decreased in 42.5％ (45/106) patients.Account to 89.6％ (95/106) of patients with severe UC received GCS treatment,and the percentage of induced remission was 64.2％ (61/95),effective rate was 16.8％ (16/95),and ineffective rate was 18.9％ (18/95).The percentage of GCS refractory was 35.8％(34/95).There were 23 patients with GCS resistance and 11 patients with GCS dependence.Ten patients with GCS resistant severe UC accepted medicine rescue therapy.Five cases were treated with cyclosporin A,of which two cases induced remission,one case was effective,and two cases were ineffective.Another five cases were treated with infliximab,of which three cases induced remission,and two cases were ineffective.The results of Logistic regression analysis showed that severe anemia (OR=6.750,95％CI:2.656 to 17.152,P＜0.01),elevated blood platelets (OR=4.032,95％CI:1.226 to 13.261,P=0.015) and albumin level less than 25 g/L (OR =3.022,95 ％ CI:1.236 to 7.390,P =0.022) were risk factors of GCS-refractory severe UC.Conclusions GCS resistant or dependent occurred in part of patients with severe UC.Patients with G-CS resistant severe UC receive rescue treatment of cyclosporin A or infliximab.Severe anemia,elevated blood platelets,albumin less than 25 g/L may be clinical predicting factors in patients with GCS-refractory severe UC.