Objective To evaluate the effect of electric vagal stimulation on myocardial ischemia-reperfu-sion (I/R) injury in rats.Methods Forty-five male Sprague-Dawley rats,aged 4-5 months,weighing 180-220 g,were randomly divided into 3 groups (n =15 each):sham operation group (S group),I/R group,electric vagal stimulation group (EVS group).Myocardial I/R was induced by occlusion of left anterior descending branch of coronary artery for 30 min followed by 120 min reperfusion in I/R and EVS groups.In group EVS,the left cervical vagus nerve trank was stimulated for 30 min with continuous electric pulses (5 V,2 ms,10 Hz) starting from 10 min before reperfusion until 10 min of reperfusion.The animals were sacrificed at the end of 120 min reperfusion and the hearts were removed for determination of the infarct size,TNF-α and IL-6 contents and myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity in myocardial tissues.Results Compared with group S,the infarct size was significantly enlarged,and TNF-α and IL-6 contents and MPO activity were increased in I/R and EVS groups (P ＜ 0.05).The infarct size was significantly smaller,TNF-α and IL-6 contents and MPO activity were lower in EVS group than in I/R group (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion Electric vagal stimulation can reduce myocardial I/R injury in rats and activation of cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway is involved in the mechanism.

Mutation (substitution, deletion, insertion, etc.) in nucleotide acid causes the maximal sequence lengths of exact match (MALE) between paralogous members from a duplicate event to become shorter during evolution. In this work, MALE changes between members of 26 gene families from four representative species (Arabidopsis thaliana, Oryza sativa, Mus musculus and Homo sapiens) were investigated. Comparative study of paralogous' MALE and amino acid substitution rate (d(A)<0.5) indicated that a close relationship existed between them. The results suggested that MALE could be a sound evolutionary scale for the divergent time for paralogous genes during their early evolution. A reference table between MALE and divergent time for the four species was set up, which would be useful widely, for large-scale genome alignment and comparison. As an example, detection of large-scale duplication events of rice genome based on the table was illustrated.
Amino Acid Sequence ; Amino Acid Substitution ; Animals ; Arabidopsis ; genetics ; Chromosome Mapping ; methods ; Conserved Sequence ; genetics ; Evolution, Molecular ; Humans ; Mice ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Oryza ; genetics ; Proteome ; genetics ; metabolism ; Sequence Alignment ; methods ; Sequence Analysis, Protein ; methods ; Sequence Homology, Amino Acid ; Species Specificity

Hide melting presents itself as one of the most critical processes in the production of donkey-hide gelatin. Here a NIR-based method was established for the rapid analysis of in-process hide melting solutions as well as for end-point determination of this process. Near infrared (NIR) spectra of hide melting solutions were collected in transflective mode. With the contents of total nitrogen determined by the Kjeldahl method as reference values, partial least squares regression (PLSR) was employed to build calibration models between NIR spectra and total nitrogen. Model parameters including wavelength range and PLS factors were optimized to achieve best model performance. Based on the contents of total nitrogen predicted by calibration model, end point of hide melting was determined. The constructed PLS model gave a high correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.991 3 and a root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) of 0.807 g x L(-1). With the predicted total nitrogen and predefined limit, decisions concerning the proper times of melting were made. This research demonstrated that NIR transflectance spectroscopy could be used to expeditiously determine the contents of total nitrogen which was subsequently chosen as the indictor for determining the end-point of hide melting. The proposed procedure may help avoid unnecessary raw material or energy consumption.
Animals ; Calibration ; Endpoint Determination ; methods ; Equidae ; anatomy & histology ; Gelatin ; chemistry ; Least-Squares Analysis ; Nitrogen ; analysis ; chemistry ; Skin ; chemistry ; Spectrophotometry, Infrared ; Time Factors ; Transition Temperature

Objective To systematically evaluate the diagnostic value of magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) in the investigation of bile duct anatomy of liver transplantation living donors.Methods A search in Cochrane library,MEDLINE,EMBASE,CBMdisc (China Biology Medicine disc) was performed to identify relevant English and Chinese-language abstracts,supplemented by Springer,OVID,Sciencedirect full text database,etc.Criteria for inclusion were based on validity criteria for diagnostic research published by the Cochrane collaboration.With Meta analysis package for Stata10.1,heterogeneity of the included articles was tested,which was used to select proper effect model to calculate pooled weighted sensitivity and specificity,positive likelihood ratio,negative likelihood ratio. Summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curve was performed and the area under the curve (AUC) was calculated. Finally,sensitivity analysis was performed.Results Seventeen articles with 34 studies were included.Heterogeneity analysis revealed heterogeneity between studies and the source was MRCP imaging methods spotted by meta-regression analysis. Subgroup analysis according to MRCP imaging methods showed homogeneity within subgroups.The pooled sensitivity,specificity,positive likelihood ratio,negative likelihood ratio,diagnostic odd ratio of breath-holding thick slice MRCP,3D MRCP,the combination of the prior two methods,contrast enhance MRCP were 0.89,0.78,4.1,0.14,29; 0.92,0.80,4.5,0.10,45;0.95,0.82,5.2,0.06,85; and 1.00,0.76,4.1,0,1228,respectively with fixed effect model analysis.The area under the SROC curve was 0.83,0.92,0.96 and 0.99 respectively.Conclusion The combination of thick slice and 3D MRCP is a practical and effective method with good sensitivity and specificity to investigate bile duct anatomy of living liver transplantation donors,which fully meets the requirements of the preoperative assessment of bile duct structure.

Objective To investigate the feasibility of magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) as a noninvasive way for assessment of kidney transplant function in the early posttransplantation period.Method Fifty-one kidney transplant recipients less than 1 month after kidney transplantation and 26 age-matched healthy volunteers were included and examined using a fatsaturated echo-planar DTI sequence in oblique-coronal orientation at 3.0 Tesla magnetic resonance (MR) imager (diffusion directions=6,b =0,300 s/mm2).According to the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) recorded and calculated on the examined day,all subjects were divided into four groups:group 1,healthy volunteers (n =26) ; group 2,eGFR≥60 mL/min/1.73 m2 (n =24) ; group 3,30≤eGFR＜60 mL/min/1.73 m2 (n =19) ; group 4,eGFR＜30 mL/min/1.73 m2 (n =8).Mean apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and mean fractional anisotropy (FA) were determined separately for the cortex and the medulla.The paired Students t test was used to compare ADC and FA between cortex and medulla within each group.ADC and FA between groups were compared by using the one-way analysis of variance test.Relationship between ADC and FA with eGFR of the transplants was assessed by using Pearson correlation analysis.Result Mean cortical FA was significantly higher in group 1 than in other three groups (P＜0.01 for all),while differences among groups of allograft recipients were not significant (P＞0.05 for all).There was a gradually decreasing trend of medullary FA and ADC,and cortical ADC from group 2 to group 4,and the differences among groups were all pronounced (P＜0.05 for all).In renal allografts,there was a significant positive correlation between eGFR and medullary FA,medullary ADC as well as cortical ADC (r =0.812,0.756,0.757,respectively,P＜0.01).The cortical-medullary discrimination of FA-map and ADC-map in group 3 and group 4 apparently decreased.Meanwhile,DTI revealed that the radial diffusion tracts in the medulla of group 3 and group 4 obviously broke off and reduced,especially in group 4.Conclusion DTI is a promising way to evaluate kidney transplant function early after transplantion,and can quantitatively and visually distinguish transplants with different functions.

Calcinosis ; complications ; Decalcification Technique ; Humans ; Meningeal Neoplasms ; complications ; Meningioma ; complications ; Specimen Handling ; methods ; Ultrasonics

Objective To evaluate the functional changes in the isometric,concentric and eccentric muscle strength of the knee extensors and flexors in patients with knee osteoarthritis,and to explore the relationship among these contractions.Methods A Biodex System-3 isokinetic test system was used to assess the isometric,concentric and eccentric strength of the knee extensors and flexors of the involved and uninvolved limbs of 54 patients suffering from osteoarthritis.Results The strength of the knee extensors and flexors of the involved limbs was significantly less than that of the uninvolved legs in the different contraction modes(P＜0.05).The difference was especially marked in concentric and eccentric contraction at low angular velocity.The hamstrings/quadriceps ratio and the dy- namic control ratio showed abnormalities in the muscle balance of the hamstrings and quadriceps.Conclusion Iso- kinetic testing should be applied and the hamstrings/quadriceps ratio and the dynamic control ratio should be analyzed in evaluating patients with knee osteoarthritis.

OBJECTIVETo investigate the risk factors of wound complications after closed calcaneal fracture operation using a lateral extensive L-shaped incision and to explore the effective interventions to reduce the complications after incision.

METHODSRetrospective analysis of clinical data of 285 patients(315 calcaneal fractures) who underwent open reduction and internal fixation by using the lateral extensive L-shaped incision from January 2011 to January 2015. Eighteen factors which might cause the complications of calcaneal incision were compared by univariate analysis, and multiple Logistic regression analysis was performed for factors with statistically significances.

RESULTSTwenty-nine patients(30 calcaneus) had wound complications among all the 285 patients(315 calcaneus) after surgery, including 9 patients with incision redness, swelling, oozing or nonunion;16 patients with skin necrosis or incision rupture, 3 patients with soft tissue superficial infection, and 2 patients with osteomyelitis. Univariate analysis showed that fall height(=0.017), diabetes (=0.026), smoking(=0.001), and operative time(=0.003) were correlated with incision complications after surgery. Multivariate analysis showed that diabetes(=0.029), smoking(<0.001), and operative time(=0.018) were risk factors for incision complications after operation.

CONCLUSIONSPreoperative smoking cessation, actively control of blood glucose and shortening the operation time by practicing can effectively reduce the incision complication after fracture surgery with the lateral extensive L-shaped incision.

Objective: To assess the quality for meta-analysis on prevention and treatment of coronary artery disease (CAD) in China.
Methods: We systemically searched 4 Chinese databases of VIP, CNKI, CBM and Wan Fang for their meta-analysis on CAD prevention and treatment from 1987-01 to 2013-10. According to inclusion and exclusion criteria, 2 researchers independently screened and cross-checked all the literatures. The qualities of methodology and report were evaluated by R-AMSTAR and PRISMA scales.
Results: A total of 201 literatures were enrolled for our study. The average score of methodology quality was (24.65±3.97), no literature met all required items, and the major problems were as lack of“a priori design”, insufifcient and bias of data selection combining inappropriate data synthesis. The average score of report quality was (17.20 ± 2.90), no literature met all 27 required items, and the major problems were as incomplete report of abstract, objective, protocol and registration, incomplete data collection/analysis, using and publishing bias information, incomplete quality assessment.
Conclusion: Both of methodology and report of meta-analysis for CAD prevention and treatment have quality problems at different levels, further improvement should be expected.

Objective:To establish an experimental model for intracellular antibacteria and endotoxin neutralization in vitro to detect the antibacterial and endotoxin neutralization activity of the muBPI_(25) protein.Methods: RAW264.7 cells were transfected with pcDNA3.1(+)muBPI_(36-259), and then were infected with intracellular bacterial of either G ~+/G~-to establish the experimental model of intracellalar antibacteria.The RAW264.7 cells were co-transfected with the pSecTag2B-muBPI_(36-259) and dual-luciferase reporter gene plasmids for establishment of the experimental model of endotoxin neutralization.Results:The experimental model of intracellular antibacteria confirmed that the muBPI_(25) protein could inhibit/kill Salmonella typhi.The experimental model of endotoxin neutralization indicated that the muBPI_(25) protein could neutralize endotoxin.Conelusion: We firstly demonstrate that murine BPI N-terminal functional fragment(muBPI_(25) protein)can inhibit/kill Salmonella typhi,and can neutralize, its lysating product, endotoxin.