Objective This study is undertaken to evaluate the changes of serum cytokine levels in different stages of collagen induced arthritis(CIA)rats,to search for the specific proteins related with rheuma- toid arthritis(RA)pathogenesis and inflammation,and to explore the mechanism of RA pathogenesis.Methods Rat cytokine antibody array coated with 19 specific cytokine antibodies was used to examine serum samples at peak and late stage of CIA rats,and were compared to normal cytokine levels.At the same time,ELISA assay for serum TNF-?production was used to verify the array results.Results Among the target cytokines,10 up- regulating cytokines were kept in high expression in different phases of disease,while 1 showed significant change only at the peak of disease.There was no downregnlating cytokines in the results.Serum TNF-?assay results were consistent to the array results.Conclusion Cytokines show different expression in CIA at differ- ent stages,and specific cytokines can be used as the candidates to further study of the RA pathogenesis.This study also provides molecular makers for early diagnosis.

Objective To investigate the effect of manganese-enhanced MRI (MEMRI) at 7.0T for tracing nerve tracts in rat brain in vivo. Methods With brain stereotactic apparatus, 0.4 μl Mncl_2 with aqueous solution of 1 mol/L was injected into the right somatosensory cortex of 9 SD rats. MR scan was performed for tracing corticospinal tracts and other coherent nerve tracts pre-, and 24, 48, 72 h, 7 days post-injection with 7.0T micro-MRI system, respectively. Results Corticospinal tracts were showed in intact after Mn~(2+) administration from somatosensory cortex, thalamus, cerebral peduncle to pons at the time point of 24, 48, 72 h and 7 days, while the best tdisplaying was achieved at 24-48 h after Mn~(2+) administration. Simultaneously a small quantity of Mn~(2+) reached the opposite somatosensory cortex through the corpus callosum. Conclusion MEMRI for tracing rat nerve tracts can be showed clearly with 7.0T MRI. The location of manganese-enhanced corticospinal tracts in agreement with the rat brain atlas in stereotaxic is in agreement with that Paxinos' published. MEMRI can display the relationship between the two sides of hemisphere, and may play an important role in investigating the brain function and nerve plasticity after nerve injury in vivo.

Objective To assess the value of whole cerebral perfusion weighted map (PWM) and whole cerebral perfusion blood volume (PBV) integrating in scan protocol about CT perfusion (CTP) combined with CT angiography (CTA) in acute cerebral infarction. Methods Twenty-three patients with acute cerebral infarction proved clinically underwent CTP examination combined with CTA. The color-coded images of PWM and PBV were attained using workstation, and the raw data of contract CTA images and subtractive images between contract CTA and non-contract CTA were processed. The diagnostic sensitivity and the value of CTP and PWM, PBV integrating CTP in acute cerebral infraction were evaluated. Results Seven of 9 patients with negative results on CTP images had positive expressions on PWM and PBV images. The sensitivity of CTP was 60.87% and the sensitivity of PWM and PBV integrating CTP was 91.30%. Conclusion The scan protocol of PWM, PBV integrating CTP not only increases detection rate of acute cerebral infraction, but also has ability to predict the clinical prognosis of patients with cerebral infraction.

AIM:To investigate the correlation between matrix metalloproteinase-9(MMP-9),tissue metalloproteinase inhibitor-1(TIMP-1),MMP-9/TIMP-1 and carotid atheromatous plaque stability in cerebral infarction patients.METHODS:80 patients with cerebral infarction were categorized as microemboli-negative group(n=70)and microemboli-positive group(n=10),20 normal human were served as control group.The MMP-9 and TIMP-1 levels in plasma were determined by mean of ELISA in 3 groups.RESULTS:The levels of MMP-9 and TIMP-1 in plasma were significantly higher in cerebral infarction patients than those in control group(P

Animals ; HSP70 Heat-Shock Proteins ; metabolism ; Male ; Physical Conditioning, Animal ; Physical Endurance ; physiology ; Quadriceps Muscle ; metabolism ; physiology ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A ; metabolism

OBJECTIVETo explore the procedures of dynamic infusion cavernosometry and cavernosography (DICC) and their application in the diagnosis and classification of venous erectile dysfunction (VED).

METHODSThis study included 103 ED patients, aged 20 to 43 years, highly suspected of VED, with disease courses of 4 months to 6 years. DICC was performed and analyses were made on the results, especially the parameters of flow-to-maintain (FTM) and pressure decay (PD) in the corpus cavernosum.

RESULTSBased on the parameters of FTM and PD, 21 of the patients were normal, 5 were suspected of VED, 39 had mild VED, 25 had moderate VED, and 13 had severe VED. Penile subcutaneous hematoma was found in 4 of the patients, all recovered after 3 to 5 days, with no other complications.

CONCLUSIONDICC is a reliable, safe and minimally invasive method for the diagnosis and classification of VED.

Diagnostic Techniques, Urological ; adverse effects ; Hematoma ; etiology ; Humans ; Impotence, Vasculogenic ; classification ; diagnosis ; Male ; Penile Diseases ; etiology ; Penis ; blood supply ; diagnostic imaging ; Radiography ; Veins

Salvianolic acid A (Sal A) is one of the most effective compounds isolated from the root of Salvia miltiorrhiza. Up to now, several studies regarding the pharmacokinetic profiles of Sal A have been reported, however there is no such study reported in monkeys, the species which is more similar to human. The aim of this study is to develop a LC-MS method for the determination of Sal A in monkey plasma and apply it to the pharmacokinetic studies of monkeys. After single intravenous administration of Sal A, the plasma concentration-time curves were observed and the main pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated. The plasma concentration at 2 min (C2 (min)) values were (28.343 ± 6.426), (45.679 ± 12.301) and (113.293 ± 24.360) mg x L(-1) for Rhesus monkeys treated with Sal A at 2.5, 5 and 10 mg x kg(-1). The area under the concentration-time curve (AUC(0-∞)) values were (3.316 ± 0.871), (5.754 ± 2.150) and (13.761 ± 2.825) μg x L(-1) x h, respectively. Furthermore, this method was improved and applied to the simultaneous determination of Sal A, Sal B and Sal C, which provided useful information for preclinical studies and clinical trials of Sal A, Sal B and Sal C.
Administration, Intravenous ; Animals ; Caffeic Acids ; pharmacokinetics ; Chromatography, Liquid ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacokinetics ; Lactates ; pharmacokinetics ; Macaca mulatta ; Mass Spectrometry ; Plant Roots ; chemistry ; Salvia miltiorrhiza ; chemistry

Objective To evaluate the screening effect of osteoporosis self-assessment tool for Asians (OSTA) in middle aged and elderly healthy men in Chengdu.Methods A total of 4042 healthy men aged 40 to 106 years received dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) assay,and OSTA index evaluation.Measurement sites included lumbar spine (L1-4),left femoral neck,trochanter,Ward's area,total hip and femoral shaft.All persons were classified into highosteoporosis-group (OSTA≤-4),mediumosteoporosis-group (-4 ＜ OSTA≤≤-1),low osteoporosis-group (OSTA＞-1),or the low risk-group (OSTA＞-1) and high risk-group (OSTA≤-1) by OSTA scores.T-scores were compared between different measurement sites detected by DXA.The sensitivity,specificity,Kappa value and the area under receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) of OSTA in screening osteoporosis were evaluated.Results The prevalence of osteopenia and osteoporosis in lumbar spine,proximal femur were gradually increased along with aging.The detection rate of osteoporosis in lumbar spine and proximal femur were 16.2％ and 24.0％ respectively in subjects aged over 80 years.OSTA index in low-risk,medium-risk group,high-risk group were 85.0％,11.0％,4.0％ respectively.The detection rate of osteoporosis in lumbar spine and proximal femur were 2.6％ and 1.6％ in low-risk group,10.4％ and 10.4％ in medium-risk group,and 29.3％ and 30.5％ in high-risk group,respectively.Taking OSTA ≤-1 as the cut-off value,the sensitivity and specificity of OSTA in screening osteoporosis in lumbar spine and femur by T-score＜-1 were 28.1％,28.7 ％,89.0％ and 92.4％ respectively,and by T-score≤-2.5 were 51.6％,63.2％,86.7％ and 86.8％ respectively.The consistency of diagnosis result between T-score and OSTA index according to the three versus two risk levels was 0.153 and 0.197 versus 0.195 and 0.243 Kappa value,respectively.The AUC of OSTA index for lumbar spine and femur by T-score＜-1 and T-score≤-2.5 were 0.689 and 0.823,and for different age groups and different measurement sites were 0.639 and 0.899 (all P＜0.001).Conclusions OSTA index has a certain ability in screening osteoporosis in men aged over 50 years.There are different screening results on osteoporosis among the different age groups.

Objective To investigate CT findings of hepatic necrosis and regeneration after liver failure.Methods Five patients with liver failure underwent CT scan before orthotopic liver transplantation.These findings were retrospectively reviewed and correlated with gross specimen and pathologic findings obtained after transplantation.Results Among 5 cases,the CT appearances of liver failure can be divided into 3 types.(1)Massive confluent aggregate foci in 2 patients demonstrated low attenuation and high attenuation as geographical patlerns on CT scans before contrast enhancement.respectively.The histopathological liver changes showed massive necrosis and regencratinn. Regions of necrosis enhanced to attenuation greater than that of normal liver parenchyma in portal-venous phase,the regions of regeneration enhanced to attenuation greater than that of normal liver parenchyma in arterial phase on postcontrast CT images.(2)In 2 patients,diffuse nodules of liver demonstrated high attenuation on plain CT scans,which was nodular necrosis and nodular regeneration pathologically.All enhanced to attenuation greater than that of normal liver parenchyma in arterial phase.The former showed hypointensity in portal-venous phase and equilibrium phase.The latter enhanced to attenuation equal to that of normal liver parenchyma in portalvenous phase and equilibrium phase on postcontrast CT images.(3)Multiple small foci in 1 case demonstrated low attenuatiun on precontrast CT images and enhanced to hyperintensity in portal-venous phase and isointensity in arterial phase and equilibrium phase on postcontrast CT images.The histopathological liver changes showed multiple necrosis.Conclusion Liver failure may reveal characteristic imaging patterns at CT.

Background The neovascular form of the disease usually causes severe vision loss in a number of eye diseases.Special-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) provides high-quality in retinal imaging and the possibility of the measurement in vivo.Objective This study aimed to investigate the feasibility of SD-OCT dynamically measuring choroidal neovascularization (CNV).Methods CNV was induced in 30 left eyes of 30 clean Brown Norway(BN)rats by retinal photocoagulation with the laser parameter as follows: wavelength 532 nm,exciting power 200 mW,spot diameter 100 μm and irradiating time 50 ms.Bubble or less retinal bleeding was thought as Brunch membrane breakage and CNV model establishment.Fundus fluorescein angiography(FFA) was performed to determine the establishment of CNV model and scored based on the fluorescein leakage on 3,7,14,21 days after photocoagulation.Meanwhile,CNV memberane thickness (CMT) was dynamically measured in vivo as the maxiume value from retinal inner limiting membrane through choroidal vessel layer in various time points.Histopathologic examination was used in the 14th day to evaluate and verify the result of SD-OCT.The right eyes were as controls.Results FFA examination showed that disc-like leakage of fluorescein appeared in 7 days and extended in 14 days after photocoagulation with the scores of 1.6±0.4,2.5±0.6 and 2.4±0.5 in 7,14 and 21 days,showing a significant difference among them(F=13.11,P＜0.01).The fluorescein leakage score was significantly higher in 14 and 21 days than that of 7 days(both P＜0.05).CMT measured by SD-OCT was(76.33±10.09),(102.03±14.21)and(98.03±13.76) μm in 7,14 and 21 days after photocoagulation respectively,with a significant difference among 3 time points (F=23.25,P＜0.01),and that in 14 and 21 days was significantly declined in comparison with 7 days(both P＜0.05).The results of SD-OCT showed a consistent tendency with that of FFA.Histopathological examination showed CNV formation in 14 days after photocoagulation.Conclusions Experimental CNV model was successfully induced by laser photography.SD-OCT technology allows excellent visualization of CNV in vivo.