Animals ; Animals, Newborn ; Apoptosis ; drug effects ; Cerebral Cortex ; drug effects ; metabolism ; pathology ; Female ; Hypoxia-Ischemia, Brain ; drug therapy ; Male ; Malondialdehyde ; metabolism ; Nitric Oxide Synthase ; metabolism ; Nitroso Compounds ; therapeutic use ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar

Objective To investigate the feasibility of ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide- enhanced(USPIO)-enhanced MR imaging for monitoring synovitis of antigen-induced arthritis in rabbit model and explore the optimal MR imaging sequences.Methods Nine female white rabbits with antigen(0.5 ml mBSA,2 mg/ml)induced arthritis of the right knees were used in the study.The left knees of these rabbits and both knees of another 3 rabbits served as the control.Nine to 28 days(mean 21.3 d)after successful model induction,all knees were imaged before and 24 h after intravenously injection of USPIO (0.3 ml/kg),among which 2 rabbits were also imaged at 48 and 72 h after administration of USPIO respectively.The MR protocol included spin-echo(SE) T_1WI,fast spin-echo(FSE)T_2WI,gradient echo (GRE)T_2~* WI and short tau inversion recovery(STIR).Images were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively based on signal characteristics and patterns of the synovium.Paired t-test was used for the analysis of the signal intensity of inflammatory synovial membrane before and 24 h after injection of USPIO. MR findings were correlated with histopathology.Results Arthritis was successfully induced in all 9 right knees with intraarticular injection of mBSA.Pathological examination revealed hyperplasia of synovium with infiltration of USPIO-loaded-macrophages.MR depicted synovial thickening(thickness 2.07?0.97 mm) and joint effusion.Synovium and joint fluid appeared as slightly hypo- or iso-intense on T_1 WI and hyper- intense on T_2 WI or T_2~* WI.Twenty four hours after USPIO injection,significant T_1 enhancement(ASNR 41.91%?27.94%),negative T_2 and T_2~* enhancement(△SNR -34.92%?11.77% and -57.24%? 16.05%)were demonstrated in the region of synovial inflammation respectively.The signal at 48 h and 72 h changed less than that at hour 24.No signs of arthritis occurred in all left knees and in all knees of the artificial model group.Conclusion Iron oxide phagocytized into macrophages can be a root cause resulted in signal change on USPIO-enhanced MR images.The gradient echo sequence should be the optimal sequence to be used in USPIO-enhanced MR imaging in antigen-induced arthritis.

OBJECTIVETo establish and evaluate a new method for measurement of dental plaque by using cellular neural network-based image segmentation.

METHODSA total of 195 subjects were selected from community population. After dental plaque staining, oral digital picture of anterior teeth area was taken by an Olympus digital camera (C-7070 Wide Zoom). At the same time, the Turesky dental plaque indices of anterior teeth were evaluated. The image analysis was conducted by cellular neural network-based image segmentation.

RESULTSThe image cutting errors between two operators were very small. The Kappa value is 0.935. Pearson's correlation coefficient is 0.988 (P < 0.001). There was high correlative consistency between traditional dental plaque index and plaque percentage obtained by using image analysis. Pearson's correlation coefficient was 0.853 (P < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONSCellular neural network-based image segmentation is a new method feasible for evaluating dental plaque.

Dental Plaque ; diagnosis ; Dental Plaque Index ; Female ; Humans ; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted ; Male ; Neural Networks (Computer) ; Photography, Dental

OBJECTIVETo research the effect of total saponins of Yinfenglun on uterine.

METHODModels of uterine inflammation were established to observe the effect of total saponins of Yinfenglun. Uterine contractive effects were studied on rats in vitro and on rabbit in vivo. Weight of uterus and levels of estrogen and progestogen were determined.

RESULTTotal Saponins of Yinfenglun had the ameliorated tendency to metritis of model rats, and increased the contractive range and motorricity of uterine of rats in vitro and of rabbit in vivo. The effect to uterus in vivo maintained longer. Total saponins of Yinfenglun could increase the weight of uterus and have an increased tendency on the content of estrogen, but not the level of progestogen.

CONCLUSIONThere are obvious effects on uterine of total saponins of Yinfenglun, which are related to its clinical use.

Animals ; Estradiol ; blood ; Female ; Inflammation ; pathology ; Lamiaceae ; chemistry ; Mice ; Organ Size ; drug effects ; Plants, Medicinal ; chemistry ; Progestins ; blood ; Rabbits ; Random Allocation ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar ; Saponins ; isolation & purification ; pharmacology ; Uterine Contraction ; drug effects ; Uterine Diseases ; pathology ; Uterus ; anatomy & histology

OBJECTIVETo research the hemostatic effect of total saponins of Yinfenglun.

METHODBleeding time and volume were deteminded in mice after tails being cut. Clotting times were researched on mice, rats and dogs. Hemostatic mechanism total saponins of Yinfenglun were studied on plasma recalcified time, PT, KPTT and ELT.

RESULTTSY at different doses could markedly shorten bleeding time, reduce bleeding volume in mice. TSY also could shorten clotting time of mouse, rat and dog. TSY could influence both intrinsic coagulatian system and extrinsic coagulatian system,and had no effect of antifibrinolysis.

CONCLUSIONThere were obvious hemostatic effect of total saponins of Yinfenglun.

Animals ; Bleeding Time ; Dogs ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; isolation & purification ; pharmacology ; Female ; Hemostatics ; pharmacology ; Lamiaceae ; chemistry ; Male ; Mice ; Partial Thromboplastin Time ; Plant Components, Aerial ; chemistry ; Plants, Medicinal ; chemistry ; Prothrombin Time ; Rabbits ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar ; Saponins ; isolation & purification ; pharmacology ; Whole Blood Coagulation Time

Objective To investigate the expressions of human telomerase reverse transcriptase(hTERT) mRNA and protein in pheochromocytoma and paraganglioma and their significance as diagnostic markers in predicting the biological behaviour of these tumours.Methods Expression of hTERT mRNA was determined by in situ hybridization in 45 pheochromocytomas/paragangliomas(31 benign,7 suspected malignant and 7 malignant) and 9 normal adrenal medulla samples,hTERT protein was determined by immunohistoebemistry.Results hTERT mRNA was expressed in 5/7 malignant turnouts and 5/7 suspected malignant tumours as compared with 3/31 benign tumours(P

OBJECTIVETo explore the treatment and prognosis on patients with tracheal invasion by papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC).

METHODSForty-five patients treated for PTC with tracheal invasion between 1980 and 1995 were retrospectively analyzed. The different kinds of surgical modalities were performed according to the extent and degree of tracheal invasion by PTC. Neck dissect was performed in 39 patients. External beam radiotherapy was used postoperatively in patients with gross residual tumor or microscopic residual tumor in pathologic margins after resection. Survival was evaluated using the Kaplan-Meier method.

RESULTS(1) Twenty-eight patients with limited tracheal invasion were treated with shave excision, the 5- and 10-year survival rates were 85.0% and 62.6%, respectively. After a shave excision, the differences of 5- and 10-year survival rates between irradiated and nonirradiated patients were not statistically significant (P > 0.05). (2) Ten patients were radical excision for intraluminal involvement extending through the tracheal cartilage, including circumferential sleeve resection (4 cases), tracheal window resection (5 cases) and total laryngectomy (1 case), the survival rate was 80.0% for five years and 58.3% for ten years. After a radical excision, the differences of 5- and 10-year survival rates between irradiated and nonirradiated patients were not statistically significant (P > 0.05). (3) For 7 patients performing the palliative operation, the 5-and 10-year survival rates were 42.9% and 28.6%, respectively. For 4 patients received postoperative radiotherapy, the 5-and 10-year survival rates were 50.0% and 50.0%, respectively. Three patients didn't received postoperative radiotherapy, the 5-year survival rate was 33.3%, no patient survived for ten years. In these patients of incomplete resection, the differences of 5-and 10-year survival rates between irradiated and nonirradiated patients were not statistically significant (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONSPTC with limited involvement of the trachea could be treated successfully by shaving tumor off the tracheal cartilage. Intraluminal involvement extending through the tracheal cartilage could be resected radically in patients with PTC. Postoperative radiotherapy could improve the survival of the patients with PTC with tracheal invasion who have been performed incomplete resection.

Adult ; Aged ; Carcinoma, Papillary ; diagnosis ; pathology ; therapy ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Invasiveness ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies ; Survival Rate ; Thyroid Neoplasms ; diagnosis ; pathology ; therapy ; Trachea ; pathology ; Tracheal Neoplasms ; diagnosis ; secondary ; therapy

Glutamine is an important conditionally necessary amino acid in human body. The effort is to establish a new and high efficient L-glutamine production system instead of traditional fermentaion. In this paper, high efficiency of L-glutamine production is obtained by coupling genetic engineered bacterial glutamine synthetase (GS) with yeast alcoholic fermentation system. Glutamine Synthetase gene (glnA) was amplified from Bacillus subtilis genomic DNA with primers designed according to sequences reported in EMBL data bank, then it was inserted into expression vector PET28b, the sequence of glnA was proved to be the same as that reported in the data bank by DNA sequencing. After transformation of this recombinant plasmid PET28b-glnA into BL-21 (DE3) strain, Lactose and IPTG were used to induce GS expression at 37 degrees C separately. Both of them can induce GS expression efficiently. The induced protein is proved to be soluble and occupies about 80% of the total proteins by SDS-PAGE analysis. The soluble GS was purified by Ni2+ chelating sepharose colum. After purification, the purified enzyme was proved active. Results reveal that the optmum temperature of this enzyme is 60 degrees C and optmum pH is 6.5 in biosynthetic reaction by using glutamate, ammonium choloride and ATP as substrates. After induction, the enzyme activity in crude extract of BL-21/PET28b-glnA is 83 times higher than that of original BL-21 extract. Mn2+ can obviously increase the activity and stability of this enzyme. Experiments show that the transformation efficiency of glutamate to glutamine is more than 95%. Because of the high cost from ATP, a system coupling GS with yeast for ATP regenaration was established. In this system, GS utilizes ATP released by yeast fermentation to synthesize L-glutamine. Yeast was treated by 2% toluence to increase its permeability and a yeast named YC001 with high yield of glutamine by coupling with recombinant GS was obtained. The good efficiency was achieved with the presence of 250 mmol/L glucose and 200 mmol/L phosphate, the transformation efficiency of glutamate to glutamine in this system is more than 80%, the average yield of glutamine is about 22g/L. This provides the basis for future large scale production of L-glutamine.
Bacillus subtilis ; genetics ; metabolism ; Escherichia coli ; genetics ; metabolism ; Fermentation ; Genetic Engineering ; methods ; Glutamate-Ammonia Ligase ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; Glutamic Acid ; metabolism ; Glutamine ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; Yeasts ; genetics ; metabolism

Objective To evaluate the effects of acupuncture combined with lifestyle modification for essential hypertension by Meta-analysis. Methods Clinical randomized controlled trial literature about acupuncture combined with lifestyle modification for essential hypertension in CNKI, WanFang Data, CBM, VIP, PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science since establishment to February 20, 2017 were retrieved. Data extraction and quality assessment of studies were conducted by two researchers independently, and the Meta-analysis was performed by the software of RevMan5.3. Results 5 articles involving 467 patients were included. The results of Meta-analysis showed that acupuncture combined with lifestyle modification had more significant effect than lifestyle modification alone in lowing SBP [SMD=-1.52(-2.40,-0.64)], in lowing DBP [SMD=-1.02(-2.01,-0.03)], total effective rates [RR=1.27(1.13, 1.43)]. Conclusion Compared with lifestyle modification alone, acupuncture combined with lifestyle modification have significant effects for patients with essential hypertension, but because of the fewer studies included, bigger heterogeneity between studies and the lower quality of included studies still exist, the results should be further verified, and clinical applications should be treated with caution.

Objective To make a parallel mining the data of expression differences of a crucial gene XPA involved in nucleotide excision repair pathway of human skin microarrays by bioinformatics from the system level.Methods Using the ScanGEO, the data of microarrays which included the significant differences expression level of XPA were screened and analyzed from 59 human skin samples in the GEO database. Results There were 7 samples with the down-regulated expression of XPA: cutaneous malignant melanoma, epidermal injury model, DNA damage and UV radiation, foreskin fibroblast response to Toxoplasma gondii RH type 1 (ROP5) mutant infection, interleukin-20 subfamily cytokines effect on epidermal keratinocytes, Egr-1 overexpression effect on skin fibroblasts in vitro: time course, in vitro model for inflammatory dendritic cells.Present expression down. Conclusion Based on the GEO database and ScanGEO, high-throughput shared data can be screened and analyzed efficiently.