Objective To investigate the effects of different doses of pituitary adenylate cyclase- activating polypeptide(PACAP)on the functional and morphological outcome in a mice model of Parkinson' s disease(PD)rendered by 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine(MPTP).Methods Male mice were treated with PACAP 0.02, 0.20 or 2.00 ?g by iv bolus for 7 days after MPTP was administered, and were compared with the saline-treated mice.The immunohistochemistry and Western blot were used to detect the alterations of PD biomarker including tyrosine hydroxylase(TH), dopamine transporter(DAT)and vesicular monoamine transporter2(VAMT2).In addition, monoamine neurotransmitters in the striatum of mice were measured by the high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).Results TH immunohistochemistry indicated that the number of TH-positive neurons in the substantia nigra was increased in all PACAP-treated mice(PACAP(0.02 ?g/d)group was 93.33?4.87, F=85.85,P

OBJECTIVETo study the genetic association of apolipoprotein (apo) E and apoCI gene polymorphisms with coronary heart disease (CHD) in China.

METHODSapoE genotypes were identified by multiplex amplification refractory mutation system (multi-ARMS) and the apoCI promoter polymorphisms were detected by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) in 186 cases with CHD (age: 65.0 +/- 10.5 years) and 350 controls (age: 63.6 +/- 8.3 years). The haplotype frequencies were estimated.

RESULTSThe frequencies of apoE E4/3 genotype (26.9%) and epsilon4 (14.5%) in CHD group were significantly higher than that in the control group (12.6%, 7.0%), P <0.05. The significant difference was also found for the apoCI locus and the CHD group showed higher rate of both for the H2 allele and genotypes, carrying this allele. Estimation of the haplotype frequencies indicated that the association between the apoE-CI haplotype and CHD was significantly strong. The apoE-epsilon4/apoCI-H2 was estimated to be responsible for 9.86% of CHD.

CONCLUSIONWhen the subjects carrying both epsilon4 and H2 alleles, they would have higher risk of suffering from CHD than controls.

Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Alleles ; Apolipoproteins C ; genetics ; Apolipoproteins E ; genetics ; China ; epidemiology ; Coronary Disease ; blood ; epidemiology ; genetics ; Female ; Genotype ; Haplotypes ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length ; Risk Factors

OBJECTIVEIn contrast to CD(4)(+) helper T-lymphocytes (T(H)), little is known about the transcriptional regulation of CD(8)(+) cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (Tc) and its role in the pathogenesis of asthma is unclear. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of T-bet and GATA-3 mRNA expression on profiles of type 1 and type 2 cytotoxic T lymphocytes in asthmatic children.

METHODTotally 38 asthmatic children, including acute attack group composed of 20 cases (age 3 - 13 years, mean 6.2 +/- 2.9), remission group with 18 cases (age 3 - 12 years, mean 6.1 +/- 2.5) and 20 healthy control children (age 3 - 12, 6.9 +/- 2.7) were recruited in this study from Sep. 2005 to Mar. 2006. The mRNA expression of T-bet and GATA-3 in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells were detected by using semi-quantitative PCR and Tc1, Tc2 cell numbers by flow cytometry analysis system.

RESULTT-bet mRNA in asthmatic children was lower than that in control group and lower in attack stage than in remission stage (0.14 +/- 0.04, 0.21 +/- 0.03, 0.28 +/- 0.03, P < 0.05). In contrast, GATA-3 mRNA was higher in asthmatic children than in control group and higher in attack stage than in remission stage (0.49 +/- 0.09, 0.44 +/- 0.08, 0.37 +/- 0.04, P < 0.05). It was shown that Tc1 percentage was lower in asthmatic children than those of control group and lower in attack stage than those of remission stage (6.6 +/- 2.4, 14.2 +/- 4.3, 31.2 +/- 3.8, P < 0.05). Tc2 percentage in asthmatic children was higher than that of control group and higher in attack stage than that of remission stage (10.0 +/- 4.2, 5.4 +/- 2.2, 3.5 +/- 1.1, P < 0.05). Spearman correlation analysis revealed that T-bet mRNA was positively correlated with Tc1 percentage (r = 0.704) and negatively correlated with Tc2 percentage (r = -0.629). GATA3 mRNA was negatively correlated with Tc1 percentage (r = -0.612) and positively correlated with Tc2 percentage (r = 0.673). The T-bet/GATA-3 mRNA ratio was positively correlated with Tc1 percentage (r = 0.731) and Tc1/Tc2 (r = 0.773), while negatively correlated with Tc2 percentage (r = -0.642).

CONCLUSIONThe imbalance of T-bet/GATA-3 mRNA expression is closely correlated with skewed Tc2 dominance in asthmatic children.

Adolescent ; Asthma ; genetics ; immunology ; metabolism ; Case-Control Studies ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Female ; GATA3 Transcription Factor ; genetics ; metabolism ; Humans ; Male ; RNA, Messenger ; genetics ; metabolism ; T-Box Domain Proteins ; genetics ; metabolism ; T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic ; immunology

The aim of the present study is to investigate the expression of a novel estrogen receptor, G protein-coupled receptor 30 (GPR30) and its correlation with matrix metalloproteinases-9 (MMP-9) in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). Ovary tissues were obtained from 39 female patients, including 30 cases of EOC and 9 cases of benign ovarian tumor. Four normal ovary tissues were used as control. Immunohistochemical staining was used to detect the expressions of GPR30 and MMP-9. Chi square test, Fisher's exact test and Spearman's rank correlation analysis were used for statistical analysis. The results showed that GPR30 overexpression rate in EOC cases was significantly higher than those in benign ovarian tumor and normal ovary cases. Whereas MMP-9 overexpression rate in EOC cases was significantly higher than that in normal ovary cases, without any difference to that in benign ovarian tumor cases. To demonstrate the relationship between GPR30 and clinicopathological variables of EOC, we further analyzed the pathology type, FIGO stage and age of patients sampled in our study. The analysis showed there were significant differences of GPR30 overexpression rate among various pathology types and different FIGO stages (P<0.05), and no significant difference of both GPR30 and MMP-9 among three age groups (P>0.05). Moreover, GPR30 expression was positively correlated with MMP-9 (r(s)=1.000, P=0.002). These results suggest that GPR30 may be involved in the invasion and metastasis of EOC, being a potential index of EOC early diagnosis and malignancy grade prediction.
Adult ; Aged ; Biomarkers ; metabolism ; Cystadenocarcinoma, Serous ; metabolism ; Female ; Humans ; Matrix Metalloproteinase 9 ; metabolism ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasms, Glandular and Epithelial ; metabolism ; Ovarian Neoplasms ; metabolism ; Receptors, Estrogen ; metabolism ; Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled ; metabolism ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo acquire sufficient PDGF-BB protein and provide the basis for the further studies of its role on the fracture healing and trauma reconstruction and its clinical applications.

METHODSConstructed the prokaryotic expression vector pQE-PDGF-B with the gene rearrangement technique, and the monomeric form of recombinant PDGF-B expressed in E. coli M15.

RESULTSPDGF-B mature peptide gene was inserted into prokaryotic expression vector pQE30, which was confirmed by PCR, enzyme digestion and sequencing identification; the expressed products of pQE-PDGF-B in E. coli showed a single protein on SDS-PAGE, and their expression level was about 15% of the total bacterial protein. The molecular weight of the purified PDGF-B protein was about 15 KDs on SDS-PAGE.

CONCLUSIONSThe construction of recombinant plasmid and preparation of the monomeric protein of PDGF-B provides a solid foundation for further studying the function of PDGF-BB and producing biologically PDGF-BB protein.

Cloning, Molecular ; Escherichia coli ; genetics ; metabolism ; Genetic Vectors ; Humans ; In Vitro Techniques ; Platelet-Derived Growth Factor ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-sis ; genetics ; Recombinant Proteins ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; Transfection

Gut injury continues to be the devastating and unpredictable critical illness associated with increased cell death of intestinal epithelial cells (IECs). The IECs, immune system and microbiome are the interrelated entities to maintain normal intestinal homeostasis and barrier integrity. In response to microbial invasion, IEC cell death occurs to maintain intestinal epithelium function and retain the continuous renewal and tissue homeostasis. But the imbalance of IEC cell death results in increased intestinal permeability and barrier dysfunction that leads to several acute and chronic intestinal diseases, such as intestinal ischemia/reperfusion (I/R), sepsis, inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), etc. During the pathophysiological state, the excessive IEC apoptotic cell death leads to a chronic inflammatory condition, later switches to necroptotic cell death mechanism that induces more pathological features than apoptosis and may also induce other lytic cell death mechanisms like pyroptosis and ferroptosis to increase the pathogenesis of the intestinal diseases. But still, there remains gaps in the fundamental knowledge about the IEC cell death mechanisms in chronic intestinal diseases. Together, a deep understanding of the specific cell death mechanisms underlying chronic intestinal diseases, including sepsis, IBD, NEC, and intestinal I/R, is desperately needed to develop emerging novel promising therapeutic strategies. This review aims to show how the acute and critical illness in the gut are driven by IEC cell death mechanism, such as apoptosis, necrosis, necroptosis, pyroptosis, and ferroptosis.
Apoptosis ; Cell Death ; Epithelial Cells ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Intestinal Mucosa ; Necrosis

In this study, the fatty acid desaturase gene FAD2 was cloned from Coix lacryma-jobi L. and its molecular structure and function were studied. The results showed that the full-length cDNA sequence of FAD2 gene was 936 bp encoding 311 amino acid residues. Bioinformatics prediction results showed that the protein encoded by the FAD2 gene was an alkaline hydrophilic unstable protein with a molecular weight of 34.87 kDa. It contained three transmembrane helix domain, and did not contain the signal peptide splicing site, and was most likely to be located in plasmid membrane. Compared with other similar genes in plants, it has only a histidine conserved site, His Box Ⅲ histidine site (HXXHH), suggesting its activity may be reduced. Phylogenetic tree analysis showed that FAD2 was closely related to monocotyledonous plants, especially Maize and Oryza sativa japonica Group, but farther from dicotyledonous plants. Therefore, it was inferred that FAD2 might have similar functions with similar genes in Maize and Oryza sativa japonica Group. In addition, the expression of FAD2 gene could be detected in Coix lacryma-jobi L. with high oil content, but not in low oil content of Coix lacryma-jobi L. In order to clarify the function of FAD2, the gene was heterologously expressed in sporomyces cerevisiae. The results showed that the protein encoded by FAD2 gene did not catalyze the formation of C18∶1 unsaturated fatty acid into C18∶2 unsaturated fatty acid. Therefore, it was speculated that the deletion of histidinine conserved site of FAD2 gene might lead to the decrease of protein activity or even inactivation. This study provides reference value for further understanding the molecular structure characteristics of fatty acid desaturase. At the same time, it laid a foundation for elucidating the biosynthetic pathway of Coix lacryma-jobi L.

OBJECTIVETo systematically evaluate the effectiveness and safety of Sodium Tanshinone II A Sulfonate Injection (STS) as one adjuvant therapy for treating unstable angina pectoris (UAP).

METHODSRandomized controlled trials (RCTs) of UAP treated by STS were searched in the China National Knowledge Infrastructure Database (CNKI), VIP Database for Chinese Technical Periodicals (VIP), Wanfang Database, the Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, Embase, and PubMed, which from inception to January, 2016. The Cochrane Risk Assessment Tool was used to evaluate the methodological quality of the RCTs. The Review Manager 5.3 software was used to conduct the metaanalysis.

RESULTSThe results showed that 17 RCTs involving 1,372 patients were included. The meta-analysis indicated that the combined use of STS and Western medicine (WM) in the treatment of UAP can obviously improve the total effective rate [risk ratio (RR)=1.31, 95% confidence interval (CI) (1.24,1.39), P<0.0001], and the total effective rate of electrocardiogram [RR=1.43, 95% CI (1.30,1.56), P<0.0001], decrease the level of CRP [mean difference (MD)=-3.06, 95%CI (-3.85,-2.27), P<0.00001], fibrinogen [MD=-1.03, 95% CI (-1.16,-0.89), P<0.00001], and whole blood high shear viscosity [MD=-0.70, 95% CI (-0.92,-0.49), P<0.00001]. Additionally, the occurrence of adverse drug reaction of the experimental group was significantly higher than that of the control group [RR=3.57, 95% CI (1.28, 9.94), P<0.05].

CONCLUSIONSCompared with WM, the combined use of STS was more effective.

Child ; Humans ; Lead ; Urban Population ; Nutritional Status ; Health Surveys ; China/epidemiology* ; Rural Population

To introduce the application status of network Meta-analysis( NMA) in the field of traditional Chinese medicine,and to discuss the application value of NMA in the field of traditional Chinese medicine,this study comprehensively reviewed the systematic reviews with application of NMA in the field of traditional Chinese medicine. CNKI,Wan Fang,Sino Med,VIP,Embase,PubMed and Cochrane Library and the reference list of previous studies were searched. The AMSTAR scale was used to evaluate the quality of literature methodology,and PRISMA-NMA checklist was used to measure the degree of report specification. Overall,122 articles were included,including 80 in Chinese and 42 in English. The included studies centered on cancer,bone and joint disease,cardiovascular disease,respiratory disease,mental disease and digestive disease. Additionally,the intervention can be categorized into three groups,traditional Chinese medicine injection,oral Chinese medicine or prescription,and traditional physical therapy including acupuncture.Nearly one-third of the researches' intervention program is aimed at comparing the effect of Chinese and Western combined therapy and monotherapy. The overall methodology quality grade is medium and the report quality is average,with methodology reporting and result reporting especially need to be improved. The subgroup analysis shows that the methodology quality of the English literatures is evidently higher than Chinese literatures,and the quality of the literatures published after 2015 is higher than those published in or before 2015.This study indicates that the NMA can compare multiple treatments simultaneously,which accords with characteristics of the clinical practice in traditional Chinese medicine that is complex and individual. NMA in the field of traditional Chinese medicine is still in the process of development. With higher level of quality control and reporting as well as the improvement of the statistical methodology and the accumulation of original researches,NMA application in the field of traditional Chinese medicine will be promising.
Administration, Oral ; Humans ; Injections ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Network Meta-Analysis ; Physical Therapy Modalities ; Quality Control ; Research Design/standards* ; Systematic Reviews as Topic