Leydig cells, located in the loose interstitial tissue of seminiferous tubules, are the major site for androgen synthesis and secretion, and play an important role in the reproductively and fertility of males. The dysfunction of Leydig cells may lead to various male diseases, such as primary hypogonadism, cryptorchidism, and hypospadias. This review outlines the recent findings concerning the generation, development and regulation of Leydig cells.
Cell Differentiation ; Humans ; Leydig Cells ; cytology ; Male

Homocysteine has been confirmed as the independent factor for cardiovascular disease.Hyperhomocysteinemia remains the prominent manifestation in the cases of chronic kidney disease, atypical hemolytic anemia,methylmalonic aciduria combined with kidney injuries.As the recognition of the kidney injuries caused by homocysteine remains obscure, this review tries to show the synthesis, metabolism of homocysteine and the possible mechanism of homocysteine-induced heart and kidney injuries.Besides, summarize the current treatment of lowering-hyperhomocysteinemia in order to arouse the pediatricians' attention of homocysteine which has endothelial cell toxicity and causes the wide lesions in great, middle and small vessels, and thus improve the outcomes of the patients.

Objective: To investigate the changing trends in injury mortality among permanent residents in Jingzhou City, Hubei Province from 2017 to 2022, so as to provide the basis for formulating injury intervention measures. Methods: Injury death data of permanent residents in Jingzhou City from 2017 to 2022 were collected through the Population Death Information Registration and Management System of Chinese Disease Prevention and Control Information System. The crude mortality of injury was analyzed and the standardized mortality was calculated using the data from the Sixth National Population Census in 2010. The changing trend in injury mortality was analyzed using the annual percent change (APC). Results: There were 29 220 injury deaths among permanent residents in Jingzhou City from 2017 to 2022, with a crude mortality rate of 88.61/105. The crude mortality rate of injury was higher in males than in females (101.04/105 vs. 75.97/105, P<0.05). The crude mortality rates of injury in males, females and the whole population all showed upward trends (APC=6.572%, 9.232% and 7.731%, all P<0.05). Males, females and the whole population at the ages of 65 years and above appeared upward trends in crude mortality rates of injury (APC=4.603%, 5.064% and 4.851%, all P<0.05). No significant trends were observed in the crude mortality rate in the residents aged <15 years and 15 to <65 years (both P>0.05). The top five causes of injury death were suicide (25.81/105), falls (24.38/105), motor vehicle traffic accident (17.23/105), drowning (8.61/105), and other unintentional accidents and harmful effects (5.63/105). From 2021 to 2022, falls rose to the first cause of injury mortality. Conclusions The crude mortality of injury among permanent residents in Jingzhou City from 2017 to 2022 showed an upward trend. Males and residents aged 65 years and above should be prioritized for intervention measures. Notably, falls have become the top cause of injury from 2021 to 2022.

Congenital heart disease with left-to-right shunt easily lead to pulmonary hypertension.Currently agreed about its mechanism:shear stress induced by high pulmonary blood flow stimulus pulmonary endothelium,to start regulation of genetic transcription,to initiate a series of molecular biology and pathophysiology changes,and finally to lead to pulmonary vascular pathologic remolding.Nuclear factor(NF)-?B is a kind of nuclear factor with multiple biological effect and play an important role in pulmonary vascular remolding.NF-?B signal can be actiacted by high blood flow.Its target gene products,for example,vasoactive mediators,cytokines,make pulmonary vessels difficulty to maintain the normal structure and cause pulmonary vascular contraction and remolding,thus,pulmonary arterial pressure increases.

Objective To investigate the clinical and MR features of fungal encephalopyosis and fungal granuloma.Methods The clinical and MR data of 10 cases with fungal encephalopyosis and fungal granuloma confirmed by surgical pathology or clinical serum were analyzed retrospectively.Then we analyzed the clinical conditions,MR signals,lesion enhancement,DWI and MRS performance characteristics of the 10 cases.Results Six cases were fungal encephalopyosis,among which 2 cases occurred in the sella turcica after surgery which located in and above the sella turcica.2 cases occurred in the frontal lobe after frontal surgery and 1 case of them was multiple encephalopyosis.2 cases of encephalopyosis without operation history were located in the left frontal lobe and right cerebellum respectively.The abscess walls of these cases were thin and showed high tension.Furthermore,it had annular significant signal enhancement and high signal in DWI scan.One case of huge fungal granuloma located in the frontal lobe and into the sinuses which showed uneven signal enhancement. The Cho level was significantly increased.Three cases of cryptococcal granuloma showed multiple lesions located in the bilateral basal ganglia region and 2 out of them accompanied with cephalomeningitis.Conclusion The MR performance of fungal encephalopyosis was quite similar with bacterial brain abscesses,which makes the differential diagnosis difficult.The brain fungal granuloma MRS may display a significant increase of Cho level which might be related with gliosis.It shows certain characteristics of brain MR performance of cryptococcal granuloma which are multiple lesions,preferential distribution of basal ganglia region and accompanying cephalomeningitis.

Objective To explore the effect of early enriched environment intervention on expression of neurofilament protein (NFP) in brain and the neurobehavior of filial rats with brain injury.Methods The pregnant Wistar rats of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) group were consecutively injected intraperitoneally with LPS on the 17th and 18th day of gestation while the control group only received an injection of same dose of 9 g/L saline.All premature rats,whose gestational age was less than 22 days,were removed from both groups;While the full-term newborn rats were chosen.After delivering,the uterus and placenta were taken out immediately to examine the infection situation by HE staining.Twenty-four hours after born,the brains of the newborn rats were taken out to observed the white matter damage by HE staining.LPS group was randomly divided into 2 groups:intervention group and non-intervention group.The intervention group was treated with neonatal handling and enriched environment from postnatal 8 days,while no management was performed in control group and non-intervention group.Ethological examination was tested with hanging test,and immunohistochemical technique was used to detect the expression of NFP,when the neonatal rats were 21 days old.Results There were a large amount of neutrophilic granulocyte in the uterus and placenta in LPS-treated group; In the 1-day-old rats in LPS group,brain tissue pathology test showed diffuse white matter lucencies.The scores of hanging test in control group was the highest,the ones in non-intervention group was the lowest among the 3 groups,and there was significant difference between them (Pa

Objective To find out and clarify the causes and the pathogens of vulvovagmitis in childhood girls, to determine the clinical treatment. Methods There were 345 cases of childhood girls .ranged from 18 days to 12 years, with symptoms of vulvovagini tis, and their vaginal secretions were examined by routine smear for cleaning degree, trichomonas , Candida and clue cells, gram-stain for neisseria gonorrhoeae, culture for bacteria, mycoplasma urealytium, mycoplasma hominis and chlamydia trachomatis. Results One hundred and nine pathogens were detected(31.6% of the whole cases ), including specific pathogen 70 cases(20. 3% )and non-specif ic pathogen 32 cases(9.3%). Gardnerella was detected most frequently in specific pathogen while enteric bacilli was detected most frequently in non-specific pathogen. Conclusions Non-specific vulvovaginitis is the most frequent cause in childhood vulvovagimtis, and bacterial vaginosis is the mast frequent in specific infection. Symptomatic treatment is effective, but antibiotic treatment should be based on pathogenic findings of vaginal secretions.

BACKGROUND: As a minimally invasive technology, percutaneous vertebroplasty is a safe and effective treatment for osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures.OBJECTIVE: To overview the research progress concerning the biomechanical properties, bone strength maintenance, bone absorption and degradation of bone filling materials used in percutaneous vertebroplasty.METHODS: The first author conducted a computer-based retrieval of CNKI, PubMed and Medline databases for relevant articles published from January 2005 to May 2016. The keywords were bone cement, bone filling materials, percutaneous vertebroplasty in English and Chinese, respectively.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Polymethyl methacrylate is not an ideal material for osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures. Calcium phosphate cement and calcium sulfate cement can replace the traditional polymethyl methacrylate; however, some problems still exist, such as poor effect of venography, incontrollable biological degradation rate, and lack of the evidence-based medicine about its long-term effect. Composite bone cement, as a good bone repair material, holds the advantages of various bone cements. As the composite bone cement has just been introduced in clinical practice, its long-term curative efficacy needs to be further studied.

Objective To investigate the detection rate and possible factors of hyperhomocysteinemia(HHcy) in children with chronic kidney disease(CKD).Methods The clinical data of children with CKD between July 2012 and September 2016 in the Department of Pediatrics,Peking University First Hospital were retrospectively collected.The homocysteine(Hcy) level of patients were measured.The other data included the general information,diagnosis and laboratory test results.Results Seventy-six pediatric patients with CKD were enrolled including 49 boys and 27 girls.The average age of the patients was (9.9±3.4) years old.The main cause of the patients in the study was primary glomerulopathy(48.7%,37/76 cases),and the rest were congenital and inherited glomerular diseases(36.8%,28/76 cases),secondary glomerular diseases(9.2%,7/76 cases)and renal tubular diseases(5.3%,4/76 cases).Fifty patients (65.8%,50/76 cases) had normal level of Hcy which was 10.40(7.30,11.62) μmol/L.Twenty-six patients(34.2%,26/76) were detected with HHcy whose Hcy level was 17.93(16.76,24.11) μmol/L.The detection rate of HHcy in CKD stage 1,stage 2,stage 3,stage 4 and stage 5 was 13.9%(5/36 cases),22.2%(2/9 cases),50.0%(4/8 cases),57.1%(4/7 cases) and 68.8%(11/16 cases) respectively,and the detection rate increased with CKD stages and the difference was statistically significant (χ2=17.574,P<0.001).The level of Hcy was 10.05(7.04,12.47) μmol/L,11.75(10.78,16.44) μmol/L,13.73(10.09,18.23) μmol/L,15.81(11.12,20.71) μmol/L and 17.39(11.86,24.76) μmol/L in CKD stage 1,stage 2,stage 3,stage 4 and stage 5,respectively.The Kruskal-Wallis test revealed that the distribution of homocysteine in CKD stages had statistically significant difference(P=0.001).Multiple linear regression model showed that creatinine clearance was an independent predicator of HHcy.Conclusions In this study of the CKD patients,the detection rate of HHcy was high and increased with the progression of CKD.HHcy is mainly influenced by creatinine clearance in CKD.The level of Hcy should be monitored regularly in children with CKD and HHcy should be treated with proper measures.

Vibrio parahaemolyticus has been considered as one of the most important foodborne bacterial pathogens.The loop-mediated isothermal amplification(LAMP) that amplifies DNA with high specificity and rapidity under an isothermal condition was applied for rapid detection of this pathogen for the first time.A set of four primers,two outer and two inner primers,was designed specifically to recognize the thermolabile hemolysin gene(tlh) of V.parahaemolyticus.The LAMP reaction mix was optimized.The most optimal reaction temperature and time of the LAMP assay for the tlh gene were 60℃ and 60min,respectively.Genomic DNAs from 28 bacterial strains including 14 V.parahaemolyticus strains were amplified using LAMP,and no amplicon was observed in other bacterial strains.The detection limit of this LAMP assay was around 90 fg of V.parahaemolyticus genomic DNA and 24 colonies forming units for pure cultures.In addition,this method was applied to detect artificially contaminated food samples,and the detection limit was 89 cfu/g for non-cultured artificially contaminated food samples.These results suggested that detection of V.parahaemolyticus by LAMP is an effective and low-cost procedure with high specificity and sensitivity that requires no specialized equipment.This assay is expected to become a valuable tool for rapid detection and identification of V.parahaemolyticus.