Objective To explore the effectiveness of using middle-latency somatosensory evoked potentials (MLSEP) to predict the prognosis in patients with acute severe stroke. Methods MLSEP, shortlatency somatosensory evoked potentials (SLSEP), and Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) were recorded in 70 acute severe supratentorial stroke patients within 1 week after onset. All patients were evaluated with modified Rankin Scale (mRS) and follow-up in 6 months after onset. SLSEP and MLSEP were recorded in 20 normal controls. The consistency between MLSEP, SLSEP, GCS and prognosis, as well as the prognostic authenticity of MLSEP, SLSEP, and GCS were analyzed. Results Bilateral N20, N35, and N60 exited in all normal controls. Some waves of MLSEP were absent in stroke patients, and the proportion of absent waves in ipsilateral MLSEP was higher than in contralateral MLSEP. The consistency between bilateral absence of N60 and unfavorable outcome ( Kappa = 0.828, P ＜ 0.01 ), and between bilateral absence of N60 and death ( Kappa = 0.686, P ＜ 0.01 ) was satisfactory. By using the prognostic authenticity analysis of predictors, the ipsilateral absence of N60 showed the highest sensitivity ( 100% ) for unfavorable outcome and death, which added 14.3% compared with the sensitivity of ipsilateral absence of N20 ( 85.7% ). Bilateral absence of N60 showed a high specificity of 100% for unfavorable outcome, which equaled bilateral absence of N20.However, it showed a lower specificity ( 82.9% ) for death, than bilateral absence of N20 (97.1% ).Conclusions MLSEP was able to reflect the degree of brain injury and showed higher sensitivity than SLSEP for predicting unfavorable outcomes. Therefore combined use of MLSEP and SLSEP in evaluating and predicting the outcomes in brain injuries is suggested.

BACKGROUND: Gene therapy is a popular topic in domestic and overseas studies on biological therapy for brain tumor.OBJECTIVE: By using a newly constructed eukaryotic expression vector of pCR3-TK, the effect of the HSV-TK/ACV system on the proliferative activity of human glioma cells was investigated.DESIGN: Experimental study based on cells.SETTING: Department of neurosurgery and department of oncology in a university hospital.MATERIALS: The study was conducted at the National Key Laboratory of Veterinary Biotechnology of Harbin Veterinary Research Institute from January to April in 2004. The eukaryotic expression vector of pCR3-TK was constructed by the author. The TJ905 strain was a gift from professor Pu Pei-yu, who worked in the Neurology Institute of Tianjin city. The nontransfected cells and the cells transfected with pCR3-Uni vector were set as controls.METHODS: By using Lipofectamine(a cationic liposome), the pCR3-Uni vector and the recombinant pCR3-TK plasmid(inserted with HSV-TK gene)were transfected into the human glioma cell strain-TJ905. Then the positive clones were picked out and were given ACV(50 mg/L) . Totally 72 hours later, the cover slips were collected and silver staining for nucleolus organizer regions(AgNORs) was performed.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: After the ACV treatment and AgNORs staining, the numbers of silver-stained granules in TJ905 cells with or without transfections were counted respectively.RESULTS: In those cells transfected with HSV-TK gene, after ACV treatment, a significant decreasing in proliferative activity could be observed, and the average numbers of the silver-stained granules in cells transfected with pCR3-Uni or pCR3-TK were 14.33 and 6.67 respectively( P ＜ 0.01).CONCLUSION: As an easy-to-operate method, AgNOR counting is helpful for the studies on the proliferative activity of cells and the investigations into the potential anti-tumor mechanism of the HSV-TK/ACV system.

Animals ; Anti-HIV Agents ; pharmacology ; HIV ; drug effects ; genetics ; physiology ; HIV Infections ; drug therapy ; immunology ; virology ; Humans ; Mucous Membrane ; immunology ; virology ; Virus Replication ; drug effects

Arrhythmias, Cardiac ; etiology ; therapy ; Gap Junctions ; Stem Cell Transplantation ; adverse effects

Objective To evaluate the efficacy and safety of pramipexole in treating restless legs syndrome (RLS).Methods A search for randomized,double-blind,and placebo-controlled clinical trials of pramipexole in treating moderate to severe RLS using CNKI,PubMed,Embase and Cochrane Library database was carried out. A meta-analysis of included clinical trials was performed with RevMan 5.0 software.The 2 outcomes that the weighted mean difference(WMD) of change from baseline in International RLS Study Group rating scale(IRLS) score and the relative risk (RR) of response based on the Clinical Global Impression-Improvement (CGI-I) scale score were calculated for efficacy.Safety was assessed with RR of the adverse event (AE).Results A total of 5 clinical trials were included in this meta-analysis,of which 1776 patients were randomly assigned (945 on pramipexole,831 on placebo).The records of patients were pooled.Overall WMD were - 6.34 ( Z =12.76,P ＜ 0.01 ) for the change from baseline in IRLS score,and RR of response based on CGI-I were 1.65 (Z =10.39,P ＜0.01).The overall RR of pramipexole versus placebo were 1.14 ( Z =1.87,P =0.06 ) for AE.Conclusion To treat RLS,pramipexole is an effective and safe drug.

Adult ; Brucellosis ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Occupational Diseases

Objective To explore the effect of chitosan on vascular smooth muscle cells inhibited proliferation from rabbit arteriovenous fistula and its mechanisms.Methods Established rabbit fistula model on carotid arteryinternal jugular vein.After 1 month cultured VSMCs with primary culture by tissue-pieces inoculation.Cultured VSMCs were divided into three groups:①normal control group.②FBS-treated group:cell were treated with 5％,10％,20％ for 48 h,respectively; established the model of rabbit VSMCs proliferation.③chitosan-treated group:VSMCs cultured with 20％ FBS were exposed to different doses of chitosan(10,100,500,1000,2000μg/ml) for 48 h.And VSMCs were treated for different time (0,12,24,48 h) with Chitosan 1000 μg/ml.Expression levels of PCNA and TLR4/ NF-κB were detected by Western blotting.RT-PCR were applied to measure the mRNA expression of PCNA and TLR4.The protein levels of TLR4 and NF-κB were detected by immunofluorescence.Results Compared with low concentration serum group,FBS-treated VSMCs exhibited a increase in mRNA and protein expression of PCNA and TLR4.FBS-induced protein expression of PCNA and TLR4/NF-κB were reduced by chitosan.Also mRNA expression of PCNA and TLR4 were reduced.They were dependent on concentration and time.In rabbit VSMCs TLR4 was mainly expressed in the cytoplasm and NF-κB expressed mainly in the nucleus.Compared with normal control group,TLR4 and NF-κB protein expression were significantly decreased by chitosan.Conclusion High concentration serum induced VSMCs proliferation.Chitosan can inhibit the proliferation of rabbit VSMCs.It is speculated that the mechanism may be related to the expression of TLR4 receptor activation,reducing expression of downstream factor MyD88 and NF-κB.It is suggest that chitosan can become potential new drugs of arteriovenous fistula prevention of intimal hyperplasia.

To propose a formula method of medicated diet based on medicinal property combination patterns in this paper under the context of lack of innovation in medicated diets. By analyzing the property combination patterns of traditional Chinese medicine and commonly used foods recorded in the pharmacopoeia, medicated diet formulae were optimized by using the greedy algorithm, with the property combination patterns of classical formulae based on the syndrome differentiation and treatment. In this paper, the Baihu Rensheng decoction, which is a classical formula for treating lung and stomach heat-derived diabetes, was taken for example in the formula design. As a result, totally 18 medicated diet formulae were developed and proved to be rational in the analysis on traditional Chinese medicines and nutriology. This method expands the way of thinking for personalized diet therapies and provides theoretical basis the industrial development and clinical application of medicated diets.
Animals ; Diabetes Mellitus ; diet therapy ; drug therapy ; metabolism ; Diet ; Diet Therapy ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Phytotherapy

Objective To detect the expressions of CD70 mRNA and protein and to determine the methylation status of CD70 gene promoter in T cells from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).Methods Peripheral blood CD4+ and CD8+ T cells were isolated from 15 patients with active SLE,15 patients with inactive SLE and 15 healthy control subjects.Real-time quantitative reverse transcription-PCR was carried out to quantify the mRNA expression of CD70,flow cytometry to determine the frequency of CD4+CD70+ and CD8+ CD70+ T cells,and bisulfite sequencing to evaluate the methylation status of CD70 gene promoter in CD4+ and CD8+ T cells.Differences in these parameters among these groups were analyzed by one-factor analysis of variance and SNK-q test.Results Compared with the healthy controls,the patients with active SLE and inactive SLE showed a significant increase in CD70 mRNA expression in CD4+ T cells (0.82 ± 0.12 and 0.73 ± 0.11 vs.0.45 ±0.09,F =53.017,P ＜ 0.01) and in the frequency of CD70+CD4+ T cells (80.30％ ± 11.04％ and 66.80％ ± 3.98％ vs.12.48％ ± 3.45％,F =311.517,P ＜ 0.01).Also,the expression of CD70 mRNA in CD4+ T cells and the frequency of CD70+CD4+ T cells were significantly higher in patients with active SLE than in patients with inactive SLE (both P ＜ 0.05).There was a positive correlation between the frequency of peripheral CD70+CD4+ T cells and disease activity in SLE in these patients (r =0.792,P ＜ 0.01).The average methylation index of the region between-600 bp and-300 bp of CD70 gene promoter in CD4+ T cells was 0.32 ± 0.05 and 0.36 ± 0.05 respectively in the patients with active and inactive SLE,significantly lower than that in the healthy controls (0.62 ± 0.05,F =152.64,P ＜ 0.01),and the patients with active SLE showed a significantly lower methylation index than those with inactive SLE (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions The CD70 gene promoter in CD4+ T cells is significantly hypomethylated in patients with SLE,which may directly lead to the overexpression of CD70.

OBJECTIVEIn our study, the function of the third-order branches of the mesentenc artery was measured by microvascular ring technique, which can be used to detect microvascular function in some disease related to microvascular dysfunction.

METHODSIsolated, fixed, standardized and then activated the third-order branches of rat mesenteric artery. Microvascular tone was measured by systolic and diastolic drags respectively, with the help of DMT tension apparatus and PowerLab data acquisition system.

RESULTSThe third-order branches of rat mesenteric artery showed excellent response to vasoactive drugs. The contraction effect of norepinephrine (NE) reached 19 in mN. When acetylcholine (Ach) or sodium nitroprusside (SNP) of 10(9)-10(5)mol/L was added, vascular tones showed gradient drop: 80% of maximal relaxation when adding ACh, while 95% of maximal relaxation when adding SNP.

CONCLUSIONThe third-order branches of the mesenteric artery function was successfully detected by using microvascular ring technique.

Acetylcholine ; pharmacology ; Animals ; In Vitro Techniques ; Male ; Mesenteric Arteries ; drug effects ; physiology ; Nitroprusside ; pharmacology ; Norepinephrine ; pharmacology ; Rats ; Vasoconstrictor Agents ; pharmacology ; Vasodilation ; physiology ; Vasodilator Agents ; pharmacology