ATP-binding cassette transporter Al (ABCAl) is a kind of membrane intergrate protein and may have multiple and diverse functions. It mediates the cellular efflux of phospholipids and cholesterol to lipid-poor apolipoproteinA- Ⅰ (apoA- Ⅰ ) and plays a significant role in high density lipoprotein (HDL) metabolism. Mutations in human ABCAl cause severe HDL deficiencies characterized by the virtual absence of apoA- Ⅰ and HDL and prevalent atherosclerosis. ABCAl expression is highly regulated and implies a variety of molecular actors. All of the nuclear receptors which involve in regulation of ABCAl expression act via the DR4 element in the ABCAl promoter. cAMP up-regulates ABCAl expression by acting both at the transcriptional and translational level. Cytokines have been shown to exert pleiotropic and antinomic effects on ABCAl transcription, In addition to these, some of enzymes and proteins such as protein kinase A, protein kinase CK2, cathepsin D are involved in the regulation of ABCAl expression. The recent progress in the structure, function and regulation of ABCAl transporter is reviewed.

Polycystic ovary syndrome is a common endocrine disorder characterized by hyperandrogenemia and menstrual disorders. Patients not only have a high incidence of insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome, but also a high incidence of sleep disorders, especially obstructive sleep apnea. Obesity, hyperandrogenemia, insulin resistance,and other factors are responsible for the high prevalence of sleep apnea in women with polycystic ovary syndrome.

Diabetic macular edema(DME)and age-related macular degeneration(ARMD)are the leading causes of visual impairment and blindness worldwide, and their common pathological features are increased vascular permeability and abnormal neovascularization, in which cytokines such as vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF)and angiopoietin-2(Ang-2)play an important role. Intravitreal injection of anti-VEGF agents significantly changed the clinical management of DME and ARMD, but limitations such as the non-responsive cases, the treatment burden and risks caused by frequent injections need to be overcome. Faricimab, a novel bispecific monoclonal antibody that simultaneously targets VEGF-A and Ang-2, can effectively reduce vascular permeability, decrease the number of neovascularization and alleviate retinal edema. Registered clinical studies have shown that Faricimab is effective in improving vision and reducing retinal edema, which is non-inferior to Aflibercept and Ranibizumab, maintains a long dosing interval, and has a high safety profile. This article reviews the latest advances in the treatment of DME and ARMD with Faricimab.

Objective To investigate the effects of high temperature preconditioning on hydrogen peroxide (H2 O2)-induced expression of mitochondrial metallothionein (MT) in rat cardiomyocytes.Methods The rat cardiomyocytes H9C2 cultured in vitro were randomly divided into 3 groups (n =6 each):control group (group C) ;H2O2 group (group H2O2); high temperature preconditioning group (group HTP).The cells were continuously cultured for 3 h in group C.The cells were cultured for 3 h in serum-free DMEM liquid culture medium containing H2O2 0.5 mmol/L in an incubator filled with 5％ CO2 at 37 ℃ in group H2O2.In group HTP,the cells were cultured in serum-containing DMEM liquid culture medium,then placed in a warm bath of 42 ℃ for 1 h,cultured for 12 h in an incubator filled with 5％ CO2 at 37 ℃,DMEM liquid culture medium was then removed,and the other procedures were similar to those previously described in group H2 O2.Myocardial cell apoptosis was observed by flow cytometry.The apoptotic rate was calculated.The ultrastructure of myocardial mitochondria was examined with electron microscope.The expression of mitochondrial MT in cardiomyocytes was determined using Western blot.Results Compared with group C,the apoptotic rate was significantly increased,and the expression of mitochondrial MT was up-regulated in groups H2O2 and HTP (P ＜ 0.01).The apoptotic rate was significantly lower,and the expression of mitochondrial MT was higher in group HTP than in group H2O2 (P ＜ 0.01).The mitochondrial injury was attenuated in group HTP as compared with group H2 O2.Conclusion The mechanism by which high temperature preconditioning reduces H2 O2-induced myocardial damage may be related to up-regulation of expression of mitochondrial MT in cardiomyocytes and endogenous myocardium-protective mechanism in rats.

Objective To investigate the changes and significance of serum inflammatory factors in coronary heart disease (CHD) patients with obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) ,and the treatment effects of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP).Methods A total of 76 CHD patients in Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University from October 2007 to October 2008 were enrolled.Polysomnography (PSG) was performed in these CHD patients to identify if they were complicated by OSAHS.The levels of inflammatory factors including TNF-α, IL-6, high sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) in serum were determined in the CHD patients and 23 normal subjects.The CHD patients with mederate-severe OSAHS (AHI≥ 15 episodes/hour) were treated by Auto-CPAP for 3 months and all parameters above were measured again.Results There were 41/76 (53.9%) of CHD patients had mederate-severe OSAHS and were treated with CPAP.The levels of TNF-ct,IL-6 and hs-CRP were significantly higher in the CHD patients than those in the normal controls (all P <0.01) ,and were significantly higher in moderate-severe OSAHS patients than those in the non-OSAHS CHD patients.Auto-CPAP ventilation significantly decreased the levels of inflammatory factors in the CHD patients with moderate-severe OSAHS.Conclusions An obvious proinflammatory state is detected in CHD patients ,and is aggravated with OSAHS.CPAP is a useful treatment for CHD patients with mediate to severe OSAHS.

Pulsed field gel electrophoresis(PFGE)is a new type technique of gel electrophoresis which can be used to separate large DNA molecules.It has been widely applied to the karyotype analysis,identification of species groups,genetic orientation and genetic analysis for fungi.This article describes the principle,development and general manipulative procedure of PFGE,and elaborates the application in the molecular research of fungi.

OBJECTIVETo investigate the prognostic factors for non-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC)in patients under 40 years of age.

METHODSThe clinicopathological data of 148 young patients with NSCLC were retrospectively analyzed. Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analyses were used to analyze the relationship between prognostic factors and survival time.

RESULTSThe patients were followed-up for 6 - 148 months, and the follow-up rate was 100%. In the whole group, 122 patients died and 26 cases were surviving. The 1-, 3- and 5-year survival rates were 54.7%, 10.4% and 5.6%, respectively. The median survival time (MST) was 14.7 months. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that Karnofsky performance status (KPS), clinical stage, treatment modality and serum CEA were related with prognosis (P < 0.05). Multivariate analysis indicated that KPS, clinical stage, treatment modality and serum CEA were independent prognostic factors (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONSKPS, CEA, clinical stage and treatment modalities are independent prognostic factors in young NSCLC patients.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols ; therapeutic use ; Carcinoembryonic Antigen ; blood ; Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung ; blood ; drug therapy ; pathology ; radiotherapy ; surgery ; Combined Modality Therapy ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Karnofsky Performance Status ; Lung Neoplasms ; blood ; drug therapy ; pathology ; radiotherapy ; surgery ; Male ; Neoplasm Staging ; Pneumonectomy ; methods ; Proportional Hazards Models ; Retrospective Studies ; Survival Rate ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo systematically review the efficacy and safety of sodium ferulate (SF) for the treatment of diabetic nephropathy.

METHODSBy computerized retrieving the Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CNKI, VIP, CBM (theses, conference and internet materials), as well as data from internet materials regarding randomized controlled clinical trials of sodium ferulate for the treatment of diabetic nephropathy were collected completely. Data were strictly extracted using the simple evaluation method recommended in Cochrane Handbook and Meta-analysis was performed using Revman 5.0 software.

RESULTSFourteen randomized controlled trials involving 906 patients met the inclusion criteria. Meta-analysis showed that as compared with the control group, the effects in SF group were superior in terms of reducing urinary albumin excretion rate (UAER) at early stage [WMD = 16.08, 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 11.01 to 21.15] and clinical stage (WMD = 82.66, 95% CI: 66.95 to 98.37), urinary endothelin/endothelin-1 (ET/ET-1, WMD = 10.78, 95% CI: 8.18 to 13.39), levels of serum creatinine (SCr, WMD = 6.42, 95% CI: 1.83 to 11.01), blood urea nitrogen (BUN, SMD = 1.45, 95% CI: 0.19 to 2.71) and total cholesterol (TC, WMD = 0.84, 95% CI: 0.56 to 1.21, as well as in increasing high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C, WMD = 0.17, 95% CI: 0.09 to 0.26), showing significant difference between groups. However, the effects of SF were insignificantly different to those of control in reducing fasting blood glucose (FBG, WMD = 0.17, 95% CI: -0.03 to 0.37) and triglyceride (TG, SMD = -0.13, 95% CI -0.49 to 0.23).

CONCLUSIONSAt present the evidences show that SF is superior to the conventional treatment in reducing UAER, ET, SCr, BUN, TC and increasing HDL-C, but there is no evidence to show that SF is superior in reducing FBG and TG. However, the evidence is not strong enough due to the low quality of included literature. More large-scale, multi-center, randomized trials are needed to confirm the efficacy and safety of SF in treating diabetic nephropathy.

Coumaric Acids ; therapeutic use ; Diabetic Nephropathies ; drug therapy ; Humans ; Phytotherapy

Objective To evaluate three molecular methods for rapid identification of nontuberculous Mycobacterium(NTM).Methods Forty-one clinical NTM isolates were collected and 16S rRNA gene sequencing was used as the standard method for NTM identification.Meanwhile,the restriction fragment length polymorphism of hsp65 PCR-RFLP and hsp65 gene sequencing were used to identify NTM strains and compared with 16S rRNA gene sequencing.Results The results of 16S rRNA sequencing showed that there were nine Mycobacterium chelonae complex strains,seven Mycobacteriumfortuitum strains,seven Mycobacterium intracellulare strains,three Mycobacterium avium strains,three Mycobacterium kansasii complex strains, three Mycobacterium smegmatis strains, three Mycobacterium terrae strains, two Mycobacterium phlei strains,two Mycobacterium nonchromogenicum strains,one Mycobacterium scrofulaceum strain and one Mycobacterium arupense strain.Compared with 16S rRNA gene sequencing,hsp65 PCR-RFLP could identify nine Mycobacterium chelonae complexes and three Mycobacterium kansasii complexes to subspecies Mycobacterium abscessus and Mycobacterium kansasii,respectively; One Mycobacterium fortuitum strain and one Mycobacterium nonchromogenicum strain were different from 16S rRNA gene sequencing results ,but other isolates were the same.The coincidence was 95.1%.By hsp65 gene sequencing,only one identification of Mycobacterium hiberniae strain was different from 16S rRNA gene sequencing and the coincidence was 97.6%.And hsp65 gene sequencing could further identify nine Mycobacterium chelonae complexes and three Mycobacterium kansasii complexes to subspecies Mycobacterium abscessus and Mycobacterium kansasii,respectively.Conclusions All three molecular methods can identify NTM strains rapidly.Compared with 16S rRNA gene sequencing,hsp65 gene sequencing and hsp65 PCR-RFLP are easier to identify clinical common NTM strains(such as Mycobacterium kansasii and Mycobacterium abscessus),and can be widely used in clinical practice.

With the development of business of manned spaceflight, the body damage of astronauts on the space en-vironment has received growing concern. Weight loss is the most important cause of various diseases, and the weightlessness muscle atrophy is one of urgent problems to be solved in aerospace medicine. Although there is no concept of weightlessness or weightlessness muscle atrophy in the theory of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), TCM can grasp the pathogenesis of complex diseases, and provide important theoretical references for the prevention and management of weightlessness diseases, especially weightlessness muscle atrophy. In this paper, TCM Cognition of weightlessness and the pathogenesis of weightlessness muscle atrophy was studied by the sight of TCM theory of qi hoisting. The discussion was made from aspects of circulation of qi and blood, zang-fu function. This work is wished to be beneficial to apply the TCM theory in aerospace medicine.