Rhamnolipid,an important biosurfactant,is reviewed with respect to chemical strocture,properties,physiological role and their fermentation production,especially focusing on the production with inexpensive raw materials,such as vegetable oils and residues from agro- industrial wastes.This can not only reduce the production costs,but also contribute to the reduction of environmental impact generated by the discard of residues,and the treatment costs.

Anti-glutamic acid decarboxylase antibody-associated encephalitis is a kind of autoimmune encephalitis mediated by anti-glutamic acid decarboxylase antibody, which belongs to anti-neuronal intracellular synaptic protein antibody-associated encephalitis. Clinical manifestations include stiff-person syndrome, cerebellar ataxia, limbic encephalitis, seizures, etc., often associated with a variety of autoimmune diseases, rarely associated with tumors. Detection of anti-glutamic acid decarboxylase antibody is crucial for clinical diagnosis. Immunotherapy helps to relieve symptoms and improve prognosis. The incidence of this disease is low, and there are few reports at home and abroad. This paper intends to review the research on this encephalitis, hoping to improve the clinicians′ understanding and the level of diagnosis and treatment of the disease.

Aim:To predict ability of self-care at discharge of inpatients with first-ever cerebral infarction. Method: 346 stroke patients with first-ever cerebral infarction admitted to our hospital were analyzed,male 187,female 159,the average age was 63. 90± 11. 40 years and the average length of stay 36. 53±27.03days. Patients were divided into two groups, self-care and non self-care according to discharged outcome.Nineteen factors were selected from casenote and reports of laboratory and special exam such as EKG,CT or/and MRI. All material were analyzed (t test and X2 test,multiple regression). Result:The age in single factor analysis (P<0. 01)and six factors in regression analysis were significant differences in predicting discharged outcome between two groups. Conclusion:Main factors to predict the ability of self-care at discharge of inpatients were infarction of 1eft brain, large area, multiple focus, and accepted aphasia, arrhythmia as well as hemipareses, This research could be used for clinician to set a discharge plan and a guideline to select patients in early rehabilitation programs.

As the number of patients with compromised immune function increases and fungal resistance develops, so does the risk of contracting deadly fungi in humans. Both fungi and humans are eukaryotes, so identifying unique targets for antifungal drug development is difficult. In addition, the existing antifungal drugs are limited by toxicity, drug interaction and drug resistance in practical application, which leads to the increasing incidence and fatal rate of fungal infections. Therefore, it is urgent to develop new antifungal drugs. The semi-synthetic technology using microbial fermentation products from natural sources as lead compounds has become the most used method in structural modification of antifungal drugs due to its advantages of few reaction steps and easy operation. This paper will introduce the current status of natural antifungal drugs in clinical use, as well as the latest progress in the research and development of new semi-synthetic antifungal drugs, and summarize their mechanism of action, structural modifications, advantages and disadvantages, so as to provide reference for the subsequent development of new antifungal drugs.

OBJECTIVETo investigate the main factors that influence the results of sperm alkaline single-cell gel electrophoresis (SCGE), optimize the conditions, and standardize its procedures.

METHODSUsing alkaline SCGE, we detected the DNA fragments of sperm treated with different concentrations of H2O2 and determined the influences of the number of agarose gel layers, pH during DNA unwinding and electrophoresis, the time of DNA unwinding and electrophoresis, and cumulative sperm number on the results of sperm alkaline SCGE. Then we optimized the procedures, analyzed the repeatability of the optimized method, and examined 40 semen samples using the method.

RESULTSThree agarose gel layers could reduce the background. The optimal pH during DNA unwinding and electrophoresis was 10, and the best times for DNA unwinding and electrophoresis were 40 min and 30 min, respectively. Fifty sperm were adequate to ensure the reliability of the results. Based on the percentage of tail DNA, the intra- and inter-assay repeatabilities of the optimized sperm alkaline SCGE were 3.12% and 7.13%, and by the DNA damage score, they were 2.38% and 6.09%, respectively. Sperm DNA fragments were significantly increased in the infertile patients with oligoasthenoteratozoospermia as compared with healthy fertile males (P <0.05).

CONCLUSIONThe optimized sperm alkaline SCGE, highly repeatable and easy to be standardized, can be applied to the clinical detection of sperm DNA fragmentation in infertile men.

Asthenozoospermia ; genetics ; Comet Assay ; standards ; DNA Damage ; DNA Fragmentation ; Humans ; Hydrogen Peroxide ; toxicity ; Male ; Oligospermia ; genetics ; Oxidants ; toxicity ; Reproducibility of Results ; Sperm Count ; Spermatozoa ; drug effects ; enzymology ; Time Factors

Objective To explore the effects of acupoint application of midnight-noon ebb-flow with hour-prescription of points on dysfunction for sufferers with senile osteoporosis(SOP).Methods In this study,76 patients with SOP in clinic in this hospital were recruited and randomly divided into the experimental group(n=38) and the control group(n=38) in accordance with random number table.Both were on the basic treatment of Caltrate D.The experimental group performed acupoint application of midnight-noon ebb flow with hour-prescription of points,while the control one performed common acupoint application.Oswestry Disability Index(ODI) was used to evaluate the dysfunction before,after 4 weeks and 8 weeks of intervention.SF-36 was adopted to evaluate the patients' quality of life before and after 8 week's intervention.Results The ODI scores of the experimental group after 4 weeks and 8 weeks were lower than those of the control group(P＜0.01).Repeated ANOVA indicated that the scores of ODI in group effect,time effect and interaction effect were of statistical significance(P＜0.01).Further comparison showed that the scores of ODI in three different time sections suggested that the latter time point were lower than those of the former time point(P＜0.01).The scores of eight dimensions of SF-36 after the intervention of the experimental group were higher than those of the control group(P＜0.05).Conclusion The acupoint application of midnight noon ebb flow-with hour-prescription of points can effectively improve the dysfunction whose curative effect enhanced with time increasing and improve the quality of life.

Objective To explore the effects of isokinetic training on muscle endurance and the ambulatory capacity of patients with incomplete lumbar spinal cord injury ( SCI ) . Methods Sixty patients were randomly divided into a control group and a treatment group, each of 30. Both groups were given conventional rehabilitation, while the treatment group was additionally provided with isokinetic muscle strength and muscle endurance training for 3 months. The endurance ratio ( RO) of the quadriceps and hamstrings, the mean power frequency of the rectus femo-ris (RF-MPF) and the biceps flexor cruris (BF-MPF), and distance covered in the 6-minute walk test (6MWT) were evaluated before and after the treatment. An index of functional community ambulation was also compared be-tween the 2 groups. Results After the treatment significant differences were observed in all of the measurements compared to before the treatment for both groups. The average RO improvement of the quadriceps and hamstrings, the BF-MPF, the RF-MPF and the 6MWT distance of the treatment group were all significantly higher compared with the control group. After the treatment, 25 patients of the treatment group could demonstrate functional community ambula-tion, significantly better than that of 20 of the control group. Conclusion Isokinetic training can improve muscle endurance and the walking capacity of persons with an incomplete lumbar spinal cord injury.

Ginseng saponins are a type of important active substances in the ginseng genus plants. They have notable pharmacological activities of antineoplastic, neuroprotective, and hepatoprotective activities, which have been drawn more attention to obtain minor ginsenosides by all kinds of methods. In this review, we discussed the latest progress for enrichment of minor ginsenosides by biological transformation of major ginsenosides. At the same time, we have a brief outlook of the research at bioconversion of ginseng saponins.
Bacteria ; metabolism ; Biotransformation ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; metabolism ; Ginsenosides ; chemistry ; metabolism ; Panax ; chemistry ; metabolism

Objective To evaluate the value of tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) in diagnosing pulmonary arterial hypertension(PAH) with common simple congenital heart disease(CHD).Methods 104 patients of CHD approved by operation or intervention were retrospectively analyzed.Both TDI and right cardiac catheterization were performed in all patients,whose were divided into PAH and non-PAH groups according to mean pulmonary arterial pressure (mPAP) on diagnostic right cardiac catheterization:60 PAH patients[mPAP ≥25 mmHg(1 mmHg =0.133 kPa) and pulmonary arterial capillary wedge pressure ≤15 mmHg],44 non-PAH patients (mPAP ＜25 mmHg).The PAH group was divided into mild (25 mmHg≤ mPAP≤35 mmHg),moderate (36 mmHg≤mPAP≤50 mmHg) and severe (mPAP＞50 mmHg) subgroups.The tricuspid annular systolic peak velocity (TS'),early diastolic peak velocity (TE'),late diastolic peak velocity (TA') were measured by TDI and TE'/TA' and Tei index were calculated.The correlation between TDI parameters and the cardiac catheterization findings (sPAP,mPAP and dPAP) were assessed.Results ①TS' and TE' in PAH group were significantly lower than those in non-PAH(P ＜ 0.05),but Tei in PAH group were significantly higher than that in non-PAH (P ＜0.001),however,there were no significant difference in TA' and TE'/TA' between two groups (P ＞ 0.05).②Tei correlated positively with pulmonary arterial pressure (P ＜0.001),TS' was found to be negatively correlated with pulmonary arterial pressure(P ＜0.05),but no correlation between TE',TA',TE'/TA' and pulmonary arterial pressure(P ＞0.05).③ROC analysis showed the area under curves for Tei index and TS' diagnosis for PAH was 0.893 and 0.699,respectively.At the cutoff of Tei＞0.49 and TS'＜16 cm/s for indicating PAH,the sensitivity were 86.67 ％ and 80.00％,respectively and the specificity were 79.55 ％ and 45.45 ％,respectively.④Tei in the moderate and severe PAH were significantly higher than that in mild PAH (P ＜ 0.05),TS' and TE' in severe PAH were significantly lower than those in mild and moderate PAH (P ＜ 0.05),At the cutoff of Tei＞0.55 for indicating moderate or severe PAH,the sensitivity and specificity were 95.24％ and 72.22％.Conclusions Tei index and TS' have high application value in assessing PAH and classification of PAH.Tei＞0.49 indicates PAH,while Tei＞0.55 suggests moderate or severe PAH.

Objective To evaluate the feasibility and value of quantitatively assessing left ventricular systolic function in rats with myocardial infarction (MI) by myocardial contrast echocardiography (MCE) based on mathematical morphology algorithm.Methods SD rats model of MI were mede,then MCE were performed before MI and at 1,3 weeks after MI.In vitro study:based on the principle of binary morphology,segmentation of endocardium was acquired using dilation,erosion,closed operations and connected domain object tag-based.The automatic segmentation of endocardial contour was compared with the manual segmentation boundary.In vivo study:the left ventricular area was calculated using the software,and the area variation fraction (AVF),a new index of left ventricular systolic function,were acquired.The correlation between AVF and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was analyzed.The value of AVF for diagnosis for left ventricular dysfunction was evaluated by ROC curve.Results ① The cross-correlation coefficient (CCC) and percent error (PE) between automatic contours and manual boundary were more than 0.90 and less than 9％,respectively.② AVF correlated positively with LVEF (r =0.934,P ＜ 0.001).③ ROC analyses showed the area under curves for AVF diagnosing left ventricular dysfunction was 0.834.The best cutoff value was 27.5 ％ for diagnosing left ventricular dysfunction with the sensitivity of 85 ％ and specificity of 60 ％.Conclusions Left ventricular endocardium can be identificated automatically and rapidly by MCE based on mathematical morphology algorithm.AVF can assessed quantitatively left ventricular systolic function in rats with myocardial infarction.