Aged ; Ethmoid Sinus ; pathology ; Female ; Humans ; Nasal Polyps ; complications ; Oculomotor Nerve Diseases ; complications ; Sphenoid Sinus ; pathology

OBJECTIVETo explore the clinical efficacy and action mechanism of acupuncture for premature ovarian failure (POF).

METHODSAccording to prospective cohort study design, 30 cases were included. Based on theory of regulating Chong and Conception Vessels as well as soothing the liver and calming the nerves, acupuncture at Guanyuan (CV 4), Dahe (KI 12), Taixi (KI 3), Taichong (LR 3), Baihui (GV 20) was applied, three times per week and 3 months were considered as one session. Totally two sessions were performed. The menstruation condition, estradiol (E2), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and scores of the clinical perimenopausal symptoms were taken as treatment outcomes.

RESULTSThe total effective rate was 86.7% (26/30) and the cured rate was 16.7% (5/30). The recovery rate of menstruation was 16.7% (5/30) and the regain rate of menstruation was 56.7% (17/30). After the treatment, the level of E2 was significantly increased from (45.41 +/- 18. 09) pmol/L to (59.07 +/- 24.21) pmol/L (P < 0.05), and the score of perimenopausal symptoms was obviously reduced from 14.28 +/- 8. 30 to 4.04 +/- 3.28 (P < 0.01). However, no statistical differences could be seen in FSH before and after treatment (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONAcupuncture has certain effect on improving menstruation and perimenopausal symptoms in POF patients, which is likely to he related with increasing the level of E2.

Acupuncture Therapy ; Adolescent ; Estradiol ; metabolism ; Female ; Humans ; Luteinizing Hormone ; metabolism ; Primary Ovarian Insufficiency ; metabolism ; therapy ; Prospective Studies ; Young Adult

The quality of guidelines of clinical practice in acupuncture and moxibustion was evaluated with AGREE II tool. After retrieval of officially-issued guidelines of clinical practice in acupuncture and moxibustion from 2004 to 2013, totally 5 types of evidence-based guidelines of clinical practice in acupuncture and moxibustion were acquired, including depression, herpes zoster, pseudobulbar palsy after stroke, migraine and Bell's palsy. With AGREE II tool, independent score in six areas, including guideline's scope and purpose, participants and personnel, preciseness, clarity and readability, applicability and editorial independence were analyzed to perform a comprehensive evaluation in the end. The assessment results indicated that the score of editorial independence in evidence-based guidelines of clinical practice in acupuncture and moxibustion was the highest, averagely 97.9%, which was followed by clarity and readability (83.3%), participants and personnel (78.1%), preciseness (75.6%), the scope and purpose (68.1%) and the applicability (62.5%). The total evaluation score was all 6 points in the five guidelines with recommended as comprehensive evaluation advice. This study results indicate that although the guideline of clinical practice in acupuncture and moxibustion is low in number, the total quality is considerable.
Acupuncture Therapy ; standards ; Evidence-Based Medicine ; Humans ; Moxibustion ; standards ; Practice Guidelines as Topic ; Quality Assurance, Health Care

Amounts of researches show that EPO is characterized with neurotrophic and neuroprotective manner, especially in brain stroke, which attracts a large numbers of researchers to study it. With the accumulating researches on its neuroprotection, many related mechanisms were revealed, such as antioxidant, anti-apoptosis, angiogenesis, anti-inflammatory, which suggests a multiple targets role of EPO on brain stroke. However, because of the high risk of thromboembolism in clinical administration of rhEPO and its analogs, the herbs are potential to be a replacer for its less side effects. Many researchers suggested that a larger of herbs were founded having the action of increasing the endogenous EPO in the model of anemia and cerebral ischemia. At the same time, there herbs were also proved that they had the action of against cerebral ischemia while some without considering the role of EPO in the reports. Considering of the action of promoting EPO of these herbs and the neural protection of EPO, this essay mainly summarizes the studies of herbs promoting EPO in the cerebral ischemia and discusses the mechanism of regulating the EPO of these herbs, for the aim of finding the potential drugs against cerebral ischemia.
Animals ; Brain Ischemia ; drug therapy ; genetics ; metabolism ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; Erythropoietin ; genetics ; metabolism ; Humans ; Neuroprotection ; drug effects ; Plants, Medicinal ; chemistry

Immune and tissue cells usually express pattern-recognition receptors (PRRs) to detect viruses and other microorganisms, thereby inducing signal cascade amplification and host innate immune responses. Since PRRs have strain-specific substrates and mechanisms of recognition, the identification of PRRs and mechanisms of PRRs-mediated responses is highly challenging. Besides, the research on RLRs-mediated immune responses has become more popular in cellular immunology recently. Accumulating evidence shows that post-translation modifications, such as ubiquitination, deubiquitination and ISGylation, play an important role in regulating host innate immune responses. In parallel, these approaches may be used by viruses to evade PRRs-mediated responses or to actively subvert these pathways for their own benefit. It was identified that STING (also called MITA/MPYS/ERIS) plays an important role in RIG-Ⅰ-like receptor(RLR) signaling as a type Ⅰ IFN stimulator, providing a special method for the research on complex host antiviral innate immune responses.

Objective To investigate the clinicopathological features,diagnosis,treatment,prognosis and causative agent of a case of eumycetoma on the submaxilla.Methods A case of eumycetoma diagnosed in our department was assessed for its clinical and pathological features as well as mycologic and molecular identification.Related literature was reviewed.Results The patient was primarily characterized by swelling of the submaxilla,with multiple sinuses draining many black granules.Pathologic examination revealed a pyogenic granulomatous inflammation,and a number of lotus rhizome node-like hypha were observed in tissue samples through PAS staining.Sequence analysis of multiple loci of the isolates,including ITS 1,ITS2 and D1/D2,showed that it was mostly similar to Madurella mycetomatis with a homology of 97%.Conclusion This is a case ofeumycetoma on the submaxilla induced by a novel species of Madurella.

Objective To screen differentially expressed genes in placentas with hepatitis B virus (HBV)infection and to discuss the molecular mechanism of HBV intrauterine infection.Methods Thirty placenta tissue specimens from HBsAg and HBV DNA positive pregnant women were used as the study group and 30 placenta tissue specimens from normal pregnant women with HBsAg and HBV DNA negativity were served as the control group.The suppression subtractive hybridization(SSH)technique was used.Total RNAs of placenta tissue of the study group were mixed as the tester,and total RNAs of placenta tissue of the control group were mixed as the driver.A subtractive cDNA library was constructed by PCR-selective cDNA subtraction systems.Amplifications of the library were carried out with E.coil strain DH5? by reverse spot hybridization.RT-PCR confirmed that phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase(PI3K)was up-regulated in placenta tissue with HBV infection.Results Colony PCR showed that the clones contained 200-1000 bp inserts. Thirty five clones were confirmed by reverse spot hybridization and analyzed by sequencing and bioinformatics.Thirty three known genes and 2 genes with unknown function were obtained.RT-PCR preliminarily confirmed that PI3K gene was up-regulated in HBV infected placenta.Conclusions The differentially expressed genes in placentas with hepatitis B virus(HBV)infection using SSH technique has been screened out successfully.These differentially expressed genes encoding proteins participating in cell vital metabolism and malformation,and signal conduction-antiapoptosis pathway.This finding brings some new clues for studying the mechanisms of HBV intrauterine infection.

Objective To explore the possible relationship between environmental contamination by Aspergillus and invasive aspergillosis.Methods From November 2005 to October 2006,samples were collected from the environment (air in corridors,air in wards,surfaces and tap water) twice a month,and from patients (nose,pharynx and sputum) at a liver transplantation department (LTD),neurologic surgery intensive care unit (NSICU) and central intensive care unit (CICU) in our hospital,and subjected to fungal culture.The Aspergillus density was determined in these environments.The isolates of Aspergillus flavus were genotyped by random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD) assay to investigate the origin of infection.Results The mean aspergillus density was 12,10.75,0 and 20 cfu/m~3 at LTD,NSICU,CICU and corridors respectively.The five most prevalent species of aspergillus in these environments in decreasing order were Aspergillus flavus,Aspergillus fumigatus,Aspergillus niger,Aspergillus versicolor and Aspergillus clavatus.RAPD demonstrated that the genotypes ofA.flavus isolated from two patients were identical to those of the environmental strains in NSICU.The A.flavus genotypes from 3 patients in CICU were all different from those of the environment strains in CICU,but the genotypes were identical from two of the three patients.Conclusions Aspergillus contamination of different degree does exist at LTD,NSICU and CICU. The genotypes of A.flavus are identical from patients and environment in NSICU,suggesting that the clinical infection may originate from hospital environment.

The Notch signaling pathway has been implicated in the regulation of cell-fate decisions such as differentiation of embryo stem cells and neural stem cells into neurons. We cultured human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) in vitro and induced hMSCs to differentiate into neural cells by beta-mercaptoethanol (beta-ME), DMSO and 3-tert-butyl-4-hydroxyanisole (BHA). Immunocytochemistry was utilized to detect neuron-specific enolase (NSE) and Nissl body, and flow cytometry was used to determine cell growth phases. The expressions of signal molecules involved in the Notch pathway such as Notch1, Jagged 1 (JAG1), presenilin 1 (PS1) and hairy and enhancer of split 1(HES1) were observed by RT-PCR and immunofluorescent techniques. The results were as follows: (1) Before induction, the percentage of hMSCs at G(0)/G(1) was 58.5%, and the percentage at S+G(2)/M was 41.5%. After induction, the percentage of hMSCs at G(0)/G(1) increased to 73.1%, 76.2% and 78.1%, respectively on days 2, 4 and 6, and the percentage at S+G(2)/M decreased to 26.8%, 24.8% and 21.9%, respectively; The percentage of NSE-positive cells reached (77+/-0.35) %; Nisslos staining was positive in cytoplasm. (2) Notch1 and JAG1 were both expressed in hMSCs before and after induction, but the mRNA expressions of both Notch1 and JAG1, detected by RT-PCR, decreased obviously after induction(P<0.05). Notch1 mRNA/beta-actin was 1.157, 0.815, 0.756 and 0.570, and JAG1 mRNA/beta-actin was 0.437, 0.350, 0.314 and 0.362, respectively, on days 0, 2, 4 and 6 after induction. The Notch pathway activation participant PS1 mRNA and Notch pathway target gene HES1 mRNA also decreased apparently after induction (P<0.05), and their mRNA/beta-actin was 0.990, 0.449, 0.441, 0.454 and 0.370, 0.256, 0.266, 0.240 on days 0, 2, 4 and 6, respectively. These observations indicate that the expressions of Notch signal molecules were suppressed when hMSCs were induced to differentiate into neural cells. Based on these findings, we propose that low level of Notch signaling activation may contribute to neural cell differentiation.
Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Transcription Factors ; genetics ; Calcium-Binding Proteins ; genetics ; Cell Cycle ; Cell Differentiation ; Flow Cytometry ; Homeodomain Proteins ; genetics ; Humans ; Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins ; genetics ; Jagged-1 Protein ; Membrane Proteins ; genetics ; Mesenchymal Stromal Cells ; cytology ; Neurons ; cytology ; Receptor, Notch1 ; genetics ; Receptors, Notch ; genetics ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Serrate-Jagged Proteins ; Signal Transduction ; Transcription Factor HES-1

Objective To evaluate the reliability and validity of the application of condensed Chinese version of the MOS 36-item short form health survey (SF-36) in assessment of quality of life among adult patients with Kashin-Beck disease,and to provide a scientific basis in rehabilitation of the patients.Methods Four hundred and twenty seven eases of adult patients with Kashin-Back disease and 419 healthy individuals randomly selected in Kashin-Beck disease endemic areas in 8 counties of Gansu province were surveyed with the SF-36.The reliability of the SF-36 was assessed by split-half reliability and Cronbach's α coefficient and the validity through principal component factor analysis and correlation analysis,etc.The dimension scores of different people were obtained by analysis of variance and univariate t-test.Results The split-half reliability of all the 8 dimensions was greater than 0.6 and the Cronbach's α coefficient was greater than 0.8; the pearson correlate coefficients of all the items to their dimensions were greater than 0.391.SF-36 contained 8 domains and 2 summary scales in the factor analysis.The score differences of quality of life in different ages of the patients,different stages of the disease were statistically significant (all P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion The SF-36 is practical in studying the quality of life among adult patients with Kashin-Beck Disease.