Echocardiography, Three-Dimensional ; Heart Defects, Congenital ; diagnostic imaging ; therapy ; Humans

Diabetes mellitus has become one of the diseases which threaten the heath of human being in the 21st century.A goal of research in diabetes is to find a way to increase the number of functional insulin-producing cells. Islet transplantation has been considered to be the most effective approach to cure type Ⅰ and part of type Ⅱ diabetes mellitus.This approach, however, is severely limited by an inadequate supply of donor islets available for transplantation.Moreover, recent progress of stem cells research has shown that stem cells may act as a new source of islet transplantation in diabetes mellitus treatment. Recent evidence indicates that Glucagon-Like PeptideⅠ(GLP-1) plays a very important role in targeted differentiation of stem cells into Insulin-Producing Cells and pancreatic development. GLP-1 is an intestine-derived insulinotropic hormone that stimulates glucose dependent insulin production and secretion. GLP-1 can induce differentiation of stem cells into insulin-producing cells, which is achieved by up regulation of PDX-1 expression.PDX-1 is a transcription factor critical for pancreatic development and endocrine cell neogenesis and a marker for pancreatic stem cells. These new findings suggest an approach to create Insulin-Producing cells in vitro by expanding stem/progenitor cells and then to convert them into Insulin-Producing cells by treatment with GLP-1. Thus GLP-1 may be a means by which to create Insulin-Producing cells ex vivo for transplantation into patients with insulinopenic type Ⅰ diabetes and severe forms of type Ⅱ diabetes. This article reviews recent progress about GLP-1 and targeted differentiation of stem cells induced by GLP-1.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Busulfan ; therapeutic use ; Female ; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation ; methods ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Transplantation Conditioning ; methods ; Young Adult

Animals ; Cells, Cultured ; Gluconates ; pharmacology ; Lactate Dehydrogenases ; metabolism ; Myocardial Reperfusion Injury ; prevention & control ; Myocytes, Cardiac ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley

?AIM: To discuss the effect of laser exposure on visual acuity and macula.?METHODS: Retrospective and consecutive case series. A retrospective analysis of 11 patients (11 eyes) with laser retinal injury was carried out from January 2014 to June 2015 in Ophthalmology Department of No. 474 Hospital of Chinese PLA. All individuals underwent visual acuity, best corrected visual acuity ( BCVA ) , and spectral-domain optical coherence tomography ( SD-OCT) for macular at first visit, and fundus fluorescein angiography ( FFA ) , visual field, and multifocal electroretinogram ( mf ERG ) were perform if necessary. Symptomatic therapies, supportive therapies and pars plana vitrectomy ( PPV ) were performed depended on the patient’s condition. The patients were followed-up at 1, 3 and 6mo after the first visit, and patients were undertaken visual acuity, BCVA, macular SD-OCT and so on.?RESULTS: Eight patients ( 73%) were under 18 years old and all patients were young males, who were injured by laser pointers when playing. Three patients ( 27%) over 18 years old were injured accidentally at work. Ten (91%) patients’ BCVA were ≤0. 3, while one ( 9%) patient’s BCVA was higher ≥0. 3. Full-thickness macular holes ( the diameter 224-519 μm ) were detected in 10 patients (91%), while sub-foveal RPE changes and IS/OS injury in 1 patient ( 9%) . Macular hole with traction or cystoid edema in 6 eyes (55%) were received PPV, while the other 5 eyes ( 4 eyes with stable macular hole and 1 eyes with RPE injury ) received conservative treatment. Macular hole closed successfully in 1 eye ( 17%) after PPV, while macular hole in the other 5 eyes ( 83%) were stable after PPV of which the cystoid edema faded. The 4 patients with macular hole and 1 patient with RPE injury were stable during follow-up period. However, the BCVA in all patients had no significant improvement at end.?CONCLUSION: Exposure to laser devices could lead to severe macula injury that could reduce central vision, which is permanent.

Aortic Aneurysm ; diagnosis ; Aortic Aneurysm, Thoracic ; diagnosis ; Carotid Body Tumor ; diagnosis ; Diagnostic Errors ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged

Objective To explore the risk factors of prehypertension and the relationship between blood pressure and atherosclerosis.Methods The data of 456 cases in the Department of General Medicine were cross-sectional analyzed,including 174 subjects with normotension and 282 with prehypertension.The information was consisted of demographic characteristics,blood pressure,blood biochemical metabolism index,brachia-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV),ankle-brachial index (ABI) and carotid intima media thickness (CIMT).Results Compared to normotension group,the levels of systolic pressure,diastolic pressure,pulse pressure,body mass index,fasting blood glucose,glycosylated hemoglobin,triglyceride,uric acid,and C-reactive protein in prehypertension group were significantly increased (P ＜ 0.05) ; and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol was significantly decreased (P ＜0.05) ; the body mass index(OR =1.185),triglyceride(OR =1.302),and fasting blood sugar (OR =1.690) were the independent risk factors of prehypertension ; baPWV and CIMT in prehypertension group were higher,but ABI and artery atheromatous plaque rate were not obvious changed.When baPWV or CIMT were set as the dependent variables,multiple linear regression analysis showed that systolic blood pressure(β =0.226,P =0.007),fasting blood glucose(β =0.209,P =0.018),and age(β =0.279,P =0.002) were risk factors of baPWV;systolic blood pressure(β =0.118,P =0.015),body mass index(β =0.109,P =0.001),and age(β =0.396,P =0.001) were risk factors of CIMT.Conclusions Body mass index,triglycerides,and fasting blood sugar were the independent risk factors of prehypertension.The early subclinical damage of hardening of the arteries was occurred in the prehypertension cases,and systolic blood pressure was closely related with baPWV or CIMT.

BackgroundIt has been proved that,after being forced,the biological soft tissue has stable biomechanical characteristics.However,there is rare study on corneal biomechanics.Rabbit is a main animal for experimental study in ophthalmology.But the biomechanical study of cornea in normal rabbit has not been reported.ObjectiveThis study was to investigate the biomechanical properties of normal rabbit central cornea and acquire the parameter. Methods Ten rabbits were sacrificed and the whole corneas were obtained and 20 central cornea specimens with 7 mm×5 mm of rabbit were prepared and tested on BOSE electroforce 3220-AT biomechanics machine under the room temperature and suitable humidity environment.Uniaxial tension,stress between strain,relaxation and creep were performed and the curves were drawn.The data was collected by wintest system to evaluate the biomechanical parameters of rabbit corneal tissue. ResultsThe maximum distortion intension of rabbit cornea was (7.7432±0.6099)MPa.After three cyclic loading,the stress gradually attenuated and the stress and strain flattened as the time change with the relaxation rate 30.33％.The deformation of the specimens enhanced with time decrease with the creep rate 24.33％. ConclusionsThe biomechanical characteristics of normal rabbit cornea are revealed in this study,which offer the basis for the experimental research of rabbit model aimed at corneal disease.

Humans ; Mitochondrial Diseases ; genetics ; Molecular Biology ; Oxidoreductases ; chemistry ; deficiency ; genetics