In the past few decades, accumulated experimental and clinical evidences suggest that cyclic guanosine monophos-phate (cGMP) plays an important role in atheroselerosis. Vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein (VASP), a major downstream compo-nent of the cGMP signaling cascade, is an actin-binding protein which regulates cell adhesion, morphology change, cell motility and cell proliferation. It has shown that VASP is associated with many factors influencing atherosclerosis, and it plays an important role in the genesis and development of atherosclerosis. The relationships between the occurrence of atherosclerosis and risk factors for athero-sclerosis such as hypertension, hyperglycaemia and hyperlipidemia are reviewed in this article.

Objective:To study the application of partial least squares (PLS) in spectrophotometry,and to simultaneously determine four synthetic food colors with PLS.Methods:? max for Tartrazine,sunset yellow,ponocean 4R and amaranth were 428?2nm,482?2nm,508?2nm,520?2nm respectively,which revealed significant overlapping of simultaneous determination of mixture of four synthetic food colors by spectrophotometry,whithout any preliminary chemical separation.Results:The mean recoveries and relative standard deviation(RSD) for each sample were 100.6%,100.5%,99.5%,101.1% and 1.28%,1.11%,1.01%,1.96%,respectively.The actual results of two kinds of samples were also satisfactory.Conclusion:The patial least squares may provide a new approach to determination of the content from multi-component spectroscpic data whithout any preliminary chemical separation.

Background Glaucoma is a kind of psychosomatic disorder.Investigating the psychological and behavioral characteristics of glaucoma patients has important implication for the prevention and treatment of the disease.Objective Present study aimed to characterize the personality profile of initial diagnosed glaucomatous patients.Methods Eighty-seven patients with primary open angle glaucoma (POAG),ninety-two patients with primary angle-closure glaucoma (PACG) and eighty-nine normal controls (normal control group) were enrolled in this study from January 2008 to May 2014 in Peking University People 's Hospital.Clinical and demographic information which could relate to personality type was collected by filling in Symptom Checklist 90 (SCL-90),Life Event Scale (LES),Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ),Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) voluntarily under the informed consent.The psychological,personality and behavior characteristics of the individuals were analyzed and compared among the different populations.Results In SCL-90,the scores of compulsivity,interpersonal sensitivity,depression,anxiety,hostility,phobic anxiety,paranoid ideation and psychoticism inpatients with primary glaucoma were significant different among the three groups (all at P＜0.01),and the scores were significantly higher in the patients of the POAG group and PACG group than those in the normal control group,and the scores were increased in the PACG group compared with the POAG group (all at P＜0.05).In LES,the scores of family events,social intercourse and other events,life events,stress response were significantly different among the three groups (P =0.032,0.002,0.001,0.000),and these scores were significant higher in the POAG group and PACG group compared with the normal control group,and the PACG group also had a significantly greater frequency of clinically abnormal score than the POAG group (all at P＜0.05).EPQ data showed that the scores of psychology and nervousness in the POAG group and the PACG group were higher than those in the normal control group (all at P＜0.05),but no significant difference were found in extroversion and stability of the personality among the three groups (P=0.321,0.315).The total scores of SAS and SDS were considerably higher in the POAG group and the PACG group compared with the normal control group or the PACG group compared with the POAG group (all at P＜0.05).The incidences of anxiety and depression were elevated in the POAG group and the PACG group in comparison with the normal control group (x2 =15.520,P =0.000 ; x2 =14.870,P =0.000).Conclusions The personality and behavioral factors are associated with the pathogenesis,development and therapy of primary glaucoma.The anxiety,depression and stronger stress response are found in glaucoma patients,especially PACG patients.

Objective To investigate whether polymorphisms of apolipopretein D gene (APOD) have an effect on the risk for sporadic Alzheimer's disease (SAD).Methods Combination of polymerase chain reaction restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) and DNA sequencing technique to screen all exons (1-5),along with flanking exon-intron boundaries of the ApoD gene.We investigated the polymorphisms of ApoD in 256 SAD patients and 294 healthy controls from North China by PCR-RFLP technique.Association of every polymorphism with AD was analyzed in this case-control study.Results Two ApoD (rs5952 and rs1568566) polymorphisms were detected and there were significant differences in the genotype or allele frequencies for the 2 ApoD polymorphisms respectively between cases and controls.Logistic analysis showed that rs5952C or rs1568566T allele carrier increased the risk for SAD (rs5952 adjusted OR=1.817,95% CI 1.237--2.669,χ2=9.282,P=0.002 ; rs1568566 adjusted OR=1.563,95% CI 1.060-2.306,χ2=5.072,P=0.024).The APOD polymorphisms showed gender specific associations.The linkage disequilibrium of the 2 single nucleotide polymorphism loci was found between rs5952 and rs1568566 of ApoD.Conclusion Polymorphisms of rs5952 and rs1568566 in APOD might play an important role in modifying risk for SAD.

Accumulating evidences have demonstrated that there are several markers that can be used to recognize cancer stem cell, such as cell surface marker, enzymatic marker,gene expression marker and some functional markers. Cancer stem cell is characterized by multidrug resistance, enhanced DNA repair and antiapoptotic ability ,and some in vivo niche features that may make cancer cells resistant to conventional therapy.The increasing understanding of aberrantly expressed molecules and signaling pathways in TSC may provide the theoretical foundation for designing of target therapeutic strategies for TSC.

BACKGROUND:The use of neural stem cels provides a new approach for nervous system functional reconstruction and nerve regeneration. How to solve the induced differentiation of neural stem cels is stil a research hotspot.
OBJECTIVE:To investigate the differentiation of rat neural stem cels into neurons and dopaminergic neurons under induction of glial cel-line derived neurotrophic factor gene.
METHODS:PcDNA3-GDNF-GFP plasmids were constructed and transferredvia lipidosome into rat embryonic neural stem cels. Differentiation of neural stem cels after transfection was identified under a fluorescence microscope. Immunofluorescent staining was used to detect expression of β-tubulin III and tyrosine hydroxylase.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:At 3 days after transfection, green fluorescence was observed in the transfected cels that were globular. At 7 days after transfection, the proportion of neural stem cels differentiating into neurons and dopaminergic neurons were significantly increased. These results indicate that the glial cel-line derived neurotrophic factor gene can induce the differentiation of neural stem cels into neurons and dopaminergic neurons.

Objective:To investigate the impact of butylphthalide on homocysteine, CRP and nerve function in the patients with a-cute progressive cerebral infarction. Methods:Totally 122 cases of patients with acute cerebral infarction were randomly divided into the observation group (n=60) and the control group (n=62). The control group was treated with the routine treatment, and the ob-servation group was treated with butylphthalide additionally. The treatment course was two weeks. The total effective rate, blood Hcy, the level of plasma CRP and the changes of neurological function deficits scale in both groups before and after the treatment were ob-served and compared. Results:The overall response rate in the observation group (81. 67%) was significantly higher than that in the control group (64. 52%). After the treatment, the blood Hcy and CRP in both groups were significantly lower than that before the treatment(P<0. 05), and that of the observation group was significantly lower than that of the control group(P<0. 05). The neuro-logical function deficits scale in both groups were significantly lower than that before the treatment(P<0. 05), and that of the observa-tion group was significantly lower than that of the control group at the same period. The two groups during the treatment showed no sig-nificant adverse reactions. Conclusion: The effect of butylphthalide in the patients with acute cerebral infarction is effective, which can reduce blood Hcy, the level of plasma CRP and the neurological function deficits scale, and improve the neurological function with-out obvious adverse reactions during the treatment course.

Objective To evaluate the effiicacy of nasotracheal intubation using blind tracheal intubation device and end-tidal carbon dioxide monitoring technique in patients with difficult airway.Methods Sixty ASA Ⅰ or Ⅱ patients of both sexes,aged 35-60 yr,weighing 55-75 kg,requiring nasotracheal intubation,undergoing selective oral and maxillofacial surgery,were involoved in this study.All of them were expected to have difficuh airway such as mouth opening ＜ 3 cm,neck upward degree ＜ 30° and Mallampati classification Ⅲ or Ⅳ,The patients were randomly divided into 2 groups(n =30):group Ⅰ received tracheal intubation with the blind tracheal intubation device and group H received tracheal intubation with the blind intubation device combined with end-tidal carbon dioxide monitoring technique.The number of successful intubation,the inlubation time and adverse effects during intubation(epistaxis,tachycardia,hypertension and hypoxemia)and after operation(sore throat and hoarseness)were recorded.Results The rate of successful intubation in the two groups was 100％.Tachycardia,hypertension,hypoxemia and hoarseness were not found in the two groups.Compared with group I,the rate of successful intubation at first attempt was significantly increased,the intubation time was significantly shortened,and the incidence of epistaxis and sore throat was decreased in group Ⅱ(P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion The blind intubation device combined with end-tidal carbon dioxide monitoring technique used in diffficult airway can shorten the intubation time,increase the success rate of tracheal intubation,and decrease the occurrence of adverse effects.

Objective To investigate the value of T cell subsets predicting stroke-associated infection (SAI) in patients with acute ischemic stroke.Methods The consecutive patients with acute ischemic stroke within 36 hours after symptom onset were included.The peripheral venous blood samples were collected the next morning after admission.A flow cytometry was used to detect T cell subsets.The patients were divided into either an infected group or a non-infected group according to whether they had infection or not in hospital within 2 weeks.The information of the risk factors for ischemic stroke was collected,and the relationship between SAI and related risk factors was analyzed.Results A total of 55 patients with acute ischemic stroke were included,28 of them were in the infected group and 27 were in the non-infected group.The percentages of CD3 +T cells (63.42 ± 8.84％ vs.69.55 ± 10.05％ ; P =0.022) and CD4+ T cells (35.34 ± 7.10％ vs,40.46 ±7.24％; P =0.014),and CD4+/CD8+ ratio (1.23 ±0.38 vs.1.55 ±0.56; P =0.023) in the infected group were significantly lower than those in the non-infected group.The multiple regression analysis showed that the higher NIHSS score (odds ratio [ OR] 1.295,95％ confidence interval [ CI] 1.084 - 1.574; P =0.004) and t he decreased percent age of CD4+ T cells (OR 0.874,95 ％ CI 0.784 - 0.974,P =0.015) were the independent predicting factors for SA1.The percentage of CD4+ T cells ＜ 70.35％ had the best predictive value for the occurrence of SAI (sensitivity 77.8％ and specificity 92.3％).Conclusions The decreased proportion of the auxiliary T cells after the onset of acute ischemic stroke may increase the susceptibility of SAI.The detection of T cell subsets may predict the SAI in a certain degree.