1.Instruments for the assessment of health-related quality of life in pediatric patients with inflammatory bowel disease
International Journal of Pediatrics 2011;38(1):7-9
Health -related quality of life is used as an outcome criterion to evaluate the quality and effect of different therapies. It's also frequently used in epidemiological studies, as well as health economic research.Instruments to assess health-related quality of life has been developed, mostly for adults. Inflammatory bowel disease is a chronic debilitating disorder. Assessing health-related quality of life of pediatric inflammatory bowel disease is useful. Present paper briefly describes four internationally most widely used available generic instruments and inflammatory bowel disease specific health-related quality of life. All of the generic instruments comply with psychometric standards concering the reliability, validity, and sensitivity of the scales. Diseasespecific instruments, conforming with psychometric criteria, have test-retest stability, constructive validity and could be widely used.
2.The impact of dietary methionine-restriction on tight junction expression and function in a rat colonitis model
Yanxia RAO ; Jie CHEN ; Leilei CHEN ; Weizhong GU
Chinese Journal of Internal Medicine 2013;(6):503-509
Objective To study the impact of methionine restriction (MetR) on mucosal histopathology,permeability and tight junction composition in a dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis model,and to explore its underlying mechanism.Methods SD rats were randomly divided into 4 groups:normal rats fed by a complete amino acid (AA group) diet,normal rats fed by MetR diet (MetR group),DSS treated rats fed by a complete amino acid (DSS + AA group) and DSS treated rats fed by MetR diet (DSS + MetR group),each group had 15 rats.Abdominal aorta blood sampling was taken at day 21 after DSS model been established to analyze blood routine examination,liver and kidney function and level of electrolyte.Morphological changes in colonic mucosa were evaluated and scored by light microscopy.Myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity was measured.The effect of MetR on mucosal permeability of colon strips was detected by Ussing chamber.Claudin2,occludin,claudin3,ZO-1 expression were quantified by Western blot.Results The early clinical manifestation in the DSS treated rats were loose stool or diarrhea,hematochezia positive and bleeding,and weight losing.HE observation showed prominent colitis in distal colon with manifestations of crypt abscess and infiltration of inflammatory cells.Although MPO activity and WBC account between the DSS + MetR and DSS + AA group did not significantly changed,treatment with MetR diet significantly decreased the extent and severity of epithelial injury of DSS + MetR group (10.55 ± 3.62 vs 15.00 ± 4.89,P =0.003).There were no significant difference in PCNA immunohistochemical result between the DSS + MetR group and DSS + AA group.Compared to the rats on AA diet,transepithelial electrical resistance(TEER) in DSS + AA group was obvious lower [(28.40 ± 6.78) Ω · cm2 vs (46.53 ± 4.03)Ω · cm2,P <0.05],and TEER in MetR group were obviously higher[(60.64 ± 8.40)Ω · cm2 vs (46.53 ±4.03)Ω · cm2,P <0.05].However,short-circuit current (Isc) in DSS + MetR group was obviously higher that of DSS + AA group [(35.01 ± 2.19) μA/cm2 vs (29.61 ± 1.19) μA/cm2,P <0.05].Western blot suggested that colon claudin2 expression was not found in colon epithelium of normal rats,and an obviously increase expression of claudin3 protein was found in the MetR group,compared to AA group; and an significantly increase in the abundance of claudin3 was found in the DSS + MetR group,but amount of claudin2 was decreased,compared with the DSS + MetR group.Conclusion The MetR diet has obvious therapeutic effect on ulcerative colitis model rats induced by DSS,and its mechanism may not by regnlating inflammatory cell infiltration and the way of promoting intestinal cell growth to alleviate inflammatory injury,but probably by changing the structure and function of tight junction protein and improve the intestinal mucosal barrier function,and promote the repair of damaged intestinal mucosa.
3.Effect of Toxoplasma gondii infection on the placental apoptosis-related protein of BALB/c mice during the second trimester of pregnancy
Huaxiang RAO ; Yuying HOU ; Huiping YUE ; Yanxia HE ; Yunhe ZHAO ; Junfeng YANG ; Hongye CHANG ; Hui LIU ; Jie ZHANG ; Liping HOU
Chinese Journal of Zoonoses 2010;(1):57-61
To observe the influence of the placental apoptosis on the expression of Bax,Bcl-2, Fas, FasLand TNF-α during the second trimester of pregnancy, mice of experimental group were intraperitoneal injected with 100 purified Toxoplasma gondii tachyzoites added in 0.2mL of PBS, while those of the control group were injected with 0.2 mL of sterile PBS (0.01 mol/L, pH 7.4) in the 8-th day of pregnancy. During the 12, 14, 16 and 18-th days of pregnancy, 5 mice both in experimental and control group were randomly killed and the expression levels of the apoptosis-related proteins Bax, Bcl-2, Fas, FasL and TNF-α in the placental tissues were determined by means of immunohistochemical methods. It was showed that the apoptosis-related protein expressed both in villus and decidua of the placenta, most of which were expressed in syneytiotrophoblast (ST). The positive cells with expression of Bax, Fas, FasL and TNF-α increased along with the increase of the pregnant days in both the experimental group and the control group, and the positive cells with expression of Bcl-2 decreased along with the increase of the pregnant days. It was also demonstrated that the positive cells with expression of Bax, Fas, FasL and TNF-α of the experimental group showed a higher percentage of expression than that of the control group on the same pregnant days, but the positive cells with Bcl-2 expression of the experimental group were fewer than that of the control group. It is concluded that the expression of apoptosis-related protein Bax, Bcl-2, Fas, FasL and TNF-α in the placenta were altered when the pregnant mice were infected with Toxoplasma gondii during the second trimester, which may induce the apoptosis through the endogenic and ectogenic pathway.