Objective To explore the impact of the variable number of tandem repeats of monoamine oxidase A gene (MAOA-uVNTR) on the intensity of brain activation during the recognition of facial expression in patients with depression and healthy controls.Methods 28 cases of depression,as well as 33 healthy controls who were matched in gender, age and years of education were divided into different genotypes with the methods of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification and 1.5% agarose gel electrophoresis separation.61 cases were scanned to compare the intensity of brain activation in the recognition of happy, sad and neutral facial expression.Results In healthy controls,cases with high-activity genotype showed increased activation in left cuneus,left inferior frontal gyrus, right medial frontal gyrus and left inferior parietal lobule in comparision with carriers of low-activity genotype.In the depressed, compared with patients with low-activity genotype, cases with high-activity genotype decreased activation in bilateral putamen, left postcentral gyrus, left fusiform gyrus, right superior temporal gyrus and right thalamus.Conclusion Healthy controls with high-activity genotype shows the trend of priority for the identification of negative emotion,this genotype may be one of the risk factors for normal people suffering from depression.Patients with high-activity genotype is associated with the inhibitory of positive emotional state, this may attribute partly to the emotional symptoms in such kind of patients more serious.

ObjectiveTo study information transmission circumstances within the neural circuits related to the attentional controls of the mate depression patients.MethodsTwelve unipolar depression patients and twelve age- and education- matched healthy controls were involved in the Stroop word-color interference test to detect the variation of brain inhibitory function by Magnetoencephalography scanning.ResultsCompared with the healthy controls,the abnormally activities in depressed patients during in chronological order were separately as follow:decreased activation in the left postcentral gyrus ( t =3.10 ),the right superior frontal gyrus ( t =2.16 ),the left middle frontal gyrus (t=2.64),the left parietal lobe (t=2.89),the right middle temporal grus( t=1.92),the right superior temporal gyrus(t=2.84),the right insula(t=3.03),the right precuneus(t=2.98),the bilateral middle frontal gyros ( t =3.64,t =2.25 ),the right postcentral gyrus ( t =2.20),the right cingulate gyrus ( t =4.04 ),the bilateral precuneus ( t =2.79,t =1.87 ) ;increased activation in the left caudate body ( t =1.91 ),the left pulvinar ( t =2.56),the left middle temporal gyrus( t =1.89),the left precentral gyrus( t =2.02) (P ＜ 0.05,uncorrected).ConclusionThe abnormal activation in the brain regions related with attentional control processing is detected in the male recurrent unipolar recurrent major depression,performances of limbic system increased and.cortex declined more in the recurrent depressed.

Objective To investigate the small-worldness and the betweenness centrality of the nodes in the brain structural networks and its relationship with the course and the central role of the brain regions in the transmission of information across the whole brain in depression.Methods The diffusion tensor imaging data were obtained from 27 depression patients and 33 healthy controls.The brain structural networks were constructed using the complex network theory.Results The brain structural networks had small-world properties in both groups.When compared with the healthy,the betweenness centrality of the nodes of the networks in depression significantly decreased in right superior frontal gyms (orbital part) (P=0.00035,region survived critical FDR threshold for multiple comparisons),and left putamen (P=0.00054,region survived critical FDR threshold for multiple comparisons).Significant negative correlation was found between the betweenness centrality of left hippocampus and the course in the depression(r=0.50,P=0.016).Conclusion Both of the brain structural networks in depression patients and normal people have the property of small-worldness.But the central role of orbit frontal cortex and putamen in the transmission of information across the whole brain is declined,and the betweenness centrality of hippocampus is negatively related with the course in the depression.

Objective To investigate the differences of regional homogeneity(ReHo) in depressed patients with vary degrees of anxiety using resting-state function MRI,and the relationship vary degrees of anxiety symptoms.Methods 10 depressed patients with scores less than 1 in anxiety/somatization factor of Hamilton depression scale,10 depressed patients with scores above 2,and 10 age-,gender-,education-matched healthy controls were underwent resting-state fMRI scanning at 3.0 Tesla.Correlation analysis between ReHo with significant differences level of brain region and the total score of Hamilton depression scale,and anxiety/somatization factor were underwent respectively.Results The brain regions with significant difference level among three groups were the left posterior cerebellum(-39,-77,-29 ; K =15),the left angular gyrus (-56,-63,22 ; K =13) and the left anterior cingulate (-3,22,29 ; K =19) (P ＜ 0.05,Alphasim) ; compared with healthy group,the mild anxiety group showed significantly decreased ReHo in the left posterior cerebellum,and increased ReHo in the left anterior cingulate; the moderate and severe anxiety group showed significantly decreased ReHo in the left posterior cerebellum,and increased ReHo in the left anterior cingulate and the left angular gyrus; no significant differences were found in patient groups.In the mild anxiety group,the left anterior cingulate positively correlated with the anxiety severity(r=0.646,P=0.043),and in the severe anxiety group positively correlated with the somatic anxiety(r =0.693,P=0.038).Conclusion Depressed patients showed abnormal neural activity in resting state,and the degree of abnormality is associated with clinical anxiety/somatization symptoms.

Objective To investigate whether there is exists optimal effective connections of prefrontal-amygdala in patients with major depressive disorder when they recognize dynamic positive face expressions with the technology of magnetoencephalograph (MEG),and discuss the possible aberrant mechanism of emotion processing.Methods Twenty major depressive patients and 20 well-matched healthy volunteer controls participated in the experiment.The regions of interested brain area included the primary visual cortex (V1),the precuneus (PQ),the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC),the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC),the amygdala (AMYG).After constructing three putative models,dynamic causal model was used to select an optimal model,then extracted all the effective connection parameters and conducted t-test under the overall optimal model between-group comparison.Results The bayesian model selection (BMS) indicated that model with top-down modulate connections between DLPFC-ACC,DLPFC-AMYG and ACC-AMYG was the most superior model,whose exceedance probability was 0.41.In the fight hemisphere of patient group,the endogenous connectivity from AMYG to ACC significantly decreased compared to healthy controls (t=-2.21,P=0.033),while the endogenous connectivity from ACC to DLPFC was enhanced significandy (t=2.50,P=0.017),which was the same with the endogenous connectivity from AMYG to DLPFC (t=2.10,P=0.040).Conclusion The effective connections of prefrontal-amygdala in major depressive disorder are exactly impaired,which may indicate that major depressive disorder have a bias toward negative.While depressed patients don' t show abnormality in the modulate connectivity under happy stimulus.

ObjectiveTo investigate the variation of executive function of fronto-cingulate cortex in spatio-temporal sequence in recurrent depressed patients.MethodsEighteen recurrent depressed patients and twenty-one age-,gender- and education- matched healthy controls were involved in the Stroop word-color interference test to detect the executive function of anterior cingulate and prefrontal regions by magnetoencephaloraphy scanning.Results 1.Compared to healthy controls,the increased activation of brain regions in depressed patients during different time periods were separately shown as follows( t represents activation strength):( 1 ) 100 ～ 200 ms:the right anterior cingulate gyrus ( t =1.81,T value means activation strength),the bilateral medial frontal gyrus ( t =1.91,t =1.86),the left superior frontal gyms( t =1.79 ),the right middle frontal gyrus( t =1.82 ),the right inferior frontal gyrus ( t =1.82 ).( 2 ) 200 ～ 300 ms:the left anterior cingulate gyrus ( t =1.82 ).( 3 ) 250 ～ 350 ms:the left anterior cingulate gyrus ( t =2.67 ),the left medial frontal gyrus ( t =2.43 ),the left inferior frontal gyrus ( t=1.91 ).(4)300 ～400ms:the left anterior frontal gyrus(t=2.26),the bilateral inferior gyrus( t=1.97,t=2.66),the left medial frontal gyrus(t=2.35).(5)350 ～450ms:the left anterior cingulate gyrus(t=2.02),the left medial frontal gyrus ( t =2.00),the bilateral inferior frontal gyrus ( t =1.74,t =1.78 ).( 6 ) 400 ～ 500 ms:the left anterior cingulate gyrus( t=2.01 ),the left medial frontal gyrus( t =1.97).2.Compared to healthy controls,patients showed decreased activation in the left middle frontal gyms ( t =1.79) and the left superior gyrus(t =1.76) in 200 ～ 300 ms.ConclusionExecutive dysfunction is reflected in depressed patients with the activation inefficiency in anterior cingulate and prefrontal regions in spatio-temporal sequence.

Objective To investigate the influence of uremic serum on the monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1) expression of human umbilical vascular endothelial cells (HUVECs) in vitro and the effect of up-regulation of berne oxygenase 1 (HO-1) on the synthesis of MCP-1 of HUVECs in uremic milieu. Methods HUVECs were incubated to confluence and then preineubated with heroin and/or protoporphyrin zinc IX (ZnPP)for 6 hours.The cultures were subsequently incubated with M199 cell medium containing 10% serum of healthy people or with medium containing 10% serum of maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients.HO-1 protein and mRNA expression was detected by immunohistochemistry and semi-quantitative RT-PCR.MCP-1 mRNA expression was measured by semi-quantitative RT-PCR,and MCP-1 protein was quantified by ELISA. Results Up-regulated expression of MCP-1 mRNA and protein was detected in HUVECs incubated with medium containing 10% serum of MHD patients.The protein synthesis was 2.95 folds of the control.Heroin induced expression of HO-1 mRNA and protein,and concurrently inhibited the up-regulated MCP-1 expression induced by uremic serum.Such effects of heroin could be blocked by ZnPP. Conclusions Uremic serum induces the expression of MCP-1 in HUVECs.Up-regulated expresson of endothelial HO-1 induced by heroin inhibits the enhancement of MCP-1 synthesis.HO-1 may be beneficial to the alleviation of endothelial cell injury in uremic milieu.

Objective To establish a CVS-11 pseudovirus particles ( pp)-based assay for detec-tion of neutralizing antibody against rabies virus. Methods An improved rapid fluorescence focus inhibition test ( RFFIT) for detection of neutralizing antibody against rabies virus ( RVNA) was established based on the CVS-11 pseudovirus expressing a luciferase reporter gene. Forty-six human serum samples were analyzed with the improved RFFIT and the results were compared with those by using standard RFFIT. Moreover, the improved RFFIT was used to detect the titers of RVNA in 91 serum samples collected from pet dogs and pet-breeders in Beijing. Results The coincidence rate of the improved RFFIT and the standard RFFIT was 100% regarding to the analysis of 46 human serum samples and 5 negative reference serum samples. Moreo-ver, the RVNA titers of all serum samples obtained with CVS-11 pseudovirus-based assay showed a signifi-cant high correlation with those obtained with standard RFFIT (n=46, r=0. 94, P<0. 000 1). All of the 91 serum samples collected from pet dogs and pet-breeders in Beijing were positive for RVNA as indicated by the improved RFFIT with a mean titer of 33. 01 IU/ml. Conclusion We established an improved RFFIT based on the CVS-11 pp expressing luciferase reporter gene, which might be used as a reliable alternative RFFIT for measuring RVNA titer. Analysis of the 91 serum samples collected in Beijing with the improved RFFIT showed that all samples were positive for RVNA.

Objective To explore the relationship between energy feature of the spontaneous neural activity and separate symptom clusters in first-episode depression.Methods 22 first-episode depression patients and 26 age-,gender-matched healthy controls were scanned with 3.0 T MRI Scanner.The t-test was employed to compare the difference of amplitude of low frequency fluctuation (ALFF) between the two groups,and the correlation analyses were conducted between ALFF of brain regions with significant difference and the severity of depressive symptoms clusters.Results Compared with healthy group,the depression group showed significantly increased ALFF in the right middle frontal gyrus (9,45,-6; K =18) and the bilateral fusiform gyrus (-34,-19,-12; K =37 and 30,-33,-18 ; K =31,respectively),and decreased ALFF in the left precuneus (0,-72,42; K =19) (P＜0.05,corrected by Alphasim).The ALFF of the the right middle frontal gyrus,the right fusiform gyrus,and the left precuneus were negative correlated with the scores of weight factor,retardation factor and sleep disturbance factor (r=-0.494,P=0.019; r=-0.486,P=0.022 and r=-0.484,P=0.023,respectively).Conclusion Abnormal energy feature of the spontaneous neural activity may be associated with severity of specific depressive symptoms clusters in first-episode depression patients during resting-state.