Objective To investigate the distribution characteristics of (CAG)n polymorphism in the exonl of the androgen receptor (AR) gene and its relation to the sensitivity of hypoxic training in men of Han nationality from northern China. Methods Sixty five healthy young men of Han nationality completed HiHiLo training under simulated normobaric hypoxic environment for 4 weeks. They stayed under the condition of 14.3-14.8% O_2 (simulating 2800～3000m) during nighttime and carried out hypoxic training under the condition of 14.8-15.4% O_2 (simulating 2500～2800m) 3 times per week at the intensity of 75% individual VO_2max. VO_2max and body weight of the subjects were measured. GeneScan method was used to identify the repeat alleles (genotypes) of CAG polymorphism. Results (1) Fifteen alleles (CAG)12,(CAG)16-28,(CAG)30 repeat alleles (genotypes) were observed in the subjects, in which (CAG)22 was the most common allele; (2) When 21 and 22 alleles were used as the cut point, the baseline of body weight in those carrying shorter genotypes was significantly lower than that in those carrying longer genotypes; (3) △VO_2max and △rVO_2max in men carrying shorter genotypes were significantly higher than that in men carrying longer genotypes after hypoxic training. Conclusion The result reveals that AR (CAG)n polymorphism is associated with the sensitivity of simulated normobaric hypoxic HiHiLo training in men of Han nationality from northern China, especially in those carrying shorter genotypes of AR CAG.

OBJECTIVETo analyze factors related to the virulence associated genes of Leptospires.

METHODSTwelve putative virulence associated genes were detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method in 38 reference strains, 81 field strains of Leptospira interrogans isolated from patients or animals, and 12 avirulent strains of Leptospira biflexa.

RESULTSThese putative virulent genes were widely distributed among the strains of Leptospira interrogans, but only few of them were detected in Leptospira biflexa. Gene lipL32 was detected in all strains of Leptospira interrogans. Distribution of gene lipL36 was varied significantly with detected rates from 0 to 90.91%. Gene la1608 had a positive rate of 87.50% for strains of serogroup Icterohaemorrhagiae, but was only detected in few strains of other serogroups with a range from 0 to 25.00%. Rate of detection on gene sphA was 17.65% in Leptospira interrogans, and was absent in serovar hardjo reference strain.

CONCLUSIONResults indicated that these genes might be of importance for the virulence and pathogenicity of Leptospira interrogans, while gene lipL32 might be one of the common antigens. Gene lipL36 might be involved in serogroup specificity with genetic diversity, but gene la1608 was as one of the genes with specificity for serogroup Icterohaemorrhagiae. However, serovar hadjo might hold quite different genetic characteristics when compared with the other serovars of Leptospires.

Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins ; genetics ; Bacterial Proteins ; genetics ; Carbohydrate Dehydrogenases ; genetics ; Flagellin ; genetics ; Genes, Bacterial ; genetics ; Hemolysin Proteins ; genetics ; Leptospira ; genetics ; pathogenicity ; Lipoproteins ; genetics ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Virulence ; genetics ; Virulence Factors ; genetics

Cultivating comprehensive personnel with competent professional ethics, technical skills and scientific research capabilities is the goal and task of today's laboratory medical education. How to make full use of diversified teaching materials, tools and methods to improve teaching quality is worthy of exploration and thinking in laboratory medical teaching units. In this paper, using mind map as a tool, taking the COVID-19 epidemic as an example, we intend to design a set of multidisciplinary and all-round integrated curriculum of medical laboratory education, and discuss the application status and prospect of integrated curriculum and mind map in medical laboratory education. Through doing this, we aim to optimize the training goals of laboratory medicine education, innovate the teaching methods and boost the training efficiency of laboratory medicine education to keep up with the times.

Objective To investigate the value of D-dimer plus injury severity score (ISS) in predicting the prognosis of trauma patients. Methods The clinical data of 1 592 traumatic patients admitted to our emergency room from January 1, 2014 through December 31, 2016 were retrospectively analyzed. Excluding criteria included patients below the age of 14 and patients admitted over 24 h after injury, clinical death at admission, patients left from the hospital without the approval of attend doctor, detail and complete clinical data of patients not available, patients with history of coagulopathy, primary hepatic function failure, anticoagulants used within 6 months prior to injury, and patients with multiple injury affecting more than two parts of body. Finally, a total of 1 167 patients were enrolled in this study. The 28-day prognosis was used as the endpoint. The patients were divided into survival group and death group. The differences in venous plasma D-dimer and ISS at the fi rst detection between two groups were compared by Mann-Whitney U test. According to ISS, the patients were divided into mild injury group, moderate injury group and severe injury group. The Kruskal-Wallis one-way ANOVA test was used to compare the differences among different groups. Meanwhile, the area under the ROC curve was used to compare the accuracy of predictive effi ciency of D-dimer, ISS and the combination of both. Results There was a positive correlation between D-dimer and ISS, and D-dimer and ISS in survival group were significantly lower than those in death group(Z=-7.777, Z=-6.694, P <0.01). There was a statistically signifi cant difference in mortality among groups (χ2= 70.85, P <0.01); The area under the ROC curve of ISS, D-dimer and both combined was 0.728, 0.765, 0.800, respectively. The area under the ROC curve of D-dimer to predicte patients' prognosis was a little bit larger than that of ISS, but the difference was not statistically signifi cant (Z=1.051, P=0.293). The area under the ROC curve of joint both of them for the prognosis of the patients was greater than that of ISS or D-dimer alone( Z=3.028, Z=2.722, P<0.05). Conclusions The levels of D-dimer and ISS in patients with traumatic injury are correlated with the severity and mortality of patients. The increased D-dimer and ISS score indicates that the risk of death is increased, and prediction effi ciency of combining both of them is superior to either alone.

The present study aimed to investigate the change of cytochrome c in postconditioning-attenuated ischemia-reperfusion (I/R)-induced mucosal apoptosis in rat intestine compared with ischemic preconditioning (IPC). Using rat model of intestine I/R injury, male Sprague-Dawley rats weighing 220-250 g were divided into 4 groups which were Sham operation group, I/R group, IPC group and ischemic postconditioning (IPOST) group. In these groups, I/R procedure was performed by the occlusion of the superior mesenteric artery (SMA) for 45 min followed by reperfusion for 1 h. In Sham group, there was no intervention. In IPC group, SMA was occluded for 5 min and reperfused for 5 min, for two cycles, before the prolonged occlusion. In IPOST group, three cycles of 30-s reperfusion and 30-s reocclusion were preceded at the start of reperfusion. After the reperfusion, the small intestines were sampled for experimental detection. Intestinal mucosal mitochondrial membrane potential was detected by confocal laser scanning microscopy. Expressions of cytochrome c and caspase-3 proteins were detected using Western-blot method. The apoptosis of intestinal mucosal cells was determined with agarose gel electrophoresis and deoxynucleotidyl transferase mediated dUTP-biotin nick-end labeling (TUNEL) technique. Compared with I/R group, the mitochondrial membrane potentials and the expressions of cytochrome c protein were significantly increased, while the expressions of caspase-3 and the apoptotic rates were decreased in IPOST and IPC groups (P<0.05). There were no significant differences between IPOST and IPC groups (P>0.05). These data provide substantial evidence that IPOST attenuates I/R-induced mucosal apoptosis by reducing the release of cytochrome c from mitochondria in the rat small intestine.
Animals ; Apoptosis ; physiology ; Cytochromes c ; metabolism ; Intestinal Mucosa ; metabolism ; pathology ; Intestines ; blood supply ; Ischemic Postconditioning ; methods ; Male ; Membrane Potential, Mitochondrial ; Mitochondria ; metabolism ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Reperfusion Injury ; prevention & control

OBJECTIVETo analyze the clinical characteristics and risk factors on responses and survival of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) patients with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) clones.

METHODSThe clinical data of 31 MDS cases with PNH clones from October 2004 to June 2012 were retrospectively analyzed to reveal the influence of PNH clone size on responses and survival.

RESULTS①The chromosome karyotypes were analyzed in all patients, 23 patients with normal karyotype, 7 patients with abnormal karyotype [including 3 patients with +8, 2 -Y, 1 del(7q) and 1 Xp+] and 1 patient with no mitosis. 1 patient belonged to low-risk, 27 intermediate-1 risk, 2 intermediate-2 risk and 1 high-risk groups, respectively, according to IPSS. There were significantly statistical differences between responders and nonresponders in terms of infection, ANC, Reticulocyte count and IPSS (P values were 0.049, 0.006, 0.031 and 0.043, respectively). ②The overall responsive rate was 67.7%, no patients progressed to acute leukemia (AL) during median follow-up of 19 months after immunosuppressive therapy (IST). The 3-year and 5-year overall survival rates were 82.7% and 55.1%,respectively. ③According to univariate analysis,age, infection and ANC had significant influence on survival (P values were 0.050, 0.031 and 0.026, respectively). ④The PNH clone size had no significant influence on survival through univariate and COX analyses (P=0.393).

CONCLUSIONMDS patients with PNH clone had less cytogenetic abnormalities, higher probability of response to IST and lower probability of progression to AL; Furthermore, the PNH clone size had no significant influence on response and survival.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Child ; Clone Cells ; Female ; Hemoglobinuria, Paroxysmal ; pathology ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Myelodysplastic Syndromes ; drug therapy ; genetics ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Treatment Outcome ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo identify and type three leptospires isolated from Rattus tanezumi in Guizhou Province by using three molecular techniques (PFGE, MLVA, and MLST), reveal the molecular characteristic of causative agents of local leptospirosis and evaluate these three molecular methods based on their detection resolution and efficiency.

METHODSThree Leptospira strains were isolated from the kidney of Rattus tanezumi and cultured with EMJH medium. PFGE, MLVA, and MLST assays were applied to type the three strains isolated from Rattus tanezumi in Guizhou Province.

RESULTSPFGE, MLVA, and MLST typing showed that the three leptospiral isolates matched with leptospiral serogroup Icterohaemorrhagiae serovar Lai. The findings of the genotyping methods were consistent. MLVA and MLST defined genotypes, whereas PFGE allowed the recognition of additional subgroups within the genotypes, and the findings of molecular typing were also consistent with those of traditional techniques.

CONCLUSIONThree leptospiral isolates from Guizhou Province matched with leptospiral serogroup Icterohaemorrhagiae serovar Lai, and PFGE, MLVA, and MLST, as reliable molecular techniques for identifying and typing of Leptospira interrogans, would contribute to the active surveillance, outbreak investigation and source tracking for leptospirosis in Guizhou Province.

Animals ; China ; epidemiology ; DNA, Bacterial ; classification ; genetics ; Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field ; Genotype ; Leptospira interrogans ; classification ; genetics ; Leptospirosis ; epidemiology ; microbiology ; veterinary ; Phylogeny ; Rats

Bacterial Typing Techniques ; Leptospira interrogans ; classification ; genetics ; Minisatellite Repeats ; Multilocus Sequence Typing ; methods

OBJECTIVETo investigate the abnormalities of iron metabolism, the prevalence and risk factors of iron overload and clinical characteristics of patients with aplastic anemia (AA).

METHODSA cross-sectional study was conducted on 520 newly diagnosed AA patients.

RESULTSIron overload was observed in 66(13%) of 520 AA patients,in which a higher prevalence of iron overload was seen not only in patients with infections(19/86, 22%)than those without infections (47/434, 11%, P<0.01), but also in patients with hepatitis associated AA(HAAA) (6/22, 19%) than the idiopathic cases (60/488, 12%, P>0.05). Excluded the patients with infections and/or HAAA, 43 of 405(11%)cases had iron overload, including 14 of 248(6%) cases without history of blood transfusion and 29 of 157 patients (18%, P<0.01) with transfusion. In univariate analysis, higher levels of serum ferritin (SF), serum iron (SI) and transferrin saturation (TS) were mainly observed in adult male patients with severe AA (SAA) and significantly upward with increasing blood transfusion (P<0.01). No differences of soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR) were observed between adults and children, males and females, hepatitis and idiopathic AA. However, patients with infections had significantly lower level of sTfR (0.50 mg/L) than cases without infections (0.79 mg/L, P<0.01). The level of sTfR in SAA patients (0.70 mg/L) was only half of that in non-SAA (NSAA) (1.36 mg/L, P<0.01). Patients with increasing blood transfusion had significantly downward levels of sTfR (P<0.01). In multivariate analysis, more than 8 U blood transfusion (OR=10.52, P<0.01), adults (OR=3.48, P<0.01), males (OR=3.32, P<0.01) and infections (OR=2.09, P<0.01) were independent risk factors.

CONCLUSIONAA patients had higher iron burden and were high-risk populations occurring iron overload. The iron overload occurred in 18% of patients with blood transfusion and in 6% of patients without transfusion.

Anemia, Aplastic ; complications ; physiopathology ; Blood Transfusion ; Ferritins ; blood ; Hepatitis ; complications ; Humans ; Iron ; blood ; metabolism ; Iron Overload ; physiopathology ; Risk Factors