Many somatic cell typos were obtained by in vitro differentiation or teratoma formation of human embryonic stem ceLls (hESCs). However, it is unclear whether specific cell types can be obtained from hESCs-derived teratoma. It was reported that many kinds of cells, including neural progetfitor/precursor cells (NPCs) and mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were isolated efficiently from the teratoma of hESCs through in vitro selection. The teratoma-derived NPCs and MSCs showed specific characteristics of molecular markers similar to the primary NPCs and MSCs. Moreover, these teratoma-induced NPCs and MSCs can be further induced to differentiate into neurons, astrocytes, or adipose and bone cells, reflecting their inherent multi-potencies. Given that teratoma normally contains a mixture of ectoderm, mesodenn, and endoderm lineage cells at different differentiation stage, it was suggested that hESCs-derived teratoma could be an alternative source to generate a variety of uncommitted progenitor cells or terminally differentiated somatic cells, which may be otherwise difficult to obtain through direct in vitro differentiation.

Objective To explore the effect of 1a,25(OH)2 D3 on circadian clock gene expressions in cardiac myocytes.Methods Cultured cardiac myocytes isolated from 7 -day -old Sprague -Dawley(SD)rats were identified by immunofluorescence.The medium including 1a,25 (OH)2 D3 (final concentrations were 0 nmol/L,1 nmol/L, 10 nmol/L,50 nmol/L and 100 nmol/L)were added to primary myocardial cells to culture for 2 h and then total RNA was extracted.Real -time polymerase chain reaction (RT -PCR)was applied to analyze myocardial cells circadian clock gene (Bmal1,Per2,Rev -erba)transcript levels to determine optimum concentration of 1a,25(OH)2 D3 .Then, the primary myocardial cells cultured for 72 h were divided into 3 groups:the control group was of serum -free culture medium;serum shock group was of DMEMcontaining 50%volume fraction of horse serum cultured 2 h;1a,25(OH)2 D3 treatment group receiving 1a,25 (OH)2 D3 at optimal concentration cultured 2 h.The cells were collected at 7 time points (0 h,4 h,8 h,12 h,16 h,20 h,24 h)and then total RNA was extracted.RT -PCR was applied to analyze circa-dian clock gene (Bmal1,Per2,Rev -erba)transcript levels in the myocardial cells.Results In the presence of 50 nmol/L 1 a,25(OH)2 D3 ,the Bmal1 mRNA expression showed the highest level,but the Per2 and Rev -erba mRNA expression levels were minimum.Compared with the control group,both 1a,25 (OH)2 D3 treatment group and serum shock group caused day -cycle rhythmic oscillation in circadian clock genes(Bmal1,Per2,Rev -erba)in the cardiac myocytes.And the expressions pattern of Bmal1 and Per2 genes were in the opposite phase.While Bmal1 gene expres-sion appeared at peak at 12 h,Per2 gene expression appeared in a trough.Expression of Rev -erba gene trend began to rise at 8 h,and the highest expression level appeared at 12 -16 h.Conclusions 1a,25(OH)2 D3 can affect Bmal1, Per2 and Rev -erba mRNA expressions of circadian clock genes in the cardiac myocytes.

In this study, researchers adopted the network analysis method to study Buyang Huanwu decoction at three levels, namely chemical ingredients, targets and diseases, and discovered the potential effect of Buyang Huanwu decoction in cancer treatment. Besides, they analyzed the "target-target" network of Buyang Huanwu decoction based on diseases, calculated four network indexes, namely node centrality, closeness centrality, betweenness centrality and eigenvector centrality for a comprehensive evaluation on the importance and significance of each target in the network. Afterwards, key targets of Buyang Huanwu decoction were excavated to obtain two important targets--COX-2 and PPAR-gamma, which may be important targets involved in the qi deficiency and blood stasis diseases. Meanwhile, the two targets were the basis to build the core network of "chemical component-target-disease" of Buyang Huanwu decoction, which provided reference for further studies on the effect of Buyang Huanwu decoction in treating qi deficiency and blood stasis diseases. According to the study, the network analysis method was helpful to excavate potential targets Buyang Huanwu decoction in treating qi deficiency and blood stasis diseases, and could provide methodological reference for revealing the mechanism of Buyang Huanwu decoction at multiple levels, with a guiding significance for interpreting mechanisms of traditional Chinese medicinal formulae and developing new drugs.
Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; Hematologic Diseases ; drug therapy ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Qi ; Yang Deficiency ; drug therapy ; Yin Deficiency ; drug therapy

Objective To explore the basic biological characteristics of lncRNA -uc.1 67,and its spatial dis-tribution,temporal expression pattern during the mouse embryonic development.Methods The UCSC genome browser of ENCODE was used to analyze preliminary bioinformatics of lncRNAs.Real -time (RT)-PCR was applied to detect the expression of uc.1 67 and neighboring genes in the embryonic mouse heart in different stages (P7.5,P1 1 .5,P1 4.5, P1 8.5).Dimethyl sulphoxide was used to induce P1 9 cell differentiation into the cardiomyocytes.RT -PCR was applied to detect the expression changes in uc.1 67 and neighboring genes on differential day 0,4,6,8 and 1 0.Results Full -length of human uc.167 was 201 bp,and human uc.167 was located in the genome 5q14.3 (chr5:88179623 -881 79824,GRCh37 /hg1 9).uc.1 67 mainly expressed in the ventricular muscle tissue.The expression of uc.1 67 was gradually decreased in the mouse embryonic heart development process(P7.5:1 .000 ±0.1 00,P1 1 .5:0.71 4 ±0.1 07, P1 4.5:0.393 ±0.043,P1 8.5:0.1 25 ±0.01 3),while the expression of its neighboring Mef2c gene was gradually in-creased(P7.5:1 .081 ±0.1 1 8,P1 1 .5:2.340 ±0.351 ,P1 4.5:3.958 ±0.542,P1 8.5:9.361 ±0.722),which showed an opposite trend.The expression of uc.1 67 during P1 9 cell differentiation into cardiomyocytes showed a an increase at first and then a decreasepattern,and the highest level expression of uc.1 67 was on differential day 4(d0:1 .071 ± 0.1 1 7,d4:4.71 4 ±0.501 ,d6:3.572 ±0.41 4,d8:2.550 ±0.31 4,d1 0:0.786 ±0.085).The expression of neigh-boring gene Mef2c was in an opposite trend(d0:1 .01 2 ±0.041 ,d4:0.353 ±0.037,d6:2.470 ±0.329,d8:6.706 ± 0.682,d1 0:7.765 ±0.705).Conclusions It is suggested that uc.1 67 may take part in the process of embryonic heart development and may play a role through negatively regulating its neighboring gene Mef2c.

ObjectiveTo investigate the effects of the middle cerebral artery occlusion on the density of the brain surface vessels in the rat.MethodsForty one male Wistar rats with an average body weight of 170±10g were randomly divided into three groups: group A(n=3) underwent no operation, group B(n=3) underwent sham operation, group C(n=35) underwent an operation of ischemic brain injury. The right middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) of group C rats were induced by 5/0 monofilament nylon suture for 2 hours. The time points of reperfusion was 1 day, 2 days, 3 days, 7 days and 14 days following MCAO. The regional cerebral blood flow in the right brain, the morphology, number, length of the right hemisphere surface vessels were measured. ResultsThe number, length of the right hemisphere vessels increased with the progress of reperfusion time. Conclusions The ischemia induced the production of vessels in the brain in the rats.

This study aimed to explore the outcomes of progestin-primed ovarian stimulation protocol (PPOS) in aged infertile women who failed to get pregnant in the first IVF/ICSI-ET cycles with GnRH-a long protocol.A self-controlled study was conducted to retrospectively investigate the clinical outcomes of 104 aged infertile patients who didn't get pregnant in the first IVF/ICSI-ET treatment by stimulating with GnRH-a long protocol (non-PPOS group),and underwent PPOS protocol (PPOS group) in the second cycle between January 2016 and December 2016 in the Center for Reproductive Medicine,Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University.The primary outcomes included clinical pregnancy rate of frozen-thawed embryos transfer (FET) in PPOS group,and good-quality embryo rate in both groups.The secondary outcomes were fertilization rate,egg utilization rate and cycle cancellation rate.The results showed that there were no significant differences in basal follicle stimulating hormone (bFSH),antral follicle count (AFC),duration and total dosage of gonadotropin (Gn),number of oocytes retrieved,intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) rate,fertilization rate,and cycle cancellation rate between the two groups (P＞0.05).However,the oocyte utilization rate and good-quality embryo rate in PPOS group were significantly higher than those in non-PPOS group (P＜0.05).By the end of April 2017,62 FET cycles were conducted in PPOS group.The clinical pregnancy rate and embryo implantation rate were 22.58％ and 12.70％,respectively.In conclusion,PPOS protocol may provide better clinical outcomes by improving the oocyte utilization rate and good-quality embryo rate for aged infertile patients who failed to get pregnant in the first IVF/ICSI-ET cycles.

Objective To evaluate the impact of different reconstruction parameter setting of knowledge-based iterative model reconstruction (IMR) technique on image quality of low-dose hepatic contrast-enhanced CT.Methods Forty patients underwent hepatic contrast-enhanced CT scanning were enrolled.Plain CT and triphasic contrast-enhanced CT scans,including hepatic arterial phase,portal-venous phase and delayed phase were performed.Low-dose scan was used in delayed phase,with tube voltage of 80 kV and tube current of 150 mAs.Images of delayed phase were reconstructed with both filtered back projection (FBP) and IMR techniques.Parameter setting applied in IMR reconstructions consisted of body routine and body soft tissue modes with three levels (Level 1-3),so 6 subgroups (R1,R2,R3,S1,S2,S3) were included.Subjective and objective evaluations of image quality were compared among those groups.Subjective evaluations included the scores of low contrast detectability (LCD),image distortion (ID) and diagnostic confidence (DC).Objective evaluations included image noise,signal to noise ratio (SNR) and contrast to noise ratio (CNR).Results There were statistical differences of scores in LCD,ID and DC among all the reconstruction parameter setting groups (all P＜0.01).The noise,SNR and CNR among different parameter setting groups had statistically significant differences (all P＜0.01).Except for subgroup S1 and subgroup R2,subgroup S2 and subgroup R3 (all P＞0.05),the other multiple comparisons showed significant differences (all P＜0.01).Conclusion IMR can improve image quality of low-dose hepatic contrast-enhanced CT.IMR reconstruction parameter setting of S1 and R2 are optimal for low-dose hepatic contrast-enhanced CT protocal.

Objective To investigate the epidemiological characteristics of thoracic aorta and coronary calcification,and to analyze the effects of common risk factors on thoracic aorta and coronary calcification.Methods Low dose chest CT was performed in 2 393 asymptomatic subjects who underwent lung cancer screening.The chi-square test and Logistic regression analysis were used.Results The frequency of aortic calcification was 24.73％ in total 2 393 subjects.And the frequency of calcification was the highest in the arch.The frequency of aortic calcification was 8.82％,and the frequency of calcification was higher in the left coronary artery than the right coronary artery.The frequency of thoracic aorta and coronary calcification were increasing with age,and the frequency of calcification was higher in male than female (P ＜0.05).The frequency of calcification was higher in smokers than non-smokers,and the frequency of calcification was higher in smokers (≥30 capsules) than the smokers (＜30 capsules) (P＜0.05).The age,smoking and chronic bronchitis were associated with thoracic aorta and coronary calcification.Conclusion The detection of calcification of thoracic aorta and coronary in lung cancer screening using low dose chest CT can assess the epidemiological characteristics of atherosclerosis in healthy screening population.

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the clinical results of using end plate rings in preventing subsidence of titanium cage in anterior cervical corpectomy and fusion (ACCF) surgery.

METHODSThe clinical data of 71 patients with cervical spondylotic myelopathy underwent ACCF in single segment from February 2008 to February 2011 were retrospectively analyzed. There were 38 males and 33 females, aged from 39 to 74 years old with a mean of 53.8 years. Thirty-three were used end plate rings and thirty-eight were not used (end plate rings group and no end plate ring group, respectively). The Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) score, Odom's scale, imaging data were used to evaluate the clinical effects. Imaging data including Cobb angle of fusion segment, intervertebral height of anterior border (Da) and posterior border (Dp), the mean intervertebral height (Dm).

RESULTSAll patients were followed up from 13 to 34 months with an average of 19.5 months. Between two groups, there was no significant difference in Cobb angle of fusion segment and the mean intervertebral height (Dm) before surgery and one week after surgery. Whereas, one year after surgery, the Cobb angle of end plate ring group was (9.4 ± 3.8) degrees, and contral group was (7.5 ± 3.9) degrees, which was significantly lower than that of end plate ring group. Meanwhile, the Dm of end plate ring group was (57.3 ± 2.2) mm, and no end ring group was (55.2 ± 2.6) mm which was significantly lower than that of end plate ring group. The subsidence in end plate ring group was 57.6%, and was 78.9% in no end plate ring group. There was no significant difference in JOA score before and after surgery between two groups. At 1 year after operation, 90.9% (30/33) got excellent or good results in end plate ring group, 89.5% (33/38) got excellent or good results in contral group.

CONCLUSIONThe use of end plate rings could not completely prevent the subsidence of titanium cage, however, which can decrease the occurrence rate of the subsidence and lessen its degree.

Adult ; Aged ; Bone Plates ; Cervical Vertebrae ; pathology ; surgery ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Orthopedic Fixation Devices ; adverse effects ; Spinal Fusion ; instrumentation ; methods ; Spondylosis ; pathology ; surgery ; Titanium

Imatinib mesylate has been commonly used in the treatment of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). However, a significant number of CML patients treated with imatinib developed thrombocytopenia. Platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)/platelet-derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR) plays a significant role in the regulation of thrombopoiesis. It is suggested that imatinib may block the PDGF/PDGFR and PI3-K/Akt pathway, then inducing the apoptosis of megakaryocytes and developing thrombocytopenia in these patients. In this review, the potential molecular mechanism of imatinib-induced thrombocytopenia in the treatment of CML patients is discussed, including imatinib and thrombocytopenia, PDGF/PDGFR and thrombopoiesis, potential mechanism of imatinib-induced thrombocytopenia in treatment of patients with CML and so on.
Antineoplastic Agents ; adverse effects ; therapeutic use ; Benzamides ; Caspase 3 ; metabolism ; Humans ; Imatinib Mesylate ; Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive ; drug therapy ; genetics ; metabolism ; Piperazines ; adverse effects ; therapeutic use ; Platelet-Derived Growth Factor ; metabolism ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt ; metabolism ; Pyrimidines ; adverse effects ; therapeutic use ; Signal Transduction ; Thrombocytopenia ; chemically induced ; Thrombopoiesis