Objective To evaluate the association of fetal total bile acid (TBA) concentration with fetal adrenocortical dysfunction in intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy(ICP). Methods The concentration of TBA, cortisol and DHEA-S in the cord blood were measured in 20 fetuses with maternal ICP (ICP group) and 22 fetuses of normogravidas (control group) after elective cesarean section. The cord blood TBA concentration was investigated by enzyme method and the cord concentration of cortisol and DHEA-S by radioimmunoassay. Results The cord TBA concentration in ICP group was significantly higher than that of controls [(8.93?3.16)mmol/L vs (4.33?1.51)mmol/L, P0.05)]. The cord blood level of cortisol,DHEA-S and the ratio of DHEA-S over cortisol were correlated with the cord blood TBA concentration (r 1= 0.87,r 2=-0.88,r 3=-0.84,P

Objective To explore the application probability of AFLP method (Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism) for the genetic study of complicated samples and to make clear the analytical approach on polymorphic fragments.Methods An AFLP fragement sequence,resolved between murines with high and low metastatic hepatocarcinoma,was retrieved from a reference paper and was annotated on NCBI database by different BLAST programs. Results The retrieved information varied along with the different BLAST programs, nevertheless BLASTX program provided more comprehensive information and showed that the differentiated fragment exhibited high homology with terminase large subunits from Burkholderia phage Bups phil and Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Ra. However, there is no detailed information for the latter,key words search returned the relationship between terminase and the formation and metastasis of tumors and provided the further research clues. Conclusions Whole genome screening in parallel of AFLP markers between genetically differentiated paired materials would readily produce informatic fragments. Further analysis of the sequenced fragments by informatic methods would facilitate the subsequent research.

Objective To study the ways of obstetrics and gynecology noviciate on how to increase medical students' practical ability in eight-year program. Methods The three aspect studies ,such as experimental technology teaching on gynecology, clinical observation and thought of emergency and ward practice,and simulation teaching of clinical skill,has been accomplished in 50 students of eight-year program in the grade of 2004. Results Teaching achievements has been made in three aspects,such as the settlement of the difficulties in obstetrics and gynecology teaching, the increase of clinical skill and enhancement of practical chance in obstetrics and gynecology. Conclusions The studies of obstetrics and gynecology noviciate provide referenced teaching modes for increase medical students' practical ability in eight-year program.

Objective To investigate changes of oxidative stress in the hearts and their roles in diabetic cardiomyopathy of rats.Methods Thirty six rats with diabetic cardiomyopathy were induced by streptozocin(STZ),and were randomly divided into three groups:(1) normal control (NC) group,normal control rats; (2) Diabetes maintain (DM) group,diabetic rats received protamine zinc insulin (PZI) 2 ～4 U/2 days; and (3) Diabetes treatment (DT) group,diabetic rats received PZI 9 ～ 12 U/kg body weigh/day.After 12 weeks,rats were killed,and the parameters including blood glucose,glycated hemoglobin a1c (HbA1c),total cholesterol (TC),and triglyceride (TG) were measured.Maleic dialdehyde (MDA),the total antioxidant capacity of the hearts,and activities of antioxidant enzymes in hearts including total superoxide dismutase (TSOD),catalase (CAT),and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) were measured by chromatometry.The pathologic changes of heart tissues were studied by hematoxylin eosin (HE),periodic acid Schiff (PAS),and nitrotyrosine (NT) staining.Results After 12 weeks,parameters including blood glucose,HbA1c,TC,and TG were increased significantly in DM group relative to NC group or DT group.The level of heart MDA was elevated obviously in the DM group [NC group (7.82 ±0.62) nmol/mgprot,DM group (12.81 ± 1.35) nmol/mgprot,and DT group (8.20 ±0.85) nmol/mgprot].The total antioxidant capacity and activities of TSOD [(235.09 ± 14.94) U/mgprot],GSH-Px [(56.59 ± 4.96) U] were decreased significantly in the DM group.The level of CAT [(13.84 ± 2.88) U/mgprot] was increased obviously in the DM group.The cardial myocyte hypertrophy,myocyte steatosis,and PAS positive material could be found in the hearts of rats in DM group with HE and PAS staining.The expression of NT was much stronger in DM group than NC or DT groups.NT was less expressed in DT group,and was almost not expressed in the NC group.Conclusions Oxidative stress could be caused by diabetes in diaetic hearts and might play an important role in the etiology of diabetic cardiomyopathy.

Aim To study the application status of odds ratio for medical animal experiments.Methods Odds ratio and seven kinds of animal models were used as retrieval strategy to search medical animal experiment related papers in several Chinese and English databases.Papers relating to each kind of animal model and using odds ratio in abstract and text were counted. Data from different databases were compared. Calculation of odds ratio was exemplified and the significance of different odds ratio values was illustrated in this paper.Results Few medical animal experiments cited odds ratio as statistics.Conclusions The importance of odds ratio has not been fully recognized in Chinese references.

Objective:To investigate the ability of chymase inhibitors on tryptase release from human colon mast cells.Methods:Human mast cells were dispersed from colon tissue with collagenase and hyaluronidase,and were challenged with stimulus for 15 min at 37℃.Tryptase assay performed following previous procedures.In brief,a 96-well microtitre plate was coated with antiserum to human tryptase.The tryptase levels in the samples were detected with a monoclonal antibody specific to tryptase and the reaction was visualized by addition of OPD.Results:At 15 min and 35 min following incubation,anti-IgE and calcium ionophore were able to provoke significant tryptase release from human colon mast cells.Chymase inhibitors ZIGPFM,TPCK and ?1-antitrypsin had no stimulatory effect on colon mast cells at both 15 min and 35 min incubation periods.All the chymase inhibitors were able to inhibit anti-IgE induced tryptase release in a concentration dependent manner with a maximum of 37%,40% and 36.6% inhibition being achieved with 1 ?mol/mL of ZIGPFM,80 ?mol/mL of TPCK,30 ?mol/mL of ?1-antitrypsin,respectively.Preincubation of inhibitors of ZIGPFM and TPCK with cells for 20 min at 37℃ before challenging with anti-IgE was able to slightly enhance their inhibitory actions.Amastatin,a specific inhibitor of aminopeptidase,had no effect on anti-IgE induced tryptase release.All the chymase inhibitors were able to inhibit calcium ionophore induced tryptase release,the maximum inhibition were 23%-35.3%.And the extent of inhibition by ZIGPFM was increased when colon mast cells were preincubated for 20 min before calcium ionophore being added.However,the same treament failed to improve the action of TPCK.Conclusion:We found for the first time that inhibitors of chymase were able to inhibit anti-IgE and calcium ionophore induced tryptase release from human colon mast cells,which may indicated a potential of a novel therapy for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease or other mast cell related diseases.

AIM: To investigate the ability of Chinese cobra snake venom-metalloproteinase(MT) to induce the histamine release from human mast cells and its potential mechanisms.METHODS: MT was purified from the snake venom by using heparin agarose and Superdex75 chromatography.Mast cells were dispersed from human lung, colon and tonsil tissues after digestion with collagenase and hyaluronidase.The dispersed mast cells were then challenged with MT,stimulus and control in LP4 tubes for 15 min at 37 ℃.A glass fibre-based fluorometric assay was used to measure histamine in the supernatants of dispersed mast cells.RESULTS: MT induced a dose-dependent release of histamine from human colon,lung and tonsil mast cells.As low as 0.03(mg/L) of MT was able to stimulate significant histamine release from human colon mast cells,but a minimum of 0.3 or 30 mg/L of MT was required to stimulate a similar level of histamine release from lung or tonsil mast cells,respectively.The release of histamine from colon and lung mast cells in response to MT was maximized at 12 min following the addition of the stimulus.This was quite different from the picture of the peak histamine release from tonsil mast cells,in which histamine release was maximized at 8 min following the addition of MT.Pretreatment of cells with metabolic inhibitors and pertussis toxin reduced dramatically histamine release from human colon,lung and tonsil mast cells by MT.In exogenous Ca~(2+) and Mg~(2+) free experiments,the release of histamine induced by MT was significantly decreased.CONCLUSION: Cobra snake venom MT induces human mast cells to release histamine through a G-protein-related mechanism,which may contribute to the pathogenesis of venomous snake bite.

Objective To make quantity evaluation of the teaching quality of various teaching models and ways in Obstetrics and Gynecology. Methods By the way of expert scores,evaluation indexes of the teaching quality were screened and the weight of each index was evaluated in Obstetrics and Gynecology. Teaching circumstances of common class and international standard test class of five-year system clinical medicine in 2005 grade were evaluated by the evaluation system. Results A comprehensive evaluation of index system which was divided by two grade and had 11 evaluation indexes had been constructed . Based on the new evaluation system and the results of student questionnaire,the index of comprehensive evaluation in international standard test class was significantly higher than that in common class(t=2.257,P=0.027). Conclusion The constructed comprehensive evaluation system of the teaching quality in Obstetrics and Gynecology can reflect the teaching circumstances. By using the teaching model of organ system and the Problem-Based Learning teaching way,the teaching quality in Obstetrics and Gynecology has been improved.

Aim To investigate the ability of chymase inhibitors o n histamine release from human colon mast cells. Methods Human ma st cells were dispersed from colon tissue with collagenase and hyaluronidase, an d were challenged with stimulus for 15 min at 37℃.A glass fibre-based fluorome tric assay was used to measure histamine in the supernatants of dispersed mast c ells.Results chymase inhibitors ZIGPFM, TPCK and ? 1-antitry psin failed to induce significant histamine release from colon mast cells. All t he chymase inhibitors were able to inhibit anti-IgE induced histamine release i n a concentration dependent manner with a maximum of 37%, 26% and 36.8% inhibit ion being achieved with 1 mmol?L -1 of ZIGPFM, 80 mmol?L -1 of TPCK , 30 mmol?L -1 of ? 1-antitrypsin, respectively. Preincubation of inhib itors of ZIGPFM and TPCK with cells for 20 min at 37℃ before challenging with a nti-IgE was able to slightly enhance their inhibitory actions. All the chymase inhibitors were able to inhibit calcium ionophore induced histamine release, th e maximum inhibition was 23.6%～35%.And the extent of inhibition by TPCK was in creased when colon mast cells were preincubated for 20 min before calcium ionoph ore being added. However, the same treament failed to improve the action of ZIGP FM. Conclusion In the current study, we found that inhibitors o f chymase were able to inhibit anti-IgE and calcium ionophore induced histamine release from human colon mast cells, which may indicate a potential of a novel therapy for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease or other mast cell relat ed diseases.

AIM: To investigate the changes of oxidative stress in the kidneys and their roles in nephropathy in diabetic rats. METHODS: Diabetic rats were induced by streptozotocin (STZ). 36 rats were divided into three groups randomly: (1) NC group, normal control rats; (2) DM group, diabetic rats received protamine zinc insulin (PZI) 2U-4U/2 d; (3) DT group, diabetic rats received PZI 9-12 U/kg body weigh/day. 12 weeks later, rats were killed, blood glucose, blood cholesterol, serum creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, HbA1c, urinary creatinine, and urinary protein for 24 h were measured. The activities of antioxidant enzymes in renal cortex, including total superoxide dismutase (TSOD), Cu-Zn superoxide dismutase (Cu-Zn SOD), Mn superoxide dismutase (Mn SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), and maleic dialdehyde (MDA) were measured by chromatometry. RT-PCR was performed to detect the expression of different antioxidant enzymes mRNA. RESULTS: For all the targets we measured, there was no significant difference between NC and DT groups. Compared with the other two groups, the levels of blood glucose, cholesterol, trigalloyl glycerol, HbA1c in DM group increased significantly. The activities of TSOD, Cu-Zn SOD and CAT decreased significantly. The activity of GSH-Px increased significantly. There was no significant difference among the activities of Mn SOD in all three groups. The level of MDA in DM group was much higher than that in NC or DT group. The relative expression levels of GSH-Px and Cu-Zn SOD mRNA in DM group were higher than those in other two groups, while the relative expression level of CAT decreased. Mn SOD mRNA was expressed without significant difference in all groups. Compared with NC or DT group, urinary protein in DM group increased significantly, while creatinine clearance rate decreased. CONCLUSIONS: Hyperglycemia affected the expression of antioxidant enzymes. Oxidative stress was caused by hyperglycemia in diabetic rats and may be an important factor in the etiology of diabetic nephropathy.