BACKGROUND: It is considered traditionally that epilepsy is a kind of complicated nervous conduct disorder caused by abnormally excited neuron in different area in brain. While the research on the function of astrocyte in epileptic attack is very rare.OBJECTIVE: To study the reaction of neuron and astrocyte in medullary visceral zone after epilepsy induced by pentetrazole in rats.DESIGN: A randomized controlled experimental research.SETTING and MATERIALS: The experiment was done in the Neurosurgery Laboratory of Zhujiang Hospital Affiliated to Southern Medical University and Neuroscience Institute of Fourth Military Medical University of Chinese PLA. Fourteen healthy adult SD rats, weighing 180 - 220 g, clean grade, were provided by the Experimental Animal Center of Fourth Military Medical University of Chinese PLA.INTERVENTIONS: Distribution of neuron and astrocyte in MVZ 1 hour after epileptic attack was shown by laserconfocal microscopic technique combined with triplication immunofluorescence histochemistry of anti-Fos protein, anti-tyrosine hydroxylase(TH) and anti-glial fibrillary acidic protein(GFAP).MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Observation of distribution of positive cells of Fos, GFAP and TH in MVZ and relationship between GFAP positive astrocyte and neuron.RESULTS: Fos positive neurons and GFAP positive astrocytes in MVZ increased significantly. Triplication immunofluorescence histochemistry showed reaction neuron(Fos positive) closely related with reaction astrocyte(GFAP positive) . Three kinds of N-ASC compounds with different labels were found, which were TH +/Fos +/GFAP + three labeled compound, TH + /GFAP +/Fos- and Fos+/GFAP +/TH- two labeled compound.CONCLUSION: Neuron and astrocyte in MVZ reacted strongly when epilepsy attacks. N-ASC as a functional unit may regulate onset of epilepsy.

BACKGROUND: Lipopolysaccharide(LPS), as a polyclonal immune exciter, can simulate immune excitation status, which is useful in the observation of whether the catecholaminergic neurons in paraventricular nucleus of hypothalamus(PVN) projected from medullary visceral zone(MVZ) react towards LPS stimulation that is to provide a theoretical gist for the researches on the protection of brain function.OBJECTIVE: To observe whether PVN catecholaminergic neurons projected from MVZ react towards LPS stimulation for the exploration of the impacts of MVZ-PVN catecholaminergic access in "immune-to-brain communication".DESIGN: A randomized controlled study using experimental animals as subjects.SETTING: An Institute of Neurosurgery and Neurology of one Military University of Chinese PLA.MATERIALS: The study was conducted in the Department of Neurosurgery of Zhujiang Hospital affiliated to Southern Medical University and the Institute of Neurology of the Fourth Military Medical University of Chinese PLA from January to December in 2002. Ten healthy adult SD rats in cleanness grade were obtained from the experimental animal center of the Fourth Military Medical University of Chinese PLA.METHODS: WGA-HRP was injected into PVN of one side of the rat, and the immune exciter LPS was injected into the abdominal cavity after 48 hours of survival to induce immune response. Samples were stained by triple labels of WGA-HRP method and double immunohistochemical staining of anti-Fos and anti-TH antibodies.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: To observe the distributions and expressions of WGA-HRP labeled cells, Fos protein, and catecholaminergic neuron(labeled by TH) in MVZ.RESULTS: Seven immune-reactive(IR) positive neurons were found in MVZ, i. e., HRP, Fos or TH single labeled cells, Fos/HRP, Fos/TH or HRP/TH double labeled cells, and Fos/HRP/TH triple labeled cells. Fos/HRP double labeled neurons and Fos/HRP/TH triple labeled neurons accounted for 12. 5% and 39.6% of HRP labeled cells respectively.CONCLUSION: MVZ reacts to LPS immune stimulation, which could upload the immune message to PVN through Catecholaminergic neurons.MVZ might be a relay station in "immune-to-brain communication", which exerts immune modulatory impact through "MVZ→PVN" access.

Forensic science is looking for clues at a crime scene in order to reconstruct the crime scene.Classic clues include DNA and fingerprints.Forensic microbiology is a branch of forensic medicine that uses microbes as clues,providing us information about lifestyle,circadian rhythms,geographic locations,postmortem intervals,cancers,and oral or systemic diseases.Oral cavity,as the place with the second largest number of microorganisms,can provide researchers with microbial information of each ecological niche,and assist in the prediction,diagnosis and monitoring of oral or systemic diseases.This paper reviews the composition of oral microbiome,the application in oral diseases,systemic diseases and forensic medicine,with the aim of providing some references for the development of forensic microbiology based on oral microbiome.