OBJECTIVESTo investigate whether tibial intercondylar hyperplasia can cause anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries.

METHODSFrom February 2009 to October 2012, 58 cases (including 70 knees) with knee osteoarthritis (KOA) without trauma history were selected from the out-patient department of orthopaedics in Guang'anmen Hospital attached to China Academy of Chinese Medical Science. All cases were tested by MRI scanning, then vertical height of the medial and lateral intercondylar spine in coronal position and the area of abnormal signal of ACL in sagittal position were tested from patients. Correlation between the height of intercondylar spine and the area of abnormal signal of ACL were analyzed.

RESULTSFives cases of 58 cases( 70 knees) were excluded from episome in knee joint, and other 65 knees were in accordance with the inclusion criteria. Among them, there were 10 males and 48 females aged from 39 to 79 years old with an average of 61 years old. The vertical height of the medial intercondylar spine was (10.02 +/- 1.46) mm and lateral was (8.92 +/- 1.69) mm. The area of abnormal signal ACL was (318.42 +/- 130.10) mm2. There was positive correlation between the height of medial intercondylar spine and the area of abnormal signal of ACL (r=0.06, P=0.00). But there was no correlation between lateral intercondylar spine and the area of abnormal signal of ACL (P=0.10).

CONCLUSIONThe height of medial intercondylar spine and the area of abnormal signal of ACL is positively correlated. The clinical significance is in study, while the clinical meaning still need further study.

Adult ; Aged ; Anterior Cruciate Ligament ; abnormalities ; diagnostic imaging ; surgery ; Female ; Humans ; Hyperplasia ; diagnostic imaging ; surgery ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Osteoarthritis, Knee ; diagnostic imaging ; surgery ; Radiography ; Tibia ; diagnostic imaging ; pathology ; surgery

Objective:To optimize the ethanol extraction process of Rhizoma Corydalis and Salvia miltiorrhiza, and study the effect of comminution degree of the medicinal materials on the effective constituent. Methods:Using the alcohol concentration, alcohol vol-ume, extraction time and extraction times as the impacting factors,the content of tetrahydropalmatine and salvianolic acid as the indi-ces, the extraction process was optimized by orthogonal test of L9(34). Results:The best extraction conditions were as follows:Rhizo-ma Corydalis was crushed into coarse powder, the material / liquid ratio was 1∶6 with 75% ethanol as the extraction solvent,extracting twice with 1. 5h each. Conclusion:The extraction method is appropriate and simple,and can be used in the industrial production.

Animals ; Animals, Newborn ; Bone Marrow Transplantation ; Disease Models, Animal ; Humans ; Hypoxia, Brain ; physiopathology ; prevention & control ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Stromal Cells ; transplantation ; Transplants ; trends

BACKGROUND: The key point in the treatment of acute cerebral infarction lies in inproving the blood supply of brain effectively as soon as possible as well as rescue ischemic and half diazonal nerve cells, so as to contract the local of infarction as great as possible.OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of traditional treatment of cerebral piamatral microcirculation in gerbil with cerebral ischemic reperfusion injury by supplementing qi and activating blood circulation.DESIGN: Contrast animal experiment at random.SETTING: Zhabei Branch of Shanghai Changzheng Hospital.MATERIALS: The experiment was performed in the Institute of Naval Medicine (key laboratory of the whole army). Twenty-two healthy Monglian gerbils of clean grade (six months old) were selected and randomly divided into medicine group and control group with 11 gerbils in each group.METHODS: Animals were routinely anaesthetized and fixed in prone position to open the cranium window in median line and expose the pia mater. The cranium window was protected by being covered with a cotton ball containing artificial cerebrospinal fluid (ACSF) after operation. Gerbils were fixed in dorsal position with an median incision made in the lateral cervical nucleus to isolate and expose bilateral common carotid artery (CCA). The bilateral CCA were occluded by atraumatic micro-bulldog clamp, and the occluded blood flow in the distal end was observed under the microscope. Thirty minutes after occlusion of bilateral CCA, the vascular clamp was unclamped to recover the cerebral blood reperfusion. Gerbils in the medicine group were abdominally injected with 0.4 mL of Huangqi injection (containing 0.8 g of crude drug), 0.3 mL of compound Danggui injection (containing Danggui, Chuanqiong and Honghua, 0.09 g for each)and 0.3 mL of Danshen injection (containing 0.45 g of Shengyao). Animals in the control group were abdominally injected with same-volume of normal saline. The changes of pial microcirculation were quantitatively observed in two groups through cranium window respectively before blockage, at the reperfusion after blockage as well as in 120 minutes after injection by laser microcirculation microscope and the TV video system.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The changes of piamatral microcirculation as well as comparison in venous blood flow velocity in gerbils of each group before and after ischemic reperfusion.RESULTS: All gerbils were involved in the analysis of results with no animal died in the experiment.①When the CCA of animals in the two groups were blocked, obvious contraction of piamatral microcirculation was seen and partial blood vessels were blocked up. Platelet and red blood cells etc.adhered to the arteriolae of grade Ⅰ and veinules below grade Ⅲ with microthrombus formed and large ischemic area appeared. The blood flow rate was obviously slowed down. Moderate and severe aggregations were found in red blood cells, and the white blood cells were significantly increased.There was obvious exudation in the periphery of microvessels. After CCA reperfusion, the arteriolae and veinule were in different thickness, and the thrombus in veinule of grade Ⅰ and Ⅱ formed in the cerebral ischemia were difficult to be removed by blood flow. Red blood cell moderately aggregated, and the number of white blood cells greatly increased. White small thrombus could be seen sometimes, while the exsudation in the periphery of microvessel was not significantly ameliorated. Great changes were found in gerbils of the medicine group after abnormal injection of supplementing qi and activating blood circulation medicine: almost all arteriolae and venulae were opened, and the rate of blood flow was accelerated with the blood flow rate remarkably increased. Deposit in the venulae began to decreased, and the thrombus was gradually dissolved. Red blood cells were moderately aggregated or normal. Blood flow in ischemic spot was improved significantly than that after reperfusion. The exudation in the periphery of microvessels was gradually lessened even dissolved. However,no obvious change was found in gerbils of the control group. ②The blood flow rate of arteriole in the medicine group was 1.04-1.50 mm, which was obviously higher than that in the control group with significant differences (P ＜ 0.5-0.01).③The blood flow rate of veinule in the medicine group was 0.96-1.12 mm/s, which was remarkably higher than that in the control group with marked differences (P ＜ 0.05-0.01).CONCLUSION: The effect on piamatral microcirculation of gerbil with cerebral ischemic reperfusion by supplementing qi and activating blood is exact, which is directly related with accelerated blood flow rate, expanded veinule and arteriolae as well as ameliorated blood-supply of brain.

Various cancers have seriously threatened human' s health. Screening newer and more effective anticancer agents from natural sources to cure these diseases is the focus in research. As novel sources of potential medicine, a number of metabolites isolated from endophytic fungi have been proved to have anticancer bioactivity. Usually, these endophytic fungi have special biochemical pathway and they can accumulate anticancer agents in cultures such as taxane, alkaloids, cytochalasins, podophyllotoxin, brefeldin A and so forth. The research advance on anticancer agents purified from endophytic fungi is expatiated systemically. In addition, the strategy of screening anticancer agents as well as the prospect on this area is introduced briefly.

Diagnosis, Differential ; Female ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Osteogenesis Imperfecta ; diagnosis ; therapy

Objective To investigate the expression of vascular endothelial cell growth factor(VEGF) and its upregulation of matrix metalloproteinase-2(MMP-2)activation in synovial fluid of patients with rheumatoid arthritis(RA)as well as its role in the pathogeneses of RA.Mathods Expression of VEGF and receptor KDR in mononuclear cell(MNC)of synovial fluid of RA patients and controls were determined by Western blot;VEGF levels of supernantants from MNC was determined by ELISA;supernantants from KDR~+ MNC of synovial fluid of RA patients collected after incubation in serum-free medium with or without VEGF, their activity of MMP-2 was measured by gelatinolytic zymography;Boyden chamber-matrigel in vitro invasion assay was used to detect the invasive capacity in vitro in KDR~+ MNC of synovial fluid of RA patients incubat- ed with or without VEGF.Results The expressions of VEGF/KDR in MNC of synovial fluid of RA patients were significantly higher than those of controls;the MMP-2 activity and invasive ability of co-cuhured KDR~+ MNC with VEGF was higher than those of without VEGF.Conclusion VEGF upregulates MMP-2 activation and promotes invasion of MNC of synovial fluid of RA patients by interacting with receptor KDR,indicating that VEGF plays an important role in RA pathology.

Clinical practice teaching in out-patient department is an important part of general internal clinical teaching for medical students. From 2010, eight-year program medical students in Huazhong University of Science and Technology began their clinical rotation practice in the out-patient department of general internal medicine. The one-on-one tutoring style was used in clinical teaching. We combined teacher demonstration teaching method with teacher supervision teaching method in clinical practice, and carried out periodical case discussion. At the end of each rotation stage, regular teaching evaluation and examination was taken. It has been proved that our teaching mode can not only help the students improve their professional and practical levels of clinical skills, and also help them gain the clinical working abilities and the professional spirits, which is worthy of further promotion.

Although previous reports showed drug-eluting stent (DES) could effectively inhibit neointima formation, in-stent restenosis (ISR) remains an important obstacle. The purpose of this study was to investigate different effects of paclitaxel on proliferation and cell cycle regulators between vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) and vascular endothelial cells (VECs) of rats in vitro. The cultured VSMCs and VECs of rats from the same tissues were examined by using immunohistochemistry, flow cytometry and Western blotting in control and paclitaxel-treated groups. The results showed paclitaxel could effectively inhibit proliferation of VSMCs and VECs. However, as compared with VECs, proliferation of VSMCs in paclitaxel-treated group decreased less rapidly. The percentage of cells in G0-G1 and G2-M phases was reduced, and that in S phase increased after treatment for 72 h. The expression of cyclin D1 and B1, p27 and PCNA in VSMCs of paclitaxel-treated group was up-regulated, but that of p21 down-regulated as compared with VECs. It is concluded that there are significant differences in the expression of cell cycle regulators and proliferation rate between paclitaxel-treated VSMCs and paclitaxel-treated VECs, suggesting that the G1-S checkpoint regulated by paclitaxel may play a critical role in the development of complications of DES, which provides new strategies for treatments of ISR.

RhoA, a small GTPase, is involved in a wide array of cellular functions in the central nervous system, such as cell motility, cytoskeleton rearrangement, transcriptional regulation, phagocytosis and cell growth. It is not known how spinal cord injury (SCI) affects the expression of RhoA in different nerve cells. In the present study, we investigated the changes of RhoA expression in remote areas of the injury at the 3rd, 7th and 30th day after SCI, which was established by T10 contusion method. Moreover, we examine its expression profile in neurons, astrocytes and microglia. RhoA was found to be weakly expressed in these nerve cells in normal spinal cord. Western blotting showed that, after SCI, the total RhoA expression was up-regulated, and the RhoA expression was increased and peaked at the 7th day. Double immunostaining revealed specific and temporal expression patterns of RhoA in different nerve cells. The expression of RhoA in neurons started to increase at day 3, peaked at day 7 and then decreased slightly at day 30. Expression of RhoA in astrocytes increased moderately after SCI and peaked at day 7. There was no obvious change in RhoA expression in microglia after SCI in remote areas. This study demonstrated that, after SCI, RhoA expression exhibited different patterns with different nerve cells of spinal cord. RhoA expression patterns also changed with time after SCI, and among different nerve cells in the injured spinal cord. These findings can help us better understand the roles of RhoA in SCI.