AIM:To investigate prevalence and causes of blindness and low vision of type 2 diabetes ( T2DM ) in Yangxin county, Hubei province.
METHODS: A total of 8 316 permanent residents, to carry out epidemiological survey of blindness and low vision. Carolina First T2DM patients were in the observation group, the other subjects admitted to the control group. Prevalence and etiology of blind and low vision were compared. Then the data only in the observation group were analyzed.
RESULTS: The rate of blindness and low vision appeared significantly higher, cataracts and retinopathy appeared significantly higher. With the increases of age, prevalence of blindness and low vision appeared significantly increased in the observation group. The rate of low vision was higher in women. Blind and low vision appeared significantly higher in junior high school educations. The above analysis was statistically significant (P<0. 05).
CONCLUSION: The prevalence of blindness and low vision of T2DM patients in our region were significantly higher than the unconsolidated. Blind and low vision in T2DM patients has a certain relationship with age, sex, education.

Objective To investigate the relationship between concentration of plasma homocysteine(Hcy) and recurrence of ischemical cerebral stroke(ICS).Methods Plasma Hcy concentration were measured using fluorescence polarization immunoassay(FPLA) in 303 primary and 97 recurrent ICS patients [173 cases of atherosclerotic thrombotic cerebral infarction(thrombotic group),170 cases of lacunar cerebral infarction(lacunar group) and 57 cases of cardiogenic embolism] and 200 non-cerebrovascular disease patients(control group).Multifactorial regression analysis was conducted on recurrent factors contributing to ICS.Results(1) Plasma Hcy concentration in patients with ICS [thrombotic group(16.17?10.83) ?mol/L,lacunar group(14.64?7.71) ?mol/L,cardiogenic embolism group(15.75?6.8) ?mol/L] were significantly higher than that in the control group [(9.61?4.22) ?mol/L](all P

Objective To investigate the in vivo effects of glutamine(Gln) on inflammatory cytokine release in murine peritoneal macrophages during sepsis. Methods Sixty Kunming mice were randomly divided into sham-operation group(Sham group,n=20),operation control group(Con group,n=20) and Gln-treatment group(Gln group,n=20).Sepsis was induced by cecal ligation and puncture in Gln group and Con group,and Gln(0.75 g/kg) or saline was immediately administered via single tail vein injection.Serum was collected and macrophages were harvested from peritoneal lavage at 6 h in these three groups.Intracellular and serum cytokines of tumor necrosis factor-?(TNF-?),interleukin(IL)-6 and IL-10 were detected by ELISA.The expression of TNF-? mRNA in macrophages was analyzed by RT-PCR,and the expression of heat shock protein(HSP) 72 in macrophages was evaluated by Western blotting. Results Gln group demonstrated significantly lower intracellular TNF-? and IL-6 levels than Con group(P0.05).The serum TNF-? level was significantly lower in Gln group than in Con group(P

Authentications of Chinese herbal medicine have a critical effect in Chinese clinical medicine. DNA molecular marker, as an important component for true or false authentication, is more and more widely used in iden-tification of Chinese medicinal materials. At the same time, many new methods for authentication of Chinese medici-nal materials are continuously emerging. But the systematically comparative analysis of these new methods is lack. The present study taking Lonicera japonica as an example, systematically compared principles, characteristics, ex-periment methods, detection time and the application scope of express sequence tag-simple sequence repeat (EST-SSR), polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP), allele-specific PCR (AS-PCR), DNA barcoding and loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), and put forward corresponding improve-ment opinions. This study can help to screen appropriate approach for rapid authentication of L. japonica and offer demonstrating to other Chinese herbal medicines.

Background The visual system of animal have to optimally adjust in various environmental conditions in order to obtain stable and effective visual funetion.However,the color vision system of animals which encounter uncertainty of spectral signals should be plastic.Whether the densities of various cones and expression of opsins change with long-time spectral deprivation is unclear.Objective This study was to investigate the changes of cone density as well as the expression of corresponding opsin and mRNA following the long-term illumination of monochromatic light.Methods Thirty 3-day-old guinea pigs were randomized into 3 groups and exposed tO the 530 nm green light,400 nm purple light and white light for consecutive 8 weeks respectively.The flat-mounted retinal sample was prepared and divided into dorsal zone,ventral zone and mixed zone anatomically according to the distribution of difierent light-sensitive cone.The changes in density of cone cells sensitivited to different colored light were detected by single-1abel or double-label immunocytochemistry.The levels of opsin and its mRNA were determined using Western-blot and real-time PCR respectively.Results The density of green-sensitivity cones was significantly different in the dorsal zone of retina among green light group,purple light group and white light group (F=234.28,P<0.01).Compared with white light group,the density of green-sensitive cones in dorsal retina of green light group was obviously higher but that of purple light group wag evidently lower(q=389.68,P<0.01；q=67.11,P<0.01).No significant difference was found in the density of purple-sensitive cones in the ventral zone of retina among green light group,purple light group and white light group(F=3.14,P>0.05).The density of coexpression of the mixed cone cells was increased in green light group(q=157.55,P<0.01)but decreased in purple light roup (q=254.85,P<0.01)in comparison with white light group.The expression levels of green-opsin and green-opsin mRNA in green light group was significantly elevated(q=184.45,P<0.01；q=4.71,P<0.05),but those of purple light group were evidently declined(q=5.87,P<0.05；q=346.66,P<0.01)in comparison with white light group.There was no statistically significant differences were found in the expression of purple-opsin and its mRNA among all the groups(F=1.24,P>0.05；F=3.27,P>0.05).Conclusion After the exposure of long-time monochromatic light illumination,monochromatic cones density and its opsin in guinea pig occur the corresponding alteration to gain good spatial vision as a compensatory reaction.These outcomes imply that there is some plasticity during the development of color vision.The increase of green-sensitive cones might be from the differentiation of coexpression cones in transition region.

A preliminary survey was done in 1980 in Jijiaba Village before the dike was built . The dike of 2. 5 km in length and 4m high was built along Baiyang River by the end of 1980 . The molluscicide NaPCP was used for snail control from 1981 to 1984 . After the entire control measures were completed in 1984, a follow-up survey was conducted as to measure the impact of control measures on prevalence of schistosomiasis and population of snail from 1985 to 1989 . All of the results suggested that these control measures were very successful. The transmission of schistosomiasis in this area has been prevented since 1984 .

Lian Qiao Bai Du Wan was used to study the identification of Chinese patent medicine by molecular marker technique. DNA was extracted through modified CTAB method. The psbA-trnH and rbcL sequences were gradient amplified, and PCR products were ligated with the pEASY-T5 vector and then transformed into Trans1-T1 cells, respectively. Clones were selected randomly and sequenced. All sequences were analyzed by BlastN and the neighbor-joining (NJ) phylogenetic tree was constructed by MEGA 4.0. The results showed that nine kinds of medicinal materials can be identified by psbA-trnH sequences, and six kinds of medicinal materials by rbcL sequences from Lian Qiao Bai Du Wan. Molecular marker technique can stably and accurately distinguish multi-origin medicinal materials in Chinese patent medicine.

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) is an important molecular marker in traditional Chinese medicine research, and it is widely used in TCM authentication. The present study created a new genotyping method by combining restriction endonuclease digesting with melting curve analysis, which is a stable, rapid and easy doing SNP genotyping method. The new method analyzed SNP genotyping of two chloroplast SNP which was located in or out of the endonuclease recognition site, the results showed that when attaching a 14 bp GC-clamp (cggcgggagggcgg) to 5' end of the primer and selecting suited endonuclease to digest the amplification products, the melting curve of Lonicera japonica and Atractylodes macrocephala were all of double peaks and the adulterants Shan-yin-hua and A. lancea were of single peaks. The results indicated that the method had good stability and reproducibility for identifying authentic medicines from its adulterants. It is a potential SNP genotyping method and named restriction endonuclease digest - melting curve analysis.

Simple and effective methods are needed for the identification of Chinese medicinal material species and their variety. Lonicera japonica Thunb. is one of Chinese herbal medicines widely demanded. A total of 3 705 EST-SSRs of L. japonica and 2 818 EST-SSRs of L. japonica var. chinensis Thunb. were identified from EST database in our lab. In average, there was one EST-SSR per 4.05 kb in L. japonica ESTs and per 7.49 kb in L. japonica var. chinensis ESTs, separately. The identified SSRs in L. japonica were consisted of 51.98% dinucleotide and 34.61% trinucleotide repeats, while SSRs in L. japonica var. chinensis had 57.45% dinucleotide and 30.09% trinucleotide. The results reviewed that the classes AG/TC and GAG/TCT were predominant in the dinucleotide motifs and the trinucleotide motifs, respectively. Total 87 EST-SSRs were identified of significant difference between L. japonica and L. japonica var. chinensis. PCR products were obtained from 52 L. japonica samples in 13 out of 15 SSR markers tested. The polymorphism in L. japonica, L. japonica var. chinensis and other honeysuckles could be distinguished by three markers (jp.ssr4, jp.ssr64 and jp.ssr65) tested.

A FatB unigene was obtained from the transcriptome dataset of Lonicera japonica Thunb. Full-length FatB cDNA was cloned from buds of Lonicera japonica Thunb., Lonicera japonica Thunb. var. chinensis (Wats.) Bak., Lonicera hypoglauca Miq. and Lonicera dasystyla Rehd. using RT-PCR technology, and named as LJFatB, LHFatB, LJCFatB and LDFatB. The results of bioinformatic analysis showed that LJFatB, LJCFatB, LHFatB and LDFatB and Arabidopsis thaliana AtFatB had a closely relationship. Nucleotide sequences and protein secondary structure of LJFatB, LJCFatB, LHFatB and LDFatB are different and their proteins had conserved FatB substrate binding sites and catalytic activity sites. Transcriptive level of LJFatB, LJCFatB, LHFatB and LDFatB in bud was not significantly different. Therefore, LJFatB, LJCFatB, LHFatB and LDFatB could have the same biological function as AtFatB.