Face ; blood supply ; Hemangioma ; classification ; diagnosis ; therapy ; Humans ; Jaw ; blood supply ; Lymphatic Abnormalities ; classification ; diagnosis ; therapy ; Mouth ; blood supply ; Vascular Malformations ; classification ; diagnosis ; therapy

Face ; blood supply ; Hemangioma ; therapy ; Humans ; Vascular Malformations ; therapy ; Vasculitis ; therapy

Leydig cells are the major source of androgens in males. Stem cells can be induced to differentiate into androgen-secreting Leydig like cells, whose functions are regulated by the hypothalamus and pituitary, so that they precisely secret the necessary hormones to maintain physiological function. Therefore, the establishment of an effective protocol to induce the differentiation of stem cells into androgen-secreting cells is very helpful for the treatment of hypogonadism caused by abnormalities of Leydig cells. This review outlines the recent findings concerning the differentiation of stem cells into androgen-secreting cells.
Androgens ; secretion ; Cell Differentiation ; physiology ; Humans ; Hypogonadism ; therapy ; Hypothalamus ; physiology ; Male ; Pituitary Gland ; physiology ; Stem Cells ; cytology ; secretion

Objective To investigate the association between serum N-terminal pro brain natriuretic peptide(NT-ProBNP) and creatine kinase myocardial(CK-MB),cardiac troponin I(cTnI) in children who were diagnosed as viral myocarditis(VMC),and to explore the clinical significance.Methods Fifty children with VMC were selected as VMC group who were further divided into cTnI(+)group and cTnI(-)group.Fifteen healthy children were selected as healthy control group.The levels of myocardial enzyme of the 2 groups were tested by automatic biochemical analyzer and level of NT-proBNP was detected by specific NT-proBNP enzymelink immunosorbent assay(ELISA) kit.SPSS 13.0 software was used to analyze the data.Results 1.There were 23 cases with positive cTnI and 27 cases with negative cTnI.The levels of NT-proBNP in VMC group including cTnI positive and cTnI negative were significantly higher than those in healthy control group (P0.05).2.In the group with positive cTnI,the level of NT-proBNP was correlated with cTnI.The coefficient of determination was 0.17.3.In the group with negative cTnI,the level of NT-proBNP was correlated with CK-MB.The coefficient of determination was 0.34.NT-proBNP presented a increasing trend during interval of 25-100 U?L-1 and 175-255 U?L-1 of CK-MB.Conclusions The levels in the serum NT-proBNP in VMC children were higher than those in healthy children.Serum detection NT-proBNP may be applied as a new approach in diagnosis of VMC in children.

OBJECTIVEEndothelial apoptosis plays an important role in the initiation of atherosclerosis. It would be useful to clarify whether activation of non-neuronal muscarinic receptor (NNMR) could prevent endothelial apoptosis and atherosclerosis. We investigated the effects of NNMR activation on regulating rat aortic endothelial cells (RAECs) apoptosis induced by homocysteine, an independent risk factor of atherosclerosis, and further studied its molecular mechanism.

METHODSRAECs were incubated using homocysteine at the concentration of 2.7 mmol/L for 36 h. RAECs were also pre-treated with carbachol or arecoline to examine their effects. RT-PCR was used to assess changes in the gene expression related to cell apoptosis.

RESULTSIncubation of RAECs with homocysteine at the concentration of 2.7 mmol/L resulted in morphologic changes, such as cellular shrinkage, membrane blebbing, chromatin condensation and margination. These could be attenuated by pretreatment with carbachol and arecoline at the concentration of 10 micromol/L for 12 h. Homocysteine induced apoptosis in RAECs and the molecular mechanisms were associated with the regulation of fas, fas-L and caspase-8 in the death receptor pathway, bcl-2, bcl-xL and bax in the mitochondrial pathway, caspase-12 in the endoplasmic reticulum pathway and caspase-3, caspase-6 and p53 as downstream effectors. Carbachol and arecoline attenuated the effects of homocysteine on genes in the death receptor pathway, in the mitochondrial pathway and in the downstream pathway. Atropine could reverse all of the effects of arecoline.

CONCLUSIONActivation of NNMR by carbacol and arecoline inhibits homocysteine-induced endothelial cell apoptosis mainly through regulation of death receptor pathway, mitochondrial pathway and downstream effectors.

Animals ; Aorta ; cytology ; Apoptosis ; Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins ; metabolism ; Arecoline ; Carbachol ; Cell Cycle ; Endoplasmic Reticulum ; metabolism ; Endothelial Cells ; cytology ; drug effects ; Homocysteine ; adverse effects ; Mitochondria ; metabolism ; Rats ; Receptors, Muscarinic ; metabolism

The incidence of systemic fungal infections have increased dramatically, moreover, drug resistance including either primary (intrinsic) or secondary (acquired) resistance, becomes one of the main reasons accounting for the failure of treating invasive fungal infections in the past decades. Nowadays, clinically available antifungal drugs are limited and their combination in antifungal therapy was not effective. It is expected to be a new strategy to synergistically sensitize antifungal drugs against drug-resistant fungi by using new small molecules. Based on the study in our research group and the reported work of others, we reviewed the research of the natural products which have synergistic effect with the antifungal agents against drug-resistant fungi. This review focused on the resource, structure, pharmacological activity, and action mechanism of the compounds, as well as somewhat in common, and would provide theoretical base for seeking new drug against drug-resistance fungi.
Antifungal Agents ; chemistry ; pharmacology ; Biological Products ; chemistry ; pharmacology ; Drug Synergism ; Fungi ; drug effects

Objective To investigate the clinical significance of early lactate clearance rate in respect of the prognosis of patients with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) . Methods A total of 108 COPD patients with respiratory failure were studied prospectively. The patients were divided into survival group ( n = 82) and the death group ( n = 26) , and the survival group further divided into the conventional treatment subgroup ( n = 55 ) and the invasive ventilation subgroup ( n = 27 ) . Arterial blood lactate, arterial gas analysis, APACHE Ⅱ score and the 6-hour clearance rate were measured before and 6 hours after treatment in 3 groups. The high lactate clearance rate group (n =71 ) was defined as a lactate clearance rate ＞ 10% , and the low lactate clearance rate group (n = 37) with a lactate clearance rate ＜ 10%. The correlation between 6-hour lactate clearance rate and prognosis in patients was analyzed. Results Compared the survival patients in invasive ventilation group with the death group, there were no statistical differences in arterial blood lactate, pH value, PaCO2, PaO2, oxygenation index and APACHE Ⅱ score before the treatment. The 6-hour lactate clearance rate in survival patients in conventional treatment group or invasive ventilation group was significantly higher than that in the death group (t =31.2, P＜0. 01; t =34.6, P＜0. 01, respectively), while there were no statistical differences in APACHE Ⅱ score and pH value between these 3 groups. Between the conventional ventilation treatment group and the invasive ventilation treatment group, there was no statistical difference in 6-hour lactate clearance rate ( P ＞ 0. 05 ) . There was no statistical difference in APACHE Ⅱ score between before treatment and after treatment in 3 groups. Mortality in high lactate clearance rate group (4. 2% ) was significantly lower than that in low lactate clearance rate group (62. 2% ) (x2 = 121.9, P ＜ 0. 01 ) .Conclusions The early (6h) lactate clearance rate could be used as a marker for evaluating the severity,therapeutic efficacy and prognosis of patients with severe COPD.

Objective To investigate the characteristics of Wegener granulomatosis in children and to improve its recognition. Methods Ten pediatric patients with Wegener granulomatosis were studied retrospectively by clinical manifestations, serum examination, pathological data, treatment, etc. Results All children had clinical evidence of upper respiratory tract and lungs involvement; kidney lesion occurred in 6 cases(6/10); joints, skin, eyes and nervous system were also involved with different degree, cANCA (PR3) showed positive in 8 cases; Pathological examination (1 kidney sample, 2 nasal mucosa samples, 2 skin samples) showed granulomatous vasculitis and crescents were found in renal biopsy; 7 cases were treated with corticosteroid plus cyclophosphamide, 1 case was treated with corticosteroid plus methotrexate, and improvement were seen in all of them. Conclusions Wegener granulomatosis in children have diverse clinical manifestations and clinical diagnosis is difficult. The upper and lower respiratory tract and kidney are most commonly involved organs. ANCA inspection is characteristic. Treatment with corticosteroid and immunosuppressive can achieve good outcome.

BACKGROUND: It has been proved that interleukin-18 (IL-18) involves in the development of acute cerebral infarction (ACI) and is positively correlated with the time of brain stroke onset, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), as well as neurological deficit and low-density value of brain CT.OBJECTIVE: To investigate the dynamic changes of serum IL-18 in the course of ACI.DESIGN: Verification analysis with patients as subjects and healthy volunteers as controls.SETTING: Department of neurology of a municipal hospital.PARTICIPANTS: Totally 46 inpatients (29 males and 17 females) with ACI were randomly selected from the Department of Neurology of People's Hospital, Maoming City, between December 2002 and January 2004.Meanwhile, 40 healthy controls (27 males and 13 females) were recruited from those who came to the hospital for routine physical examination. All the participants signed informed consent.METHODS: Fasting peripheral vein blood of 2 mL was collected from the patients on the 1st, 7rh, 14th and 21st days of ACI onset, and from healthy controls on the day of routine examination. The blood samples were centrifuged at 3 000 r/minute for 15 minutes at 4 ℃, and then the supernatant was collected for detecting IL-18 level by ELISA.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The serum IL-18 level of patients on the 1st, 7th 14th and 21st days of ACI onset and that of healthy controls on the day of routine examination.RFSULTS: Totally 46 patients and 40 healthy controls were enrolled in this study and all data were statistically analyzed. The level of serum IL-18 was significantly higher in the patients with ACI than in normal controls on the 1st and 7th days of onset [(178±41) ng/L, (104±34) ng/L, (65±14) ng/L, P ＜ 0.01],but was similar on the 14th and 21st days [(88±36) ng/L, (72±33) ng/L,(65±14) ng/L, P＞ 0.05]. The level of serum IL-18 in ACI patients was significantly higher on the 1st day than on the 7th, 14th and 21 st days of the onset (P ＜ 0.05-0.01); moreover, it was also significantly higher on the 7th day than on the 21st day of the onset (P ＜ 0.05).CONCLUSION: The level of IL-18 increases obviously on the 1st day of ACI onset, and gradually decreases with the extended course of disease and time of treatment.