Objective To study the influnence of estrogen and progestin on scar formation. Methods By culturing hyperplastic scar fibroblast(HSFB), we investigated TGF ? 1 synthesis by immunohistochemical staining and image analysis. Results The detectable level of TGF ? 1 in HSFB treated with 17 ? E 2 was higher than that of the control significantly( P 0.05). Conclusion In vitro, 17 ? E 2 can stimulate TGF ? 1 synthesis in HSFB significantly.

Objective To investigate the self-assembly and cellular localization patterns of fila-mentous temperature-sensitive protein Z (FtsZ) in Escherichia coli (E.coli) strains by using FtsZP74R, FtsZG77D and FtsZA81R mutants.Methods YFP or His labeled FtsZ proteins and the plasmids of FtsZ mu-tants were constructed by using molecular clone and site-directed mutagenesis methods.The targeted proteins were purified by affinity chromatography.FL37(△ftsZ-Cat) strains were constructed via linear DNA homol-ogous recombination.Living cell imaging was performed to observe the cellular localization patterns of FtsZ protein and its mutants in E.coli strains.The interactions between FtsZ-FtsZ/FtsZ mutants were examined by coi-mmunoprecipitation assay . The polymerization properties of FtsZ mutants were analyzed by light scattering.The activities of GTPase were monitored by using high performance liquid chromatography.Re-sults The P74, G77 and A81 amino acids were respectively replaced by different polar amino acids to change the amphipathicity of the helix within the domain of FtsZ ( 74-82 ) .The YFP-labeled FtsZP74R , FtsZG77D and FtsZA81R mutants failed to assemble into functional Z-ring structure in E.coli strains.The inter-actions between FtsZ protein and its mutants were weakened or completely disappeared.In addition, in vitro experiments showed that P74R, G77D and A81R mutations caused a decrease in the polymerization efficien-cy of FtsZ monomer.The activity of GTPase was significantly decreased in the FtsZA81R mutant. Conclusion The P74, G77 and A81 were critical amino acids in the function and assembly of FtsZ protein in E.coli strains.Moreover, A81 amino acid regulated the lateral interaction of FtsZ monomer and the activity of GTPase.

OBJECTIVETo assess the safety and the accuracy of surgical navigation technology in the resection of severe ankylosis of the mandibular condyle with the middle cranial fossa.

METHODSThe CT scan data was transferred to a Windows-based computer workstation, and the patient' s individual anatomy was assessed in multiplanar views at the workstation. In the operation, the patient and the virtual image were matched by individual registration with the reference points which were set on the skull bone surface and the teeth. Then the real time navigation can be performed.

RESULTSThe acquisition of the data sets was uncomplicated, and image quality was sufficient to assess the operative result in three cases. The operations were performed successfully with the guidance of real-time navigation. The application of surgical navigation have enhanced the safety and the accuracy of the surgery for bony ankylosis of temporomandibular joint.

CONCLUSIONSThe application of surgical navigation can improve the accuracy and safety of surgical excision of the ankylosed skull base tissue.

Anatomic Landmarks ; anatomy & histology ; Ankylosis ; surgery ; Humans ; Skull ; diagnostic imaging ; surgery ; Surgery, Computer-Assisted ; methods ; Temporomandibular Joint ; surgery ; Temporomandibular Joint Disorders ; surgery ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

BACKGROUND: Forest frog is a rare medicinal animal in China, but the skin of forest frog is waste after Oviductus Ranae production. The forest frog skin is rich of collagen, and is large in quantity without pollution and disease risk. So the forest frog skin has potential to be developed into collagen sponge; however, there is no research on collagen sponge preparation as yet.OBJECTIVE: To optimize the preparation of collagen sponge from forest frog skin, and to investigate the physical properties and in vitro cell compatibility.METHODS: Chitosan and glutaraldehyde were used to modify collagen sponge from forest frog skin. Chitosan/collagen (w/w) (1:1, 1:2, 1:4) and glutaraldehyde concentration (1%, 1.5% and 2%) were selected as the experimental factors.The significant water absorbency, mechanical properties and thermal denaturation temperature were chosen as the indexes. Using the orthogonal experimental design, we optimized collagen sponge preparation process. We also investigated the in vitro cell compatibility and surface morphology of the collagen sponge. The nine kinds of collagen sponges from forest frog skins were co-cultured with human foreskin fibroblasts to detect cell proliferation.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: When the chitosan/collagen was 1:1 and the glutaraldehyde concentration was 1%, we could get the collagen sponge with ideal water absorbency (water absorption capacity=5.22), mechanical properties (elongation at break=10.96%) and thermal denaturation temperature (81.24 ℃). The aperture of the forest frog skin collagen sponge was 200-400 μm, and the pores were consistent in the size and arranged regularly. Except the chitosan/collagen of 1:4 and the glutaraldehyde concentration of 1% or 5%, all kinds of forest frog skin collagen sponges could promote the viability of human foreskin fibroblasts and exerted benefits to cell viability and growth. To conclude,the forest frog skin collagen sponge has good biocompatibility and apparent morphology, in aggreement with the requirements of biological materials.

Objective:To present our experience of the surgical treatment of maxillofacial fibrous dysplasia(FD) using surgical navigation technology.Methods:14 patients with maxillofacial FD were included.Preoperative CT scanning data were obtained and a virtual plan based on the patient's mirrored anatomy was realized.Intraoperatively,a digital reference frame was fixed rigidly to patient's forehead or mandible depending on the location of the lesion.During operation each patient and the virtual image were matched through individual registration technique.A pointing device was constantly used to determine whether the extent of resection was consistent with the preoperative design.The surgical outcome was assessed through fusion of the preoperative planning and postoperative CT reconstruction image.Results:The application of surgical navigation system enhanced the safety and the accuracy of the surgery for the resection of the focal lesion and for the recontour of the profile.There was no complications during 1-3 years follow up.Conclusion:Surgical navigation based on a virtual plan proves to be safe and accurate,and is of great value in managing maxillofacial fibrous dysplasia.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC) and their special calcium-activated chloride channel, anoctamin-1 (ANO1) play pivotal roles in regulating colonic transit. This study is designed to investigate the role of ICC and the ANO1 channel in colonic transit disorder in dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-treated colitis mice. METHODS: Colonic transit experiment, colonic migrating motor complexes (CMMCs), smooth muscle spontaneous contractile experiments, intracellular electrical recordings, western blotting analysis, and quantitative polymerase chain reaction were applied in this study. RESULTS: The mRNA and protein expressions of c-KIT and ANO1 channels were significantly decreased in the colons of DSS-colitis mice. The colonic artificial fecal-pellet transit experiment in vitro was significantly delayed in DSS-colitis mice. The CMMCs and smooth muscle spontaneous contractions were significantly decreased by 5-nitro-2-(3-phenylpropylamino)benzoic acid (NPPB), an ANO1 channel blocker, and NG-Nitro-L-arginine methyl ester hydrochloride (L-NAME), an inhibitor of nitric oxide synthase activity, in DSS-colitis mice compared with that of control mice. Intracellular electrical recordings showed that the amplitude of NPPB-induced hyperpolarization was more positive in DSS-colitis mice. The electric field stimulation-elicited nitric-dependent slow inhibitory junctional potentials were also more positive in DSS-colitis mice than those of control mice. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that colonic transit disorder is mediated via downregulation of the nitric oxide/ICC/ANO1 signalling pathway in DSS-colitis mice.
Animals ; Blotting, Western ; Chloride Channels ; Colitis ; Colon ; Dextrans ; Down-Regulation ; In Vitro Techniques ; Interstitial Cells of Cajal ; Mice ; Muscle, Smooth ; Myoelectric Complex, Migrating ; NG-Nitroarginine Methyl Ester ; Nitric Oxide Synthase ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; RNA, Messenger ; Sodium

Wolfram syndrome(WS) is a rare autosomal recessive neurodegenerative disease characterized by diabetes insipidus, onset diabetes mellitus, optic atrophy and sensorineural hearing loss.The syndrome is mainly caused by mutations in the WFS1 gene, and another causative gene, CISD2 gene is responsible for Wolfram syndrome 2 with different phenotypes.The prognosis of WS is poor, 60% of patients die before the age of 35 years old.Currently, there are no effective treatments to delay or reverse the progression of WS, standardized clinical monitoring and supportive care can help alleviate the debilitating symptoms of patients and improve their quality of life.This article reviews the pathogenesis, clinical feature, diagnosis and new treatments of WS.

Objective:To analyze the hepatic hemodynamics changes after partial splenic embolization in patients with cirrhosis and hypersplenism.Methods:A total of 26 patients with cirrhosis and hypersplenism who underwent partial splenic embolization in the General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University from April 2018 to June 2019 were included in this study. The clinical data was retrospectively studied. The study objects consisted of 19 males and 7 females with an average of 55 years. Whole-liver perfusion enhanced CT imaging scan was performed for all patients. Changes in laboratory indexes and the blood perfusion of the liver sections including hepatic arterial perfusion, portal venous perfusion, total liver perfusion and hepatic arterial perfusion indexes before PSE and postoperative 1 month were compared.Results:The postoperative leukocyte and platelet counts increased, and the prothrombin time decreased in the 26 patient, and the differences were significant ( P<0.05). The hepatic arterial perfusion of the left lateral section, left medial section, right anterior section and right posterior section increased in postoperative 1 month, from 10.0 (7.0, 13.5) ml·min -1·(100 ml) -1, 9.3 (5.4, 12.8) ml·min -1·(100 ml) -1, 8.0 (6.0, 11.2) ml·min -1·(100 ml) -1, 10.7 (7.1, 13.8) ml·min -1·(100 ml) -1 to 7.7 (4.2, 11.0) ml·min -1·(100 ml) -1, 6.9 (2.6, 10.2) ml·min -1·(100 ml) -1, 7.1 (4.1, 8.7) ml·min -1·(100 ml) -1, 5.9 (4.4, 8.5) ml·min -1·(100 ml) -1, respectively. The differences were all significantly different ( P<0.05). There were no significant difference in portal venous perfusion and total liver perfusion before and after operation ( P>0.05). The hepatic arterial perfusion index of left lateral section, right anterior section and right posterior section increased after operation ( P<0.05). Conclusion:For patients with cirrhosis and hypersplenism who underwent partial splenic embolization, the state of hypersplenism was relieved, the hepatic arterial blood flow increased, and the liver function improved.

Objective:To explore the effects of Chaihu-Shugan San (CSS) on the behavior and neurogenesis function of depression model mice induced by chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS).Methods:Thirty clean grade healthy male C57BL/6 adult mice were randomly divided into control group (Con group), model group (CUMS group) and Chaihu-Shugan San treatment group (CSS group), with 10 mice in each group.The mice in CUMS group and CSS group were given CUMS intervention to establish depression model. At the same time of modeling, the mice in CUMS group and CSS group were given distilled water and CSS(2.7 g/kg) by gavage respectively.While the mice in Con group were only given equal volume distilled water by gavage without CUMS stimulation.After the intervention, the depressive-like behavior of mice was evaluated by increased body weight, sugar water preference test (SPT), forced swimming test (FST) and tail suspension test (TST). The number of newborn neurons was detected by immunofluorescence staining. The mRNA expression levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2) and spindle and kinetochore-associated protein 2(SKA2) in mice hippocampus were detected by qRT-PCR.Statistical analysis was performed by SPSS 22.0 software. One-way ANOVA was used for multi group comparison, and Tukey test was used for pairwise comparison.Results:(1) After modeling, there was significant difference in body weight increment among the three groups ( F=8.859, P <0.05). The body weight increment of CUMS group was lower than those of Con group and CSS group (both P< 0.05). There were significant differences in sugar water preference rate, tail suspension immobility time and swimming immobility time among the three groups ( F=10.544, 12.957, 8.095, all P<0.05). The sugar water preference rate in CUMS group was lower than that in Con group ((87.46±2.78)%, (93.90±3.31)%, P<0.05), and that in CSS group was higher than that in CUMS group ((91.65±2.61)%)( P<0.05). The tail suspension immobility time ((198.00±27.57) s) and swimming immobility time ((322.20±46.98) s) in CUMS group were higher than those in Con group ((138.80±38.50) s, (238.50±50.51) s, both P<0.05). The tail suspension immobility time ((139.00±21.29) s) and swimming immobility time ((265.20±44.90) s) in CSS group were lower than those in CUMS group (both P<0.05). (2) Immunofluorescence showed that there was significant difference in the number of newborn neurons labeled by BrdU and NeuN in the dentate gyrus of hippocampus among the three groups ( F=9.486, P<0.05). The number of double labeled cells (31.66±3.21) in CUMS group was lower than that in Con group(63.66±15.17) and CSS group (58.00±6.00) (both P<0.05). (3) RT-PCR results showed that the mRNA levels of BDNF, FGF2, SKA2 in hippocampal dentate gyrus of the three group were significantly different( F=14.522, 9.337, 8.701, all P<0.05). The levels of BDNF mRNA (0.79±0.06), FGF2 mRNA (0.74±0.18) and SKA2 mRNA (0.52±0.32) in the dentate gyrus of hippocampus in CUMS group were lower than those in Con group (BDNF mRNA (1.03±0.10), FGF2 mRNA (1.04±0.11), SKA2 mRNA (1.05±0.37), all P<0.05). Compared with CUMS group, the mRNA levels of BDNF (1.07±0.80), FGF2 (1.30±0.29) and SKA2 (1.40±0.55) in CSS group were higher (all P<0.05). Conclusion:CSS can alleviate the depressive like behavior of depression model mice, which may be related with increasing the mRNA expression levels of BDNF, FGF2, SKA2 and promoting the proliferation of neural stem cells in hippocampus.

Objective:To explore the robust relationship between insomnia and type 2 diabetes mellitus by two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis to overcome confounding factors and reverse causality in observational studies.Methods:We identified strong,independent single nucleotide polymorphisms(SNPs)of insomnia from the most up to date genome wide association studies(GWAS)within European ancestors and applied them as instrumental variable to GWAS of type 2 diabetes mellitus.After excluding SNPs that were significantly associated with smoking,physical activity,alcohol consumption,educational attainment,obesity,or type 2 diabetes mellitus,we assessed the impact of insomnia on type 2 diabetes mellitus using inverse variance weighting(IVW)method.Weighted median and MR-Egger regression analysis were also conducted to test the robustness of the association.We calculated the F statistic of the selected SNPs to test the applicability of instrumental variable and F statistic over than ten indicated that there was little possibility of bias of weak instrumental variables.We further examined the existence of pleiotropy by testing whether the intercept term in MR-Egger regression was significantly different from ze-ro.In addition,the leave-one-out method was used for sensitivity analysis to verify the stability and relia-bility of the results.Results:We selected 248 SNPs independently associated with insomnia at the genome-wide level(P＜5 ×10-8)as a preliminary candidate set of instrumental variables.After clum-ping based on the reference panel from 1000 Genome Project and removing the potential pleiotropic SNPs,a total of 167 SNPs associated with insomnia were included as final instrumental variables.The F statistic of this study was 39.74,which was in line with the relevance assumption of Mendelian randomi-zation.IVW method showed insomnia was associated with higher risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus that po-pulation with insomnia were 1.14 times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes mellitus than those without insomnia(95％CI:1.09-1.21,P＜0.001).The weighted median estimator(WME)method and MR-Egger regression showed similar causal effect of insomnia on type 2 diabetes mellitus.And MR-Egger re-gression also showed that the effect was less likely to be triggered by pleiotropy.Sensitivity analyses pro-duced directionally similar estimates.Conclusion:Insomnia is a risk factor of type 2 diabetes mellitus,which has positively effects on type 2 diabetes mellitus.Our study provides further rationale for indivi-duals at risk for diabetes to keep healthy lifestyle.