This study aimed to elucidate the effects of different soil water contents on the yield and quality of R.glutinosa.Different soil water contents were adjusted in different periods of growth of R.glutinosa.The yield,content of water extract,catalpol,verbascoside and polysaccharide were determined and analysed by the grey pattern recognition after harvests.The impacts of soil water content from the most important to the least important were medium moisture content (M2),high moisture content (M3),low moisture content (M1) and blank (M4).In the cultivation of R.glutinosa,the soil water content should be remained in the range of 40％-50％ at seedling stage,while 50％-60％ at the stage of root formation and tuber enlargement,and 20％-30％ during harvesting,which can significantly improve the yield and quality of R.glutinosa.

Objective To investigate the occurrence, prevention and management of surgical complication of contralateral C7 nerve root transfer through the prespinal route to repair the brachial plexus nerve root avulsion injury. Methods From Feb. 2002 to Aug. 2009, 425 patients were performed the contralateral C7 nerve root transfer through the prespinal route with this procedure. There were 379 males and 46 females,with the average age of 21 years (range, 3 months to 56 years). The contralateral C7 nerve root was sectioned at the distal of the middle trunk in 15 cases, at the distal of the anterior and posterior division in 410 patients. The surgical complications related to the health C7 nerve root section and the make of tunnel through the prespinal route and others were analyzed retrospectively. Results The incidence rate of complication was 5.2%(22/425). The surgical complications related to the make of prespinal route including 2 cases had the severe bleeding during the operation because of vertebral artery injury; transitory laryrecurrent nerve palsy occurred in 5 cases, the pain and numbness occurred on the donor upper limber in 4 cases when the patients swallowed. The complications related to the section of contralateral C7 nerve root including the extension of finger and thumb was dysfunction in 5 patients after the operation, 3 cases had the severely pain on the health upper limber, Horner's sign occurred on donor side in 2 children suffered birth palsy, and C6 nerve root was mistaken sectioned as C7 in 1 case. Other serious perioperative complication including the thromboses of the cerebral trunk occurred in 1 case 42 hours postoperative and died in hospital 38 days after the operation. Conclusion The procedure of contralateral C7 nerve root transfer through the prespinal route is safe. The effective method to prevent this complication occurrence is to expose the origin segment of vertebral artery when making prespinal route.

Objective:To investigate the effect of autologous cartilage and artificial material implants on the occurrence of postoperative complications during rhinoplasty.Methods:This study included 447 patients who underwent cosmetic rhinoplasty at Hanmei Cosmetic Hospital in Dongguan. The age of enrolled patients was 18-52 years, and the mean age was 26.8±6.9 years. They were divided into an autologous cartilage group (334 patients in total) and an artificial material group (113 patients in total) according to the implant material used; the differences in postoperative complications were compared between the two groups and the influencing factors related to the occurrence of complications were analyzed.Results:The follow-up time of all patients was 3-24 months, and the mean time was 19.4 months. 51 (11.4%) of the 447 patients developed postoperative complications during the follow-up period, and the rate of functional failure in the artificial material group (16.8%) was significantly higher than that in the autologous cartilage group (9.6%) (χ 2=4.17, P=0.037). In the autologous cartilage group, the most frequent complications were irregular nasal contour, a total of 10 cases (3.0%), and infection, 8 cases (2.4%); while the most frequent complications in the artificial material group were infection, 6 cases (5.3%) and prosthesis exposure, 3 cases (2.7%). At 2-year follow-up, 32 cases of the postoperative complication rate occurred (16.8%) in the autologous cartilage group, which was significantly higher than that of 19 cases (9.6%) in the artificial material group, and the difference between the two groups was statistically significant (log-rank χ 2=4.37, P=0.039). The results of the multifactorial COX risk factor analysis showed that history of smoking ( HR=1.78, 1.21-2.29, P=0.004), previous history of rhinoplasty ( HR=2.89, 2.08-3.97, P<0.001) and use of artificial materials ( HR=1.34, 1.17-2.08, P=0.013) and external incision (protective factor, HR= 0.92, 0.78-0.98, P=0.037) were independent risk factors for the development of functional complications. Conclusions:Neither the use of autografts nor artificial implants in rhinoplasty prevents the occurrence of complications, and the types of complications occurring in both differ, with artificial grafts having a higher rate of postoperative complications.

OBJECTIVETo develop and evaluate a mouse model of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) induced by a high-fat and high-fructose (HFHFr) diet.

METHODSSix-week-old C3H mice were randomly divided into groups for HFHFr diet experimental modeling, high fat-only (HF) diet controls, high fructose-only (HFr) diet controls, and standard chow (SC) diet controls. The standard HFHFr diet was modified so that it consisted of 76.5% standard chow, 12% lard, 1% cholesterol, 5% egg yolk powder, 5% whole milk powder, and 0.5% sodium cholate, along with 20% fructose drinking water. At the end of experimental weeks 4, 8, and 16, measurements were taken for the NASH-related parameters of body mass, serum levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST), lipid profile, and wet liver weight (upon sacrifice). In addition, histological changes in the liver were evaluated by hematoxylin-eosin (HE) and oil red O staining. The significance of differences between groups was assessed by statistical analysis, using the

METHODSof t-test, Wilcoxon rank sum test, x2 test, F test or Fisher's test as appropriate.

RESULTSAs compared to the mice in the SC group at the corresponding time points, the mice in the HFHFr and HF groups showed significantly higher body mass and wet liver weight, as well as more extensive and robust lipid disposition in hepatic tissues as evidenced by oil red O staining. However, HE staining indicated that the HFHFr and HF groups had different degrees of macrosteatosis accompanied with intralobular inflammatory foci, with the former showing more remarkable NASH-related histological changes. Analysis at the end of week 16 showed that about 80% of the mice in the HFHFr group had developed NASH [nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) activity score (NAS): less than 5]. The levels of low-and high-density lipoprotein (LDL and HDL) cholesterol, as well as the levels of ALT and AST, were increased from the end of week 4 to the end of week 8 for the HFHFr and HF groups. At the end of week 16, the two groups differed in the extent of increase in total cholesterol and LDL and HDL cholesterol, with only the HFHFr group showing statistically significant changes. Specifically, at the end of week 16, the HFHFr group showed ALT levels of 108.5 +/- 93.34 U/L (F=5.099, P =0.005 vs. HF group: 44.30 +/- 35.71 U/L, HFr group: 46.70 +/- 17.95 U/L, SC group: 24.70 +/- 6.57 U/L), AST levels of 316.30 +/- 208.98 U/L (F=6.654, P=0.001 vs. HF: 132.12 +/- 75.43 U/L, HFr: 143.30 +/- 38.53 U/L, SC: 122.60 +/- 12.76 U/L), total cholesterol levels of 5.18 +/- 0.58 mmol/L (F=72: 470, P =0.000 vs. HF: 3.94 +/- 0.75 mmol/L, HFr: 2.30 +/- 0.50 mmol/L, SC: 2.02 +/- 0.24 mmol/L), HDL cholesterol levels of 3.05 +/- 0.49 mmol/L (F=25.413, P =0.000 vs. HF: 2.65 +/- 0.54 mmol/L HFr: 1.77 +/- 0.47 mmol/L, SC: 1.58 +/- 0.16 mmol/L), LDL cholesterol levels of 1.11 +/- 0.23 mmol/L (F =83.297, P =0.000 vs. HF: 0.72 +/- 0.17 mmol/L, HFr: 0.27 +/- 0.04 mmol/L, SC: 0.20 +/- 0.05 mmol/ L).

CONCLUSIONThe present study suggests that a mouse model of NASH can be successfully induced by a 16-week modified HFHFr diet.

Animals ; Diet, High-Fat ; Disease Models, Animal ; Fructose ; administration & dosage ; Male ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred C3H ; Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

ObjectiveTo identify the members of the Rehmannia glutinosa miR166 gene family and clarify the response mode under adversity. MethodHigh-throughput sequencing technology was employed to obtain a small RNA database and the miR166 family members of R. glutinosa were screened out. The precursor structures were analyzed by RNAfold. DNAMAN and MEGA were used for conservative and evolutionary analyses， respectively. TargetFinder software was used to predict the target genes of R. glutinosa miR166 family members. The expression of miR166 family members in response to abiotic stress was analyzed by real-time polymerase chain reaction（Real-time PCR）. ResultFive miR166s were identified with precursors possessing complete stem-loop structures. As revealed by sequence alignment results， the precursors and matures were both highly conserved. Forty-eight target genes of miR166s were predicted， which were mainly annotated to the HD-ZIP Ⅲ family transcription factors. The expression characteristics showed that the expression of miR160s was up-regulated after R. glutinosa was infected by endophytic fungi， which was different from the expression of the family members under abiotic stress. The expression level of rgl-miR166b-5p in the drought-flood treatment group and the high-low temperature treatment group was significantly down-regulated compared with that in the control group， and the expression pattern was opposite under the endophytic fungal infection. ConclusionThe results of this study preliminarily clarified the expression patterns of R. glutinosa in response to biotic and abiotic stresses and provided a theoretical basis for future breeding and improvement of R. glutinosa.

Objective: To investigate the role of neutrophil elastase inhibitor, sivelestat, in preventing and treating nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and its underling mechanisms. Methods: A total of forty 4-week-old male C57BL/6J ApoE-/-mice were equally divided into the following four groups: standard chow (SC)+isotonic saline; SC+sivelestat; high-fat, high-cholesterol (HFHC) diet+isotonic saline; and HFHC+sivelestat. These mice were treated with above methods for 12 weeks. Blood and liver tissue samples were collected to measure biochemical parameters, hepatic steatosis and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) activity score (inflammation) were evaluated by oil red O staining and HE staining, respectively. The mRNA and protein expression levels of hepatic inflammatory cytokines, CD68, and F4/80 were determined by quantitative RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry, respectively. Comparison of means between the four groups was made by one-way analysis of variance, and comparison between any two groups was made by the LSD or SNK method (for data with homogeneity of variance) or the Tamhane or Dunnett method (for data with heterogeneity of variance). Results: Mice fed with an HFHC diet for 12 weeks developed typical pathological features of NASH compared with those fed with SC. Compared with mice fed with HFHC diet without sivelestat, those treated with HFHC and sivelestat exhibited the following features: (1) significantly reduced fast blood glucose, blood cholesterol, and hepatic biochemical parameters, as well as increased insulin sensitivity; (2) significantly reduced NAFLD activity score (5.71±1.11 vs 3.16±1.16, P < 0.05); (3) reduced monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 and tumor necrosis factor -α; (4) significantly reduced mRNA levels of CD68 and F4/80; and (5) reduced expression of CD68 in the liver. Conclusion Sivelestat alleviates the hepatic steatosis and inflammation of NASH in mice by inhibiting the activation of Kupffer cells.