8 trace elements including Cu, P, Zn, Mg, Fe, Ca, Mn, and Ba were determined in 60 volunteers and 41 patients with endemic fluorosis. The results showed that in the patient's group serum Cu was substantially higher and serum Zn as well as Fe were lower while hair Cu and Mg were both significantly elevated as compared with controls.Based on the results mentioned above, it may be suggested that hair could be used as an alternative source for clinical measurement of trace elements because of its easy availability. The significance of the changes in the 8 trace elements was also discussed, but the pathological mechanism has been unknown yet.

AIM: To explore the effect of acute and chronic hypoxia on the chemotaxis of polymorphonuclear leukocytes(PMNs) of rats.METHODS: Serum and PMNs were separated from rats under normoxia, acute hypoxia and chronic hypoxia condition,and cell aspiration technology system was used to determine the chemotactic migration of pseudopod of PMNs induced by serum as chemotactic factor.RESULTS: Induced by autoserum,the length of pseudopod of PMNs migrated into micropipette [(1.200?0.178)?m,(1.094?0.164)?m ]under acute hypoxic and chronic hypoxic condition was significantly longer than the corresponding value for control[(0.914?0.156)?m,P

AIM: To determine the effect of agmatine on the proliferation of pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (PASMCs) induced by hypoxia. METHODS: Primary culture of rat PASMCs was prepared from adult male Wistar rat pulmonary artery by the method of tissue block anchorage. PASMCs were divided into two groups: control group and agmatine-treated group. The activity of LDH in the medium was measured by chromatometry. [3H]-TdR incorporation was measured by liquid scintillation counting. The cell cycle was measured by flow cytometry, and the PCNA content was measured by image analysis. RESULTS: Agmatine did not exert significant effect on the activity of LDH in the medium, but significantly decreased the [3H]-TdR incorporation and PCNA content of PASMCs. Agmatine significantly decreased the cell ratio of G_2/M phase and increased the cell ratio of G_0/G_1 phase. With the increment of the concentration of agmatine, [3H]-TdR incorporation was significantly decreased. CONCLUSION: Agmatine has no significant cytotoxic effect on PASMCs and agmatine dose-dependently inhibits the proliferation of rat PASMCs induced by hypoxia.

Objective To construct a bait plasmid in bacterial two-hybrid system.Methods A cDNA fragment encoding for rat AMP-activated protein kinase ?2(AMPK?2) was amplified by PCR and inserted into bacterial expression vector pBT.After confirmation with restricted endonuclease digestion and sequence analysis,bacterial reporter strain XL-1 Blue MRF' was transformed with pBT-AMPK?2 plasmid and the expression of the recombinant bait fusion protein was detected.To test whether the bait fusion protein had the capability of self-activation,the XL-1 Blue MRF' cells were cotransformed with the pBT-AMPK?2 plasmid and empty pTRG vector,and screened on 3-amino-1,2,4-triazole(3-AT) Selective Screening Medium plates.Results Restriction digestion and sequence analysis revealed that the AMPK?2 code sequence was correctly inserted into pBT with a right reading frame.pBT-AMPK?2 expressed ?cI/AMPK?2 fusion protein.Colonies were obtained on no 3-AT Nonselective Screening Medium plates when XL-1 Blue MRF' cells were cotransformed with recombinant pBT-AMPK?2 and empty pTRG vector,while none grew on 3-AT plates,indicating that the recombinant plasmid pBT-AMPK?2 expressed AMPK?2/?cI fusion protein correctly,and was incapable of activation of the reporter cassette in the absence of an interaction partner.Conclusion The recombinant plasmid pBT-AMPK?2 could be used as "bait plasmid" to screen cDNA library.

Estrogen has many physiological functions. It can prevent atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease and osteoporosis etc. Phytoestrogen is a kind of natural compounds in plants that is structurally similar to estrogen and has estrogen-like effects. The studies on the effects of estrogen and phytoestrogen on the hypoxia at present is limited and its mechanism is being researched.

With the advent of post-genomic era, identification of protein-protein interaction has become another hot spot of protein research and promoted the invention, development and complement of relative techniques. Major large-scale high-throughput methods, such as two-hybrid system, bacteriophage display, mass spectrometry, protein microchips and bioinformatics have provided a global view of protein-protein interaction, and are hopeful to play an important role in proteomics. Each method may have its specific strengths and weaknesses as well as differences in coverage, to some extent, the data based on these methods can complete each other. Here, recent progress of these large-scale high-throughput methods and their applications for studying protein-protein interaction are reviewed.

Objective To investigate the roles of hypoxia regulated genes/protein in chemical hypoxia preconditioning in differentiated SH-SY5Y cells.Methods Differentiated SH-SY5Y cells were randomly divided into control group,chemical hypoxic preconditioning group(50 ?mol/L CoCl2 preconditioning for 3 h,normal culture for 1 h,then in 2%O2 for 28 h) and hypoxia group(in 2%O2 for 28 h).RT-PCR was used to examine the mRNA expressions of VEGF,GLUT-1,EPO,LDH-A.Further evaluation of the potential neuroprotective effect of VEGF was done by investigating the effect of recombinant human VEGF on subsequent hypoxia injury.Results The mRNA levels of GLUT-1,EPO increased in the preconditioning group as compared with those in the hypoxia group(P

Objective The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between acute mountain sickness ( AMS) and AMS susceptibility indices before ascent to high altitude and to evaluate their predictive value for AMS. Methods A total of 314 healthy male a-dults were voluntarily enrolled. Their 22 physiological and mental indices of AMS susceptibility were obtained before exposure high altitude. The diagnoses of AMS were based on the Lake Louise score ( LLS) ,an international standard scoring system for AMS. According to the char-acteristics of selected AMS susceptibility indices and the strong fault tolerance of neural network theory, the learning vector quantization ( LVQ) neural network method was adopted to build the prediction model of susceptibility to AMS. Results The results showed the sensitiv-ity of the LVQ model which distinguishes subjects with no-AMS reached 95. 00%,the average correct-prediction precision ultimately reached 72. 22%. The result of prediction is believable. Conclusion The builded LVQ model provide a scientific method for screening crowd who quickly ascend to high altitude,and also can lead to an effective preliminary screening of susceptibility to AMS.

Eleven male rabbits were divided into 2 groups. Normal saline(NS) group consisted of 5 animals and was treated with 0.9% NaCl solution, and hyperosmotic saline (HS) group consisted of 6 rabbits and was treated with 7.5% NaCl. The animals were exposed to hypobaric hypoxia at a simulated altitude of 4000 m and hemorrhagic shock was inflicted to them through femoral artery bleeding. The mean arterial pressure (MAP) was brought to 6.0 kPa over 10 minutes and kept at that level for 70 minutes. A certain amount of 0.9% NaCl (300 mmol/L) or 7.5% NaCl (2400 mmol/L) was intravenously infused over a 10-minute interval. The volume infused was equivalent to 10% of the total blood shed. It was found that MAP, left ventricular systolic pressure, and LV dp/dt were significantly higher in HS group than in NS group (from 3rd to 20th minute after infusion). Sodium ion concentration was significantly higher in HS (145.8?3.16 mmol/L) than in NS (135.6?2.87 mmol/L) (P

AIM:To determine the right ventricular angiotensin converting enzyme2 (ACE2) activity in adult SD rats under normoxia and hypoxia environment,and to detect the relationship between ACE2 and high altitude heart disease initially. METHODS:Adult male Sprague Dawley (SD) rats were raised under hypoxia environment simulated to high altitude (5 000 m,23 h/d),then divided into hypoxia 1 d,15 d and 30 d groups randomly. The control group was set up under normoxia environment. The right ventricular function,ponderal index,pulmonary artery pressure and right ventricular ACE2 activity were determined. The effect of captopril or nitrendpine on cardiac ACE2 activity in hypoxia 30 d group was also observed. RESULTS:The dramatic up-regulation of cardiac ACE2 expression of mRNA and protein and its activity in hypoxia 30 d group was observed,together with obvious increase in right ventricular function,ponderal index and pulmonary artery pressure. Although captopril or nitrendipine depressed pulmonary artery pressure and cardiac function dramatically,no significant alteration of right ventricular ACE2 activity was detected. CONCLUSION:Chronic hypoxic exposure promotes the ACE2 expression and activity in right ventricular,indicating that ACE2 may be correlated to the changes of cardiac architecture and function induced by hypoxia. Up-regulation of ACE2 expression maybe contribute to the increase in right ventricular ACE2 activity,and pulmonary artery hypertension may not be the main reason for the changes of ACE2 activity under hypoxia environment.