Genetic factors are the important reasons for birth defects.Among genetic factors,chromosome abnormality is the most common.Prenatal diagnosis can effectively avoid fetus of abnormal chromosome being born.Noninvasive prenatal diagnosis has more advantage than invasive prenatal diagnosis,such as non-invasive,painless and safe.It is bound to become the main method of prenatal diagnosis.However,non-invasive prenatal diagnosis is still in its infancy stage and the accuracy and sensitivity of detection are pending and need further clinical validation.This article will present a variety of non-invasive prenatal diagnostic methods using cell-free fetal DNA (RNA) and their advantages and disadvantages will be discussed.

The CAPN10 gene, which encodes calpain-10 ( CAPN10 ), a nonlysosomal cysteine protease expressed in many tissues, including skeletal muscle, liver, and pancreas, was positionally cloned within the NIDDM1 region. This putative diabetes susceptibility gene encodes a 672 amino-acid protein. Horikawa et al, determined that the CAPN10 gene consists of 15 exons and spans 31 kb. Recently, researchers in many countries have examined the impact of CAPN-10 gene on T2DM. The three SNPs existence simultaneously can increase threefold risk of T2DM. The correlation between them with racial diversity is also reviewed.

The pathogenesis of pulmonary tuberculosis involves inflammatory mediators reaction,and the pathogenesis of lung cancer is complex,involving multiple genes and molecules.The lung cancer has some relevance with pulmonary tuberculosis in terms of immune abnormalities,antituberculosis drugs,scar repair,chronic inflammation and tuberculin virulence.The treatment of tuberculosis patients with lung cancer is limited to chemotherapy,surgery and radiotherapy.

The analysis of the results of the renal replacement therapies,renal transplantation for 23 cases,hemodialysis for 33 cases,in 56 elderly patients with chronic renal function failure was performed.The total mortality in transplanted group with a higher early mortality is lower than that in hemodialysis group.The living quality of transplanted group was better than of the hemodialysis group.The associated diseases prior to the replacement therapies were the contributions to the death.It was believed that the age has not been served as a limitation for elderly patients receiving renal transplantation. As a replacement therapies the operation should be choosed first by elderly patients.A strictly preoperative physical examination should be done and a postoperatively special cure plan that is suited to the elderly drawn up.

With the development of funcgonal laboratory teaching,the advantages of integrating laboratory resources have been embodied in someway,improving the students'experiment level and their comprehensive analysis ability.But many new problems have also shown up such as unreasonable curriculum,construction of teaching staff.By reinstalling experiment courses,integrating the experiment teaching staff,and exploring the solution to the existing problems,the teaching quality of functional experiment can be promoted

The incidence trend of different kinds of ocular diseases is different among areas and races.Study on the epidemiology survey of ocular diseases is meaningful for prevention,etiology,diagnosis and treatment of diseases,and also can provide the theoretical basis for the administration to establish preventive policies.This review summarized the results of the epidemiology survey of ocular diseases from different countries in recent years.

Objective: To investigate the association between the polymorphism of HLA-A, HLA-B genes and pre-eclampsia. Methods: HLA-A, HLA-B genotyping was performed by polymerase chain reaction sequence-specific primer (PCR-SSP) in 119 preeclampsia patients, 117 normal pregnant women and their neonates. Results: The study showed that 16 HLA-A and 39 HLA-B alleles were obtained in pre-eclamptic patients and normal pregnant women. 15 HLA-A and 37 HLA-B alleles were obtained in their neonates. No significant difference was found in maternal or neonatal HLA-A, HLA-B alleles be-tween pre-eclampsia group and control group (Pc>0. 05). The frequencies of HLA-A11, HLA-A24,HLA-B13, HLA-B14, HLA-B15, HLA-B52 maternal/fetus genetic assoications were significantly different between pre-eclampsia group and control group (P<0. 05). Conclusion: Some HLA-A, HLA-B maternal/fetus special bindings may be associated with the susceptibility or protective of pre-eclampsia.

Objective To investigate expression of elastin,lysyl oxidase (LOX)and elafin in cardinal ligament of women with pelvic organ prolapse(POP) so as to determine their contributions to POP.Methods The cardinal ligament samples were obtained from 60 POP subjects and 60 non-POP control women undergoing hysterectomy.RT-PCR was used to verify the mRNA level of elastin,LOX and elafin.The protein concentration of the three genes was determined by western blotting technique,electrophoretic separation and quantification.Results The premenopansal and postmenopausal POP groups demonstrated significantly decreased expressions of elastin in cardinal ligament both in mRNA and protein levels than control group (mRNA 0.42±0.22,0.26±0.20 versus 0.79±0.30,0.63±0.23 ; protein 0.44±0.32,0.20±0.19 versus 0.89±0.27,0.78±0.25; P＜0.05).There was an identical tendency in the expression of LOX (mRNA 0.37±0.18,0.20±0.14 versus 0.65±0.22,0.53±0.20; protein 0.45±0.27,0.26±0.21 versus 0.85±0.39,0.69±0.31 ; P＜0.05).In POP group,the mRNA and protein levels of elastin and LOX in postmenopansal patients were significantly lower than premenopansal patients (P＜0.05).Inversely,POP group demonstrated an increased expression of elafin in cardinal ligament both in mRNA and protein levels than corresponding control group (mRNA 1.33±0.35,1.47±0.37 versus 0.62±0.25,0.55±0.24; protein 0.85±0.30,0.76±0.35 versus 0.21±0.15,0.29±0.22; P＜0.05). There was no significant difference in the expression of elafin between premenopansal and postmenopausal POP groups either in mRNA or protein levels(P＞0.05).There was a positive correlation between elastin and LOX both in mRNA and protein levels in POP group(r=0.9959,0.9708; P＜0.05),but there was no correlation between elastin and elafin(r=-0.0402,-0.0365;P＞0.05).Conclusions The results suggest that the decreased expression of elastin and LOX and the increased expression of elafin in the cardinal ligaments may contribute to POP.

BACKGROUND: Special anatomical location makes eye lens expose to stressful situation in a long term, so it needs persistent protection to resist stress. Heat shock proteins (HSPs) exert self-protective defensive effect under the stress.OBJECTIVE: To observe the changes in mRNA expression of HSPs in the lens under the condition of exogenous stress.DESIGN: Repeated measurement, controlled observation trial.SETTING: Department of Ophthalmology, First Hospital Affiliated to Jiamusi University.PARTICIPANTS: Human lens endothelial cells B3 (LEC-B3) were obtained from the Department of Ophthalmology, First Hospital Affiliated to China Medical University. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) kit was purchased from Bao Biotechnology Company, Japan.METHODS: This experiment was carried out in the Laboratory of Congenital Malformation, Ministry of Public Health,China Medical University between September 2003 and September 2004. LEC-B3 of the exponential growth was used for the experiment. Thermal or oxidative stress on LEC-B3 cells were produced by 30-minute exposure at 45 ℃ or incubated for 30 minutes in DMEM supplemented with 50 mmol/L H2O2. Some stressful cells were allowed to recuperate after exposure to stress in normal culture medium at 37 ℃ for 0, 2, 4, 6, 16 and 24 hours, separately. The expressions of HSP27 and HSP70 in the LEC-B3 were detected by RT-PCR.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The expressions of HSP27 and HSP70 in LEC-B3.RESULTS: HSPs existed in both physiological and stressful situation. The levels of HSPmRNA were increased 2 hours after both stresses. But the expressions of HSP27 and HSP70 got to the summit at different intervals from 2 hours to 6 hours in each group. Subsequently, they were decreased gradually in each group, but they all could maintain a high level at 16 hours.CONCLUSION: Stressful environment induces the over-expressions of HSP27 mRNA and HSP70 mRNA in LEC-B3. This may play an important protective role in lens epithelial cells in responding to cellular stress.

BACKGROUND: Research has proved that nifedipine can improve the functions of vascular endothelial cells. However, it still needs further study on its mechanism on dilating vessels.OBJECTIVE: To observe the effects of controlled-release nifedipine to nitrogen monoxide(NO) and induced nitric oxide synthase(iNOS) in spontaneously hypertensive rats(SHR).DESIGN: Comparative observational study based on experimental animals.SETTING: Experimental animal centre in a medical college.MATERIALS: This study was completed in Experimental Animal Centre of Shandong University during April to May 2002. Twenty-one recombinant inbred rats of clean class with body mass of(300 ± 2) grams were provided by Experimental Animal Centre of Shandong University. They were randomly divided into three groups: control group, normal group and low dose group,each with 7 rats.METHODS: Saline(10 mL/kg), 10 mL/kg and 3 mL/kg controlled-release nifedipine solution(0. 3 g/L) were poured into stomach to rats in control group, normal dose group and low dose group once everyday for 15 days respectively. Eyeball was removed to collect blood and heart and lung were removed at the same time to test the content of NO and iNOS in serum after last administration.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Content of NO, comparison of iNOS activity between groups.RESULTS: There was significant difference on NO content between normal dose group and control group, low dose group after 15 days' administration ( P < 0. 01 ) . Compared with control group and low dose group, there was significant difference on the iNOS activity in heart and lung of normal dose group(P <0.01, P <0.05).CONCLUSION: While nifedipine reduces the blood pressure, it can also improve the content of NO and resist the increasing activity of iNOS casued by increased blood pressure.