Objective To examine the impact of C-reactive protein (CRP) on the expression of interleukin-6 (IL-6), inflammatory cytokine, in cultured human pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (hPASMCs) in order to find out the cause of pulmonary artery hypertension (PAH). Method The hPASMCs were cultured and stimulated by different concerntrations of CRP (5 - 200 μg/ml) for different lengths of time. The activity of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) was evaluated by electrophoretic gel mobility shift assay (EMSA). The expression of IL-6 mRNA and the level of IL-6 protein were measured by using real-time PCR and ELISA, respectively. Results CRP increased IL-6 production in hPASMCs in a dose-dependent manner. The increase in IL-6 at concerntration of 200 μg/mL in the CRP group was as high as 2.8times that in the control group. CRP also significantly induced the activation of NF-κB in hPASMCs. The effect of CRP on the inflammatory cytokine, IL-6, was inhibited by the specific FcγⅡa receptor antibody.Conclusions In vitro, CRP increases the production of IL-6 in hPASMCs mediated by FcγⅡa receptor and NF-κB translocation. These data offer important insights into the role of CRP in the pathogenesis of PAH.

How does brain select and adjust the distributed neural activities to achieve its function? To address this problem,researchers introduce Granger causality analysis method to brain functional study,which deals with the estimation of causal influences among multi-variables.First,basic principles of Granger Causality and its improved algorithm structural vector autoregression (SVAR) are introduced.Then several technical problems are reviewed which should be noted when analyzing brain functional signals by Granger Causality Methods.In the end,the application foreground of Granger Causality in epilepsy localization is introduced by taking idiopathic generalized epilepsy as the example.

Based on the gene sequence of AIV matrix protein 2(M2) and two cytotoxic T-lymphocyte epitopes derived from nucleoprotein,the prokaryotic expression vector pET-3M2e-NP1-NP2 was constructed.The target gene was expressed in the solvable form in BL21(DE3) when induced with 1.0 mmol/L IPTG and Western blot analysis showed that the expression product had good immunogencity.Purified fusion protein was mixed with various amount of adjuvant,including Freund's,Vash oil and chitosan,and then immunized 20-day-old chicken by intramuscular injection and boosted 3weeks later.Blood samples were collected weekly following the primary vaccination.The anti-M2e antibody was detected with ELISA method with the synthesized peptide as coated antigen;the neutralizing ability of anti-serum was evaluated on MDCK cell line and chick embryo,the CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocyte amounts in peripheral blood of immunized chicken was measured by flow cytometry.Results showed that the fusion protein can induce immunological reaction,and the antibody can bind with the viral M2 protein that expressed on the surface of MDCK cells.Flow cytometry result showed that CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocyte in peripheral blood increased obviously following immunization(P

M2e gene of three copies for H5N1 subtype AIV was synthesized and fused with human mycobacterium tuberculosis hsp70 gene.The fused gene was cloned into the prokaryotic expression vector to get pET-3M2e and pET-3M2e-hsp70.Recombinant protein r3M2e and r3M2e-hsp70 were successfully expressed induced with IPTG and purified with Ni2+-NTA collumn.Following that,the immunity of the recombinant protein was analysized with Western blot.20-day-old AIV non-immunized chickens were vaccined with r3M2e and r3M2e hsp70,at the same time,Trx and KLH-M2e inoculated chickens were served as vector and positive controls.Two weeks after the primary vaccination,every group was boosted with the same vaccine as in the primary vaccination.The humoral immunity of the vaccined chickens was evaluated with antibody detection against M2e,cytopathic suppression test,and indirect fluorescence assay.The cellular immunity was estimated according to lymphocyte subtype analysis with flow cytometry and M2e specific cytokine detection.Four weeks after the boost vaccine,all groups were challenged with 100EID50 AIV of H9N2 subtype,and the virus from swabs was detected with Real-time PCR.Results indicated that r3M2e hsp70 vaccined chicken developed the better humoral and cellular immune response,also,made a better performance compared with r3M2e vaccined group in virus challenge.

Objective To study the imaging of inner ear malformations in children with congenital sensorineural hearing loss(SNHL).Methods CT and MRI examinations were performed on children with SNHL diagnosed by audiological test.One hundred and eighty-eight patients with complete imaging information were obtained.The imaging of inner ear malformations was analyzed according to Sennaroglu's classification. Results Thirty-five patients(54 ears) were found with inner ear malformations by CT and MRI,3 of whom(5 ears) were accompanied by outer and middle ear malformations.Among the 35 patients,2(4 ears) were found to be common cavity deformity,1(1 ear) cochlear hypoplasia,13(26 ears) incomplete partition II(Mondini deformity),4(7 ears) vestibule dilation,13(19 ears) semicircular canal deformity and 19(34 ears) large vestibular aqueduct.Internal auditory canal was found narrow in 7 patients(10 ears) and wide in 1(2 ears) with classic Mondini deformity. Conclusion CT and MRI examinations are of great importance to the diagnosis and treatment of inner ear malformations in children with congenital SNHL,especially for the candidates of cochlear implantation.

OBJECTIVE:To optimize the extraction and purification technology of total flavonoids from Engelhardia roxburghi-ana,and to establish the method for the content determination of 3 kinds of effective components. METHODS:Using the extrac-tion transfer rate of astilbin as index,single factor test was used to investigate extraction solvent,extraction method,volume frac-tion of percolation solvent ethanol,percolation material-liquid ration,soaking time before percolation and percolation rate of extrac-tion technology,and volume fraction of eluant ethanol in AB-8 resin purification technology. The contents of 3 effective compo-nents as astilbin,texifolin and engelitin in total flavonoids from E. roxburghiana were determined by HPLC. RESULTS:The opti-mal extraction technology was using 70% ethanol as extraction and percolation solvent,percolation extraction,soaking for 8 h be-fore percolation,percolation material-liquid ratio of 1∶16(g/ml),percolation rate of 30 ml/(min·kg). The purification technology was diluting the solution to 0.5 g (crude drug)/ml with water,ethyl acetate extraction,dissolved extract with 50% ethanol after evaporated to dryness,AB-8 resin for sampling,eluted with 50% ethanol,concentrating and drying. In verification test,extraction transfer rate of astilbin was more than 80%(RSD=0.42%,n=3). The contents of astilbin,taxifolin and engeletin in total flavo-noids from E. roxburghiana by purified were 57.94%,3.72% and 2.83%,respectively;the contents of 3 components accounted for 64.00% of total flavonoids. CONCLUSIONS:The extraction and purification technology is stable,rational and reliable;the content determination method of 3 effective components in total flavonoids of E. roxburghiana is accurate,simple and producible.

Objective To evaluate the relationship between the change of the aortomitral angle (AMA) with left ventricular systolic function in patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy (ICM) by echocardiography.Methods Thirty-one patients were enrolled in the ICM group,and 59 healthy subjects were selected as the control group.On the parasternal left ventricular long axis plane,AMA were measured at the R wave apex (R-AMA),J-point(J-AMA),ST-segment midpoint(ST-AMA),T-final wave (T-AMA)and P-final wave (P-AMA).The angle difference(⊿ θ) =AMAmax-AMAmin,the angle changing rate =⊿ θ/AMAmax.The global left ventricular longitudinal strain (GLS) and global circumferential strain (GCS) were obtained by 2D-speckle tracking echocardiography.Left ventricular ejection fraction(LVEF),left ventricular end-diastolic volume(LVEDV) and left ventricular end-systolic volume(LVESV) were measured using Simpson biplane method.Results The J-AMA was the largest in the control group,while the ST-AMA was the largest in the ICM group.The levels of LVEDV,LVESV and AMA in ICM group were significantly higher than those in control group,while LVEF,GLS,GCS,⊿ θ/AMAmax and ⊿ θ were decreased (P ＜0.05).In the control group,there was a correlation between T-AMA and LVEF (r =-0.349,P =0.007),and ⊿ θ was negatively correlated with GLS (r =-0.372,P =0.004).In the ICM group,⊿1 θ/AMAmax and ⊿ θ were correlated with LVEF (r =0.424,P =0.018;r =0.490,P =0.005).Conclusions AMA in ICM patients is significantly increased.The angle difference and the rate of its change are closely related to the LVEF,which is a manifestation of three-dimensional structure change of the myocardial.

Objective To lateralize epileptic foci in interictal electroencephalography (EEG) signal by using causal analysis method.Methods On the basis of frequency domain causal analysis,the adapted directed transfer function (ADTF),power spectrum weighted ADTF(psADTF) method was proposed by applying the power spectrum information in defined frequency band with normalized ADTF,to fit the frequency information features of different epileptic wave.EEG signals of two groups of 30 epilepsy patients were analyzed by psADTF.Group Ⅰ included 15 presurgical patients and 104 epilepsy spikes were picked from EEG signals.Group Ⅱ included 15 outpatient patients and 98 epilepsy spikes were picked from EEG signals.Results 96 of 104 spikes of group Ⅰ were lateralized properly by psADTF according to surgery sites,and the accuracy rate was 92％.94 of 98 spikes of group Ⅱ were lateralized properly by psADTF according to three technicians' judgments,with the accuracy rate of 96％.Conclusion Our results proves that the psADTF method over interictal EEG spikes can be a great help to clinical epileptic foci lateralization.

The microbial counts, type, as well as relationship between microbial counts and the temperature of water in reticulating water system of heating pipeline in Taiyuan were studied, which the main biofouling harmful microbes included slimeforming heterotrophic bacteria, sulfate reducing bacteria, iron bacteria and fungi, respectively. The results showed that the harmful microbes in water system were lower than that of control guideline during heating period, whereas the microbes were higher than that of control guideline, which would result in biofouling of water tube during non- heating period.

Objective In this paper we analyzed the major risk factors of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome(HFRS) as well as its clinical manifestation,so as to provide a basis for clinical diagnosis and effective control of HFRS in Xi'an.Methods The method of retrospective study was used to collect clinical data of hospitalized patients with HFRS between 2005 and 2010 in the Hospitals for Infectious Diseases in Xi'an city,Zhouzhi and Huxian counties and then clinical manifestations of the patients with HFRS were analyzed and classified according to the national standards for clinical symptoms and test indicators of HFRS.HFRS patients matched by the ratio of 1 ∶ 2 healthy human controls were retrospectively investigated in order to obtain risk factors relevant to HFRS incidence using casecontrol study.Odds ratio(OR) method was used for single factor study.While for the multifactor study,we took the conditional Logistic regression approach.We also built models for both studies.Factor with OR ＞ 1 and P ＜ 0.05 was judged to be a risk factor.Results A total of 3090 cases information of patients with HFRS and 6018 healthy controls were collected.Of the 3090 cases of HFRS patients,sixty vaccinated patients showed atypical clinical manifestations and they were mild or moderate cases and no deaths.A total of 3030 nonvaccinated patients had obvious clinical symptoms.Severe or critical cases accounted for 39.07％(1184/3030)and 60 patients died and the fatality rate was 1.98％ (60/3030).The results of single factor Logistic regression analysis showed that of the 16 factors analyzed,the difference of 11 risk factors between the case group and the control group was statistically significant.Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that of the 11 factors,the difference of six factors between the case group and the control group was statistically significant.The main risk factors of suffering HFRS in the order were:exposure to rat pollutants,living in the affected areas,sitting or lying on grass fields in the affected areas,working in the affected areas,house rat infestation,and domesticated cats or dogs(OR =6.826,5.764,4.882,4.857,3.126 and 2.875; P ＜ 0.01 or P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions Vaccines are very useful in the sense that vaccinated HFRS patients tend to have mild symptoms and good prognosis.Health education in this area should be focused on the six risk factors in order to prevent the spreading of HFRS.