Objective To establish the model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) with selective motor neuron disorder by organotypic spinal cord cultures, and analyze the role of astrocyte in the pathagenisis of ALS.Methods Organotypic spinal cord cultures were prepared using lumbar spinal cord slices from 8-day-old SD rat pups. The threohydroxyaspartate (THA) was applied into culture medium to establish ALS organotypic spinal cord cultures model. Motor neurons survival was evaluated by monoclonal SMI-32 immunohistochemical staining and glial fibrillary acidic protein staining to show astrocyte survival.Results Compared with the control group, there was significantly astrogliosis in the anterior horn and surrounding white matter in THA 100 μmol/L group, and the level of gliosis was increased followed the elongation of THA interference time. With the increasing of the number of astrocyte, the morphology of astrocyte was changed.Conclusion There is significantly astrogliosis in the anterior horn and the time of astrogliosis is markedly earlier than the time of motor neuron loss in the ALS model intervented with THA.

Objective To evaluate operative management of complex hypospadias.Methods Twenty-one cases with complex hypospadias were reviewed.Thiresch procedure at 12 cases were taken.Island scrotal septal flap urethroplasty at 7 cases.Snodgrass procedure at 1 case.Mathieu procedure at 1 case.Results Fifteen cases were satisfied without fistula and stricture.Four cases with fistula,1 case with chordee,urethral meatus stricture in 1 case.Overall,the complication rate was 28.5%.Conclusions Selection of surgical procedure should according to the different case circumstance.It′s essential that reduce separative procedure,protect blood supply and carefully manipulation to improve successful rate.

BACKGROUND: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) can differentiate into myocardial cells in vitro and in vivo, but the amount is small and directed differentiation rate is low.OBJECTIVE: To explore the effect of stem cell factor (SCF) on promotion of MSCs differentiating into myocardial cells.DESIGN: Opening experiment.SETTING: Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, Xianning College and Department of Cardiology, Tongji Hospital Affiliated to Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology.MATERIALS: The experiment was performed at the Experimental Center of Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, Xianning College from October 2003to August 2004. A total of 20 infant SD rats aged 1-2 days were selected for culture of myocardial cells. Another 25 clean adult SD rats were selected and randomly divided into SCF group, blank control group with 12 rats in each group. The left one rat was used for MSCs extraction, culture and purification.METHODS: ①MSCs were labeled with 4', 6-diamidino-2-phenylindole,dihydrochloride (DAPI) before co-culture. SCF was given into rats of the SCF group by subcutaneous injection successively for 5 days, 20 μg/kg per day. Isolated MSCs were co-cultured with myocardial cells that had been cultured for 3 days. Saline of the same volume was given in the blank control group by subcutaneous injection. MSCs without any intervention were co-cultured with myocardial cells that had been cultured for 3 days.②Expressions of MHC α/β and troponin T were recorded and measured with digital micro-camera shot and immunofluorescence technique, respectively. Percentage of DAPI labeled MSCs differentiating into myocardial cells was measured.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: ①Growth of MSCs, ②detection of labeling rate of DAPI on MSCs, ③analysis of activity and purity of co-cultured myocardial cells, and ④differentiation of MSCs into myocardial cells after co-culture.RESULTS: ①Bone marrow cell suspension was inoculated in plastic petri dish. Round cells scattered at the bottom of bottle. At hour 24 a few long fusiform shape adhered cells appeared following liquor change, and at day 4 many fusiform shape adhered cells appeared, which entered logarithm increased period. At days 8-12 80% were confluence. The proliferation of passage cells was more rapid. With liquor change and passage, the MSCs were purified gradually. ②Labeling rate of DAPI on MSCs was 100%. ③At 3-day in vitro culture of myocardial cells the percentage of beat cells was 63%, with beat frequency of 40-60 times per minute. Percentage of positive cells of troponin T expression was 75% examined with immunocytochemical technique. ④At co-cultured days 2 and 3, positive percentage of DAPI labeled MSCs expressing MHC α/β was significantly higher in the SCF group than in the blank control group (P ＜ 0.01). At the co-cultured days 3, 4 and 5, positive percentage of DAPI labeled MSCs expressing troponin T was obviously higher in the SCF group than in the blank control group (P ＜ 0.01).CONCLUSION: SCF has markedly accelerating effect on proliferation and differentiation of MSCs.

AIM:To investigate the effect of pretreatment of stem cell factor(SCF) and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor(G-CSF) on the proliferation and the differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells(MSCs) into cardiomyogenic cells.METHODS:The MSCs,isolated primarily from bone marrow,and purified by passage culture,were obtained from the adult rats of four groups:the rats were pretreated by 5 daily injections of SCF;the rats were pretreated with G-CSF;the rats were pretreated with SCF and G-CSF;the rats were treated without any intervention.The 4th passage of MSCs was labeled by DAPI and cellular cycle analysis was conducted by flow cytometry before co-culture.The neonatal rat cardiomyocytes cultured for 3 days were co-cultured with DAPI-MSCs.The percentage of the differentiation of MSCs into cardiomyogenic cells during the five co-culture days was analyzed.The morphologic changes of MSCs and the proteins expression of cardiac myosin heavy chain(MHC) and troponin T(TnT) were recorded respectively with digital microscope camera system and immunofluorescence technique.The percentage of the differentiation of MSCs into cardiomyogenic cells was also calculated.RESULTS:The percentage of MSCs in G0/G1 phase in SCF/G-CSF group was significantly lower than that in SCF group,G-CSF group and the control group.The percentage of MHC protein-positive MSCs in SCF/G-CSF group was markedly higher than that in SCF group,G-CSF group and the control group,and that in SCF group and G-CSF group was significantly higher than control group.The percentage of TnT protein-positive MSCs in SCF/G-CSF group,SCF group and G-CSF group was significantly higher than that in control group.CONCLUSION:SCF and G-CSF show the ability to stimulate the proliferation of MSCs and induce MSCs to differentiate into cardiomyocytes.The combination of using SCF and G-CSF is more effective than using only SCF or G-CSF.

Spermiogenesis is a complex process of differentiation and morphologic alteration, in which sperm acrosome formation is an important stage. Acrosome is an essential component of the sperm head, which develops in four distinct phases: Golgi, cap, acro- somal, and maturation, each supported by precise and orderly regulation of various genes. The regulatory genes which act on Golgi ap- paratus include GOPC, Hrb, SPATA16, PICK1, and CK2α', those involved in the cap phase are Fads2, syntaxin 2, Kdm3a, and UBR7, and participating in acrosomal and maturation phases are KIFC1, Rnf19a, and DPY19L2. The abnormalities of these genes may affect male fertility by influencing the connection of the nuclear dense lamina and acroplaxome with the nuclear membrane and then the fusion and transportation of vesicles. This review focuses on the genes involved in different phases of acrosome formation.
Acrosome ; physiology ; Animals ; Golgi Apparatus ; Male ; Mice ; Sperm Head ; physiology ; Spermatids ; growth & development ; Spermatogenesis ; genetics ; Spermatozoa ; growth & development

Objective To investigate the effects of penehyclidine hydrochloride combined with ulinastatin on postoperative cognitive function in the patients undergoing thoracic surgery.Methods One hundred and twenty patients undergoing lung cancer thoracotomic radical resection were randomly divided into hydrochloride penehyclidine composite ulinastatin group(HU group),hydrochloride penehyclidine group(H group),ulinastatin group(U group)and control group(C group).The arterial blood was collected for detecting OI,TNF-α,IL-6 and IL-8.The serum levels of S-100β and NSE were detected.The MMSE scores were evaluated.Results Compared with the H group and U group,the levels of TNF-α at T3-4 in the HU group were decreased,and the levels of IL-6 and IL-8 at T2-4 were decreased,while OI was increased(P＜0.05).Compared with the H group and U group,the serum levels of S-100β and NSE at T5-8 in the HU group were decreased(P＜0.05);compared with the H group and U group,the MMSE scores at T6-7 in the HU group were increased(P＜0.05).Conclusion Penehyclidine hydrochloride combined with ulinastatin could reduce the inflammation reaction during one lung ventilation in thoractomy and improves the postoperative cognitive function.

OBJECTIVETo establish sleeve gastrectomy(SG) rats model of obese type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM) for the research of hypoglycemic mechanism.

METHODSNine male Sprague-Dawley (6-week-old) rats were fed with high-sucrose and high-fat diet for 4 weeks, developing diet-induced obesity (DIO) rats model. The rats were then randomly divided into two groups. Six rats of them underwent sleeve gastrectomy(SG) as the sleeve gastrectomy group[SGG, body weight (471.8±17.9) g] and the other three rats underwent a laparotomy and stomach manipulation as the sham operative group[SOG, body weight (467.0±8.4) g]. The body weight, caloric intake and peripheral blood concentration of total ghrelin of rats were recorded after operation.

RESULTSThe weight of all the rats declined progressively after operation. The weight of the rats in SOG began to rise on the 5th postoperative day(POD) and regain their preoperative levels on the average 22nd POD. However, the weight of the rats in SGG began to rise slowly from the 9th POD, but was still lower than that of SOG[(487.4±10.1) g] and preoperative levels[(471.8±17.9) g] on the 28th POD[(420.1±18.6) g](P=0.001). Average caloric intake of rats in SGG was significantly lower than that of SOG after operation, but there was no significant difference between the two groups(P=0.121). The ghrelin level of SGG showed a continuous decreasing trend after intervention, decreased by 17.4% compared with the preoperative level (1595.1±14.4 ng/L) on the 28th POD[(1316.8±14.8) ng/L]. The ghrelin level of SOG did not change obviously before and after operation and both groups differ statistically(P=0.000).

CONCLUSIONSA SG rat model is successfully established. This model can be used for the further study of mechanism analysis of T2DM resolution after surgery.

Animals ; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 ; pathology ; Disease Models, Animal ; Gastrectomy ; methods ; Ghrelin ; blood ; Male ; Obesity ; blood ; surgery ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley

Objective To evaluate the method of detecting antibodies to Bacillus anthracis by enzymelinked immunosorbent assay(ELISA)using crude antigen.Methods The anti-Bacillus anthracis antibody levels in sera of 42 healthy people and 42 patients were detected by indirect ELISA.Standard curve was plotted using the data from positive controls,based on which the relative content of each serum was calculated and compared with the result of rLF.Results The median of antibody's relative content in patient group and healthy people group are 1.19 and 0.24,the differences being statistically significant(uc=7.643,P＜0.05).The result of crude antigen is in concordance with rLF(but not parallel absolutely).Conclusions Crude antigen can distinguish most of patients with healthy population effectively.The results suggested that crude antigen is applicable in anti-Bacillus anthracis antibody surveillance.

[Objective] The present study aimed to determine the protective role of Melatonin (MT) against Acrylamide (AA)-induced testicular toxicity and the potential molecular mechanism.[Methods] The animals were randomly divided into three groups,the control group (n =12),the AA group (n =12) and the AA+MT group (n =12).The rats in the AA and AA + MT group were gavaged with AA at a dose of 15 mg/(kg · day) for 4 consecutive weeks.After 3 weeks of AA treatment,MT was intraperitoneally injected 30 minutes before AA treatment at 10 mg/(kg· day) for 1 week in the AA + MT rats.Subsequently,the mitochondrial membrane potential measurement,TUNEL assay,Western blot and electron microscopic techniques were applied in the present study.[Results] The results showed that AA could decrease the testis mitochondrial membrane potential (P ＜ 0.05) which could be recovered by MT (P ＜ 0.05).Moreover,MT induced down-regulation of Bax expression and up-regulation of Bcl-2 expression in the testis,compared with AA rats.The amelioration of testicular apoptosis was further confirmed by the TUNEL labeling.Western blot results suggested that the decreased ratios of Bcl-2/Bax and Bcl-xL/Bak in the AA group (both P ＜ 0.05) could be recovered by MT treatment (both P ＜ 0.05).The levels of Cyt-c,Casp-3,p53 and NF-κB in AA group were markedly elevated compared with the control (all P ＜ 0.05),and reduced in MT treatment group (all P ＜ 0.05).MT could relieve abnormal mitochondrial structures in the seminiferous tubule in the electron microscopic level.[Conclusion] MT may exert productive effect through its anti-apoptotic properties associated with mitochondria.

Forty five patients with acute cerebral infarction were randomized to two groups: in treatment group patients received local subhypothermia and conventional therapy, in control group patients received conventional therapy only. Clinical outcome was assessed by the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) on admission and at 7, 14 and 30 d after treatment. Serum neuron specific enolase (NSE), nitrogen monoxide ( NO ) , superoxide dismutase (SOD), interleukin-6 (IL-6 ) and intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) were detected on admission and at 7,14 d after treatment The study showed that NIHSS scores of treatment group on 14, 30 d were lower than those of control group ( P ＜ 0. 05 ). Serum NSE, NO, IL-6 and ICAM-1 levels significantly decrease; while serum SOD levels increased (P ＜ 0. 05). In conclusion, local subhypothermia therapy can inhibit inflammatory reaction, reduce oxygen free radical formation and improve neurological function in patients with acute cerebral infarction.