Objective To investigate the metabolic rules of surfactant protein A and D(SP- A,SP- D )in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid(BALF)in human fetal lungs during gestational ages. Methods BALF with 30 mL saline was performed on clinically collected human fetus with induction of labor by water- bag Their BALF was respectively retrieved [total retrieval rate(85. 6% ? 13 1)% ]for analysis of protein content. The BALF SP - A and SP - D from fetus of various gestational ages or newboms were detected by RPHA and ELISA. Results The total protein in BALF gradually increased since 10th week to newborn peak during lung development. And SP - A and SP D were respectively updated from(0.34 ?0.07 ) ,(0.05?0.01) ng/L to newborn climax[ (6 42 ? 0 36),(1.22 ? 0 13)ng/L] .Conclusions The protein in BALF gradually increases with fetal growth and lung development. SP-A and SP- D may reach prenatal climax and become the main indicator of newborn lung maturity.

BACKGROUND: Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) as common seed cells have been widely used in tissue-engineered cartilage repair.OBJECTIVE: To use human amniotic membrane as a cell scaffold to carry rabbit BMSCs in order to repair articular cartilage defects in the femoral intercondylar fossa of rabbits.METHODS: Rabbit BMSCs were inoculated onto the human acellular amniotic membrane (HAAM) and co-cultured for 2 weeks. Articular defect models were made in the femoral intercondylar fossa of rabbits. The defects of the right knees served as blank control. BMSCs/HAAM composite was transplanted into the defect of the left knee joint as composite group, and HAAM was implanted into the defect of the left knee joint as HAAM group. These rabbits were killed at 8 and 12 weeks after implantation and the newly cartilage samples were evaluated grossly and histologically and then graded.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Gross observation showed the defects were filled with cartilaginous tissues in the composite group, and there were no cartilage tissues in the HAAM group, while only fibrous tissues were seen in the blank control group. Histologically, the defect region was full of chondrocytes in the composite group,immunohistochemistry staining indicated that collagen II was rich in the tissue, and furthermore, the cartilage matrix was stained deeply by toluidine blue. In the the HAAM group, there were few chondrocytes, toluidine blue staining was weakly positive, and immunohistochemistry staining was negative, indicating there was no cartilage matrix. In the blank control group, the defects were filled of fibroblasts and toluidine blue staining was weakly positive. To conclude, the BMSCs/HAAM is a good scaffold for BMSCs chondrogenic differentiation to effectively repair articular cartilage defects.

Objective: To observe the effect of Yi Jin Jing (Sinew-transforming Qigong Exercises) on the muscle strength in senile sarcopenia. Methods: Sixty-five old people with sarcopenia were randomized into Yi Jin Jing group and a blank control group. Thirty-three patients in Yi Jin Jing group practiced Yi Jin Jing (Sinew-transforming Qigong Exercises), while 32 patients in the blank control group didn't receive any interventions. The muscle strength was measured before and after 12-week training. Results: During the study, each group had 1 dropout. The muscle strength was improved after 12-week training in Yi Jin Jing group, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05); there was no significant difference in the blank control group (P>0.05). After the intervention, there was a significant difference between Yi Jin Jing group and the blank control group in comparing the muscle strength (P<0.05). Conclusion: Constant Yi Jin Jing (Sinew-transforming Qigong Exercises) training can notably improve skeletal muscle strength in senile sarcopenia.

OBJECTIVETo explore the mechanisms involved in the ligustrazine alleviation of the pulmonary artery hypertension (PAH) in patients of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) associated with chronic cor pulmonale (CCP) during exacerbation.

METHODSSeventy patients of COPD and CCP with acute exacerbation were randomly and equally divided into control group and treatment group. The control group received standard treatment with antibiotics, antiasthmatic and expectorant medications, and oxygenation; and the ligustrazine treatment group received ligustrazine treatment (80 mg/d; i.v.; for 2 weeks) in addition to the standard treatment. Before and at the end of 2 week treatment, the clinic responses of the two regimens were evaluated, plasma levels of endothelin-1 (ET-1) and nitric oxide (NO) were determined; arterial oxygen partial pressure (PaO2, mean pulmonary arterial pressure (mPAP), outflow tract of right ventricle (RVOT), and internal diameter of right ventricle (RV) were measured.

RESULTSGood clinic benefits were achieved in both the standard and ligustrazine regimens, plasma level of ET-1, values of mPAP, RV and RVOT decreased significantly, plasma level of NO and PaO2 values decreased (all P < 0.01 vs pre-treatment to all parameters). Compared with the control group, ligustrazine greatly enhanced the clinic efficacy from 77.1% to 97.1% (P < 0.05), and also resulted in more significant changes of all these parameters (P < 0.01 vs control group for all parameters). For both groups, the levels of plasma ET-1 were positively correlated with values of mPAP, RVOT, and RV (r = 0.710, 0.853, and 0.766, respectively, all P = 0.000), and negatively correlated with plasma NO and PaO2 (r = - 0.823, and - 0.752, respectively, all P = 0.000).

CONCLUSIONLigustrazine is effective in treating pulmonary artery hypertension during acute exacerbation of COPD and CCP in patients from the plateau area. The observed changes in the plasma levels of NO and ET-1 in response to ligustrazine treatment suggest that ligustrazine may act through the selective effect on pulmonary blood vessels to enhance the synthesis and release of NO and suppress those of ET-1 from lung vascular endothelial cells, thus reducing pulmonary artery pressure and decreasing pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Altitude ; Blood Gas Analysis ; Chronic Disease ; Endothelin-1 ; blood ; Humans ; Hypertension, Pulmonary ; drug therapy ; Nitric Oxide ; blood ; Pulmonary Artery ; physiopathology ; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive ; drug therapy ; Pyrazines ; therapeutic use ; Respiration

OBJECTIVETo observe therapeutic effects of qi supplementing, yin nourishing, blood stasis dispersing, collateral dredging recipe (QYBCR) on early diabetic nephropathy (DN).

METHODSSeventy-eight early DN patients were randomly assigned to the treatment group (39 cases, treated by QYBCR) and the control group (39 cases, treated by irbesartan). The changes of the therapeutic efficacy, Chinese medicine syndrome scores, urine albumin excretion rate (UAER), serum creatinine (SCr), blood urine nitrogen (BUN), fasting blood glucose (FBG), total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), and the occurrence of end-point events were observed after one-year treatment.

RESULTSThe total effective rate in treatment group was 83.8% (31/37 cases), which was obviously higher than that in control group (60.5%, 23/38 cases) (P < 0.05). After treatment the Chinese medicine syndrome scores were reduced significantly in the treatment group (P < 0.05, P < 0.01), and showed significant difference when compared with those in the control group (P < 0.05, P < 0.01). Levels of UAER, SCr, BUN, FBG, TC, and TG were (65. 78 +/- 9.67) microg/min, (93.20 +/- 12.99) micromol/L, (5.69 +/- 1.21) mmol/L, (6.14 +/- 1.47) mmol/L, (4. 85 +/- 0. 83) mmol/L, (1.46 +/- 0.81) mmol/L after treatment in treatment group. All of them decreased more significantly than before treatment [(161.03 +/- 20.01) microg/min, (101.11 +/- 14.33) micromol/L, (6.54 +/- 1.12) mmol/L, (9.27 +/- 2.32) mmol/L, (6. 19 +/- 2.13) mmol/L, (2. 70 +/- 1.86) mmol/L] (P < 0.05, P < 0.01). The aforesaid indices were also improved in the control group after treatment (P < 0.05, P < 0.01). The reduction of TC and TG after treatment in the treatment group was more significant [(5.58 +/- 1.57) mmol/L, (1.99 +/- 1.22) mmol/L] (P < 0.05). Besides, the incidence rate of end-point events (5.4%, 2/37) (1 year after the development of clinical DN) of the treatment group was slightly lower than that of the control group (10.5%, 4/38), but with no statistical difference.

CONCLUSIONQYBCR combined with Western medicine-based treatment showed better therapeutic efficacy on early DN.

Adult ; Aged ; Biphenyl Compounds ; therapeutic use ; Diabetic Nephropathies ; drug therapy ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; therapeutic use ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Phytotherapy ; Qi ; Tetrazoles ; therapeutic use

Adult ; Aged ; Disease Outbreaks ; Female ; Humans ; Leptospirosis ; epidemiology ; Male ; Middle Aged

Objective To analyze the results of the Objective Structured Clinical Examination(OSCE) of medical interns in Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics,and to assess the role of OSCE in clinical teaching and practice. MethodsAtolal of 104 medical interns of five-year education program in 2002 and seven-year education program in 2003 in School of Medicine had taken part in OSCE of gynecology and obstetrics.The OSCE consisted of six stations: gynecologic examination,obstetric examination,oral test,interrogation of standardized-patients(SP),drawing partogram,and non-stress test(NST) explanation.After gathering the data of each station,the software of SPSS 11.0 was used to make statistical analysis. Results The median scores were as follows: 92.0 for gynecologic examination,91.0 for obstetric examination,83.5 for oral test,80.0 for interrogation of SP,80.0 for drawing partogram,and 70.0 for NST explanation.There was no significant impact of familiarity to OSCE on the results of the test.The results showed that medical interns did good job in basic performance,but lack of clinical practice skills in some complicated practice of gynecology and obstetrics.Conclusion The grading system and stations setup of OSCE in Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics in Shanghai Sixth People's Hospital show objectivity and equity.The OSCE can be widely applied in the after-department examination and even graduation examination.

ObjectiveTo observe the effect of Jiuqiang Naoliqing (JNQ) on the behavior of Kunming mice.MethodsSpontaneous movement, Morris Water Maze, Rotarod, anti caffeine test, sleeping time of pentobarbital sodium, subthreshold dose of pentobarbital sodium, and anti pentylene tetrazol test were adopted to evaluate the behavioral changes. ResultsCompared with the control group, the low dose of JNQ can increase spontaneous movement of the mice, the middle and high dose of JNQ can increase time on the rotating rods. JNQ can also increase sleeping time of pentobarbital sodium test and percent of falling asleep in subthreshold dose of pentobarbital sodium test, as well as antagonize caffeine's effect on mice. ConclusionJNQ can also do sedative and hypnotic effect on Kunming mice as well as improve their ability of balance and coordination.

The traditional Chinese medicine of Radix Hedysari plays an important role in invigorating gas for as-cending, benefiting blood for promoting production of fluid, and promoting circulation for removing obstruction in collaterals, which is consistent with the principle of treatment for osteoporosis. This study is designed to investigate the bioactive components on increasing peak bone mass (PBM) by exploring the spectrum-effect relationship between chromatography fingerprints and effect. Multiple indicators are selected to evaluate the pharmacological activity. In fingerprints, 21 common peaks are obtained, five of which are identified. Furthermore, gray relational analysis (GRA) is a quantitative method of gray system theory and is used to describe the correlation degree of common peaks and pharmacological activities with relational value. 21 components are then divided into three different regions, of which ononin and calycosin play an extremely significant role in increasing PBM. In addition, factor analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) are used to screen the optimal producing area for Radix Hedysari. This provides a comprehensive and efficient method to improve the quality evaluation of Radix Hedysari, confirming the bioactive components for PBM-enhancement and further develop its medicinal value.

In-vitro assay methods were established to evaluate transactivation and binding activity of compounds on peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor y (PPARγ). Firstly, plasmids were constructed for transactivation assay of PPARγ response element (PPRE) triggered reporter gene expression, and for cell-based binding activity assay of the chimeric receptor, which was fused with PPARγ ligand binding domain (LBD) and yeast transcriptional activator Gal4. Secondly, by using PPARy competitive binding assay based on time resolved-fluorescence resonance energy transfer (TR-FRET), affinities of compounds and drugs to PPARγ were evaluated. In application of these above methods, the PPARγ activating potency and characteristics of different compounds were evaluated, and a novel benzeneselfonamide derivative, ZLJ01, was found to have comparable binding activity and affinity with the well-known PPARy agonist, but lack of PPRE mediated transactivation activity. In preliminary study on in-vitro hypoglycemic activity, ZLJ1 was found to promote insulin-stimulated glucose uptake by liver cells. Therefore, we believe that combining transactivation and binding activity as well as affinity evaluation, the system could be used to screen non-agonist PPARγ ligand as anovel PPARγ modulator
Genes, Reporter ; Hepatocytes ; Hypoglycemic Agents ; chemistry ; Ligands ; PPAR gamma ; agonists ; chemistry ; Plasmids ; Response Elements ; Sulfonamides ; chemistry ; Transcriptional Activation