Animals ; Cytokines ; blood ; Endotoxemia ; blood ; therapy ; Endotoxins ; blood ; toxicity ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Hemofiltration ; Interleukin-1 ; blood ; Interleukin-10 ; blood ; Models, Animal ; Swine ; Time Factors ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha ; analysis

Objectives To investigate the changes of erythropoietin(EPO)expression in rats after focal cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury.Methods Male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into normal,sham,cerebral ischemic/reperfusion(CIR)groups.Middle cerebral artery occlusion(MACO)model was established by Longa's method,and reperfusion was followed 2 hours after occlusion in CIR group.The rats' brain neurological deficit scores were evaluated at 24 h,48 h,72 h and 96 h after reperfusion.The protein expression of EPO was determined by immunohistochemistry staining and Western blotting in each time points.Results The rats' brain neurological deficit scores at 48 h,72 h and 96 h were significantly increased(3.40±0.32,3.60±0.17,3.70±0.21,all P<0.05)compared with those at 24 h(3.00±0.22)after reperfusion in CIR group.The results of immunohistochemistry staining and Western blotting showed that the positive expression of EPO proteins in rats started at 24 h(0.36±0.05,140.20±0.30)after cerebral ischemic/reperfusion injury,increased significantly at 48 h(1.09±0.10,145.40±0.16),reached the peak at 72 h(1.29±0.09,156.23±0.12),began to decline at 96 h(0.98±0.04,141.56±0.36).Conclusions Cerebral ischemia and reperfusion injury can induce increased expression of EPO protein,which suggests that EPO may have protective effect on nerve cells under the condition of ischemia and reperfusion.

Objective To investigate the expression of Caspase-9 and heat-shock protein-90 (HSP 90) in rats after focal cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury.Methods The male SD rats (200-250 g) were divided into three groups by the random number table: normal group, sham group and cerebral ischemia-reperfusion (CIR) group.Each group was sorted into four subgroups including group 6 h, group 24 h, group 48 h and group 72 h according to the reperfusion time.Suture-occluded method was adopted to prepare focal cerebral ischemia-reperfusion(CIR) injury in rat model.Enzymelinked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method was used to detect the variations of Caspase-9 and HSP-90 expression in rats.Results The changes in Caspase-9 and HSP 90 expression in the brain cells were observed by ELISA method.The expression of Caspase-9 and HSP-90 was weakly expressed in sham group, and was at peak in CIR group within 24 h-48 h, then began to decline at 72 h after the reperfusion time.The differences in the expression of caspase-9 and HSP-70 between sham group and normal group were not statistically significant.Conclusions Apoptotic cells gradually increase along with reperfusion time and reach the peak at 48 h after cerebral ischemia-reperfusion.In ischemia half dark stripe, the expression of Caspase-9 and HSP 90 is increased in neuronal cells after cerebral ischemia-reperfusion, and the positive cells number is at peak at 48 h after cerebral ischemiareperfusion.Apoptosis of neuronal cells after cerebral ischemia and reperfusion is a dynamic evolutionary process.The expression of Caspase-9 and HSP 90 in nerve cells plays an important role in regulating cell apoptosis.

To enhance speech recognition, as well as Mandarin tone recognition in noice, we proposed a speech coding strategy called zero-crossing of fine structure in low frequency (LFFS) for cochlear implant based on low frequency non-uniform sampling (LFFS for short). In the range of frequency perceived boundary of human ear, we used zero-crossing time of the fine structure to generate the stimulus pulse sequences based on the frequency selection rule. Acoustic simulation results showed that although on quiet background the performance of LFFS was similar to continuous interleaved sampling (CIS), on the noise background the performance of LFFS in Chinese tones, words and sentences were significantly better than CIS. In addition to this, we also got better Mandarin recognition factors distribution by using the improved index distribution model. LFFS contains more tonal information which was able to effectively improve Mandarin recognition of the cochlear implant.
Acoustics ; Cochlear Implants ; Equipment Design ; Humans ; Language ; Noise ; Recognition (Psychology) ; Speech Perception

OBJECTIVESTo evaluate the feasibility and safety of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS), and to compare surgical results of VATS with standard median sternotomy (MS) and other minimal invasive approaches through various small incisions (SI).

METHODSTotally 111 patients underwent surgery for thymic disorders (maximun diameter ≤ 5 cm, clinical stage I-II for thymic tumors) during March 2010 to June 2012 was retrospectively reviewed. There were 46 male and 65 female patients with a mean age of (51 ± 15) years.Resection via VATS was carried out in 47 patients, via SI in 26 patients, and via MS in 38 patients. Demographic characteristics, operation time, number and cause of conversion, blood loss during operation, duration and amount of chest tube drainage, transfusion, morbidity, and length of hospital stay (LHS) were compared between the three groups.

RESULTSOf the 111 patients, 79 patients had thymic epithelia tumors (stage I 32 patients, stage II 39 patients, stage III 8 patients), 31 patients had benign cysts and 1 patient had tuberculosis.In the VATS group, there were 3 conversions among 38 patients through right-side approach, and 4 conversions among 9 patients through left-side approach. The causes for conversion included dense pleura adhesion, invasion of tumor into adjacent structures (pericardium, lung, or great vessels), and injury of the left inominate vein. There was no significant difference in operative time, blood loss or transfusion during operation, duration or amount of postoperative chest tube drainage among the 3 groups (P > 0.05). Average LHS was significantly shorter in the VATS group (5.7 ± 1.7) days than in the SI group (7.5 ± 2.2) days and the MS group (8.2 ± 1.9) days (F = 3.759, P = 0.002). Total thymectomy was performed in 74 patients, 25 patients (53.2%, 25/47) in VATS group, 11 patients (42.3%, 11/26) in SI group, and 38 patients (100%, 38/38) in MS group. The reset of the patients received tumor resection and partial thymectomy. Among all the subgroups, LHS was the shortest in VATS total thymectomy patients (5.0 ± 1.4) days (F = 5.844, P = 0.001). There was no perioperative mortality. The only major morbidity was a postoperative bleeding necessitating reintervention in SI group.

CONCLUSIONSVATS for benign thymic lesions and early-stage thymic tumors is safe and feasible.It is associated with shorter hospital stay compared with other minimal invasive approaches or standard sternotomy.

Adult ; Aged ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Retrospective Studies ; Thymectomy ; methods ; Thymoma ; surgery ; Thymus Neoplasms ; surgery

Anesthesia, General ; Animals ; Central Venous Pressure ; physiology ; Heart Function Tests ; Hemodynamics ; physiology ; Respiration, Artificial ; Shock, Septic ; pathology ; Swine ; physiology ; Venae Cavae ; physiology

Objective To observe the influences of uncoupling protein 2 (UCP-2) rs660339 variants transfection on cell proliferation and apoptosis of human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC). Methods Two UCP-2 green fluorescent protein (GFP) lentivirus constructs were created with the rs660339 locus carried C or T (UCP-2C or UCP-2T), respectively. HUVEC were cultured after lentiviral infection of UCP-2C or UCP-2T. The expression of UCP-2C or UCP-2T was detected with real time polymerase chain reaction. Cell proliferation and cell apoptosis were compared among negative control (NC) group, UCP-2T group and UCP-2C group using CCK-8 cell viability and flow cytometry. Western blot and immunostaining were employed to examine the expression of Bcl-2 gene. Results The lentivirus constructs were successfully created.>80%of the transfected cells were found to express GFP under fluorescent microscope. The mRNA levels of UCP-2 gene were significantly increased (F=29.183, P=0.001) in the UCP-2T group and UCP-2C group. The CCK-8 assay revealed that on day two (F=15.970, P=0.004), day three (F=16.738, P=0.004), day four (F=5.414, P=0.045) post-infection, UCP-2T and UCP-2C group showed significantly greater proliferation than the NC cells. The apoptotic rate in the UCP-2T and UCP-2C group was significantly lower than NC group (F=277.138, P=0.000), and the apoptotic rate of UCP-2T was significantly lower than that of UCP-2C (P=0.003). The protein levels of Bcl-2 in the UCP-2T and UCP-2C group were significantly greater than that in the NC group (F=425.679, P=0.000), and the Bcl-2 expression of UCP-2T was greater than that of UCP-2C (P=0.002). The Bcl-2 density in the UCP-2T and UCP-2C group were greater than that in the NC group (F=11.827, P=0.008), while there was no difference between UCP-2T and UCP-2C group (P=0.404). Conclusion The variants of UCP-2 rs660339 may influence HUVEC proliferation and apoptosis, and UCP-2T showed a stronger effect of inhibiting apoptosis than UCP-2C.

Objective To study the clinical features and prevention means of the infection caused by the highly dathogenic avian influenza A(H_5N_1).Method The clinical data which were confirmed to be an H_5N_1 infected case were analyzed retrospectively.Results The patient,16-year-old male,had no unambi guous history of direct contact with diseased or dead poultry before the onset of the disease.After the onset of the disease,chest X-ray showed flake shadow of the right lower lung quickly spread to the whole lung,associated with mediastinum,subcutaneous emphysema,acute respiratory distress syndrome(ARDS)was occurred on the fifth day.Mechanical ventilation is the primary measure in the comprehensive treatment.On the sixth day,Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention detected the pharyngeal specimen of the patient by RT - PCR,Real- time PCR method and suggested positive for the A/H5/N1 virus nucleic acid andis01ated the avian flu(H_5N_1) virus.The disease course was 10 days from onset of illness to death.Conclusions Human infection by the highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H_5N_1)is a deadly infectious disease.If the lesions is widespread and associated with ARDS,prognosis is poor.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the role of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) in acute liver injury induced by crushing hind limbs of rats. METHODS: The rats were randomly divided into the following groups: control, crushing, H2S donor sodium hydrosulfide (NaHS) + crushing, H2S inhibitor propargylglycine (PAG) + crushing group. The acute liver injury model was established by 'crushing the hind limbs of rats with standard weight. Rats were sacrificed at 30 min and 120 min after the crush. The activities of serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) were measured by colorimetric method, and the content of H2S in plasma and the contents of malondialdehyde (MDA), protein carbonyl, glutathione (GSH) in the liver and the activity of H2S generating enzyme (cystathionine y-lyase, CSE) were determined by chemical method. The expression of CSE mRNA in liver was detected by RT-PCR. RESULTS: For crush injury group, the levels of AST and ALT in serum, MDA and protein carbonyl in liver increased. The levels of GSH, CSE, CSE mRNA in liver and H2S in serum decreased. The administration of NaHS before limbs crush could attenuate the changes of liver injury, but the pre-treatment with PAG could exacerbate the changes. CONCLUSION The decrease of H2S production could involve in mediating the acute liver injury induced by traumatic stress in rats.
Alanine Transaminase/blood* ; Alkynes/pharmacology* ; Animals ; Aspartate Aminotransferases/blood* ; Cystathionine gamma-Lyase/metabolism* ; Glutathione/metabolism* ; Glycine/pharmacology* ; Hydrogen Sulfide/pharmacology* ; Liver/injuries* ; Malondialdehyde/metabolism* ; Protein Carbonylation ; Random Allocation ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Sulfides/pharmacology*

OBJECTIVETO establish a RP-HPLC method for the determination of calycosin-7-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside in Radix Astragali, and to analyse the calycosin-7-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside content of ten samples of Radix Astragali, collected from different regions.

METHODA Polaris C18(250 mm x 4.6 mm, 5 microns) column was used and a mixture of methanol-water (30:70) was used as the mobile phase at a flow rate of 1.0 mL.min-1. The column temperature was 25 degrees C and the UV detection wavelength was 254 nm.

RESULTThe calibration curve was in good linearity over the range of 0.0106-2.12 micrograms with the regression equation Y = 3035. 97 X - 14.85(r = 0.9999). The average recovery was 95.8% (n = 5, RSD = 1.3%).

CONCLUSIONThe method is simple, quick, sensitive and reproducible. In all of the samples, the calycosin-7-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside contents differ markedly.

Astragalus membranaceus ; chemistry ; classification ; China ; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; Ecosystem ; Glucosides ; analysis ; Isoflavones ; analysis ; Plant Roots ; chemistry ; Plants, Medicinal ; chemistry ; Quality Control ; Species Specificity