Objective To investigate the relationships between the severity of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and metabolic syndrome (MS).Methods One hundred and twenty-seven cases of NAFLD patients were selected from March 2011 to August 2012 in the First Hospital Affiliated to Fujian Medical University,of them,61 patients with mild NAFLD,45 patients with moderate and 21 patients with severe.And 21 cases without NAFLD were selected as control group during the same hospitalized period.All objects received the measures of height,body weight,waist circumference (WC),blood pressure; Liver ultrasonic examination,the examination of fasting plasma glucose,blood fat and hepatic function detections were also handed by special people.Results The proportion of overweight in the control group and the three NAFLD subgroups were 57.1％ (12/21),88.5％ (54/61),95.6％ (43/45) and 100％ (21/21) respectively (x2 =18.376,P ＜0.001) ;The proportion of the obesity in control group and the three NAFLD subgroups were 19.0％ (4/21),44.3％ (27/61),64.4％ (29/45) and 71.4％ (15/21) respectively(x2 =16.440,P =0.001).The proportion of the metabolic syndrome of the control group and the three NAFLD subgroups were 14.3％ (3/21),45.9％(28/61),71.1％ (32/45) and 71.4％ (15/21) respectively (x2 =22.637,P ＜ 0.05).All three subgroups of NAFLD were higher than the control group (x2 =6.641,P ＜ 0.05 ; x2 =18.562,P ＜ 0.05 ; x2 =14.000,P ＜0.05,respectively).The severity of NAFLD was positively correlated with BMI,WC,TG,FBG,SBP,and DBP (r =0.467,0.503,0.386,0.369,0.279,0.295,P ＜ 0.01),and negatively correlated with HDL-C (r =-0.209,P ＜0.05).Conclusion The severity of NAFLD had significant correlations with metabolic syndrome's components.

Objective: To investigate the impact and its possible mechanism of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) on myocardial collagen remodeling in experimental rats with diabetic mellitus (DM).
Methods: Rat’s DM model was established by intraperitoneal injection of STZ at 40 mg/kg. A total of 40 SD rats were randomly divided into 4 groups:Control group, DM group, DM+NaHS group, in which NaHS worked as exogenous donor of H2S and NaHS control group. n=10 in each group, all animals were treated for 8 weeks. The cardiac collagen deposition was observed by Masson staining, protein expressions of cardiac collagen types I, III, IV and transforming growth factorβ1 (TGF-β1), connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) were examined by Western blot analysis.
Results: Compared with Control group, DM group showed increased protein expressions of cardiac collagen types I and III, up-regulated expressions of TGF-β1 and CTGF, P<0.05;while the expressions of collagen type IV were similar between 2 groups. Compared with DM group, DM+NaHS group presented reduced cardiac collagen expression, decreased expression of collagen types I and III, down-regulated expressions of TGF-β1 and CTGF, P<0.05;while the expressions of collagen type IV were similar between 2 groups.
Conclusion: H2S may improve the myocardial collagen remodeling in experimental DM rats, the mechanism might be related to the down-regulation of TGF-β1 and CTGF expression.

A new molecular method for simultaneously rapid detection and differentiation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Mycobacterium bovis, Mycobacterium avium and Mycobacterium paratuberculosis was established by using denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC) combined with multiplex nucleic acid amplification. These 4 important pathogenic mycobacteria were identified by separation of 4 specific PCR-amplified target fragments by DHPLC analysis. A total of 51 Mycobacterium strains and 22 other bacterial species were tested to confirm the specificity of the multiplex PCR-DHPLC assay. The sensitivity of the assay was as low as 10~2-10~3 gene copies. This method rapidly identify the positive clinical samples from human and bovine with higher detection ratio than traditional culture method and was able to identify simultaneously four pathogenic Mycobacterium, which provided a new molecular tool for rapid detection of tuberculosis and paratuberculosis in human and animals.

Objective:To optimize the ultrasonic extraction process of total alkaloids from Oxytropis falcata bunge. Methods:The independent variables were solvents ratio, extracting time and ethanol concentration, and the dependent variable was content of total al-kaloids. Based on single factor tests, central composite design and response surface methodology was adopted to optimize the extraction technology. Results:The optimal extraction conditions were as follows: extracted twice with 36-fold amount of 72% ethanol ( contai-ning 1% acetic acid) at 60 ℃, and extracted 77 minutes each time. Under the above conditions, the content of total alkaloids was 2. 793 mg·g-1 with the bias ratio less than 2% when compared with the model predictions. Conclusion:Ultrasonic extraction process of total alkaloids from Oxytropis falcata Bunge optimized by central composite design and response surface method is simple, highly pre-cise, reliable and predictable.

The discovery of new enzymes for poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) degradation has been a hot topic of research globally. Bis-(2-hydroxyethyl) terephthalate (BHET) is an intermediate compound in the degradation of PET and competes with PET for the substrate binding site of the PET-degrading enzyme, thereby inhibiting further degradation of PET. Discovery of new BHET degradation enzymes may contribute to improving the degradation efficiency of PET. In this paper, we discovered a hydrolase gene sle (ID: CP064192.1, 5085270-5086049) from Saccharothrix luteola, which can hydrolyze BHET into mono-(2-hydroxyethyl) terephthalate (MHET) and terephthalic acid (TPA). BHET hydrolase (Sle) was heterologously expressed in Escherichia coli using a recombinant plasmid, and the highest protein expression was achieved at a final concentration of 0.4 mmol/L of isopropyl-β-d-thiogalactoside (IPTG), an induction duration of 12 h and an induction temperature of 20 ℃. The recombinant Sle was purified by nickel affinity chromatography, anion exchange chromatography, and gel filtration chromatography, and its enzymatic properties were also characterized. The optimum temperature and pH of Sle were 35 ℃ and 8.0, and more than 80% of the enzyme activity could be maintained in the range of 25-35 ℃ and pH 7.0-9.0 and Co²⁺ could improve the enzyme activity. Sle belongs to the dienelactone hydrolase (DLH) superfamily and possesses the typical catalytic triad of the family, and the predicted catalytic sites are S129, D175, and H207. Finally, the enzyme was identified as a BHET degrading enzyme by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). This study provides a new enzyme resource for the efficient enzymatic degradation of PET plastics.
Actinomycetales/genetics* ; Hydrolases/metabolism* ; Phthalic Acids/chemistry* ; Polyethylene Terephthalates/metabolism*