BACKGROUND: Hippocampus is an important region involved in learning and memory. Some methods for freshly isolated hippocampal pyramidal neurons have been described. These methods need multiple enzymes or the procedure is complex.OBJECTIVE: To acquire large quantities of hippocampal neurons from rats suitable for patch clamp study.DESIGN: An animal experimental observation.SETTING: Department of Physiology and Pathophysiology, School of Medicine, Xi'an Jiao Tong University.MATERIALS: The experiments were carried out in the Medical Experimental Center, School of Medicine, Xi'an Jiao Tong University between March and October 2004. The animals were the 10-15-day-old SpragueDawley rats, bothmale and female.METHODS: Hippocampal pyramidal neurons were freshly isolated. Delayed rectifier potassium current and voltage-gated Ca2 + currents were recorded by whole-cell patch clamp configuration.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Acute isolated neurons were observed with a Leica microscope. Recordings of delayed rectifier potassium currents and voltage-gated Ca2+ currents were obtained.RESULTS: ① Under the inverted microscope, the acute isolated neurons had a smooth and glassy surface, a three-dimensional contour, a pyramidal shape with a longer apical dendrite and several basal dendrites. ② After the whole cell recording configuration was formed, voltage-gated barium currents through calcium channels were elicited by 200 ms depolarizing potential from -70 mV to +20 mV, with an increment of 10 mV, a holding potential was -90 mV. Delayed rectifier potassium current (Ikd) was elicited by a protocol consisting of a multiple depolarizing pulses (-60 mV to +50 mV),preceded by a single prepulse step to -50 rmV, with inactivated transient outward potassium currents from a holding potential of -80 mV.CONCLUSION: This method is simple and ideal for the dissociation of neurons from rat hippocampus, and offers a powerful tool for functional analysis of ion channels by patch clamp.

Objective To discuss the clinical and electrophysiological characteristics of sleep related rhythmic movement disorder ( SRMD).Methods We studied the clinical and electrophysiological characteristics of 3 patients diagnosed as SRMD in the Electroencephalography Monitoring Center of Xijing Hospital, Xi′an, China.The 3 patients accorded with diagnostic criteria of SRMD that international classification of sleep disorders-3 edition recommended and were followed up for more than 1 year.Results These 3 male patients were ranging from 6 to 27 years old.The onset age of the patient 1 was 13 years,and the others were 1 year old.The patient 2 became symptom-free at the age of 7.The patient 3 relieved at 2-year-old, but recurred at the age of 21. There was no epileptic seizure discharge in video-electroencephalography of the 3 patients, but synchronous electromyography changes during the attack were mistaken for slow wave.Video-polysomnography showed that numbers of awakenings and arousals index were high.Two patients were treated with clonazepam.One had an obvious curative effect, the other had marked efficacy until added trazodone.Conclusions SRMD can occur not only in infants, but also in adolescents and adults.Patients who have the problems of the sleep quality should be treated.Clonazepam can obviously relieve symptoms and improve sleep quality.Patients who do not have a good effect with clonazepam can try to add trazodone.Video-electroencephalography monitoring and interpreting it correctly are important to the diagnosis of paroxysmal disease.

Objective To evaluate the relationship between genetic polymorphism of transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1 and susceptibility of liver cirrhosis after hepatitis B virus infection in Chinese population. Methods CBM, VIP, CNKI, Wanfang technological periodical full-text databases and Pubmed from set up to July, 2013 were electronically searched to identify case-control studies on the relationship between genetic polymorphism of TGF-β1 promoter 509 site, co-don 869 site and liver cirrhosis after hepatitis B virus infection. The data were quantitatively analyzed by RevMan 5.1 soft-ware after assessing the quality of included studies. Results Six case-control studies were selected for Meta-analysis based on our inclusion and exclusion standards. The results of Meta-analysis showed that the pooled OR value for liver cir-rhosis among Chinese patients after hepatitis B virus infection with T allele of TGF-β1 gene at promoter 509 was 1.02 (95%CI:0.67-1.54), the pooled OR values for patients with TT and CT genotypes were 0.80 (95%CI:0.36-1.78). OR values for pa-tients with C allele of TGF-β1 gene at codon 869 was 1.05 (95%CI:0.69-1.62), the pooled OR values for patients with CC and CT genotypes were 0.98 (95%CI:0.48-2.00). No significant publication bias was found. Conclusion The genetic poly-morphism of TGF-β1 at promoter 509 and codon 869 showed no association with susceptibility of liver cirrhosis after hepati-tis B virus infection in Chinese population.

Objective To explore the influence of social network on the quality of life of elderly stroke patients in communities. Methods The general situation questionnaire, the stroke impact scale ( SIS) and social network scale for the elderly were used to investigate the community elderly stroke patients. Results The total score of social network was(39. 82±5. 87). The scores of social participation,social con-tact and social support were(11. 79±1. 61),(14. 90±3. 31) and (13. 13±3. 19). Results of univariate a-nalysis showed there were statistically significant differences ( P<0. 05) in quality of life among stroke pa-tients of different ages (F=7. 803),educational level (F=2. 664),family income (F=4. 754),smoking (F=5. 467),alcohol consumption (F=7. 058),physical exercise (F=10. 393),body mass index (t=4. 841) and hypertension (t=-2. 862). Multiple linear regression results showed that 3 times or more exercises per week ( B=5. 689),normal body mass index (B=6. 613),high degree of social support (B=0. 710),social partici-pation (B=1. 421) and social contact (B=1. 372) were protective factors for the quality of life of stroke pa-tients. Age 80 years and above (B=-10. 426),frequent smoking (B=-9. 005),frequent drinking (B=-8. 419) and hypertension ( B=-5. 224) were risk factors for quality of life. Conclusion The elderly stroke patients should quit smoking and alcohol,strengthen exercise,maintain a normal body mass index and avoid overweight and obesity in daily life. While promoting health-related behaviors,more attention should be paid to the promotion effect of social network on treatment,rehabilitation and overall quality of life of stroke patients.