Objective To investigate the possibility of using poly-hydroxybutyate-hydroxyhexate p(3HB-co-3HH)), a modified extracellular matrix, the third generation of PHA family, as a scaffold for seeding of chondrocytes from the residual ear of microtia patients to generate tissue engineered cartilage in athymus mice. Methods The residual ear cartilage from eight 7-years-old microtia patients was enzymatically dissolved by collagenase, and chondrocytes were harvested and seeded into foams of PHB-PHH. After incubation for 1 week in vitro, chondrocyte-polymer constructs were implanted subcutaneously into 8 athymus mice. A control groups was established by subcutaneous implantation of PHB-PHH foams alone. One athymus mice were killed at 4 weeks postoperatively, and 6 were sacrificed at 8 weeks. The specimens were dissected and examined macroscopically and histologically. Results Specimens harvested from chondrocyte-polymer constructs subjected to gross morphologic and histology analysis demonstrated new cartilage formation, and those from control groups showed no cartilage formation. The one of 4 weeks still had some remains of the scaffold with nodules of neocartilage. After 8 weeks, all the 6 mice had neocartilage formed almost the same as natural. The PHB-PHH scaffold were totally absorbed. Conclusion These findings demonstrate that the foam of PHB-PHH is not only a good "matrix" for cartilage tissue engineering, but also optimal scaffold for the seeding of chondrocytes from the residual ear to generate new cartilage that would be useful in plastic and reconstructive surgery. Chondrocytes from the residual ear of microtia patients are good candidates for generation of tissue engineered cartilage.

0.05),whereas the survival rate in each group of 160 and 320 ?mol/L was significantly higher than that in the control(P

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNA) play important roles in many biological processes.However,compared with other types of RNAs,limited research has been conducted on lncRNA,mostly concerning its relationship with tumor,and there are much fewer studies on its relationship with atherosclerosis.In this article,we summarized the latest research findings in this field,with an emphasis on the importance of IncRNA in atherosclerosis.The value of lncRNA in targeted therapy of atherosclerotic disorders is also discussed.

Objective To investigate the alien snails in Dapeng Peninsula Shenzhen City. Methods The survey on the snail diversity in Dapeng Peninsula was carried out from August 2012 to Jan 2013 and the species of the alien snails were iden?tified according to the shell morphology. Results Four species of alien snails including Achatina fulica Pomacea canalicula?ta Physa acuta and Biomphalaria straminea were found in Dapeng Peninsula P. acuta was found in all of the collected sites A. fulica and P. canaliculata were distributed in five regions except Yangmeikeng area and B. straminea was just found in Dapeng Town. Conclusion Four species of important alien snails invade widely in Dapeng Peninsula Shenzhen City. As their potential risk to the disease transmission and agriculture production the relative departments should strengthen the control and prevention.

The wheelchair is one of the main assistive appliance for patients with spinal cord injury. With the improvement of material and technique, it is more complicated to select the wheelchair and wheelchair seat equipment. The researches in recent years involved application of wheelchair for patients with spinal cord injury, including the cushions and other structures, which were reviewed in this article.

The study of neuronal activity with low frequency has shown an increasing interest for its greater stability and reliability recent years. One challenge in analyzing this kind of activity is to find similarities and differences between signals efficiently and effectively. The traditional analysis methods, such as short-time Fourier transform, are easily obscured by background noises and often involve a large number of parameters. Therefore, this paper introduces a novel time-frequency analysis method based on wavelet transformation and half-ellipsoid modeling to extract instantaneous frequency and instantaneous phase information. This method overcomes some shortcomings of conventional time-frequency analysis. In this method, wavelet transformation is used to provide high-level representations of raw signals, and parsimonious half-ellipsoid models are used to extract changes in time domain and frequency domain of neural recordings. The method was validated to local field potentials (LFPs) of olfactory bulb of anesthetized rats during three different odor stimuli. The results suggested that this method could detect odor-relevant features from olfactory signals with large variability. The Odors then were classified with support vector machine (SVM) algorithm and the classification accuracy reached 79.4%.
Algorithms ; Animals ; Evoked Potentials ; Fourier Analysis ; Odorants ; analysis ; Olfactory Bulb ; physiology ; Rats ; Reproducibility of Results ; Smell ; physiology ; Support Vector Machine ; Wavelet Analysis

Objective To analyze clinical and radiological characteristics in 5 cases of neuromyelitisoptica (NMO) with tumefactive-like demyelinating lesions (TDLs).Methods Five NMO patients with TDLs hospitalized during November 2007 and March 2012 were retrospectively analyzed for clinical and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features,as well as therapeutic efficiency and prognoses.Results The male-to-female ratio is 1∶4 and the range of onset ages is 15-44 years old.The median time when TDLs was developed was 36 months after the onset of NMO.The anti-aquaporin 4 was seropositive in all NMO patients with TDLs.Four patients had clinical manifestations of encephalopathy symptoms including coma (n =2),seizures (n =1),narcolepsy (n =1),homonymous hemianopia (n =1).All TDLs grew unilaterally.Two TDLs were located at parietal-occipital,1 at parietal,I at the cerebellum and 1 at the temporal.On MRI,there was no enhanced signal in 4 TDLs,and there was open-ring-like enhanced signals in 1 case.Three TDLs revealed mixed signals intensities on diffusion-weighted images and an increase in the apparent diffusion coeficient values.On the subsequent MRIs,the sizes of 5 TDLs were markedly reduced in 3 cases,disappeared in 1 and another 1 case remained the same.Meanwhile,3 lesions subsequently developed cavity forming.Five cases improved after treatment of high-dose corticosteroid and intravenous immune globulin.Conclusions TDLs is not uncommon in NMO.Encephalopathysymptoms are more frequently affected in NMO with TDLs.TDLs often accompany with extensive vasogenic edema,but without enhancement in acute stage.NMO-IgG antibody testing and brain MRI are important in the diagnosis of TDLs.The therapy of corticosteroid and intravenous immune globulin is recommended.

Based on practice of video-cases teaching,this paper put forwards four sorts of contradictions,which are the contradiction between time limitation of classroom and expressing limi-tation of video cases,the contradiction between relative independence of video cases (part)and con-sistency of teaching objective (entirety),the contradiction between apparentness of video cases (phe-nomenon)and depth of teaching content (essence)and the contradiction between variability of video case class and control of class by teachers. This paper suggested teaching principle of part conforming to entirety. Meanwhile,it indicated that classroom video case teaching should have strict design, closely coordinated class discussion and teachers should be good at guiding and summarizing. Through these efforts,the above four contradictions can be resolved and designed video case teaching obtained good effect.

AIM: To study p42/p44 mitogen - activated protein kinases ( MAPK ) signal transduction pathway effect on vascular endothelial growth factor ( VEGF ) expression induced by elevated glucose concentration in cultured human retinal pigment epithelium ( hRPE) .
METHODS:hRPE cells were cultured and divided into four groups:normal glucose group (NG) (5. 6mmol/L), high glucose group ( HG1:15mmol/L D-glucose, HG2:20mmol/L D - glucose, HG3:30mmol/L D - glucose ), PD98059 group: hRPE cells were treated by an efficient and selective inhibitor PD98059 (20μmol/L) of p42/p44MAPK signal transduction pathway and solvent dimethyl sulfoxide group ( DMSO group) . The expression of VEGF and pigment epithelium derived factor ( PEDF ) mRNA was detected by RT-PCR. VEGF protein expression in cultured hRPE supernatants was detected by enzyme-linked immumosorbent assay ( ELISA) .
RUSULTS: VEGF mRNA and protein expression induced by elevated glucose concentration increased significantly. VEGF mRNA and protein expression were restrained in PD98059 group. Ratio of ( VEGF/β-actine)/( PEDF/β - actine ) in PD98059 group decreased significantly compare with that in high glucose group.
CONCLUSION: p42/p44MAPK signal transduction pathway might play a part in VEGF expression induced by elevated glucose concentration in cultured hRPE cells.