Adolescent ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Cytomegalovirus Infections ; complications ; Female ; Humans ; Kidney Diseases ; etiology ; Kidney Glomerulus ; pathology ; Male

A new stem rot disease is found to occur naturally on Arabidopsis plants in greenhouses of Fuzhou, China. In order to identify its pathogen, we conducted a series of fungal isolation and purification, plant reinoculation, and ascus and ascospore induction from the sclerotia. The isolate caused typical water-soaked lesions after reinoculation and produced sclerotia both on Arabidopsis plants and culture medium plates, and the sclerotia could be induced to produce discal apothecia and 8 binucleate ascospores per ascus. These disease symptom and fungal morphology data revealed that the fungus Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (Lib.) de Bary was the pathogen for Arabidopsis stem rot. To confirm this, we further amplified its large subunit ribosomal DNA (LSU rDNA) by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and compared the sequence with the known LSU rDNA sequences in GenBank. The results show that the sequence shares the highest identities with the LSU rDNAs of different S. sclerotiorum strains. Taking all these data together, we concluded that the fungus that caused the Arabidopsis stem rot is S. sclerotiorum (Lib.) de Bary. This is the first report that Arabidopsis is naturally infected by S. sclerotiorum.
Arabidopsis ; microbiology ; Ascomycota ; classification ; genetics ; isolation & purification ; pathogenicity ; Base Sequence ; China ; DNA, Fungal ; genetics ; DNA, Ribosomal ; genetics ; Phylogeny ; Plant Diseases ; microbiology ; Plant Stems ; microbiology

Objective To investigate the clinical effect of sitagliptin therapy in patients with type 2 diabetes and its effect on glucose trans-porter-4 ( GLUT4).Methods Sixty four patients with type 2 diabetes were randomly divided into two groups , and patients in the observation group (n=32) were given sitagliptin 100 mg qd orally, and those in the control group ( n=32 ) were given acarbose 50 mg tid within meals.The treatment lasted for 12 weeks.The data of the clinical efficacy of the two groups were compared before and after treatment.While 30 healthy controls were selected , only given health education.Data of the expre-ssion of GLUT4 in serum of three groups were detected.Results In ob-servation group , the data of fasting blood glucose ( FBG) , 2 h postprandi-al blood glucose(2 h PG)and glycosylated hemoglobin(HbA1c) were ob-viously better than those in the control group [(6.32 ±0.44 ),(8.76 ± 0.93),(6.85 ±0.37)mmol· L-1 vs(6.44 ±0.46),(9.15 ±0.94), (6.98 ±0.28)mmol· L-1],(P<0.05).The islet beta cell function index in observation group was improved significantly compared with the control group [(2.59 ±0.22),(66 ±18) vs(2.78 ±0.39),(62 ±13)], (P<0.05).The data of serum levels of GLUT4 in the observation group was significantly higher than that in control group [(6.07 ±0.59)vs(2.58 ±0.45)μg· L-1](P <0.05).Conclusion Sitagliptin can effectively control the level of blood sugar , improve islet beta cell function , and the effect may be related to the up -regulation of GLUT4 ex-pression.

Objective To investigate the safe time of sterile equipments used in laminar flow operating room.Methods In ten operations ( Class Ⅰ ) which last 8 or more hours,we sampled preoperative air,surgery equipments 4 h,6 h,8 h pre and intra-operatively,and surgical personnel' s hands for bacterial culture.Results There was no growth of bacteria in the sampling of preoperative air,surgical personnel's hands and surgical instruments during operation,pass rate was 100％.Conclusions The sterile equipments used in the same operation could be used safely for 8 hours in operating room where the condition of Level 100 laminar flow reached.

OBJECTIVETo study CXCR3 and CCR5 chemokine receptor expression in spleens of patients with primary immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) and its clinical significance.

METHODSThe splenectomy specimens from 10 ITP patients (ITP group) and 8 patients with traumatic splenic rupture (normal control group) were studied. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used to study the positive rate of CXCR3 and CCR5. Western blot was performed to detect CXCR3 and CCR5 protein expression, while real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was conducted to analyze their mRNA expression.

RESULTSThe positive rate of CXCR3 and CCR5 were both higher in ITP group (90% and 100%, respectively) than those in control group (75% and 87.5%, respectively)(P < 0.05). The differences were statistically significant (P < 0.05). Protein and mRNA level of CXCR3 in ITP group were 3.0 and 3.5 times as high as those in control group, respectively. Those of CCR5 in ITP group were 1.2 and 1.7 times as high as those in control group, respectively.

CONCLUSIONHigh expression of CXCR3 and CCR5 may play a part in the splenic immune disorders in patients with ITP.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Case-Control Studies ; Child ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Receptors, CCR5 ; metabolism ; Receptors, CXCR3 ; metabolism ; Spleen ; metabolism ; Thrombocytopenia ; immunology ; metabolism ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo study relationships between serum ferritin and bone metabolism in patients with hip fragility fractures.

METHODSThis cross-sectional study included 76 postmenopausal women with hip fracture from Feburary 2011 to June 2012. The mean age of the women was (73 ± 10) years (range, 55-93 years) and the mean duration of menstruation was (22 ± 10)years (range, 5-50 years). Serum concentrations of ferritin, transferrin, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), amino-terminal extension peptide of type I collagen (P1NP), C-terminal telopeptides of type I collagen (β-CTX)and femoral and lumbar bone mineral density by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry were measured. Bone metabolism was compared between normal and elevated ferritin groups with t-test, Pearson linear, partial correlation and multiple regression analysis examined associations between iron- and bone-related markers.

RESULTSSerum ferritin concentration raised to (230 ± 146)µg/L, transferrin concentration reduced to (1.89 ± 0.33)g/L. P1NP concentration raised to (61 ± 32) ng/L when the concentration of serum ALP and β-CTX were in the normal range. T-scores for bone mineral density in the femoral neck (-2.0 ± 1.1) and lumbar (-2.1 ± 1.2) were below the normal ranges(-1.0-1.0). The subjects were divided into two groups according to serum ferritin concentration, normal group(serum ferritin concentration ≤ 150 µg/L, n = 25) and elevated group(serum ferritin concentration > 150 µg/L, n = 51). Patients of elevated group had lower bone mineral density in femoral neck and lumbar than normal group(t = 3.13,2.89, P < 0.01), and higher P1NP, β-CTX concentration (t = -2.38, -3.59, P < 0.05) . In partial correlation analysis adjusted for confounders, serum ferritin concentration was correlated negatively with bone mineral density in both femoral neck and lumbar (r = -0.335,-0.295, P < 0.05), and positively with P1NP and β-CTX (r = 0.467,0.414, P < 0.05), but not correlated with ALP (r = 0.188, P > 0.05). Transferrin concentration tended to be correlated positively with bone mineral density in both femoral neck and lumbar (r = 0.444, 0.262, P < 0.05) and negatively with ALP, P1NP and β-CTX(r = -0.326,-0.285,-0.278, P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONSIron overload has a high prevalence in postmenopausal women with fragility fracture. Increased iron stores, which might lead to bone loss and lower bone mineral density by enhancing the activity of bone turnover, could be an independent factor to take effects on bone metabolism on postmenopausal women.

Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Bone Density ; Bone Remodeling ; Collagen Type I ; blood ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Female ; Hip Fractures ; metabolism ; Humans ; Iron Overload ; Iron-Binding Proteins ; metabolism ; Middle Aged ; Osteoporosis, Postmenopausal ; metabolism ; Postmenopause ; Retrospective Studies

Next-generation sequencing has allowed identification of millions of somatic mutations in human cancer cells. A key challenge in interpreting cancer genomes is to distinguish drivers of cancer development among available genetic mutations. To address this issue, we present the first web-based application, consensus cancer driver gene caller (C), to identify the consensus driver genes using six different complementary strategies, i.e., frequency-based, machine learning-based, functional bias-based, clustering-based, statistics model-based, and network-based strategies. This application allows users to specify customized operations when calling driver genes, and provides solid statistical evaluations and interpretable visualizations on the integration results. C is implemented in Python and is freely available for public use at http://drivergene.rwebox.com/c3.