OBJECTIVETo investigate the risk factors of pinhole infection in the fractured lower limbs after external fixation.

METHODSThe case-control study was designed. From May 2009 to May 2014, the clinical data of 272 patients with lower limb fracture treated by external fixation device were collected. All the patients were divided into two groups according to post-operative pinhole infection. There were 29 cases in the case group including 23 males and 6 females. The age of patients in case group ranged from 25 to 77 years old,with the average age of (53.41 ± 12.77) years old. There were 243 cases in control group including 217 males and 26 females. The age of patients in the control group ranged from 27 to 78 years old, with the average age of (48.71 ± 11.87) years old. There were nine risk factors observed in our study including age, gender, fixed time by external fixation device, diabetes, time in bed, smoking, operation condition of other parts in the body, infection condition of other parts in the body.

RESULTSThe results of univariate analysis showed that there were statistically significant differences among age (χ² = 15.708, P < 0.001), fixed time by external fixation device (χ² = 11.940, P < 0.001), severity of the lower limb fracture (χ² =15.438, P < 0.001), diabetes (χ² = 8.519, P = 0.004) and time in bed (χ² = 7.165, P = 0.007) between case group and control group. The results of Logistic regression analysis showed that the risk factors of pinhole infection after fixed by external fixation device in the lower limb fracture were the advanced age (OR = 8.327, P < 0.001), fixed time by external fixation device (OR = 6.795, P < 0.001), diabetes (OR = 4.965, P = 0.001) and time in bed (OR = 4.864, P = 0.008).

CONCLUSIONThe advanced age, long fixed time, diabetes and long time in bed could increase the risk of pinhole infection after external fixation in the lower limbs with fracture.

Adult ; Aged ; Case-Control Studies ; External Fixators ; adverse effects ; Female ; Humans ; Lower Extremity ; injuries ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Postoperative Complications ; etiology ; Risk Factors

Objective To study the effect of dynamic stress stimulation on the expression of Sox9 mRNA and protein in metaphyseal chondrocytes in vitro, and to explore the specific mechanism of mechanical signal transduction. Methods The rat metaphyseal chondrocytes separated and cultured for the 3rd generation in vitro were randomly divided into four groups:control group (all interventions were not applied), simple dynamic pressure group (a dynamic pressure stimulus with a size of 90 mmHg and a frequency of 0.1 Hz was applied using an open pressure control culture system), simple calcium antagonist group (the concentration of 10μmol/L nifedipine was given) and dynamic pressure+calcium antagonist group (a dynamic pressure stimulus with a size of 90 mmHg, frequency of 0.1 Hz and concentration of 10 μmol/L nifedipine were given at the same time). The expression of Sox9 mRNA was detected after 24 h intervention by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in four groups. The expression of Sox9 protein was detected by Western blot assay. The intracellular free Ca2+ in metaphyseal chondrocytes was labeled with Fluo-3/AM, and the average fluorescence intensity detected by laser scanning confocal scanning microscopy was compared between four groups. Results The expression of Sox9 mRNA was 3.81 times higher in dynamic stress group than that in the control group, and the protein expression level was 2.33 times higher than that of the control group (P<0.05). There were no significant differences in the expression of Sox9 mRNA and protein between the calcium antagonist group and the control group. The expressions of Sox9 mRNA and protein were lower in dynamic pressure+calcium antagonist group than those in the dynamic stress group, but which were higher than those of control group(P<0.05). The results of average fluorescence intensity showed that there was no significant difference in the intracellular free Ca2+ concentration between four groups (P > 0.05). Conclusion Dynamic stress stimulation can increase the expression of Sox9 mRNA and protein in rat metaphyseal chondrocytes. There is calcium channel involvement in the mechanical signal transduction.

Culture medium and fermentation conditions for lipid production by Rhodosporidium toruloides were optimized with single factor and uniform design experiment. The best medium recipe was found with 70 g/L glucose, 0.1 g/L (NH4)2SO4, 0.75 g/L yeast extract, 1.5 g/L MgSO4. 7H2O, 0.4g/L KH2PO4, sterilized at 121 degrees C for 15 min, and then supplemented with ZnSO4 1.91 x 10(-6) mmol/L, CaCl2 1.50 mmol/L, MnCl2 1.22 x 10(-4) mmol/L and CuSO4 1.00 x 10(-4) mmol/L. The optimal fermentation conditions were as follows: 50 mL of medium (pH 6.0) in 250 mL Erlenmeyer flask with 10% inoculum (28h) under orbital shaking at 200 r/min for 120h at 30 degrees C. Under these conditions, yeast biomass accumulated lipids up to 76.1%.
Basidiomycota ; growth & development ; metabolism ; Copper ; pharmacology ; Culture Media ; Fermentation ; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration ; Lipids ; biosynthesis ; Magnesium Sulfate ; pharmacology ; Zinc ; pharmacology

AIM To study the epidermal growth factor (EGF) and transforming growth factor ? (TGF ?)and the epidermal growth factor receptor(EGFR)during the course of rats gastric ulcer natural cure expressing and its possible biology meaning. METHODS We injected acetic acid to make the ulcer animal model, location expression characteristic of EGF and TGF ? and EGFR were studied by immunohistochemistry. RESULTS The normal rats stomach mucosa EGF,TGF ? and EGFR all expressed weakly at masculine. EGF and TGF ? was located at cytoplasm,and EGFR expressesed at cytoplasm and cell membrane and the expression position of the three ovrlopped with each other. EGF concentrated mainly on the cervical part of gastric gland, and TGF ? and EGFR, on the cervical and base parts of the gastric gland. Positive 9 expression cells were primarily parietal[FQ(11?46,X-WZ] and neck cells of the stamook muc. For materials taken during the course of ulcer natural recovery, regular ohanges were observed in TGF, TGF ? and EGFR expression. Higher expression was found in ulcer tissunes than in normal tissues, while the expression was not detectable in necrotic tissues and rarely detectable in granlation and scar tissnes. The expression became apparant only during healing and scar stages of ulcer but not in early stage. CONCLUSION ①TGF ?/EGFR autocrine system probably plays a leading role in maintaining rats mucosa completeness under the normal circumstances; ②EGF/EGFR and TGF ?/EGFR autocrine system may have important effect on the differentiation, hyperplasia, moving of cell and restraining the gastric acidity.

Objective To investigate the feasibility and safety of the double J tube removal from ureter under fluoroscopy observation. Methods The medical records of patients in our department from April 2013 to March 2015, who performed“double J tube removal and/or replacement”were retrospectively reviewed and analyzed. These data included gender and age of the patient, position of the double J tube end in the bladder, removal method, fluoroscopy time, postoperative complications and so on. The removal methods were divided into a direct method and an indirect method. The direct method means using the ring of a gooseneck snare to hitch directly the end of double J tube in the bladder, and pulling it to the urethral orifice. For the indirect method, a guide wire and a gooseneck snare first were sent into the bladder to clip the double J tube, then, the ring of the gooseneck snare was used to hitch the end of the guide wire to withdraw the gooseneck snare and the guide wire to the urethral orifice, and the double J tube was pulled to the urethral orifice. The double J tube end position in the bladder had direct relationship with the choice of removal method. The author divided the double J tube end position in the bladder into A type, B1 type, B2 type, and C type. The bladder was divided into four quarters equally. Direct method was suitable for all types, while indirect method was only suitable for B2 and C type. Between April 2013 and September 2014, all patients were treated by the direct method;between October 2014 and March 2015, all patients with B1 and A type were treated by the direct method, and all patients with B2 and C type were treated by the indirect method. According to the success rate of operation, fluoroscopy time, the incidence of different complications, the efficacy and safety were determined. Results This study recruited a total of 49 patients, including 6 males and 43 females, who underwent 114 times of“double J tube removal”. On average, double J tube was removed 2.3 times per case. The overall success rate was 96.5% (110/114). The application of direct method was 92 times, and the success rate was 95.7%(88/92). The application of indirect method was 22 times, and the success rate was 100%(22/22). In this study, there were 4 failures to remove the double J tube, all of which happened in the direct method for the C type of patients. In the successful 110 cases, the average fluoroscopy time was (11.3+9.5) min. The application of direct method was 88 times, and the average fluoroscopy time was (12.3 ± 10.3) min; the application of indirect method was 22 times, and the average fluoroscopy time was (7.6±3.8) min. There were 10 cases with pain in urethral orifice, in which 9 cases was treated with direct method and one with indirect method. There were 5 cases with gross hematuria complicated in direct method. The overall incidence rate of the complications was 13.2% (15/114). All of postoperative complications resolved spontaneously. Conclusion The direct way and the indirect way to remove ureteral double J tube fluoroscopically are feasible and safe .

OBJECTIVETo investigate the relationship between hemostatic changes in liver cirrhosis patients with different degrees of their liver lesions.

METHODSForty-three patients (35 men, 8 women; age: 25 to 71 yr) with liver cirrhosis were divided into three subgroups (A, B, and C) on the basis of Child-Pugh classification. Among the patients, 13 were classified as Child-Pugh class A, 15 were class B, 15 were class C. 16 healthy individuals served as controls. A series of hemostatic tests and parameters including prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), fibrinogen (Fib), factors II, V, VII, VIII, IX, X, vWF assay, antithrombin-III (AT-III), protein C (PC), D-dimer, tissue plasminogen activator antigen (t-PA), plasminogen activator inhibitor activity (PAI) were performed on 43 patients and the 16 healthy controls.

RESULTSPT and APTT were progressively prolonged from A to B and then to C. In comparison to the controls there was a significant difference. Fibrinolytic activity and the activities of factors II, V, VII, IX, X were progressively decreased from A to B and then to C. In comparison to the controls there was a significant difference . AT-III and PC activity were progressively decreased from A to B and then to C. In comparison to the controls there was a significant difference. D-dimer and t-PA-antigen were progressively increased from A to B and then to C. In comparison to the controls there was significant difference. PAI activity did not display significant changes in the four groups.

CONCLUSIONWe found that there is a close relationship between the severity of cirrhosis and the hemostatic changes. Because the deterioration of the coagulation function and increasing fibrinolytic activity parallel the severity of liver cirrhosis, adequate treatment for cirrhotic bleeding should not only correct the coagulation defects, but also lower the increased fibrinolytic activity.

Adult ; Aged ; Antithrombins ; metabolism ; Blood Coagulation Factors ; metabolism ; Female ; Fibrinogen ; metabolism ; Hemostasis ; Hepatitis B, Chronic ; blood ; complications ; Humans ; Liver Cirrhosis ; blood ; diagnosis ; etiology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Prothrombin Time ; Severity of Illness Index

OBJECTIVETo determine the location on outer envelope and natural antibody response and types of genus-specific lipoprotein antigen LipL41s in patients with Leptospira interrogans.

METHODSMicroscope agglutination test (MAT) was used to examine leptospirosis patients' serum samples from Sichuan area, China. Ni-NTA affinity chromatography was performed to extract the target recombinant rLipL41/1 and rLipL41/2 products that expressed under inducement of IPTG. Western blot assay was performed to detect the immunoreactivity between the sera from the patients infected with different serogroups of L. interrogans and rLipL41s. Immune aurosol electron microscopy was selected to locate the position of LipL41s on leptospiral envelope. ELISA based on rLipL41s was established to confirm the level and types of specific antibody.

RESULTSL. interrogans serogroup icterohaemorrhagiae remained to be the most dominant leptospiral serogroup in Sichuan area. All the sera from patients infected with different serogroups of L. interrogans could efficiently recognize the LipL41s which were the protein molecular that located on the external surface of leptospiral envelope. In the 156 serum samples from MAT positive leptospirosis patients, the positive rates for rLipL41/1 or rLipL41/2 specific IgM appeared to be 84.6%-87.8% and 78.2%-83.3%, respectively, while for rLipL41/1 or rLipL41/2 specific IgG they were 69.2%-81.4% and 75.0%-80.1%, respectively.

CONCLUSIONLipL41s were the leptospiral superficial protein antigen of L. interrogans. Both the LipL41/1 and LipL41/2 could induce serum antibodies IgM and IgG with extensive antigenic-cross reaction during natural infection of L. interrogans in general populations. Hence, rLipL41/1 or rLipL41/2 could be used as the antigen candidate for developing universal genetic engineering vaccine and detection kit.

Antibodies, Bacterial ; blood ; immunology ; Antigens, Bacterial ; metabolism ; Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins ; metabolism ; Cell Membrane ; metabolism ; Cross Reactions ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin G ; blood ; immunology ; Immunoglobulin M ; blood ; immunology ; Leptospira interrogans ; metabolism ; ultrastructure ; Leptospirosis ; immunology ; Species Specificity

OBJECTIVETo explore the characteristics on molecular epidemiology of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates from hospitals in Tianjin area.

METHODSOne hundred M. tuberculosis isolated strains were collected in succession from August 16th-December 25th, 2005 in Tianjin Haihe Hospital and genotyped by spoligotyping and multiple locus variable number-tandem repeat(VNTR). Data was analyzed by cluster software. Based on the concept of Beijing lineage, it was determinate two sub-groups: atypical Beijing strains and W strain/typical family strains by multiplex and real-time PCR. The associations of subgroups with drug resistance and age were assessed by the chi2 test.

RESULTS96 M. tuberculosis strains were genotyped in which 91.7% (88/96) strains belonged to Beijing genotype (including 3 Beijing-like strains) by spoligtyping. VNTR typing could differentiate 60 genotypes among the 88 Beijing genotype strains. 93.2% of the Beijing lineage M. tuberculosis strains of this study belonged to W strain/typical Beijing family strains (82/88). No statistically significant differences were observed in the proportions of the two sub-groups in patients of different age, or drug resistance (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONThe M. tuberculosis Beijing genotype strains were dominated on tuberculosis hospital patients of Tianjin area. The discriminatory power of VNTR typing was higher than that of spoligtyping. The two sub-groups of Beijing lineage had been prevalent in Tianjin, however W strain/typical Beijing family strains were of preponderance.

Bacterial Typing Techniques ; China ; epidemiology ; Cluster Analysis ; DNA, Bacterial ; genetics ; Drug Resistance, Bacterial ; Genotype ; Humans ; Minisatellite Repeats ; Molecular Epidemiology ; Mycobacterium tuberculosis ; classification ; genetics ; isolation & purification ; Sequence Analysis, DNA ; Tuberculosis ; epidemiology

OBJECTIVETo investigate the molecular mechanism of TFE (total flavone of epimedium) in the treatment of osteoporosis, and then provide experimental evidence for modernization and further development of TFE as an traditional Chinese medicine.

METHODSSixty healthy female SD rats with aged 4 months were randomly divided into three groups (including control group in which rats received sham surgery, OVX group in which ovariectomized rats didn't give any medicine after the removal of ovaries and TFE group in which ovariectomized rats administrated TFE), 20 rats in each group. Compared bone mineral density (BMD) between before operation and at 4th week after operation in order to verify the establishment of osteoporotic model (criteria: BMD decreased more than 20% at 4th week after operation). The rats in TEF group were administrated total flavone of epimedium(concentration 30 mg/ml, 10 ml/kg, qd) orally for 4 weeks. After this, killed rats to harvest the lower part of the femur and detected BMD again. Applying the reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction technique (RT-PCR) to detect expression of OPG, OPGL mRNA in bone tissue.

RESULTS(1) At 4th week after ovariectomy, the mean BMD of lumbar vertebra in TFE group fell to (0.084 +/- 0.020) g/cm2. Administrated with TFE for 4 weeks,the BMD increased to (0.112 +/- 0.009) g/cm2. There was significant improvement compare with the OVX group (P < 0.05). (2) Compared between OVX group and TFE group, The OPG mRNA expression of TFE group obviously enhanced. There was significant difference in statistics (P < 0.05). However,the promotion for OPGL mRNA expression were detected between OVX group and TFE group,there was no significant difference in statistics (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONThis study showed that TFE could inhibit differentiation and maturation of osteoclast through enhancing OPG mRNA expression, accordingly,to treat osteoporosis.

Animals ; Bone Density ; drug effects ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; Epimedium ; chemistry ; Female ; Flavones ; Flavonoids ; pharmacology ; Gene Expression Regulation ; drug effects ; Osteoblasts ; drug effects ; metabolism ; physiology ; Osteoprotegerin ; genetics ; Ovariectomy ; RANK Ligand ; genetics ; RNA, Messenger ; genetics ; metabolism ; Rats