Objective To evaluate the effect and mechanism of HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor simvastatin on experimental interstitial fibrosis. Methods Experiments on rat 5/6 nephrectomy chronic renal failure model and primary cultured renal interstitial fibroblast cells were conducted in this study. The cell proliferation, extracellular matrix, c-fos mRNA expression of rat interstitial fibroblasts were measured by MTT assay, immunohistochernitry, semi-quantitative reverse-transcript PCR methods, respectively. Results Serum cholesterol, triglyceride and creatinine of treated group were significantly reduced by simvastatin as compared with controls. No statistical significance in BUN was observed between untreated and simvastatin-treated rats. Histological examination revealed that simvastatin caused a reduction in the glomeruli with sclerosis. Tubulointerstitial injury paralleled the degree of glomerular damage. Simvastatin in a dose-dependent manner inhibited the proliferation of renal intersititial fibroblasts, decreased the secretion of lamimn( LN), and suppressed the expression of c-fos mRNA, as compared with normal controls. No obvious effect on hyaluronic acid( HA) secretion of fibroblasts was found. Conclusions Simvastatin is anti-proliferative in interstitial fibroblasts and decreases the secretion of laminin. This effect is exerted, at least in part, via inhibition of the c-fos and c-jun-dependent mitogenic pathway. Simvastatin may prevent interstitial fibrosis development and attenuate renal damage in uremic rats with hvperlipidemia.

Dental Porcelain ; Dental Prosthesis ; methods ; Tooth Preparation

Objective To analyze the distribution and antimicrobial resistance of pathogenic bacteria in urinary tract infection (UTI)so as to provide evidence for appropriate selection of antimicrobial agents in clinical practice. Methods From January 2001 to December 2008 in Shanghai Ruijin Hospital,4683 strains of pathogenic bacteria isolated from urine samples were detected by ATB system;drug susceptibility test was performed with disk diffusion method and pathogenic bacteria distribution and drug resistance was analyzed with WHO NET 5.3 software. Results Among 4683 strains of pathogenic bacteria,most was gramnegative bacilli,accounting for about 77.8%,of which predominant strain was Escherichia coli (68.7%,3217/4683).The predominant strain of gram-positive bacteria was Enterococcus faecalis,accounting for 10.0%(468/4683).Escherichia coli showed hish resistance rotes to ampicillin,piperacillin and compound snlfamethoxazole(SMZ-TMP),which were 76.6%,61.7%and 57.4%respectively,while a low resistance to imipenem,cefoperazone-sulbactam,piperacillin-tazobactam,Enterococcus faecalis showed high resistance rates to erythromycin,gentamicin and levofloxacin,which were 65.8%,43.2%and 31.1%respectively,and were most susceptive to vancomycin and teicoplanin, both with resistance rates of 0. The susceptibility rate of Enterobacteriaceae to imipenem was 100%. From 2006 to 2008, the detection rate of extend-spectrum β-lactamases ESBLs -producing Escherichia coil in outpatient increased year by year, from 28.7% to 43.3% (P＜0.05), whereas no significant change was found in inpatients. The detection rate of (ESBLs)-producing Escherichia coil in inpatients was significantly higher than that in outpatients (P＜0.05).The detection rate of ESBLs-producing Escherichia coil was 23.6%. The antimicrobial resistance rate in elderly patients was significantly higher than that in overall antimicrobial resistance rote (P＜0.05). Conclusions The predominant bacteria of UTI are still gram-negative bacteria, main of which is Escherichia col. Bacteria are resistant to a variety of antibiotics. Approximate selection of antibiotics in clinical practice should be made on the basis of susceptibility test results.

Objective To study the possible role of bone morphogenetic protein 7(BMP 7) in the TGF ?1 induced tubular epithelial myofibroblast transdifferentiation (TEMT) of cultured renal tubular epithelial cells. Methods The normal rat kidney tubular epithelial cell line (HK 2) was cultured for three days on plastic plates in the presence or absence of recombinant TGF ?1 and BMP 7. The alterations in the phenotype were assessed by phase contrast microscopy. Transdifferentiation of tubular cells into myofibroblasts was assessed by immunofluorescence, with monoantibodies to alpha smooth muscle actin (? SMA), vimentin and cytokeratin respectively. The expression of ? SMA of HK 2 cells was measured by flowcytometry. The expression of ? SMA mRNA of HK 2 cells was assessed with reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT PCR). Results Treatment of HK 2 cells with BMP 7(50 and 100 ng/ml) for 24～48 hours increased cellular proliferation. The culture of HK 2 cells in the presence of TGF ?1 induced a clear fibroblast like morphology, a loss of the epithelial marker cytokeratin and de novo expression of ? SMA and vimentin. Immunofluorescence staining showed the addition of various concentrations of BMP 7 to subconfluent cells for 24 and 48 hours, and the expression of ? SMA and vimentin was decreased. There was an increase in the percentage of cells expressing ? SMA with TGF ?1, which was completed inhibited by an addition of BMP 7(P

OBJECTIVETo further select the items based on the pre-test version of quality of life scale in patients with viral myocarditis.

METHODSTotally 100 patients with viral myocarditis were enrolled in this study. Methodologies including frequency distribution, discrete trend, t-test, Cronbach's α coefficient, correlation coefficient and factor analysis were applied to select items from different perspectives.

RESULTSA total of 17 items were selected by frequency distribution method from the perspective of central tendency, 15 items were selected by discrete trend method from the perspective of sensitivity, 16 items were selected by t-test method from the perspective of sensitivity and discrimination, 16 items were selected by Cronbach's α coefficient method from the perspective of internal consistency, 12 items were selected by correlation coefficient method from the perspective of representation and independence, and 18 items were selected by factor analysis method from the perspective of representation.

CONCLUSIONItem selection of quality of life scale in patients with viral myocarditis was successfully conducted based on the clinical epidemiological data using a variety of statistical methods.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Myocarditis ; virology ; Quality of Life ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Young Adult

Female ; Humans ; Liver Neoplasms ; Middle Aged ; Paraganglioma

The DNA structures could be altered or even damaged by exogeous or endogenous factors during cell proliferation. Failure of effective and timely repair will lead to cell cycle arrest or apoptosis. By taking the advantage of the quick proliferation of cancer cells, DNA damage induction, cell cycle arrest and apoptosis promotion have become important strategies for ant-cancer chemotherapy. Previous reports showed that an array of natural compounds inhibit cancer cell proliferation by inducing DNA damage, which have therapeutic potentials for anti-cancer drug research and development.
Animals ; Biological Products ; pharmacology ; therapeutic use ; DNA Damage ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Neoplasms ; drug therapy

Agmatine ; administration & dosage ; pharmacology ; Analgesia ; methods ; Animals ; Injections, Spinal ; Male ; Morphine ; pharmacology ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Spinal Cord ; drug effects

The aim of this study is to prepare hyaluronic acid (HA) modified core-shell liponanoparticles (pHA-LCS-NPs) as gene delivery system and investigate its gene transfection efficiency in human retinal pigment epithelium (ARPE-19) cells in vitro. The pHA-LCS-NPs was prepared by firstly hydrating dry lipid film with CS-NPs suspension to get LCS-NPs, then modifying the lipid bilayer with HA by amidation reaction between HA and dioleoyl phosphatidylethanolamine (DOPE). Its morphology, particle size and zeta potential were investigated. XTT assay was used to evaluate the cell safety of different vectors in vitro. The gene transfection efficiency of pHA-LCS-NPs modified with different contents of HA was investigated in ARPE-19 cells with green fluorescent protein (pEGFP) as the reporter gene. The results showed that the obtained pHA-LCS-NPs exhibited a clear core-shell structure with the average particles size of (214.9 +/- 7.2) nm and zeta potential of (-35 +/- 3.7) mV. The 24 h cumulative release of gene from pHA-LCS-NPs was less than 30%. After 48 h incubation, gene transfection efficiency of pHA-LCS-NPs/pEGFP was 1.81 times and 3.75 times higher than that of CS-NPs/pEGFP and naked pEGFP, respectively. Also no obvious cytotoxicity was observed on pHA-LCS-NPs. It suggested that the pHA-LCS-NPs might be promising non-viral gene delivery systems with high efficiency and low cytotoxicity.
Cell Survival ; Gene Transfer Techniques ; Genes, Reporter ; Genetic Vectors ; Green Fluorescent Proteins ; metabolism ; Humans ; Hyaluronic Acid ; chemistry ; pharmacology ; Lipids ; Nanoparticles ; Particle Size ; Phosphatidylethanolamines ; chemistry ; pharmacology ; Retinal Pigment Epithelium ; drug effects ; Transfection

Objective To identify the clinical characteristics and pathological changes of patients suffered from glomerulonephritis complicating with acute interstitial nephritis (AIN) . Methods Twenty one patients of glomerulonephritis complicating with AIN diagnosed by renal biopsy were retrospectively analyzed . Thirty-five pure AIN patients were selected as controls .Results Glomerulonephritis complicating AIN accounted for 37 .5% of all the AIN cases . Βlactam antibiotics and Chinese herbs were the major causes of AIN . 76 .2% of cases received further examinations due to the elevation of serum creatinine (Scr) during their follow-up of kidney injuries or during routine exams for all kinds of discomforts . Pathological features of AIN were also detected besides glomerular leisions . The impairments of renal interstitia were severe than those of the glomeruli . Eosinophil in the renal interstitia was an important indicator for the diagnosis of AIN .The renal function returned to normal or baseline in 64 .7% of the patients of glomerulonephritis complicating with AIN whose follow-up data were available . The median period for renal function restoration was 150 days (compared with 60 days in pure AIN) . But there were no significant differences between these two groups as for the rate of irreversible renal insufficiency during a follow-up period of 2 years . Conclusions Symptoms of AIN in patients of glomerulonephritis complicating with AIN tend to be masked by their glomerular diseases . Renal biopsy is of most importance for the diagnosis . Early diagnosis and treatment leads to satisfactory prognosis .