Humans ; Olfaction Disorders ; Smell ; Trigeminal Nerve

Objective To investigate the role of serum in children with Kawasaki disease(KD)in acute stage and ?-globulin role in monocyte cell-produced leukotriene B4(LTB4).Meanwhile,to investigate the effects of the monocyte cell conditioned media(MCM)on the expression of leukotriene B4 receptor 2(BLT2)in endothelial.In order to understand whether LTB4-BLT2 pathway gets involved in vascular damage in KD and the mechanism of ?-globulin in the lessening vascular damage of KD.Methods The concentration of LTB4 in cell culture after the stimulation by serum of healthy children,serum of acute KD and serum of acute KD with ?-globulin were observed,respectively.The expression of BLT2 in the endothelial was determined by flow cytometry.Results 1.The serum of children with KD increased the concentration of LTB4 in MCM(P

BACKGROUND: Herbal wines are an important part of the traditional Chinese medicine. The traditional medicated wine, lishizhen herbal wine,which can strengthen the immune function, has long been used for some chronic diseases. But,its mechanism remains unclear.OBJECTIVE: To explore the immune pharmacodynamics of lishizhen herbal wine and to observe its effect on the immune organs (spleen,pancreas) and lymphocyte transformation rate in mice.DESIGN: A randomized controlled experiment based on the observation of the experimental animals.SETTING: Department of integrated traditional Chinese and western medicine and the department of pharmacology of a university hospital MATERIALS: The experiment was completed at the Central Laboratory of Zhongnain Hospital of Wuhan University from September 2000 to December 2000. A total of 90 healthy Kuming mice were involved in the study.METHODS: Different doses of the herbal wine,cartinellin and the same volume of distilled water were given to the experimental animals. The drug administration was orally injected directly to the stomach of the animals once a day and 10 days consecutively. One hour after the last administration,the animals were put to death. Then,the thymus gland and the spleen were taken out and weighed to calculate the indexes of the thymus gland and the spleen. In the last three days of the administration phytohemagglutinin(PHA)was injected intramuscularly at a dose of 10 mg/kg once per day. Two hours after the last administration, the tails of the mice were cut out, the blood samples were taken to perform the Wright' s staining,and 100 lymphocytes were counted under immersion and the transformation rate was calculated.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Primary results: ① The effect on the immune organs of normal mice; ② The effect of PHA on stimulating the lymphocyte transformation in mice. Secondary results: ③ The death condition of the experimental animalsRESULTS: Different doses of the herbal wine increased the spleen index in different degrees. The effect of medium dose group was obvious[(3.71± 0.78) g/kg] (P <0.05),and the thymus gland index increased a little (P>0.05). The cartinellin in the positive control group increased the spleen index[(3.79±0.91 ) g/kg] and there was no impact on thymus gland index. The transformation rates of the lymphocytes of different groups were increased to a different degree and presented a good quantity-effect relationship,especially the group administered a large dose[(45±14)%] (P<0. 01).CONCLUSION: Lishizhen herbal wine has an effect of increasing cellular immune function.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Maxillary Sinus ; pathology ; Middle Aged ; Paranasal Sinus Diseases ; etiology ; surgery ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the expression of adaptin-2(AP-2) in mice cochlea and to discuss the probable role in the endocytosis of hair cells. METHOD: Laser scanning confocal microscopy and immune-fluroscence histochemistry were performed in this study. RESULT: In mature mice cochlea, the immunoreactivity for AP-2 was found in the inner hair cells cytoplasm. This protein mainly expressed in the hair cells basal part and nearby the ribbon synapse. CONCLUSION AP-2 protein mainly expressed in the hair cells synaptic activity zone , which suggested that AP-2 could play an important role in the synaptic vesicle endocytosis. This finding built the foundation for the further research involved in the physiological and pathological role of AP-2.
Adaptor Protein Complex alpha Subunits ; metabolism ; Animals ; Cochlea ; Hair Cells, Auditory ; Hair Cells, Auditory, Inner ; metabolism ; Mice ; Microscopy, Confocal ; Synapses

The bioreactor production of recombinant Lateolabrax japonicus growth hormone (rljGH) expressed intracellularly by Pichia pastoris was investigated. A strategy of feeding methanol at the exponential rate was established and the effect of specific growth rate on the rljGH production was examined. The results indicated that the average specific production rate increased and the rljGH production duration decreased as the specific growth rate increased. The maximum specific rljGH production (0.58 mg/g WCW) was achieved at a specific growth rate of 0.029/h. The effect of supplementing ammonium sulfate, peptone and yeast ex- tract on the rljGH production was further investigated. The results indicated that the effects of ammonium sulfate and peptone were not significant. Supplementing yeast extract of 2.5 g/L was advantageous for the rljGH production. The duration of the rljGH production was increased to 23 h from 17 h and the fermenta- tion stability of run-to-run could be improved.

RhoA, a small GTPase, is involved in a wide array of cellular functions in the central nervous system, such as cell motility, cytoskeleton rearrangement, transcriptional regulation, phagocytosis and cell growth. It is not known how spinal cord injury (SCI) affects the expression of RhoA in different nerve cells. In the present study, we investigated the changes of RhoA expression in remote areas of the injury at the 3rd, 7th and 30th day after SCI, which was established by T10 contusion method. Moreover, we examine its expression profile in neurons, astrocytes and microglia. RhoA was found to be weakly expressed in these nerve cells in normal spinal cord. Western blotting showed that, after SCI, the total RhoA expression was up-regulated, and the RhoA expression was increased and peaked at the 7th day. Double immunostaining revealed specific and temporal expression patterns of RhoA in different nerve cells. The expression of RhoA in neurons started to increase at day 3, peaked at day 7 and then decreased slightly at day 30. Expression of RhoA in astrocytes increased moderately after SCI and peaked at day 7. There was no obvious change in RhoA expression in microglia after SCI in remote areas. This study demonstrated that, after SCI, RhoA expression exhibited different patterns with different nerve cells of spinal cord. RhoA expression patterns also changed with time after SCI, and among different nerve cells in the injured spinal cord. These findings can help us better understand the roles of RhoA in SCI.

As one of the major sources of infection, viruses could infect all organisms including bacteria, plants, animals, and humans. Infectious diseases caused by viruses pose a great threat and damage to human health and economic activities all over the world. Adaptor-associated protein kinase 1 (AAK1) is a member of the Ark1/Prk1 family of serine/threonine kinases and a specific key kinase regulating the phosphorylation of AP-2 protein μ2 subunit T156. In the past, AAK1 has been regarded as a feasible biological target for the treatment of nerve pain. Recently, scientists have found that inhibiting AAK1 can regulate endocytosis and inhibit virus invasion into cells. Therefore, AAK1 could be the potential target of anti-virus therapy. This paper reviews the research progress of small molecule AAK1 inhibitors in the field of antiviral, analyzes the future research directions and challenges, and provides new ideas for the development of antiviral drugs targeting AAK1.

To explore a new method to identify Moutan Cortex to guarantee its safe use, internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) sequence was used to identify Moutan Cortex and its adulterants. DNA was extracted and target fragments were amplified. Sequences were analyzed and assembled by CodonCode Aligner V3.7.1. Genetic distances were computed and phylogenetic tree was constructed based on kimura 2-parameter (K2P) model by MEGA 5.0. The length of the 20 ITS2 sequences of Moutan Cortex from nine different places is 227 bp, and no variation site was detected. The maximum inter-specificK2P distance of Moutan Cortex is 0, the minimum intra-specific K2P distance is 0.041, the average intra-specific K2P distance is 0.222. According to NJ analysis, Moutan Cortex from different places can get together as one branch with bootstrap support values 99%, which indicates Moutan Cortex can be easily distinguished from its adulterants. Using ITS2 sequence can accurately identify Moutan Cortex and its adulterants, it is an effective supplementary to traditional identification methods.
Base Sequence ; China ; DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic ; methods ; DNA, Plant ; genetics ; DNA, Ribosomal Spacer ; genetics ; Drug Contamination ; prevention & control ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; classification ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Paeonia ; classification ; genetics ; Phylogeny ; Quality Control

Murine norovirus (MNV) was first discovered in mice in 2003. MNV is a member of the genus Norovirus in the family Caliciviridae. It is one of the most important and prevalent pathogens of laboratory mice, and almost all mouse strains are susceptible to MNV infection. In this study, a MNV strain was isolated from the cecal contents of infected mice and identified by the cytopathic effect (CPE) assay, virus plaque assay, 50% tissue culture infectious dose (TCID50) assay, electron microscopy, indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA) and nucleotide sequencing. On infection, the RAW264.7 cell line showed obvious cytopathic effects within 24 to 48 hours post-inoculation, as infected cells became rounded, bright and shrunken, with ultimate disintegration of the cell sheet. After the isolation of the MNV virus, the virus was plaque-purified in RAW264.7 cells. The TCID50 of the virus was 10(5.25/0.1 mL. Electron microscopic observations of the purified virus showed the presence of spherical and non-enveloped viral particles that were 30 to 35 nm in diameter. According to the identification results, the isolate was named as MNV Guangzhou/K162/09/CHN. Thereafter, five overlapping gene fragments that covered the entire open reading frame (ORF) were amplified by RT-PCR, and the 3'-untranslated region (UTR) and 5'-UTR were amplified using the 3'-rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) and the 5'-RACE method, respectively. Each of the gene fragments were cloned and sequenced, and whole genome sequences of the strain were obtained by assembling the cDNA fragment sequences. The results showed that the length of the complete genome was 7 380 nucleotides (GenBank accession number: HQ317203). The comparison of nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences of the isolate was performed against other MNV strains in the GenBank database. A phylogenetic tree based on VP1 nucleotide sequences was constructed using MEGA5.0 software. The homology of nucleotides between the MNV Guangzhou/K162/09/CHN strain and other MNV isolates ranged from 87.4% to 89.7%. Phylogenetic analysis showed that there was a close genetic relationship between the Guangzhou/K162/09/CHN strain and MNV strains isolated from Japan (S7-P2 and S7-PP3 isolates), Korea (K4 isolate), and Germany (Berlin/04/06/DE and Berlin/05/06/DE isolates). This is the first report of the isolation and identification of MNV in China, and the first report of the genetic analysis of its complete genome.
Animals ; Caliciviridae Infections ; veterinary ; virology ; Mice ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Norovirus ; classification ; genetics ; isolation & purification ; physiology ; Open Reading Frames ; Phylogeny ; Rodent Diseases ; virology ; Sequence Homology, Amino Acid ; Viral Proteins ; chemistry ; genetics