ABSTRACT
Objective:To observe the pronunciation of consonants among children with developmental speech sound disorder and explore the correlation between mispronounced consonants and short-term memory so as to determine the pathogenesis of the disorder.Methods:Thirty-six children with developmental speech sound disorder and aged 4 to 13 years were evaluated. Their pronunciation of consonants at the phoneme and lexical levels was tested to record the error types and error rate. Twelve of the children were then randomly chosen to form a voice disorder group. Another 10 healthy counterparts constituted a control group. The short-term memory of both groups was assessed and any correlation between pronunciation and short-term memory was analyzed.Results:The children with a developmental speech sound disorder differed significantly from the controls in terms of the numbers of errors in articulating blade-alveolar, blade-palatal and velar consonants. On the phoneme level, the highest substitution error rate occurred when pronouncing lingua-palatal consonants (42.86%), followed by supradental consonants (32%). The highest distortion and non-acquisition error rates were with blade-palatal consonants (14%) and lingua-palatal consonants (9.5%). On the vocabulary level, the highest substitution, distortion, ellipsis and non-acquisition error rates appeared when pronouncing lingua-palatal and velar consonants, velar and blade-palatal consonants, supradental consonants as well as blade-palatal consonants. Significant differences were found between the phoneme and lexical levels in the substitution of supradental and blade-palatal consonants as well as in the ellipsis of blade-alveolar consonants. They were moderately associated with pronunciation level. There was, however, no significant difference in working memory span between the two groups, and no significant correlation was observed between working memory span and pronunciation level.Conclusion:The mispronunciation of consonants by children with developmental speech disorders is higher at the lexical than at the phoneme level. They mainly substitute lingua-palatal and velar consonants and elide supradental consonants, which may be related to short-term memory span.
ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the role of integrin-linked kinase (ILK) on the proliferation and differentiation of human fibroblast in hypertrophic scar and its effect on the scar formation.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The human scar fibroblasts were isolated and cultured in vitro. The cells were divided into 4 groups. (1) control group: only contains DMEM; (2) jetPRIME group: DMEM with 200 microl jetPRIME buffer and 4 microl jetPRIME; (3) ILK siRNA group: DMEM and ILK siRNA; (4) ILK cDNA group: DMEM and ILK cDNA. The cell proliferation was detected by XTT assay and the mRNA and protein expressions of ILK and alpha-SMA were detected by Real-time qPCR and Western blot.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>(1) XTT results showed that the cellular proliferation level after 48 h in four groups were 0.820 +/- 0.065, 0.873 +/- 0.041, 0.554 +/- 0.013 and 1.296 +/- 0.094, respectively. The cellular proliferation curve showed that the cellular proliferation level was very flat in ILK siRNA group while the cellular proliferation level gradually increased from 12 h. 48 h after transfection, the cellular proliferation level in ILK siRNA group was significant lower than those in other groups (P value were 0.021, 0.034, 0), while the cellular proliferation level in ILK cDNA group was the highest among all 4 groups (P value were 0.017, 0.009, 0). (2) The Real-time qPCR showed that the expressions of ILK mRNA and alpha-SMA mRNA were 0.693 +/- 0.412 and 0.422 +/- 0.037 in control group, were 0.621 +/- 0.183 and 0.388 +/- 0.005 in jetPRIME group, were 0.052 +/- 0.019 and 0.073 +/- 0.023 in ILK siRNA group, were 240.193 +/- 35.170 and 138.056 +/- 24.060 in ILK cDNA group. The expressions of ILK mRNA and alpha-SMA mRNA in ILK siRNA group were significantly lower than those in other three groups (P < 0.05). And the expressions of ILK mRNA and alpha-SMA mRNA in ILK cDNA group were significantly higher than those in other three groups (P < 0.05). (3) The Western blot also showed that the expression of ILK and alpha-SMA proteins were decreased in ILK siRNA group and increased in ILK cDNA group.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>ILK may promote the proliferation and differentiation of human scar fibroblast. It may play an important role in scar formation and contracture.</p>