Early diagnosis of female genital tuberculosis by phage amplified biological assay / 南方医科大学学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To establish an early diagnostic method for detecting female genital tuberculosis.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Eighty-six women with genital tuberculosis during January 2005-September 2007 were examined by phage amplified biological assay, and the results were compared with those from leucorrhea culture, smear and PCR.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Forty-five patients were tuberculosis positive with 100% of specificity identified by phage amplified biological assay. Twenty patients were tuberculosis positive by PCR. Five patients were culture-positive tuberculosis and no case had smear-positive tuberculosis.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Phage amplified biologically assay is sensitive and specific, which could be used for the early diagnosis of female genital tuberculosis.</p>

Hyperlipidemia induced by high fat diet ingestion activates TGF-beta/Smad signaling pathway in the kidney of diabetic rats / 中南大学学报(医学版)

OBJECTIVE@#To investigate the effect of diet-induced hyperlipidemia on TGF-beta/Smad signaling pathway in the kidney of diabetic rats, and to explore the mechanism by which hyperlipidemia leads to renal injury in diabetes.@*METHODS@#Diabetic rats and non-diabetic rats were fed with normal fat diet and high fat diet for 16 weeks, respectively. The expressions of TGF-beta1, TbetaRII, and Col-IV mRNA in the renal cortex were examined by reverse transcriptase-PCR,TbetaRII and p-Smad staining in glomerular cells were detected by immunohistochemical staining, and the expression of TGF-beta1 and Col-IV protein was determined by Western blot.@*RESULTS@#Diet-induced hyperlipidemia up-regulated the levels of TGF-beta1, TbetaRII, p-Smad, and Col-IV protein and mRNA in the renal cortex of diabetic rats compared with those of non-diabetic rats. However, feeding high fat diet to non-diabetic rats had no influence on the expression of TGF-beta1, TbetaRII, p-Smad2, and Col-IV in the renal cortex.@*CONCLUSION@#Hyperlipidemia induced by high fat diet ingestion leads to renal injury in diabetic rats through activating TGF-beta1 /Smad signaling pathway.

The experimental study of biomimetic artificial cartilage fabrication in vitro and ectopic chondrogenesis in vivo / 生物医学工程学杂志

Tri-dimensional poly (DL-lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) scaffolds were fabricated using a rapid prototyping (RP) technique and the gene of human bone morphogenetic protein 2 (hBMP-2) was transferred into rabbit bone marrow stromal cells (MSCs) via recombinant adeno-associated virus vectors (rAAV-hBMP-2). Thirty-two PLGA scaffolds, size (4 mm X 4 mm X 4 mm), were coated with collagen type I and equally divided into 2 groups. In group A, each scaffold was loaded with 2 X 10(4) hBMP-2 (+) MSCs to establish a hBMP-2 (+) MSCs/PLGA composite. In group B, each scaffold was loaded with 2 X 10(4) hBMP-2 (-) MSCs to establish a hBMP-2 (-) MSCs/PLGA composite. The composites in both groups were cultured for subcutaneous implantation in nude mice. All animals were killed 30 days after implantation and the differentiation of composites was evaluated. As a result, MSCs infected with rAAV-hBMP-2 efficiently expressed hBMP-2 protein. RP-based PLGA scaffolds had ideal microarchitecture. The diameters of macropore and micropore of the scaffolds were 300 microm and 3-5 microm, respectively. At 3-5 days after culture, a number of seeding cells well grew on the scaffolds of both groups. The composites in group A had chondrogenesis ability in vivo and the expression of collagen type II was positive. In group B, however, only polymers and fiber tissues were predominantly found. The percentage of polymer remnant area was significantly lower in group A than in group B (P<0.01). Our results therefore indicate that RP-based PLGA scaffolds efficiently coated with collagen type I have good biocompatibility with hBMP-2 (+) MSCs and the techniques developed in this study may favor cartilage tissue engineering.