MMP Inhibitor Ilomastat Improves Survival of Mice Exposed to γ-Irradiation / 生物医学与环境科学（英文）

There is still a need for better protection against or mitigation of the effects of ionizing radiation following conventional radiotherapy or accidental exposure. The objective of our current study was to investigate the possible roles of matrix metalloproteinase inhibitor, ilomastat, in the protection of mice from total body radiation (TBI), and the underlying protective mechanisms. Ilomastat treatment increased the survival of mice after TBI. Ilomastat pretreatment promoted recovery of hematological and immunological cells in mice after 6 Gy γ-ray TBI. Our findings suggest the potential of ilomastat to protect against or mitigate the effects of radiation.

Intervention with Schistosoma japonicum cysteine protease inhibitor for treatment of lipopolysaccharide-induced sepsis in mice / 南方医科大学学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To observe the effect of Schistosoma japonicum cysteine protease inhibitor (rSjCystatin) for treatment of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced sepsis in mice.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>After a week of adaptive feeding, 54 BALB/c mice were randomly divided into normal control group (group A), sepsis group (group B), and rSjCystatin intervention group (group C). The mice in group A received an intraperitoneal injection of PBS (100 µL), and those in groups B and C were injected with PBS (100 µL) containing LPS (10 mg/kg); the mice in group C were also intraperitoneally injected with 25 µg sjCystatin in 100 µL PBS 30 min after LPS injection. From each group, 10 mice were randomly selected 24 h after PBS or LPS injection for detecting serum levels of TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-10 using ELISA and the levels of ALT, AST, BUN, and Cr using automatic biochemical analyzer; the pathological changes in the liver, lung and kidney were observed with HE staining. The remaining 8 mice in each group were used for observing the changes in the general condition and the 72-h survival.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The 72-h survival rates of the mice was 100% in group A, 0 in group B, and 36% in group C, showing a significant difference among the 3 groups (P<0.05). Compared with those in group A, the mice in group B exhibited obvious liver, lung, and renal pathologies with increased levels of ALT, AST, BUN, Cr, IL-6, and TNF-α (P<0.05). Treatment with sjCystatin significantly lessened LPS-induced organ pathologies, lowered the levels of liver and renal functional indexes and the pro-inflammatory cytokines, and increased the serum level of IL-10 in the mice (P<0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>SjCystatin can produce a significant therapeutic effect on sepsis induced by LPS in mice.</p>

The significance of PCT and SAA detection in early childhood bacterial infection in preschool children / 国际检验医学杂志

Objective To investigate the clinical significance of procalcitonin(PCT)and serum amyloid A (SAA)in early bacterial infection in preschool children.Methods 67 children with bacterial infection(bacte-rial infection group),62 children with viral infection(viral infection group)and 60 healthy children(healthy control group)were enrolled in this study,latex enhanced turbidimetric immunoassay was used to detect SAA and turbidimetric immunoassay was used to detect the level of PCT,the levels of SAA and PCT and the posi-tive rate were compared among all groups,and the sensitivity,specificity and positive predictive value,negative predictive value and Youden index of SAA and PCT levels.Results The levels of SAA and PCT in the bacte-rial infection group before treatment were significantly higher than those in the viral infection group and the healthy control group(P<0.05),7 days after treatment,the levels of SAA and PCT decreased significantly (P<0.05);the level of PCT in viral infection group was not significantly different from that in healthy control group(P>0.05),but the positive rate of SAA was significantly different from that of the healthy control group(P<0.05).The sensitivity,specificity,positive predictive value and negative predictive value of PCT for early bacterial infection in preschool children were 92.5%,93.5%,93.9%,92.1%,respectively,of the SAA values were 97.0%,59.7%,72.2% and 94.9%,respectively,there were significant differences between the two groups in specificity and positive predictive value(P<0.05).Conclusion Detection of SAA and PCT lev-els was helpful for early diagnosis,differential diagnosis and prognosis of bacterial infection in preschool chil-dren.

A sero-epidemiological survey of Toxoplasma gondii infections in high-risk populations in Hangzhou City / 中国血吸虫病防治杂志

Objective To understand the status of Toxoplasma gondii infections and the awareness of toxoplasmosis preven-tion and control knowledge among high-risk populations in Hangzhou City. Methods The serum anti-T. gondii antibodies were detected in 100 HIV/AIDS patients,100 cancer patients,100 pregnant women and 100 healthy controls,and the awareness of toxoplasmosis prevention and control knowledge was investigated using a questionnaire. Results The sero-prevalence of T. gon-dii infection was 31％,30％and 21％in HIV/AIDS patients,cancer patients and pregnant women,which was all significantly higher than in healthy controls(χ2 =14.68, 13.96 and 7.56,all P values<0.01). The pregnant women had a high awareness rate of toxoplasmosis prevention and control knowledge,and the healthy controls had a low awareness rate. In addition,the sub-jects had a low awareness rate regarding the questions including"Do you know the damages of Toxoplasma gondii infections?","Do you know that consumption of raw or uncooked meat may cause Toxoplasma gondii infections?",and"Do you know that con-tact with contaminated soil may cause Toxoplasma gondii infections?". Conclusions The sero-prevalence of T. gondii infection is high among the high-risk populations in Hangzhou City,including the HIV/AIDS patients,cancer patients and pregnant wom-en,and these high-risk populations have a low awareness rate of some toxoplasmosis prevention and control knowledge. There-fore,it is essential to improve the health education of toxoplasmosis prevention and control knowledge among the high-risk popu-lations,so as to effectively prevent and control human T. gondii infections.

An outbreak of mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia in a kindergarten / 中华预防医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the epidemiological and clinical features of the mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia (MPP) that occurred in a single class of a kindergarten in Beijing in July 2006.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The environment and the attendance record of the kindergarten from the beginning of August 2005 to the end of July 2006 were investigated, and the sick status of the children absent for illness were interviewed by face to face or telephone through their parents. The disease data of the in-patient children with MPP were collected through questionnaires and analyzed. Serological screening for MP was performed with the Serodia Myco II gelatin particle agglutination test (Fujirebio, Japan).</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>In mid-July 2006, in a day-care kindergarten with 3 grade classes, 3 out of 25 six-year-old children in the top class were hospitalized within 4 days and diagnosed as MPP. A total of 8 children had the symptoms of fever and cough during late May and mid-July in 2006, 5 children conduct chest radiographs and all had pneumonia, all these five children showed antibody positive for MP, 3 of them showed a more than 4-fold increase in antibody titer to MP in serum. There were no pneumoniae cases in the other two classes during the same period, and no pneumoniae cases happened among the teachers in the top class and the parents of the 5 pneumoniae children. All the children were moved to this classroom temporarily with limited ventilation and sunshine in March 2006. After improvement of the ventilation in the classroom, no additional pneumoniae cases occurred in the top class till the early September 2006. The 5 MPP children showed neither sneeze and nasal obstruction, nor skin rash, earache and any other extrapulmonary complication, and their peripheral white blood cell count was in the normal range (3.9 - 7.7) x 10(9).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The MPP outbreak in a kindergarten was caused by poor ventilation of the temporary classroom. MP infection in children is liable to cause pneumonia.</p>

Modeling of acute respiratory distress syndrome in canine after inhalation of perfluoroisobutylene and preliminary study on mechanisms of injury / 中华劳动卫生职业病杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To establish of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) model in canine after inhalation of perfluoroisobutylene (PFIB), and to observe the progressing of lung injury, and to study the mechanisms of injury.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A device of inhalation of PFIB for canine was made. The concentration of PFIB was 0.30 - 0.32 mg/L. Serum IL-6 and IL-8 were dynamically measured. Clinical manifestations, pathology of organs in canine were observed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>(1) During inhalation, the concentration of PFIB remained stable; (2) After inhalation, blood arterial oxygen partial pressure fell gradually, and eventually met the criteria for diagnosing ARDS; (3) The level of IL-8 in serum rises significantly after inhalation (P < 0.05), whereas that of IL-6 was not obviously altered (P > 0.05); (4) Within 6 hours after inhalation, no abnormality in canine was observed, but afterwards symptoms gradually appeared, and typical breath of ARDS, such as high frequency and lower level could be seen in later phase; (5) Pathological examination showed severe congestion, edema and atelectasis in most part of both lungs, and signs of anoxia in other organs.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>(1) The device designed is capable of ensuring control of inhalation of PFIB; (2) Exposure to PFIB for 30 mins, canines all met the criteria for diagnosing ARDS 22 hours after inhalation, therefore the modeling is successful; (3) PFIB specifically damages the lung by causing excessive inflammation.</p>

Induction of hairy roots of Panax ginseng and studies on suitable culture condition of ginseng hairy roots / 生物工程学报

Ginseng is a valuable medicinal plant with ginsenosides as its mian effective components. Because ginseng is a perennial plant and has a very strict demand for soil conditions, the way of cultivating ginseng by cutting woods is still used in China at present and thus forest resources has been extremely destroyed. Increasing attention has been paid to the hairy roots induced by the infection of Agrobacterium rhizogenes in the production of plant secondary metabolic products for the hairy roots are characterized by rapid growth and stable hereditary and biochemical traits. That has opened a new way for the industrial production of ginseosides. However, there is little report for such studies from China. In this paper, hairy roots of ginseng were induced from the root explants of two-year-old ginseng by Agrobacterium rhizogenes A4 with directly inoculating. The transformed hairy roots could grow rapidly on MS medium and 1/2 MS medium without hormones. The cultured clones of the hairy roots were established on a solid 1/2 MS medium. After 4 - 5 subcultures the hairy roots still maintained a vigorous growth. A pair of primers were designed and synthesized according to the analytical results of RiA4TL-DNA sequence by Slightom et al . 0.8kb rolC was obtained by PCR using the genome DNA of hairy root of ginseng. Transformation was confirmed by PCR amplification of rolC genes from the hairy roots of P. ginseng. Growth rate of hairy roots on liquid medium increased by 2 times then that of the solid medium. The growth of the hairy roots can be divided into three stages: high speed in the first two weeks, middle speed in the 3 - 4 weeks and low speed hereafter. Changing the culture solution at 2 weeks regular intervals is conductive to maintaining the rapid growth of the hairy roots. By means of determination for specific growth rate and ginsenosides content, the high-yield hairy root clone R9923 was selected. The content of monomer gisenoside of Rg1, Re, Rf, Rbl, Rc, Rb2 and Rd in hairy root clone R9923 was determined by the HPLC. The total ginsenosides content in the hairy toot clone R9923 came up to 15.2 mg/g. The suitable culture conditions for ginseng hairy roots growing were 1/2 MS liquid medium (30 g/L glucose), in a shaker at 110 r/min, changing the culture solution at 2 weeks and subculture time 4 weeks. In the liquid fermented culture of 2L medium, the yield of the hairy roots could amount to 270.10 g in 4 weeks. The industrial production of ginsenosides has been preliminarily realized. Effect factors on biomass and ginsenosides content such as culture volume, inoculation, in steps cultural technology at the scale-up process of hairy roots culture were also explorated. Our results have laid a foundation for defining optimum culture manner for large-scale cultivation and large-scale production of ginsenosides.

A study of injectable autogenous tissue-engineered bone / 中华口腔医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the utilization of carrier for delivering osteoblasts and creating autogenous bone tissue in ectopic site of animal via injection.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Bone marrow cells harvested from iliac bone of New Zealand rabbits were induced to differentiate into marrow stromal osteoblasts. The osteoblasts were mixed with 1.5% alginate sodium solution to generate osteoblasts/alginate composites with final cellular density of 4 x 10(9)/L. Calcium chloride was used as cross-linking agent to gel aqueous alginate solution. The marrow stromal osteoblasts/alginate composites were injected into the dorsal subcutaneous tissue of rabbits with autogenous cells transplantation. The samples were examined with X-ray and histological analysis.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Four, eight and twelve weeks after injection, the hard knobbles were easily palpated under the dorsal skin of animals. On X-ray photograph the samples showed calcified image with more density than surrounding soft tissue, new bone formation was observed in the osteoblasts/alginate composites in histological analysis. The osteogenesis was in association with regenerated hematopoietic bone marrow.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>These results demonstrate that new bone tissue could be created through the injection of alginate sodium treated with autogenous marrow stromal osteoblasts.</p>

Determination of serum granulocyte colony-stimulating factor level in patients with chronic idiopathic neutropenia and its significance / 中国实验血液学杂志

To investigate the serum granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) level in patients with chronic idiopathic neutropenia (CIN) and analyze its clinical significance. By the use of G-CSF-specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), the serum levels of G-CSF were determined in 40 cases with chronic CIN, 40 cases with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) complicated neutropenia and 40 healthy volunteer (normal control). Results showed that serum G-CSF was positive in 11 normal controls and in 10 cases with SLE, and the G-CSF levels were (27.34 +/- 8.00) ng/L and (26.76 +/- 7.26) ng/L, respectively. Serum G-CSF in 27 cases with CIN was positive, the level was (134.04 +/- 89.29) ng/L, which was higher than that in the normal controls and the cases with SLE (P < 0.01). It was concluded that an obstacle to utilization of G-CSF could be existed in the patients with CIN.