Expression of retinoic acid-related orphan receptors and interleukin-17 in mice with vaginal candidiasis / 中华皮肤科杂志

Objective To investigate the role of T helper 17 cells/interleukin?17(Th17/IL?17) axis in the occurrence of vaginal candidiasis in mice. Methods A total of 120 female BALB/c mice were randomly and equally divided into Ei, En, Ci and Cn groups. Three days before vaginal inoculation, estrogen (Ei and En)groups and control(Ci and Cn)groups received subcutaneous injection of 0.05 mg estradiol and 0.1 ml sterilized soybean oil at the hind legs, respectively, and then the hormone treatment continued every other day until the end of experiment. Infected(Ei and Ci)groups and noninfected(En and Cn) groups were inoculated intravaginally with 10μl(5 × 104 conidia)of Candida albicans suspension and 10μl of sterilized phosphate?buffered saline, respectively. Ten mice were randomly selected from each group and sacrificed on day 3, 7 and 14 after inoculation. The intact vagina tissues were resected and then frozen in liquid nitrogen or embedded in paraffin. Real?time fluorescence?based quantitative PCR(qRT?PCR)and immunofluorescent staining were performed to measure mRNA expression and immunofluorescence intensities of retinoic acid?related orphan receptorγt(RORγt), RORα and IL?17, respectively. Western blot analysis was conducted to determine protein expression of RORγt and IL?17. Results Laser scanning confocal microscopy showed that RORγt, RORα and IL?17 immunofluorescence was mainly located at inflammatory cells of the lamina propria and blood vessels in En and Cn groups, at mucosal epithelium, adherent hyphae, and inflammatory cells of the lamina propria and blood vessels in Ci group, and at mucosal epithelium, vaginal canal and endocytosed hyphae, and inflammatory cells of the lamina propria and blood vessels in Ei group. qRT?PCR and immunofluorescent staining uncovered that mRNA expression and immunofluorescence intensities of RORγt, RORα and IL?17 were significantly higher in En, Ci and Ei groups than in Cn group at the same time points(all P0.05). Moreover, RORγt and IL?17 protein expression in Ci and Ei groups was obviously up?regulated on day 7 after inoculation (RORγt: F = 13.137, P < 0.001; IL?17: F = 11.182, P < 0.001), but was not increased further on day 14. Conclusion Vaginal candida infection can up?regulate the expression of RORγt, RORα and IL?17, suggesting that Th17/IL?17 axis may be involved in the occurrence of vaginal candidiasis in BALB/c mice.

Prenatal Ultrasonic Diagnosis of Pentalogy of Cantrell / 中国医学影像学杂志

PurposeTo explore the value of prenatal ultrasound diagnosis of pentalogy of Cantrell.Materials and Methods A retrospective study was performed in 6 fetuses with pentalogy of Cantrell diagnosed with prenatal ultrasound. The first diagnostic ultrasound time, ultrasound images and follow-up results were reviewed to analyze ultrasonographic features.Results All the fetuses were characterized by omphalocele and ectopic heart. All 6 fetuses were diagnosed by prenatal ultrasound during the first ultrasound screening, of which 5 were diagnosed before 16 weeks of gestation. Five cases were confirmed with induced labor and 1 was confirmed postnataly. The accuracy of prenatal ultrasonic diagnosis was 100%.Conclusion The characteristic features of pentalogy of Cantrell are omphalocele and ectopic heart. Prenatal ultrasound is reliable and valuable to diagnose pentalogy of Cantrell.

Influence of novel porous calcium phosphate cement on biological behavior of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells / 华西口腔医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the effect of novel porous calcium phosphate cement (CPC) scaffoldings on attachment, proliferation and differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>BMSCs of Beagle dogs were implanted and cultured with CPC scaffoldings in vitro, tricalcium phosphate (TCP) and poly (lactide-coglycolide) (PLGA) scaffoldings as controls. The attachment, proliferation and differentiation of BMSCs were detected through morphological characters, growth curve and the semi-quantitative detection of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and osteocalcin (OC) activity.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Cell morphology and growth curve illustrated that BMSCs attached to and grown better on the surface of novel porous CPC scaffoldings than that of PLGA group (P < 0.05). Semi-quantitative analysis of ALP showed that ALP expression level in BMSCs on the CPC and TCP group were significantly higher than that of the PLGA group (P < 0.05), the CPC group was slightly higher than the TCP group, but no significant difference was found between the two groups (P > 0.05). The staining and semi-quantitative analysis results of OC demonstrated that calcium deposition of the PLGA group was significantly less than the CPC and TCP group on both observation point (P < 0.05), but no significant difference between the CPC and TCP group (P > 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The novel porous CPC material used in this study has good biocompatibility similar to TCP but much better than PLGA which is favorable of BMSCs adhesion, proliferation and osteogenic differentiation. The novel porous CPC material is a suitable scaffolding for BMSCs to fabricate tissue-engineered bone in vitro.</p>

Grading of rabbit skeletal muscle trauma by diffusion tensor imaging and tractography on magnetic resonance imaging / 中国医学科学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To distinguish the edema, injury, or rupture in the traumatic skeletal muscle fiber in vivo using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and tractography on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The skeletal muscle trauma models were made in 4 rabbits (eight hindlimbs) by iron discus (weight 1.0 kg, diameter 6 cm) falling down vertically from 45 cm height to rabbits' thighs. Conventional sequences and two-dimensional (2D) diffusion-weighted (DW) spin-echo (SE) echo planar imaging (EPI) sequence with fat suppression (b = 600 s/mm2) were performed on 1. 5T MRI scanner. The grading of edema, injury, and fiber rupture in the damaged muscle were made according to their histopathological views, which was consistent with the images. The mean apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values and fractional anisotropy (FA) values were measured from the region of interests (ROIs) of all groups on 2D DW images used for tractography. Analysis of variance test was performed to analyze all data.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>ADC values of the areas in normal muscle, edema muscle, injury muscle, and ruptured muscle were (6.12 +/- 1.34) x 10(-3), (6.38 +/- 1.30) x 10(-3), (8.06 +/- 0.97) x 10(-3), and (9.57 +/- 0.93) x 10(-3) mm2/s, respectively. There was significant difference among groups (P < 0.001), but no difference between edema muscle and normal muscle group (P > 0.05). The FA values of normal muscle, edema muscle, injury muscle, and ruptured muscle were 0.42 +/- 0.12, 0.36 +/- 0.12, 0.26 +/- 0.09, 0.12 +/- 0.08, respectively, with a significant difference among groups (P < 0.001). In the edema muscle, the tracking cross-fiber could be seen but it decreased slightly. In the injury muscle, the tracking fiber decreased markedly. In the ruptured muscle, the transverse-orientation tracking fiber vanished, yet some interrupted longitudinal-orientation tracking fiber could be found.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The edema, injury, and rupture of muscle fiber in rabbit damaged skeletal muscle can be verified according to the ADC and the FA on DTI and tractography.</p>

Clinical and imaging findings in patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the clinical and imaging characteristics of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and to study their relationship.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Forty-six SARS confirmed patients were admitted to our hospital from February to April, 2003. X-ray examination documents were available in all cases and chest CT scanning was acquired in 6 cases, which were analyzed retrospectively, accompanied by their clinical features.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Fever was found in 97.8% of the patients. Clinical symptoms were mild, but X-ray and CT findings were distinct. CT scanning demonstrated ground glass like lesions and large patchy exudation and consolidation at the early stage in 6 cases. Different findings on radiography and CT were related to the different phases of the disease. After treatment, most lesions were absorbed completely, but slowly in patients with multi-lobe consolidation and/or extensive interstitial infiltration.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Special clinical and imaging findings could be found in SARS cases. The prognosis of SARS patients is related to the degree of lesions detected by radiography and CT.</p>