Calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II is involved in the transmission and regulation of nociception in naïve and morphine-tolerant rat nucleus accumbens

Background@#Synaptic plasticity contributes to nociceptive signal transmission and modulation, with calcium/ calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMK II) playing a fundamental role in neural plasticity. This research was conducted to investigate the role of CaMK II in the transmission and regulation of nociceptive information within the nucleus accumbens (NAc) of naïve and morphine-tolerant rats. @*Methods@#Randall Selitto and hot-plate tests were utilized to measure the hindpaw withdrawal latencies (HWLs) in response to noxious mechanical and thermal stimuli. To induce chronic morphine tolerance, rats received intraperitoneal morphine injection twice per day for seven days. CaMK II expression and activity were assessed using western blotting. @*Results@#Intra-NAc microinjection of autocamtide-2-related inhibitory peptide (AIP) induced an increase in HWLs in naïve rats in response to noxious thermal and mechanical stimuli. Moreover, the expression of the phosphorylated CaMK II (p-CaMK II) was significantly decreased as determined by western blotting. Chronic intraperitoneal injection of morphine resulted in significant morphine tolerance in rats on Day 7, and an increase of p-CaMK II expression in NAc in morphine-tolerant rats was observed. Furthermore, intra-NAc administration of AIP elicited significant antinociceptive responses in morphine-tolerant rats. In addition, compared with naïve rats, AIP induced stronger thermal antinociceptive effects of the same dose in rats exhibiting morphine tolerance. @*Conclusions@#This study shows that CaMK II in the NAc is involved in the transmission and regulation of nociception in naïve and morphine-tolerant rats.

Association Between Constipation and a Reduction in Lower Limb Muscle Strength in Preoperative Patients with Thoracic Spinal Tumors / 中国医学科学杂志(英文版)

Objective To investigate the clinical symptoms experienced by patients with thoracic spinal tumors and verify the associated symptoms that are predictive of a decline in muscle strength in the lower limbs. Methods A single-center, retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted on in-patients diagnosed with epidural thoracic spinal tumors between January 2011 and May 2021. The study involved a review of electronic medical records and radiographs and the collection of clinical data. The differences in clinical manifestations between patients with constipation and those without constipation were analyzed. Binary logistic regression analyses were performed to identify risk factors associated with a decline in muscle strength in the lower limbs.Results A total of 227 patients were enrolled, including 131 patients with constipation and 96 without constipation. The constipation group had a significantly higher proportion of patients who experienced difficulty walking or paralysis compared to those without constipation prior to surgery (83.2% vs. 17.7%, χ2 = 99.035,P < 0.001). Constipation (OR = 9.522, 95%CI: 4.150-21.849, P < 0.001) and urinary retention (OR = 14.490, 95%CI: 4.543-46.213, P < 0.001) were independent risk factors for muscle strength decline in the lower limbs. Conclusions The study observed that patients with thoracic spinal tumors who experienced constipation symptoms had a higher incidence of lower limb weakness. Moreover, the analysis revealed that constipation and urinary retention were independent risk factors associated with a preoperative decline in muscle strength of lower limbs.

Chiral mesoporous silica nano-screws as an efficient biomimetic oral drug delivery platform through multiple topological mechanisms

In the microscale, bacteria with helical body shapes have been reported to yield advantages in many bio-processes. In the human society, there are also wisdoms in knowing how to recognize and make use of helical shapes with multi-functionality. Herein, we designed atypical chiral mesoporous silica nano-screws (CMSWs) with ideal topological structures (e.g., small section area, relative rough surface, screw-like body with three-dimension chirality) and demonstrated that CMSWs displayed enhanced bio-adhesion, mucus-penetration and cellular uptake (contributed by the macropinocytosis and caveolae-mediated endocytosis pathways) abilities compared to the chiral mesoporous silica nanospheres (CMSSs) and chiral mesoporous silica nanorods (CMSRs), achieving extended retention duration in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and superior adsorption in the blood circulation (up to 2.61- and 5.65-times in AUC). After doxorubicin (DOX) loading into CMSs, DOX@CMSWs exhibited controlled drug release manners with pH responsiveness in vitro. Orally administered DOX@CMSWs could efficiently overcome the intestinal epithelium barrier (IEB), and resulted in satisfactory oral bioavailability of DOX (up to 348%). CMSWs were also proved to exhibit good biocompatibility and unique biodegradability. These findings displayed superior ability of CMSWs in crossing IEB through multiple topological mechanisms and would provide useful information on the rational design of nano-drug delivery systems.

Bibliometric-based analysis of characteristics and trend of global digestive endoscopy quality control / 中华消化内镜杂志

Objective:To analyze characteristics and trend of publications in digestive endoscopy quality control from 2010 to 2021.Methods:The literature on digestive endoscopy quality control from 2010 to 2021 were searched through the Web of Science core collection with the method of bibliometrics. The year of publication, journal name, country, main researchers, institutions and citations were analyzed by Web of Science. Then, the downloaded data were imported into VOSviewer for co-occurrence network analysis of the country, keywords and citations.Results:A total of 3 283 English papers on digestive endoscopy quality control were included. The number of papers from China and other countries showed an upward trend, and citations as well from 2010 to 2021. The publications were mainly from the United States (1 209, 36.8%), the United Kingdom (325, 9.9%), and China (324, 9.9%). The journal with the largest number of publications in this category was Gastrointest Endosc (241, 7.3%). The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs had 175 publications, ranking the first among all institutions. Research topics were focused on colonoscopy, adenoma detection rate, and artificial intelligence. Conclusion:The research in digestive endoscopy quality control is booming, and the research activity is gradually increasing. Chinese academic influence in this field still needs to be further improved.

Research on feature classification of lower limb motion imagination based on electrical stimulation to enhance rehabilitation / 生物医学工程学杂志

Motor imaging therapy is of great significance to the rehabilitation of patients with stroke or motor dysfunction, but there are few studies on lower limb motor imagination. When electrical stimulation is applied to the posterior tibial nerve of the ankle, the steady-state somatosensory evoked potentials (SSSEP) can be induced at the electrical stimulation frequency. In order to better realize the classification of lower extremity motor imagination, improve the classification effect, and enrich the instruction set of lower extremity motor imagination, this paper designs two experimental paradigms: Motor imaging (MI) paradigm and Hybrid paradigm. The Hybrid paradigm contains electrical stimulation assistance. Ten healthy college students were recruited to complete the unilateral movement imagination task of left and right foot in two paradigms. Through time-frequency analysis and classification accuracy analysis, it is found that compared with MI paradigm, Hybrid paradigm could get obvious SSSEP and ERD features. The average classification accuracy of subjects in the Hybrid paradigm was 78.61%, which was obviously higher than the MI paradigm. It proves that electrical stimulation has a positive role in promoting the classification training of lower limb motor imagination.

Mesenchymal Stem Cells Stimulated by Growth Factors Release Exosomes with Potent Proangiogenic Activity / 中国实验血液学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the proangiogenic activity of exsomes released by human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) stimulated by erythropoietin and platelet-derived growth factor BB (PDGF-BB).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Human umbilical cord-derived MSCs were seeded and maintained in culture overnight. The media were then replaced by alpha-MEM containing EPO (1 U/ml) and/or PDGF-BB (50 ng/ml), and the culture was maintained for 72 hours. The exosomes from the culture supernatants were isolated with a routine ultra-catrifagation method. Flow cytometric analysis was performed to identify the origin of the exosomes, and their morphological features were observed by using a transmission electron microscopy. The exosomes were added at a concentration of 10 µg/ml into the culture system of human umbilical cord vein endothelial cells. MTT assay was used to evaluate the proliferative status. The Matrigel assay was used to observe the formation of net-work structures which were calculated after culture for 12 hours.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Flow cytometric analysis showed that microparticles released by human umbilical cord MSCs expressed CD9, CD63 and CD81, which was in accordance with the surface molecular features of exosomes. Under an electron microscope, the exosomes took the featured cystic shape. The protein contents of exosomes released by untreated, EPO-stimulated, PDGF-BB-stimulated and EPO plus PDGF-BB stimulated MSCs (10 cells) were 256±124 µg, 1021±392 µg, 830±265 µg and 2207±733 µg, respectively. The results revealed that MSCs treated by EPO and PDGF-BB released significantly higher amounts of exosomes (P<0.01). MTT assay proved that the exosomes from EPO and PDGF-BB treated MSCs had more potent proliferation-promoting activity on human umbilical cord vein endothelial cells than those from untreated MSCs. The Matrigel assay showed that the numbers of capillary-like structures in untreated, EPO-, PDGF-BB and EPO plus PDGF-BB-treated groups were 2.6±0.84, 4.6±1.57, 4.2±0.78 and 6.3±1.34 per high power objective. Treatment with EPO or PDGF-BB dramatically enhanced the numbers of capillary liue structure, compared with that of untreated group (P<0.01) and those in EPO and PDGF-BB combination group was significantly greater than those of EPO or PDGF-BB group (P<0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>EPO and PDGF-BB can stimulate MSCs to release exosomes with more potent proangiogenic activity.</p>

Study on feature modulation of electroencephalogram induced by motor imagery under multi-modal stimulation / 生物医学工程学杂志

Event-related desynchronization (ERD) is the basic feature of electroencephalogram (EEG), and the brain-computer interface based on motor imagery (MI-BCI) with the foundation of the analysis of ERD is of great significance in motor function recovery. The valid ERD characteristics extracted from EEG are the key to the performance of the BCI, so the study of which kind of stimulation mode can prompt subjects to generate more obvious characteristics of ERD is crucial. Four different stimulation modes are designed in this paper, and the effects of motion imagery tasks under static text stimulation, grip video stimulation, serial motion video stimulation of fingers as well as serial motion video stimulation of fingers with sound on the characteristics of ERD are analyzed. Combining the analysis of time-frequency spectrum, the power spectral density curve, ERD value and brain topographic map, it is shown that the ERD under serial motion video stimulation of fingers and serial motion video stimulation of fingers with sound modes is much stronger and has wider range of activation, and the BCI based on the analysis of ERD will have a better effect on practical application. As a result, the recognition and acceptance of the users of BCI system are improved in some extent.

Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D inversely associated with blood eosinophils in patients with persistent allergic rhinitis

OBJECTIVE: The relationship between vitamin D and allergic rhinitis (AR) remains unclear. The present study investigated their association by examining serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) levels, blood eosinophils, and the expression of vitamin D receptors (VDR) on nasal mucosa in patients with AR. METHODS: A total of 32 patients with persistent AR and 25 controls were enrolled in this study. Serum 25(OH)D levels were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and eosinophils in the peripheral blood were examined by an automated hematology system, while VDR expression on inferior turbinate mucosa was assessed by immunohistochemistry. Furthermore, the correlation of serum 25(OH)D levels with blood eosinophils in persistent AR was analyzed. RESULTS: No significant difference in serum 25(OH)D levels was detected between the AR and control groups (p = 0.371). Interestingly, the serum 25(OH)D levels of the AR group were negatively correlated with blood eosinophil count and its proportion (p = 0.019 and p = 0.010, respectively) even when adjusting confounding factors including age, sex, body mass index, and the season of blood sampling. On the other hand, no significant difference in the expression levels of VDR on nasal mucosa was found between the AR group and the control group (p = 0.231). CONCLUSION: These results suggest that the serum 25(OH)D might be inversely associated with blood eosinophils in patients with persistent AR. However, the relationship between vitamin D and AR still requires further clarification

Ceramic on Ceramic or Ceramic-on-polyethylene for Total Hip Arthroplasty: A Systemic Review and Meta-analysis of Prospective Randomized Studies / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>Wear debris of polyethylene has become a restraining factor of the durability for total hip arthroplasty (THA). Ceramic on ceramic (COC) has better wear resistance while the squeaking sound and prosthesis fracture are of concern. It is still a controversy that bearing couples are better for THA.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>We performed a systematic review of all English articles identified from PubMed (1966-), Embase (1980-) and the Cochrane Library. Clinical outcomes, complications, revision rates, and radiographic outcomes of COC-THA and ceramic on polyethylene (COP)-THA were compared and evaluated.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Eight prospective randomized trials enrolling a total of 1508 patients and 1702 THA surgeries were identified. Our results demonstrated the prosthesis fracture and the squeaking sound is significantly higher in COC group and higher wear rate of the COP. Hip function, loosening rate, dislocation rate, revision rate, and the osteolysis rate were comparable between two groups. According to Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation system assessment, the strength of evidence was high for prosthesis fracture, dislocation, osteolysis, and moderate for radiolucent line or loosening, hip noise, and revision.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Up to now, there is insufficient evidence to identify any clinical advantage of COC compared with COP. Longer follow-up of larger randomized trial is needed to clarify the outcomes.</p>

Comparison of Clinical Influence of Intramedullary versus Extramedullary Alignment Guides on Total Knee Arthroplasty / 中国医学科学院学报

<p><b>UNLABELLED</b>Objective: To compare the clinical influence of intramedullary versus extramedullary alignment guides on total knee arthroplasty (TKA) in terms of alignment of the lower limbs,intraoperative tourniquet time,and postoperative complications.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 105 patients(210 knees)undergoing bilateral TKA from February 2012 to November 2013. All patients were divided to two groups:40 [age:(66.65 ± 9.57)years] were implanted using intramedullary guides on the tibia and 65 [age:(65.29±9.27)years] were implanted using extramedullary guides on the tibia. Alignment of lower limb,tibial component angle in the sagittal plane,tourniquet time,and postoperative complications were compared.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The gender ratio,age,height,weight,body mass index,and preoperative alignment of lower limbs were not significantly different between these two groups (all P>0.05). The average coronal alignment of lower extremity was (179.69 ± 2.91)° in the intramedullary guides group and (178.26 ± 3.38)° in the extramedullary guides group (P=0.002). The alignment of lower limbs on neutral and valgus position were found in 68 cases(85.00%)in the intramedullary group and in 94 cases (72.31%) in extramedullary group (P=0.033) ;the tourniquet time was (79.46 ± 12.06) min in the intramedullary group and (84.68 ± 8.02) min in the extramedullary group (P=0.001); the postoperative complication rate was 6.25% in intramedullary group and 3.07% in extramedullary group (P=0.279).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Alignment and tourniquet time can be significantly improved by the intramedullary instrumentation,while the incidence of complications associated with intramedullary instrumentation is higher than extramedullary instrumentation.</p>

The microbiology and antimicrobial susceptibility of the infected knee arthroplasty / 中华外科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVES</b>To describe the microbiology, antimicrobial susceptibility of patients proven prosthetic joint infection (PJI) after primary total knee arthroplasty (TKA)and to provide reference for the diagnosis and treatment of this complication.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The medical data of the patients with infected knee arthroplasty, who were managed with revision surgery between January 1995 to December 2011 were reviewed. Twenty-nine cases were identified and majority of the patients were female (23/29). Diagnosis of PJI after primary TKA was between 1 week and 10 years (average 24.3 months). The microbiology and antimicrobial susceptibility were analyzed.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>The overall positive rate of cultures was 65.5% (19/29). The most common organisms identified were Coagulase-negative Staphylococcus (CNS) (7/19) and Staphylococcus Aureus (SA) (5/19). Rare pathogens of Mycobacterium (2/19) and fungi (1/19) were also identified. Vancomycin was the most effective antibiotics with overall sensitivity rates of 100%.Resistant and rare pathogens were all in type IV infection.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Gram-positive bacterias are the main pathogen, resistant and rare pathogens should be payed attention to. Antibiotic treatment for infected TKA should be based on the results of drug susceptibility. Vancomycin allows infected knee arthroplasties before the result.</p>

Prognostic value of late gadolinium enhancement in dilated cardiomyopathy patients. A meta-analysis

To evaluate the prognostic value of late gadolinium enhancement [LGE] in dilated cardiomyopathy [DCM] patients. We searched PubMed, MEDLINE, the Cochrane library and EMBASE databases from September to December 2012 in the Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China for studies of LGE in DCM patients. We extracted the clinical outcomes [all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, sudden cardiac death [SCD], aborted SCD, heart failure hospitalization] after carefully reviewed. A meta-analysis was performed to calculate pooled odds ratios [OR] with 95% confidence intervals [CIs] for prognostic outcomes in LGE positive versus LGE negative patients with DCM. Five studies for 545 DCM patients were contained in this meta-analysis. The results showed LGE positive patients was significantly associated with higher cardiovascular mortality [pooled OR: 2.67; 95% CI: 1.12-6.35; p=0.03], aborted SCD [pooled OR: 5.26; 95% CI: 1.57-17.55; p=0.007], and heart failure hospitalization [pooled OR: 3.91; 95% CI: 1.99-7.69; p<0.001]. Late gadolinium enhancement during cardiac MRI is significantly associated with cardiovascular mortality, aborted SCD and heart failure hospitalization in DCM patients. The LGE can be a potential stratification tool to predict the risk of cardiac events among patients with DCM

Comparison of blood loss during total knee arthroplasty between haemophilic arthropathy and osteoarthritis / 中国医学科学院学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the amount of blood loss and the efficacy of clotting factor in controlling blood loss during total knee arthroplasty.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The medical documents of 18 patients with haemophilic arthritis (HA) secondary to haemophilia A and 19 patients with osteoarthritis (OA) were retrospectively reviewed. Demographic data,functional and hematological test results,the amount of blood loss and transfusion,and complications were analyzed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The median amounts of total and external blood loss were 2240 ml(1892-3415 ml) and 1326 ml(934-2256 ml)in the HA group, which were significant higher than those in the OA group [1746 ml(1259-2246 ml)and 846 ml (504-1217 ml), respectively]. The median amounts of external blood loss in the two groups were 680 ml(370-1330 ml)and 730 ml(200-1190 ml)and there was no significant difference(p=0.620). Moreover, more patients in the HA group required blood transfusion (84.2% vs. 47.4%), and more red cells were transfused per patient in the HA group (2.3 U vs. 0 U).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The total blood loss and hidden blood loss are higher in the HA patients than in OA patients during total knee arthroplasty, although the external blood loss is basically the same. Management with more clotting factor may decrease the blood loss in HA patients.</p>

Mesenchymal stem cells release membrane microparticles in the process of apoptosis / 中国实验血液学杂志

Though mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) have been clinically used to repair a variety of damaged tissues, the underlying mechanisms remain elusively as the majority of the ex vivo expanded MSC die shortly after transplantation. To explore the mechanism in which the death cells play tissue repair effect, apoptosis of rat bone marrow MSC was induced by culturing cells in the conditions of hypoxia or/and serum-free medium, and the subcellular structures in the supernatants were analyzed. The results showed that apoptosis occurred in the presence of either hypoxia or serum-free condition as well, and the apoptotic proportion reached up to (17.44 ± 2.15) after the cells were treated by hypoxia plus serum free culture for 72 hours. The flow cytometric analysis of the sub-cellular substances harvested by ultracentrifugation of the supernatants found that the MSC released substantial amount of membrane microparticles into the supernatants, which expressed CD29, CD44A and Annexin-V-binding phosphatidylserine. It is concluded that the MSC can release membrane microparticles after induction, the amount of these membrane microparticles was around 15-fold of the parent cell numbers. The membrane microparticles is the mediators in the cross-talk between the transplanted cells and their surrounding tissues. This study provides some novel information for the mechanisms of MSC therapy.

Acetabular revision arthroplasty using antiprotrusio cage / 中华外科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the efficacy of acetabular antiprotrusio cage for the reconstruction of acetabular bone defect in revision hip arthroplasty.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Twelve cases of severe acetabular bone defect after total hip arthroplasty were revised with antiprotrusio cage and bone grafting from February 2003 to October 2008. Clinical and radiological data before and after revision surgery were collected and compared for assessment.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The classification of acetabular bone defect of this group of patients according to Paprosky classification was: 2 cases of type IIB, 6 cases of type IIIA and 4 cases of type IIIB. The average postoperative follow-up period was 37 months (9 - 71 months). Mean Harris score of all cases was 35.2 before revision surgery, 80.9 at the first time follow-up and 84.6 at latest follow-up. There were no prosthesis loosening and breakage. There was mild radiolucent line in Delee & Charnley III zone of the acetabulum in one patient 6 month after revision, but no deterioration was found during further follow-up. No further revision was needed in this group of patients during the follow-up.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Reconstruction of acetabular bone defect using antiprotrusio cage and bone grafting is a useful method to restore the bone defect and stability of the acetabulum. The outcome via short to middle term follow-up is encouraging.</p>

Cutoff scores of the Ages and Stages Questionnaire-Chinese for screening infants and toddlers / 中华儿科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the validity and accuracy of differing cutoff scores of the Ages and Stages Questionnaires-Chinese (ASQ-C) for screening infants and toddlers in comparison with the gold standard, Bayley Scale of Infant Development, Second Edition (BSID II).</p><p><b>METHOD</b>The 269 samples were enrolled from the normative children, aged 3 - 31 months, of the ASQ-C in Shanghai. The age-appropriate ASQ-Cs were completed by parents/caregivers and the BSIDIIwas administered by professionals. The cutoff scores of -2 standard deviation (s), -1.5 s, and -s for the ASQ-C were examined against BSID II with the cutoff scores set at -2 s as the standard of developmental delay, -s as the standard of suspected developmental delay and developmental delay respectively. Agreement between the classifications of the ASQ-C (i.e., typical, suspected, delay) was compared with the classification of the BSID II (typical, suspected, delay), sensitivity, specificity, Youden Index and area under ROC curve of ASQ-C were examined. The statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS 13.0.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>When the cutoff score for BSID II was -2 s, the -2 s cutoff score for ASQ-C exhibited the following properties: the highest agreement of 83.64%, the sensitivity and specificity both above 80% being respectively 88.46% and 83.13%, the highest Youden Index of 0.72 and the largest area of 0.86 under ROC curve. The -1.5 s cutoff score for ASQ-C showed the following properties: 71.75% agreement, 100% sensitivity, 68.72% specificity, Youden Index = 0.69, the area under ROC curve = 0.84. The -s cutoff score for ASQ-C showed the following properties: the lowest agreement of 55.02%, 100% sensitivity, the lowest specificity of 50.21%, the lowest Youden Index of 0.50, and the smallest area of 0.75 under ROC curve. When the cutoff score for BSID II was set at -s, the -2 s for ASQ-C showed the following properties: the highest agreement of 85.87%, the lowest sensitivity of 68.57%, the highest specificity of 91.96%, Youden Index = 0.61, the smallest area = 0.77 under ROC curve. The -1.5 s for ASQ-C showed the following properties: the agreement of 80.67%, the sensitivity and specificity both above 70% being respectively 85.71% and 78.89%, the highest Youden Index of 0.65, the largest area of 0.82 under ROC. The -s cutoff score for ASQ-C showed the following properties: the lowest agreement of 68.40%, the highest sensitivity of 94.29%, the lowest specificity of 59.30%, the lowest Youden Index of 0.54, and the area under ROC curve = 0.80. When the cutoff score for BSID II was -1 to 2 s, the identifying percentages of the -2 s, -1.5 s and -s for the ASQ-C were 56.82%, 77.27% and 90.91%, respectively.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>For developmental delay identification, the -2 s cutoff score for ASQ-C produces the most robust validity and highest accuracy; for the identification of suspected developmental delay and developmental delay, the -1.5 s cutoff score for ASQ-C has the highest screening accuracy with appropriate sensitivity and specificity; for identifying the suspected developmental delay, the -s cutoff score for ASQ-C has the highest percentage of the identification. It is necessary to add 1 - 2 s to the ASQ-C's cutoff scores as the standard for screening suspected developmental delays.</p>

Mesenchymal stem cells exist in the compact bones from four species of mammals / 中国实验血液学杂志

The biological properties of cultured mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) have been intensively investigated, while there is still a paucity of information about the definite in vivo sites that harbor these stem cells due to the lack of specific surface markers. Previous data have demonstrated that human and murine MSC can be isolated from the compact bones. To investigate if it is the case for other species, the femurs from Wistar rats, Beagles, C57 mice and New Zealand rabbits were collected, minced and digested with collagenase type I. The digested bone fragments were seeded into the medium for human bone marrow culture after removal of the suspended cells in the digestion. The results showed that the fibroblast-like cells were observed to migrate from the bone fragments after several days of culture, and they gradually formed an adherent confluent layer. The adherent cells could be passaged and expressed homogenously the mesenchymal cell marker vimentin. Differentiation assays showed that these cells had the capacity to differentiate into osteoblasts and adipocytes. In conclusion, the results here provide new information for the further investigations on the in vivo biological features of MSC in the context of the simplicity of the compact bone structure.

Studies of the norm and psychometric properties of Ages and Stages Questionnaires in Shanghai children / 中华儿科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To introduce the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) to China, we created ASQ-Chinese (ASQ-C) and carried out studies of its norm and the psychometrical properties in Shanghai children aged 3-66 months in collaboration with the author of the ASQ with the permissions from the publisher.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>The 19 ASQ intervals were translated into Chinese, to make the ASQ-C culturally relevant, and back translated into English. The project used a stratified cluster sampling method and recruited children aged 3 - 66 months with respect to demographic characteristics that were representative of Shanghai census data, and excluded the children whose mother tongue was not Chinese and/or diagnosed with disabilities by the authoritative hospitals in Shanghai. Parents/caregivers of the 8472 children either independently completed the age-appropriate ASQ-Cs or completed with help from the researchers for the normative samples. Among them, professionals completed the age-appropriate ASQ-C again for 519 children within six days after the parents/caregivers completed the ASQ-C for inter-rater reliability. In terms of test-retest reliability, 651 parents completed another age-appropriate questionnaires within a 10- to 23-day interval. For concurrent validity, BSIDII were administered with 255 children from 6, 12, 18, 24, and 30-month ASQ-C age intervals. The cutoffs of the ASQ-C and the BSIDII were all set at the two standard deviations below the means. The statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS 13.0.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>The ASQ-Cs were independently completed by 85.25% of the parents/caregivers; the percentage of gender, family income and region of residence were similar to the Shanghai population census conducted in the recent years. Two standard deviations below the means were used as the cutoff scores of the ASQ-Cs across the age intervals. In terms of internal consistency of the ASQ-C, Cronbach standardized alpha was 0.77. The Pearson correlation coefficient between the ASQ-C total scores of the two testers was 0.84 (P < 0.0001). The Pearson correlation coefficient between the ASQ-C total scores of the two tests was 0.82 (P < 0.0001). The percentage of the agreement between the ASQ-C and the BSID II was 84.31%, the sensitivity of ASQ-C was 85.00%, and the specificity of ASQ-C was 84.26%.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>It is practicable that the ASQ-C can be completed by the parents/caregivers of Shanghai children. ASQ-C has solid psychometric properties and is worthy of further research and introduction to China.</p>

In vivo tracing of transplanted bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells with bioluminescence imaging / 中国实验血液学杂志

Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-based cell therapy has shifted into clinical trials to repair the damage of various tissues. In this setting, the survival of the transplanted cells contributes critically to the therapeutic effectiveness. To investigate the in vivo tracing of MSCs, a recombinant retroviral vector carrying firefly-luciferase reporter gene [pL (FLUC) SN] was constructed and several GPE+86 cell clones that stably expressed fluc were selected. The retroviral supernatants were collected and used to transfect MSC derived from C57 mice. The cells were then screened with G418 and the expression of the exogenous gene was identified by luciferase enzyme activity analysis. Labeled mouse MSCs (2x10(6)) were injected into skeletal muscles, and the in situ expression was noninvasively tracked by in vivo bioluminescence imaging for 1, 3 and 6 days after transplantation. The results showed that the survival rates of the grafted cells dropped sharply with time, they were 57.2+/-11.7%, 8.6+/-2.5% and 5.4+/-3.1% on day 1, 3 and 6 after transplantation, and no fluorescent signals above background were detected on day 10. It is concluded that the method described above could be used for in vivo tracing of grafted cells. Furthermore, MSCs could not survive even transplanted into the none-ischemic skeletal muscles.

Prognostic value of N-terminal-pro-brain natriuretic peptide on admission in patients with chronic heart failure / 中华心血管病杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>Heart failure is responsible for a huge burden in hospital care. Our goal was to evaluate the value of N-terminal-pro-brain natriuretic peptide (Nt-proBNP) on predicting death or hospital readmission after hospital discharge in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>From March 2003 to April 2005, 135 consecutive patients (97 male and 38 female, mean age 60.7 years +/- 13.1 years) with chronic heart failure [dilated cardiomyopathy (44%) and coronary heart disease (35%)] were included in this study. Plasma concentrations of the Nt-proBNP were measured by ELISA on admission. All patients received conventional therapy and were followed up for 24 months. The primary end point was death or readmission.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>(1) During the follow up period (640 days +/- 100 days), 11 patients died and 39 patients rehospitalized, the median Nt-proBNP level on admission was significantly higher in patients died during the follow up period (5908 ng/L) than that of rehospitalized patients (2768 ng/L, P = 0.038). Plasma Nt-proBNP level on admission were significantly higher in primary end point group (n = 50, 2947 ng/L) than that in non-primary end point group (n = 85, 917 ng/L, P < 0.01). (2) Variables associated with an increased hazard of death and/or rehospitalization were Nt-proBNP and NYHA degree when analyzed by logistic regression models. Increased Log Nt-proBNP was the strongest independent predictor of an adverse outcome of CHF (odds ratio 13.8, 95% confidence interval 2.29 to 2.78, P < 0.01). (3) Area under the curve for Nt-proBNP in evaluating prognosis of CHF patients was 0.885 (positive predictive value 88.5%, negative predictive value 11.5%).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Nt-proBNP level on admission is a strong predictor of rehospitalization and death within 24 months after hospital discharge in patients with chronic heart failure.</p>