Rosuvastatin acts on the lymphatic system to improve atherosclerosis / 中华心血管病杂志

Objective: To investigate whether rosuvastatin acts on lymphatic system and influences lymphatic system-mediated reverse cholesterol transport to play an anti-atherosclerosis role. Methods: Forty-eight apolipoprotein E-/- mice fed a high fat diet were used to construct the atherosclerosis model. They were randomly divided into 4 groups with 12 rats in each group. They were treated with rosuvastatin, vascular endothelial growth factor-C (VEGF-C) and rosuvastatin+VEGF-C inhibitors as experimental group, and no intervention measures were given in control group. After 8 weeks, aortic plaque area, high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) content in lymph fluid, the function of popliteal lymphatic drainage of peripheral Evans blue, and the ability of lymphatic system to transport peripheral cell membrane red fluorescent probes to label high-density lipoprotein (HDL) were detected. Subsequently, the effects of rosuvastatin on proliferation, migration and tubular function of lymphoendothelial cells and the expression of scavenger receptor class B type 1 (SR-B1) on lymphoendothelial cells at different concentrations were detected. Results: Compared with the control group, Rosuvastatin and VEGF-C could reduce the area of aortic atherosclerotic plaque (P<0.05). In addition to rosuvastatin plus VEGF-C inhibitor, the intra-aortic plaque area increased (P<0.05). Compared with the control group, Rosuvastatin could increase the content of HDL-C in lymphatic fluid (P<0.05), enhance the drainage function of lymphatic vessels, and enhance the capacity of HDL in the transport tissue fluid of lymphatic system. Compared with the control group, VEGF-C increased the content of HDL-C in mouse lymph fluid (P<0.01), enhanced the drainage function of popliteal lymphatic canal, and enhanced the ability of lymphatic system to transport HDL. With the addition of VEGF-C inhibitor on the basis of rosuvastatin, the content of HDL-C in lymph fluid was reduced, the drainage of popliteal lymphatic canal was interrupted, and the ability of lymphatic system to transport HDL was reduced. Western blotting showed that rosuvastatin increased the protein expression of SR-B1. Conclusion: Rosuvastatin can promote the proliferation, migration and tube formation of lymphatic endothelial cells. At the same time, SR-B1 expression on lymphatic endothelial cells is promoted, thus enhancing the lymphatic system mediated cholesterol reversal transport and playing the role of anti-atherosclerosis.

Association of vitamin D level with asthma control and pulmonary function in asthmatic children aged 4-12 years / 中国当代儿科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the association of vitamin D level with asthma control and pulmonary function in children with asthma.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A total of 150 children with asthma were enrolled as observation group, and 55 healthy children were enrolled as control group. According to the level of asthma control, the children were divided into good control group, partial control group, and non-control group. Chemiluminescence microparticle immunoassay was used to measure the serum level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] for all groups. According to the level of 25(OH)D, the asthmatic children were divided into normal vitamin D group, vitamin D insufficiency group, and vitamin D deficiency group. Pulmonary function was measured for all asthmatic children.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The observation group had a significantly lower serum level of 25(OH)D than the control group (25± 7 ng/mL vs 29± 4 ng/mL; P<0.05). The normal vitamin D group had the highest asthma control rate, followed by the vitamin D insufficiency group and the vitamin D deficiency group (P<0.05). There was no significant difference in pulmonary function among the three groups (P>0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Asthmatic children have a lower serum level of 25(OH)D than healthy children. The serum level of 25(OH)D is associated with the level of asthma control and has no association with pulmonary function.</p>

Association of serum vitamin D level with severity and treatment in children with Henoch-Schönlein purpura / 中国当代儿科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the association of serum vitamin D [25-(OH)D] level with the severity and treatment in children with Henoch-Schönlein purpura (HSP).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A total of 50 children with newly-diagnosed HSP between January and December, 2015 were enrolled as HSP group, and 49 healthy children were enrolled as control group. Fasting serum samples were collected, and ELISA was used to measure serum 25-(OH)Dlevel. According to the serum 25-(OH)Dlevel, the HSP group were further divided into normal group (>20 ng/mL) (n=9), insufficiency group (15-20 ng/mL) (n=15), deficiency group (≤15 ng/mL) (n=25), and severe deficiency group (≤5 ng/mL) (n=1). The general data, clinical manifestations, hormone therapy, course of disease before admission, and length of hospital stay were compared between groups.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The HSP group had a significantly lower serum 25-(OH)Dlevel than the control group (16±6 ng/mL vs 29±5 ng/mL; P<0.01). Compared with the normal and insufficiency groups, the deficiency and severe deficiency groups had significant increases in the incidence rate of renal involvement, rate of hormone application, and median length of hospital stay (P<0.05), while there was no significant difference in course of disease before admission (P>0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Children with HSP have a low serum 25-(OH)Dlevel, and such children may have a high risk of renal involvement, a high rate of hormone application, and a prolonged length of hospital stay. However, further studies are needed to investigate whether vitamin D supplementation is helpful to the treatment of HSP and can shorten the course of disease in children with HSP.</p>

Application of flexible bronchoscopy in children with respiratory diseases / 中国当代儿科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the significance of flexible bronchoscopy in children with respiratory diseases.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A retrospective analysis was performed for the clinical data of 80 children who were hospitalized due to respiratory diseases (including severe pneumonia, Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia with atelectasis/lung consolidation/local emphysema, protracted pneumonia, coughing and wheezing of unknown cause, chronic cough of unknown cause, and laryngeal stridor) and who underwent flexible bronchoscopy/alveolar lavage.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Bronchoscopy found that all the 80 children had endobronchial inflammation, among whom 28 children had severe airway obstruction by secretion. Twenty-four children had congenital airway dysplasia besides endobronchial inflammation, and three children had bronchial foreign bodies. In the children with coughing and wheezing of unknown cause and laryngeal stridor, some had congenital airway dysplasia or bronchial foreign bodies. Among the 27 children with Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia, 26 had severe airway obstruction/embolization by secretion; 25 children (93%) underwent chest imaging again at 2 weeks after alveolar lavage, and the results showed complete or partial lung recruitment. Among the 80 children who underwent bronchoscopy, 3 had severe hypoxemia during surgery, 1 had epistaxis, 1 had minor bleeding during alveolar lavage, 3 had transient bronchospasm, and 5 had postoperative fever; these children were all improved after symptomatic treatment.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Flexible bronchoscopy is safe and reliable in children with respiratory diseases. Early alveolar lavage under a flexible bronchoscope is recommended for children with severe/refractory Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia to improve prognosis. Flexible bronchoscopy is recommended for children with recurrent coughing and wheezing and persistent laryngeal stridor, in order to directly observe the throat and airway under an endoscope.</p>

Clinical phenotype and gene diagnostic analysis of Omenn syndrome / 中华儿科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>Omenn syndrome is a rare autosomal recessive hereditary severe combined immunodeficiency. The purpose of this study was to understand clinical characteristics and genetic mutation type of Omenn syndrome and to improve the recognition of Omenn syndrome among pediatric clinicians.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>One suspected case of severe combined immunodeficiency was found to have pneumonia repeatedly, intractable diarrhea, poor antibiotic treatment effect, lymphadenopathy, hepatosplenomegaly and erythroderma. The patient was diagnosed as having Omenn syndrome by RT-PCR, and the expression of RAG1/RAG2 and gene analysis of RAG1/RAG2 were performed.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>The classification of lymphocyte was CD3(+) cells (35.3%), CD19(+) cells (0.4%), CD16(+) cells (57.6%). After stimulation with phytohemagglutinin (PHA), lymphocyte proliferation of the child was extremely low. Genetic studies showed RAG1 homozygous deletion mutation (2302 del T). He had detectable activated T-lymphocytes with low circulating B-lymphocytes and no evidence of maternal T-cell engrafment as indicated by the short tandem repeat (STR) analysis.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Omenn syndrome is a severe combined immunodeficiency disease caused by mutations in the RAG1/RAG2 gene. The disease has been reported rarely in China. The clinical manifestations of the disease is early postnatal repeated infections and erythroderma. Mutation analysis of RAG1/RAG2 gene may help to confirm the diagnosis and may be useful in early immune reconstitution and genetic counseling.</p>

Antibiotic susceptibility of pathogenic bacteria isolated from 893 children with lower respiratory infection in Guiyang / 中国当代儿科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the distribution and the antibiotic susceptibility of pathogenic bacteria in children from Guiyang with lower respiratory infection (LRI).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The nasopharyngeal aspirate samples were obtained from 893 hospitalized children with LRI between August 2006 and June 2008. An antibiotic susceptibility test was performed using the VITEK system and the Kirby-Bauer diffuse method after bacteria were identified.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Five hundred and forty-three patients (60.8%) were bacteria-positive. A total of 598 strains (30 kinds of bacteria) were obtained from the sputum samples. Of them, 533 strains (89.1%) were gram-negative and 57 were gram-positive (9.8%). Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Kleb-siella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae) were common in gram-negative strains. They were susceptive to piperacillin/tazobactam, amikacin, ciprofloxacin, and levofloxacin, especially to imipenem. Streptococcus pneumoniae (S. pneumoniae) and Stapthylococcus aureus (S. aureus) were common in gram-positive strains. S. pneumoniae was susceptive to penicillin and cefazolin sodium, but S. aureus was resistant. Both were high susceptive to vancomycin, and resistant to roxithromycin.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Gram-negative bacteria are the main pathogens in children from Guiyang with LRI, and E. coli and K. pneumoniae are common. The antibiotic susceptibility of pathogenic bacteria varies with different strains of bacteria. A reasonable selection of antibiotics should be based on the antibiotic susceptibility test.</p>

Effect of Anti-Respiratory Syncytial Virus Activities by RNA Interference and Ribavirin in vitro / 实用儿科临床杂志

Objective To investigate the effect of RNA interference(RNAi) on inhibiting respiratory syncytial virus(RSV) replication through comparing the anti-RSV activities between pshRNA7816 and ribavirin in cell culture system.Methods The recombinated plasmid pshRNA7816 and ribavirin was added to HEp-2 cells.Methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium(MTT) assay was used to detect cytotoxicity of pshRNA7816 and ribavirin on normal HEp-2 cells and protective effects of them on RSV infected HEp-2 cells.The effects of pshRNA7816 and ribavirin on change of cytopathogenic effect(CPE) of HEp-2 cells induced by RSV infection were observed through microscopically.Results pshRNA7816 had not significant toxicity on the growth of HEp-2 cells,but the ribavirin had significant toxicity when the concentration above 1.0 mmol/L.The pshRNA7816 and ribavirin could alleviate the CPE of HEp-2 cells induced by RSV infection,but the pshRNA7816 showed a more potent inhibition than ribavirin.The inhibition rates of pshRNA7816 were significantly higher than the maximum inhibition rate of ribavirin on RSV infection(P

Construction and effect of the recombinant pshRNA plasmid against respiratory syncystial virus M2-1 gene / 中华儿科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>Respiratory syncystial virus (RSV) is the most common cause of lower respiratory infections in infants worldwide. There is no reliable vaccine or antiviral drug against RSV at present. RNA interference (RNAi) technology is a potent method to degrade expression of the cognate mRNA. In order to inhibit the replication of RSV at gene level, the effects of specific RNAi against M2-1 gene of RSV on inhibition of viral replication in cell culture system was observed in this study.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>RSV M2-1 gene, which plays a key role in RSV transcription, was chosen in this study and was used as target gene and recombinant plasmid pshRNA7816 targeting the mRNA of RSV M2-1 gene coding sequence was constructed. The pshRNA7816 was transfected into Hep2 cells. The effects of the pshRNA7816 on changes of cytopathogenic effect (CPE) of Hep2 cell induced by RSV infection were observed microscopically. Viral plaque forming assay and MTT assay were used to detect the viral titer change and protective function of the pshRNA7816 on RSV infected Hep2 cell.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The recombinant RNAi plasmid pshRNA7816 which targets the mRNA of RSV M2-1 gene was successfully constructed. The pshRNA7816 significantly reduced CPE of RSV infected Hep2 cells, reduced the viral titer of RSV in the cells (P < 0.001). The pshRNA7816 raised the survival rate of RSV infected Hep2 cells (P < 0.001). Non-specific pshRNA plasmid did not show anti-RSV effects (P > 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The recombinant pshRNA7816 plasmid which targeted the mRNA of RSV M2-1 gene showed a significant and specific anti-RSV effect.</p>