Effect of Ginsenoside Rg2 and Its Stereoisomers on Oxygen-Glucose Deprivation and Reperfusion Induced Cortical Neuronal Injury Model / 中国中西医结合杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To observe the effect of natural type ginsenoside Rg2 (Rg2) and its stereoisomers [20 (R)-Rg2 and 20 (S)-Rg2] at different concentrations on oxygen-glucose deprivation/ reperfusion (OGD/R) induced cortical neuronal injury model in vitro, and to explore the mechanism, and compare their differences of action.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Cortical neurons after 7-day culture were randomly divided into 5 groups, i.e., the control group, the model group, the Rg2 group, 20 (R) -Rg2 group, and 20 (S) - Rg2 group. Cortical neurons in the Rg2 group, 20 (R)-Rg2 group, and 20(S)-Rg2 group were pretreated with 20, 40, and 80 μmol/L Rg2, 20 (R) -Rg2, and 20 (S) -Rg2 for 24 h to prepare OGD/R model. The cell survival rate, the activity of Caspase-3, the intracellular Ca2+ concentration, contents of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and malondialdehyde (MDA) were detected 24 h later.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Compared with the control group, cell survival rates and activities of SOD obviously decreased, the activity of Caspase-3, Ca2+ fluorescent optical gray value, and contents of MDA significantly increased with statistical difference (P < 0.05). Compared with the model group, cell survival rates and activities of SOD obviously increased, the activity of Caspase-3, Ca2+ fluorescent optical gray value, and contents of MDA significantly decreased in 20 μmol/L Rg2 group, 40 μmol/L 20 (R) -Rg2 group, and 80 μmol/L 20 (S) -Rg2 group (P < 0.05). Compared with 20(S)-Rg2 group, cell survival rates increased and contents of MDA significantly decreased in 20, 40, and 80 μmol/L Rg2 and 20 (R)-Rg2 groups (P < 0.05). The activity of Caspase-3 decreased and contents of SOD increased in 80 μmol/L 20 (R)-Rg2 group, and 40, 80 μmol/L Rg2 groups (P < 0.05). Ca2+ fluorescent optical gray value decreased in 40, 80 μmol/L Rg2 and 20 (R)-Rg2 groups (P < 0.05). Compared with 20 (R)-Rg2 group, Ca2+ fluorescent optical gray value decreased in 80 μmol/L Rg2 group (P < 0.05); contents of SOD increased in 40 and 80 μmol/L Rg2 groups (P < 0.05); contents of MDA decreased in 20, 40, and 80 μmol/L Rg2 groups (P < 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Rg2 and its stereoisomers could improve cell vitality of cortical neurons against OGD/R induced injury. This might be related to improving anti-apoptotic capacities and antioxidant abilities, and reducing Ca2+ inflow. Besides, the neuroprotective effect of 20 (R) -Rg2 was better than that of 20 (S) -Rg2, but inferior to that of Rg2.</p>

Three-dimensional finite element modeling of whole lumbar spine and its biomechanical analysis / 医用生物力学

Objective To develop an accurate finite element (FE) model of human L1-S1 spine segment for investigating the pathology of annulus fibrosus rupture of L4-5. Methods Based on CT images of a healthy adult, three-dimensional (3D) model of vertebras and intervertebral discs of lumbar L15 and sacral S1 segment was reconstructed by Mimics 10.01 and Geomagic 10.0 software. The 3D model was then imported into Hypermesh for meshing. With adding various ligaments and assigning material properties of all components, the FE model of L1-S1 segment was established to investigate its biomechanical responses under various loading conditions including axial compression, flexion, lateral bending and extension. Results The global stiffness of the model under flexion, lateral bending, extension with 10 N•m load was 0.61, 0.7 and 0.75 N•m/(°), respectively, which was in good agreement with the experimental results. The strain of annulus fibrosus between L4 and L5 was higher under axial compressive force and bending moment；annulus fibrosus showed obviously stress concentration under any of the different loads. Conclusions The stress concentration and higher strain in annulus fibrosus between L4 and L5 could be one of the reasons leading to rupture. The developed 3D FE model of L1~S1 motion segment demonstrated to be effective in reflecting the biomechanical response of spine and could be used for further spine biomechanics study.

The expression of periphery blood leucocyte CCR3 and CCR5 in the children with Epstein-Barr virus associated infectious mononucleosis / 中华实验和临床病毒学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the expression of periphery blood leucocyte CCR3 and CCR5 and to comprehend T helper cell in the Children with Epstein-Barr virus associated infectious mononucleosis.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>We defined the children according to the diagnosis criterion through Paul-Bunnell test inspecting the children's periphery blood unusual lymphocyte and detecting their anti-EBV-CA-IgM, anti-EBV-CA-IgG and anti-EBV-NA-IgG by ELISA and counted the ratio of CCR3 + and CCR5 + cells in lymphocytes with flow cytometry.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The ratio of unusual lymphocyte in IM was higher than that of the healthy control group (P < 0.05). The ratio of CCR3 + cells in IM group was higher than that of the healthy control group (P < 0.05). The ratio of CCR5 + cells in IM group was significantly lower than that of the healthy control group. CCR3 + had direct interrelation with fever continued time and the ratio of unusual lymphocyte. There was a negative interrelation between CCR5 and fever continued time (P < 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Children infectious of IM expressed higher level of CCR3 + and lower level of CCR5 + and there was a tendency of Th2 polarization with over production of T helper cell divide imbalance. CCR3 + and CCR5 + may be important targets to judge the degree of seriousness of IM.</p>

A novel KCNQ1 mutation in Chinese with congenital long QT syndrome / 中华儿科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>Congenital long QT syndrome (LQTS) is an inherited disorder of cardiac repolarization characterized by prolongation of QT interval and polymorphic ventricular tachycardia torsade de pointes (TdP) in the electrocardiogram (ECG). Clinical symptoms include recurrent syncope, seizure or even sudden death. It is caused by mutations of at least seven genes, six of them encoding ion channels that determine the duration of ventricular action potentials. One of these genes, KCNQ1, encodes an alpha-subunit of cardiac slowly activated delayed rectifier potassium channel. Patients carrying mutations of KCNQ1 are named as LQT1, which accounts for 42% of patients with LQTS. This study sought to analyze the clinical data of Chinese with LQTS and to screen for the mutations of KCNQ1.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The universally accepted phenotypic criteria of LQTS was used for identification of probands. There were six families with LQTS. They were enrolled in this study. Clinical and ECG data of each family member were recorded. Genomic DNA was prepared from peripheral blood lymphocytes. Polymerase chain reaction-single strand conformation polymorphism analysis was used to screen for mutations throughout the whole coding region of KCNQ1 and DNA sequencing was performed to determine the exact mutation site.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>There were totally 13 patients in the six LQTS families. Five were male and eight female. One suffered from sudden death, 10 had syncope and 2 were asymptomatic. Eleven of the 13 patients had ECG data. Their QT and QTc (mean +/- SD) were (0.460 +/- 0.058) s and (0.516 +/- 0.058) s, respectively. TdP was observed in 3 patients (27%) during the syncope attack. By PCR-SSCP analysis, two novel KCNQ1 deletion mutations 356-357 Delta QQ and 626-631 Delta GSGGPP were identified in 7 patients of 2 families. None of 50 normal individuals carried these mutations, indicating these two mutations were likely to cause the disease. In addition, P448R was found in one affected and some unaffected members in other two families and in 7 of 50 (14%) normal individuals, indicating that this might be a polymorphism. All the three mutations located in C-terminal domain of KCNQ1 protein.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Two novel deletion mutations and one novel polymorphism of KCNQ1 gene were identified among 6 Chinese families with LQTS.</p>

Determination of heavy metals in ordinary herbal pieces / 中成药

Objective: To assay the contents of the five heavy metals in 10 different kinds of herbal pieces. Methods: With reference to 《The Professional Import and Export Stands for Medicinal Herbs and Preparations》, and 《Handbook of Chinese Hygienic and Physiochemical Assaying for Food》 (1997), plumbum and cadmium with the help of graphitic furnace atomic absorption spectometry; niccolum with atomic absorption apparatus; hydragyrum with apparatus for determination of mercury and arsenium with the arsenic stain were measured, respectively. Results: It is showed that 18 of 35 Samples did not come up to standard of the heavy metals; 7 of 10 different kinds of herbal pieces did not come up to standard of the heavy metals according to the issued standards.