Effect of ketamine combined with penehyclidine hydrochloride on the expression of synaptophysin in the brain of neonatal rats / 中国当代儿科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the effects of ketamine combined with penehyclidine hydrochloride on the learning and memory abilities and the expression of synaptophysin in the hippocampus CA3 region in the brain of neonatal rats.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Eighty seven-day-old Sprague-Dawly rats were randomly intraperitoneally injected with 50 mg/kg of ketamine (K group), 2 mg/kg of penehyclidine hydrochloride (P group), 50 mg/kg of ketamine plus 2 mg/kg penehyclidine hydrochloride (PK group) or normal saline (control group). The rats were trained and tested in a Morris water maze 14 days after administration. The immunhistochemical method was used to ascertain the expression of synaptophysin in the hippocampus CA3 region 24 hrs, 14 days and 28 days after administration.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>In the Morris water maze training, the rats in the PK group performed worst, followed by the K group. The rats from the P and NS groups performed well. Compared with the NS group, the expression of synaptophysin in the K and the PK groups decreased significantly 24 hrs and 14 days after administration (p<0.05). The PK group had lower synaptophysin expression than the K group 24 hrs and 14 days after administration (p<0.05). Up to 28 days after administration, the synaptophysin expression increased in all of the four groups and there were no significant differences between groups.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Ketamine combined with penehyclidine hydrochloride may inhibit more significantly learning and memory abilities and the synaptophysin expression in the hippocampus CA3 region than ketamine alone in neonatal rats. Penehyclidine hydrochloride alone has no effect on learning and memory abilities and the synaptophysin expression. The synaptophysin expression may increase to a normal level by training and with increasing age.</p>

Gene and gene engineering of carotenoid biosynthesis / 生物工程学报

Carotenoids have a range of diverse biological functions and actions, especially playing an important role in human health with provitamin A activity, anti-cancer activity, enhancing immune ability and so on. Human body can't synthesis carotenoids by itself and must absorb them from outside. However, carotenoid contents in many plant are very low, and many kinds of carotenoid are difficult to produce by chemical ways. With the elucidation of carotenoid biosynthetic pathway and cloning genes of relative enzymes from microorganisms and higher plants, it is possible to regulate carotenoid biosynthesis via genetic engineering. This article reviews gene cloning of carotenoid biosynthetic enzymes in microorganisms and higher plants, and advances in the studies of carotenoid production in heterologous microorganisms and crop plants using gene-manipulated carotenoid biosynthesis.