Difference of musculoskeletal ultrasound imaging of focus of knee joint tendon between patients with knee osteoarthritis and healthy subjects / 中国针灸

OBJECTIVE@#To observe the imaging features of focus of knee joint tendon in patients with knee osteoarthritis (KOA) by musculoskeletal ultrasound (MSUS) technique.@*METHODS@#One hundred KOA patients and 100 healthy subjects were included. All the KOA patients were palpated by the sequence of foot @*RESULTS@#The top-5 focus of knee tendon of KOA patients were located in medial inferior patella, medial tibial condyle, inferior patella, Zusanlici and Hedingci. The thickness of ligaments and tendons in extension and flexion positions in KOA patients were thicker than that in healthy subjects (@*CONCLUSION@#The focus of knee joint tendon in KOA patients shows significantly thickened musculoskeletal imaging features.

New advances in research of pharmacological effects of hesperetin and its derivatives / 中草药

Hesperetin is a dihydrogen flavonoid extracted from the Citrus fruits of the Rutaceae plants. It has many pharmacological effects, such as antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, antiviral, anti-allergy, regulating blood lipid, enhancing immunity, etc. In recent years, it is reported that hesperetin and its derivatives had anti-Alzheimer’s disease, anti-Parkinson’s disease, antihyperglycemic effect, inhibiting the venom thrombin, anti-fibrosis, ect. This paper mainly reviews some new pharmacological effects of hesperetin and its derivatives in the past five years, aiming to provide reference for further development and utilization of hesperidin and make it achieve better curative effect in other diseases.

Molecular cloning and characterisation of scavenger receptor class B in pearl oyster Pinctada fuctada martensii

Background: Molluscs can accumulate carotenoids in their body tissues by predominantly feeding on aquatic plant sources. Carotenoid transport and absorption are determined by the regulation of various proteins such as Scavenger receptor class B(SR-BI). We report the identification and characterisation of pearl oyster Pinctada fuctada martensii SR-BI (PmSR-BI). The correlation between total carotenoid content (TCC) and gene expression was also estimated. Results: The full-length cDNA of PmSR-BI was 1828 bp, including an open-reading frame encoding of 1518 bp with a pI value of 5.83. PmSR-BI protein contains a hydrophobic CD36 domain and four centrally clustered cysteine residues for the arrangement of disulphide bridges. The deduced amino acid sequence had an identity of 30% to 60% with the SR-B of other organisms. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction analysis showed that mRNA transcripts were expressed in multiple tissues of adult pearl oyster. A higher expression of PmSR-BI gene was observed in the hepatopancreas than in the adductor muscle, gill and mantle. The TCC and gene expression of PmSR-BI were significantly correlated (P b 0.05), with a correlation coefficient of 0.978. Conclusions: The results suggested that PmSR-BI is involved in the absorption of carotenoids in the pearl oyster P. fuctada martensii.

Development of SSR marker by RNA-seq and its application in genotyping pearl sac in pearl oyster Pinctada fucata martensii

Background: Pearl oyster Pinctada fucata martensii is cultured for producing round nucleated pearls. Pearl production involves a surgical operation where a mantle tissue graft from a donor oyster and a round nucleus are implanted in the gonad of a host oyster. Whether the mantle graft implanted in the gonad of a host oyster contributes to the formation of a pearl sac that secretes pearl nacre to form a pearl should be determined. In April 2012, two full-sib families were separately used as donor and host oysters for a nucleus insertion operation. The pearl sac was sampled from the host oysters at day 60 after nucleus operation. A large number of simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers were developed using Illumina HiSeq™ 2000 platform. The two full-sib families were also used to mine diagnostic SSR markers for genotyping donor oyster, host oyster, and pearl sac. Results: A total of 3168 microsatellite loci were identified in 39,078 unigenes, and 1977 SSR primers were designed by Primer 3.0. Forty-seven SSR primers were validated, and the rate of successful amplification was 72.3%. Two diagnostic SSR primers could successfully genotype pearl sac, donor oyster, and host oyster. Donor and host oysters were both homogenous, and the alleles in pearl sac were identical to those in donor and host oysters. Conclusions: The present results confirmed that the mantle graft implanted in the gonad of host oyster contributed to the formation of the pearl sac in pearl oyster P. fucata martensii.

Stress rate and creep behaviors of cancellous bone under uniaxial compression / 中国组织工程研究

BACKGROUND: Cancellous bone, as an important part of bone, is a kind of porous, inhomogeneous, anisotropic and viscoelastic structure, which plays a critical role in load transmission and energy absorption. Therefore,research on its mechanical properties is of great significance.OBJECTIVE: To investigate the compressive properties of cancellous bone at different stress rates and its creep behaviors at different stress levels.METHODS: The fresh cancellous bone from pig femur was used as the material, and subjected to different stress until the compressive strain of sample was up to 5%. The constant compressive stress levels were loaded on the surface of cancellous bone for 7200 s to observe its creep behaviors.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: (1) In the uniaxial compression test, the stress values and Young's modulus increased with the stress rate increasing under the same strain value. (2) The stress-strain curves of cancellous bone were different at different loading rates, indicating that the mechanical properties of cancellous bone depend on the loading rate. (3) In the creep test, the creep strain increased with the increase of stress level, but the creep compliance decreased with the increase of stress level. (4) These results suggest that the stress rate and stress level have significant influence on compressive properties of cancellous bone, which provide reference for avoiding cancellous bone injury.