Intraperitoneal hypertension, a novel risk factor for sepsis-associated encephalopathy in sepsis mice.

Sepsis associated encephalopathy (SAE), appears often indicates the deterioration of the sepsis disease and which have high risk of death. Although several mechanism and hypotheses have been proposed and studied, there is no breakthrough in the treatment of SAE. We performed a systematic research to evaluate the effect of intraperitoneal pressure on SAE. A mice model of sepsis was established by intraperitoneal injection of endotoxin. A total of 48 female BALB/c mouse (30 days old) were randomly divided into a control group (n = 12) and an injection of endotoxin referred to bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) group (n = 12). Intraperitoneal hypertension (IAH) referred to IAH group (n = 12), and LPS + IAH group (n = 12). Following sepsis induction, diagnosis, the brains were analyzed for both function and ultrastructural morphology.We determined that IAH exacerbated sepsis induces sepsis-associated encephalopathy when examining low score of neurological function and more delta wave in EEG, increased neuronal edema in LPS + IAH group, as well as an escalation of Bax and Cleaved-caspase-3, Cleaved-parp, and reduction of Bcl-2 and Mfsd2a in LPS + IAH group. Therefore, IAH can exacerbate and increase incident rate of sepsis-related encephalopathy in sepsis mice by promoting neuronal apoptosis and destruction of the blood-brain barrier.

Hydrogen sulfide improves neural function in rats following cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

The alleviation of brain injury is a key issue following cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is hypothesized to be involved in the pathophysiological process of ischemia-reperfusion injury, and exerts a protective effect on neurons. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of H2S on neural functions following cardiac arrest (CA) in rats. A total of 60 rats were allocated at random into three groups. CA was induced to establish the model and CPR was performed after 6 min. Subsequently, sodium hydrosulfide (NaHS), hydroxylamine or saline was administered to the rats. Serum levels of H2S, neuron-specific enolase (NSE) and S100ß were determined following CPR. In addition, neurological deficit scoring (NDS), the beam walking test (BWT), prehensile traction test and Morris water maze experiment were conducted. Neuronal apoptosis rates were detected in the hippocampal region following sacrifice. After CPR, as the H2S levels increased or decreased, the serum NSE and S100ß concentrations decreased or increased, respectively (P<0.0w. The NDS results of the NaHS group were improved compared with those of the hydroxylamine group at 24 h after CPR (P<0.05). In the Morris water maze experiment, BWT and prehensile traction test the animals in the NaHS group performed best and rats in the hydroxylamine group performed worst. At day 7, the apoptotic index and the expression of caspase-3 were reduced in the hippocampal CA1 region, while the expression of Bcl-2 increased in the NaHS group; and results of the hydroxylamine group were in contrast. Therefore, the results of the present study indicate that H2S is able to improve neural function in rats following CPR.

[Study on using apparent spectrum to retrieve the inherent optical properties of ocean water].

The inherent optical properties are needed when establishing the semi-analytic model in the ocean color retrieval algorithm. Using the in-situ measurements, a retrieval model for inherent optical properties from remote sensing reflectance was established. The in-situ data measured in the 2003 spring cruise over the Yellow and East China Seas is introduced. The measurement method for remote sensing reflectance, particle backscattering and absorption coefficients are detailed. Based on the bio-optical model, the inherent optical properties were retrieved by optimization of Nelder-Mead simplex. The retrieval results of the absorption and backscattering coefficients for the material other than pure water were compared with the counterpart of the in-situ measurements. The comparison shows that the root-mean-square relative error for the absorption coefficient of materials other than water is less than 33%. The value is 30% for the particle backscattering coefficient. The analysis of the error shows that the retrieval model established in this paper can provide an efficient approach to retrieving the absorption and backscattering coefficients. The retrieval model can provide a reference for the application of remotely sensed data to the research on the bio-optical properties of Yellow and East China Seas.