The relevance of HIF1A gene polymorphisms and primary hypertensive left ventricular hypertrophy in Chinese Han population.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of gene polymorphisms in hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α) in left ventricular hypertrophy of hypertensive patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 583 hypertensive patients were divided into two groups, with left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH (+), 198 cases) and without left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH (-), 385 cases). Polymerase Chain Reaction restriction fragment length polymorphism was used to detect the single nucleotide gene polymorphisms rs11549465, rs11549467 and rs1957757 in HIF-1α. RESULTS: The distribution differences of gene frequencies for rs11549465, rs11549467 and rs1957757 in HIF1A single nucleotide gene polymorphisms for LVH (+) and LVH (-) were statistically significant (p<0.05). The T allele of rs11549465 loci and the G allele of rs11549467 loci increased the risk of LVH, related to the increased plasma expression of HIF-1α (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Gene polymorphism of HIF-1α were related to primary hypertensive left ventricular hypertrophy, and the expression of rs11549467 correlated with the increasing concentration of plasma HIF-1α.

Antidiarrheal effect of bioactivity-guided fractions and bioactive components of pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) peels.

BACKGROUND: Pomegranate peels have been widely used to treat diarrhea in China. The antidiarrheal activities of aqueous extracts of pomegranate peels have been evaluated. However, there have not been any bioactivity-guided fractionation studies on the antidiarrheal effect to identify the bioactive components of the extract. METHODS: Bioactivity-guided fractionation of an aqueous extract of pomegranate peels was performed using different solvents of increasing polarity, generating fractions dissolved in ethyl acetate, n-butyl alcohol, and the residual fraction. The principal chemical composition of the active fraction was analyzed by HPLC/ESI-MS. KEY RESULTS: Fecal frequencies revealed that only the ethyl acetate fraction possessed significant antidiarrheal activity. Furthermore, administration of the ethyl acetate fraction at 100, 200, and 400 mg/kg significantly reduced gastrointestinal transit in charcoal meal tests in mice. It also significantly inhibited castor oil-induced enteropooling compared to control animals. Histopathological analysis revealed that small intestine lesions of mice treated with the ethyl acetate fraction were alleviated compared to those in mice treated with castor oil. The ethyl acetate fraction was found to be composed mainly of punicalagin, corilagin, and ellagic acid, and a combination of these compounds could mediate the antidiarrheal activities. CONCLUSION AND INFERENCES: Our study describes the protective effects of pomegranate peels against castor oil-induced diarrhea. The findings showed that the ethyl acetate fraction was the active fraction of pomegranate peels, of which punicalagin, corilagin, and ellagic acid were responsible for the antidiarrheal effect of aqueous extracts.

[The genetic analysis of amplitude of progesterone secretion in serial blood collection from tail in min sows].

28 adult Min sows (3-7 parities), represented 9 sire families were selected to conduct the continual blood collection from the tail for two hours at the interval of ten minutes between 9:00-11:00 in the morning on the sixth day after the last mating. The content of progesterone was assayed by radio-immunological assay. The amplitudes of the secretion of progesterone were generated by the procedure of HORM fft. exe complied by the author. It is difficult to get a reasonable conclusion from the content analysis, because the content varied widely between different points of blood collection in single sow. After Fourier conversion, the heritability of amplitude for the fifth partial wave was high (h2 = 0.932); middle for the basal, 2nd and 3rd partial waves; lower for others. This supported the idea that prolific sows had more active secretion of progesterone in luteal cells. The coexist of low and high heritability components in amplitude of progesterone secretion showed that the activities of progesterone secretion were influenced by both the genetics and environments. The genetic correlation of basal, 1st, 5th partial waves were negative, the others were positive, with the litter size and litter size alive. It showed that the reproductive performance of Min pigs were not expressed perfectly, as the balance of secretion of progesterone did not reach the best. The genetic correlation of all partial waves with duration of estrus was negative which supported that the progesterone suppresses the estrus. The genetic correlation of 3rd, 5th partial waves were stronger than others, but selection for 5th partial wave would make high responses than the 3rd wave, because the genetic correlation of 3rd partial wave with litter size and litter size alive was positive, therefore, the more appropriats method of selection for progesterone was adopted, the better results would be achieved in the improvement of indirect selection response for litter size.

[Clinical study of baoyuan dahuang decoction in the treatment of chronic renal failure].

UNLABELLED: The quality of life of 56 chronic renal failure (CRF) patients using two kinds of treatment has been observed. 36 of them were taken as Group A with BUN 21.62 +/- 5.96 mmol/L, Cr 528.63 +/- 176.3 mumol/L and Hb 65 +/- 13 g/L were treated with Baoyuan Dahuang Decoction consisted of Panax ginseng, Astragalus membranaceus, Cassia cinnamomi, Glycyrrhiza uralensis and Rheum palmatum. RESULT: Six symptoms were observed, that were: fatigue, lassitude in loin and legs, aversion of cold, anorexia, sexual dysfunction and mental depression. Five of them improved markedly, from 12.5 +/- 2.91 before treatment to 5.58 +/- 4.68 after treatment in terms of symptom scores, P < 0.001. Furthermore, dihydrothelin (E2), testosterone (T) and pregnendione (P) were regulated significantly, the elevated level of creatine phosphokinase (CPK) before treatment lowered to near normal. The other 20 patients, BUN 20.24 +/- 6.57 mmol/L, Cr 487.08 +/- 238.68 mumol/L and Hb 68 +/- 13g/L formed Group B using comprehensive treatment of Western medicine as control. The main drug was coated aldehyde oxystarch. After treatment, the symptoms didn't show marked improvement, symptom scores being 12.55 +/- 2.0 compared with 10.05 +/- 2.72 before treatment, P > 0.05. E2, T, P and CPK were of insignificant differences (P > 0.05); Hb remained almost unchanged, even though BUN and Cr lowered for 22% and 29% respectively. It is assumed that Baoyuan Dahuang decoction could improve CRF patients' quality of life, and the mechanism of which was not only to reduce the urea nitrogen, but also to adjust the anemia and regulate the membrane function.

Interferon-gamma promotes cholinergic differentiation of embryonic septal nuclei and adjacent basal forebrain.

In cultured rat embryonic septal nuclei with adjacent basal forebrain, murine interferon-gamma (IFN gamma) produces a striking increase in choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) activity and mRNA. The effect of IFN gamma on cholinergic differentiation is more potent in E14 cultures than in older cultures. IFN gamma does not cause a change in the affinity of ChAT for choline, nor does it affect cell proliferation. Whereas IFN gamma doubles neuronal cell number, the cholinergic cell number increases more than 7-fold. Ameboid microglia respond to IFN gamma with the translocation of p91 to the nucleus. The action of IFN gamma is not mediated by NGF or bFGF. The enhancement of cholinergic expression that occurs with increased cell density may be partly attributable to an endogenous IFN gamma-like molecule, since antibodies to IFN gamma offset the effects of increased cell density.

Effects of mutations in the central helix of troponin C on its biological activity.

To investigate the role of the central helix of skeletal muscle troponin C (TnC), five deletion mutants (Dobrowolski, Z., Xu, G.Q., and Hitchcock-DeGregori, S.E. (1991) J. Biol. Chem. 266, 5703-5710) of chicken TnC in the D/E linker region (K87EDAKGKSEEE97), dEDA, dKG, dKGK, dSEEE, and dKED-AKGK, were assayed for their ability to regulate muscle contraction by testing their effectiveness in restoring force and Ca2+ regulation to TnC-depleted rabbit skinned skeletal muscle fibers. By comparison with rabbit skeletal TnC, wild-type TnC, and chicken TnC, all mutants except dKG equally restored force development and Ca2+ regulation to TnC-depleted skinned muscle fibers. In contrast, approximately 4 times more dKG than rabbit skeletal TnC was required to reach 50% force restoration. Also, the pCa50 for dKG activation of force was significantly decreased. Thus, most of the TnC mutants that we studied did not have significantly altered biological activity in the skinned fiber assay. However, the 2-residue deletion in the central helix (dKG) significantly affected TnC activity. This deletion would be expected to produce a 160 degree rotation in the alpha-helix versus 60 degrees for dKGK and dEDA, 40 degrees in dSEEE, and 20 degrees in dKEDAKGK. Therefore, the change in orientation of the two Ca2(+)-binding domains appears to be a major parameter affecting TnC activity. The shift in the Ca2+ dependence in force activation may result from the inability of the Ca2(+)-specific domain to properly interact with its binding site on troponin I, an interaction which is known to increase the affinity of TnC for Ca2+ (Potter, J.D., and Gergely, J. (1975) J. Biol. Chem. 250, 4628-4633). In addition, the length of the central helix of TnC, Gly92, and the negatively charged cluster, EEE, appear not to be crucial for TnC activity.

[Study on application of the general selection index].

Several problems associated with selection strategies of breeder rams are discussed using the general selection index. Selection objective is to improve the aggregate breeding value of clean-fleece weight, number of lambs and body weight. Staple length is the assistant trait of selection. Aggregate, restrictive and optimal selection indices are constructed with the information of ram individual and the ram's half-sib sisters and half-sib daughters. The restrictive selection maintains the genetic gain of body weight unchanged. The optimal selection keeps the genetic gain of the clean-fleece weight at 0.4 kg in one generation (20% retention). The selection effects of the three indices are compared. Furthermore, two related problems are discussed. First, if each single trait of the three objective traits is selected to permit the genetic gain of the trait to be as large as possible in a short time, the largest gain of the aggregate breeding value is obtained when the trait is clean-fleece weight. Secondly, when the number of ram's relatives is more than enough, the selection effect of increasing the number is very limited. However, increasing the ram's half-sib daughters is more favorable than increasing the ram's half-sib sisters.