Improved Rodent Model of Myocardial Ischemia and Reperfusion Injury.

Myocardial ischemia and reperfusion injury (MIRI), induced by coronary heart disease (CHD), causes damage to the cardiomyocytes. Furthermore, evidence suggests that thrombolytic therapy or primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI) does not prevent reperfusion injury. There is still no ideal animal model for MIRI. This study aims to improve the MIRI model in rats to make surgery easier and more feasible. A unique method for establishing MIRI is developed by using a soft tube during a key step of the ischemic period. To explore this method, thirty rats were randomly divided into three groups: sham group (n = 10); experimental model group (n = 10); and existing model group (n = 10). Findings of triphenyltetrazolium chloride staining, electrocardiography, and percent survival are compared to determine the accuracies and survival rates of the operations. Based on the study results, it has been concluded that the improved surgery method is associated with a higher survival rate, elevated ST-T segment, and larger infarct size, which is expected to mimic the pathology of MIRI better.

Animal model of coronary microembolization under transthoracic echocardiographic guidance in rats.

The aim of the study was to develop a model of coronary microembolization (CME) in rats at a lower cost. We developed a novel rat model without thoracotomy and ventilation under the guidance of echocardiography. Rats were sacrificed at 3 h, 24 h and 1 month postoperatively in both the Echo-CME and Open-chest CME groups for the comparison of the modeling accuracy, mortality, cardiopulmonary circulation, pleural adhesion and ventilation-induced lung injury (VILI). Results showed that the coronary microthrombus formed at 3 h and reached its peak at 24 h postoperatively, which included platelet aggregation and fibrin web. The Echo-group increases success rates, decreased mortality, postoperative complications including pleural adhesion, cardiopulmonary dysfunction and VILI postoperatively than the Open-chest group at 1month postoperatively. The ejection fraction of the CME group decreased to 50% and obvious cardiac fibrosis formed at 3 months postoperatively. Our unique surgical method provided a platform to study molecular mechanisms and potential new pathways for CME treatment.

Plasmonic Hot Electron-Mediated Hydrodehalogenation Kinetics on Nanostructured Ag Electrodes.

An attractive field of plasmon-mediated chemical reactions (PMCRs) is developing rapidly, but there is still incomplete understanding of how to control the kinetics of such a reaction related to hot carriers. Here, we chose 8-bromoadenine (8BrAd) as a probe molecule of hot electrons to investigate the influence of the electrode potential, laser wavelength, and power on the PMCR kinetics on silver nanoparticle-modified silver electrodes. Plasmonic hot electron-mediated cleavage of the C-Br bond in 8BrAd has been investigated by combining in situ electrochemical surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations. The experimental and theoretical results reveal that the energy position of plasmon relaxation-generated hot electrons can be modulated conveniently by applied potentials and laser light. This allows the proposal of a mechanism of modulating the matching energy of the hot electron of plasmon relaxation to promote the efficiency of PMCRs in electrochemical interfaces. Our work will be helpful to design surface plasmon resonance photoelectrochemical reactions on metal electrode surfaces of nanostructures with higher efficiency.

Circular RNAs promote TRPM3 expression by inhibiting hsa-miR-130a-3p in coronary artery disease patients.

We investigated the differential expression of circular RNAs (circRNAs) in plasma samples from three coronary artery disease (CAD) patients to identify putative therapeutic targets. We identified 24 differentially expressed circRNAs (18 up-regulated and 6 down-regulated) and 7 differentially expressed mRNAs (6 up-regulated and 1 down-regulated) in CAD patients based on competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) microarray analysis. MiR-221(p = 0.001), miR-155(p = 0.049), and miR-130a (p = 0.001) were downregulated in CAD patients based on qRT-PCR analysis of another independent population of 932 study subjects (648 CAD subjects and 284 controls). We constructed a hsa-miR-130a-3p-mediated circRNA-mRNA ceRNA network using the miRanda database. This included 9 circRNAs (hsa_circ_0089378, hsa_circ_0083357, hsa_circ_0082824, hsa_circ_0068942, hsa_circ_0057576, hsa_circ_0054537, hsa_circ_0051172, hsa_circ_0032970, and hsa_circ_0006323) and 1 mRNA (transient receptor potential cation channel subfamily M member 3 [TRPM3]). We have shown that 9 circRNAs promote TRPM3 expression by inhibiting hsa-miR-130a-3p in CAD patients.

[Current situation of patients with chronic filariasis in Lianshui County, Ji- angsu Province].

OBJECTIVE: To understand the current situation of chronic filariasis patients in Lianshui County. METHODS: The chronic filariasis patients registered were interviewed one by one to observe their clinical signs and episodes of illness during recent one year. RESULTS: There were 361 patients with chronic filariasis in Lianshui County up to 2014, and they distributed in 23 townships. Among all the patients, 128 were male and 233 were female. Most of the patients were farmers (98.34%) and aged ≥ 70 years (63.71%). The clinical signs of the patients including lymphedema of the lower limbs (87.81%), chyluria (18.56%), lymphangitis or lymphadenitis (12.74%) and hydrocele of tunica vaginalis (2.49%), and there were 8.86% of the patients showed more than two signs. Among the patients with lymphedema of lower limbs, 97.79% were in stage I to III, and 2.21% were in stage IV. In 2014, the ill condition of 28.36% of the patients with chyluria and 45.65% of the ones with lymphangitis or lymphadenitis relapsed. CONCLUSION: The concern and care to the patients with chronic filariasis should be continued, so as to reduce the pain as well as improve the quality of life of them.

Chronic deep brain stimulation in the rat nucleus accumbens and its effect on morphine reinforcement.

In order to explore a novel method for the treatment of drug abuse, we evaluated the effect of chronic deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the rat nucleus accumbens (NAc) on morphine reinforcement, using a DBS apparatus and an implant method we developed. Thirty-two adult rats weighing 240-260 g were divided into three groups, which included a DBS group (n = 10, administration of surgery, morphine and DBS), a sham DBS group (n = 12, administration of surgery and morphine) and a control group (n = 10, administration of physiological saline). The DBS electrode was stereotaxically implanted into the core of unilateral NAc and connected to an implantable pulse generator. Then, they were fixed to the rat skull. One week later, the rats in each group were intraperitoneally injected with morphine at an increasing dose (10-60 mg/kg) once daily. The rats in the DBS group were administered a 130-Hz high-frequency stimulation (HFS) once daily. A 900-second conditioned place preference (CPP) paradigm was used for determining the effect of electrical stimulation on morphine reinforcement in rats. The data showed that 7-10 days later, the preference score of the DBS group was significantly lower than that of the sham DBS group. The results suggest that chronic HFS of the rat NAc can block CPP induced by morphine and attenuate morphine reinforcement.