Establishment of an anesthesia model induced by etomidate in larval zebrafish / 生理学报

Despite the wide application of general anesthetic drugs in clinic, it is still unclear how these drugs induce the state of general anesthesia. Larval zebrafish has emerged as an ideal model for dissecting the mechanism of neural systems due to the conserved and simple brain structure. In the present study, we established an anesthesia model from behavioral to electrophysiological levels using larval zebrafish for the first time. Bath application of etomidate, as a kind of intravenous anesthetic drugs, suppressed the spontaneous locomotion of zebrafish in a concentration-dependent manner. Consistently, in vivo fictive motor patterns of spinal motoneurons recorded extracellularly were significantly inhibited as well. Furthermore, using in vivo extracellular recording and whole-cell recording, we found that etomidate application suppressed local field potentials (LFP) of the brain and blocked visually evoked responses of optic tectal neurons. The study indicates that larval zebrafish can serve as an ideal vertebrate animal model for studying neural mechanisms underlying general anesthesia.

Molecular identification of Tibetan medicine Qianghuoyu by CO I / 中国中药杂志

The CO I gene sequences of Qianghuoyu, Pachytriton labiatus and Gehyra mutilata were achieved by PCR amplification and bi-directional sequencing. Furthermore, a pair of specific primers SJYW1 and SJYW2 in the non-conservative district were designed through sequence alignment. The PCR reaction condition was established by changing the annealing temperature and cycle numbers. The results showed that 350 bp DNA fragment was amplified from Qianghuoyu in PCR with annealed temperature at 54 °C and the cycle number was 25 cycles, whereas not any DNA fragment was amplified from P. labiatus and G. mutilata under the same reaction condition. This method is well-performed in the identification of Qianghuoyu for its excellent specificity and repeatability.

The relationship between the genotype of hepatitis B virus and clinical and liver pathological features of infected patients in the Zhoushan Islands, China / 中华肝脏病杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the relationship between the genotypes of hepatitis B virus and the clinical and liver pathological features of patients with chronic hepatitis in the Zhoushan Islands.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>One hundred eighty HBV DNA positive chronic hepatitis patients with HBV markers were enrolled in this study. They were at least second generation Zhoushan Island residents. One hundred forty-seven of them were males and 33 were females with an average age of 39.0+/-11.3. Among the 180 patients, 17 had ASC, 57 had mild CHB, 48 moderate CHB, 9 severe CHB, 6 SHB, 39 LC, and 4 had HCC. The genotypes of their serum HBV were detected by using PCR integrated with Tagman MGB probe technology, and their serum HBV markers, HBV DNA and liver functions were also examined. Out of 180 patients, 129 accepted a liver biopsy. A pathological evaluation was then performed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>HBVs of genotype C, 135 cases (75.0%), of B, 40 cases (22.2%), and of B+C, 5 cases (2.8%) were found among these 180 patients. No genotype A or D HBV were found. The proportions of genotype C virus were 7/17, 86/114, 34/39, 6/6 in ASC, CHB, LC and SHB patients. In the hepatocellular carcinoma patients, there were 2 each of genotype B and C. Among the 99 patients with genotype C HBV, 84 cases (84.8%) showed moderate and severe inflammation histologically in their livers and among the 30 patients with B, 7 cases (23.3%) showed moderate to severe inflammation in their livers (z = 6.47, P less than 0.01). The proportion of genotype C HBV was significantly different from that of genotype B HBV in those that showed moderate and severe (S3-4) liver fibrosis. In patients infected with genotype C HBV who had moderate and severe liver pathological changes, their clinical manifestations reflected better the histological alterations of their livers.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Genotypes C, B and B+C HBV were found in CHB patients in the Zhoushan Islands of China, and type C was the predominant one. The liver pathological damage level of genotype C HBV infected patients is more serious than that of genotype B.</p>