[Quantitative determination of ursolic acid in folium Ilicis cornutae (gouguye) gathered in different and periods]

The content of ursolic acid in Folium Ilicis Cornutae (Gouguye) gathered in different periods from Yongfeng county of Jiangxi province was determined by TLCS method. The result shows that the content appears to be low in samples gathered in April, but about the same in samples of February, June, August, October and December.

Respiratory control in heart muscle during fatty acid oxidation. Energy state or substrate-level regulation by Ca2+?

Fatty acids are the main fuel for the myocardium in vivo. They increase oxygen consumption, but the regulation of their beta-oxidation is not well known. Since Ca2+ and matrix volume have been implicated in the regulation of fatty acid oxidation in liver mitochondria, we set out to investigate the effects of Ca2+ on cellular respiration and energetics in the isolated perfused rat heart when oxidizing a short-chain fatty acid. Infusion of hexanoate increased oxygen consumption, while stepwise changes in the perfusate Ca2+ concentration in the range 0.5-2.5 mM caused the mechanical work output and oxygen consumption to change in parallel. Hexanoate addition increased the cellular energy state as determined by 31P NMR and evaluated from the cytosolic [ATP]/[ADP][Pi] ratio. During fatty acid infusion the energy state decreased slightly upon Ca(2+)-induced inotropy, and after discontinuation of the hexanoate infusion the de-energization was more pronounced. The fatty acid caused an extensive partially reversible reduction of flavoproteins and NAD with a slight tendency for oxidation during Ca(2+)-induced inotropy. The data are in agreement with the notion that oxygen consumption during fatty acid oxidation is mainly determined by the energy expenditure, even in the presence of Ca(2+)-induced alterations in the inotropic state. The constancy of the redox states of mitochondrial flavins and NADH/NAD during large changes in oxygen consumption is interpreted as indicating stabilization of the mitochondrial redox states by Ca(2+)-linked regulation.

[Determination of puerarin in radix Puerariae and yufengningxin tablets by HPLC]

The contents of puerarin in Radix Puerariae and Yufengningxin Tablets were determined by HPLC. The average rates of recovery were 97.19% and 100.68% respectively, and RSD 1.05% and 1.31% respectively.

[Comparative study of diagnostic standards of eye-signs in blood stasis syndrome and of blood stasis syndrome]

By virtue of a diagnostic study of 781 cases on the basis of six standards, it was shown that for the effectiveness in diagnostic positive rate, sensitivity, specificity, false positive rate, false negative rate and comprehensive scoring, the International Diagnostic Standards for Blood Stasis Syndrome (BSS) and Chinese Diagnostic Standards for BSS were the best ones, BSS Eye-Signs and Japanese BSS Diagnostic Standards were the second, trial program of International Stasis Diagnostic Standards and Zhongshan's BSS tenderness points came the third. Each standard has its unique advantage and therefore, we should take the other's advantage to offset one's weakness. The causes of their weakness have been discussed and the rational recommendation for their application has been proposed.

Changes of immune functions after radiation, burns and combined radiation-burn injury in rats

The changes of several immune functions were observed in rats after they were inflicted with 6 Gy gamma rays irradiation, 15% TBSA full thickness brun and the combination of the 2 injuries. It was found that the functions of thymocytes and splenoctyes suffered the most severe suppression in the 24th to 72nd hour after radiation injury and began to recover on the 7th day. In the rats with burn injury, the suppression on thymocytes and splenocytes were significantly less severe than that after radiation and recovered more rapidly. The effects of combined radiation-burn injury showed several characteristics. The suppression on the thymocytes was more severe with slower recovery as compared with that after single radiation injury only. The suppression on the splenocytes as a whole was similar to that after single radiation injury, but in the early stage after combined injury, the suppression was far more severe than that after radiation. Escharectomy and skin grafting on the burn wounds on the 1st day after combined injury could accelerate the recovery on both the thymocytes and splenocytes. Our findings indicated that the severity of the suppression on the immune functions due to combined radiation-burn injury might depend on the size of the burn wounds.

[Changes of collagen distribution in extrapulmonary arteries of hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertensive rat]

Changes of collagen distribution in extrapulmonary arteries induced by hypoxia and the effects of ligustrazine (ligus) and 764-3 were investigated. Histological study showed that hypoxia could induce an increase of the medial and adventitial thickness of the pulmonary arterial trunk. An increase of type I and type III collagen fibers in pulmonary arterial trunk, particularly the increase of type III collagen fibers in adventitia of the pulmonary trunk were revealed by picrosirius-polarization methods. Ligus partially prevented the increase of type I and III collagen fibers of pulmonary arterial trunk. Electron microscopy showed that both the medial smooth muscle and adventitial fibroblasts were hypertrophic and hyperplastic, and the surrounding collagen fibers were increased.

Clinical and prognostic significance of bone marrow involvement in patients with diffuse aggressive B-cell lymphoma

PURPOSE

We studied the effect of morphology and extent of bone marrow (BM) infiltrate on the survival of patients with diffuse aggressive B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), along with clinical features.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Sixty adult patients with diffuse aggressive B-cell NHL and BM involvement at the time of presentation were studied. All patients were uniformly staged and treated with a curative high-dose chemotherapy regimen. BM involvement was assessed according to the cytology, pattern of infiltration, and extent of involvement, and was correlated with overall survival (OS) and failure-free survival (FFS).

RESULTS

Patients with BM involvement that consisted of > or = 50% large cells or BM involvement of > or = 70% had a poorer OS (P = .065 and P = .055, respectively). Those who presented with an infiltrate of less than 50% large cells and an international prognostic index (IPI) of < or = 3 had a significantly longer postrelapse survival time (P = .003). A diffuse or interstitial pattern of BM involvement was predictive of both poor OS and FFS (P = .008 and .009, respectively). Multivariate analysis indicated that only IPI (P = .0005) and pattern of BM infiltration (P = .009) were independent predictors of OS, and only the former was predictive of FFS (P = .03).

CONCLUSION

The IPI is predictive of OS and FFS, while BM involvement with a diffuse or interstitial pattern is associated with significantly poorer OS. Patients with BM infiltration that involved > or = 70% of the marrow or contained > or = 50% large cells had poor OS, but more patients need to be studied to determine the significance. Two parameters, IPI < or = 3 and BM large cells less than 50%, identify a group of patients with long-term survival after relapse.

[A primary observation on the effect of cell fusion on metastatic potential of tumor cells]

Mouse spleen cells transfected with pSV2 neo by CaPO4 precipitation were fused with highly metastatic cell clone (PLA801-D95) from human large cell lung cancer cell line. Hybrid cell clone PMS-2 was obtained after G418(400/ml)selection. After injection of 7 x 10(6) PMS-2 cells into nude mice, there was a tumor nodule developed, but the metastatic foci could not be found while 3 x 10(6) PLA801-D95 cells would metastasize to lung and lymph nodes after they were injected into nude mice. It might indicate that sometime mouse spleen cells could not suppress tumor formation but the metastatic potential could be suppressed by the fusion of mouse spleen cells with the lung cancer cells. The results of growth curve, serum independence and incorporation rates of H-thymidine all showed that the growth rates of parental cells were higher than those of PMS-2. Our data suggest that suppression of tumorigenicity and metastatic potential could be controlled by different kinds of genes, and the cloning of metastasis suppressor gene by subtractive hybridization is ongoing in our laboratory.

Interleukin-12 enhances peripheral hematopoiesis in vivo

Interleukin 12(IL-12) is a cytokine that supports the proliferation and activation of cytotoxic T lymphocytes and natural killer (NK) cells. Recent evidence has suggested that IL-12 also has hematopoietic activities in vitro. We report studies that show that IL-12 has significant in vivo hematopoietic stimulating activity that includes enhancement of peripheral (splenic) hematopoiesis and mobilization of hematopoietic progenitor cells to the peripheral circulation. A single injection of recombinant murine IL-12 significantly reduced the number of bone marrow (BM) colony-forming unit granulocyte-macrophage (CFU-GM) in a time-dependent manner, while concomitantly stimulating high proliferative potential. In contrast, splenic CFU-GM and HPP were increased in a time- and dose-dependent manner. Chronic administration of IL-12 resulted in significant splenic hyperplasia with increased progenitor cells, increased circulating progenitor cells, and BM hypoplasia with decreased progenitor cells. These data show that IL-12 has significant in vivo hematopoietic effects that include the ability to mobilize progenitor cells to the peripheral circulation, which may prove to be of significant benefit for peripheral blood stem cell transplantation. Thus, IL-12 has potential to be an important agent for clinical transplantation because of its hematopoietic mobilization and its previously shown immune augmenting and therapeutic activities. This combination of hematopoietic and immune functions is unique and not achievable with currently used hematopoietic growth factors.

Detection of Rickettsia japonica in Haemaphysalis longicornis ticks by restriction fragment length polymorphism of PCR product

PCR was applied to the detection of Rickettsia japonica, the causative agent of Oriental spotted fever (OSF), in ticks collected at two sites of the Muroto area on Shikoku Island, a major area in Japan where OSF is endemic. Primer pair Rr190.70p and Rr190.602n of the R. rickettsii 190-kDa antigen gene sequence of Regnery and others (R.L. Regnery, C.L. Spruill, and B.D. Plikaytis, J. Bacteriol. 173:1576-1589, 1991) primed the DNA extracted from Haemaphysalis longicornis ticks but not those extracted from Haemaphysalis formosensis, Haemaphysalis flava, Haemaphysalis hystricis, or Amblyomma testudinarium ticks. Digestion of the amplification product with the restriction endonucleases PstI and AluI produced the restriction fragment length polymorphism pattern specific to R. japonica. The HindIII and MspI digests gave restriction fragment length polymorphism patterns identical to those of the PCR product from R. japonica DNA. Hemolymph preparations of H. longicornis ticks were demonstrated to contain rod-shaped organisms that were detected by immunofluorescence with the monoclonal antibody specific to R. japonica species. The primer pair did not amplify the DNA of a laboratory colony of H. longicornis ticks originally collected at an area where OSF is not endemic. Our results provided evidence that H. longicornis ticks might be an arthropod reservoir for R. japonica and a vector of OSF.

[The damaging effect of activated human neutrophils on isolated perfused rat lungs--the role of elastase]

Human neutrophil and its elastase play an important role in the pathogenesis of various lung diseases. We investigated the damaging effect of human neutrophils stimulated with PMA (phorbol myristate acetate 10ng/ml) or calcium ionophase A23187 (2ng/ml) on isolated perfused rat lungs. The study specimens consisted of 4 groups of animals. A control, B perfused with human neutrophils, C perfused with human neutrophils stimulated with PMA, and D perfused with human neutrophils stimulated with A23187. By using the ELISA method, we found that the level of human neutrophil elastase (HNE) in perfusate increased significantly at 30min (1.68 +/- 0.79ng/ml P < 0.05) and 60min (2.35 +/- 0.87 ng/ml P < 0.01) after PMA stimulating, but the HNE in the lung lavage fluid of the same group only slightly increased and the concentration of protein in lavage fluid did not change. After stimulating with A23187, the concentration of HNE in perfusate increased markedly at 30min (4.03 +/- 1.96ng/ml P < 0.01) and maintained at high level (P < 0.01). There was a significant increase of HNE level in lung lavage fluid (2.49 +/- 0.61ng/ml) from group D rat lungs, compared with group A, B or C, and the protein as well (1.61 +/- 0.58mg/ml P < 0.05). All the results indicate that the stimulated human neutrophils can release elastase in perfused rat lung. Neutrophil stimulated with A23187 can increase pulmonary permeability and injure the lung. We suggest that the lung damage, caused by human neutrophils, may be the effect of neutrophil elastase or the synergistic effect with some other substances derived from neutrophil.

Nucleotide sequence and expression of the genes for the alpha and beta subunits of phycocyanin in Cyanidium caldarium

The nucleotide sequence of the plastid-encoded operon containing genes for the alpha (cpcA) and beta (cpcB) subunits of phycocyanin in the unicellular red alga Cyanidium caldarium is described. cpcB is located 5' to cpcA and the two genes are separated by a 102-bp spacer region. The transcription start site of cpcBA was mapped to 80 bp upstream of the ATG initiation codon of cpcB. Promoter-like elements similar to the -10 (TATAAT) and -35 (TTGACA) consensus promoters in bacteria were found 6 and 31 bp upstream of the transcription initiation site. Northern blotting revealed an abundant 1.3-kb cpcBA transcript in illuminated cells, but this transcript was undetectable in dark-grown cells. Expression levels of cpcBA in cells incubated with 10(-6) M heme in the dark were similar to those in cells illuminated for 24 h. Cells illuminated with 150 microM gabaculine (an inhibitor of delta-aminolevulinate synthesis) or 10 mM levulinic acid (an inhibitor of delta-aminolevulinate dehydrase) lacked detectable cpcBA transcripts. In cells illuminated with 200 microM N-methyl-mesoporphyrin IX (an inhibitor of ferrocheletase), inhibition of cpcBA expression and phycocyanin synthesis was similar. These results provide strong evidence that light induction of the cpcBA operon is dependent on synthesis of heme.

Joint wavelet-transform correlator for image feature extraction

We describe a joint wavelet-transform correlator in which the wavelet function is combined with the input image as the input joint image to realize the wavelet transform of the objective image. The Haar wavelet and the Roberts filter are chosen as the wavelet functions to extract the features of the objective image. The relationship of the Haar wavelet and the Roberts filter is analyzed mathematically based on admissible condition of the wavelet. Computer simulations are provided to verify the theory and to illustrate the performance of this correlator.

[TLC scanning determination of baicalin content in niuhuang qingxin pills]

Baicalin in the samples was extracted with ultrasonic wave, the extract was spotted on thin-layer plates of gel GF254 and developed with the mobile phase consisting of toluene-ethylacetate-formic acid (2:3:2.2). Determinations were carried out with Shimadzu CS-930 TLC scanner with lambda s = 280 nm and lambda R = 207 nm. The linear range was 0.46-4.6 micrograms/ml. The average recovery of baicalin from the samples was 98.35%, RSD = 2.82%.

[Cloning, sequencing and characterizing repetitive DNA of Glycine max]

One satellite DNA family, cloned from Glycine max, was sequenced and chracterized. The unit of the repetitive sequences was 91bp. They concentrated on the arms of chromosomes M2 and M11, and spreaded on whole chromosomes Sm7 and M12. Southern blot analysis with 18 acessions, belonged to subgenus Glycine and subgenus Soj a of genus Glycine, showed that the repetitive sequences were specific to subgenus Soj a. It was subgenus specific repetitive sequence. This result, from another aspact, supported the idea that the three species in subgenus Soj a should be considered as one species.

[Effect of GG on the occurrence of tongue retropulsion--an experimental observation of electromyography]

To evaluate the effect of GG activity on tongue backwardness during sleep, we conducted experiments on 16 rabbits. The electric activities of the muscles involved in tongue motion were recorded in different phases (wakefulness, presnoring and snoring) with unipolar electrodes inserted into the muscles under direct vision. The observations demonstrated that GG played a more active role in the occurrence of tongue backwardness during sleep.

A Pit-1 binding site in the human renin gene promoter stimulates activity in pituitary, placental and juxtaglomerular cells

One of the principal aims of our research is to determine the mechanisms which direct renin gene expression to different sites. We recently demonstrated that human renin (hRen) 5'-flanking DNA sequences -148 +/- 11 can drive the transient expression of a linked luciferase reporter gene transfected into pituitary GC cells. This activity was found to be dependent on the binding of Pit-1 to a site approximately 70 bp upstream from the transcription start site. Pit-1 is a pituitary-specific transcription factor which is involved in directing the cell-specific expression of growth hormone (GH) and prolactin (PRL) gene expression to somatotrope and lactotrope cells of the anterior pituitary. Thus, Pit-1 may be play a role in directing the expression of renin to primate lactotrope cells. Renin promoter-driven luciferase or CAT hybrid genes were found to be expressed following transfection into primary, or early passage cell cultures of placental chorionic membranes, and the renin-secreting renal tumor cell line As4.1. As with GC cells, deletion or mutagenesis of the Pit-1 site reduced activity several-fold in both placental and renal cells. These results suggest that members of the POU family of transcription factors, or some other closely related group such as the Hox proteins, participate in directing renin gene expression to placental and juxtaglomerular cells.

Dietary calcium reduces blood pressure, parathyroid hormone, and platelet cytosolic calcium responses in spontaneously hypertensive rats

Dietary calcium effects on blood pressure, parathyroid hormone (PTH), and platelet cytosolic calcium concentrations were investigated. The dietary calcium (low, 0.2%; medium, 0.5%; and high, 2.0% wt/wt) was supplemented in spontaneously hypertensive rats from 6 through 22 weeks of age. Mean systolic blood pressure was decreased by age 12 weeks with calcium supplementation (low, 227 +/- 6 mm Hg; medium, 211 +/- 6 mm Hg; and high, 182 +/- 7 mm Hg; P < .001). By the 10th week of age, the low calcium group had significantly (P < .05) more elevated (44 +/- 2.3 pg/ml) plasma PTH compared with the high calcium-supplemented group (15 +/- 4.5 pg/mL). Regression analysis showed a significant (P < .001) positive correlation (r = 0.3) between systolic blood pressure and PTH. The platelet cytosolic calcium concentration was determined using the fura-2 method. The basal calcium was 134 +/- 5.5 nmol/L for the low calcium group and thrombin increased to 228 +/- 8 nmol/L (P < .0001; +70% change). The normal calcium group had 202 +/- 8 nmol/L; thrombin increased to 239 +/- 10 nmol/L (P < .0026; +19% change). The high calcium group had basal levels 145 +/- 7 nmol/L, with thrombin stimulating to 212 +/- 8 nmol/L (P < .0001; +46% change). Although thrombin increased platelet cytosolic calcium concentration in all groups, normal and high dietary calcium groups had smaller percentage increases (51% and 24% lesser, respectively) compared with the low dietary calcium group.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Renin gene promoter activity in GC cells is regulated by cAMP and thyroid hormone through Pit-1-dependent mechanisms

Transcriptional activity of human renin gene (hREN) 5'-flanking DNA sequences in pituitary cells is highly dependent on binding of the pituitary-specific transcription factor Pit-1. Pit-1 has been implicated in cAMP regulation of a number of pituitary genes and has also been shown to interact with thyroid hormone (T3) receptors in mediating T3 responsiveness of the rat growth hormone gene. In the present study we examine the effects of forskolin and T3 on the expression of luciferase hybrid genes containing hREN 5'-flanking DNAs (hREN.luc) transiently transfected into the pituitary cell line GC. Basal activities of all hREN.luc constructs transfected into cells grown in media containing serum stripped of hormones were low. Addition of forskolin stimulated expression up to 48-fold, depending on the hREN sequences present. The hREN sequence -148 to +18 was sufficient for both maximal expression and maximal stimulation by forskolin. Mutagenesis of the Pit-1 site between -82 and -58 reduced forskolin induction 4-5-fold. In addition to the Pit-1 site, the sequence between -148 and -98 was also required for maximal activity and forskolin induction. T3 on its own had no effect on hREN promoter activity in GC cells, but suppressed the effects of forskolin. Gel mobility shift and Western blot analyses indicated that forskolin treatment had no effect on Pit-1 DNA binding or Pit-1 levels. However, T3 reduced Pit-1 levels which was reflected in lower DNA binding under the conditions employed. Taken together, these findings emphasize the importance of cAMP-dependent mechanisms in directing renin gene expression.