Protective effects of icariin on brain dysfunction induced by lipopolysaccharide in rats

In this study we examined the protective effects of icariin, a flavonol isolated from Herba epimedii, on learning and memory in a rat model with brain inflammation induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Injecting LPS into the lateral ventricle caused rat brain dysfunction, as evidenced by deficits of spatial learning and memory in the Morris water maze. With administration of icariin (30, 60, 120mg/kg body wt./day) for 17 consecutive days, spatial learning and memory abilities were markedly altered. Escape latency and searching distance decreased, and the expressions of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) of brain were significantly reduced as observed by real-time RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry. This study used ibuprofen (40mg/kg body wt./day) as positive control. In conclusion, this study suggested that icariin can improve spatial learning and memory abilities in rats with brain dysfunction induced by LPS, an effect which may be due to decreased expressions of TNF-α, IL-1β and COX-2 in the hippocampus.

Involvement of cysteinyl leukotriene receptors in angiogenesis in rat thoracic aortic rings

Cysteinyl leukotrienes (CysLTs) are potent inflammatory mediators that induce inflammation through the activation of CysLT1 and CysLT2 receptors. It has been reported that inflammatory mediators, such as prostaglandins, play an important role in angiogenesis. However, whether CysLTs and the receptor subtypes are involved in angiogenesis is not clarified. Here, we determined the effects of CysLT receptor agonist leukotriene D4 (LTD4) and antagonists on angiogenesis by rat thoracic aortic ring assay. We found that the microvessel growth in 25% serum-containing cultures was significantly inhibited by the CysLT1 receptor antagonist montelukast (0.1-1 microM), but not by the CysLT2 receptor antagonist BAY cyslt2 (0.1-1 microM). The microvessel growth in serum-free culture was affected neither by montelukast (0.01-1 microM) nor by BAY cyslt2 (0.1-1 microM). Furthermore, LTD4 at 100 nM significantly enhanced the microvessel growth in serum-free culture and LTD4 at 10-100 nM significantly enhanced the microvessel growth in 25% serum-containing cultures. The enhancement was abrogated by both montelukast and BAY cyslt2. Thus, CysLT1 receptors may mediate endogenously regulated microvessel growth in normal culture; whereas the exogenous agonist LTD4 induces angiogenesis through the activation of both CysLT1 and CysLT2 receptors. The CysLT receptor antagonists can be developed as angiogenesis inhibitors.

Reduced recombination in gynodioecious populations of a facultative apomictic orchid

Many plants combine sexual reproduction with some form of asexual reproduction to different degrees, and lower genetic diversity is expected with asexuality. Moreover, the ratios of sexual morphs in species with gender dimorphism are expected to vary in proportion to the reproductive success of the sexual process. Hence, sex ratios can directly influence the genetic structure and diversity of a population. We investigated genotypic diversity in 23 populations of a facultative, apomictic gynodioecious orchid, Satyrium ciliatum, to examine the effect on genotypic diversity of variation in the frequency of females and in the amount of sexual reproduction. The study involved one pure female, seven gynodioecious (both females and hermaphrodites present) and 15 hermaphroditic populations. Pollinia receipt was higher in hermaphroditic than in gynodioecious populations. Analyses of variation in ISSRs demonstrated that genotypic diversity was high in all populations and was not significantly different between hermaphroditic and gynodioecious populations. We used character compatibility analysis to determine the extent to which recombination by sexual reproduction contributed to genotypic diversity. The results indicate that the contribution of recombination to genotypic diversity is higher in hermaphroditic than in gynodioecious populations, consistent with the finding that hermaphroditic populations received higher amounts of pollinia. Our finding of reduced recombination in gynodioecious populations suggests that maintenance of sex in hermaphrodites plays an important role in generating genotypic diversity in this apomictic orchid.

Incorporation of the International Spinal Cord Injury Data Set elements into the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke Common Data Elements

OBJECTIVES

To develop consistent variable names and a common database structure for the data elements in the International Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) Data Sets.

SETTING

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) Common Data Elements (CDE) Project and The Executive Committee of the International SCI Standards and Data Sets committees (ECSCI).

METHODS

The NINDS CDE team creates a variable name for each defined data element in the various International SCI Data Sets. Members of the ECSCI review these in an iterative process to make the variable names logical and consistent across the data sets. Following this process, the working group for the particular data set reviews the variable names, and further revisions and adjustments may be made. In addition, a database structure for each data set is developed allowing data to be stored in a uniform way in databases to promote sharing data from different studies.

RESULTS

The International SCI Data Sets variable names and database specifications will be available through the web sites of the International Spinal Cord Society (http://www.iscos.org.uk), the American Spinal Injury Association (http://www.asia-spinalinjury.org) and the NINDS CDE project web site (http://www.CommonDataElements.ninds.nih.gov).

CONCLUSION

This process will continue as additional International SCI Data Sets fulfill the requirements of the development and approval process and are ready for implementation.

Allergy and risk of glioma: a meta-analysis

We evaluated the association between allergic conditions and the risk of glioma in case-control and cohort studies published so far on this issue. A total of 12 studies (10 case-control and 2 cohort studies) were included in the analysis, involving 61 090 participants, of whom 6408 had glioma. When compared with non-allergic conditions, the pooled odds ratio (OR) with any allergic conditions for glioma was 0.60 (95% CI: 0.52-0.69, P<0.001), suggesting a significant negative association (protective effect) between allergy and glioma. Subgroup analysis showed that the ORs were 0.70 (95% CI: 0.62-0.79, P<0.001), 0.69 (95% CI: 0.62-0.78, P<0.001), and 0.78 (95% CI: 0.70-0.87, P<0.001) for asthma, eczema, and hay fever, respectively. The significant association remained even after excluding the bias of proxy reporting (OR=0.61; 95% CI: 0.50-0.75, P<0.001). We conclude that allergic conditions may significantly reduce the risk of glioma.

Synthesis and evaluation of chitosan-graft-polyethylenimine as a gene vector

The objective of this study was to prepare a series of chitosan-graft-polyethylenimine (chitosan-g-PEI) copolymers as gene carriers with high transfection efficiency and low cytotoxicity. Chitosan-g-PEIs with different molecular weights and segments were successfully synthesized by both oxidation and imine reactions and then characterized by 1H NMR, IR, UV and DSC. All types of Chitosan-g-PEIs prepared were found to interact efficiently with plasmid DNA (pIRES2-EGFP-p53) on DNA retardation assays. The Chitosan-g-PEI/DNA complex had a diameter of approximately 200 nm and a surface potential of zeta = +10.0 mV when the N/P ratio was 15/1. Optimal transfection efficiency of the chitosan-g-PEI/DNA complex was observed at N/P = 45/1 on HepG2 cells, with significantly lower toxicity compared with the gold standard PEI 25 kd. Moreover, the results showed that the toxicity increased with increasing molecular weight of the PEI segment in chitosan-g-PEI. Based on these results, chitosan-g-PEI with different chitosan and PEI segments of could be used for gene expression on different levels, and some of them may appear as potential candidates for gene delivery systems.

Higher moments of net proton multiplicity distributions at RHIC

We report the first measurements of the kurtosis (κ), skewness (S), and variance (σ2) of net-proton multiplicity (Np-Np) distributions at midrapidity for Au+Au collisions at square root of s(NN)=19.6, 62.4, and 200 GeV corresponding to baryon chemical potentials (μB) between 200 and 20 MeV. Our measurements of the products κσ2 and Sσ, which can be related to theoretical calculations sensitive to baryon number susceptibilities and long-range correlations, are constant as functions of collision centrality. We compare these products with results from lattice QCD and various models without a critical point and study the square root of s(NN) dependence of κσ2. From the measurements at the three beam energies, we find no evidence for a critical point in the QCD phase diagram for μB below 200 MeV.

Three-particle coincidence of the long range pseudorapidity correlation in high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions

We report the first three-particle coincidence measurement in pseudorapidity (Δη) between a high transverse momentum (p⊥) trigger particle and two lower p⊥ associated particles within azimuth |Δϕ|<0.7 in square root of s(NN)=200 GeV d+Au and Au+Au collisions. Charge ordering properties are exploited to separate the jetlike component and the ridge (long range Δη correlation). The results indicate that the correlation of ridge particles are uniform not only with respect to the trigger particle but also between themselves event by event in our measured Δη. In addition, the production of the ridge appears to be uncorrelated to the presence of the narrow jetlike component.

Using support vector regression coupled with the genetic algorithm for predicting acute toxicity to the fathead minnow

The potential toxicity of chemicals may present adverse effects to the environment and human health. The quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) provides a useful method for hazard assessment. In this study, we constructed a QSAR model based on a highly heterogeneous data set of 571 compounds from the US Environmental Protection Agency, for predicting acute toxicity to the fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas). An approach coupling support vector regression (SVR) with the genetic algorithm (GA) was developed to build the model. The generated QSAR model showed excellent data fitting and prediction abilities: the squared correlation coefficients (r(2)) for the training set and the test set were 0.826 and 0.802, respectively. Only eight critical descriptors, most of which are closely related to the toxicity mechanism, were chosen by GA-SVR, making the derived model readily interpretable. In summary, the successful case reported here highlights that our GA-SVR approach can be used as a general machine learning method for toxicity prediction.

Does standardized BMD still remove differences between Hologic and GE-Lunar state-of-the-art DXA systems?

The standardized bone mineral density (sBMD) values, derived using universal standardized equations, were shown to be equivalent within 1.0% for hip but significantly different for spine for state-of-art fan-beam dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) Hologic and GE-Lunar systems. Spine L1-L4 and L2-L4 sBMD mean differences between the two systems were 0.042 g/cm(2) (4.1%) and 0.035 g/cm(2) (3.2%), respectively.

INTRODUCTION

The objective of this study is to validate the 1994 pencil-beam DXA "universal standardization equations" for state-of-the-art fan-beam DXA systems.

METHODS

The spine and bilateral femurs of 87 postmenopausal women were scanned on both Hologic Delphi and GE-Lunar Prodigy DXA systems at three different clinical centers. The scans were analyzed using Hologic Apex and GE-Lunar EnCore software. The BMD results were converted to sBMD using the equations previously developed. Linear regression analysis was used to describe the relationship of the two systems' BMD results. Bland-Altman analysis was used to assess the differences in measures.

RESULTS

The Apex and Prodigy sBMD values were highly correlated (r ranged from 0.92 to 0.98). Spine L1-L4 and L2-L4 sBMD values had significant intercepts and slopes for Bland-Altman regression, with mean differences of 0.042 g/cm(2) (4.1%) and 0.035 g/cm(2) (3.2%), respectively. The total hip and neck sBMD showed no significant intercept and slope, except left total sBMD had a significant difference between the two systems of 0.009 g/cm(2) (1.0%).

CONCLUSIONS

The sBMD values were shown to be equivalent within 1.0% for hip but were significantly different for spine on the two systems. Biases may persist in pooled sBMD data from different manufacturers, and further study is necessary to determine the cause.

Formation and reduction of streak artefacts in electron tomography

We have analysed the formation of streak artefacts in the reconstruction based on the filtered back projection algorithm in electron tomography (ET) and accordingly applied an adaptive interpolation technique to artefact reduction. In the adaptive interpolation to recover the missing information, the edge positions in a projection curve were tracked to reduce the interpolation error. A simulation was used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the artefact reduction. Furthermore, image reconstruction of integrated circuit specimens in the ET experiments with the ultra-high voltage electron microscope show that the strong streak artefacts can be reduced effectively by our artefact reduction technique.

The roles of microRNAs in heart diseases: a novel important regulator

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are non-coding single-stranded RNAs with about 21~23 nucleotides in length, which originate from encoding genes in nucleus. miRNAs play an inhibitory role in gene expression in a post-transcriptional level by partially complementary binding to the 3' unstranlated region (UTR) of target mRNAs. Large bodies of evidence have shown that miRNAs were involved in various diseases, such as cancer, infectious diseases, diabetes etc, and rising as critical modulators of pathological processes. Lately, some highlight articles revealed that the altered expression of miRNAs such as miR-1, miR-133, miR-21, miR-208 etc in hearts also contributed to cardiovascular diseases, such as heart ischemia, cardiac hypertrophy, and arrhythmias. Moreover, miRNAs were also identified to regulate heart development. These exciting findings not only improve our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of heart diseases, but also provide a new class of potential molecular targets. miRNAs, for the development of novel agents to treat heart diseases. Here, we summarized the recent discoveries about the role of miRNAs in cardiac physiological and pathological functions, and then discussed about their therapeutic potentials for heart diseases.

New production of eosinophils and the corresponding TH1/TH2 balance in the lungs after allergen exposure in BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice

Allergic asthma is associated with eosinophilic inflammation in the airways. Animal models commonly used to elucidate allergic inflammation mechanisms include BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice. Our aim was to evaluate lung eosinophilia and the corresponding Th1/Th2 balance in the two strains after allergen exposure. BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice were subjected to ovalbumin-induced allergic airway inflammation using BrdU to label newly produced cells. The numbers of new eosinophils were evaluated by differential cell count and immunocytochemistry (MBP+BrdU+). Proliferation rate of lung eosinophils was measured by analysis of CD45+CCR3+BrdU+ cells by FACS. Distribution of newly produced eosinophils in the lung and the Th1/Th2 (CD4+T-bet+/CD4+GATA-3+) balance was evaluated by immunohistochemistry. Allergen challenge with ovalbumin induced comparable eosinophilia in bone marrow (BM), blood and lung tissue in both strains of mice compared to phosphate-buffered saline controls, which was confirmed by immunocytochemistry. There was a small increase in the number of lung MBP+BrdU(-) eosinophils in C57BL/6 mice compared to BALB/c mice, which suggests a basal increase in this strain following sensitization. While there was no difference in eosinophilic proliferation in the lung, the distribution of the newly produced eosinophils differs between the two strains. BALB/c mice showed staining primarily around vessels and airways, whereas C57BL/6 mice showed a more even distribution in the lung tissue. No difference in the Th1/Th2 balance was observed between two strains. This study shows that there is a difference in the distribution of eosinophils in the lung between the C57BL/6 and BALB/c mice, but no difference in eosinophil production or Th1/Th2 balance.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease with PRNP G114V mutation in a Chinese family

BACKGROUND

Recent evidence has shown clinical phenotypic heterogeneity of inherited prion diseases, even between patients harbouring the same mutation in the PRNP gene.

OBJECTIVE AND METHODS

We collected clinical data from a Chinese family with autosomal dominant dementia and screened the PRNP gene on 28 living members. A stereotactic biopsy of the right frontal lobe of the proband was performed.

RESULTS

The family comprised four affected individuals within two successive generations. The age of onset was in 30 or 40 s, and the duration was about 2-3 years. Clinical features of the affected members included neuropsychiatric disturbances, progressive dementia and extrapyramidal symptoms. Immunostaining for prion protein showed fine granular deposits of PrP(sc) in the neuropil. The PRNP gene analysis demonstrated a heterozygous G114V mutation in 15 family members. The proband was diagnosed as familial Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (fCJD).

CONCLUSION

This study strengthens the linkage of the G114V mutation to CJD. It supports the worldwide distribution of fCJD despite differences in genetic background.

A survey of bone mineral density of healthy Han adults in China

A recent survey of bone mineral density (BMD) in China recruited 7,042 healthy Han Chinese aged 20 years and older. The mean BMDs were different in gender, age, and region; the proportions of men and women older than 50 years with a high risk of osteoporosis were estimated as 10.4% and 31.2%, respectively

INTRODUCTION

A survey of BMD was completed during 2002-2006 in China. By three-stage sampling, a total of 7,042 healthy Han Chinese aged 20 years and older were recruited in ten cities: 2,694 subjects from Beijing, Tianjin, Haerbin, Lanzhou, and Yantai of northern China and 4,348 from Shanghai, Changsha, Chengdu, Haikou, and Foshan of southern China.

METHODS

Two dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) systems (Hologic and Lunar) were used with parallel measurements of the European spine phantoms in each center. The mean BMDs in age groups older than 50 and the peak bone mineral density (pBMD) at femoral neck and that at greater trochanter were higher for men than women, and the pBMDs for northern China were higher than those for southern China, ranging from 1% to 4%.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

This work has provided two useful references for the first time: one is the estimation of the proportion and number of individuals older than 50 years with a high risk of osteoporosis, 10.4% and 12.5 million men, 31.2% and 37.2 million women, which is important for health care planning and marketing projections, and another is the conversion equations for cross-calibration among different types of DXA instruments frequently used in China.

Clinical trial: maintenance intermittent therapy with rabeprazole 20 mg in patients with symptomatic gastro-oesophageal reflux disease - a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized study

BACKGROUND

Optimal long-term management of symptomatic gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (sGERD) patients has not been established.

AIM

To determine the clinical value of maintenance intermittent treatment with rabeprazole 20 mg vs. placebo in patients with sGERD.

METHODS

This multicentre, US study enrolled patients with sGERD (>or=3-month history of GERD symptoms and >or=4 days/week of heartburn during a 2-week placebo run-in) without oesophageal erosions. Patients with complete heartburn control after 4 weeks of open-label rabeprazole 20 mg daily treatment were randomized to 6-month, double-blind, maintenance intermittent treatment (7- to 14-day courses when heartburn recurred) with rabeprazole 20 mg or placebo.

RESULTS

The primary efficacy end point, mean percentage of heartburn-free days, was significantly greater with rabeprazole vs. placebo: 82.58% and 62.17% (ITT; P < 0.0001) [per protocol 86.74% rabeprazole vs. 74.93% placebo (P < 0.0254)]. Compared with placebo group, the rabeprazole group also experienced a significantly higher percentage of heartburn-free daytime (84.06% vs. 63.39%; P < 0.0001) and nighttime (95.41% vs. 90.25%; P = 0.0021) periods, had significantly fewer discontinuations because of insufficient heartburn control (6.3% vs. 36.3%; P < 0.0001) and took fewer antacid tablets daily (0.58 vs. 1.16; P = 0.0021).

CONCLUSION

Intermittent use of rabeprazole may be an effective maintenance treatment strategy for patients with sGERD and warrants further investigation. This trial was registered with http://clinicaltrials.gov under the number NCT00165841.