管花苷B对抗H2O2诱导的PC12细胞凋亡

目的：观察肉苁蓉提取物管花苷B对H₂O₂诱导的PC12细胞损伤的影响。方法：用MTT法检测细胞存活率，以激光共聚焦显微镜荧光染色法检测细胞内活性氧的产生和线粒体膜电位的变化，DNA琼脂糖凝胶电泳和流式细胞仪检测细胞凋亡的发生，并用荧光酶标仪测定caspase-3的活性。结果：100 μmol·L^-1 H₂O₂处理细胞24 h显著降低细胞的存活率；诱导细胞发生凋亡，凋亡率达48.0％；细胞内活性氧水平及caspase-3的活性显著升高；而线粒体膜电位却明显降低，红/绿荧光强度的比值由正常的5.97降低为0.41左右。而预先给予1、10或100 mg·L^-1浓度的管花苷B处理细胞12 h，可显著提高细胞存活率；并可有效抑制DNA ladder的发生；流式细胞仪检测凋亡率分别降低到30.9%、18.3%和6.2%；激光共聚焦显微镜结果显示管花苷B可明显降低细胞内活性氧的水平；并可逐渐恢复线粒体的高能量状态；caspase-3的活性不断降低，并呈现了一定的剂量依赖性。结论：管花苷B能显著地抑制H₂O₂诱导的PC12细胞凋亡，其神经细胞保护作用可能与其降低细胞内活性氧水平，维持线粒体膜电位的高能状态和抑制caspase-3的活性有关。     

股骨远端骨折锁定钢板断裂原因分析及处理

目的探讨股骨远端骨折锁定钢板内固定失效的原因及防治措施。方法对2007年5月~2012年6月共14例应用锁定钢板固定失败的股骨远端骨折患者的临床资料进行分析,其中男9例,女5例,年龄27~68岁,平均39.2岁,骨折内固定术后1~8月(平均5.6个月)锁定钢板断裂。钢板断裂者均采用钢板螺钉取出术,5例予交锁髓内钉内固定,9例再次锁定钢板固定,均同时取自体髂骨移植植骨治疗。结果二次术后14例均获得随访,术后随访9~24月,平均14月,13例获得骨性愈合,1例二次锁定钢板固定患者于二次术后8月再次发生钢板断裂,予行钢板螺丝钉取出、交锁髓内钉固定治疗,再次手术后6月获骨性愈合。膝关节功能按Kolment评分标准:优4例,良9例,差1例。断裂原因具有多样性,5例钢板选择过短,9例存在螺钉置入密度过大,8例内侧皮质粉碎、缺失,4例因过早负重,2例因锻炼时摔伤而导致内固定失败。结论锁定钢板内固定失效的原因通常与对锁定钢板的适应证掌握不全,骨折端过度剥离、复位不良或内侧皮质存在缺损及术后功能锻炼不当有关。因此,选择合适的内固定物,注重植骨,加强术后康复指导、避免过早负重可有效预防及治疗股骨远端骨折钢板内固定失败。     

大鼠中缝大核突触囊泡在电针后的变化及其图象分析

应用透射电镜和图象分析方法,对电针后大鼠中缝大核突触前终扣内突触囊泡的数量以及突触前终扣内容物的量的变化进行了研究。结果表明:电针后,中缝大核突触前终扣内圆形清亮囊泡和颗粒囊泡的数量明显减少,突触囊泡聚集并向突触活性带集中。图象分析结果:电针后,突触前终扣内容物的量较对照组明显减少,而且内容物分布不均匀并在突触膜附近集中。本实验为针刺镇痛的理论研究提供了形态学依据。     

Multiple B- and T-cell epitopes on a major allergen of Kentucky Bluegrass pollen.

The B- and T-cell epitopes of a recombinant grass allergen, rKBG60, were delineated using a set of overlapping synthetic peptides. Direct binding by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) utilizing serum pools led to the identification of 13 murine immunoglobulin-, and nine to 13 human IgG- and five to seven human IgE-reactive overlapping peptides. Of the peptides which bound to human IgE antibodies, all but three peptides bound to human and/or murine IgG antibodies. Furthermore, eight out of 12 synthetic peptides induced antigen-specific antibodies in mice, suggesting that these peptides contained epitopes that recognized and/or induced T cells. These results, in conjunction with cross-recognition of different peptides at the C-terminus of rKBG60 by antibodies to neighbouring or non-overlapping peptides suggest that the C-terminus of this antigen represents a dominant antigenic and allergenic site. Peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) proliferation studies using these synthetic peptides for 13 grass allergic individuals indicated that seven potential human T-cell epitopes exist on this allergen. Taken together, the results demonstrate that multiple B- and T-cell epitopes exist on this major group of grass allergens, the majority of which are localized at the C-terminus of this antigen.     

Physiological correlates of perceptual learning in monkey V1 and V2

Performance in visual discrimination tasks improves with practice. Although the psychophysical parameters of these improvements have suggested the involvement of early areas in visual cortex, there has been little direct study of the physiological correlates of such perceptual learning at the level of individual neurons. To examine how neuronal response properties in the early visual system may change with practice, we trained monkeys for more than 6 mo in an orientation discrimination task in which behaviorally relevant stimuli were restricted to a particular retinal location and oriented around a specific orientation. During training the monkeys' discrimination thresholds gradually improved to much better than those of naive monkeys or humans. Although this improvement was specific to the trained orientation, it showed little retinotopic specificity. The receptive field properties of single neurons from regions representing the trained location and a location in the opposite visual hemifield were measured in V1 and V2. In most respects the receptive field properties in the representations of the trained and untrained regions were indistinguishable. However, in the regions of V1 and V2 representing the trained location, there were slightly fewer neurons whose optimal orientation was near the trained orientation. This resulted in a small but significant decrease in the V1 population response to the trained orientation at the trained location. Consequently, the observed neuronal populations did not exhibit any orientation-specific biases sufficient to explain the orientation specificity of the behavioral improvement. Pooling models suggest that the behavioral improvement was accomplished with a task-dependent and orientation-selective pooling of unaltered signals from early visual neurons. These data suggest that, even for training with stimuli suited to the selectivities found in early areas of visual cortex, behavioral improvements can occur in the absence of pronounced changes in the physiology of those areas.     

Neural cell adhesion molecule contributes to hemopoiesis-supporting capacity of stromal cell lines

To clarify mechanisms underlying cell-to-cell interactions between hemopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and stromal cells, we established a stromal cell line (FMS/PA6-P) from day-16 fetal bone marrow (BM) adherent cells using an anti-PA6 monoclonal antibody (mAb) specific for BM stromal cells. Importantly, this FMS/PA6-P cell line, showing homogenous fibroblastic morphology, is absent from hematolymphoid and endothelial lineage markers and maintains a high level of expression of PA6 molecule, recognized by the anti-PA6 mAb, for approximately 20 passages. Further, the cell line expressing a high level of PA6 molecule has a better hemopoiesis-supporting capacity in vitro than other stromal cell lines such as PA6 and MS-5. In fact, the PA6 molecule is closely related to the hemopoiesis-supporting capacity of the stromal cells because the proliferation of HSCs was suppressed to a great extent by the anti-PA6 mAb. Affinity chromatography and mass peptide fingerprinting revealed that the protein reacting with the anti-PA6 mAb is neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM). The frequencies of long-term cobblestone area-forming cells and long-term culture-initiating cells were significantly suppressed by repression of NCAM in the FMS/PA6-P cells using NCAM small interfering RNA. Our findings clearly indicate that NCAM functions on the maintenance of HSCs.     

Evaluation of method for secondary DNA typing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis with pTBN12 in epidemiologic study of tuberculosis.

Secondary fingerprinting of Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA with a probe containing the polymorphic GC-rich repetitive sequence present in pTBN12 has been found to have greater discriminating power than does fingerprinting with the insertion sequence IS6110 for strains carrying few copies of IS6110. To validate the use of pTBN12 fingerprinting in the molecular epidemiology of tuberculosis, M. tuberculosis isolates from 67 patients in five states in the United States and in Spain were fingerprinted with both IS6110 and pTBN12. Epidemiologic links among the 67 patients were evaluated by patient interview and/or review of medical records. The 67 isolates had 5 IS6110 fingerprint patterns with two to five copies of IS6110 and 18 pTBN12 patterns, of which 10 were shared by more than 1 isolate. Epidemiologic links are consistently found among patients whose isolates had identical pTBN12 patterns, whereas no links were found among patients whose isolates had unique pTBN12 patterns. This suggests that pTBN12 fingerprinting is a useful tool to identify epidemiologically linked tuberculosis patients whose isolates have identical IS6110 fingerprints containing fewer than six fragments.     

Ultrastructural immunohistochemical localization of polyclonal IgG, C3, and amyloid P component on the congo red-negative amyloid-like fibrils of fibrillary glomerulopathy.

Renal biopsies from seven patients with Congo red-negative amyloid-like fibrillary glomerulopathy (FGP) were examined by protein A gold immuno-electron microscopy. Ultrastructurally, the fibrils in all cases exhibited positive immunostaining for IgG, both Ig light chains, C3, and amyloid P component (AP), but did not show positive immunostaining for glomerular basement membrane (GBM)-associated proteins (collagen type IV and heparan-sulfate proteoglycans) or microfibril-associated proteins (fibronectin and fibrillin). In a triple-label study, AP and IgG were colocalized along the same fibril, whereas the gold probes for the detection of collagen type IV were absent. The results suggest that the fibrils are comprised of polyclonal IgG and C3 that bind AP. AP was immunolocalized sparsely but regularly along the lamina rara interna of normal GBM. AP was absent in the fibrils in a case of diabetic glomerulopathy, was scattered randomly without specificity for the electron-dense deposits in the GBM of membranous glomerulopathy, and lined up regularly along the fibrils in amyloid deposits. FGP is an entity in which the fibrils bind AP but lack the beta-pleated sheet structure necessary for Congo red staining that is typical of amyloid.