Projections of diencephalic dopamine neurons into the spinal cord in mice

The aim of this study is to investigate the pathway of diencephalic dopaminergic (DA) neuronal innervating into the spinal cord in mice, the pathway is postulated relevant to clinical restless legs syndrome (RLS). Tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) immunohistochemstry was used to identify the DA neuron. The fluorescent tracer Fluoro-Gold (FG) was sterotaxically injected into the T₁₀–L₅ spinal cord of CBL57 mice (n=20) seven days before the animals were sacrificed. The diencephalic sections were stained with TH antibody and the FG tracer present in the diencephalic DA neurons were examined under fluoresce microscope. The average number of total DA neurons per side in A₁₁, A₁₂, A₁₃ and A₁₄ was 66±8, 221±12, 350±17 and 254±21 respectively. After being injected into the spinal cord, FG reached the DA neurons within the A₁₀ and A₁₁ groups, but didn’t target to any other DA neuron groups including the A₈ and A₉ groups in substantia nigra (SN). The diencephalic A₁₁ DA neurons possessed long axons extending over several segments and possibly traversing the entire length of the spinal cord. It is the first time to report A₁₀ and A₁₁ DA neuron projections into the spinal cord in mice. Grant sponsor: NINDS (40370 and 043567); Glaxo SmithKline Pharmaceuticals     

二维心肌可激媒质激发波的有效控制

利用奇异微扰分析,提出对耗散系统的有效控制,将其应用于FHN模型,研究二维心肌可激媒质激发波的控制问题,分别对行波和螺旋波施加旋性和漂移控制。结果表明:行波的传播方向被改变而螺旋波产生漂移,当施加的控制强度达到阈值时,螺旋波被驱除出边界。这些研究结果对临床上治疗心律失常和有效除颤具有理论价值。     

机械拉伸波形及频率对肺腺癌细胞增殖的影响

通过FX-4000柔性基底加载系统研究了不同波形及频率的周期性机械拉伸对人肺腺癌A 549细胞株增殖的影响,应用Im age-P ro图像处理软件对A 549细胞株在心形波、三角波及方波等拉伸应变下的增殖动力学变化进行了分析。实验表明:在co llagenⅠ基底膜上,应变0-25%,频率为20次/m in、40次/m in及60次/m in,加载时间为2 h时,与对照组比较,方波刺激组细胞生长明显受到抑制,三角波刺激组细胞增殖率无明显差异,心形波刺激组细胞增殖加快。研究表明:A 549细胞株对体外的生理应变作出响应时,方波与60次/m in频率的组合刺激抑制作用最佳,且加载时间越长抑制效果越好。可见,波形与频率的合理组合在抑制人肺腺癌细胞增殖的过程中起着重要作用。     

Electrophysiological correlates of adjustment process in anchoring effects

Anchoring is a judgmental bias that final judgments are assimilated toward the starting point of the judge's deliberations. The anchoring-and-adjustment heuristic holds that anchoring bias is caused by insufficient adjustment. With the manipulation of some subjective factors, previous research found that anchoring is an effortful process. However, there is little evidence supporting that the effortful process is an adjustment process. In the present work, number accuracy was introduced as an objective factor which involves in an adjustment process. An event-related brain potential (ERP) experiment on young normal subjects examined the impact of number accuracy on anchoring processes responding to anchors which were generated by subjects themselves. A dot-image paradigm was firstly employed to explore anchoring effects. Behavioral results found less accurate anchors which determined a coarser mental scale diminished the anchoring biases responding to self-generated anchors. A positive deflection at 250–800 ms after target onset can be taken as a direct electrophysiological evidence of the adjustment process, whose amplitude was more positive on more accurate anchors condition. The present results further support that people adjust upwards or downwards on a mental scale from the self-generated anchor, which is consistent with the adjustment heuristics.     

Comparison of Sequences of RNAs 3 and 4 of Rice Stripe Virus from China with those of Japanese Isolates

The sequences were determined of RNAs 3 and 4 of a Chinese isolate (Y) of rice stripe tenuivirus (RStV) and were compared with those of two RStV isolates (M and T) from Japan. Both RNAs of the Y isolate were longer than those of the M and T isolates. There was almost complete conservation in the 5′ and 3′ non-coding regions for each RNA between the isolates. The analogous ambisense coding regions for each isolate were exactly the same size and the sequences were highly conserved. The major differences were in the intergenic regions, the sizes of which accounted for the differences in size of each RNA of the three isolates. There were no obvious patterns of differences in comparisons of the two RNA over the three isolates. The significance of the similarities and differences in sequences of isolates of RStV separated by more than 3500 km is discussed. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Thermoelectroelastic solutions for surface bone remodeling under axial and transverse loads

Theoretical prediction of surface bone remodeling in the diaphysis of the long bone under various external loads are made within the framework of adaptive elastic theory. These loads include external lateral pressure, electric and thermal loads. Two solutions are presented for analyzing thermoelectroelastic problems of surface bone remodeling. The analytical solution that gives explicit formulation is capable of modeling homogeneous bone materials, while the semi-analytical solution is suitable for analyzing inhomogeneous cases. Numerical results are presented to verify the proposed formulation and to show the effects of mechanical, thermal and electric loads on surface bone remodeling process.     

Pharmacokinetics, biodistribution, efficacy and safety of N-octyl-O-sulfate chitosan micelles loaded with paclitaxel

Paclitaxel (Taxol), PTX) is a promising anti-cancer drug and has been successfully used to treat a wide variety of cancers. Unfortunately, serious clinical side effects are associated with it, which are caused by PTX itself and non-aqueous vehicle containing Cremophor EL. Development of new formulation of PTX with better efficacy and fewer side effects is extremely urgent. In the present study, a N-octyl-O-sulfate chitosan (NOSC) micelle was developed and used as the delivery system for PTX. The pharmacokinetics, biodistribution, efficacy and safety of PTX-loaded NOSC micelles (PTX-M) were evaluated. The results showed that NOSC micelles had high drug loading capacity (69.9%) and entrapment efficiency (97.26%). The plasma AUC of PTX-M was 3.6-fold lower than that of Taxol; but the V(d) and CL of PTX-M were increased by 5.7 and 3.5-fold, respectively. Biodistribution study indicated that most of the PTX were distributed in liver, kidney, spleen, and lung and the longest retention effect was observed in the lung. Drug safety assessment studies including acute toxicity, hemolysis test, intravenous stimulation and injection anaphylaxis revealed that the PTX-M was safe for intravenous injection. Furthermore, the comparable antitumor efficacy of PTX-M and Taxol was observed at the same dose of 10 mg/kg in in vivo antitumor mice models inoculated with sarcoma180, enrich solid carcinoma (EC), hepatoma solidity (Heps), Lewis lung cancer cells and A-549 human lung cancer cells. These results clearly showed that PTX-M had the similar antitumor efficacy as Taxol, but significantly reduced the toxicity and improved the bioavailability of PTX.     

Lateral ventricular meningioma presenting with intraventricular hemorrhage: a case report and literature review

Lateral ventricular meningiomas presenting with primary intraventricular hemorrhage are extremely uncommon. We report here a case of primary intraventricular hemorrhage attributable to a lateral ventricular meningioma. This case concerns a 46-year-old female patient who presented with sudden onset of headache. Computed tomography (CT), computed tomography angiography (CTA) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examinations showed hemorrhage from a ruptured tumor mass, which was pathologically confirmed as a transitional meningioma. The patient underwent surgical treatment and had a good prognosis. A retrospective review of eight previous cases of hemorrhage from ruptured lateral ventricular meningiomas revealed that hemorrhage of lateral ventricular meningiomas and hemorrhage of meningiomas at other intracranial sites have similar causes. The clinical and pathological features of ruptured lateral ventricular meningiomas are consistent with those of unruptured lateral ventricular meningiomas. As this clinical entity is extremely rare, attention is called for while performing differential diagnosis.