Evaluation of corticospinal tract injury with three-dimensional diffusion tensor tract in patients with acute cerebral infarction

Three-dimensional diffusion tensor tract (DTT) is the newest imaging to describe the structure of white matter fiber in three-dimensions, it has great significance in dividing the concrete anatomic site of gray and white matter lesions, displaying the correlation with fibrous band and judging clinical prognosis, which is incomparable by other imagings.OBJECTTVE: To observe the conditions of corticospinal tract (CST) in acute cerebral ischemic stroke patients,and analyze the relationship between motor function and the severity of CST injury.DESIGN: A case-control observation.SETTTNG: Department of Medical Imaging, Fuzhou General Hospital of Nanjing Military Area Command of Chinese PLA.PARTTCTPANTS: Fifteen patients with acute cerebral infarction were selected from Fuzhou General Hospital of Nanjing Military Area Command of Chinese PLA from February to December in 2005. They all suffered from acute attack and motor disorder of hemiplegic limbs to different extent, and were conformed by CT or MRI.There were 9 males and 6 females, aging 16-87 years old, the median age was 51.7 years, and all were right handed. Fifteen right-handed normal subjects, who were matched by age and sex with the patients in the cerebral infarction group, were selected from the relatives of patients and physicians of the Imaging Department as the control group. All the subjects were informed and agreed with the study.METHODS: The patients with acute cerebral infarction and subjects in the control group received MR diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) with GE 1.5 T nuclear magnetic resonance system, fiber tracking with the software of dTV- Ⅱ. Fractional anisotropy (FA) maps and three-dimensional tractography of bilateral CST of all patients were created. Displacement, continuity and destroy of fibrous bands were observed. At the same time, muscle strength of ipsilateral hand of patients with cerebral infarction was measured with Brunnstrom standard. The correlation between the severity of CST injury and the muscle strength of ipsilateral hand was analyzed with spearman correlation analysis.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: ① FA values in the infarcted sites and those in the contralateral corresponding sites of patients with cerebral infarction; ② CST manifestations in the patients with cerebral infarction and the control group.RESULTS: All the 30 testees were involved in the analysis of results. ① The FA values in infarcted sites of white matter were significantly lower than those in the contralateral ones (t =4.570, P ＜ 0.001 ). ② In the control group, bilateral CST were reconstructed, they originated from precentral gyrus, went downwards to internal capsule, and extended to pontine and medulla oblongata, each fiber had good uniformity in continuous form. In the patients with cerebral infarction, the forms of contralateral CST were consistent with those in the control group with good continuity. Due to the involvement by the infarcted site to different extents, the ipsilateral CST manifested as continuous interruption and loss of uniformity in anatomic structure and form. The CST involvements were divided into three grades: integrated CST for grade I (n =2); integrated CST but compressed or displaced for grade 2 (n =5); interrupted CST for grade 3 (n =8). ③ The severity of CST injury was obviously correlated with the muscle strength of the ipsilateral hand (r=0.888, P＜ 0.05＝.CONCLUSION: ① CST is injured to different extents in patients with acute cerebral infarction, and the severity of injury is associated with muscle strength. It is indicated that it can be used to judge the prognosis of rehabilitative treatment. ②DTT can directly display the status of pyramidal tract more three-dimensionally.     

Identification of differentially expressed genes in omental adipose tissues of obese patients by suppression subtractive hybridization

To identify differentially expressed genes between obese individuals and normal control, we have undertaken suppression subtractive hybridization （SSH）. Omental adipose tissues were obtained via abdominal surgery for appendicitis in both 13 obese subjects[BMI （body mass index） 〉 30 kg/m（2）] and 13 normal subjects （BMI 〉 18 and 〈 25 kg/m（2））.     

Therapeutic Effect of Berberine on 60 Patients with Non－Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus and Experimental Research

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Development of dendritic cells from GM-CSF-/- mice in vitro : GM-CSF enhances production and survival of cells

The production of dendritic cells (DC) from haemopoietic progenitors maintained in long term stroma-dependent cultures (LTC) of spleen or bone marrow (BM) occurs independently of added granulocyte/macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF). The possibility that cultures depend on endogenous GM-CSF produced in low levels was tested by attempting to generate LTC from spleen and BM of GM-CSF-/- mice. Multiple cultures from GM-CSF-/- and wild type mice were established and compared for cell production. GM-CSF-/- LTC developed more slowly, but by 16 weeks produced cells resembling DC in numbers comparable to wild type cultures. LTC maintained distinct populations of small and large cells, the latter resembling DC. Cells collected from GM-CSF-/- LTC were capable antigen presenting cells (APC) for T cell stimulation and morphologically resembled DC. Large cells expressed the CD11b, CD11c, CD86, 33D1 and Dec-205 markers of DC. Addition of GM-CSF to GM-CSF-/- LTC increased the proportion of large, mature DC present in culture. Stromal cells from GM-CSF-/- LTC could support the differentiation of DC from early progenitors maintained in LTC without addition of GM-CSF. However, GM-CSF is not a critical factor in the in vitro generation of DC from progenitors. It can, however, substitute for stromal cells in increasing the survival of mature DC.     

原发性肝细胞癌中5种细胞周期蛋白的表达及其临床意义

目的探讨原发性肝细胞癌中5种细胞周期蛋白(cyclin)的表达及其与肝癌细胞的增殖状态、侵袭转移和乙型肝炎病毒(HBV)感染的相关性。方法应用Instrumedics公司生产的组织芯片制作仪,将273例原发性肝癌组织、144例癌旁肝组织和10例尸检非肝病死亡肝组织制成组织芯片,取样针直径2．0am,采用免疫组织化学方法分别检测了cyclin A、cyclin B、cyclin D1、cyclin D3及cyclin E在肝癌、癌旁肝及尸检肝组织的表达率,并分析了肝癌、癌旁肝组织中HBV感染与这5种cyclin表达间的相关性。结果共获得3个肝癌组织芯片蜡块,分别含136、143和148个位点。在273例肝癌组织标本中5种cyclin的阳性表达率分别为cyclin A 52．7％、cyclin B 45．4％、cyclin D1 35．9％、cyclin D3 44．3％和cyclin E 23．1％;在144例癌旁肝组织中分别为8．3％、5．6％、4．9％、6．3％和1．4％;10例尸检肝组织除1例cyclin D1阳性外,其余均为阴性。5种cyclin在肝癌组织中的阳性表达率均显著高于癌旁肝组织(P＜0．01);组织学分级为Ⅱ、Ⅲ级的肝癌组织5种cyclin的表达高于Ⅰ级(P＜0．05);除cyclinA外,伴有门静脉癌栓组的阳性率高于无癌栓组(P＜0．01);HBV感染与cyclin的表达无明显相关性(P＞0．05)。结论各个cyclin在肝癌细胞中呈不同程度的高表达,使癌细胞周期缩短,处于细胞增殖活跃状态,并有利于肝癌细胞的侵袭转移;未发现与HBV感染有关。     

Nacre surface transformation to hydroxyapatite in a phosphate buffer solution

Nacre, also known as mother-of-pearl, constitutes the inner layer of mollusc shells. Nacre is a natural composite material consisting mostly of calcium carbonate in the aragonite crystal form and some organic matter. Previous studies have shown that geological aragonite, coral and nacre can convert hydrothermally to hydroxyapatite (HAP) in phosphate solution by a solid-state topotactic ion-exchange reaction. This conversion typically occurs within the range of 140-260 degrees C, although higher temperatures are possible. In this work, we have found that nacre can transform to HAP in a phosphate buffer solution at room temperature via a surface reaction. The morphology of the nacre-transformed HAP surface was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The HAP surfaces were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS). A layer covered with packed particles was found in contrast to the tablet structure typical of nacre surfaces. XPS and SIMS indicated that the mineral phase of the nacre surface had converted from an aragonite phase to an HAP phase. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) showed that phosphate (PO(4)) bands appeared after nacre was soaked in a phosphate buffer and the intensity of the PO(4) bands increased with exposure time. The FTIR was consistent with XPS and SIMS results. We suggest that this surface reaction occurs by a dissolution-precipitation mechanism. Calcium ions are released from the nacre surface, react with phosphate ions in the buffer solution, and then precipitate as HAP on the nacre surface.