谷氨酸诱导体外培养的鸡胚脊髓神经细胞释放NO

用鸡胚脊髓神经细胞的原代培养,测定细胞中亚硝酸盐的含量,研究了谷氨酸(Glu)对原代培养神经细胞中NO的影响。结果表明,谷氨酸作用于原代培养的鸡胚脊髓神经细胞,在诱导神经细胞释放乳酸脱氢酶(LDH)的同时,还可诱导细胞释放一氧化氮(NO)。如先用NO合成酶抑制剂L-NOARG作用细胞,再加入Glu,则发现L-NOARG能降低Glu导致的培养液中LDH活性升高。提示NO可能参与介导Glu的神经毒性作用。     

Effects of hydro-ethanolic extract of leaves of Maesa lanceolata (Mursinaceae) on acetic acid-induced ulcerative colitis in rats

Inflammopharmacology - Ulcerative colitis is a form of inflammatory bowel disease that is characterized by acute and chronic inflammation. The aim of this work was to evaluate the efficacy of...     

Colonic motility diagnosis based on colonic pressure

Manometry of the alimentary tract is a valuable and widely used means to evaluate and diagnose the function of the alimentary tract. However, the measurement can be inconvenient due to the invasive method used, and the many factors affecting results. Research on colonic pressure data is even more insufficient. This paper deals with colonic pressure data via an improved method ensuring that pressure data of the whole colon is available. The data is analysed based on the learning vector quantization (LVQ) method. Testing results show that this method distinguishes the normal data and the abnormal data, consistently with the original diagnoses. This method can serve as an assistant diagnosis of colonic motility and contributes to further research on colonic motility based on pressure data.     

mantisGRID: A Grid Platform for DICOM Medical Images Management in Colombia and Latin America

This paper presents the mantisGRID project, an interinstitutional initiative from Colombian medical and academic centers aiming to provide medical grid services for Colombia and Latin America. The mantisGRID is a GRID platform, based on open source grid infrastructure that provides the necessary services to access and exchange medical images and associated information following digital imaging and communications in medicine (DICOM) and health level 7 standards. The paper focuses first on the data abstraction architecture, which is achieved via Open Grid Services Architecture Data Access and Integration (OGSA-DAI) services and supported by the Globus Toolkit. The grid currently uses a 30-Mb bandwidth of the Colombian High Technology Academic Network, RENATA, connected to Internet 2. It also includes a discussion on the relational database created to handle the DICOM objects that were represented using Extensible Markup Language Schema documents, as well as other features implemented such as data security, user authentication, and patient confidentiality. Grid performance was tested using the three current operative nodes and the results demonstrated comparable query times between the mantisGRID (OGSA-DAI) and Distributed mySQL databases, especially for a large number of records.     

Ho-YAG laser endoscopic treatment of ureteral strictures

Ho-YAG-laser radiation with wave length 2.09 microns is a perspective line in high-energy laser treatment of urinary diseases. The authors have performed 24 operations in 23 patients with ureteral strictures. The antegrade approach was used in 11 patients while the retrograde one in 12 cases. Primary or secondary strictures occurred in 8 and 15 patients, respectively. Dissection and ablation of the scar tissues were conducted in 15 patients with secondary strictures. Cut of the stricture only was made in 8 patients with primary strictures. Ho-YAG-laser endoscopic treatment of secondary and primary ureteral strictures reached 93.3%(14 patients) and 75%(6 patients), respectively. Overall efficacy was 88.2%(20 patients). Ho-YAG-laser endopyeloplasty promoted quicker recovery of urodynamic and functional parameters of the upper urinary tract.     

K-ras codon 12 mutation induces higher level of resistance to apoptosis and predisposition to anchorage-independent growth than codon 13 mutation or proto-oncogene overexpression

The position of the point mutation in the c-K-ras gene appears associated with different degrees of aggressiveness in human colorectal tumors. In addition, colon tumors carrying K-ras codon 12 mutations associate with lower levels of apoptosis than tumors lacking this mutation. To test the hypothesis of a distinct transforming capacity of different K-ras forms in an in vitro system, we generated stable transfectants of NIH3T3 cells expressing a plasmid containing K-ras mutated at codon 12 (K12) or at codon 13 (K13), or overexpressing the K-ras proto-oncogene (Kwt-oe). We evaluated changes in morphology, proliferative capacity, contact inhibition, and predisposition to apoptosis and anchorage-independent growth in K12, K13, and Kwt-oe transformants. In addition, we studied alterations in expression and/or activation of proteins that participate in signal transduction downstream of Ras or are involved in the regulation of apoptosis and cell-cell (E-cadherin and beta-catenin) and cell-substrate (focal adhesion kinase) interactions. We observed that K13 or Kwt-oe transformants died synchronically 24-48 h after reaching confluency. Their death was apoptotic. In contrast, K12 grew, forming bigger colonies with higher cell densities; and before reaching confluency, spontaneously formed spheroids and showed no sign of apoptosis. The enhanced resistance to apoptosis, loss of contact inhibition, and predisposition to anchorage-independent growth in the K12 transformants were associated with higher AKT/protein kinase B activation, bcl-2, E-cadherin, beta-catenin, and focal adhesion kinase overexpression, and RhoA underexpression, whereas the increased sensitivity of K13 or Kwt-oe transformants to apoptosis was associated with increased activation of the c-Jun-NH2-terminal kinase 1 pathway. All transformants showed a similar overactivation of mitogen-activated protein kinases and levels of bax expression similar to the endogenous level. Therefore, in our in vitro model, the localization of the mutation in the K-ras gene predisposes to a different level of aggressiveness in the transforming phenotype. K12 may increase aggressiveness not by altering proliferative pathways, but by the differential regulation of K-Ras downstream pathways that lead to inhibition of apoptosis, enhanced loss of contact inhibition, and increased predisposition to anchorage-independent growth. These results offer a molecular explanation for the increased aggressiveness of the tumors with K-ras codon 12 mutations observed in the clinical setting.