Initial assessment of α-synuclein structure in platelets

Journal of Thrombosis and Thrombolysis - Over the last few years data from our group have indicated that α-synuclein is important in development of immune cells as well as potentially...     

The molecular and clinical impact of hepatocyte growth factor, its receptor, activators, and inhibitors in wound healing

Wound healing involves a number of cellular and molecular events, many of which are controlled by soluble growth factors. In the process of healing, hepatocyte growth factor, a cytokine known to act as mitogen, motogen, and morphogen, has been postulated to play multiple roles during several stages of this complex biological process. Produced primarily by stromal fibroblasts, hepatocyte growth factor regulates angiogenesis, vascular permeability, cell migration, matrix deposition and degradation, and other biological processes. The current article discusses recent progress in understanding the multiple roles played by this growth factor in tissue repair.     

The influence of sleeping sickness on mortality in two districts of Northern Nigeria

The object of this enquiry was to obtain some idea of the mortality of untreated sleeping sickness in two non-adjacent districts in Northern Nigeria. The method employed was to obtain data, by methodical questioning of every householder, from which the crude death and other rates could be calculated over a preceding period, and be correlated with the known incidence of sleeping sickness. The figures were worked out village by village, and the villages then combined into groups of sufficient size to make the numbers significant.In the first district, Igabi, a close correlation was obtained, the death rate rising from 71.4 per 1,000 with a sleeping sickness incidence of 18.6 per cent., to 104 per 1,000 with a sleeping sickness incidence of 28.6 per cent. In other words an additional death occurred for approximately every additional three people infected. The infantile mortality rate also showed a close correlation with the sleeping sickness incidence. As infants were not found to be infected, this result was unexpected. The reasons for it are discussed. The birth rate showed no definite correlation.In the second district, Kankara, no correlation was found to exist, and the conclusion is drawn that, during the period under review, sleeping sickness was not fatal; the patients must either have harboured a mild chronic infection carrying no threat to life, or have been undergoing spontaneous cure.The clinical types of the cases found are described. They are similar in the two districts, and would not have been suspected of having so different a prognosis.It is pointed out that Igabi lies in the middle of a sleeping sickness belt, and it is suggested that the virulence of the disease in this district may be accounted for by the very free means of communication which exist, and by the movement in the past of large gangs of labour, tending to disseminate many different strains of trypanosome imported from outside. The infection in Kankara, on the other hand, was probably of later, though not very recent, introduction; and as the district is situated on the very edge of the belt and is traversed by no main roads or railways, the possibility of a multiplicity of strains existing is very much less. If this conclusion is correct, it emphasizes the necessity of careful sleeping sickness control measures in areas which may be opened up in the future.The mean birth rate found in Igabi was 64.7 per 1,000; and the mean death rate 84.2. The corresponding figures for Kankara were 44.1 and 23.6. The reliability of these figures is discussed.     

Endothelial and smooth muscle properties of coronary and mesenteric resistance arteries in spontaneously hypertensive rats compared to WKY rats

Summary— To investigate if the functional alterations observed in resistance arteries of spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs) were also present at the coronary level, in vitro experiments were performed in mesenteric resistance arteries (MRA) and in right (RIC) and left interventricular coronary (LIC) arteries taken from 15–25-week-old SHR and age-matched Wistar Kyoto rats WKYs. Using a passive extension protocol, internal diameters corresponding to 100 mmHg intraluminal pressure (D₁₀₀) were determined and vessels were set up to a normalized internal diameter (0.9 D₁₀₀). SHR mesenteric resistance arteries had a significantly smaller diameter compared to WKY arteries, whereas both types of SHR coronary arteries had a greater diameter compared to those of WKY rats. In arteries in the absence of contracting agonist, nitro-L-arginine (NOLA, 100 μM) induced a progressive rise in basal tone, which could be reversed by subsequent addition of L-arginine (100 μM) but not D-arginine (100 μM). When expressed as percent of maximal contractions induced by agonists (noradrenaline, NA [10 μM] in MRA; serotonin, 5-HT [10 μM], in RIC and LIC), these contractions were significantly stronger in WKY compared to SHR coronary and mesenteric resistance arteries. In NA-precontracted MRA and 5HT-precontracted coronary arteries in the presence of indomethacin (10 μM), the magnitude of acetylcholine-induced maximal relaxations (expressed as percent of maximal contractions induced by agonists) was greater in WKY compared to SHR arteries. After a 30-min incubation period, NOLA (100 μM) completely inhibited relaxations induced by acetylcholine (0.01–10 μM) in all types of precontracted arteries. Subsequent additions of sodium nitroprusside, (SNP, 10 μM) induced complete relaxations in all preparations. These results show that a basal release of NO or NO-like compound by endothelial cells is present in isolated mesenteric resistance and coronary arteries of WKY rats and SHRs. The contribution of endothelium-derived relaxing factor-nitric oxide (EDRF-NO) to arterial tone was lower in MRA compared to coronary arteries in both strains and in SHR compared to WKY arteries. In the SHR preparations, the impaired relaxation induced by acetylcholine appeared to be due to a functional alteration of the endothelium in the presence of normal reactivity of the smooth muscle cells.     

麦冬类中药组织切片计算机三维重建图鉴

利用计算机技术实现麦冬类中药组织连续切片三维重建与动态显示,为计算机辅助生药学鉴定和教学提供了新的三维图像技术和研究资料。