保留脊柱后方韧带复合体腰椎管扩大术的基础研究与临床应用

目的评价保留脊柱后方韧带复合体腰椎管扩大术临床疗效及生物力学特征。方法取8个新鲜腰骶椎标本，根据处理方法，分为3组。A组：8个完整腰骶椎标本进行生物力学测定；B组：A组测试后，切除L3-5 3个全椎板，保留后方韧带复合体，即为保留脊柱后方韧带复合体的腰椎管扩大术（改良术式）；C组：B组测试后，将保留的韧带复合体切除，即为传统术式。3组均行轴向压缩实验、三点弯曲实验及扭转实验。2000年6月-2006年6月，收治309例腰椎管狭窄症患者，行保留脊柱后方韧带复合体腰椎管扩大术。其中男152例，女157例；年龄20～80岁，平均57．2岁。病程3个月～41年。单纯腰椎管狭窄症55例；腰椎管狭窄合并腰椎间盘突出症254例，其中合并L4、5椎间盘突出105例，L4～S1椎间盘突出56例，L5、S1椎间盘突出86例，L2、3高位腰椎间盘突出7例。术后采用JOA下腰痛手术疗效评分标准、患者手术满意度及影像学观察进行疗效评定。结果轴向压缩实验：前屈时，A、B组应变、应力、轴向位移均小于C组（P〈0．01）；轴向刚度大于C组（P〈0．01）。后伸时，A、B、C3组间上述指标差异无统计学意义（P〉0．05）。三点弯曲实验：在相同弯矩下，挠度、倾角、弯曲刚度A、C组及B、C组比较，差异均有统计学意义（P〈0．01），A、B组间差异无统计学意义（P〉0．05）。扭转实验：相同扭角条件，B组承载的扭矩大于C组（P〈0．01）；相同扭矩条件，B组扭角小于c组（P〈0．01），B组扭转刚度大于C组（P〈0．01）。临床应用结果：术中神经根牵拉伤7例；术后脑脊液漏5例，伤口感染4例，经处理后痊愈。309例均获随访，随访时间1～7年。根据JOA下腰痛评分标准，JOA评分平均改善率为86．0％；其中优163例，良112例，可34例，优良率89％。X线片未见椎体不稳。患者手术满意度为87％。结论保留脊柱后方韧带复合体腰椎管扩大术有利于保持脊柱的力学稳定性，疗效佳。     

Human embryonic stem cells: research,ethics and policy

The use of human embryos for research on embryonic stem (ES) cells is currently high on the ethical and political agenda in many countries. Despite the potential benefit of using human ES cells in the treatment of disease, their use remains controversial because of their derivation from early embryos. Here, we address some of the ethical issues surrounding the use of human embryos and human ES cells in the context of state-of-the-art research on the development of stem cell based transplantation therapy.     

腰椎体椎间盘的粘弹性性质实验研究

本文重点讨论人体湿润新鲜尸体腰椎体椎间盘的粘弹性性质，实验在不同应变率下测定它的变形规律，以及椎间盘的蠕变，松弛特性，加载与卸载的变化。     

Cryopreservation of ovarian tissue open for discussion

In view of the promising developments in preclinical studies on the cryopreservation of human ovarian tissue offering this technology as a 'fertility insurance' to cancer patients can be justified. This commentary briefly discusses some of the ethical issues involved, including the doctors responsibility regarding the risk of the reintroduction of cancer, the pros and cons of both xenotransplantation and in vitro maturation, parental responsibility in consenting to fertility insurance for minors, and cryopreservation of ovarian tissue of younger, healthy women who wish to postpone fertility.     

Cis-acting sequences from a human surfactant protein gene confer pulmonary-specific gene expression in transgenic mice.

Pulmonary surfactant is produced in late gestation by developing type II epithelial cells lining the alveolar epithelium of the lung. Lack of surfactant at birth is associated with respiratory distress syndrome in premature infants. Surfactant protein C (SP-C) is a highly hydrophobic peptide isolated from pulmonary tissue that enhances the biophysical activity of surfactant phospholipids. Like surfactant phospholipid, SP-C is produced by epithelial cells in the distal respiratory epithelium, and its expression increases during the latter part of gestation. A chimeric gene containing 3.6 kilobases of the promoter and 5'-flanking sequences of the human SP-C gene was used to express diphtheria toxin A. The SP-C-diphtheria toxin A fusion gene was injected into fertilized mouse eggs to produce transgenic mice. Affected mice developed respiratory failure in the immediate postnatal period. Morphologic analysis of lungs from affected pups showed variable but severe cellular injury confined to pulmonary tissues. Ultrastructural changes consistent with cell death and injury were prominent in the distal respiratory epithelium. Proximal components of the tracheobronchial tree were not severely affected. Transgenic animals were of normal size at birth, and structural abnormalities were not detected in nonpulmonary tissues. Lung-specific diphtheria toxin A expression controlled by the human SP-C gene injured type II epithelial cells and caused extensive necrosis of the distal respiratory epithelium. The absence of type I epithelial cells in the most severely affected transgenic animals supports the concept that developing type II cells serve as precursors to type I epithelial cells.     

Impact of binocular integrated visual field defects on healthy related quality of life in glaucoma

To investigate the impact of different types of binocular integrated visual field defects on the quality of life in glaucoma.Ninety-six patients with primary glaucoma were divided into 5 groups with 25, 24, 11, 15, and 21 patients according to types of the binocular integrated visual field (BVF) defects. The criteria for BVF grouping included mild visual field defect in binocular eyes, mild visual field defect in 1 eye and moderate or advanced defect in the other, moderate and non-overlapping visual field defect in both eyes, overlapping and moderate visual field defect in binocular eyes, and severe defect in both eyes, respectively. The visual field (VF) evaluation was based on H-P-A visual field grading system. Visual acuity, visual field tests and Glaucoma Quality of Life-15 Questionnaire (GQL-15) were performed for enrolled patients, and binocular visual field results were integrated. The changes and correlations of the Visual field index values and quality of life scores were compared among the 5 groups. The main factors affecting the quality of life in glaucoma were analyzed by multiple regression analysis.The best binocular integrated visual field index (BVFI) and optimal quality of life were observed in group A. The BVFI of group B was better than that of group C or group D, but the peripheral vision glare and dark adaptation were worse. No significant difference was noted between group C and group D in terms of BVFI. However, the glare and dark adaptation in group C were better than that in group D. The BVFI was the lowest and the quality of life was the worst in group E. In all, BVFI and decibels (dB) values were negatively correlated with GQL-15 scores and positively correlated with patients’ quality of life.Binocular integrated visual field accurately reflects the visual function in glaucoma. Higher binocular integrated visual field indices represent a better quality of life for patients with glaucoma. Mild to moderate synchronous or complementary binocular VF defects had a slight effect on the quality of life, while severe and non-compensated VF loss significantly impacts on quality of life in glaucoma patients.     

General 2.5 power law of metallic glasses

Metallic glass (MG) is an important new category of materials, but very few rigorous laws are currently known for defining its “disordered” structure. Recently we found that under compression, the volume (V) of an MG changes precisely to the 2.5 power of its principal diffraction peak position (1/q₁). In the present study, we find that this 2.5 power law holds even through the first-order polyamorphic transition of a Ce₆₈Al₁₀Cu₂₀Co₂ MG. This transition is, in effect, the equivalent of a continuous “composition” change of 4f-localized “big Ce” to 4f-itinerant “small Ce,” indicating the 2.5 power law is general for tuning with composition. The exactness and universality imply that the 2.5 power law may be a general rule defining the structure of MGs.Metallic glasses (MGs) possess many unique and superior properties, such as extremely high strength, hardness, and corrosion resistance, etc., making them promising metallic materials with widespread applications (1, 2). Thousands of MGs with a wide range of compositions and properties have been synthesized over the past decades. However, so far the development of MGs is mainly based on tedious composition mapping in multicomponent space to pinpoint the combination of elements with optimized glass-forming ability (GFA). This method for development of MGs is a time- and resource-intensive strategy of trial and error which highlights the need for the guidance of a general theory (2, 3). Intensive research effort has been devoted to finding general rules in various MGs to understand the fundamentals and to guide the development of new MGs (4, 5). Quantitative correlations between their properties have been observed. For instance, compressive yield strength and elastic moduli of MGs are found to be intimately connected with their glass transition temperature T_g (6–10), and the ductility, fragility (11, 12), and Poisson’s ratio of MGs are closely related (13–16). The extensive correlations in properties suggest that the disordered MGs may share general rules in their structure. To clarify this scenario, detailed and accurate structural information spanning short range to long range is required. However, the current experimental probes and theories are limited to local structure in MGs (17). Therefore, understanding how the atoms efficiently fill up the 3D space and how this controls the bulk properties of MGs remains a long-standing theoretical challenge (18–23). To date, few general and exact rules regarding structure–property relationships have been established in MGs (23).Encouraging progress on understanding structure–property relationships in MGs has recently been made through the discoveries of the noncubic (2.3 or 2.5) power laws that correlate the principal diffraction peak (PDP) position q₁ with the bulk density ρ or average atomic volume, V_a, i.e., ρ∝(q₁)^D or V_a∝(1/q₁)^D, where D equals ∼2.3 with varying the composition of MGs at ambient pressure (19) or ∼2.5 for tuning the density of MGs with pressure (22, 24). Whereas composition and pressure show similar exponents in the power laws in MGs, composition and pressure are two independent variables for controlling the density (volume) of materials; they usually have dramatically different effects on MGs. For example, pressure is thought to cause only elastic densification in MGs without obvious structural change because of their already densely packed structure; the structure and properties of MGs are very sensitive to even minor compositional variations (25, 26). In addition, to achieve composition change, different samples usually have to be synthesized. And, many other variables are thought to be inevitably involved, making the compositional change complex (23). Therefore, some basic questions have been perplexing to the glass community: Why do “complex” compositional and “simple” pressure power laws show similar exponents? Is there any connection between them? These questions remain unanswered and have been the major obstacle in understanding the nature of these noncubic power laws.To address these questions, a systematic study in the 2D pressure-composition space seems to be required. However, the consistency of the data in this kind of study will be questionable. Alternatively, in the present study, we choose the polyamorphous Ce₆₈Al₁₀Cu₂₀Co₂ MG as a model system. It is well known that Ce-based MG systems show a polyamorphic transition between ∼2 GPa and ∼5 GPa caused by the pressure-induced 4f electron localized-to-itinerant transition (27, 28). During this polyamorphic transition, both the atomic size and the electronegativity of Ce are significantly changed (29). Composition tuning in MGs mainly means the variation of atomic size and electronegativity of components, which controls the formation of MGs (30). Therefore, although nothing changes in the nucleus, for MGs this pressure-induced polyamorphic transition is equivalent to a continuous “composition” change with the 4f-localized “big Ce” gradually substituted by 4f-itinerant “small Ce.” As a result, we are able to vary both pressure and composition of a MG in a well-controlled way for the first time, to our knowledge.     

Pulmonary malformation in transgenic mice expressing human keratinocyte growth factor in the lung.

Expression of human keratinocyte growth factor (KGF/FGF-7) was directed to epithelial cells of the developing embryonic lung of transgenic mice disrupting normal pulmonary morphogenesis during the pseudoglandular stage of development. By embryonic day 15.5(E15.5), lungs of transgenic surfactant protein C (SP-C)-KGF mice resembled those of humans with pulmonary cystadenoma. Lungs were cystic, filling the thoracic cavity, and were composed of numerous dilated saccules lined with glycogen-containing columnar epithelial cells. The normal distribution of SP-C proprotein in the distal regions of respiratory tubules was disrupted. Columnar epithelial cells lining the papillary structures stained variably and weakly for this distal respiratory cell marker. Mesenchymal components were preserved in the transgenic mouse lungs, yet the architectural relationship of the epithelium to the mesenchyme was altered. SP-C-KGF transgenic mice failed to survive gestation to term, dying before E17.5. Culturing mouse fetal lung explants in the presence of recombinant human KGF also disrupted branching morphogenesis and resulted in similar cystic malformation of the lung. Thus, it appears that precise temporal and spatial expression of KGF is likely to play a crucial role in the control of branching morphogenesis during fetal lung development.