Ginkgo biloba extract enhances c-jun expression and attenuates motoneuron death induced by root avulsion

AIM: To investigate the influence of Ginkgo biloba extract (EGb761) on c-jun expressions and motoneurons survival following root avulsion. METHODS: One hundred and eighty adult Sprague-Dawley female rats were randomly divided into control and EGb761 groups. Immediately after avulsion of C5-T1 nerve roots, the rats were injected ip with either 1 mL of EGb761 25 mg·kg^-1·d^-1 or the same volume of normal saline, and the treatment repeated everyday. At 4 h to 6 weeks following avulsion, the C7 spinal segments of all rats were collected and prepared for c-jun immunocytochemistry and neutral red stain. The numbers of c-jun positive and survival motoneurons were counted and compared between two groups at each time point. RESULTS: In control rats following avulsion, c-jun positive motoneurons appeared at 4 h, reached its maximum at 1 d and declined to 2 weeks. Avulsion-induced motoneurons death started at 2 weeks, climbed to its maximum at 4 weeks-6 weeks. In EGb761 treated rats, both numbers of c-jun positive and survival motoneurons were more than that in control group at each time point. CONCLUSION: EGb761 attenuates avulsion-induced motoneurons death, and this effect may be related to up-regulation of c-jun gene in avulsed motoneurons.     

Nitric oxide-mediated the cardioprotection of tumor necrosis factor-alpha on cultured neonatal rat cardiomyocytes during hypoxia/reoxygenation

AIM: To investigate the role of nitric oxide synthase (NOS), soluble guanylyl cyclase (sGC) and protein kinase C (PKC) signaling in tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α)-induced cardioprotection against hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R) injury. METHODS: Neonatal rat ventricular myocytes were pretreated with TNF-α or sodium nitroprusside (SNP) or L-arginine (L-Arg), respectively, for 12 h and then subjected to continuous hypoxia for 12 h, followed by reoxygenation for 6 h. The manganese superoxide dismutase (Mn-SOD) activity of the cells was measured after H/R. Myocyte injury was determined by the release of lactic dehydrogenase (LDH). RESULTS: TNF-α (10⁵ U/L) significantly increased the Mn-SOD activity and decreased release of LDH from ventricular myocytes. The cardioprotection against H/R injury was induced by the pretreatment with SNP (5 μmol/L) or L-Arg (5 mmol/L), which was blocked by ODQ (10 μmol/L), the specific sGC inhibitor, and Chel (5 μmol/L), the specific PKC inhibitor. Pretreatment with L-NAME (100 μmol/L), ODQ, Chel, antoxidant 2-MPG (400 μmol/L) or tyrosine kinase inhibitor genistein (50 μmol/L) attenuated the increased Mn-SOD activity and reduced LDH level induced by TNF-α. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that NO may play a role in TNF-α-induced cardioprotection, which is mediated by sGC and PKC.     

Changes of potassium currents in rabbit ventricle with healed myocardial infarction

AIM: To elucidate the mechanism of arrhythmia in healed myocardial infarction (HMI), and to investigate the changes of action potential duration (APD),transient outward potassium current (I_to), delayed rectifier potassium current (I_K) and inward rectifier potassium current (I_K1) of left ventricular myocytes in noninfarcted zone of HMI. METHODS: 12 rabbits were randomly assigned in two groups: HMI group (thoracotomy and ligation of the circumflex coronary); sham-operated group (thoracotomy but no conorary ligation). 3 months after operation, whole cell patch clamp technique was used to record APD, I_to, I_K and I_K1 of ventricular myocytes in non-infarcted zone. RESULTS: Membrane capacitance was larger in HMI group than that in sham-operated group. Action potential duration was lengthened significantly in HMI group and early after depolarization (EAD) appeared in HMI group. The densities of I_to, I_K,tail and I_K1 were reduced significantly in HMI group (P<0.01), from (6.72±0.42) pA/pF, (1.54±0.13) pA/pF and (25.6±2.6) pA/pF in Sham-operated group to (4.03±0.33) pA/pF, (1.14±0.11) pA/pF and (17.6±2.3) pA/pF, respectively. CONCLUSION: The reduced densities of I_to, I_K,tail and I_K1 in ventricular myocytes of non-infarcted zone in HMI are responsible for the prolongation of APD and the presentation of EAD, which play important roles in the malignant arrhythmia of HMI.     

胡杨内生真菌曲霉(Aspergillus sp.)链格孢(Alternaria sp.)的生理特性

采用接种法 ,对胡杨内生真菌曲霉 ( Aspergillus sp.)和链格孢 ( Alternaria sp.)在不同温度、p H、碳源、氮源、培养基及糖质量浓度下进行了生理实验研究。结果表明 :温度对两种菌株的生长和孢子产生具有明显的影响 ;曲霉 ( Aspergillus sp.) p H5～ 6时生长良好 ,而链格孢 ( Alternaria sp.) p H为 4～ 5时菌株生长良好 ,两种菌株均以蔗糖为主要碳源 ;菌丝干质量与培养基质量浓度呈正向关系。     

中国北方沙尘天气原因探讨

我国是沙尘暴易发的国家,进入20世纪90年代以来,强沙尘暴有频率增加、强度加大、范围扩展、危害程度加剧的趋势。沙尘暴的发生危害范围亦逐渐从西北干旱经济落后区扩展到经济发达的北京、天津及华北平原区,近年来的沙尘暴造成了社会经济和人民生命财产的重大损失。受大气环流场和季风气候类型影响,中国冬、春盛吹西北风,强劲而干燥。发生沙尘暴的天数与大风日数和地面热力稳定程度相关,3-5月中国西北内陆地表增温大,是风力场和热力场极不稳定的季节,地表气候容易发生蠕动,沙尘暴便由此启动并易发。除自然要素外,不合理的人类活动也将诱发沙尘暴天气的发生,有些情况下还起到比自然要素更重要的作用。从生态地理区域的角度看,沙尘暴的源地在干旱和半干旱地区,由于大气环流的作用,影响到下风向的半湿润甚至湿润地区。无论何地干旱、半干旱地区都将存在沙尘暴发生的自然条件,而其下风向必将受到不同程度的影响,只是因为中国的季风气候,决定西北干旱、半干旱地区发生的沙尘暴必然影响东南部地区。在现有的科学技术条件下,人类所能做的就是调节自身的行为。因此,在沙尘暴源地实施生态建设是减缓沙尘暴发生的最重要措施,也是消除东部城市沙尘天气的主要途径。根据生态地理区域的特征,沙尘暴源地的干旱区、半干?     

兰州市SO_2污染控制区优化规划方案的探讨

根据《大气法》第二十七条关于划定酸雨控制区和SO2 污染控制区的规定 ,为使兰州市SO2 控制区达到环境质量目标的要求 ,本文以 98年的污染源资料和气象资料为模拟对象 ,利用大气扩散模式 ,通过各个污染源对每个控制点浓度分担率的计算 ,以污染源的总削减两最小 (总排放量最大 )或总削减率最小为优化目标 ,列出了几种优化方案并利用线性规划的方法对各种结果进行了对比分析。为了使最终的优化结果切实可行 ,将点源的上界乘一经济技术指标值 ,既可以使控制区达到环境质量目标值 ,又充分体现了公平合理的原则。     

Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells are induced to differentiate into cardiomyocytes by hepatocyte growth factor in vitro

AIM: To explore a new method of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) inducing bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) to differentiate into cardiomyocytes. METHODS: Bone marrow MSC was cultured with DMEM media (10% fetal calf serum) 4-6 passages, and induced by HGF (10 μg/L) for 30 d. Automatical beating of the differentiated cells was observed daily with transverse microscopy, or under condition of 0.1% isoproterenol or cal-cium-deprived incubation. Specific cardiac myosin in the cells was indentified by immunochemistry. RESULTS: At 14-20 d of differentiation, bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells formed clones, in 10%-50% of which spontaneous beating cell-mass had come to continuously exist. Isoproterenol increased the beating rate and calcium-deprived media inhibited the beating. The cells were identified to be cardiomyocytes by expression of cardiac myosin heavy chain. CONCLUSION: HGF may induce bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells into cardiomyocytes with high efficiency, but the differentiating pathway of stem cells remains to be further studied.     

Advances in studying the differentiation into neurons of mesenchymal stem cells and their application

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are a population of multipotent cells that can proliferate and differentiate into marrow and non-marrow cell types, such as adipocytes, chondrocytes, myocytes, and so on. In recent years, many researchers have studied whether MSCs are capable of differentiation into neurons in vivo and ex vivo. The result that MSCs-derived neurons express NSE and NF, but don't express GFAP suggests MSCs can differentiate into neurons, some researchers have achieved success in promoting functional recovery in Pakinsons and transactional spinal cord injury rat models by use of MSCs-derived neurons. Therefore, MSCs-derived neurons will play an important role in the therapy for a variety of diseases of the nervous system.     

秦巴山区养羊户适度经营规模的研究

通过对秦巴山区陕西省西乡县15个典型陕南白山羊养殖专业户的资金投入、羊群结构、草地资源、经济效益等情况的调查，分析了养羊户的资源利用和生产经营状况，确定了与山羊生产密切相关的12个变量，即种公羊数、基础母羊数、后备母羊数、育肥羊数、羊舍面积、草地补种及施肥费用、医杂费、氨化或青贮饲料量、补饲精料量、工作日、投资额，并确定了各变量的参数值，以利润最大为目标函数，然后运用线性规划模型，计算出不同投资、不同人力及草地资源等条件下的适度经营规模。结果表明，养羊户的投资额是决定适度规模的主要因素。根据投资和羊群基础母羊数量设计的三种典型经营条件下，基础母羊全部留种的经营方式可获最大投资收益率(140．1％)；基础母羊数量达到20只以上，自繁种公羊的经营方式的最大投资收益率为74．0％；资金有限，人工授精配种的经营方式的投资收益率最低，为73．1％。     

三江白猪线粒体DNA-RFLP的分析

采用22种限制性内切酶分析了三江白猪线粒体DNA的多态性。结果表明：在60头个体中检出30种限制性态型．归结为7种基因单倍型；其间的差异来自少数限制性位点的突变。单倍型间平均遗传距离为0．35%，群体遗传多态程度为0．044％。三江白猪遗传多样性非常贫乏，说明三江白猪与地方种猪起源于一个共同祖先，在品种形成早期受到创立者效应的制约。