Agreement comparison between home and clinic blood pressure measurements in 200 Chinese participants.

Objective: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the agreement, mean difference, prevalence, and control rates of arterial hypertension between clinic (i.e. office) and home blood pressure (BP) measurements in a general population.

Basal LAT-diacylglycerol-RasGRP1 signals in T cells maintain TCRα gene expression.

In contrast to the well-characterized T cell receptor (TCR) signaling pathways that induce genes that drive T cell development or polarization of naïve CD4 T cells into the diverse T(H)1, T(H)2, T(H)17 and T(reg) lineages, it is unclear what signals maintain specific gene expression in mature resting T cells. Resting T cells residing in peripheral lymphoid organs exhibit low-level constitutive signaling. Whereas tonic signals in B cells are known to be critical for survival, the roles of tonic signals in peripheral T cells are unknown.

Improvement of polygalacturonase production at high temperature by mixed culture of Aspergillus niger and Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Catabolic repression in the synthesis of inducible enzymes by glucose, fructose, and intermediates of the glycolytic cycle has been observed in many microorganisms. In order to enhance the polygalacturonase (PG) production of Aspergillus niger GJ-2, Saccharomyces cerevisiae J-1 was inoculated to the medium at 12h of culture, which resulted in a significant improvement of PG production. It was also found that maximum PG activity of 512.

Maternal docosahexaenoic acid feeding protects against impairment of learning and memory and oxidative stress in prenatally stressed rats: possible role of neuronal mitochondria metabolism.

Aims: Docosahexaenoic acid (22:6n-3; DHA) is known to play a critical role in postnatal brain development. However, no study has been performed to investigate its preventive effect on prenatal stress-induced behavioral and molecular alterations in offspring. In the present study, rats were exposed to restraint stress on days 14-20 of pregnancy, three times a day, 2 hours each time; DHA was given at the doses of 100 and 300 mg/kg/day for two weeks.

Month of birth, socioeconomic background and height in rural Chinese men.

This study examines the effects of birth month and socioeconomic factors on height in rural Chinese men. The analysis of sample data of 833 adult men, 18-52 years of age, collected from 600 families in rural Hebei in 2005, shows that adult men born in winter months (November to January) are, on average, 1.04 cm shorter (p<0.

[Medium-term therapeutic evaluation of an uncemented femoral component].

Objective: To study the clinical and radiographic results of tatal hip arthroplasty (THA) with an uncemented femoral component after 6 to 10 years follow-up, and to investigate factors effecting their efficacy.

Methods: From January 2000 to December 2003, 58 patients were treated with primary total hip arthroplasty. Among the patients, 27 patients were male and 31 patients were female, ranging in age from 25 to 73 years, with an average of 56 years.

Improvement of L-valine production at high temperature in Brevibacterium flavum by overexpressing ilvEBNrC genes.

Brevibacterium flavum ATCC14067 was engineered for L: -valine production by overexpression of different ilv genes; the ilvEBN(r)C genes from B. flavum NV128 provided the best candidate for L: -valine production. In traditional fermentation, L: -valine production reached 30.

Heparin-chitosan-coated acellular bone matrix enhances perfusion of blood and vascularization in bone tissue engineering scaffolds.

Currently, the main hurdle in the tissue engineering field is how to provide sufficient blood supply to grafted tissue substitutes in the early post-transplanted period. For three-dimensional, cell-dense, thick tissues to survive after transplantation, treatments are required for hypoxia, nutrient insufficiency, and the accumulation of waste products. In this study, a biomacromolecular layer-by-layer coating process of chitosan/heparin onto a decellularized extracellular bone matrix was designed to accelerate the blood perfusion and re-endothelialization process.

The effects of magnetically labeled rat spleen-originated endothelial progenitor cells on growth of glioma in vivo an experimental study.

Rationale And Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of exogenous endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) on the growth and invasiveness of glioma in vivo to provide an experimental basis for the value and safety of using magnetically labeled EPCs as target vectors to detect early infiltration of glioma.

Materials And Methods: EPCs were collected from the spleens of healthy Sprague-Dawley rats, made EPCs conditioned medium after identification. Four models of Sprague-Dawley rat glioma (60 rats in total) were established as a control and three experimental groups (group A, B, and C).

Cyanidin 3-glucoside attenuates obesity-associated insulin resistance and hepatic steatosis in high-fat diet-fed and db/db mice via the transcription factor FoxO1.

Obesity is a major risk factor for the development of type 2 diabetes, and both conditions are now recognized to possess significant inflammatory components underlying their pathophysiologies. Here, we hypothesized that cyanidin 3-glucoside (C3G), a typical anthocyanin reported to possess potent anti-inflammatory properties, would ameliorate obesity-associated inflammation and metabolic disorders, such as insulin resistance and hepatic steatosis in mouse models of diabesity. Male C57BL/6J obese mice fed a high-fat diet for 12 weeks and genetically diabetic db/db mice at an age of 6 weeks received dietary C3G supplementation (0.

Magnetic resonance imaging targeting of intracranial glioma xenografts by Resovist-labeled endothelial progenitor cells.

Accumulating evidence suggests that endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) play a key role in the development and infiltration of gliomas. Thus, it has been considered that EPCs may be good vehicles for delivering anti-angiogenesis genes for tumor therapy. However, limited means of tracking these cells in vivo has restricted the effective evaluation of the curative effects of genetically modified EPCs in gliomas at different stages.

Left coronary artery-to-right atrium fistula: an evaluation of MSCT angiography before and after transcatheter closure with a PDA occluder.

The MSCT manifestations of a left coronary artery-to-right atrium fistula before and after the transcatheter closure were reported. Before treatment, MSCT showed a dilated left coronary sinus and the dilated left main trunk, which coursed along the coronary sulcus to form the left circumflex artery, draining directly into the right atrium in the left middle part. The fistula was occluded with a PDA occluder.

[The effect of oral alpha-lipoic acid in overweight/obese individuals on brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity and supine blood pressure: a randomized, crossover, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial].

Objective: To investigate the effect of oral alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) supplement on brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV), supine systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) in overweight/obese individuals. An 8-week double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled and cross-over trial with a 4-week washout between cross-over periods.

Methods: Sixty-three males and 40 females aged 22 - 57 years old who met the inclusion criteria as (1) Han ethnicity; (2) 20 - 60 years old; (3) BMI ≥ 25 kg/m(2) and having at least one of the following risk factors: borderline hypertension (130 mm Hg ≤ SBP < 140 mm Hg and/or 85 mm Hg ≤ supine DBP< 90 mm Hg), dyslipidemia (fasting total cholesterol ≥ 5.

Fabrication and cell affinity of biomimetic structured PLGA/articular cartilage ECM composite scaffold.

An ideal scaffold for cartilage tissue engineering should be biomimetic in not only mechanical property and biochemical composition, but also the morphological structure. In this research, we fabricated a composite scaffold with oriented structure to mimic cartilage physiological morphology, where natural nanofibrous articular cartilage extracellular matrix (ACECM) was used to mimic the biochemical composition, and synthetic PLGA was used to enhance the mechanical strength of ACECM. The composite scaffold has well oriented structure and more than 89% of porosity as well as about 107 μm of average pore diameter.

Mesenchymal Stem Cells Overexpressing IFN-β Inhibit Breast Cancer Growth and Metastases through Stat3 Signaling in a Syngeneic Tumor Model.

Unlabelled: We previously demonstrated that mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSC) are recruited to tumors and that IFN-β produced by MSC inhibited tumor growth in xenograft models. Because of a deficient immune system, murine xenograft models cannot fully recapitulate tumor and immune cell interactions during progression. Therefore we investigated the capacity of MSC to migrate to and engraft into primary breast tumor sites and subsequently explore mechanisms of tumor inhibition by MSC-delivered IFN-β in a syngeneic, immunocompetent murine model.

Metal contamination in sediments of the western Bohai Bay and adjacent estuaries, China.

Twelve sediment cores were collected in July 2007 in open waters of western Bohai Bay, the Port of Tianjin, and the adjacent estuaries of the Haihe and Yongding Rivers. While overall concentrations of trace metals at incremental depths in these cores met the Marine Sediment Quality (GB18668-2002) criteria of China, the magnitude of both metal enrichment factors (EF) and geoaccumulation indices (I(geo)) suggested that pollution with Ag, Cd, Cr, Cu and Zn was occurring in the estuaries and Port. Risk analysis also suggested that Ag and Ni concentrations were sufficiently elevated as to cause adverse biological effects in the study area.

A tale of two TRAPs: LAT and LAB in the regulation of lymphocyte development, activation, and autoimmunity.

Transmembrane adaptor proteins (TRAPs) link antigen receptor engagement to downstream cellular processes. Although these proteins typically lack intrinsic enzymatic activity, they are phosphorylated on multiple tyrosine residues following lymphocyte activation, allowing them to function as scaffolds for the assembly of multi-molecular signaling complexes. Among the many TRAPs that have been discovered in recent years, the LAT (linker for activation of T cells) family of adaptor proteins plays an important role in the positive and negative regulation of lymphocyte maturation, activation, and differentiation.

[Research on a special model of nerve impulse propagation].

Hodgkin-Huxley (HH) nerve model is a famous model which is used to describe nerve impulse propagation in nerve fibre. FitzHugh-Nagumo (FHN) model is a simplification of HH model, and Huxley equation is a special case of FHN equation. It has been shown that Huxley equation possesses the basic characteristics of nerve model.

MRI quantitative study and pathologic analysis of crush injury in rabbit hind limb muscles.

Background: To explore the value of quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (i.e., T2 map technique) in the diagnosis of crush injury in rabbit hind limb muscles.

[Influence of estradiol on tryptophan hydroxylase and 5-hydroxytryptamine content in raphe nuclei of rats under forced swimming stress].

Objective: To investigate the effect of estradiol (E2) on tryptophan hydroxylase (TPH) and 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) content in raphe nuclei of rats under forced swimming stress and explore the role of estrogen and stress in disease mechanism of depression in women.

Methods: At Week 3 post-ovariectomy, 35 ovariectomized (OVX) female SD rats were randomly divided into 5 groups (n = 7): non-stress group, control group, estradiol (E2) group and fluoxetine (FLX) group and E2 plus FLX group. Animals were administered with different drugs for 2 weeks.

Phase I study of sorafenib in patients with refractory or relapsed acute leukemias.

Unlabelled: Background Sorafenib is a multi-kinase inhibitor with activity against fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 with internal tandem duplication mutation and Raf kinase among others. A phase I dose escalation study of sorafenib was conducted in patients with advanced myelodysplastic syndrome and relapsed or refractory acute leukemias.

Design And Methods: Fifty patients received one of two different schedules; Schedule "A": once or twice daily, five days per week, every week for a 21 day cycle, and Schedule "B": once or twice daily, for 14 days every 21 days.

The relationship between p27(kip1) expression and the change of radiosensitivity of esophageal carcinoma cells.

Objective: Radioresistance is considered the main reason for therapeutic failure in radiotherapy of esophageal carcinoma. However, the underlying mechanisms of radioresistance remain elusive. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between p27(kip1) expression and the change of radiosensitivity of esophageal carcinoma cells.

Improvement of L-lactic acid production by osmotic-tolerant mutant of Lactobacillus casei at high temperature.

L-Lactic acid production by Lactobacillus casei was used as a model to study the mechanism of substrate inhibition and the strategy for enhancing L-lactic acid production. It was found that the concentration of cell growth and L-lactate decreased with the increase of glucose concentration and fermentation temperature. To enhance the osmotic stress resistance of the strain at high temperature, a mutant G-03 was screened and selected with 360 g/L glucose at 45°C as the selective criterion.

The importance of LAT in the activation, homeostasis, and regulatory function of T cells.

LAT (linker for activation of T cells) is a transmembrane adaptor protein that plays an essential role in TCR-mediated signaling and thymocyte development. Because LAT-deficient mice have an early block in thymocyte development, we utilized an inducible system to delete LAT in primary T cells to study LAT function in T cell activation, homeostasis, and survival. Deletion of LAT caused primary T cells to become unresponsive to stimulation from the TCR and impaired T cell homeostatic proliferation and long term survival.