Chinese Med J Peking
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Chinese Med J Peking · Aug 2006
Suppression of experimental osteoarthritis by adenovirus-mediated double gene transfer.
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic and incurable disease, lacking effective treatment. Gene therapy offers a radical different approach to the treatment of arthritis. Even though the etiology of OA remains unclear, there is now considerable evidence to suggest that interleukin-1 (IL-1) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) are the main mediators in the pathogenesis of OA. The goal of this study was to determine the efficacy of local expression of interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra) and soluble tumor necrosis factor-alpha receptor type I (sTNF-RI) by direct adenoviral-mediated intra-articular gene delivery in the rabbit model of osteoarthritis. ⋯ The enhanced therapeutic effects of both antagonists in combination suggest inhibition of multiple inflammatory cytokines may be more efficacious than blockade of either cytokine alone in treating OA.
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Chinese Med J Peking · Aug 2006
Effects of serum of the rats ventilated with high tidal volume on endothelial cell permeability and therapeutic effects of ulinastatin.
With the widespread use of ventilators in treating critically ill patients, the morbidity of ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI) is increasing accordingly. VILI is characterized by a considerable increase in microvascular leakiness and activation of inflammatory processes. In this study we investigated the effects of inflammatory mediators in VILI rat serum on endothelial cytoskeleton and monolayer cellular permeability, as well as the therapeutic effect of ulinastatin, to explore the pathogenesis and the relationship between biotrauma and lung oedema induced by VILI. ⋯ The proinflammatory mediators in the serum of the rats given high tidal volume ventilation increases endothelial permeability by reorganizing actin cytoskeleton, and pretreatment with ulinastatin lessens the permeability by inhibiting of proinflammatory mediators.
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Chinese Med J Peking · Aug 2006
Human neural stem cells promote corticospinal axons regeneration and synapse reformation in injured spinal cord of rats.
Axonal regeneration in lesioned mammalian central nervous system is abortive, and this causes permanent disabilities in individuals with spinal cord injuries. This paper studied the action of neural stem cell (NSC) in promoting corticospinal axons regeneration and synapse reformation in rats with injured spinal cord. ⋯ Human embryonic neural stem cells can promote functional corticospinal axons regeneration and synapse reformation in the injured spinal cord of rats. The action is mainly through the nutritional effect of the stem cells on the spinal cord.
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Writer's cramp is a type of task specific idiopathic focal dystonia and has an incompletely understood pathophysiology. The present study utilized functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate what type of brain activity correlates with writer's cramp and its physiological mechanism. ⋯ Abnormal activations of contralateral basal ganglion, motor cortex and ipsilateral cerebellar hemisphere of the patients with writer's cramp suggest dysfunction of basal ganglion and subcortical-cortical loop might play a pathophysiological role in writer's cramp.
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Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is a noninvasive imaging technique for the assessment of the integrity of cerebral tissues. This study was undertaken to assess the changes of diffusion indices of hippocampal formation (HF) in patients with medial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE). ⋯ DTI could detect hippocampal abnormality in patients with MTLE. This technique may be helpful for preoperative evaluation of such patients.