Transplantation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells alleviates spinal cord injury via inhibiting Notch signaling.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the mechanism of action by which the bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMMSCs) repair the spinal cord injury (SCI) in rats via the Notch signaling pathway. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 75 male rats aged about 12 weeks old were equally divided into group A (sham operation group), group B (model group), and group C (model group + BMMSCs). The SCI model was established by Allen's method, and the differences in presenilin-1, Hes1 and Notch proteins among the three groups of rats were evaluated via immunohistochemical staining and Western blotting. RESULTS: Group B exhibited a lower Basso, Beattie, and Bresnahan (BBB) score at each time point than group A and group C (p<0.05), and the BBB score in group C was lower than that in group A (p<0.05). According to the average optical density analysis results of the immunohistochemically stained proteins, the optical density of presenilin-1 protein in group A was lower than that in both group B and group C (p<0.05), and group C exhibited a lower optical density of presenilin-1 protein than group B. In group A, the protein expression of Hes1 in the bone marrow tissues of rats was not evident and weakly positive. Compared with that in group A, it was substantially raised (p<0.05), and the strongly positively expressed Hes1 proteins were yellow or dark brown in group B. Compared with that in group B, the color of Hes1 proteins was lighter (p<0.05), and the positive level of Hes1 proteins was lowered in group C. Group A showed inconspicuously positively expressed Notch proteins, group B brown active Notch proteins, while group C several brown Notch proteins. The optical density of Notch proteins in group A was overtly lower than that in group B and group C (p<0.05), and it was significantly lower in group C than that in group B (p<0.05). Additionally, group B had an evidently higher expression level of Notch proteins than the other two groups (p<0.05), and the expression level of Notch proteins in group C was a little higher than that in group A (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: BMMSCs inhibit the Notch signals to promote the proliferation and differentiation of rat neurons, thereby repairing spinal neurons.

Wnt10b promotes growth of hair follicles via a canonical Wnt signalling pathway.

BACKGROUND: Wnt10b (wingless-related mouse mammary tumour virus integration site 10b) plays various roles in a wide range of biological actions, including hair-follicle development. AIM: To assess the roles that Wnt10b plays in postnatal hair-follicle growth. METHODS: Adenovirus vectors AdWnt10b, AdGFP, AdGFP plus AdRFP, AdWnt10b plus AdFrzB, and AdWnt10b plus AdSimBC were co-cultured separately with vibrissae. In situ protein expression of Wnt10b, ß-catenin and Lef1 was determined by immunohistochemistry, and the proliferation status of the hair follicle was detected by 5-bromo-2-deoxyuridine (BrdU) labelling. The presence of Wnt signalling molecules in the three stages of hair-follicle growth was detected by PCR-based microarray. RESULTS: AdWnt10b-infected cells were able to secrete bioactive Wnt10b, and when this was added into the basal medium, the vibrissae grew faster than in control medium or in medium containing canonical Wnt signalling antagonists. The in situ protein expression of Wnt10b was consistent with that of ß-catenin and Lef1. The expression locus of Wnt10b was almost the same as the proliferating cells labelled by BrdU in the anagen hair follicle. CONCLUSIONS: Wnt10b may promote hair-follicle growth by inducing the switch from telogen to anagen via a canonical Wnt signalling pathway to promote the proliferation of matrix cells.

Epidemiology of hand dermatitis among rural nursing students in mainland China: results from a preliminary study.

INTRODUCTION: Although hand dermatitis (HD) is known to affect nursing students worldwide, no studies of this disease have yet been conducted in China. Similarly, rural populations are often neglected in international research. METHODS: A preliminary study of female students from both grades of a hospital-based nursing school was conducted in Hebei Province, China, approximately 280 km south of Beijing. There were 27 students from the 2nd year of the course (47.4%) and 30 students from the 3rd year (52.6%). The study protocol involved an anonymous questionnaire distributed to a convenience sample of both grades from the nursing school. Statistical differences in prevalence by year of study were calculated using Fisher's exact test for discrete variables and One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) for continuous variables. Statistical associations between HD and demographic items were investigated using the chi2 test. Where statistical association with HD were identified, simple logistic regression was also performed to establish a basic risk magnitude. Results were compared with similar populations of student nurses from previous studies in Australia, Japan, Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany. RESULTS: HD prevalence fell from 29.6% in the 2nd year to 13.3% in the 3rd year and averaged 21.1% across both grades. Systemic allergic disease among family members was found to be statistically associated with HD (p < 0.05). Overall, our preliminary study showed that HD probably affects Chinese nursing students at rates similar to that of their Japanese counterparts, but at a higher rate than students in other investigations from Germany, Holland and Australia. The identification of familial allergic disease as a possible risk factor for HD was also novel. CONCLUSION: The investigation was conducted as a preliminary investigation, and as such, our results need to be treated with caution. Further research is recommended to more carefully elucidate the prevalence of HD among larger groups of Chinese nursing students.