Early exposure of rotating magnetic fields promotes central nervous regeneration in planarian Girardia sinensis.

Magnetic field exposure is an accepted safe and effective modality for nerve injury. However, it is clinically used only as a supplement or salvage therapy at the later stage of treatment. Here, we used a planarian Girardia sinensis decapitated model to investigate beneficial effects of early rotary non-uniform magnetic fields (RMFs) exposure on central nervous regeneration. Our results clearly indicated that magnetic stimulation induced from early RMFs exposure significantly promoted neural regeneration of planarians. This stimulating effect is frequency and intensity dependent. Optimum effects were obtained when decapitated planarians were cultured at 20 °C, starved for 3 days before head-cutting, and treated with 6 Hz 0.02 T RMFs. At early regeneration stage, RMFs exposure eliminated edema around the wound and facilitated subsequent formation of blastema. It also accelerated cell proliferation and recovery of neuron functionality. Early RMFs exposure up-regulated expression of neural regeneration related proteins, EGR4 and Netrin 2, and mature nerve cell marker proteins, NSE and NPY. These results suggest that RMFs therapy produced early and significant benefit in central nervous regeneration, and should be clinically used at the early stage of neural regeneration, with appropriate optimal frequency and intensity.

[High sensitivity conherent anti-stokes Raman scattering for linearly probing low concentration materials].

The authors made a theoretical analysis and experiment research on the relation of time-resolved coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (T-CARS) intensity and the sample concentrations in this paper. It was proved experimentally that the T-CARS intensity is quadratic at the concentration higher than 35%, but is linear with the sample concentration at the concentration lower than 20%, which fits with theoretical analysis. And the research results correct inaccurate previous perceptions, which is conducive to better interpretation and application of the CARS process. The linear relation between the intensity of the CARS with the sample concentration at low concentrations indicates that the CARS is allowed for direct and precise concentration measurements, therefore it will be of great importance in biology and biochemistry.

[A method of obtaining vibrational dephasing time of molecular multi-vibrational modes simultaneously].

In the present paper, the authors used the time-resolved coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) spectroscopy based on supercontinuum developed by ourselves to acquire simultaneously the molecular vibration spectrum and vibrational dephasing time of the molecular various vibrational modes. Using benzonitrile as the sample, the authors measured its vibrational relaxation processes at its five typical vibrational modes and obtained their vibrational dephasing time respectively. In the experiment, the authors also found the phenomenon that oscillations appear in the vibrational dephasing of plane bending vibration mode of benzene ring in benzonitrile, which was caused by superposition of the two adjacent normal vibrational modes excited simultaneously. After mixing benzonitrile with anhydrous ethanol, the authors also measured their vibrational dephasing time. This method is capable of monitoring the changes of the molecular characteristics and its micro-environment, therefore it will find widespread applications in biology, chemistry and materials science.

[Characterization of biocompatible CdTe/znte quantum dots and its application in cell labeling].

Water-soluble CdTe/ZnTe core-shell quantum dots (QDs) coated with L-cysteine were synthesized in low-temperature aqueous-phase one-pot approach. The authors measured the spectral characteristics of QDs at different pH in various buffer solutions and under different excitation laser powers. The primary results show that the absorption spectra of QDs approximately overlap and the fluorescence spectra peaks have no shift in different pH solution. The fluorescence intensity increased linearly with increasing pH. With the incubation time in borate buffer solution, the fluorescence intensity decreased a little. Under strong power laser, the QDs were photobleached rapidly. However, QDs are strongly anti-photobleaching under appropriate laser power (< 100 microW). Thus, such QDs have good biological stability and optical stability. By conjugating the QDs with transferrin protein and constructing the targeted fluorescent nanoparticles, the authors labelled the HeLa cell successfully. Photobleaching experiments in vivo show that microenvironment inside cells affect the stability and accelerate the photobleaching of QDs.

The morphology of DNA solution in an open fluidic channel studied by non-contact AFM.

The morphologies of pure buffer solution and DNA-containing solution in an open fluidic channel with rectangle cross section (1 microm in width and 150 nm in depth) have been explored using non-contact AFM. A remarkable feature is that a uniform nano-scale trench (approximately 15 nm deep and 14 microm long) on the surface of the DNA solution has been observed. The presence of two neighboring stretched DNA molecules near the solution surface may be responsible for the configuration of the nanotrench. This new phenomenon of partially stretched DNA molecules is likely to be useful for the future designing of fluidic devices, and for the manipulation and study of single DNA molecules.

Obligate anaerobic Salmonella typhimurium strain YB1 treatment on xenograft tumor in immunocompetent mouse model.

The present authors have previously reported a novel approach to genetically engineer Salmonella typhimurium for the medically important therapeutic strategy of using bacterial agents to target malignant tumors in a breast cancer tumor-bearing nude mouse model. However, studying an immunocompromised mouse model for cancer therapy is insufficient, as certain crucial information about the influence of the immune system may be missing. In the present study, inoculation of the Salmonella strain, YB1, into a colon cancer tumor-bearing immunocompetent mouse model was investigated. The present study determined the tumor targeting efficiency, antitumor potential, the effects of multiple treatments and the systemic toxicity. Intravenous inoculation of YB1 in BALB/c mice exhibited high antitumor effects and also greatly increased the tumor targeting ability and safety compared with the previously-reported nude mouse model. In addition, repeated administration of YB1 further enhanced this effect. Furthermore, no marked toxicity was observed with YB1 treatment, while the VNP20009 and SL7207 strains demonstrated certain adverse effects. The findings of the present study indicate that the YB1 strain is effective and safe in targeting a colon cancer tumor in an immunocompetent mouse model.