[Study of functional magnetic resonance imaging repeatability of linguistic-functional cortex].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the reproducibility and stability of brain functional area in the response of language tasks during Chinese word processing with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) by follow-up scanning so as to provide rationales for clinical preoperative localization and the mechanisms of recovery from aphasia. METHODS: The fMRI data were collected by scanning semantic and phonologic judgments in 15 healthy volunteers. Each subject was scanned twice by the same fMRI procedure of both language tasks with an interval of 1 month. By analyzing the effective overlapping average activation maps, the reproducibility of inter-subject imaging result for two language tasks were estimated by selecting the main language areas, such as Broca's area and Wernicke's area as the region of interest (ROI). By individually calculating the spatial distance of ROI centroid coordinates in the same activating range before and after test, the inter-subject stability in between-session was calculated quantitatively. RESULTS: Both language tasks activated more than one language-related brain areas in cerebral hemispheres. Both language tasks induced significant BOLD response in Broca's and Wernicke's areas with a tendency of left lateralization. The number of subjects in terms of the activation of both language tasks in Broca's and Wernicke's areas accounted over a half of the total subjects. As compared with the phonologic judgment task, the semantic judgment task showed better reproducibility in Broca's area. In the same spatial distance of ROI centroid coordinates, the stability of Broca's area was higher than that of Wernicke's area while the stability of semantic judgment in Broca's area higher than that of phonologic judgment. CONCLUSION: Such main language domains as Broca's and Wernicke's areas can be effectively activated by both semantic and phonologic judgments. By comparison, semantic judgment in Broca's area shows a higher level of reproducibility and stability. Thus it is applicable for clinical preoperative localization and the mechanisms of recovery from aphasia.

[Effect of Xianlong granules on immunological function in rats of adjuvant arthritis].

OBJECTIVE: To study the effect of Xianlong granules (XLG) on immunological function in the rat of adjuvant arthritis (AA). METHOD: Rats were randomly divided into normal group, AA model group, prednisone group and low, middle and high dose XLG groups, 10 rats in each group. All rats were treated by intragastric administration from the 18 days after arthritis was induced by the complete Freud's adjuvant and the effect of XLG on toes swelling was observed. On the 30th days after modeling, proliferation of the splenic and thymic lymphocytes, and IgG secreted by splenocytes were detected respectively by MTT assay and ELISA. RESULT: Compared with the model group, both the high and middle dose XLG groups had significant therapeutic effects on toes dwelling in the rat of AA (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01); The low, middle and high dose XLG groups strengthened the PHAM-inhibited proliferation of splenic lymphocytes (P < 0.05), and inhibited the PHAM-augmented proliferation of thymic lymphocytes (P < 0.05); XLG did not significantly effect on IgG level secreted by splenocytes in rats of AA. CONCLUSION: XLG can cure toes swelling in rats of AA, which is related with regulation of the abnormal immunlological function.

Expression profiles of genes involved in apoptosis and selenium metabolism in articular cartilage of patients with Kashin-Beck osteoarthritis.

Kashin-Beck disease (KBD) is a special type of endemic osteoarthritis. It has been suggested that alterations in selenium metabolism and apoptosis play a role in KBD. However, the underlying molecular mechanism remains largely unclear. We performed a microarray analysis using RNA isolated from cartilages of KBD patients and healthy controls, through Significance Analysis of Microarray (SAM) software. Functional gene networks and crucial molecules associated with differentially expressed genes were investigated via Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) and hub gene analysis. Quantitative real-time PCR was used to check the validation of chip test. We identified 52 up-regulated apoptosis-related genes and 26 down-regulated selenium-related genes between KBD and controls, and these genes associated with the "MYC-mediated apoptosis signaling pathway". We confirmed the results from array studies with quantitative real-time PCR analysis. Our results suggest that abnormal regulation of selenium metabolism and apoptosis through the MYC mediated signaling pathway contributes to the pathogenesis of KBD, but the relationship between apoptosis gene and selenium gene was not found.

Association of TNF-α and Fas gene promoter polymorphism with the risk of Kashin-Beck disease in Northwest Chinese population.

The objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and Fas genes and Kashin-Beck disease (KBD) in Shaanxi province, Northwest in China. Blood samples of 388 residents were collected from 14 KBD villages in Linyou and Yongshou counties, Shaanxi, Northern of China. One hundred eighty-six cases with KBD and 202 cases of health in KBD areas were diagnosed by "Diagnosis Criterion of Kashin-Beck disease in China (WS/T207- 2010)". The TNF-α -308G/A, TNF-α -238G/A, and Fas -670A/G SNPs were determined by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism in combination with sequence analysis in KBD and healthy control groups. The genotypes and allele frequencies distribution of these SNPs were then analyzed. TNF-α -308A allele frequency in KBD patients were significantly higher than that in healthy controls. Although TNF-α -238 genotypes and allele frequencies were not significantly different between KBD patients and the healthy controls, GA genotype and A allele frequency in KBD patients were higher than those in healthy controls. The TNF-α -308G/A SNPs were associated with the susceptibility of KBD.