Protocol update for late endothelial progenitor cells identified by double-positive staining.

Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs), which are precursors of endothelial cells (ECs), have the capacity to circulate, proliferate and differentiate into mature ECs. EPCs are primarily identified by the uptake of 1,1-dioctadecyl-3,3,3,3-tetramethylindocarbocyanine-labelled acetylated low-density lipoprotein (Dil-acLDL) and the binding of fluorescein-isothiocyanate (FITC)-conjugated Ulex europaeus agglutinin lectin (FITC-UEA-I). However, the cytoplasm and nucleus are usually stained by FITC-UEA-I via a typical method to double-stain late EPCs. It is necessary to explore a new method to improve the quality of fluorescence photomicrographs of late EPCs stained with FITC-UEA-I. Here, we described an updated protocol for double-staining late EPCs with Dil-acLDL and FITC-UEA-I, with the cells more optimally stained with FITC-UEA-I.

Spinal cord infarction presenting as Brown-Séquard syndrome from spontaneous vertebral artery dissection: a case report and literature review.

BACKGROUND: Spinal cord infarction (SCI) is rarely caused by vertebral artery dissection (VAD), which is an important cause of posterior circulation stroke in young and middle-aged patients. We report the case of a middle-aged patient without obvious risk factors for atherosclerosis who had SCI from right VAD. CASE PRESENTATION: An otherwise healthy 40-year-old man presented with acute right-sided body weakness. Six days earlier, he had experienced posterior neck pain without obvious inducement. Neurologic examination revealed a right Brown-Séquard syndrome. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the head was normal. Further, cervical spine MRI showed spinal cord infarction (SCI) on the right at the C1-C3 level. Three-dimensional high-resolution MRI (3D HR-MRI) volumetric isotropic turbo spin echo acquisition (VISTA) scan showed evidence of vertebral artery dissection (VAD). The patient was significantly relieved of symptoms and demonstrated negative imaging findings after therapy with anticoagulation (AC) and antiplatelets (AP) for 3 months. CONCLUSIONS: The possibility of vertebral artery dissection (VAD) should be considered in the case of young and middle-aged patients without obvious risk factors for atherosclerosis. Furthermore the VISTA black blood sequence plays an important role in the pathological diagnosis of vertebral artery stenosis. Early correct diagnosis and active therapy are crucial to the prognosis.

Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio in Chinese Han population from Chaoshan region in South China.

BACKGROUND: Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) are assumed to be prognostic factors in many diseases such as inflammatory diseases, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. However, NLR and PLR are race specific, it is important to determine the reference values of NLR and PLR in different races. The study aimed to investigate the reference range of NLR and PLR in Chinese Han population from Chaoshan region in South China. METHODS: A retrospective study was conducted in the First Affiliated Hospital of Shantou University Medical College in South China. Five thousand healthy adults aged 20-69 years were included. NLR and PLR were determined. RESULTS: Of 5000 healthy adults, 2500 men and 2500 women were included. The mean NLR and PLR across all ages for men and women were 1.59 ± 0.59, 92.88 ± 28.70, 1.62 ± 0.64 and 108.02 ± 32.99, respectively. The 95% reference range of NLR in normal male and female are 0.43~2.75 and 0.37~2.87, PLR are 36.63~149.13 and 43.36~172.68, respectively. The female had a higher NLR at age 30~49 than the male while the NLR at age 60~69 was higher in male than in female. The PLR was higher in female than in male. CONCLUSION: The study provides reference data on NLR and PLR from different age and sex groups in South China. NLR and PLR varied with age and sex.

A non-immersive virtual reality-based intervention to enhance lower-extremity motor function and gait in patients with subacute cerebral infarction: A pilot randomized controlled trial with 1-year follow-up.

Introduction: This study was conducted to evaluate whether a non-immersive virtual reality (VR)-based intervention can enhance lower extremity movement in patients with cerebral infarction and whether it has greater short-term and long-term effectiveness than conventional therapies (CTs). Materials and methods: This was a single-blinded, randomized clinical controlled trial. Forty-four patients with subacute cerebral infarction were randomly allocated to the VR or CT group. All intervention sessions were delivered in the inpatient unit for 3 weeks. Outcomes were measured before (baseline) and after the interventions and at 3-month, 6-month and 1-year follow-ups. The outcomes included clinical assessments of movement and balance function using the Fugl-Meyer Assessment of Lower Extremity (FMA-LE) and Berg Balance Scale (BBS), and gait parameters in the sagittal plane. Results: In the VR group, the walking speed after intervention, at 3-month, 6-month, and 1-year follow-ups were significantly greater than baseline (p = 0.01, <0.001, 0.007, and <0.001, respectively). Compared with baseline, BBS scores after intervention, at 3-month, 6-month, and 1-year follow-ups were significantly greater in both the VR group (p = 0.006, 0.002, <0.001, and <0.001, respectively) and CT group (p = <0.001, 0.002, 0.001, and <0.001, respectively), while FMA-LE scores after intervention, at 3-month, 6-month, and 1-year follow-ups were significant increased in the VR group (p = 0.03, <0.001, 0.003, and <0.001, respectively), and at 3-month, 6-month, and 1-year follow-ups in the CT group (p = 0.02, 0.004 and <0.001, respectively). In the VR group, the maximum knee joint angle in the sagittal plane enhanced significantly at 6-month follow-up from that at baseline (p = 0.04). Conclusion: The effectiveness of the non-immersive VR-based intervention in our study was observed after the intervention and at the follow-ups, but it was not significantly different from that of CTs. In sum, our results suggest that non-immersive VR-based interventions may thus be a valuable addition to conventional physical therapies to enhance treatment efficacy. Clinical trial registration: http://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.aspx?proj=10541, ChiCTR-IOC-15006064.

Acute cardiovascular stress induced by shoulder vibratory exercise of different amplitudes.

BACKGROUND: Vibration exercise has been investigated to enhance muscle activation, however, the effect of different amplitude vibratory exercises on cardiovascular stress is less understood. OBJECTIVE: Our study aims to explore the acute effect of shoulder vibratory exercises with different postures and amplitudes on the cardiovascular response in healthy adults. METHODS: Using a repeated measures randomized design, 36 subjects performed three different sessions with FLEXI-BAR exercise (FBE): (1) zero-amplitude, (2) small-amplitude, (3) large-amplitude. Each session included three different shoulder positions: 45-, 90- and 180-degree flexion. Heart rate variability (HRV), heart rate (HR) and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) were monitored continuously, while systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and rate-pressure product (RPP) were measured before and after each exercise session. RESULTS: Compared with zero-amplitude, both small- and large-amplitude FBE protocols induced higher SBP. By contrast, DBP decreased with small- and large-amplitude. The RPP immediately after the exercise session were higher than at baseline. For high frequency, low frequency of HRV and HR there was a main effect of amplitude. CONCLUSION: Small- and large-amplitude FBE increased significantly SBP, RPE, HRV, HR and induced lower DBP, but the changes were modest, suggesting that FBE impose no extra threats to cardiovascular stress.

Effect of ABO Blood Groups on the Response to Warfarin.

BACKGROUND: Numerous studies have demonstrated that patients with non-O blood groups have a higher risk for venous thromboembolism than those with the O blood group. However, the effect of ABO blood groups on warfarin dose requirements in patients receiving anticoagulation in the Chinese Han population remains unknown. This study aimed to investigate the influence of ABO blood groups on warfarin dose requirements in a Chinese Han population. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A retrospective study was conducted in the First Affiliated Hospital of Shantou University Medical College in South China. Three hundred and fifty-eight patients with a confirmed diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis or atrial fibrillation were included. The frequency of blood groups and warfarin dose requirements were determined. RESULTS: Of 358 patients with deep vein thrombosis or atrial fibrillation, 111 patients had blood group A (31.01%), 104 patients had blood group B (29.05%), 20 patients had blood group AB (5.59%) and 123 patients had blood group O (34.36%). The patients in the O blood group had lower warfarin dose requirements than those in the A, B and AB blood groups. CONCLUSIONS: Our study showed that patients with non-O blood groups require higher doses of warfarin.

An Adaptive Method for Gait Event Detection of Gait Rehabilitation Robots.

Accurate gait event detection is necessary for control strategies of gait rehabilitation robots. However, due to personal diversity between individuals, it is a challenge for robots to detect a gait event at various stride frequencies. This paper proposes a novel method for gait event detection of a gait rehabilitation robot using a single inertial sensor mounted on the thigh. A self-adaptive threshold for detecting heel strike is obtained in real time via a linear regression model. Observable thresholds for toe off detection are constant at various stride frequencies. Experiments are conducted based on 20 healthy subjects and six hemiplegic patients wearing a gait rehabilitation robot and walking at various kinds of stride frequencies. The experimental results show that the proposed method can detect heel strike and toe off gait events within an average 2% gait cycle temporal errors and never miss two-gait event detection. Compared to the conventional thresholding method, this work presents a simple and robust application for gait event detection in healthy and hemiplegic subjects by one inertial sensor. The linear regression model can be applicable to different subjects walking at various stride frequencies.

Endothelial transdifferentiation of human HGC-27 gastric cancer cells in vitro.

Malignant tumor cells are able to transdifferentiate into other cell types in various tissues or organs. Recent studies have demonstrated the ability of cancer cells to transdifferentiate into functional endothelial cells (ECs). However, whether human gastric cancer (GC) cells are able to transdifferentiate into other cell types has remained largely elusive. Furthermore, whether HGC-27 cells are able to participate in GC angiogenesis remains to be clarified. In the present study, the HGC-27 cell line grown under hypoxic conditions for 4 days exhibited the typical 'flagstone' appearance, which is typical for cultured ECs. HGC-27 cells cultured on Matrigel under hypoxic conditions gradually formed net-like structures. Furthermore, the cultured HGC-27 cells expressed CD31, CD34 and von Willebrand factor, the molecular markers for ECs, under hypoxic conditions. These results indicated that HGC-27 cells, cultured under hypoxic conditions, are able to transdifferentiate into EC-like cells in vitro.

Study on the purification effect of aeration-enhanced horizontal subsurface-flow constructed wetland on polluted urban river water.

The issue of urban river pollution has attracted great attention due to high concentrations of ammonia nitrogen (NH4+-N) and low concentrations of dissolved oxygen (DO) in polluted water bodies. In order to investigate the effects of aeration-enhanced horizontal subsurface-flow constructed wetlands on polluted river water, unaerated aeration (NA), continuous aeration (CA), and intermittent aeration (IA) constructed wetlands were established. The purification effects of the wetland on various pollutants and the form of effluent nitrogen, influences of temperature on the removal rates of pollutants, the change of redox potential-oxidation reduction potential (ORP)-and the difference of dissolved oxygen (DO) between influent and effluent were investigated. The results indicated that aeration enhancement can improve the purification efficiencies of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and NH4+-N in constructed wetlands. The purification efficiencies of TN in IA and CA constructed wetlands were 91.9% and 53.7%, respectively, indicating that IA is the optimized aeration method for removal of various pollutants in wetlands. Changes of DO and ORP in effluent under IA and CA suggested improvement of aeration on the water environment. Meanwhile, DO was more sensitive to temperature compared with ORP. Additionally, a study of the nitrogen content in effluent suggested that the aeration method had a significant influence on the nitrogen content in effluent. The removal rates of both NH4+-N and TN degraded as the temperature dropped. The results also demonstrated that the removal rate of NH4+-N under aeration condition was more sensitive to temperature than that under NA condition and the effect of temperature on the removal rate of NH4+-N was greater than that of TN.

Study on controlling of cadmium pollution with fly ash-bentonite blocking wall.

A novel blocking wall was synthesized using fly ash and bentonite with strong adsorption capability. The optimized material ratio of the blocking wall was determined by penetration tests, shear tests and adsorption tests. The morphologies and stabilities of blocking wall samples with optimized material ratio were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy spectrum analysis (EDS), and erosion tests, the adsorption capability of blocking wall with optimized material ratio was investigated by adsorption kinetic and isotherm tests, the migration and penetration time of Cd pollutants in blocking wall with optimized material ratio were investigated by penetration tests and numerical simulations. Results indicated that the optimized fly ash/bentonite ratio (in mass) of blocking wall was 5:1. The permeability coefficient was 1.11 × 10-8 m s-1 and the maximum adsorption rate was 98.38%. Meanwhile, Cd2+ adsorbed on the blocking wall homogeneously; the alkali corrosion resistance of the blocking wall was higher than its acid corrosion resistance, and its resistance to organic pollutants and solutions with high Cd2+ concentrations were high. The adsorption process can be described by the Quasi-first-order kinetics and the Freundlich equation. Specifically, the overall adsorption efficiency was simultaneously affected by liquid membrane diffusion and particle diffusion and the adsorption process is an endothermic one dominated by physical adsorption. Additionally, Cd2+ penetration through the wall was dominated by molecular diffusion. The variation of permeability coefficient was inversely proportional to the initial concentration of Cd2+. The penetration of Cd2+ at initial concentration of 500 mg L-1 through the blocking wall needs 40 years.