Additions to the Knowledge of the Genus Pezicula (Dermateaceae, Helotiales, Ascomycota) in China.

We describe two new species of Pezicula (Dermateaceae, Ascomycota), P. ellipsoides and P. fusispora, which are discovered in China. Pezicula ellipsoides sp. nov. is distinct in producing 2-3 stipitate apothecia on a basal stroma with a light yellow hymenium, broadly ellipsoid 0-1(-2)-septate ascospores, and divergent DNA sequence data. Pezicula fusispora sp. nov. is characterized by sessile apothecia, 0.3-0.8 mm in diam, a yellowish hymenium, J+ asci 135-170 × 15-21 µm, multiseptate ascospores, 33-48 × 7-10.3 µm, and growing on rotten bamboo. In addition, Pezicula acericola and P. carpinea are reported for the first time from China, and 11 Pezicula species previously reported from China are reviewed and briefly noted, of which one was a misidentified species. Phylogenetic analyses inferred from ITS nrDNA sequences confirm the placement of P. ellipsoides and P. cinnamomea in the genus Pezicula.

The Genus Chlorosplenium (Helotiales, Leotiomycetes) from China with Notes on C. chlora Complex.

The small fruitbodies of Chlorosplenium are greenish yellow and mainly grow on woody substrates. The species diversity of the genus in China was investigated based on specimens formerly deposited in the Herbarium Mycologicum Academiae Sinicae as well as new collections gained in recent years. Our phylogenetic results revealed the species diversity of the genus is underestimated and the commonly known Chlorosplenium chlora is a species complex. Based on morphology studies and sequence analyses of three regions (ITS, LSU and RPB1), the Chinese collections represent two new species which are described and illustrated here as C. sinicum and C. sinochlora. Chlorosplenium fusisporum is quite possibly a species of the genus Chlorociboria, and C. hyperici-maculati should be excluded from the genus.

Diffusion kurtosis imaging: An efficient tool for evaluating age-related changes in rat brains.

PURPOSE: To evaluate and determine age-related changes in rat brains by studying the diffusion kurtosis imaging results among different age groups of rats. METHODS: Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats underwent conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and diffusion Kurtosis Imaging (DKI). Two diffusion values of mean kurtosis (MK) and kurtosis (K⊥ ) were measured and analyzed based on laterality, brain regions and age groups. The MK and K⊥ data were plotted against different age groups. RESULTS: No laterality was found for the MK or K⊥ values in the cerebral cortex (CT), external capsule (EC), or caudate putamen (CPu) regions. In contrast, significant changes in these values were observed among different age groups. Changes of the MK and K⊥ values were significant in both hemispheres in the EC, the CT, and the CPu brain regions. The changes in the MK and K⊥ values showed a parabolic relationship with ages in all the brain regions. CONCLUSION: No laterality in the MK and K⊥ values was observed for the EC, CT, or CPu regions of the rat brain. Significant changes in MK and K⊥ values were both observed among different age groups, thus suggesting diffusion kurtosis imaging as an efficient tool for studying brain aging in rats.

Retro-labyrinthine Lesion Site Detected by Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation Elicited Vestibular-evoked Myogenic Potentials in Patients with Auditory Neuropathy.

OBJECTIVE: Auditory neuropathy (AN) is a unique pattern of hearing loss with preservation of hair cell function. The condition is characterized by the presence of otoacoustic emissions (OAE) or cochlear microphonic (CM) responses with severe abnormalities of the auditory brainstem response (ABR). The vestibular branches of the VIII cranial nerve and the structures innervated by it can also be affected. However, the precise lesion sites in the vestibular system are not well characterized in patients with AN. METHODS: The air-conducted sound (ACS) vestibular-evoked myogenic potentials (VEMPs) and galvanic vestibular stimuli (GVS)-VEMPs were examined in 14 patients with AN. RESULTS: On examination of VEMPs (n=14, 28 ears), the absent rates of ACS-cervical VEMP (cVEMP), ACS-ocular VEMP (oVEMP), GVS-cVEMP, GVS-oVEMP and caloric test were 92.9% (26/28), 85.7% (24/28), 67.9% (19/28), 53.6% (15/28), and 61.5% (8/13), respectively. Impaired functions of the saccule, inferior vestibular nerve, utricle, superior vestibular nerve, and horizontal semicircular canal were found in 25.0% (7/28), 67.9% (19/28), 32.1% (9/28), 53.6% (15/28) and 61.5% (8/13) patients, respectively. On comparing the elicited VEMPs parameters of AN patients with those of normal controls, both ACS-VEMPs and GVS-VEMPs showed abnormal results in AN patients (such as, lower presence rates, elevated thresholds, prolonged latencies, and decreased amplitudes). CONCLUSION: The study suggested that patients with AN often have concomitant vestibular disorders. Retro-labyrinthine lesions were more frequently observed in this study. GVS-VEMPs combined with ACS-VEMPs may help identify the lesion sites and facilitate detection of areas of vestibular dysfunction in these patients.

Ascomycetes from the Qilian Mountains, China - Hypocreales.

To investigate fungi from the Qilian Mountains in Gansu Province, ascomycetous specimens were collected and hypocrealean fungi were examined. Eighteen species belonging to six genera in the families Hypocreaceae and Nectriaceae were identified, including 11 species of Hypomyces and Trichoderma in Hypocreaceae and seven species of Nectria, Stylonectria, Thelonectria, and Thyronectria in Nectriaceae. Among them, Stylonectria qilianshanensis and Trichoderma gansuanum are new to science. DNA sequence analyses of combined ACL1, ITS, RPB2, and TEF1 regions confirmed their taxonomic placements. Morphological distinctions between the new species and their close relatives are discussed. Hypomyces tremellicola is reported for the first time in China.

Esophageal Scab Mimicking a Parasite: A Case Report.

BACKGROUND Parasitic helminths in the esophagus are rare. Here, we report a case of esophageal scab mimicking a parasite. CASE REPORT A 65-year-old man was admitted to our hospital because after choking on food. Gastroscopy showed 2 foreign bodies adherent to the esophagus wall 28 and 34 cm from the incisor, which appeared to be a fluke. Two fluke-like foreign bodies (1.5 and 1.8 cm in length) were removed from the esophageal ulcer with forceps. After fixation with alcohol, the suspected fluke-like foreign bodies were noted to be brown and woody. Under a light microscope, the structure of the foreign body was not apparent, and no typical flatworm tegument structure was demonstrated on pathologic sections, but it had a blood clot-like structure. Administration of albendazole did not expel any helminths. A stool examination showed no eggs of the putative flukes. The genomic DNA of the suspected flukes was extracted and a 700 bp fragment was amplified by universal barcoding primers. The sequencing showed that the homology with human cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene was 98.8%. CONCLUSIONS The scab formed by the esophageal ulcer was identified based on clinical manifestations, anti-helminth and stool examinations, parasite morphology, and molecular biology. Our experience with this case suggests that the universal barcoding technique can be used for identification of foreign bodies suspected to be parasites.

Three new species of Dicephalospora from China as revealed by morphological and molecular evidences.

Three new species of Dicephalospora are introduced based on morphological characters and DNA sequence analyses (maximum parsimony and neighbor-joining methods), viz. D.albolutea, D.shennongjiana, and D.yunnanica. All of them lack mucilaginous caps at ascospore poles. Dicephalosporaalbolutea is distinguished by cream to yellowish white apothecia and slightly curved ascospores. Dicephalosporashennongjiana is characterized by yellow apothecia, elliptical-fusoid ascospores 19-22 × 7-8.8 µm, and J+ asci 130-150 × 14-16.5 µm. Dicephalosporayunnanica is distinguished by orange apothecia and fusoid ascospores 16.5-25.3 × 3.3-3.5 µm. Descriptions and illustrations of the new species as well as a key to the known species in the genus are provided.

Exosomes in esophageal cancer: A review on tumorigenesis, diagnosis and therapeutic potential.

Exosomes are nanovesicles secreted from various types of cells and can be isolated from various bodily fluids, such as blood and urine. The number and molecular contents, including proteins and RNA of exosomes, have been shown to reflect their parental cell origins, characteristics and biological behaviors. An increasing number of studies have demonstrated that exosomes play a role in the course of tumorigenesis, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis, although its precise functions in tumors are still unclear. Moreover, owing to a lack of a standard approach, exosomes and its contents have not yet been put into clinical practice successfully. This review aims to summarize the current knowledge on exosomes and its contents in esophageal cancer as well as the current limitations/challenges in its clinical application, which may provide a basis for an all-around understanding of the implementation of exosomes and exosomal contents in the surveillance and therapy of esophageal cancer.

H2S protects against fatal myelosuppression by promoting the generation of megakaryocytes/platelets.

BACKGROUND: Our previous pilot studies aimed to examine the role of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) in the generation of endothelial progenitor cells led to an unexpected result, i.e., H2S promoted the differentiation of certain hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells in the bone marrow. This gave rise to an idea that H2S might promote hematopoiesis. METHODS: To test this idea, a mice model of myelosuppression and cultured fetal liver cells were used to examine the role of H2S in hematopoiesis. RESULTS: H2S promoted the generation of megakaryocytes, increased platelet levels, ameliorate entorrhagia, and improved survival. These H2S effects were blocked in both in vivo and in vitro models with thrombopoietin (TPO) receptor knockout mice (c-mpl(-/-) mice). In contrast, H2S promoted megakaryocytes/platelets generation in both in vivo and in vitro models with TPO knockout mice (TPO(-/-) mice). CONCLUSIONS: H2S is a novel promoter for megakaryopoiesis by acting on the TPO receptors but not TPO to generate megakaryocytes/platelets.

[Genome amplification and sequence analysis of human bocavirus 2].

To obtain the genome sequence of human bocavirus 2 (HBoV2), different regions of HBoV2 genome were amplified through PCR in fecal specimens which had been identified as single-positive for HBoV2 in 2010. A genome sequence of HBoV2 (HBoV2-NC, 5444 bp) was obtained after sequence assembly. The phylogenetic analysis showed that HBoV2-NC had the closest evolutionary relationship with HBoV2 Lanzhou strain. The predication of inverted terminal repeats of HBoV2-NC by DINAMelt showed that inverted terminal repeats were contained in HBoV2-NC 5' terminal, which had the typical stem-loop structure in other parvoviruses. Finally, some flanking sequences of HBoV2-NC were amplified by linker-PCR.

[Progress on development and research of human bocavirus 1].

Human bocavirus 1 (HBoV1) is a novel virus that mainly causes respiratory tract infection, and it has the characteristic of genome of Parvovirus, containing three open reading frames that encode non-structural proteins NS1 and NP1 and structural proteins VP1 and VP2. Circular episome is present during the rolling circle replication of HBoV1, which provides the possibility of full genome amplification and infectious clone construction to save HBoV1. The recombination between HBoV1 and HBoV2-4 occurs frequently. With the three-dimensional culture, in vitro culture of HBoV1 provides a powerful tool for research on the pathogenesis of HBoV1. This review focuses on the molecular characteristics, association with diseases, in vitro culture, diagnosis and treatment of HBoV1.

Symmetry breaking on density in escaping ants: experiment and alarm pheromone model.

The symmetry breaking observed in nature is fascinating. This symmetry breaking is observed in both human crowds and ant colonies. In such cases, when escaping from a closed space with two symmetrically located exits, one exit is used more often than the other. Group size and density have been reported as having no significant impact on symmetry breaking, and the alignment rule has been used to model symmetry breaking. Density usually plays important roles in collective behavior. However, density is not well-studied in symmetry breaking, which forms the major basis of this paper. The experiment described in this paper on an ant colony displays an increase then decrease of symmetry breaking versus ant density. This result suggests that a Vicsek-like model with an alignment rule may not be the correct model for escaping ants. Based on biological facts that ants use pheromones to communicate, rather than seeing how other individuals move, we propose a simple yet effective alarm pheromone model. The model results agree well with the experimental outcomes. As a measure, this paper redefines symmetry breaking as the collective asymmetry by deducing the random fluctuations. This research indicates that ants deposit and respond to the alarm pheromone, and the accumulation of this biased information sharing leads to symmetry breaking, which suggests true fundamental rules of collective escape behavior in ants.

[Optimization of novel self-microemulsifying mouth dissolving films by response surface methodology].

This paper report the development of a new dosage form - self-microemulsifying mouth dissolving films, which can improve the oral bioavailability of water insoluble drugs and have good compliance. A three factor, three-level Box-Behnken design was used for optimizing formulation, investigated the effect of amounts of microcrystalline cellulose, low-substituted hydroxypropyl cellulose and hypromellose on the weight, disintegration time, cumulative release of indomethacin after 2 min, microemulsified particle size and stretchability. Optimized self-microemulsifying mouth dissolving films could fast disintegrate in (17.09 +/- 0.72) s; obtain microemulsified particle size at (28.81 +/- 3.26) nm; and release in vitro at 2 min to (66.18 +/- 1.94)%. Self-microemulsifying mouth dissolving films with broad application prospects have good compliance, strong tensile and can be released rapidly in the mouth through fast self-microemulsifying.

[Influence of silica on intestinal absorption of solid self-microemulsifying drug delivery systems].

Solid carriers had important effects on the properties of solid self-microemulsifying drug delivery systems (S-SMEDDS). In order to make the basis for further development of S-SMEDDS, the influences of silica on the absorption of S-SMEDDS were investigated. An in vitro lipolysis model was used to evaluate the influence of silica on self-microemulsifying drug delivery system digestion from intestinal tract. S-SMEDDS containing silica were prepared by extrusion/spheronization. The drug release and absorption were investigated. The results showed that lipolysis rate and drug concentration in aqueous phase after intestinal lipolysis both increased by adding silica, which was benefit to drug absorption. And silica was not benefit to absorption for slowing drug release. Consistently, there was no significant influence of silica on intestinal absorption. This study implied that the influences of silica on lipolysis rate and drug release were both amount dependent and it is suggested that silica could be used as the solid carrier but the proportion needs to be optimized.

[Effect of temporary anchor sutures on Descemet stripping endothelial keratoplasty in aphakic eyes].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the feasibility, efficacy, and complications of the temporary anchor sutures for endothelial graft fixation in Descemet stripping endothelial keratoplasty (DSEK) in aphakic eyes. METHODS: Non-randomized retrospective case series. Twelve consecutive cases (12 eyes) with aphakic bullous keratopathy underwent DSEK using the temporary anchor sutures technique for fixation of donor button in Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center between April to December in 2007. All cases were resulted from lens extraction and best spectacle-corrected visual acuity (BSCVA) was inferior or equal to 0.04. Eight cases were with preoperative pain. Prospective data of BSCVA, corneal astigmatism, curvature and thickness were collected on all 12 eyes preoperatively and at 3, 6 and 12 months postoperatively. Average endothelial cell density (ECD) and endothelial cell loss (ECL) were recorded at 6 and 12 months postoperatively. The follow-up period was 12 to 20 months. RESULTS: All cases were performed DSEK successfully using the temporary anchor sutures and the grafts were well-attached without dislocation. On postoperative day 1, papillary block glaucoma occurred in 2 eyes and mannitol 20% was administered intravenously. The intraocular pressure in the 2 eyes returned to normal due to the air bubble absorption on postoperative day 2. The endothelial grafts showed mild to moderate edema in all eyes and became clear in 8 to 15 days postoperatively. All the corneas were clear during follow-up. In 12 months postoperatively, BSCVA was 0.7 in 16.7% of eyes (n = 2), 0.5 in 25.0% of eyes (n = 3), 0.4 in 33.3% of eyes (n = 4), and 0.3 in 25.0% of eyes (n = 3); mean corneal astigmatism was (2.40 + or - 0.70) diopters, mean corneal curvature was (45.40 + or - 1.50) diopters, and mean corneal thickness was (591.5 + or - 20.4) microm. Mean endothelial cell density (ECD) was (2088 + or - 146) cells/mm(2) [(28.9 + or - 3.9)% endothelial cell loss] and (1857 + or - 101) cells/mm(2) [(36.7 + or - 3.1)% endothelial cell loss] in 6 and 12 months postoperatively, respectively. CONCLUSION: The temporary anchor sutures technique was easy to perform and effectively prevented graft dislocation and detachment into the vitreous cavity.

[Use of an in vitro lipolysis model to evaluate type I lipid formulations].

The distribution fate and solubilization behavior of indomethacin through the intestinal tract were investigated with in vitro lipolysis model, by comparing the Capmul MCM and Labrafil M 1944 CS type I lipid formulations. The results showed that the more favorable solubilization was in the aqueous digestion phase from each lipid formulations for indomethacin. The lipolysis rate and extent were decided with chemical constitution of the lipid excipients, which meant that less indomethacin was transferred from the long chain polar oil lipid solution into the aqueous digestion phase. Increasing the concentration of indomethacin in the lipid formualitons from a solution to a suspension led to a linear increase in the concentration of indomethacin attained in the aqueous digestion phase from lipid formulations. This study also implied that adverse effects of the lipolysis rate and extent on drug absorption were could be taken into consideration when screening lipid formulations. Lipid suspensions likely had better enhancement of drug absorption. Last, this study demonstrated that a potential basis for optimizing and assessing type I lipid formulations and also researching in vivo-in vitro correlations of lipid formulations were provided by an in vitro lipolysis model.

[Study on the chemical constituents from the herb of Gentianopsis paludosa].

OBJECTIVE: To study the chemical constituents from the herb of Gentianopsis paludosa. METHOD: Column chromatogrophy and spectral analysis were used to isolate and identify the constituents. RESULT: Six compounds were isolated and identified as 1,7-dihydroxy-3,8-dimethoxyxanthone (I), 1-hydroxy-3, 7, 8-trimethoxyxanthone (II), 1, 8-dihydroxy-3, 7-dimethoxyxanthone (III), 1-hydroxy-3, 7-dimethoxyxanthone (IV), beta-sitosterol (V), daucosterol (VI). CONCLUSION: Compounds III-VI were isolated from the plant for the first time.

[Modulation of lianbizi injection (andrographolide) on some immune functions].

OBJECTIVE: To study the effects of andrographolide on immune functions and the immune mechanism of its clinical application. METHOD: The amounts of IFN-alpha, IFN-gamma, TNF-alpha, IL-8 in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells(PBMCs) culture supernatants deal with by different concentrations of LianBiZhi (LBZ) injection made of andrographolide were detected by biological activity test or ELISA in vitro. The effects of LBZ injection on macrophage phagocytotic function and natural killer cells cytotoxicity were examined by means of macrophage to phagocytize cock erythrocyte and measurement of lactate dehydrogenase(LDH) activity released from the damaged cells, respectively. RESULT: The LBZ injection could promote IFN-alpha, IFN-gamma, TNF-alpha inductions of PBMCs, but had no effect on IL-8. At the same time, the LBZ injection could not only enhance the phagocytosis activity of peritoneal macrophage from guinea pig to phagocytosis cock erythrocyte, but also augment the cytotoxicity mediated by natural killer cells from PBMCs to damage the K562 cell lines. CONCLUSION: Andrographolide is an immunostimulant agent which can modulate both antigen specific and nonspecific immune function by means of its natural killer cells and macrophage and cytokines induction.