[The efficacy analysis of neurosurgical robot-assisted DBS in the treatment of elderly Parkinson's disease].

Objective: To investigate the surgical efficacy of neurosurgery robot deep brain stimulation(DBS) in the treatment of elderly Parkinson's disease(PD). Methods: The clinical data of elderly patients (≥75 years) with PD who underwent neurosurgical robot-assisted DBS surgery in the Department of Neurosurgery of the General Hospital of Northern Theater Command from September 2016 to September 2022 were collected retrospectively. Operation time, electrode implantation duration, postoperative pneumocephalus volume, electrode implantation accuracy, the Tao's DBS surgery scale, perioperative complications were analyzed.The unified Parkinson's disease rating scales (UPDRS), UPDRS-Ⅲ, tremor, rigidity, bradykinesia, axial, Barthel Activities of Daily Living (ADL-Barthel), Levodopa Equivalent Daily Dose (LEDD), Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAMA) and Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD) scores and mortality were assessed respectively before operation, 6, 12 and 24 months after operation and last follow-up. Results: A total of 25 elderly patients were enrolled, including 14 males and 11 females, aged(78.3±3.2) years. Nine patients had underlying diseases. Nine patients (36%) underwent bilateral Globus Pallidus pars Interna deep brain stimulation (GPi-DBS) and 16 patients (64%) underwent bilateral subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS).The operation time was (1.56±0.19) hours, the electrode implantation duration was (1.01±0.19) hours, the pneumocephalus volume was 9.8(4.7, 23.3) cm3, and the electrode implantation accuracy was (0.84±0.24) mm, the Tao's DBS surgery scale was (80.2±6.2).The follow-up time [M(Q1, Q3)] was 57.3(27.9, 75.7) months. No serious complications such as intracranial hemorrhage, infection or poor wound healing occurred during the perioperative period. The improvement rate of UPDRS, UPDRS-Ⅲ, rigidity, bradykinesia, and LEDD at 6 months after surgery was significantly higher than that at 24 months after surgery and at the last follow-up (all P<0.05); the improvement rate of axial symptoms, ADL-Barthel score, and MoCA score at 6 months after surgery was significantly higher than that at the last follow-up (P<0.05). HAMD and HAMA scores showed no significant improvement during follow-up after surgery (both P>0.05). At the last follow-up, 12 patients died, with death time of (35.1±20.2) months after operation, and the death age of [M(Q1, Q3)] 80(79, 83)years. Conclusions: Robot-assisted DBS surgery for elderly patients with PD is accurate and safe, and the postoperative symptoms are significantly improved, and they can benefit from neuromodulation for long term, and the risks are controllable.

[Correlation analysis between intracranial air and electrode implantation accuracy in DBS].

Objective: To analyze the correlation between intracranial air and electrode displacement after deep brain stimulation. Compared the accuracy of the electrodes on both sides while bilateral intracranial air. Methods: A total of 133 patients with bilateral DBS from February 2017 to February 2019 in neurosurgery department of the General Hospital of Northern Theater Command were included. A total of 266 electrodes were implanted, including 160 sides of subthalamic nucleus, 2 sides of ventromedial nucleus of thalamus and 104 sides of Globus pallidus interior. All patients underwent three-dimensional reconstruction of the head 2 hours after operation and 1 week after operation, which was fused with the preoperative surgical plan.The volume of the intracranial air is obtained by summing up the CT layer-by-layer measurements after surgery. The distance between the implanted electrode and the preoperative target on the X and Y axes in the target plane is measured.Values were expressed as means±SEM,and the t test was performed. Bivariate correlation analysis using linear correlation analysis.P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: There was no statistically significant difference in the fusion error of the electrode between 2 hours and 1 week after surgery on the X-axis. But there was significant difference on the Y-axis. The difference between intracranial air volume and two fusion errors was not linearly correlated on X axis, but linearly positively correlated on Y axis. Conclusion: Intracranial air volume is an important factor affecting the accuracy of DBS surgery. The larger intracranial air volume, the larger the displacement of electrodes on Y axis.

Pathologic changes and dysfunctions of astrocytes in the complex rat AD model of ovariectomy combined with D-galactose injection.

OBJECTIVE: To study pathogenesis of astrocytes in the SD model. METHOD: The male adult SD rats were divided into 3 groups at random with 10 for each group to study pathologic changes and dysfunctions of astrocytes in the model with 3 weeks and 6 weeks of observation time. RESULTS: Compared with the control group and the 3w O+D group, the incubation period for the rats of the 6w O+D group to reach the platform is significantly prolonged in the water maze behavioral experiment; the times of passing through the platform and the duration for staying in the target quadrant are significantly decreased but there is no statistical difference between the control group and the 3w O+D group; compared with rats of the control group and the 3w O+D group, the rats of the 6w O+D group show signs of significant density decrease and AChE activity decrease of cholinergic fiber terminals in the hippocampal region, but there is no statistical difference between the control group and the 3w O+D group; compared with control group, the GFAP level of in the hippocampal region of the rats of the 3w O+D group and the 6 w O+D group significantly increases but there is no statistical difference between the two groups; the hippocampi and some areas of the cerebral cortices of the rats of the 6w O+D group show signs of HRP leakage in the peripheral region of blood vessels. However, HRP reaction products of the control group are distributed within the blood vessels and show no signs of significant leakage. CONCLUSION: OVX combined with injection of D-gal can serve as a good animal model simulating AD disease. Astrocytes play an important role in occurrence and progression of pathological changes of the model (Tab. 6, Fig. 6, Ref. 30).

Retinoblastoma protein-interacting zinc-finger gene 1 (RIZ1) dysregulation in human malignant meningiomas.

Retinoblastoma protein-interacting zinc-finger gene 1 (RIZ1) expression is often silenced in many types of human tumors. However, the relationship between RIZ1 expression and malignant meningiomas remains unclear. Here we have found for the first time that the expression of RIZ1 genes are associated with meningiomas progression through extensive analyses of Affymetrix GeneChip microarray data. Further validation methods for gene expression included quantitative PCR (qPCR), western blot and immunohistochemistry analysis, and these methods confirmed that RIZ1 is significantly downregulated in malignant meningioma tissues, as compared with benign meningiomas. In addition, malignant meningioma cells were stably transfected with ectogenic RIZ1 using Lentivirus-mediated transfection, and the transfections were followed by an in vitro 5-bromo-2-deoxyuridin incorporation assay, colony formation assay, cell cycle analysis, invasive analysis, apoptotic assay and western blot analysis. Our results demonstrate that the forced expression of RIZ1 in a malignant meningioma cell line inhibited cellular proliferation and arrested the cells in the G2/M phase of the cell cycle. We also confirmed that overexpression of RIZ1 may induce apoptosis of malignant meningioma cells. Furthermore, RIZ1 overexpression in malignant meningioma cells was associated with the downregulation of c-myc expression. These results from our study indicate that RIZ1 expression is significantly downregulated as the formation of meningiomas progressed, and suggest that RIZ1 may represent a promising candidate tumor suppressor gene that contributes to malignant meningiomas.

Dual delivery for stem cell differentiation using dexamethasone and bFGF in/on polymeric microspheres as a cell carrier for nucleus pulposus regeneration.

This study aimed to investigate the feasibility of the nanostructured 3D poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) constructs, which are loaded with dexamethasone (DEX) and growth factor embedded heparin/poly(L-lysine) nanoparticles via a layer-by-layer system, to serve as an effective scaffold for nucleus pulposus (NP) tissue engineering. Our results demonstrated that the microsphere constructs were capable of simultaneously releasing basic fibroblast growth factor and DEX with approximately zero order kinetics. The dual bead microspheres showed no cytotoxicity, and promoted the proliferation of the rat mesenchymal stem cells (rMSCs) by lactate dehydrogenase assay and CCK-8 assay. After 4 weeks of cultivation in vitro, the rMSCs-scaffold hybrids contained significantly higher levels of sulfated GAG/DNA and collagen type II than the control samples. Moreover, quantitative real time PCR analysis revealed that the expression of disc-matrix proteins including collagen type II, aggrecan, and versican in the rMSCs-scaffold hybrids was significantly higher than that in the control group, whereas the expression of osteogenic differentiation marker (collagen type I) was decreased. Taken together, these data indicate that Dex/bFGF PLGA microspheres could be used as a scaffold to improve the rMSCs growth and differentiating into NP like cells, and reduce the inflammatory response for IVD tissue engineering.