Corrective effects of maternal extreme flexure and hip abduction combined with contralateral side-lying on persistent foetal occipito-posterior position.

AIMS: To observe the corrective effects of maternal extreme flexure and hip abduction combined with contralateral side-lying on persistent foetal occipito-posterior position. BACKGROUND: Digital rotation and other methods are used for correction of a persistent foetal occipito-posterior position. However, digital rotation readily causes damage to mother and foetus, and the correction rates of other methods are low. DESIGN: In this observational study, pregnant women were randomly divided into 2 groups according to different postures and their outcomes were compared. METHODS: A total of 238 women with persistent foetal occipito-posterior position gave birth in our hospital between January 2015 and June 2017. Of these 238 cases, 12 women declined to participate. The 226 pregnant women were divided into study group (maternal extreme flexure and hip abduction combined with contralateral side-lying, n = 114) and control group (contralateral side-lying alone, n = 112). RESULTS: The correction and spontaneous labour rates were higher in the study group than in the control group (P < .05). The duration between initial and successful correction and birth process were shorter in the study group than in the control group (P < .05). CONCLUSION: Maternal extreme flexure and hip abduction combined with contralateral side-lying has better correction effect on persistent foetal occipito-posterior position.

Evidence that growth hormone can improve mitochondrial function in oocytes from aged mice.

Decline in successful conception decreases more rapidly after 38 years of age owing to follicular depletion and decreased oocyte quality. However, limited information is available regarding the underlying mechanism and the useful treatment. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of growth hormone supplementation on oocyte maturation in vivo in aged and young mice and to determine its effect on mitochondrial function. The influence of three different doses of recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) (0.4, 0.8 and 1.6 mg/kg/day) for 8 weeks before ovarian stimulation was analyzed. Superovulated oocytes were released from the oviduct of 12-week-old and 40-week-old female C57BL/6J mice 14-16 h after administration of human chorionic gonadotropin. Ovarian follicle and morphological analysis and oocyte maturation parameters were then evaluated. This study is the first, to our knowledge, to report that medium- and high-dose rhGH significantly increases antral follicles in aged mice but anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) levels. Furthermore, derived oocytes, MII-stage oocyte rate, ATP levels, mitochondrial membrane potential and frequencies of homogeneous mitochondrial distribution increased. In contrast, in both aged and young mice, the mtDNA copy numbers per oocyte were similar before rhGH administration, and upon saline administration, they did not differ significantly. We conclude that medium-dose rhGH supplementation before standard ovarian stimulation regimens improves oocyte quality in aged mice, probably by enhancing mitochondrial functionality.

An Analysis of Prognostic Factors in Patients with Ovarian Malignant Germ Cell Tumors Who Are Treated with Fertility-Preserving Surgery.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: To analyze the clinicopathological factors that affect the prognosis and fertility of patients with malignant ovarian germ cell tumors (MOGCTs). METHODS: The medical records and follow-up data of 106 patients with MOGCTs who were treated at The Affiliated Tumor Hospital of Guangxi Medical University between January 1986 and December 2010 were enrolled in this study. A Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to analyze the survival curves. The different prognoses among the various clinicopathological factors were evaluated using a univariate analysis and a log-rank test. The multivariate analysis was performed using the Cox proportional hazard regression method. A logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the influence of different factors on the prognoses and fertility. RESULTS: The median age at primary treatment was 22 years (range: 9-61years). A total of 59 patients received fertility-preserving surgery, 45 received radical surgery and 94 received postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy. The median follow-up time was 56.5 months (range: 2-309 months). A total of 11 patients experienced a recurrence, and 23 patients died from their cancer. Of the 47 patients who are alive without tumor, 45 have normal menstruation. Of the 39 patients who wished to become pregnant, 31 patients had 33 successful pregnancies that resulted in 33 live births. No statistically significant difference (p > 0.05) was observed with respect to the progression-free survival (PFS; 67.6 vs. 63.3%), the overall survival (OS; 70 vs. 64.1%) and the mortality rate (15.3 vs. 31.3%) between patients who received fertility-preserving surgery and those who received radical surgery. The univariate analysis showed that the pathological types, postoperative residual tumor size, lymph node resection, and omental resection were associated with OS (p < 0.1), whereas postoperative residual tumor size, number of chemotherapy cycles, lymph node resection, and omental resection were associated with PFS (p < 0.1). The multivariate analysis showed that only the postoperative residual tumor size was an independent prognostic factor of OS, whereas the postoperative residual tumor size, number of chemotherapy cycles and lymph node resection were independent prognostic factors of PFS. No statistically significant difference (p > 0.05) was observed with respect to the OS, PFS and fertility between patients who received fertility-preserving surgery and those who were treated with or without comprehensive surgical staging. CONCLUSION: MOGCTs can achieve a good prognosis after surgery and chemotherapy. Postoperative residual tumor size was an independent prognostic factor of PFS and OS. Moreover, comprehensive surgical staging cannot improve the prognosis. Fertility-preserving surgery plus adjuvant chemotherapy appeared to have little or no effect on prognosis and fertility.

Investigation of JAK1 and STAT3 polymorphisms and their gene-gene interactions in nonspecific digestive disorder of rabbits.

Acting in a cellular signaling pathway, Janus kinase 1 (JAK1) and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) play critical roles in several kinds of physiological and pathological responses, including inflammatory response. In this study, we detected three coding single nucleotide polymorphisms (cSNPs) of JAK1 and four cSNPs of STAT3 in New Zealand White rabbits. We analyzed their association with genetic resistance to nonspecific digestive disorder (NSDD) based on a case-control study (253 cases and 227 controls). The rabbits were genotyped for c.1421 C>T and c.3036 G>A in JAK1 using restriction fragment length polymorphisms and for c.831 T>C and c.399 G>A of STAT3 using high-resolution melting technology. The frequencies of the alleles and genotypes differed significantly between the case and control groups (P<0.05). The case-control association analysis revealed that in JAK1, allele C increased the risk of NSDD (OR: 1.60, 95% CI 1.166-2.185, P=0.003), whereas allele A played a potentially protective role against NSDD (OR: 0.74, 95% CI 0.572-0.952, P=0.019). We used five inheritance models to evaluate the importance of the associated genotypes. Under the dominant inheritance model, the association analysis suggested that the CT/TT genotype increased the risk of NSDD (OR: 1.65, 95% CI 1.13-2.40, P=0.009). A haplotype analysis showed that allele H2 (the two cSNPs: CG; OR: 1.354, 95% CI 1.050-1.747, P=0.019) markedly increased the risk of the disorder. The association analysis revealed that in STAT3, allele G played a potentially protective role against NSDD (OR: 0.74; 95% CI 0.569-0.951; P=0.019), whereas allele C increased the risk of NSDD (OR: 1.37; 95% CI 1.059-1.760; P=0.016). Recessive inheritance was shown to be the best fitting model for c.399 and c.831. Under the recessive inheritance model, the association analysis suggested that the G/G genotype increased the risk of NSDD (OR: 1.73; 95% CI 1.07-2.80; P=0.025). A haplotype analysis showed that H1' (the two cSNPs: AC; OR: 1.365; CI 1.059-1.760; P=0.016) significantly increased the risk of the disorder. The CATMOD program (SAS 9.2) and the multifactor dimensionality reduction method were used to analyze the genetic interactions between JAK1 and STAT3. Data on the genetic interactions revealed that the JAK1 and STAT3 risk alleles described above contribute to NSDD susceptibility in combination with each other, and that model (c1421, c3036, c831) was the best model (OR: 2.7262; 95% CI: 4.7408-5.1986; P<0.0001). To our knowledge, this is the first report of the genetic polymorphisms of the JAK1 and STAT3 genes and their associations with the incidence of NSDD in rabbits.

Identification and Association of SNPs in TBC1D1 Gene with Growth Traits in Two Rabbit Breeds.

The TBC1D1 plays a key role in body energy homeostasis by regulating the insulin-stimulated glucose uptake in skeletal muscle. The present study aimed to identify the association between genetic polymorphisms of TBC1D1 and body weight (BW) in rabbits. Among the total of 12 SNPs detected in all 20 exons, only one SNP was non-synonymous (c.214G>A. p.G72R) located in exon 1. c.214G>A was subsequently genotyped among 491 individuals from two rabbit breeds by the high-resolution melting method. Allele A was the predominant allele with frequencies of 0.7780 and 0.6678 in European white rabbit (EWR, n = 205) and New Zealand White rabbit (NZW, n = 286), respectively. The moderate polymorphism information content (0.250.05). Our results implied that the c.214G>A of TBC1D1 gene might be one of the candidate loci affecting the trait of 35 d BW in the rabbit.

[Immunoloregulation effect of polysaccharide isolated from octopus dollfusi on mouse].

OBJECTIVE: To study the immunoloregulation effect of three polysaccharides OGI, OG2and OG3 extracted from Octopus dollfusi muscle, gonad, digestive gland, respectively. METHODS: Spleen cell proliferation was measured by MTT assay and index of immune organs were weighed and calculated. RESULTS: OGI and OG2 could increase the proliferation of mouse spleen cell of normal mice, and significantly increased the proliferation of the spleen of immunosuppression mice caused by sccyclophosphamide, while showed no cooperation with ConA; OG3 appeared suppression for the two spleens. The three polysaccharides could increase index of immune organs of normal mice and remarkably increased the indexof immunosuppression mice caused by sccyclophosphamide ; while showed obvious function on thymus index. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that OG1 and OG2 have enhancement immunity for normal and immunosuppression mice, and have better effect for the latter;OG3 has suppression proliferation the spleen cell in vitro, however it has better effect for increase index of immune organs in vivo.