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Biomedical subjects

X Dai

Publications and source records attributed to X Dai.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMed1999

Protein recovery from several paper types used to collect gingival crevicular fluid.

The purpose of this study was to compare the efficiency of protein elution from several types of gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) collection papers when the volume of the inoculated protein and the elution methods were constant. Various concentrations of bovine serum albumin (BSA) and 14C-BSA were placed onto strips of Whatman #1 [W1], Whatman 3 MM chromatographic [W3], Periopaper (ProFlow) [P] and Periopaper (Harco) [H], and recovered proteins measured following a non-optimized centrifugal elution technique. There were significant differences in % recovery of BSA and 14C-BSA from the papers, which was dependent on both the type of paper and the concentration of the inoculated protein; that is, proteins at the lowest concentrations were less efficiently eluted from GCF collection papers than those at higher concentrations. Equations for regression lines of elution efficiency were quadratic. Thus, our data suggest significant differences in the efficiency for elution of BSA from absorbent papers when the volume of the inoculated fluid and the elution technique were constant. Previous variable or conflicting experimental data between research groups may have resulted from incomplete elution of proteins from GCF collection papers, possibly due to entrapment within, or binding of GCF proteins to the paper.

Absorption↗
PubMed1999

Vascular endothelial growth factors and progression of periodontal diseases.

BACKGROUND: Tissues become hemorrhagic and edematous coincident to periodontal diseases; however, there is little information concerning the biologic mechanisms which may produce these changes. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a macromolecule which enhances blood vessel growth and permeability. However, there is no information concerning gingival VEGF concentrations within normal or diseased gingiva. The purpose of this study was to assess changes in gingival concentrations of VEGF during initiation and progression of periodontal diseases and compare them to changes in the number of blood vessel profiles and concentration of recognized markers of periodontal disease severity (interleukin-6[IL-6]). METHODS: Normal (non-hemorrhagic gingiva adjacent to a < or =3 mm gingival sulcus) and inflamed gingiva (hemorrhagic gingiva adjacent to a < or =3 mm, 4 to 6 mm, or >6 mm periodontal pocket) were studied. VEGF and IL-6 concentrations were assessed by ELISA and the number of blood vessels determined by histomorphometric techniques. Data were placed into one of the following groups: < or =3 mm, normal; < or =3 mm, diseased; 4 to 6 mm, diseased; and >6 mm, diseased. These groups were compared by factorial ANOVA and Scheffe comparisons. In addition, groups were compared by simple and multiple regression and regression ANOVA to determine possible correlations between them. RESULTS: VEGF and IL-6 concentrations were significantly lower within normal than within diseased gingiva. The number of blood vessel profiles and mean IL-6 concentrations were highest in diseased tissues adjacent to >6 mm sulci and were significantly correlated with sulcular depth (P <0.001). In contrast, VEGF concentrations were highest within diseased gingiva adjacent to 4 to 6 mm periodontal pockets (P <0.001) and were not correlated with sulcular depth. CONCLUSIONS: VEGF may be a factor in initiation and progression of gingivitis to periodontitis, possibly by promoting expansion of the vascular network coincident to progression of the inflammation.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1999

[Vector construction for embryonic stem cell gene targeting of site specific point mutation mouse coagulation factor IX gene].

OBJECTIVE: To construct the recombinant vectors for embryonic stem(ES) cell gene targeting which contain the mouse coagulation factor IX (F IX) gene modified by PCR site-directed mutagenesis. METHODS: Three site specific point mutations were introduced into exon 8 of mouse F IX gene respectively. The replacement targeting vectors were constructed and transfected into ES cells. The drug-resistant cell clones were picked after drug selection. RESULTS: The construction of targeting vectors was successful and several drug-resistant ES cell clones were gained. CONCLUSION: The site specific point mutation system can modify human gene in vitro more accurately. It is useful in the setting up of animal models.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

Characterization of the ecdysteroid UDP-glucosyltransferase gene of Spodoptera litura multinucleocapsid nucleopolyhedrovirus.

The ecdysteroid UDP-glucosyltransferase (EGT) gene of Spodoptera litura multinucleocapsid nucleopolyhedrovirus (SpltMNPV), Guangzhouisolate was sequenced. The open reading frame of the gene is 1530 nucleotides long, encoding a putative protein of 509 amino acids with Mr of 58,500. The 5' noncoding region has a TATA box. A polyadenylation signal, AATAAA, is contained downstream of the translation stop codon. A putative signal peptide is present at the N-terminus of the protein. Homology comparison with other baculovirus egt genes showed that these genes are highly conserved. The SpltMNPV egt gene is closely related to that of Spodoptera littoralis nucleopolyhedrovirus (SliNPV) with the identities of 84% in nucleotide and 91% in amino acid, respectively. In this study, an alignment of amino acid sequences has been made and a tentative phylogenetic tree of twelve baculovirus egts is presented.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1999

[Neuroendocrine mechanisms of impact by experimental stress on plasma glucose level in STZ KM mice].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the neuroendocrine mechanisms of effects by experimental stress on plasma glucose level in streptozotocin induced mice(STZ mice). METHODS: Forty STZ mice were divided randomly into Group A (STZ mice, stress) and Group B (STZ mice, no stress), and 20 normal KM mice in Group C (normal mice, stress) and Group D (normal mice, no stress). Group A and Group C were exposed to multiple stressors (restrain, rotation, crowding) for 6 weeks. Before and after the experiment, blood glucose(BG) levels were measured. By the end of experiment, blood and hypothalamus samples were collected to measure plasma insulin(I) concentrations, insulin sensitivity index(ISI), plasma norepinphine(NE), epinphin(EPI) and beta endorphin(beta-EP) concentrations. RESULTS: After stress, the BG levels significantly increased and I concentrations decreased in Group A. Group A showed a greater decrease of ISI than that in Group B. There was significant difference in plasma NE and EPI concentrations among groups, and Group A showed marked increase. There was no significant difference in beta-EP concentrations among groups. There were low to moderate correlations among these variables after stress. CONCLUSION: The STZ mice likely have altered adrenergic sensitivity to stress, which might play a leading role in the neuroendocrine mechanism of hyperglycemia of STZ mice after stress. The beta-EP might participate in this process of regulating glucose metabolism.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

[Clinical study on tangshen mixture in treating diabetic nephropathy].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of Tangshen Mixture (TSM) on the serum glucose, quantity of proteinuria per 24 h, hypercoagulative status and oxidative injury in patients with diabetic nephropathy (DN). METHODS: Ninety-three patients with DN were randomly divided into treated group and control group. 48 patients in the former were treated with insulin and TSM, while the latter was treated with insulin alone. Before and after treatment, the levels of fasting blood glucose (FBG), 2 h after meal blood glucose (PBG), 24 h urinary albumin (24 h-pro), endothelin (ET), alpha-granule membrane glycoprotein-140 (GMP-140), erythrocyte superoxide dismutase (ESOD), lipid peroxidase (LPO) were measured. RESULTS: After two months treatment, compared with the control group the levels of ET and GMP-140, LPO, and 24 h-pro lowered obviously (P < 0.01, P < 0.05), and the level of ESOD increased (P < 0.05) in the treated group, no obvious change was found in control grout after treatment. CONCLUSION: TSM could improve the hypercoagulative status, alleviate the renal free radical disturbances, and reduce the urinary protein loss.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

[Effect of ginseng injection in treating congestive heart failure and its influence on thyroid hormones].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of Ginseng injection on congestive heart failure (CHF) and its influence on thyroid hormones. METHODS: Fifty-four Patients of CHF were divided into two groups. On the basis of conventional treatment of western medicine, the Ginseng injection was given to the treated group additionally. Blood level of triiodothyronine (T3), thyroxine (T4), reverse triiodothyronine (rT3) and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) of all patients were determined before and after treatment by radioimmunoassay. RESULTS: There were significant difference between the treated group and the control group in cure rate and mean course of therapy. The levels of T3 and T4 of all patients were lower than those of the normal control before treatment, and rT3 were higher. Two weeks after treatment, T3 and T4 level in all patients increased significantly and rT3 level significantly decreased(P < 0.05, P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Ginseng injection has a good effect on patients with CHF. It also has regulatory effect on thyroid hormones.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

[Chinese hamster emotionality rating scale].

To establish the rating method of Chinese Hamster emotionality and verify its reliability of assessment result so as to investigate the role of emotionality in onset/incidence of diabetes in Chinese Hamster of non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, Ader's rating methods of emotionality were revised, the level of emotionality for Chinese Hamster was measured, cut off score of emotionality was computed, and reliability of rating scale was analysed. The results were that the cut off score of emotionality which was 5 scores could divide the high/low emotionality response in individual animal; Some items were moderately and highly correlated to total score (r = 0.3268-0.7347); The test-retest reliabilities of total score after 1 and 8 days ranged 0.5874 to 0.6105, the inter-rater agreement for reliability trials was 95.2%, and its Kappa value was 0.905. The results suggest that Chinese Hamster Emotionality Rating Scale has the satisfactory reliability.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

[Sequence analysis of the mutated AOX2 promoter region in the Pichia pastoris].

Spontaneous revertants of the AOX1-defective P. pastoris strain have been isolated, which were identified as phenotypically utilize methanol to grow as the wild type. The promoter region of the AOX2 gene from the revertant has been obtained by PCR amplification, and the DNA fragment is 1022 base pair in size. By the analysis of sequencing result and compared with the AOX2 gene sequences recorded in Gene Bank, two point mutations which at positions of -529 and -255(relative to the translation initiation codon) respectively, have been found. Since the positions are located in the AOX2 upstream repression sequences, the mutations may act interfere the repressor to combine with the functional sequences, and increase transcriptional activity. The above result implicated that the P. pastoris' ability to utilize methanol could be increased through modification the upper stream transcriptional regulation region in the AOX2 gene.

Alcohol Oxidoreductases↗
PubMed1999

[Spectroscopic study of the 1pig Rydberg states of Na2].

Six highly excited 1pig states of the Na2 molecule have been investigated by optical-optical double resonance (OODR) flourescence excitation spectroscopy. Absolute vibrational numberings are determined and molecular constants and RKR potential curves are obtained. The lowest 10 1pig states have been relabeled according to the hydrogenic nllambda characters of the Rydberg orbital and classified into core-penetrating and core-nonpenetrating Rydberg states.

English Abstract↗
PubMed1999

[The application of ion detection in the study of spectroscopy of Na2].

Ion detection technique has been successfully used in the study of Rydberg states of Na2 by pulse optical-optical double resonance. High-lying Rydberg states near ionization limit have been observed and high sensitive and high gain spectra have been obtained. This technique is very useful for molecular spectroscopy.

English Abstract↗
PubMed1999

Primary structure of open reading frame 2 and 3 of the hepatitis E virus isolated from Morocco.

The nucleotide sequence from position 5,014 to 7,186 of the hepatitis E virus (HEV) genome was determined using a set of 10 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) fragments amplified directly from a pool of fecal specimens obtained from patients with well-documented epidemic HEV infection in Morocco. This sequence contains the 3'-terminal region of open reading frame 1 (ORF1), full length ORF2 and ORF3, and a portion of the 3'-noncoding region. The HEV Morocco nucleotide sequence was compared with the corresponding sequences of 13 HEV strains. A region of ORF2 that overlaps with ORF3 was found to be the most conserved region of ORF2, whereas a protein segment encoded by this region was found to be the most variable. Theoretical RNA secondary structure analysis predicted that this region may be folded into a strong secondary structure that may constrain nucleotide sequence variability. In addition, the nucleotide sequence comparison revealed that the HEV Morocco sequence is most homologous to the sequences of the HEV Asian strains compared with the HEV Mexico, swine, and US strains. Phylogenetic analysis performed on the entire ORF2 and ORF3 sequences and on a small fragment of ORF2 allowed classification of the HEV Morocco strain together with a few other known African strains as a separate subtype within the Asian-African genotype.

Base Sequence↗
PubMed1998

Induction of alpha1-tubulin gene expression during development and regeneration of the fish central nervous system.

The alpha1- and alpha2-tubulin encoding genes were cloned from a goldfish genomic DNA library. alpha1- and alpha2-tubulin RNA expression was examined in developing and adult retinas. These studies demonstrated increased alpha1-tubulin RNA in presumptive ganglion cells that grow axons early in retinal development and in adult retinal ganglion cells whose optic axons had been damaged. The alpha2-tubulin RNA was undetectable in developing retina and constitutively expressed in adult retinal ganglion cells regardless of optic nerve crush. To determine if these changes in alpha1-tubulin RNA reflected changes in alpha1-tubulin promoter activity, we introduced into zebrafish embryos and adult goldfish retinal explants expression vectors harboring the alpha1-tubulin gene's promoter. These studies showed that the alpha1-tubulin promoter confers a developmentally regulated, neuron-restricted pattern of reporter gene expression in vivo and its activity is increased in adult retinal neurons induced to regenerate their axons. Promoter deletions defined regions of alpha1-tubulin DNA necessary for this pattern of expression. These results suggest that DNA sequences necessary for alpha1-tubulin gene induction during central nervous system development and regeneration are contained within the alpha1-tubulin gene's 5'-flanking DNA and that this promoter will be useful for identifying these elements and their DNA binding proteins.

Animals↗
PubMed1998

The ovo gene required for cuticle formation and oogenesis in flies is involved in hair formation and spermatogenesis in mice.

The Drosophila svb/ovo gene gives rise to differentially expressed transcripts encoding a zinc finger protein. svb/ovo has two distinct genetic functions: shavenbaby (svb) is required for proper formation of extracellular projections that are produced by certain epidermal cells in late-stage differentiation; ovo is required for survival and differentiation of female germ cells. We cloned a mouse gene, movo1 encoding a nuclear transcription factor that is highly similar to its fly counterpart in its zinc-finger sequences. In mice, the gene is expressed in skin, where it localizes to the differentiating cells of epidermis and hair follicles, and in testes, where it is present in spermatocytes and spermatids. Using gene targeting, we show that movo1 is required for proper development of both hair and sperm. movo1(-/-) mice are small, produce aberrant hairs, and display hypogenitalism, with a reduced ability to reproduce. These mice also develop abnormalities in kidney, where movo1 is also expressed. Our findings reveal remarkable parallels between mice and flies in epidermal appendage formation and in germ-cell maturation. Furthermore, they uncover a phenotype similar to that of Bardet-Biedl syndrome, a human disorder that maps to the same locus as human ovo1.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1998

Neutralization of different geographic strains of the hepatitis E virus with anti-hepatitis E virus-positive serum samples obtained from different sources.

A recently developed polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based cell culture neutralization assay was used to investigate cross-neutralization of known hepatitis E virus (HEV) strains obtained from various HEV-endemic regions of the world with different anti-HEV-positive serum samples. Serum specimens obtained from cynomolgus macaques experimentally infected with strains from Burma, Mexico, or Pakistan cross-neutralized the infectivity of each strain as well as an isolate from Morocco. Serum samples obtained either from infected patients who reside in HEV-endemic regions of the world or from U.S. residents who became infected while traveling to such regions also neutralized all four strains. In contrast, antibodies obtained from rabbits immunized with full-length Burma strain ORF2 protein neutralized only the Burma and Pakistan strains, not the Mexico or Morocco strains. In addition, antibodies obtained from guinea pigs immunized with an N-terminal truncated Burma strain ORF2 protein neutralized each strain except the Morocco strain. These data strongly suggest that antibodies elicited during an HEV infection demonstrate broad HEV neutralizing activity, whereas antibodies elicited after immunization with recombinant Burma ORF2 protein demonstrate a more limited ability to neutralize various HEV strains obtained from different regions of the world endemic for the disease.

Animals↗
PubMed1998

Sequence and DNA structural determinants of N4 virion RNA polymerase-promoter recognition.

Coliphage N4-coded, virion-encapsidated RNA polymerase (vRNAP) is able to bind to and transcribe promoter-containing double-stranded DNAs when the template is supercoiled and Escherichia coli single-stranded DNA-binding protein (Eco SSB) is present. We report that vRNAP-promoter recognition and activity on these templates require specific sequences and a hairpin structure on the template strand. Hairpin extrusion, induced by Mg(II) and physiological superhelical density, is essential to provide the correct DNA structure for polymerase recognition, as mutant promoters that do not form hairpins show reduced in vitro activity. Therefore, a supercoil-induced DNA structural transition regulates N4 vRNAP transcription. Eco SSB activates transcription at physiological superhelical densities by stabilizing the template-strand hairpin. Specific sequences at the promoters are conserved to provide proper contacts for vRNAP, to support hairpin extrusion, or both. We propose a model for in vivo utilization of the vRNAP promoters, and discuss the roles of DNA supercoiling and Eco SSB in promoter activation.

Base Sequence↗
PubMed1998

Sequence-dependent extrusion of a small DNA hairpin at the N4 virion RNA polymerase promoters.

Bacteriophage N4 virion RNA polymerase promoters contain five to seven-base inverted repeats separated by three bases and centered at position -12 from the site of transcription initiation. We have previously shown that these inverted repeats extrude as hairpins at physiological superhelical densities in a Mg(II)-dependent manner. Mg(II)-dependent hairpin extrusion at promoters P1 and P2 displays quantitative differences in reactivity to structural probes at different DNA superhelical densities, with extrusion at P2 being more favored at low superhelical density. Analyses of mutant promoters using structure-specific probes revealed that specific sequences, at the closing base-pair of the hairpin and at the loop (i.e. 5'-C-GXA-G-3' where X=G, A, T), are required for extrusion of the small promoter hairpins at physiological superhelical density. The sequence-dependent requirements for extrusion of the small N4 promoter hairpins may be generally applicable for other such sequences found both in prokaryotic and eukaryotic genomes.

Acetaldehyde↗