Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to X Meng.
Cluster analysis has been applied to the classification of various commodities of Bulbus Lilii in order to sort out the main one. The stomatic index of the commodity has been determined.
A textual research has been carried out herbalogically on Bulbus Lilii, along with a pharmacological study and resources investigation. Lanceleaf Lily is regarded as the first choice of the drug.
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A simple method for production of antisera with high affinity and selectivity for 1 alpha, 25-dihydroxyergocalciferol and 1 alpha, 25-dihydroxychole-calciferol is described. 1 alpha-Hydroxy-25,26,27-trisnorcholecalciferol-24-oic acid was coupled directly to bovine serum albumin. Rabbits immunized with this conjugate rapidly produced antibodies that bound 3H-1 alpha,-25-dihydroxycholecalciferol with high affinity and demonstrated nearly equal reactivity with 1 alpha, 25-dihydroxyergocalciferol and poor reactivity with 25-hydroxycholecalciferol; 24,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol; 25,26-dihydroxycholecalciferol; and 1 beta,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol. The use of one of these antisera has led to the development of a specific assay for 1 alpha,25-dihydroxyergocalciferol and 1 alpha,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol in human serum.
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In order to develop a more efficient method of introducing genes into keratinocytes in vivo, we intradermally injected DNA bound to high mobility group 1 protein, thereby taking advantages of the naked DNA and hemagglutinating virus of the Japan-liposome method reported previously. First we performed a gel mobility shift assay, which confirmed DNA binding to high mobility group 1. Then we injected beta-galactosidase expression vector complexed with high mobility group 1 into the rat skin and the activity of sample with the protein was 2-3 times higher than that without the protein as control. Semiquantification of transferred-DNA content using polymerase chain reaction and a time course of transgene expression in keratinocytes suggested that high mobility group 1 protein increased transfer of the DNA from the cytoplasm to the nucleus. Direct injection of the DNA-high-mobility-group-1 complex is a highly efficient method for introducing genes into keratinocytes in connection with gene therapy.
The Western world has been used to describing disease on its terms, as if it is a prototype for the same disease found anywhere else in the world. It is unusual that one can test the hypothesis that a common disease can present in markedly different ways, depending on the country in which it is studied. We have had the opportunity to compare and contrast primary hyperparathyroidism in the United States and in China as seen in New York City and in Beijing. The cohort of subjects in each case was well over 100, and the experience extends to well over a decade of observations. In the United States, primary hyperparathyroidism typically presents as asymptomatic hypercalcemia in women within 10 years of menopause. Most often, it is discovered accidentally in the course of a routine multichannel chemistry screening test. The serum calcium is 10.5 + 0.1 mg/dL, within 1 mg/dL above the upper limit of normal, 10.2; the serum parathyroid hormone level is 118 + 9 pg/mL (within 1.5-2-fold above the normal limit, 65). The average 25-hydroxyvitamin D level is 21 ng/mL, in the lower range of normal. The classical clinical manifestations of primary hyperparathyroidism, stone and bone disease, have become much less common than earlier descriptions of the disease in the United States through the 1950s. Overt radiological bone disease (osteitis fibrosa cystica) is almost never seen, whereas stone disease is reduced in incidence from a high of 60% in the 1940s to current estimates of 15-20% now. Most patients are asymptomatic; skeletal involvement is detected only by measuring skeletal calcium by bone densitometry. Primary hyperparathyroidism in China presents much differently. Patients are younger, with an average age of 37. The serum calcium level is much higher, averaging about 12 mg/dL. PTH is over 20 times the upper limits of normal. The average 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration is much lower than in the United States population, 8.8 ng/mL. Radiological evidence for osteitis fibrosa cystica is seen in 60% of patients; virtually all patients have osteoporosis. Thirty-five percent of patients suffer pathological fractures, most often of the femur or humerus. Forty-two percent demonstrate kidney stones, with half showing bilateral disease. Constitutional features of weakness and easy fatigability are always present. There are both facile and rather subtle explanations for this dramatically different presentation of the same disease in the United States (New York City) and China (Beijing).
An improved method has been developed to count cells in situ based on the measurement of esterase activity with carboxyfluorescein diacetate. This sensitive, semiautomated microplate fluorometer assay was able to estimate viable cell numbers over a range of 5 x 10(2) to 2.6 x 10(5) cells/well in a tumor cell line. Sensitivity to 10(3) was demonstrated in two other cell lines. Sub- and supranormal fluorescence events which can be responsible for unreliable readings when using a fluorescence assay for cell counting were quantified in a menadione (cytotoxic agent)/U-87 MG (cell line) model. There was a close correlation between the fluorometer method and Coulter counter method for two different tumor cell lines when this method was performed on cells after sub- and supranormal fluorescence events had ceased.