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Background: Cardiovascular damages poses risks to children with Kawasaki disease (KD). Although hypertriglyceridemia and hypercholesteremia are risk factors of cardiovascular damages, studies on the blood lipid metabolism in KD are still limited. This study aims to analyze the blood lipids and coagulation in KD., Methods: Triglyceride (TG) and cholesterol levels in the plasma and serum from 20 children with KD were examined in comparison with 10 healthy children (HC) as well as 10 children with high fever from identified bacterial infections (BT). Using electrospray ionization mass spectrometry, we profiled the lipid species. Blood coagulation was analyzed. Statistics was analyzed by one-way ANOVA using SigmaStat., Results: We found that in KD, plasma TG level was significantly increased, but not serum TG. A total of 19 molecular species of TG were identified, and they were all increased in KD and BT patients, and more pronounced in KD. On the other hand, major molecular species of plasma phosphotidylcholine and lyso-phosphotidylcholine were decreased in KD and BT. Pronounced hypercoagulation was found in KD blood., Conclusion: Our data indicate hyperlipidemia in KD, especially for TG, which contributes to the hypercoagulation and the potential risk of cardiovascular damages. Evaluation of blood lipid levels in severe KD patients could provide valuable information for treatment and prognosis, thus would be worthy of consideration.

Background: There are over 100 serotypes of enterovirus species A-D, which are the common cause of various symptoms in infants, such as meningitis, encephalitis and hand foot mouth disease (HFMD). This study aims to investigate the epidemiological characteristics of enteroviruses in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China, and to provide relevant information to guide public health responses and interventions., Methods: Systematic surveillance was conducted on enterovirus infections. Samples were collected from children admitted to the inpatient wards and outpatient departments between January 2010 and December 2012 in the Children's Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine. Enteroviruses from all specimens were detected by RT-PCR using a commercialized detection kit., Results: From 13026 samples collected and examined, 2673 (21.21%) were found positive for enteroviruses. The annual enterovirus-positive rate decreased from 32.78% in 2010 to 14.23% in 2012. Positivity rate for enteroviruses was highest among children aged less than 5 years. The monthly positivity rate for enterovirus infection ranged from 2.6% to 34.83%, with a peak in June and July. Serotypes causing severe symptoms such as HFMD including EV71 and CA16 were decreasing, while the proportion of unidentified EV serotypes causing herpangina and viral encephalitis were on the rise., Conclusions: EV infection is highly prevalent among young children in Hangzhou, as it is in the most other parts of the world. Further surveillance using methods that can subtype all EVs is warranted to better monitor these infections and their etiology.

Background: Drought is one of the major abiotic stresses affecting plant growth, development and crop productivity. ABA responsive element binding factor (ABF) plays an important role in stress responses via regulating the expression of stress-responsive genes., Results: In this study, a gene coding for ABF (PtrABF) was isolated from Poncirus trifoliata (L.) Raf. PtrABF had a complete open reading frame of 1347 bp, encoding a 448 amino acid peptide, and shared high sequence identities with ABFs from other plants. PtrABF was subcellularly targeted to the nucleus, exhibited transactivation activity in yeast cell and could bind to ABRE, supporting its role as a transcription factor. Expression levels of PtrABF were induced by treatments with dehydration, low temperature and ABA. Ectopic expression of PtrABF under the control of a CaMV 35S promoter in transgenic tobacco plants enhanced tolerance to both dehydration and drought. Under dehydration and drought conditions, the transgenic plants accumulated lower levels of reactive oxygen species compared with wild type, accompanied by higher activities and expression levels of three antioxidant enzymes. In addition, steady-state mRNA levels of nine stress-responsive genes coding for either functional or regulatory proteins were induced to higher levels in the transgenic lines with or without drought stress., Conclusions: PtrABF is a bZIP transcription factor and functions in positive modulation of drought stress tolerance. It may be an important candidate gene for molecular breeding of drought-tolerant plants.