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// Qi Fan 1, * , Cheuk Ying Tang 2, * , Di Gu 3 , Jinyu Zhu 1 , Guojun Li 4 , Yingwei Wu 1 , Xiaofeng Tao 1 1 Radiology Department, Shanghai People’s Ninth Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, School of Medicine, Shanghai, China 2 Radiology Department, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, USA 3 Department of Urology, Shanghai First People’s Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, School of Medicine, Shanghai, China 4 Departments of Head and Neck Surgery, University of Texas, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA * These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Yingwei Wu, email: wuyw0103@hotmail.com Xiaofeng Tao, email: Taoxiaofeng0808@126.com Keywords: hypoxia, glioma, oxygen-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging, GLUT-1, pO2 Received: December 06, 2016 Accepted: February 20, 2017 Published: March 16, 2017 ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to determine whether using oxygen-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (OE-MRI) to assess hypoxia is feasible and whether historical measurements, pO2 changes, and percentage of signal intensity changes (PSIC) are correlated in an animal model of glioma. A total of 25 Sprague-Dawley rats were used to establish C6 brain or subcutaneous glioma model. Nine rats with brain gliomas underwent OE-MRI followed by histopathologic analysis to assess microvessel density and hypoxia. Another 11 rats were underwent OE-MRI and were followed for a survival analysis. Time–T1-weighted MR signal intensity (SI) curves and PSIC maps were derived from the OE-MRI data. High–regions of interests (ROI-h; PSIC > 10%) and low-ROIs (ROI-l; PSIC < 10%) were defined on the PSIC maps. To validate the PSIC map for identifying tumor hypoxia, we subjected an additional 5 rats with subcutaneous glioma to OE-MRI and pO2 measurements. All tumors showed regional heterogeneity on the PSIC maps. For the brain tumors, the time-SI curves for the ROIs-h showed a greater increase in SI than those for the ROIs-l did. The percentage of tumor area with a low PSIC was significantly correlated with the percentage of hypoxia staining and necrosis (r =0.71; P

Airway inflammation is a central component of the manifestation of asthma but is relatively inaccessible to study. Current imaging techniques such as X-ray CT, MRI, and PET, have advanced noninvasive research on pulmonary diseases. However, these techniques mainly facilitate the anatomical or structural assessment of the diseased lung and/or typically use radioactive agents. In vivo fluorescence imaging is a novel method for noninvasive, real-time, and specific monitoring of lung airway inflammation, which is particularly important to gain a further understanding asthma. Compared to conventional techniques, fluorescent imaging has the advantages of rapid feedback, as well as high sensitivity and resolution. Recently, there has been an increase in the identification of biomarkers, including matrix metalloproteinases, cathepsins, selectins, folate receptor-beta, nanoparticles, as well as sialic acid-binding immunoglobulin-like lectin-F to assess the level of airway inflammation in asthma. Recent advances in our understanding of these biomarkers as molecular probes for in vivo imaging are discussed in this review.

Peripheral blood, menstrual blood, semen, saliva and vaginal secretions are the five most common body fluids found at crime scenes, and the identification of these five body fluids is of great significance to the reconstruction of a crime scene and resolution of the case. However, accurate identification of these five body fluids is still a challenge. To address this problem, a mathematical model for differentiating five types of forensic body fluids based on the differential expression characteristics of multiple miRNAs in five body fluids (peripheral blood, menstrual blood, semen, saliva and vaginal secretions) was developed. A total of 350 forensic body fluids (70 of each type) were collected and tested, and relative expression of 10 miRNAs (miR-451a, miR-205-5p, miR-203-3p, miR-214-3p, miR-144-3p, miR-144-5p, miR-654-5p, miR-888-5p, miR-891a-5p, miR-124a-3p) in all samples was detected by SYBR Green real-time qPCR. Three hundred samples (60 samples of each body fluid) were used as the training set to screen meaningful identification markers by stepwise discriminant analysis, and a discriminant function was established. Fifty samples (10 samples of each body fluid) were used as a validation set to examine the accuracy of the model, and 25 samples (the types of samples were unknown to the experimenter) were used for a blind test. Except for miR-144-3p, the other miRNAs were selected to construct discriminant analysis models. The self-validation accuracy of the model was 99.7 %, cross-validation accuracy was 99.3 %, accuracy of the identification validation set was 100 %, and accuracy of the blind test result was 100 %. This study provides a reliable and accurate identification strategy for five common body fluids (peripheral blood, menstrual blood, semen, saliva, and vaginal secretions) in forensic medicine.

The purpose of this paper was to explore a new method for screening lipid-lowering drugs in zebrafish models. The suitable drug concentrations of atorvastatin (ATV), fenofibrate (FEF) and ezetimibe (EZE) were first determined. Then, the serum cholesterol and triglyceride levels were detected in high-fat diet (HFD)-fed zebrafish. The HFD zebrafish models were constructed and the effects of drugs on them were observed by Oil red O staining and fluorescence labeling. Statistical analyses among groups were conducted using SPSS software. The lowest drug concentration (LDC) and the highest (HDC) of ATV, FEF and EZE were 0.3 μM/37.0μM, 1.2μM/3.5μM, and 6.3 μM/26.4μM, respectively, while, the intermediate (IDC) was, in order, 18.5μM, 1.8μM, 13.2μM. The cholesterol and triglyceride levels in HFD-fed zebrafish were increased after 7 weeks fat feeding (p0.05). Moreover, the levels of triglyceride were significantly decreased after LDC of ATV and FEF treated (p0.05), but not that of EZE. While, the cholesterol levels were reduced in three groups (p0.05). Moreover, the 5 dpf high-fat zebrafish model was established successfully and maintained stably for 24h. ATV produced effects in a concentration-dependent manner, while only IDC and HDC of FEF and EZE made effects on this model. Intravascular cholesterol levels were significantly increased after HCD treatment and decreased after drug treated. The high-fat zebrafish model induced by HFD-fed was available and successful, besides, the Oil red O staining may be an available and rapid method for screening lipid-lowering drugs.

Objective: The present study was designed to test whether transplantation of human bone marrow-derived mesen- chymal stem cells (hMSCs) in New Zealand rabbits with myocardial infarction can improve heart function; and whether engrafted donor cells can survive and transdifferentiated into cardiomyocytes. Methods: Twenty milliliters bone marrow was obtained from healthy men by bone biopsy. A gradient centrifugation method was used to separate bone marrow cells (BMCs) and red blood cells. BMCs were incubated for 48 h and then washed with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS). The culture medium was changed twice a week for 28 d. Finally, hematopoietic cells were washed away to leave only MSCs. Human MSCs (hMSCs) were premarked by BrdU 72 h before the transplantation. Thirty-four New Zealand rabbits were randomly divided into myocardial infarction (MI) control group and cell treated group, which received hMSCs (MI+MSCs) through intramyocardial injection, while the control group received the same volume of PBS. Myocardial infarction was induced by ligation of the left coronary artery. Cell treated rabbits were treated with 5×10 6 MSCs transplanted into the infarcted region after ligation of the coronary artery for 1 h, and the control group received the same volume of PBS. Cyclosporin A (oral solution; 10 mg/kg) was provided alone, 24 h before surgery and once a day after MI for 4 weeks. Echocardiography was measured in each group before the surgery and 4 weeks after the surgery to test heart function change. The hearts were harvested for HE staining and immunohistochemical studies after MI and cell transplantation for 4 weeks. Results: Our data showed that cardiac function was significantly improved by hMSC transplan- tation in rabbit infarcted hearts 4 weeks after MI (ejection fraction: 0.695±0.038 in the cell treated group (n=12) versus 0.554±0.065 in the control group (n=13) (P