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Medical parasitology education has been facing some difficulties, because it is a course of wide range, lacking clinical cases and concerned specimens of parasites currently. In addition, its relationship with life is not closely enough. All these reasons may impact the effect of class education negatively. Therefore, it is important to increase the vitality of parasitology education and diversify the instructional mode by using the resources from Internet. In recent years, the Discovery Channel has uploaded a documentary Monsters Inside Me online. This documentary is high professional and closely linked with parasitology. It maintains numbers of clinical cases about parasitic diseases. Each episode is about 3 minutes and shortly enough to be introduced into class teaching. However, this resource has not been fully used in domestic temporally. We found that direct introduction of the documentary into class teaching can enrich teaching forms to attract learning interest of students, and finally improve the teaching effect of class. Above that, another popular documentary A Bite of China involves many related knowledge points of parasitology. The appropriate usage of the knowledge can build up close linkage between book and life, which is extremely helpful to give students a deep impression of parasitology. In brief, it is our strong recommendation to introduce the documentary Monsters Inside Me into class.

Objective: To investigate the effect of bicyclol on vascular oxidative stress injury induced by superoxide anion., Methods: Rat thoracic aortic rings were isolated for isometric tension recording using organ bath technique. Superoxide arterial injury was induced by pyrogallol exposure, and the effect of bicyclol on endothelium-dependent relaxation was evaluated., Results: Bicyclol (10(-8) - 10(-5) mol/L) relaxed endothelium-intact aortic rings precontracted by phenylephrine. This effect was abolished by L-NAME, an inhibitor of nitric oxide synthase and indomethacin, an inhibitor of cyclooxygenase. Exposure to pyrogallol (500 micromol/L) resulted in decrease of acetylcholine(ACh)-induced endothelium-dependent relaxation in aortic rings, and pre-incubation of bicyclol (10(-5) mol/L) for 45 min improved the relaxation attenuated by pyrogallol. In aortic rings pre-treated with indomethacin, bicyclol increased the ACh-induced relaxation that was inhibited by pyrogallol (500 micromol/L). This effect was not found in aortic rings pre-treated with L-NAME., Conclusion: Bicyclol has endothelium-dependent vasodilating effect on rat thoracic aorta and improves vascular function by attenuating oxidative stress. Nitric oxide from endothelium is involved in the anti-oxidative effect of bicyclol.

Objective: To investigate the myocardial electrophysiological effect and its underlying mechanisms of atorvastatin (Ator) on isolated rat hearts injured by ischemia/reperfusion (I/R)., Methods: Isolated SD rat hearts were mounted on Langendorff system, and a local I/R was induced by ligation (30 min) and release (15 min) of the left anterior descending artery. During the reperfusion period, the effect of Ator on diastolic excitation threshold (DET), effective refractory period (ERP) and ventricular fibrillation threshold (VFT) on rat heart were measured., Result: Compared with the control group, medium concentration of Ator prolonged the ERP in normal rat hearts; low, medium and high concentration of Ator significantly inhibited the decrease of DET, ERP and VFT induced by I/R. However, pretreatment with L-NAME cancelled these cardiac electrophysiological effects of Ator., Conclusion: Ator reduced electrophysiological alteration induced by I/R in isolated rat hearts, which may be mediated by activating nitric oxide pathway to enhance the myocardial electrophysiological stability.

Aim: To investigate the vasodilating effect and its mechanism of ethanol on isolated rat thoracic aorta at different resting tension., Methods: The tension of the isolated Sprague-Dawley rat thoracic aorta rings perfused with different concentrations of ethanol was measured using organ bath technique., Results: At different resting tension (1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5 and 4.0 g), ethanol (0.1-7.0 per thousand) caused a concentration-dependent relaxation on endothelium-denuded aortic rings precontracted with KCl (6 x 10(-2)mol/L) or phenylephrine (PE, 10(-6) mol/L), and the vasodilating effect was the most potent when the aortic rings were at the resting tension of 3 g. Ethanol had much less vasodilating effect on endothelium-intact aortic rings. Ethanol at 3 per thousand (the maximum-effect concentration) inhibited the CaCl2 induced contraction and downward shifted concentration-response curve of endothelium-denuded aortic rings pre-contracted with KCI or PE at the resting tension of 3 g. Incubation of aorta with ruthenium red (10(-5) mol/L) or heparin (50 mg/L) decreased the vasodilating effect of ethanol (3.0 per thousand) on endothelium-denuded aorta precontracted with PE at the resting tension of 3 g., Conclusion: Ethanol induces endothelium-independent relaxation on rat thoracic aorta, which is concerned with the resting tension. This effect of ethanol may be mediated by the inhibition of voltage-dependent and receptor-operated Ca2+ channels in the vascular smooth muscle cells. The inhibition of the ryanodine receptor and trisphosphate inositol (IP3) pathway may also contribute to this effect.