AIMS To investigate the protective role of nitric oxide (NO) induced by ischemic preconditioning (IP) on cold ischemic-reperfusion (IR) injury of rat liver grafts. METHODS One hundred twenty-eight male Sprague Dawley rats used for orthotopic liver transplantation were randomly divided into four groups (n = 32): administering heparin before ischemic reperfusion (control group); IP with 10-minute ischemia and 10-minute reperfusion before IR (IP group); adenosine before IR (Ade group); and L-NAME (NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester)+ IP before IR (NAME group). Half of each group were used to investigate 1-week recipient survival rate, and another to obtain blood and hepatic tissue samples after 2-hour reperfusion. RESULTS One-week survival bile production, serum NO, and antioxidase activity were higher but serum alanine aminotransferase, tumor necrosis factor-α, and superoxide levels in hepatic tissue were lower in the IP group and Ade group versus the control group or NAME group. Liver sinusoidal endothelial cells in the IP and Ade groups showed less injury than the other groups. CONCLUSION NO induced by IP can improve 1-week survival and rat liver function as well as protect liver sinusoidal endothelial cells.

The reproductive mechanism of Haemaphysalis longicornis is quite different from many other animal species. In this article, several characteristics of parthenogenetic and bisexual populations of H. longicornis were analyzed, including some important micro-structures, synchronized life cycle feature and sequences of mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene. The results suggested even though many observations of the two populations were similar to each other, some important differences also existed. The genital apron of parthenogenetic females was wider than that of bisexual females. Parthenogenetic individuals (except engorged females) were significantly larger in weight than bisexual individuals (p<0.01; unfed nymph p<0.05); the difference of nymphal premoulting, female feeding and preoviposition, and egg incubation periods between the two populations were significant (p<0.01); hatch percentage of parthenogenesis was lower than that of bisexual population (69% and 73%, respectively); parthenogenetic individuals had a slightly longer development cycle than bisexual individuals (134 and 129days, respectively). Hybridization attempts failed between them. Comparing to the two strains of bisexual H. longicornis, parthenogenetic strain of H. longicornis inserted two nucleotides of thymine, though the genetic distance of 16S rDNA between the bisexual and parthenogenetic populations was 0. In order to clarify the relationships of the two reproductive populations of H. longicornis, the sequences of 16S rDNA of four strains of two other species were also analyzed. The divergence between Hebei and Xinjiang strains of Rhipicephalus sanguineus was 0, and the sequences were totally identical between them. The divergence between the two subspecies of Hyalomma asiaticum was 0.01. The results indicated that the relationship between bisexual and parthenogenetic H. longicornis was certainly closer than that between subspecies, but farther than that between the same reproductive populations of conspecies.

Our previous studies have proven the adjuvanticity of chitosan in mice when administered with inactivated and subunit influenza vaccine. In this study, we investigated the adjuvant effect of chitosan on the immunogenicity and protective efficacy of a live attenuated influenza vaccine. Mice were inoculated intranasally with live attenuated influenza vaccine plus chitosan and then challenged with a high, lethal dose of homologous or heterologous virus. Antibody responses, secretion of IFN-γ by spleen cells, body weight loss, survival rates, and residual lung virus titers were tested. The results demonstrated that live attenuated influenza vaccine with chitosan adjuvant not only protected mice completely against challenge with the homologous virus but also provided good cross-protection against a heterologous virus. In addition, chitosan as adjuvant could significantly increase the levels of antigen-specific antibodies and the population of IFN-γ-secreting T cells. These results reveal the potential of chitosan as a candidate adjuvant for use in a live attenuated influenza vaccine.

A search for a Higgs boson in the four-lepton decay channel H→ZZ, with each Z boson decaying to an electron or muon pair, is reported. The search covers Higgs boson mass hypotheses in the range of 110<m_{H}<600  GeV. The analysis uses data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.7  fb^{-1} recorded by the CMS detector in pp collisions at sqrt[s]=7  TeV from the LHC. Seventy-two events are observed with four-lepton invariant mass m_{4ℓ}>100  GeV (with 13 below 160 GeV), while 67.1±6.0 (9.5±1.3) events are expected from background. The four-lepton mass distribution is consistent with the expectation of standard model background production of ZZ pairs. Upper limits at 95% confidence level exclude the standard model Higgs boson in the ranges of 134-158 GeV, 180-305 GeV, and 340-465 GeV. Small excesses of events are observed around masses of 119, 126, and 320 GeV, making the observed limits weaker than expected in the absence of a signal.