The long-term and real-time monitoring the cell division and changes of osteoblasts under simulated zero gravity condition were succeed by combing a digital holographic microscopy (DHM) with a superconducting magnet (SM). The SM could generate different magnetic force fields in a cylindrical cavity, where the gravitational force of biological samples could be canceled at a special gravity position by a high magnetic force. Therefore the specimens were levitated and in a simulated zero gravity environment. The DHM was modified to fit with SM by using single mode optical fibers and a vertically-configured jig designed to hold specimens and integrate optical device in the magnet's bore. The results presented the first-phase images of living cells undergoing dynamic divisions and changes under simulated zero gravity environment for a period of 10 hours. The experiments demonstrated that the SM-compatible DHM setup could provide a highly efficient and versatile method for research on the effects of microgravity on biological samples.

Triptolide(TPT) isolated from one of the Chinese herbs, Tripterygium wilfordii Hook. F.(TWHF), are known to have a variety of immunomodulatory activities. This study was performed to investigate the effect of TPT on the differentiation of splenic DCs and its influence on T cell-mediated immunity regarding to DC subsets CD11c(low)I-a/e(low)CD45RB(+)(CD11c(low) DCs) and CD11c(high)I-a/e(high)CD45RB(-)(CD11c(high) DCs) in male C57BL/6 mice spleens in vitro. The percentage of CD11c(low) DCs was significantly increased after treatment with TPT compared to their counterparts (CD11c(high) DCs). It was found that unlike the gradually decreasing interleukin (IL)-12 secretion of CD11c(high) DCs induced by TPT, CD11c(low) DCs showed a obvious dose-dependent response between the increasing of IL-10 production and TPT stimulation. After treatment with anti-IL-12R or anti-IL-10 monoclonal antibody in CD4(+) T cells+CD11c(high) DCs or CD11c(low) DCs mixed lymphocyte reaction, the induction of these DCs on T cells was inhibited dramatically. These data demonstrated that TPT might induce the differentiation of splenic DCs to CD11c(low) DCs followed by shifting of Th1 to Th2 with enhancement of T lymphocyte immune function in vitro.

To determine the feasibility of inducing mutation for Gibberella moniliformis EZG0807 with a superconducting magnet, this paper investigated the effects of this instrument on the filamentous fungus G. moniliformis EZG0807. The superconducting magnet could simulate space gravity environment from hypo-gravity (0 g) to hyper-gravity (2 g). After G. moniliformis EZG0807 was exposed to the superconducting magnet for 72 h, the morphological observation, agar diffusion method, and amplified fragment length polymorphism were performed to detect the mutagenic effects in the aspect of morphology, the activity of metabolites, and genomic DNA, respectively. The mutant strain M7212 in 1 g (16 T) was different from the control in the morphology, showing no activity against the four tested bacteria Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, and Proteus vulgaris, and lost a size of 675 bp band on the genomic DNA. These results indicated that the superconducting magnet could be used to induce mutation for G. moniliformis EZG0807, which enabled improving the production of G. moniliformis EZG0807 and providing an effective approach for fungal breeding.

Osteoblasts, the bone-forming cells, respond to various mechanical forces, such as stretch and fluid shear force in essentially similar ways. The cytoskeleton, as the load-bearing architecture of the cell, is sensitive to altered inertial forces. Disruption of the cytoskeleton will result in alteration of cellular structure and function. However, it is difficult to quantitatively illustrate cytoskeletal rearrangement because of the complexity of cytoskeletal structure. Usually, the morphological changes in actin organization caused by external stimulus are basically descriptive. In this study, fractal dimensions (D) analysis was used to quantify the morphological changes in the actin cytoskeleton of osteoblast-like cells (MC3T3-E1) under simulated microgravity using 3-D/2-D clinostats. The ImageJ software was used to count the fractal dimension of actin cytoskeleton by box-counting methods. Real-time PCR and immunofluroscent assays were used to further confirm the results obtained by fractal dimension analysis. The results showed significant decreases in D value of actin cytoskeleton, β-actin mRNA expression, and the mean fluorescence intensity of F-actin in osteoblast-like cells after 24 or 48 h of incubation under 3-D/2-D clinorotation condition compared with control. The findings indicate that 3-D/2-D clinorotation affects both actin cytoskeleton architecture and mRNA expression, and fractal may be a promising approach for quantitative analysis of the changes in cytoskeleton in different environments.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of test material format and smoking regimens on comparative toxicity testing of cigarette smoke. Total particulate matter (TPM) or whole smoke (WS) generated from three test cigarettes under International Organization for Standardization (ISO) or Health Canada Intensive (HCI) regimens were assessed for cytotoxicity using the neutral red uptake (NRU) cytotoxicity assay. Under both ISO and HCI regimens, the relative differences of cytotoxicity among the test cigarettes indicated by the EC(50) values in WS were significantly higher than those in TPM. For TPM testing, cytotoxicity was decreased going from ISO regimen to HCI regimen, consistent with the reported reductions of toxicant output on a per unit of TPM basis under the HCI regimen. For WS, cytotoxicity increased for the two lower TPM cigarettes, and decreased for the higher TPM cigarette going from HCI regimen to ISO regimen. Results from this study demonstrated WS should be the preferable test material format for smoke toxicity testing whenever possible. Intensive smoking regimens, such as HCI, are less likely to underestimate smoke toxicant intakes by smokers, and should be included in the comparative toxicological testing strategy.

Studies of animals and humans subjected to spaceflight demonstrate that weightlessness negatively affects the mass and mechanical properties of bone tissue. Bone cells could sense and respond to the gravity unloading, and genes sensitive to gravity change were considered to play a critical role in the mechanotransduction of bone cells. To evaluate the fold-change of gene expression, appropriate reference genes should be identified because there is no housekeeping gene having stable expression in all experimental conditions. Consequently, expression stability of ten candidate housekeeping genes were examined in osteoblast-like MC3T3-E1, osteocyte-like MLO-Y4, and preosteoclast-like FLG29.1 cells under different apparent gravities (μg, 1 g, and 2 g) in the high-intensity gradient magnetic field produced by a superconducting magnet. The results showed that the relative expression of these ten candidate housekeeping genes was different in different bone cells; Moreover, the most suitable reference genes of the same cells in altered gravity conditions were also different from that in strong magnetic field. It demonstrated the importance of selecting suitable reference genes in experimental set-ups. Furthermore, it provides an alternative choice to the traditionally accepted housekeeping genes used so far about studies of gravitational biology and magneto biology.

Diamagnetic levitation is a technique that uses a strong, spatially varying magnetic field to simulate an altered gravity environment, as in space. In this study, using Streptomyces avermitilis as the test organism, we investigate whether changes in magnetic field and altered gravity induce changes in morphology and secondary metabolism. We find that a strong magnetic field (12T) inhibit the morphological development of S. avermitilis in solid culture, and increase the production of secondary metabolites. S. avermitilis on solid medium was levitated at 0 g*, 1 g* and 2 g* in an altered gravity environment simulated by diamagnetic levitation and under a strong magnetic field, denoted by the asterix. The morphology was obtained by electromicroscopy. The production of the secondary metabolite, avermectin, was determined by OD(245 nm). The results showed that diamagnetic levitation could induce a physiological response in S. avermitilis. The difference between 1 g* and the control group grown without the strong magnetic field (1 g), showed that the magnetic field was a more dominant factor influencing changes in morphology and secondary metabolite production, than altered gravity. We have discovered that magnetic field, rather than altered gravity, is the dominant factor in altered gravity simulated by diamagnetic levitation, therefore care should to be taken in the interpretation of results when using diamagnetic levitation as a technique to simulate altered gravity. Hence, these results are significant, and timely to researchers considering the use of diamagnetic levitation to explore effects of weightlessness on living organisms and on physical phenomena.

Since the spring of 2008, an epidemic of urinary tract stones was noted among children in China. This is believed to be associated with consumption melamine-contaminated powdered formula. A few patients presented with acute kidney injury (AKI) due to bilateral renal or ureteral calculi requiring surgical intervention to relieve the obstruction. We retrospectively analyzed clinical and laboratory data, ultrasonograms and treatment methods in children with melamine-induced urolithiasis and AKI who were hospitalized at seven hospitals from September to November 2008 in Gansu Province, China. Treatment given included conservative treatment, cystoscopic or urethroscopic lithotripsy, retrograde ureteral catheterization, ureterolithotomy and nephrostomy. Patients were monitored postoperatively with data of ultrasonography, urinalysis and blood and urine biochemistry. The mean age of the 47 children was 10 months (mean ± SD, 10.83 ± 5.11 months). Thirty-four (72.34%) were male. Calculi size ranged from 3 to 14 mm in diameter. Nine patients (19.15%) were successfully treated with conservative treatment; 32 (68.09%) underwent retrograde ureteral catheterization and eight had simultaneous cystoscopic or urethroscopic stone removal; four were successfully treated with ureterolithotomy, and 1 underwent percutaneous nephrostomy. Thirty-eight patients were followed up for a mean ± SD of 18.50 ± 5.27 months and their renal functions were found to have completely recovered. Five (13.16%) cases had residual renal stones with diameter ranging from 2 to 4 mm. Therefore, this study has demonstrated that melamine-induced urolithiasis could lead to AKI. Removing obstruction promptly by surgical intervention has been found to be effective with satisfactory outcomes observed at mean follow-up period of 18-month. However, residual renal stone remained in 13.16% of the cases which required continued close observation.

The purpose of the present study was to assess the risk of the metabolic syndrome (MS) with vegan, pescovegetarian, lactovegetarian and nonvegetarian diets in Taiwan. The design was a retrospective cohort study using secondary data analysis from a Taiwan longitudinal health check-up database provided by MJ Health Screening Center during 1996-2006. A total of 93209 participants were classified as vegans (n=1116), pescovegetarians (n=2461), lactovegetarians (n=4313) and nonvegetarians (n=85319) by food frequency list of self-administered questionnaire at baseline. The association between MS or MS components and different dietary groups was evaluated using Cox proportional-hazards regression models with adjustment for confounders. During the mean 3.75 years of follow up, a total 8006 MS incident cases occurred and the incidence of MS was 229 (95% CI, 224, 234) per 10000 person year. Compared with vegans, hazard ratios of MS for nonvegetarians, pescovegetarians, lactovegetarians were 0.75 (95% CI, 0.64, 0.88), 0.68 (95% CI, 0.55, 0.83) and 0.81 (95% CI, 0.67, 0.97) after adjusting for sex, age, education status, smoking status, drinking status, physical activity at work and leisure, respectively. As for MS components, nonvegetarians and pescovegetarians had 0.72 (95% CI, 0.62, 0.84), 0.70 (95% CI, 0.57, 0.84) times risk of developing low high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), while nonvegetarians had 1.16 (95% CI, 1.02, 1.32) times risk of developing high fasting plasma glucose. Our data suggest that the vegan diets did not decrease the risk of metabolic syndrome compared with pescovegetarian, lactovegetarian and nonvegetarian diets in a Taiwanese cohort.

Anti-tuberculosis drug induced liver injury (ATLI) is emerging as a significant threat to tuberculosis control in China, though limited data is available about the burden of ATLI at population level. This study aimed to estimate the incidence of ATLI, to better understand its clinical features, and to evaluate its impact on anti-tuberculosis (TB) treatment in China. In a population-based prospective study, we monitored 4,304 TB patients receiving directly observed treatment strategy (DOTS) treatment, and found that 106 patients developed ATLI with a cumulative incidence of 2.55%(95% Confidence Interval [CI], 2.04%-3.06%). Nausea, vomiting and anorexia were the top three most frequently observed symptoms. There were 35 (33.02%) ATLI patients with no symptoms, including 8 with severe hepatotoxicity. Regarding the prognosis of ATLI, 84 cases (79.25%) recovered, 18 (16.98%) improved, 2 (1.89%) failed to respond to the treatment with continued elevation of serum alanine aminotransferase, and 2 (1.89%) died as result of ATLI. Of all the ATLI cases, 74 (69.81%) cases changed their anti-TB treatment, including 4 (3.77%) cases with medication administration change, 21 (19.81%) cases with drugs replacement, 54 (50.94%) cases with therapy interruption, and 12 (11.32%) cases who discontinued therapy. In terms of treatment outcomes, 53 (51.46%) cases had TB cured in time, 48 (46.60%) cases had therapy prolonged, and 2 (1.94%) cases died. Compared with non-ATLI patients, ATLI patients had a 9.25-fold (95%CI, 5.69-15.05) risk of unsuccessful anti-TB treatment outcomes and a 2.11-fold (95%CI,1.23-3.60) risk of prolonged intensive treatment phase. ATLI could considerably impact the outcomes of anti-TB treatment. Given the incidence of ATLI and the size of TB population in China, the negative impact is substantial. Therefore, more research and efforts are warranted in order to enhance the diagnosis and the prevention of ATLI.