Search

Objective: To explore heterosexual and homosexual behaviors, and influencing factors, in those unmarried out-of-school young people aged 15 to 24 years, so as to provide the basis on the education and service of sexual and reproductive health for those young people. Methods: The questionnaire survey form was anonymously filled out by 1 113 unmarried out-of-school young people on six target spots in urban and rural areas of six provinces by the computer assisted self-interview (CASI) system. Results: The incidences of hetero-or homo- sexual behaviors in the 15 to 18 years male group and the 19 to 24 years male group were significantly higher than those in female groups (P < 0.05). 7.14% of the first heterosexual behaviors in the 15 to 18 years female group were forced. Sexual safety precautions were used in 66.67% of males and 40.00% of females in the 15 to 18 years group, and in 58.82% of males and 49.11% of females in the 19 to 24 years group. About 30.00% of males reported that they had partners' pregnancies, and 30% of females reported that they had pregnancies. The incidence of multiple sexual partners in the 19 to 24 years male group was significantly higher than that in the age-matched female group (P < 0.01). On homosexual behaviors, the average age of the first homosexual behaviors in the 15 to 18 years group was about 14 years, 15.79% of males in the 19 to 24 years group were forced to have, and 46.15% of males and 33.33% females reported that they had more than two sexual partners. Multivariate analyses showed that watching pornographic materials and being older were common risk factors of heterosexual behaviors for males (OR, 3.51 and 3.81 respectively) and females (OR, 6.41 and 3.85 respectively). Compared with those factors approving premarital sexual behaviors, the attitudes rejecting premarital sexual behaviors from respondents themselves (OR = 0.18) and their parents (OR = 0.37), and the neutral attitude from friends (OR =0.47), were protective factors in males, while the options that the female respondents thought it being not good but acceptable (OR =0.14) or opposed (OR = 0.06), and that friends thought it being unacceptable (OR = 0.16) or unknown (OR = 0.21), were protective factors and the neutral attitude from parents was risk factor (OR = 12.56) in females. Conclusions: The incidences of heterosexual and homosexual behaviors, and unsafe sexual behaviors, in those unmarried out-of-school young people were high, which were positively related to the pornographic material and the open attitudes from respondents themselves, parents and friends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Familial left ventricular noncompaction(LVNC) is quite rare. We screened for the presence of LVNC and related clinical characteristics in a 5-generation Chinese family., Methods: Comprehensive medical history was obtained from 40 members in a 5-generation Chinese family. Systemic clinical investigations including echocardiography (UCG), routine and ambulatory electrocardiogram (ECG), X-rays were performed in 33 family members. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance image (MRI) was carried out in 2 family members., Results: Sudden cardiac death (including 1 occurred while following-up) was reported in 7 family members (17.5%, 7/40). LVNC was diagnosed in 10 out of the 33 family members (30.3%) and heart enlargement was evidenced in 3, heart failure in 2, complete left branch conductive block in 3, serious sick sinus syndrome (SSS) treated with permanent pacemaker implantation in 1 and paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia treated with radiofrequency ablation procedure in 1 out of these 10 LVNC patients. Primary pedigree analysis revealed that offspring from female patients were at the highest risk to be affected by LVNC (15/18, 83.3%) while LVNC was absent in offspring of male LVNC patients (0/8). Moreover, clinical heart failure symptoms and arrhythmias were more severe in female LVNC patients than in male LVNC patients., Conclusion: Primary familial investigation reveals the matrilineal inheritance of familial LVNC in this 5-generation Chinese family, further investigations are warranted to explore the potential mutations in the mitochondrial genome responsible for LVNC in this family.

Objective: To study the quantitative and functional changes of peripheral blood dendritic cells (DCs) and their subsets in the leukocyte population in patients with coronary artery disease (CHD) with different coronary artery plaques and explore the relation between DCs and coronary plaque development., Methods: Thirty CHD patients were divided into SAP (10 cases), UAP (10 cases) and ACS (10 cases) groups, with another 10 patients having negative result in coronary angiography as the control group. Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) was performed to identify the nature of the plaques. The percentage and absolute number of peripheral blood DCs and DC subsets were measured by flow cytometry. The functional status of the DCs was analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and flow cytometry., Results: In the SAP group, IVUS found stable plaques in 8 cases and unstable plaques in 2 cases; in UAP group, 7 patients had unstable plaques, 2 had stable plaques, and 1 had plaque rupture. Plaque rupture, unstable plaques and stable plaques were found in 6, 3 and 1 patients in ACS group, respectively. In comparison with patients with stable plaques, those with unstable plaques had significantly increased percentages and number of DCs, mDCs and mDC1 (P<0.05), while the mDC2s and pDCs showed no obvious difference between them (P>0.05). The percentages and number of DCs, mDCs, mDC1s and pDCs were significantly decreased in patients with ruptured plaques (P<0.05). In peripheral blood monouclear cells cultured for 7 days, the CD83 expression was significantly higher in unstable and rupture plaque groups than in stable plaque group, and no significant difference was found between stable plaque group and the control group (P>0.05). In unstable and rupture plaque groups, co-culture with 2x10(5)/ml DCs evoked strong proliferation of the T cells in comparison with the stable plaque group, but no difference was found between the stable plaque and the control groups (P>0.05). Significantly higher levels of interleukin-2 and interferon-alpha were detected in the supernatant of the mixed lymphocyte reaction in unstable and ruptured plaque groups than in stable plaque and control groups, without obvious difference between the latter two groups., Conclusion: The percentage and absolute number of peripheral blood DCs and their functional status suggest the alterations of the coronary artery plaques in CHD patients.

Objective: To investigate the effect of telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) to the proliferation of 5-HT induced pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (PASMCs)., Methods: The PASMCs proliferation experiment was performed to detect the effort on PASMCs of 5-HT or ASODN TERT (antisense oligoribonucleotides TERT designed according to the rat TERT mRNA sequence of gene bank). The immunohistochemistry staining experiment and the in situ hybridization experiment were to detect the TERT protein and mRNA expression with 5-HT or ASODN TERT. FITC marked ASODN TERT experiment was done to research the distribution of ASODN TERT in PASMCs., Results: 5-HT promoted PASMCs proliferation in a dose-dependent manner (10(-9) - 10(-5) mol/L). 5-HT also significantly increased TERT expression at protein and mRNA levels as shown by immunohistochemistry staining and the in situ hybridization studies. This effect could be blocked by ASODN TERT in a time and dose-dependent manner., Conclusions: Our experiments show TERT is one of the key factors in the procession of 5-HT induced PASMCs proliferation. ASODN TERT might be a potential therapy agent for pulmonary hypertension.

Objective: To assess the expression intensity of urotensinII (UII) in normal and atheromatous human coronary artery and explore its significance in coronary atherosclerosis., Methods: Specimens of coronary arteries were obtained from 5 normal subjects and the expression of human UII in the specimens was detected by immunohistochemical method., Results: UII expression was found in the endothelial cells (ECs), foam cells (FCs), inflammatory cells (ICs) and intima smooth muscle cells (ISMs) of human coronary artery. Even in the normal coronary artery, UII expression could be detected immunohistochemically in the ECs, which, however, was characterized by higher UII expression levels in fatty streak lesions but by almost normal levels in fibrous and atheromatous plaque in the coronary artery. Enhanced UII expression was observed in FCs and ICs when fibrous plaque and atheromatous plaque developed in comparison with that in fatty streak lesions. The ISMs in all the lesions had mild UII immunoreactivity, but as the atherosclerosis exacerbated, the immunoreactivity tended to intensify., Conclusion: Human UII may regulate the functions of ECs, FCs, ICs and ISMs in the development and progression of coronary atherosclerosis.

Objective: To study the effects of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) on the praxiology and cerebral acetylcholinesterase (AchE) fiber density of kainic acid-lesioned rat models of Alzheimer disease (AD)., Methods: AD models were induced in 30 normal adult rats by damaging the rat nucleus basalis of Meynert (NBM) with kainic acid, and the models were then assigned into 3 groups to receive cerebroventricular infusion with bFGF, saline or nothing for treatment, serving respectively as the treatment group at 30 min, 1, 3 and 7 d after the injury, sham treatment group or injury group. Another 10 rats were used as control group, which received saline injections into the NBM without further treatment. The learning and memory abilities of the rats were measured through Y-maze test 30 d after the operations, and AchE cytochemical study was conducted to calculate the density of the AchE fibers in the hippocampus and forebrain of the rats., Results: In comparison with the injury group, improvement was noted in the memory ability of rats with bFGF treatment and the density of AchE fiber was also significantly increased (P<0.01), but the improvement in both respects failed to reach the normal level (P<0.01)., Conclusions: AD model can be successfully established by damaging the NBM with kainic acid, and bFGF is beneficial in improving the impaired learning and memory abilities and increasing the density of AchE fibers in the basal forebrain cortex and hippocampus in the models.

Objective: To observe the changes of lipid peroxidation and antioxidative enzyme activities of chronic renal insufficiency (CRI) and to explore their effects on the pathogenesis of CRI., Methods: Serum levels of malondialdehyde (MDA), serum glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and serum superoxide dismutase (SOD) in 36 non-dialyzed patients with various degrees and 12 hemodialyzed (HD) were determined with the method of chemistry colorimetry., Results: Thirty-six CRI and 12 HD patients included in the study had higher SOD activities when compared with the controls [(110.30+/-18.60) kNU/L]. They also had lower serum GSH-Px activity than the controls [(120.63+/-27.57) x 10(4)U/L]. Serum MDA levels in the patients were higher than that in the controls [(4.06+/-0.67) micromol/L]. Serum SOD, GSH-Px and MDA concentrations in 36 non-dialyzed patients with various degrees were also correlated with creatinine clearance (r(G)=0.68, P<0.01; r(M)=-0.52, P<0.01; r(S)=-0.44, P<0.05)., Conclusion: Free radicals, lipid peroxidation and the abnormality in antioxidative system may play an important role in the pathogenesis of CRI and correlated with impaired renal function, and that they can be regarded as important clinical indexes to infect the severity of chronic renal insufficiency.