To study the histogenesis and pathological characteristics of gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) and GIST type stromal tumor (ST) beyond the gastrointestinal tract.

To investigate the characteristics of the ABR and discuss the development of the bundles of inner and outer hair cell.

To observe the evolution and differentiation of hepatic oval cells after transplanted into the spleens of homogenous rats, providing experimental data for treating hepatic failure with hepatic stem cells.

The ability of implanted embryonic neural stem cells (NSCs) to improve survival, migration, and functional recovery following a compression spinal cord injury (SCI) was tested in adult rats. NSCs were isolated from E14-16 rat cerebral cortex and SCI was produced by using an aneurysm clip applicator applied to the 8th thoracic spinal cord according to method of Dolan and Tator. Two weeks after the injury, NSCs (4 microl of 1 x 10(4) cells/microl) were injected into the lesion site. The grafted NSCs were noted to survive and integrate with the host spinal cord 1 month after transplantation, which was demonstrated by the presence of Hoechst 33342 (a nuclear dye) pre-labeled NSCs within and surrounding the lesion site. Some of these cells remained undifferentiated and were stained with nestin, a marker for NSCs. Transplanted NSCs migrated for at least 3 mm from the injury epicenter towards both the rostral and caudal directions. Significant reduction in the lesion area (P<0.05) and improvement in inclined plane (P<0.05) and BBB locomotor rating scale (P<0.05) were found in the cases that received implantation of NSCs, as compared with those that received vehicle injection. More importantly, when glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF; 1.5 microg/microl) was added to the transplants, further reduction in lesion area (P<0.01) and improvement in the function were observed in the combined treatment group as compared with the vehicle infused group. Our results suggest that intraspinal treatment with NSCs and GDNF synergistically reduced lesion size and improved functional outcome after a compressive SCI in adult rats.

The aim of this study was to establish the culture system of isolation and cultivation of the neural stem cells (NSCs) from the embryonic rat brain and spinal cord. The methods of microscopic dissection, cell culture and immunofluorescence cytochemistry were used. The results are as follows. (1) In the presence of fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2) and epidermal growth factor (EGF), both brain- and spinal cord-derived stem cells proliferated and expanded in vitro for 8 - 10 passages (over 60 d). The period of expansion resulted in a 10(6)-fold increase in brain-derived NSCs and 10(5)-fold increase in spinal cord-derived NSCs. These proliferating cells expressed nestin. (2) In the medium containing 1% FBS, the two NSCs populations could be induced to differentiate into neurons, astrocytes and oligodentrocytes. The percentage of neurons (beta-tubulin III-ir) differentiated from brain-derived NSCs decreased rapidly from 11.95+/-2.5% at passage 2 (P(2)) to 1.97+/-1.16% at passage 5 (P5). Significant difference was shown between P(2) and P(5) (P<0.01). The percentage of oligodentrocytes (Rip-ir) differentiated from brain-derived NSCs remained mostly unchanged from 8.66+/-2.93% at P(2) to 9.12+/-1.13% at P(5). The same differentiation patterns were found in spinal cord-derived NSCs. All these results indicate that both embryonic rat brain- and spinal cord-derived NSCs can expand and proliferate in vitro through multiple passages, and retain the capacity to differentiate into all three major types of cells in the central nervous system.

To study the redistribution of epidermal stem cells in regenerating wound tissues, and to elucidate the role of epidermal stem cells during wound repair.

To observe the effect of berberine on the differentiation of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes into adipocytes and to elucidate its mechanism.

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) are attractive targets for gene therapy of inherited and acquired disorders in hematopoietic system in that they possess the properties of self-renewal, proliferation, and multi-lineage differentiation. For successful gene therapy, the viral vector-mediated gene addition strategy has two essential prerequisites: 1) the efficient transfer of therapeutic gene into HSC; 2) the long-term and stable expression of the transgene at therapeutic levels. The oncoretrovirus-derived vectors are best understood and most widely investigated. Recent successful cases of gene therapy for severe combined immunodeficiency due to adenosine deaminase or gamma c chain deficiencies have provided strong evidences that retrovirus-mediated gene transfer into HSC will work in clinical treatment. While these results are encouraging, some obstacles remain to be circumvented including low efficiency of gene transfer and gene silencing in retroviral vector system. The therapeutic gene can be efficiently introduced into HSC by HIV-1-based lentiviral vector due to its capability to infect the quiescent cells. A variety of preclinical studies are now conducted and a number of valuable results highlight the efficacy of lentiviral-mediated gene transfer into HSC. However, the potential value of lentiviral vectors in human gene therapy remains to be demonstrated. Adeno-associated virus vector is an alternative to retroviral and lentiviral vectors. This review summarizes the characteristics of integrating vectors, the improved HSC transduction protocols, and the optimized gene expression strategies and outlines the important advances of preclinical and clinical trials in hematopoietic stem cell gene therapy.

To investigate the ratio and amount of CD34+ cells and their subsets in mobilized peripheral blood (MPB) and leukapheresis products in patients receiving autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (auto-PBSCT) and in allo-PBSCT donors, and clarify the role of CD34+ cells in post-transplantation hematopoietic reconstitution.

To determine the clinical results of selected CD34(+) cell autologous transplantation in advanced malignant tumors.

This paper reported microscopic characters of Lysimachia decurrens. The results showed that secretory canals were scattered in the cortex, pericycle fibres arrayed annularly and pith was large with many secreory canals in the transverse section of the stem. It also showed radiate cuticula grains and round oil cells were found in the upper epidermis cells of leaf, which was bifacial and contained two midrib vascular bundles, one much bigger than the other.

In this experiment, it was designed to carry out proliferous culture of bovine blastocysts(day 7) derived from embryos cloned through bovine somatic cell nuclear transfer, isolating and passaging of ES cells. The cells of blastocysts, which were planted on feeder layer, formed small colonies within 24 h. The nest-shape colonies occurred after culturing for 2-3 days. After the colonies in the same shape were isolated and passaged 4-5 times, many different size colonies with monolayer of multi-cells appeared. The colonies that had been passaged 4-5 times were planted into 4-wells multi-dishes without feeder layer. The colonies with monolayer of multi-cells appeared after 24 h, spread all over the bottom of the dishes, emerged epidermis-like cells that appeared reticulate after 4-7 days. These cells were used as donor cells to carry out nuclear transfer. The results showed that 80% (40/50) of the reconstructed embryos cleaved, 5% (2/40) and 2.5% (1/40) of them developed to the morulaes and blastocyst stage, respectively. It revealed that ES-like cells derived embryos constructed through somatic cell nuclear transfer have the developmental potentials.

To investigate the effects and the related mechanisms of the components of Dang-Gui-Bu-Xue decoction (DGBXD) on improving blood deficiency.

To study the feasibility of constructing tissue engineered cartilage cells by differentiated human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells(MSC) cultured in vitro.

To observe the clinical efficacy of TCM for reinforcing Shen and activating blood circulation to dredge Channels in auxiliary treating chronic aplastic anemia (CAA), and to explore its mechanism.

To investigate the effects of salicylate on noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) in guinea pigs.