Wang Yu-lin

Immune Tolerance to Cardiac Myosin Induced by Anti-CD4 Monoclonal Antibody in Autoimmune Myocarditis Rats

Autoimmune myocarditis is a T-cell-mediated autoimmune disease. CD4-positive T cells are believed to be the most important for the initiation and mediation of the disease. This study was aimed at evaluating whether anti-CD4 monoclonal antibody could induce immune tolerance to porcine cardiac myosin and whether the immune tolerance could protect rats with autoimmune myocarditis from myocardial injury. Lewis rats were immunized with porcine cardiac myosin to induce experimental autoimmune myocarditis. Immune tolerance was induced by injections of anti-CD4 monoclonal antibody on days −2, −1, 0, and 1. Results showed that cardiac function of antibody-treated rats was significantly increased compared with untreated rats 18 days postimmunization examined by transthoracic echocardiography. Typical cardiac histopathological changes were observed obviously in untreated group but not in antibody-treated group. Lymphocytes obtained from antibody-treated group had no proliferative response to porcine cardiac myosin examined by lymphocyte proliferation assay. Serological examination showed that rats immunized with cardiac myosin could produce high levels of anti-cardiac myosin antibody. The administration of anti-CD4 monoclonal antibody significantly prevented the increase of them. Serum levels of Th1 cytokines were significantly down-regulated by antibody administration, while the production of Th2 cytokines were up-regulated or unaffected evaluated by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. It concluded that immune tolerance to porcine cardiac myosin could be induced by anti-CD4 monoclonal antibody in vivo, and cardiac dysfunction and myocardial injury could be prevented by induction of immune tolerance.

The heart-protective mechanism of Qishaowuwei formula on murine viral myocarditis induced by CVB3

AIM OF STUDY The heart-protective effect and mechanism of Qishaowuwei formula (QSW), a Traditional Chinese Medicine formula composed of Radix Astragali, Radix Paeoniae Rubra and Fructus Schisandrae was investigated on murine model of viral myocarditis (VMC) induced by Coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3). MATERIALS AND METHODS Mice were randomly divided into infected control group, QSW high dose group, QSW medium dose group, QSW low dose group and Vitamin C plus Ribavirin treatment group. 50 mice were included in each group. The day of virus inoculation was defined as day 0 and the drug treatment continued once a day for 14 days. Mice were sacrificed on days 3, 7, 14, 21 postinoculation (p.i.). The histopathological changes of myocardium, CVB3 RNA copies in the myocardium, cardiomycytic apoptosis, the serum level of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and maleic dialdehyde (MDA) and the phenotype of T lymphocytes subsets in peripheral blood was analyzed. RESULTS QSW treatment significantly increase the survival rate (p<0.05) in VMC model. Histopathology and flow cytometry inspection revealed low ratio of cardiomyocytes necrosis and apoptosis in QSW treated mice with dose dependent manner. The cardiomyocytic ultra-structure observed by transmission electron microscope also supported the above results. The ameliorated tissue damage was consistent with reduced CVB3 copy numbers detected by real-time PCR in the myocardium of QSW treated mice. The antioxidant effect of QSW was proved by elevated activity of SOD and reduced level of MDA in the serum. Furthermore, the disturbed balance of CD4+ and CD8+ subsets in peripheral blood was restored. CONCLUSION These results demonstrated QSW had potent protective effect against CVB3-induced heart injury and this effect might be mediated by its inhibition on viral replication, antioxidant activity and immunoregulation mechanism.

The development and application of a provincial telemedicine center

Telemedicine has been an effective method for distant consultations in developing countries. The Shandong Provincial Telemedicine Center (SPTC) has been built by the government to promote the level of medical care in the big province and it runs well among those telemedicine centers in China. This paper introduced the general situation of telemedicine networks in China and give a view of the three largest telemedicine centers. With the ATM networks the SPTC has successfully launched the tele-consultations, tele-education and tele-conference in latest years. This paper give a depiction about the development history of the SPTC networks and its management condition. Finally, the paper gives some advice on the management of teleconsultation and tele-education.