Epidemiology and Outcome of Severe Sepsis and Septic Shock in Intensive Care Units in Mainland China

Introduction

Information about sepsis in mainland China remains scarce and incomplete. The purpose of this study was to describe the epidemiology and outcome of severe sepsis and septic shock in mixed ICU in mainland China, as well as the independent predictors of mortality.

Methods

We performed a 2-month prospective, observational cohort study in 22 closed multi-disciplinary intensive care units (ICUs). All admissions into those ICUs during the study period were screened and patients with severe sepsis or septic shock were included.

Results

A total of 484 patients, 37.3 per 100 ICU admissions were diagnosed with severe sepsis (n = 365) or septic shock (n = 119) according to clinical criteria and included into this study. The most frequent sites of infection were the lung and abdomen. The overall ICU and hospital mortality rates were 28.7% (n = 139) and 33.5% (n = 162), respectively. In multivariate analyses, APACHE II score (odds ratio[OR], 1.068; 95% confidential interval[CI], 1.027–1.109), presence of ARDS (OR, 2.676; 95%CI, 1.691–4.235), bloodstream infection (OR, 2.520; 95%CI, 1.142–5.564) and comorbidity of cancer (OR, 2.246; 95%CI, 1.141–4.420) were significantly associated with mortality.

Conclusions

Our results indicated that severe sepsis and septic shock were common complications in ICU patients and with high mortality in China, and can be of help to know more about severe sepsis and septic shock in China and to improve characterization and risk stratification in these patients.     

Resveratrol induces apoptosis and inhibits adipogenesis by stimulating the SIRT1-AMPKα-FOXO1 signalling pathway in bovine intramuscular adipocytes

Sirtuin type 1 (SIRTl) and AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) play important roles in regulating energy metabolism, cell proliferation and differentiation, ageing, apoptosis, and metabolism. The effect of 100, 200, and 400 μm Resveratrol (RES), an activator of SIRT1, on apoptosis of bovine intramuscular adipocytes was investigated by nuclear staining, flow cytometry, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, and western blotting. Results show that RES inhibited adipogenesis, decreased cell viability, and increased apoptotic rates in a dose-dependent way. RES up-regulated SIRT1, AMPKα, forkhead box O1 (FOXO1), hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL), lipoprotein lipase (LPL), caspase-3, and Bax; and down-regulated peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma (PPARγ), fatty acid synthase (FAS), and Bcl-2, at both mRNA and protein level. The effect of RES was abolished by addition of sirtinol (an inhibitor of SIRT1). This is the first study demonstrating a role for AMPK-SIRT1-FOXO1 signalling pathway in regulating apoptosis in bovine intramuscular adipocytes. Our findings provide important information on the mechanism by which RES controls deposition of cattle intramuscular fat via adipocyte apoptosis.     

Successful vitrification of mouse ovaries using less-concentrated cryoprotectants with Supercool X-1000 supplementation

The purpose of our study was to investigate the feasibility of using less-concentrated cryoprotectants supplemented with ice blocker Supercool X-1000 to vitrify ovarian tissues. Mouse ovaries were cryopreserved in different concentrations of vitrification solution alone or with Supercool X-1000, and fresh non-frozen ovaries were used as control. The proportions of morphological normality of follicles, normal GCs in follicular fluids and developing to blastocysts were higher in 12.5% ethylene glycol (EG) + 12.5% dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) with Supercool X-1000 than those of treated in 10% EG + 10% DMSO or 15% EG + 15% DMSO alone or with Supercool X-1000. In conclusion, the inclusion of Supercool X-1000 in less-concentrated vitrification solution was effective to improve the efficiency and efficacy of cryopreservation of ovarian tissues.     

玉米田养鹅措施对杂草群落生态特征的影响

探索如何在利用和控制农田杂草的同时又能维持较高的杂草群落多样性的生产方式, 是当前农业发展的重要方向。作者以“农牧一体化”生产方式下的“玉米(Zea mays)田养鹅”处理和常规玉米种植处理为研究对象, 探讨了玉米田养鹅处理放牧前后及同期常规玉米种植处理下杂草生态位、功能群结构和杂草群落生物多样性的变化。结果表明: (1)在玉米田养鹅模式下, 黑麦草(Lolium multiflorum)、紫花苜蓿(Medicago sativa)和灰绿藜(Chenopodium glaucum)在放牧前的生态位宽度较大, 但放牧后黑麦草、紫花苜蓿的生态位宽度减小, 而灰绿藜、尼泊尔蓼(Polygonum nepalense)、西南草莓(Fragaria moupinensis)和老鹳草(Geranium sibiricum)等物种的生态位宽度则有不同程度的增大, 放牧后群落内新增加了7种杂草; 对照中, 前期丝叶球柱草(Bulbostylis densa)的生态位宽度最大, 而后期鼠麹草(Gnaphalium affine)的生态位宽度变为最大, 新增2种杂草。(2)放牧前玉米田养鹅处理下的黑麦草和紫花苜蓿的重叠度最大, 而放牧后黑麦草和西南草莓的重叠度变为最大; 在常规玉米种植模式下, 前期丝叶球柱草和马唐(Digitaria sanguinalis)的重叠度最高, 而后期丝叶球柱草和鼠麹草的重叠度最高。(3)两种模式下放牧前后均是一年生双子叶(DA)杂草功能群占据最大优势, 但玉米田养鹅处理模式下放牧后多年生功能类群所占的比例较放牧前增加, 且分配更均匀。(4)放牧前, 玉米田养鹅处理的Shannon-Wiener多样性指数、Margalef物种丰富度指数和Simpson多样性指数均高于对照, 其中Shannon-Wiener多样性指数和Margalef物种丰富度指数差异显著(P<0.05, n=3), 而Pielou均匀度指数低于对照, 但差异并不显著(P>0.05, n=3); 放牧后玉米田养鹅处理的Shannon-Wiener多样性指数和Margalef物种丰富度指数仍显著高于对照(P<0.05, n=3), 而Pielou均匀度指数和Simpson多样性指数则分别显著低于对照 (P<0.05, n=3)。放牧前后, 玉米田养鹅处理杂草群落的地上总生物量均高于对照, 但差异不显著(P>0.05, n=3)。(5)玉米田养鹅处理的玉米产量与对照相比减产4.0%, 但并未达到显著差异(P>0.05, n=12)。总的来看, 玉米田养鹅生产方式维持了较高的农田生态系统生物多样性, 虽然造成了一定的减产, 但可通过鹅的产出获得更高的经济效益。     

Use of a bovine genome chip to identify new biological pathways for beef quality in cattle

The accumulation of muscle is largely influenced by the genetic background of cattle. Muscle tissue was collected from the longissimus muscle of Lilu beef cattle at 12, 18, 24 and 30?months old. Using meat quality analysis, we found that the Lilu beef cattle have good production and slaughter performance, the performance meets the criterion of beef cattle. Microarray analysis was able to identify a total of 4,219 genes that are differentially expressed (P?≤?0.01) between the two groups of cattle (12 vs 18; 18 vs 24; 24 vs 30). Bioinformatics analysis results suggested that most of the differentially expressed genes are involved in the metabolic pathways and neuroactive ligand–receptor interaction pathways. In the future study that aims to look for genes relating to growth and meat quality, we will focus on the genes that have been shown to have a significant variation between groups and are involved in the two pathways.     

Factors affecting the survival,fertilization, and embryonic development of mouse oocytes after vitrification using glass capillaries

Cryopreservation of mammalian oocytes is an important way to provide a steady source of materials for research and practice of parthenogenetic activation, in vitro fertilization, and nuclear transfer. However, oocytes cryopreservation has not been common used, as there still are some problems waiting to be solved on the repeatability, safety, and validity. Then, it is necessary to investigate the damage occurred from vitrification and find a way to avoid or repair it. In this study, mouse mature oocytes were firstly pretreated in different equilibrium media, such as 5% ethylene glycol (EG) + 5% dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), 10% EG + 10% DMSO, and 15% EG + 15% DMSO in TCM199 supplemented with 20% fetal calf serum (FCS), for 1, 3, and 5 min, respectively, and then oocytes were transferred into vitrification solution (20% EG, 20% DMSO, 0.3 M sucrose, and 20% FCS in TCM199, M2, Dulbecco’s phosphate buffered saline, and 0.9% saline medium, respectively) and immediately loaded into glass capillaries to be plunged into liquid nitrogen. After storage from 1 h to 1 wk, they were diluted in stepwise sucrose solutions. The surviving oocytes were stained for cortical granule, meiotic spindles, and chromosomes. Oocytes without treatments were used as controls. The results showed that oocytes pretreated in 5% EG +5% DMSO group for 3–5 min or in 10% EG + 10% DMSO group for 1–3 min were better than other treatments. Oocytes vitrified in TCM199 as basic medium showed higher survival and better subsequent embryonic development than other groups. When the concentration of FCS in vitrification solution reduced below 15%, the rates of survival, fertilization, and developing to blastocyst declined dramatically. The inner diameter (0.6 mm) of glass capillaries and amount of vitrification solution (1–3 μl) achieved more rapid cooling and warming and so reduce the injury to oocytes. Cropreservation led to the exocytosis of cortical granule of oocytes (about 10%) and serious disturbance of microtubules and chromosomes. With 2 h incubation, the microtubules could repolymerize and the rate of fertilization in vitro was much higher than those of 1 and 3 h incubation groups. In conclusion, the protection of basic medium and FCS to oocytes during cryopreservation and sufficient cooling and warming rates using glass capillaries have profound effects on oocytes survival and subsequent embryonic development competence. The appropriate time for fertilization in vitro may be related to the recovery of spindles after incubation and avoiding ageing in the whole process.     

Effects of chromium picolinate supplementation on the growth,carcass quality and gene expression of beef during the finishing period

Four groups of 12 young beef, as similar as possible with respect to age and weight, were fed a basic diet. The addition fed to four groups was 0, 200, 600, and 1,200 mg of organic chromium (chromium picolinate CrPic) per kg concentrated feed. The results showed that there was no effect on overall growth performance and dressing percentage and pure meat percentage when adding different CrPic content, but significant difference was found between 0 group and other three groups in percentage of high grade cuts (P < 0.05). The Cr content in Kidney, Musculus diaphragm, Semitendinosus muscles and Longissimusdorsi tissues have no difference in four groups (P > 0.05), but there was significant difference in liver tissues between 0, 200, 600 groups and 1200 group (P < 0.05). Gene expression analysis indicated that there were no differences in five genes expression in liver and muscle tissues in four groups (P > 0.05), but mRNA expression amount of FOX1, FSTL and MATR3 always had same trends whatever in liver or muscle tissues. However the RPLOP gene expression amount has large difference between liver and muscle.