Effect of bilateral testicular resection on thymocyte and its microenvironment in aged mice

Aim: To observe the changes in thymocyte and its microenvironment in aged mice after bilateral testicular resection.Methods: In male old mice, at the 25th day after testicular resection, the peripheral blood and thymus were collect-ed . Blood and thymus suspension smears were prepared for quantitative histochemistry and immunohistochemistry studyunder light and electron microscopes. Results; In testes resected mice the size and the weight of thymus weremarkedly increased. The demarcation between cortex and medulla was clear. The cortex was thickened and the celldensity was increased. The ratio of cortex/medulla stereometry was increased. The total cell count, thymocyte count,the percentage of acid a-naphthyl acetate esterase (ANAE) positive thymocytes, nonlymphocytes and the rosette forma-tion of macrophages and thymocytes were all increased. The thymocytes surrounded closely to the light thymic epithelialcells, dendritic cells or macrophages. The lymphocytes, particularly the ANAE positive lymphocytes of peripheralblood were increased. Conclusion; After bilateral testicular resection, the thymus of aged male mice showed mor-phological regeneration and the thymocytes and its microenvironment appeared to be definitely improved. It is suggestedthat testicular resection may improve immune function. (Asian J Androl 2001 Dec; 3; 271 — 275)

Expression of PNNs and the functional changes of GABA-ergic neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex in a rat model of depression

Objective:To investigate the effects of chronic unpredictable mild stress(CUMS)on perineuronal nets(PNNs)andγ-aminobutyric acid(GABA)-ergic neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex(mPFC)of adult rats.Methods:28 rats were randomly divided into two groups.The model group adopted CUMS to establish a depression model,and the control group did not give any treatment.The density of PNNs and the percentage of PNNs positive(PNNs^(+))and parvalbumin positive(PV^(+))neurons in total PV^(+)neurons in the mPFC were detected by immunofluorescence.The protein expression of main components of PNNs,Aggrecan and Brevican,and GABA main synthase glutamic acid decarboxylase 67(GAD67)in the mPFC were detected by Western blot.Results:The density of PNNs and the percentage of PNNs^(+)and PV^(+)neurons in total PV^(+)neurons in the mPFC in the model group were decreased compared with the control group(P<0.05);The expression levels of PNNs component proteins Aggrecan and Brevican,and GABA main synthase GAD67 were also decreased in the model group(P<0.01).Conclusion:The levels of PNNs and GABA synthase GAD67 in the mPFC of rats were decreased after chronic unpredictable mild stress.

Network pharmacological study of Qingfei Paidu Decoction intervening on cytokine storm mechanism of COVID-19

Objective:To explore the possible mechanism of Qingfei Paibu Decoction in the treatment of COVID-19 from the perspective of cytokine storm by network pharmacology.Methods: The TCMSP and SymMap databases were used to screen out the active components and targets of Qingfei Paibu Decoction;The GeneCards database was used to screen the predicted targets of COVID-19;Two targets were mapped;The STRING database and Cytoscape3.7.2 software were used to construct the network diagram of active drag-ingredient-target and screen out the core components and targets;The GO enrichment analysis and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis were carried out by OmicShare cloud platform and David respectively.Results:A total of 52 potential targets of Qingfei Paibu Decoction for the treatment of COVID-19 were obtained, among which 17 were core targets related to inflammation, mainly including cytokines such as IL, IFN, TNF and chemokines. And 26 core components were obtained, including quercetin, luteolin, kaempferol, naringenin, and baicalein;The GO enrichment results showed 224 biological processes, 15 molecular functions and 33 cell components related to inflammation;There were 5 inflammatory signaling pathways in KEGG enrichment results, including TNF signaling pathway, Nod-like receptor signaling pathway, Toll-like receptor signaling pathway, MAPK signaling pathway and cytokine receptor interaction. Conclusion: Qingfei Paibu Decoction can inhibit cytokine storms by acting on multiple targets and pathways with multiple components and thus treat COVID-19.

Verification of Real Time Operating System Exception Management Based on SPARCv8

Exception management,as the lowest level function module of the operating system,is responsible for making abrupt changes in the control flow to react to exception events in the system.The correctness of the exception management is crucial to guaranteeing the safety of the whole system.However,existing formal verification projects have not fully considered the issues of exceptions at the assembly level.Especially for real-time operating systems,in addition to basic exception handling,there are nested exceptions and task switching by exceptions service routine.In our previous work,we used high-level abstraction to describe the basic elements of the exception management and verified correctness only at the requirement layer.Building on earlier work,this paper proposes EMS(Exception Management SPARCv8),a practical Hoare-style program framework to verify the exception management based on SPARCv8(Scalable Processor Architecture Version 8)at the design layer.The framework describes the low-level details of the machine,such as registers and memory stack.It divides the execution logic of the exception management into six phases for comprehensive formal modeling.Taking the executing scenario of the real-time operating system SpaceOS on the Beidou-3 satellite as an example,we use the EMS framework to verify the exception management.All the formalization and proofs are implemented in the interactive theorem prover Coq.