Absence of association between SERPINE2 genetic polymorphisms and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in Han Chinese: a case-control cohort study

Background: Recent studies have proposed that the serine protease inhibitor E2 (SERPINE2) was a novel susceptibility gene for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in Caucasians. However, this issue still remained controversial. Additional evidence

Pneumonia in cats caused by Pneumocystis carinii purified from mouse lungs

Fourteen mice trapped in or near houses were infected with Pneumocystis carinii and the establishment of pneumonia was helped by injecting with cortisone acetate for 6 weeks. Then 16 cats were infected with P. carinii by injection of lung homogenate from the mice which contained from 1.3 X 10(5) to 2.6 X 10(5) P. carinii cysts. The infection resulted in severe cough and tachypnea in Cats 1-8 injected with cortisone acetate, and a subclinical infection in Cats 9-16. In Cats 1-8, the main pathological finding was typical P. carinii pneumonia, but there only was slight swelling of the lungs in Cats 9-16.

Evaluation of sex specificity on oxidative stress induced in lungs of mice irradiated by C-12(6+) ions

The aim of this work is to identify if there is sex specificity on C-12(6+) ion-induced oxidative damage in mouse lung at different time points. Kun-Ming mice were divided into two groups, each composed of six males and six females: control group and irradiation group with a single acute dose of 4 Gy. Animals were sacrificed at 2, 4 and 12 h respectively, there lungs were removed immediately, and the oxidative stress-related biomarkers were measured by Diagnostic Reagent Kits. The results showed that the relative activities of superoxide dismutase (4 h), catalase (2 h) and Se-dependent glutathione peroxidase (12 h) have significant changes (P < 0.05) between male groups and female groups, suggesting that the lungs of male mice are more sensitive to counteracting the oxidative challenge. Moreover, higher levels of malondiadehyde and lower contents of glutathione were also found in males, indicating that oxidative stress induced by C-12(6+) ion is pronounced in the lungs of males. We thought that these sex-responded differences may be attributed to the influence of sex hormones.