Histiocytic hyperplasia was observed in the bone marrow smear of 2 patients. Mild hemophagocytosis was

observed in the bone marrow of 3 patients. All patients recovered completely, and their peripheral blood counts returned to normal by 2 to 6 weeks after antibiotic treatment of brucellosis. In conclusion, the authors would like to emphasize that brucellosis should be considered in the differential diagnosis of children with pancytopenia.</.”
“Astragalus mongholicus (AM) derived from the dry root of Astragalus membranaceus Bge. var. mongolicus (Bge.) Hsiao is a widely used traditional Chinese medicine. The present study investigated the potential role of AM on renal fibrosis on a rat model of unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO). We divided 48 Sprague-Dawley rats randomly into 4 groups: sham-operated group (Sham), untreated UUO group, AM-treated (10 g/(kg center dot d)) UUO learn more group, and losartan-treated (20 mg/(kg center

dot d)) UUO group as positive control. Haematoxylin & eosin (HE) and Masson selleck staining were used to study the dynamic histological changes of the kidneys 7 and 14 d after operation. The expressions of fibronectin (FN), type I collagen (colI), hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), transforming growth factor-beta 1 (TGF-beta 1), and alpha-smooth muscle actin (alpha-SMA) were analyzed by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), immunohistochemistry staining, and Western blot. Results show that, similar to losartan, AM alleviated the renal damage and decreased the deposition of FN and colI from UUO by reducing the expressions of TGF-beta 1 and alpha-SMA (P < 0.05), whereas HGF increased greatly with AM treatment (P < 0.05). Our findings reveal that AM could retard the progression of renal fibrosis. The

renoprotective effect of AM might be related to inhibition of myofibroblast activation, inducing of HGF CYT387 inhibitor and reducing of TGF-beta 1 expression.”
“Two different bisoxazolines, 2,2′-(1,3-phenylene) bis(2-oxazoline) (1,3-PBO) and 2,2′-bis(2-oxazoline) (BO) were investigated as chain extenders for short chain unsaturated polyesters (UPEs). These extenders reacted readily with carboxyl ends of unsaturated polyesters, leading to rapid molecular weight increase through coupling of oligomeric chains. Commercially available unsaturated polyesters commonly have molecular weights around 1500, usually reached after a 20-h polyesterification reaction. When bisoxazolines were reacted with short UPE chains obtained at the 6th hour of a commercial polyesterification reaction, the molecular weight of UPE reached 1500 within 530 min, which provides economies and prevents the glycol loss and yellowing which are associated with extended reaction times. Styrene solubility, gel time, and thermal and mechanical properties of the chain extended polyesters remained comparable to the commercial UPE, with 810 min of gel time and a storage modulus about 3000 MPa. (C) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.