Objective:To express human interferon-?2b gene and to explore the feasibility of expressing human gene in plant cells.Methods:The hIFN-?2b coding sequence was amplified by PCR with specific primers and plasmid pBV889 was used as a template,subcloned into middle vector pMD18-T and binary vector pBI121 to obtain plant expression vector pBIFN. The pBIFN was transformed into Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain LBA4404. Then hIFN-?2b gene was introduced into Ginseng callus cells via Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. The positive cells were screened by G418. The transgenic Ginseng calli were confirmed by PCR,RT-PCR,Western blot and WISH/VSV system.Results:Stable integration of the hIFN-?2b gene in the Ginseng callus cells′ genome was confirmed by PCR analysis. RT-PCR analysis showed that there were transcription products. Western blot implied that the given protein was hIFN-?2b. WISH/VSV system assay showed that the expressed hIFN-?2b possessed relatively lower bioactivity.Conclusion:HIFN-?2b has been expressed in transgenic Ginseng calli, which facilitates further investigation of improving the curative effect of orally administered hIFN-?2b.

Objective To observe the clinical efficacy and safety of low-dose tacrolimus (TAC) combined with tripterygium(TW) in treatment of steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome (SRNS). Methods The patients, who were diagnosed with mesangial proliferative glomerulonephritis (MesPGN) and focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) by biopsy and failed to respond to a 3 month treatment with prednisone (1 mg/[kg • d], maximum 60 mg/d, were randomly divided into 2 groups (TAC+TW group and TW group). Initially TAC+TW group took TAC 0. 05 mg/(kg • d) 2 h after meal at a 12 h interval; the plasma TAC level was examined after 3 days and was kept at 1. 5-4 ng/ml; meanwhile, TW was given at 60 mg/d before meal. TW group only took TW(60 mg/d before meal). The efficacy, adverse reactions and plasma TAC levels were observed in each group. Results (1) Totally 20 patients met the recruitment criteria, including 11 in the TAC+TW group and 9 in the TW group. The age, sex, time of onset, blood pressure, 24 h urine protein, serum albumin, creatinine, cholesterol, triglyceride, fasting blood glucose, renal pathology types and period of prednisone use were similar between the two groups. (2) In TAC+ TW group the urine protein began to decrease one month later; 12 months later,8 cases had complete remission (72. 7%), 2 had partial remission (18. 2%),and 1 was ineffective (9. 1%), with a total effective rate of 90. 9%. I n TW group the urine protein also began to decrease one month later; 12 months later only 2 cases had complete remission (22. 2%), 4 had partial remission (44. 5%), and 3 were ineffective (33. 3%), with a total effective rate of 66. 7%. (3)In TAC + TW group the plasma protein was significantly higher than that before treatment; the plasma protein recovered to normal level after 6 month treatment. However, there was no significant increase in TW group. The pre- and post-treatment serum creatinine levels were similar between the two groups. (4) The incidence rates of adverse reactions were not significantly different between the two groups. Conclusion Low dose TAC combined with TW can effectively decrease proteinuria in patients with SRNS, generating a higher rate of clinical remission; meanwhile, the patients have a good tolerance and less adverse reactions.

Tegument protein VP22 is encoded by Pseudorabies Virus (PRV) UL49. To identify the nuclear localization signals of UL49, it is necessary to determine the transport mechanism and biological functions of the VP22 protein. In this study, we identified two nuclear localization signals from UL49, NLS1 (5RKTRVA ADETASGARRR21) and NLS2 (241PGRKGKV247). The functional nuclear localization signal (NLS) of UL49 was identified by constructing truncated or site-specific UL49 mutants. The deletion of both NLS1 and NLS2 abrogated UL49 nuclear accumulation, whereas the deletion of NLS1 or NLS2 did not. Therefore, both NLS1 and NLS2 are critical for the nuclear localization of UL49. And our resuts showed that NLS2 is more important in this regard.
Animals ; COS Cells ; Cell Nucleus ; metabolism ; virology ; Cercopithecus aethiops ; Herpesvirus 1, Suid ; chemistry ; genetics ; metabolism ; Humans ; Nuclear Localization Signals ; Protein Transport ; Pseudorabies ; metabolism ; virology ; Viral Structural Proteins ; chemistry ; genetics ; metabolism

Objective To explore the efficacy of arterial infusion chemotherapy combined with embolization for the treatment of giant carcinoma of the kidney.Methods Arterial infusion chemotherapy combined with embolization was performed through the renal artery in 32 cases of giant carcinoma of the kidney from April 1990 to April 2003.The chemotherapeutic agents were epirubicin(30~40 mg),mitomycin(20~30 mg),and 5-FU(500 mg).The embolization was conducted with anhydrous alcohol,sodium morrhuate,and lipiodol plus gelatin sponge.Results The arterial infusion and embolization was successfully administered in all the 32 cases.Surgical resection was accomplished in 8 cases 1~3 months after the embolization,and little or no blood supply to the tumor was seen during the surgery.Pathological findings revealed marked necrosis of tumor cells with inflammatory cell infiltration around and fibrous proliferation as well as capillary embolization.The total response rate(CR+PR) was 87.5%(28/32) and the tumor decreased in size in 90.6% of the cases(29/32).The survival rates at 6 months,1-,2-,and 3-year were 78.1%(25/32),68.8%(22/32),46.9%(15/32),and 31.2%(10/32),respectively.The mean survival time was 41.5 months,with the longest time of 84 months.Conclusions Combination of infusion chemotherapy and embolization through the renal artery for the treatment of giant carcinoma of the kidney offers good clinical effects.

PurposeTo explore the segmentation accuracy of different filtering and segmentation methods in brain tumor MRI, and to identify the best algorithm for brain glioma.Materials and Methods Using the nonlocal average ifltering, median ifltering, the anisotropic ifltering and improved mean shift algorithm segmentation, the watershed segmentation algorithm, fuzzy c-means segmentation algorithm to realize image segmentation in MATLAB program, 39 glioma images from different patients were analyzed. Pathology manual segmentation was used as gold standard to evaluate different segmentation precision.Results The signal-to-noise ratio was 7.9243, 6.2160 and 6.5426 for different iflter methods, respectively. The segmentation methods accuracy was 92.31%, 88.03% and 84.93%, respectively.Conclusion The nonlocal average ifltering effect is more accurate than median ifltering and the anisotropic ifltering. The improved mean shift algorithm segmentation is more accurate than watershed segmentation algorithm and fuzzy c-means segmentation algorithm with precision of 92.31%.

Objective　To analyze the influence of multiple variable factors on the occurance rate of pneumothorax associated with transthoracic needle aspiration biopsy of the lung. Methods　Fluoroscopically guided lung biopsies were performed in 46 patients. Variable factors were analyzed including lesion size, location, number of puncture, presence of emphysema and patients position after needle biopsy of the lung. Results　Pneumothorax occurred at 9 (19.6%) of 46 patients and that occurred at 4 (44.4%) of 9 emphysematous patients. Among them 2 necessitated chest drainage tube placement. The pneumothorax occurance rate was 30% (3/10) for lesions of diameter 3cm or less in size. In the dependent group, pneumothorax occurred in 4 of 20 patients (20%). In the nondependent group, pneumothorax occurred in 5 of 26 patients (19.2%). Conclusion　The correlation showed that increasing frequency of pneumothorax with decreasing size of lesions. An increased rate of pneumothorax was correlated with presence of emphysema. Patients with emphysema are more likely to have a symptomatic pneumothorax. No significant differences were found in the incidence of pneumothorax between patients placed with the puncture site dependent after biopsy and those placed with the puncture site nondependent.

Objective To explore a practicable method for analyzing the cost losses of residents' health impact induced by environmental pollution and evaluate the cost losses of local residents' health impact in arsenic contaminative area. Methods The data on residents' health were obtained in an arsenic polluted area as the basis analysis of economic loss. Additionally, the data on the sizes of local population, GDP, the annual personal income, the annual prevalence of acute diseases, absence due to sickness and patients' nursing care, the annual prevalence of chronic diseases in 1985. Local residents' age specific death rates and sizes of population in 1985-1995 were collected also. 3 mumerable indexes were screened for estimating the cost losses of residents' a health impact in arsenic contaminative area based on the data mentioned above and combined with abridged life table. Results Based on the calculated GDP and personal average income in 1995, the cost losses of residents due to arsenic pollution consisted of 3 sections: the first included GDP losses of 50.52 yuan/(person-year) and personal income loss of 43.71 yuan/(person-year) attributed to the reduced life expretancy of the residents living in arsenic-polluted area. The second was an excess of the annual medical expenditure of 56.30 yuan/(person-year) for residents living in arsenic-polluted area compared with that of control group. The third included GDP loss of 74.14 yuan/(person-year) and income loss of 64.23 yuan/(person' year) attributed to the health life days of residents in arsenic-polluted area during the period of number of working years. The total economic loss of 3 section mentioned above make the total GDP reduction of about 180.96 yuan/(person-year) and average income loss of about 164.27 yuan/(person-year) including excessive medical costs. Conclusion The analytical method could be applied to the estimation of economic loss of environmental pollution-attributable health impact.

CD40 Ligand ; pharmacology ; HL-60 Cells ; drug effects ; Humans ; fas Receptor ; metabolism

Budd-Chiari syndrome (BCS)is a rare liver disease,and there are mutual influences between BCS and pregnancy.The rela-tionship between BCS and pregnancy is systematically discussed,and the points we should pay attention to in the diagnosis and treatment of this disease are pointed out as follows:First,pregnancy is a risk factor for BCS;pregnant women with the clinical manifestations of portal hy-pertension and (or)inferior vena cava hypertension should be highly suspected of having BCS.Second,pregnancy is risky in BCS patients;pregnancy is allowable in BCS patients who have a stable condition after treatment,but they should be kept under rigorous surveillance dur-ing pregnancy and after delivery to avoid thrombosis recurrence.Third,BCS may lead to infertility in women;patients with unexplained in-fertility should be evaluated by abdominal ultrasound and computed tomography to clarify the diagnosis of BCS.

BACKGROUND:Proto-oncogene c-Src plays an important role in regulating cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension. At present, there were no studies concerning exercise intervention effects on c-Src expression in aortic endothelial cels so as to regulate hypertension. OBJECTIVE: To observe the effects of aerobic exercise on c-Src mRNA expression and c-Src activity in the aorta blood vessel endothelial cels of spontaneous hypertensive rats. METHODS: A total of 8 male Wistar rats were considered as normal control group. Sixteen spontaneous hypertensive rats were randomly assigned to 8 rats as spontaneous hypertension group and 8 rats as spontaneous hypertension exercise group. Rats in the spontaneous hypertension exercise group carried on 90 minutes unloaded aerobic swimming every day, 6 days a week, for 8 weeks. The rats in the normal control group and spontaneous hypertension group did not swim. Blood pressure of rats was measured once a week. 8 weeks later, the c-Src mRNA expression and c-Src activity were determined in aortic vascular endothelial cels of rats in each group. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Compared with spontaneous hypertension group, blood pressure was lower, but c-Src mRNA expression and c-Src activity were significantly higher in the spontaneous hypertension exercise group. The c-Src activity and c-Src mRNA expression were higher in the spontaneous hypertension exercise group than normal control group and spontaneous hypertension group (P < 0.01). Results indicated that aerobic exercise can promote the increase in c-Src activity and c-Src mRNA expression in aortic endothelial cels of spontaneous hypertensive rats.