Radiotherapy is the main way to treat the Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma. But there are a lot of serious complications, the most common one of then is radioactive xerostomia. It seriously affect the patients's quality of life, even make patients change or stop their radiotherapy. It is extremely important to prevent and treat xerostomia caused by radiotherapy.
Carcinoma ; Humans ; Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma ; Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms ; complications ; radiotherapy ; Quality of Life ; Radiotherapy ; adverse effects ; Xerostomia ; etiology ; prevention & control

Objective To evaluate the relationships of the expression of orexin A in hypothalamus with hyperleptinemia, hyperinsulinism, and hyperlipidemia in alimentary obesity rats.Methods The alimentary obesity rat model was induced by high-fat diet in Wistar rats. The levels of leptin, insulin, C-peptide, total cholesterol (TC) and triglyeride (TG) were detected by luminescent immunoassay and biochemistry enzymic method. The gene expression of orexin A in rat hypothalamus was detected by real-time PCR. The correlation between orexin A and leptin was analyzed. Results After 8 weeks of high-fat diet feeding, the body weight, Lee's index, blood glucose, TG and TC significantly increased in obesity rat group (P＜0. 01). The levels of serum leptin, insulin and C-peptide were significantly higher in obesity rats than in controls [( 1.74±0. 36)μg/Lvs. (1.27±0.11) μg/L, (35±5) MIU/L vs. (23±4) MIU/L, (0.21±0.04) μg/L vs.(0. 14±0. 03) μg/L respectively, P＜0.01]. However, the level of orexin A mRNA was lower in obesity rats than in controls (6.8±2.3 vs. 14.5±3.6, t=-8.06, P＜0.01). The correlation coefficient (r) of orexin A mRNA with serum leptin, insulin, and C-peptide in alimentary obesity rat were -0. 726 (P＜0.01), -0. 506 (P＜0.01) and -0. 664 (P＜0.01), respectively. Conclusions High-fat diet can induce leptin-resistance and alimentary obesity in Wistar rat. The down-regulation of orexin A in rat hypothalamus would be correlated closely to the leptin and insulin resistance in alimentary obesity.

Objective To investigate the radiation-induced esophageal toxicities in Ⅲ stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated by three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3DCRT) combined with concurrent chemotherapy, and to find the relevant predictive factors. Methods From September 2006 to October 2007, 37 patients with stage Ⅲ NSCLC were treated by 3 DCRT (60 Gy in 30-34 fractions) con-currently with navelbine and cisplatin (NP). Chemotherapy was given in the first and fifth week. Univariate and multivariate analyses and receiver operating characteristic curves (ROC) were used to assess the associ-ation of radiation-induced esophagitis and correlated factors. Results Of all the patients, 91.89% (34/37) developed radiation-induced esophagitis, including grade 1 in 11 patients, grade 2 in 9, grade 3 in 14 and grade 4 in none. According to Spearman correlative analysis, the correlative factors included mean esophagus dose (MED), the LETT_(40)、LETT_(45)、LETT_(50)、LETT_(55)、LETT_60)of esophagus.All the 11 factors had good correlation with esophagitis in univariate analysis, while only V_55 was independ-ently associated with esophagitis in multivariate analysis. The ROC analysis indicated that the cut-off point of the curve was 30% with the area under ROC curve of 0.906, (P=0.000). Grade 2 or 3 radiation esophagi-tis occurred in all the patients with esophageal V_55 > 30%, while only in 36% ( 8/22 ) of those with V_55<30%. Conclusions 3DCRT combined with concurrent chemotherapy in patients with stage Ⅲ NSCLC could develop severe esophagitis. Dosimetric parameters (MED, LETT_(40),LETT_(45),LETT_(50),LETT_(55),LETT_(60),V_(40),V_(45),V_50,V_55,V_(60))are related with esophagitis,V_55 with V_55 > 30% being the most valuable predictor.

Objective To investigate the prevalence of vitiligo in Shaanxi Province. Methods There are 36 million peoples in Shaanxi Province, China. One thousandth of them were selected to be an object of investigation by stratified random sampling. All the inhabitants in the study area were investigated in a door-to-door survey to find out all vitiligo patients among them. Results Forty vitiligo patients were found out of 42 833 people surveyed. Conclusion The prevalence of vitiligo in Shaanxi Province is 0.093%.

Objective To establish a HPLC method for simultaneous determination of quercitrin, luteoloside, rutin and 2,3,5,4'-tetrahydroxystilbene-2-O-β-D-glucoside in Yangxue Anshen syrup. Methods Waters symmetry C₁₈ column (250 mm×4.6 mm, 5 μm) was used with 0.1% acetic acid (A) and methanol (B) as the mobile phase. Gradient elution was performed at a flow rate of 1.0 ml/min, 0-15 min, 95%-90%A; 15-35 min, 90%-70%A; 35-55 min, 70%-60%A; 55-85 min, 60%-50%A; 85-95 min, 10%A. The detection wavelengths were 256 nm and 320 nm. Column temperature was 30 ℃ and the injection volume was 10 μl. Results Quercitrin, luteoloside, rutin and 2,3,5,4'-tetrahydroxystilbene-2-O-β-D-glucoside showed good linear relationship within the range of 10-300, 5.0-150.0, 5.0-150.0, 20.0-600.0 µg/ml(r≥0.9989), respectively. The average recovery was (96.75±1.41)%, (99.61±1.01)%, (97.18±1.96)% and(99.12±0.97)% (n=6), respectively. Conclusion The established method is simple, accurate and stable, which can be used for the simultaneous determination of 4 components in Yangxue Anshen syrup.

The Chinese Standard Aphasia Examination was made according to Chinese language and cultural habits by referring to Japanese Standard Language Test of Aphasia.151 normal people and patients whose brain damaged without aphasia were tested.Mean and standard deviations were calculated.The significant differences were not found by analysis of variance to age,sex,handedness,profession and education except oral instruction and describing pictures in different educational groups.Therefore,the examination is suitable for Chinese aphasics who live in different parts of China and spoken mandarin.

Skin ulcers are the most prevalent consequence of diabetes mellitus, and people with diabetic ulcers have a substantially greater death risk than those who do not have ulcers. Herbal medications have gained wide concern in recent years due to their multi-component, multi-target, and multi-pathway synergistic therapeutic effects. Clinical trials have demonstrated the safety and efficacy of herbal treatments in diabetic refractory ulcers. To systematically evaluate the healing effect of herbs on diabetic wounds, a literature search was conducted, the mechanism of action of 15 herbal extracts in promoting diabetic wound healing were reviewed, and the classification based on traditional Chinese medicine theory was discussed, which could provide a reference for the precise treatment and exploitation of herbal medicines for diabetic ulcers.

Macrophages play critical roles in renal fibrosis. However, macrophages exhibit ontogenic and functional heterogeneities, and which population of macrophages contributes to renal fibrosis and the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, we genetically targeted Notch signaling by disrupting the transcription factor recombination signal binding protein-Jκ (RBP-J), to reveal its role in regulation of macrophages during the unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO)-induced murine renal fibrosis. Myeloid-specific disruption of RBP-J attenuated renal fibrosis with reduced extracellular matrix deposition and myofibroblast activation, as well as attenuated epithelial-mesenchymal transition, likely owing to the reduced expression of TGF-β. Meanwhile, RBP-J deletion significantly hampered macrophage infiltration and activation in fibrotic kidney, although their proliferation appeared unaltered. By using macrophage clearance experiment, we found that kidney resident macrophages made negligible contribution, but bone marrow (BM)-derived macrophages played a major role in renal fibrogenesis. Further mechanistic analyses showed that Notch blockade reduced monocyte emigration from BM by down-regulating CCR2 expression. Finally, we found that myeloid-specific Notch activation aggravated renal fibrosis, which was mediated by CCR2 macrophages infiltration. In summary, our data have unveiled that myeloid-specific targeting of Notch could ameliorate renal fibrosis by regulating BM-derived macrophages recruitment and activation, providing a novel strategy for intervention of this disease.