Abstract As the largest human microecosystem, intestinal microorganisms participate in human material and energy metabolisms and pose a significant impact on human health. Diabetes mellitus is likely to cause imbalance of abundance and component alterations in intestinal microorganisms, and reduce the diversity and balance, leading to intestinal microflora dysregulation. It has been shown that intestinal microflora dysregulation may promote diabetes development and progression through the reduction of intestinal microbial metabolites, inflammatory reaction and insulin resistance. This review summarizes the involvement of intestinal microorganisms in the pathogenesis of diabetes through metabolites including short-chain fatty acid, bile acid and lipopolysaccharide, and describes the current status of intestinal microorganisms-mediated treatments for diabetes, so as to provide the theoretical basis for the researches on diabetes and intestinal microorganisms.

Objective To evaluate the efficacy and safety of balloon kyphoplasty in the treatment of painful osteoporotic vertebral compressive fractures. Methods From May 2000 to June 2002, 56 consecutive procedures were performed in 30 patients of painful osteoporotic vertebral compressive fractures with intact posterior vertebral body wall. Each procedure includes bilateral insertion of inflatable balloon, fracture reduction and fulfilled with bone cement. Preoperative and postoperative symptom levels, complications and radiographic findings were recorded and analyzed. Results All 30 patients tolerated the procedure well with immediate relief of their back pain in 48 hours. The mean loss of the anterior and mid vertebral body heights were (13.6?2.3) mm, (9.2?1.4) mm preoperatively and (4.7?1.5) mm, (3.4?1.1) mm postoperatively. The mean kyphosis was improved from 23.4??5.2? to 9.2??4.7?. Cement leakage and cerebrospinal fluid leakage occurred at one level respectively and resulted in no clinical symptoms, no other complication was found. Conclusion As a promising minimally invasive surgery, balloon kyphoplasty can provide early improvement of pain and function as well as spinal alignment in treatment of painful osteoporotic compressive fractures.

Objective The expression of anti-inflammatory cytokine interleukin(IL)-10 in protrusion and extrusion tissue of intervertebral disc and its correlation with clinical features.Methods The specimens were from 30 cases of disc herniation in single level.The patients were enquired about the medical histories and evaluated by JOA index preoperation before operation,which were all completed by one trained doctor.The contents of IL-10 in the inter=43vertebral disc were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay after operation.Results The level of IL-10 had no statistical significance between protrusion and extrusion tissue of intervertebral disc (t =0.032,P =0.725).Patient's JOA index has negative correlation with IL-10(r =-0.377,P =0.040),and positive correlation with Patient's history (r =0.449,P =0.013).Conclusion Protrusion and extrusion tissue of intervertebral disc have abilities of excreting anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10.The level of cytokine has correlation with patient's clinical features.

OBJECTIVETo study the effect of allicin on cell cycle of human gastric cancer cell lines, MGC-803 and SGC-7901, and its possible mechanisms.

METHODSThe gastric cancer cell lines MGC-803 and SGC-7901 were treated with allicin. Proliferation inhibitory rate was detected by trypan-blue exclusion. Morphologic changes were observed by electron microscopy. The cell cycle was examined by flow cytometry and Giemsa staining. Expression of p21WAF1, p16INK4 protein and mRNA was detected by immunohistochemistry and RT-PCR.

RESULTSThe gastric cancer cells were inhibited after exposure to allicin for 24 hr, The IC50 was 6.4 microg/ml in MGC-803 cells and 7.3 microg/ml in SGC-7901cells. After exposure to allicin of 12 microg/ml for 24 hr, it caused the cytotoxic effect on the cells, including cellular membrane breakagy. After exposure to allicin of 3 microg/ml, 6 microg/ml and 9 microg/ml for 24 hr, compared with the control group, the proportion of cells in the G0/G1 phase was decreased and that in the G2/M phase was increased significantly (P < 0.01). After exposure to allicin of 6 microg/ml for 24 hr, compared with the control group, cell division index was much higher, suggesting that allicin could induce cell arrest in M phase. The expression levels of p21WAF1 and p16INK4 protein and mRNA in MGC-803 cells and p21WAF1 protein and mRNA in SGC-7901 cells were markedly up-regulated.

CONCLUSIONAllicin induce cell arrest of gastric cancer in M phase, which may be related to the up-regulated expression of p21WAF1 and p16INK4 genes.

Adenocarcinoma, Mucinous ; metabolism ; pathology ; ultrastructure ; Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic ; pharmacology ; Cell Division ; drug effects ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p16 ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p21 ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic ; drug effects ; Humans ; RNA, Messenger ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; Stomach Neoplasms ; metabolism ; pathology ; ultrastructure ; Sulfinic Acids ; pharmacology

PURPOSE: To evaluate several risk factors related to re-ulceration of diabetic foot including psychosocial aspects such as familial support and degree of independence of patients' activity. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We reviewed medical records and performed telephone interview with eighty-five patients who had a history of hospitalization in our hospital due to diabetic foot ulceration from year 2002 to 2010. Based on the collected data, we analyzed several factors such as age, gender, prevalence duration, accompanying diseases, HbA1c level, degree of independence and familial support. RESULTS: The mean age was 61.4 years and most common in the 4th decade. There were 57 cases (67%) of recurrence, predominance of male. Eleven patients with recurrent diabetic foot ulceration had undergone major amputations. Psychosocial problems such as depression, insufficient familial support and mortality were more frequently observed in recurrent group. CONCLUSION: This study shows that psychosocial factor such as familial support for patient with diabetic foot could be important to reduce the recurrence rate of diabetic foot ulceration. Therefore, we should pay attention to strategic plans for prevention, screening, treatment, and aftercare through the prospective studies including psychosocial risk factor in diabetic foot ulceration.
Aftercare ; Amputation ; Depression ; Diabetic Foot ; Foot ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Interviews as Topic ; Male ; Mass Screening ; Medical Records ; Prevalence ; Recurrence ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Ulcer

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the effects of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) on the prevention of scar formation and the promotion of wound healing by gene transfer.

METHODSA total of 12 female New Zealand rabbits were used in this study. Rabbits were anesthetized with an intravenous injection of sodium pentobarbital, and identical wounds were made over the ventral surface of each ear. Five circular wounds, 7 mm in diameter, were created in each ear by excision through the skin to the underlying cartilage using sterile technique. After the surgical procedures, 10 of the rabbits were randomly allocated to five groups, with 2 rabbits in each group: Ad-HGF group 1, Ad-HGF group 2, Ad-HGF group 3, Ad-GFP (a reporter gene) group and the solvent group. Immediately after surgery, 6 x 10(7) pfu Ad-HGF, 6 x 10(8) pfu Ad-HGF, 6 x 10(9) pfu of Ad-HGF, 6 x 10(9) pfu of Ad-GFP, or same volume of solvent (PBS, pH 7.2) was applied once to each wound in groups 1 to 5, respectively. One additional rabbit was used to evaluate the transfer efficiency of the adenovirus vector by transferring Ad-GFP (6 x 10(9) pfu) into its wounds. Ice slides of wounds from this animal were observed under fluorescence microscopy. Another additional rabbit was used to evaluate the expression of HGF and TGFbeta1 after transferring Ad-HGF (6 x 10(9) pfu) into each of its wound. Immunohistochemistry was used for detection.

RESULTSThe effect of HGF on reducing excessive dermal scarring was observed by adenovirus-mediated gene transfer. Transfection of the human HGF cDNA into skin wounds through an adenoviral vector suppressed the over-expression of TGFbeta1, which plays an essential role in the progression of dermal fibrogenesis. Application of HGF to the wounds significantly enhanced wound healing and inhibited over scarring.

CONCLUSIONHGF gene therapy could be a new approach for preventing excessive dermal scarring in wound healing.

Animals ; Cicatrix ; prevention & control ; Female ; Gene Transfer Techniques ; Hepatocyte Growth Factor ; pharmacology ; Rabbits ; Random Allocation ; Wound Healing ; drug effects ; physiology

This paper proposes an improved C-V model, which can avoid the step of re-initialization and simplify the formation of the initial level set function, thus the speed of segmentation can be accelerated greatly. Furthermore, based on the grayscale distribution characteristics of the breast tumor ultrasound images and on the hypothesis of piecewise constant in the C-V model, a semiautomatic segmentation flow has been presented, in which the rough contour is sketched first, and then a subimage would be obtained for the refined segmentation algorithm. This flow has improved not only the accuracy, but also the efficiency of the segmentation algorithm. The experiments show that the proposed algorithm could extract the contour of the breast tumor from the ultrasound images efficiently and accurately, which is fundamentally important for the following target feature extraction and analysis.
Algorithms ; Breast Neoplasms ; diagnostic imaging ; Female ; Humans ; Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted ; methods ; Ultrasonography, Mammary ; methods

OBJECTIVETo investigate the prevalence of peripheral arterial disease (PAD) and correlative risk factors among natural population in China.

METHODSAnkle brachial index (ABI) was measured by trained doctors and related data were collected in residents from Beijing, Shanghai, Changsha, Guangdong, Neimenggu, and Xinjiang selected through cluster multistage and random sampling method. PAD was defined as an ABI < or = 0.9 in either leg.

RESULTSThe prevalence of PAD among 21 152 eligible participants was 3.08%, the standardized prevalence was 3.04%. The prevalence in males and females was 2.52% and 3.66% and the standardized prevalence was 1.84% and 4.31% respectively, the prevalence rate was significantly lower in males than that in females (P < 0.01). The prevalence in both males and females increased significantly in proportion to aging (P < 0.01). The prevalence in Han Chinese was significantly higher than that in non-Han Chinese (P < 0.01). Logistic regression analysis showed that older age, female gender, Han Chinese, waist circumference, smoking, lipid disorder, diabetes mellitus, coronary artery disease and a history of ischemic stroke were associated with the increased prevalence of PAD. Incidence of known PAD was 1.38% in this cohort.

CONCLUSIONSOlder age, female gender, Han Chinese, waist circumference, smoking, lipid disorder, diabetes mellitus, coronary artery disease and a history of ischemic stroke were associated with the increased prevalence of PAD in natural Chinese population.

Adult ; Aged ; Ankle Brachial Index ; China ; epidemiology ; Female ; Humans ; Lower Extremity ; blood supply ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Peripheral Vascular Diseases ; epidemiology ; ethnology ; Prevalence ; Risk Factors ; Smoking

A filtering algorithm is proposed to deal with the medical ultrasonic image series in video format, which uses the relativity in spatial domain, gray value domain and temporal domain simultaneously. For each frame image, the relativity in spatial domain and gray value domain is utilized to construct the adaptive neighborhood first. Then the spatial weighted and gray value weighted filtering is performed in this neighborhood. Finally, the temporal relativity between the adjacent frames is used to perform the temporal weighted filtering. All the weighted filtering in the three domains uses Gaussian kernel, thus the filtering sensitivity resulting from the threshold selection is reduced, and the stability of the algorithm is enhanced. As it can be seen from the experimental results, the three-domains filtering algorithm can suppress the noise effectively, and the edge details can be reserved well. So it is useful for the feature extraction, recognition and analysis.
Algorithms ; Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted ; methods ; Ultrasonography ; methods

This paper proposes an algorithm of evaluating the compression depth, and then to extract four normalized mammary elasticity characteristic parameters with respect to the compression depth. The classification experiments show that these elasticity parameters have a good capability in determining whether the tumor is benign or malignant, and if combined with morphological parameters, the accuracy, sensitivity and specificity can be improved and increased to 95.19%, 98.82% and 92.16%, respectively.
Algorithms ; Breast Neoplasms ; diagnostic imaging ; Elasticity Imaging Techniques ; Female ; Humans ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Ultrasonography, Mammary ; methods