Objective To investigate the rehabilitative effect of electroacupuncture on hand function in postoperative patients with hand trauma.Methods Sixty-eight postoperative patients with hand trauma were randomly allocated to treatment and control groups, 34 cases each. The control group received routine rehabilitation therapy and the treatment group, electroacupuncture in addition. Pre-/post-treatment changes in thumb motor function, the distance from index, middle, ring and little fingers to the palm and the distance from the finger nails to the table were observed in the two groups after three months of treatment.Results There was a statistically significant post-treatment difference in the thumb motor function (abduction and opposition) grade between the two groups (P<0.05). There were statistically significant pre-/post-treatment differences in the distance from index, middle, ring and little fingers to the palm and the distance from the finger nails to the table in the two groups (P<0.01). There were statistically significant post-treatment differences in the distance from index, middle, ring and little fingers to the palm and the distance from the finger nails to the table between the treatment and control groups (P<0.01).Conclusion Electroacupuncture can effectively improve hand function in postoperative patients with hand trauma.

Objective To investigate the efficacy and optimal time of levothyroxine (L-T4) treatment in pregnant rats with subclinical hypothyroidism.Methods Female adult Wistar rats were divided into six groups (n =10 per group):control,hypothyroid (H),subclinical hypothyroid (SCH),and SCH treated with L-T4 starting from the tenth,thirteenth,and seventeenth gestational day (GD10,GD13 and GD17),to restore normal thyroid hormone levels.Spatial learning was assessed in progenies by a water maze test and fEPSPs recording.Results Progenies from the SCH and H groups demonstrated significantly longer mean latency in the water maze test and a lower amplification percentage of the fEPSPs' amplitude and slope compared with the offspring of the control group.L-T4 treatment in the GD10 and GD13 groups significantly shortened mean latency and increased the amplification percentage of the fEPSPs' amplitude and slope as compared with the progeny of rats with subclinical hypothyroidism.However,L-T4 treatment in the GD17 group showed only minimal effect on spatial learning of offspring.Conclusion Maternal subclinical hypothyroidism may impair spatial learning in the offspring; L-T4 treatment started early during pregnancy may alleviate this adverse effect.

Data were collected through questionnaire from 505 women enrolled during early pregnancy.Based on soy intake frequency,the subjects were divided into three groups:frequent (three or more times per week),conventional ( more than twice per month but less than three times per week),and occasional ( two or fewer times per month).Serum TSH and FT4 were measured by chemiluminescence immunoassay.The urinary concentrations of two primary isoflavones (daidzein and genistein) and creatinine were further assessed in 95 subjects from the three groups.The percentages of frequent,conventional,and occasional consumers were 18.6％,62.6％,and 18.8％,respectively.No difference was found in age,medical records,family history of thyroid diseases,serum FT4,TSH,and prevalence of thyroid dysfunctions among three groups. Both urinary daidzein and genistein levels were significantly higher in the frequent consumers compared with the other two groups.No correlations were found between urinary isoflavone levels and serum FT4 or TSH.These findings suggest that dietary soy consumption during early pregnancy seems not to be associated with the development of thyroid dysfunction.

Objective To explore whether maternal subclinical hypothyroidism gives rise to poor performance in the offspring and whether this is associated with the expression of several genes that are under the control of thyroid hormones. Methods Sixty female rats were divided into three groups ( each group n = 20): ( 1 )maternal subclinical hypothyroidism ( total thyroidectomy with T4 infusion), (2) maternal hypothyroidism ( total thyroidectomy without T4 infusion), and (3) control (sham operated). All rats were mated 10 days after the start of infusion. The infusion continued until 10 days postpartum. Pups were sacrificed at postnatal day 3, 7, and 21. The hippocampus was collected and tested for brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and Rap1 protein expression by Western blotting and for BDNF and neural cell adhesion molecule ( NCAM ) mRNA expression by real-time polymerase chain reaction. On day 41-49, rat pups explored the Morris water maze. Time spent in the quadrant previously containing the plat form was recorded. Results The present study found decreases in BDNF mRNA (on day 3 ) and protein levels (on day 3 and 7 ) in hippocampi of pups from subclinical hypothyroidism dams (P＜0.05). No change was observed in the levels of NCAM mRNA, whereas at day 21, expression of Rap1 protein was higher than that of control offspring. In addition, pups of subclinical hypothyroidism dams showed a trend toward depression in short-term memory (P＞0.05), and long-term memory testing revealed a trend toward subclinical hypothyroidism group pups being less able to remember a fixed platform position than controls, spending less time in the proper quadrant ( P＜0. 05 ). Conclusion The long-term memory deficits of pups born to maternal subclinical hypothyroidism dams are likely related with decrease in BDNF expression as well as increase in Rap1 expression in hippocampi.

Objective To evaluation and comparison the curative effect of different adjuvant therapy and prognostic factors with thoracic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) after surgery,and to find the best treatment for them.Methods A total of 863 patients with thoracic ESCC underwent surgery in the fourth hospital of Hebei Medical University,From January 2007 to December 2010,To analyze the influence factors of the patient′s independent prognosis and the effect of postoperative adjuvant therapy on the prognosis of patients.The 1:1, after the tendency of a total of 261 cases were used PSM method (87 cases/group).The Kaplan-Meier method was used to calculate OS,DFS and log-rank test and monovariable analysis,Cox model was used to multivariable analysis.Results The sample size in 1,3,5 was 123,589,863 cases.The 1-,3-,and 5-year overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) of all patients were 89.7%,62.1%,51.7% and 76.8%,52.1%,44.2%,respectively.The 1,3,5-years of OS and DFS were 956%,73.3%,61.1% and 85.6%,61.1%,54.4%,78.9%,38.9%,31.3% and 67.8%,27.8%,20.0%,92.2%,55.6%,44.4% and 67.8%,44.4%,36.7%(all P=0.000) among postoperation chemoradiotherapy (POCRT),postoperation chemotherapy (POCT) and postoperation radiotherapy (PORT) after pairing with PSM.The result of COX analysis showed that the degree of inflammatory adhesion,pTNM stage and the number of positive lymph nodes were the independent prognostic factors in patients with OS (P=0.002,0.000,0.007).The history of drinking,pTNM stage and treatment model were the independent prognostic factors of DFS (P=0.009,0.000,0.012).Conclusions Patients with thoracic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma after surgery to receive adjuvant therapy has a good effect,compared with PORT and POCT,POCRT can significantly improve the OS and DFS,and POCRT was the independent prognostic factors of DFS.

Objective To determine the prognostic factors in patients with stage pT3N0M0 thoracic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (TSCC) after esophagectomy, and to compare the effects of different treatment modalities on the prognosis of patients.Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on 480 patients with stage pT3N0M0 TSCC from 2007 to 2010 to determine the prognostic factors in the patients, and to compare the effects of different treatment modalities on their prognosis.Survival rate was calculated using the Kaplan-Meier estimator, and multivariate analysis of prognostic factors was performed using the Cox model.Results Of the 439, 333, and 278 patients who completed the 1-, 3-, and 5-year follow-up, respectively, the 1-, 3-, and 5-year overall survival (OS) rates were 90.0%, 68.7%, and 57.9%(median 87 months, 95% confidence interval (CI=74.7-99.4), respectively, and the 1-, 3-, and 5-year disease-free survival (DFS) rates were 82.3%, 60.4%, and 52.3%(median 71.3 months, 95%CI=55.1-87.5), respectively.In order to account for the different constituent ratios of some clinical and pathological data between the three groups of patients, 55 patients in each group were matched using propensity score matching (PSM)(all P>0.05).It was found that the post-PSM 1-,3-, and 5-year OS and DFS were significantly different between patients who received surgery only, postoperative chemotherapy (POCT), and postoperative chemoradiotherapy/radiotherapy (POCRT/RT)(P=0.000 and 0.006,respectively).Multivariate Cox analysis showed that age, lesion location, and treatment modality were independent prognostic factors for OS and DFS (P=0.029,0.004,0.000 and P=0.009,0.003,0.002), and the length of lesion was also an independent prognostic factor for DFS (P=0.003).Conclusions Although the rate of post-operative treatment failure is still high among patients with stage pT3N0M0 TSCC, POCRT/PORT can improve the prognosis and the 5-year OS and DFS of these patients.However, further large-sample prospective studies will be required to confirm these findings.

Objective To investigate the failure model of patients with stage pN0 thoracic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (TESCC) after surgery alone and to discuss the feasibility of postoperative radiotherapy.Methods A retrospective analysis was performed on 473 patients with TESCC who received surgery alone from January 2007 to December 2010.The feasibility of adjuvant radiotherapy for pN0 TESCC patients was investigated through the failure model of postoperative patients.Results Of all patients,there were 57 cases with chest-regional recurrence (12.1％),most of which occurred in the mediastinal lymph nodes(52 case).There were 42 (8.9％) patients were identified as distant metastasis (DM),of which 13 cases were found to have both local recurrence and DM,and the total failure rate was 20.9％.The chest-regional recurrence rate of upper TESCC was statistically significantly higher than middle and lower (x2 =7.469,P ＜ 0.05),but DM rate had no statistically significant difference (P ＞ 0.05).The chest-regional recurrence rate and DM rate of the advanced T stage were significantly higher than those of the early T stage(x2 =10.247,7.886,P ＜ 0.05).The result of univariate analysis showed that disease site,the degree of adhesion,postoperative stump were significant factors of chestregional recurrence rate (x2 =14.232,9.486,7.546,P ＜ 0.05).Gender,smoking and preoperative weight loss ≥5 kg significantly influenced DM (x2 =10.823,10.275,6.065,P ＜ 0.05).In addition,the T stage was the significant influence factor of chest-regional recurrence and DM(x2 =15.994,12.885,P ＜0.05).The result of multivariate analysis showed that T stage and postoperative stump were independent factors of chest-regional recurrence (P ＜ 0.05).Smoking was an independent factor of DM (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions There was a high rate of chest-regional recurrence in patients with stage pN0 TESCC who received surgery alone.Postoperative radiotherapy was recommended for patients with upper TESCC,advanced T stage,severe local adhesion,positive margin in and postoperative stump.Male,smoking and preoperative weight loss≥5 kg were associated with higher DM rate.

Objective To investigate the failure mode in patients with stage pT3N0M0 thoracic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (TESCC) after surgery,and to discuss the significance and feasibility of postoperative radiotherapy according to the failure mode.Methods A retrospective analysis was performed on 227 patients with stage pT3N0M0 TESCC who met the inclusion criteria from January 2007 to December 2010.Their postoperative failure mode was analyzed,and,with reference to relevant research,the significance of postoperative radiotherapy and its target patients were explored.The Kaplan-Meier method was used to calculate overall survival (OS),local recurrence (LR),and distant metastasis (DM) rates,and the log-rank test was used for survival difference analysis and univariate prognostic analysis.The Cox model was used for multivariate prognostic analysis.Results After surgery,there were 58 patients (25.6％) with LR in the thoracic cavity and 27 patients (11.9％) with DM,and 10 patients had both LR and DM.Twentynine (50％) of the 58 patients had recurrence in the thoracic mediastinal lymph nodes.The results of univariate analysis showed that the 3-and 5-year OS rates of patients with upper thoracic esophageal cancer were significantly lower than those of patients with middle and lower esophageal cancer (P =0.000),and the chest-regional recurrence rate was significantly higher in the former group than in the latter two groups (P=0.047);the 3-and 5-year OS rates of patients with poorly differentiated squamous cell carcinoma were significantly lower than those of patients with moderately and well differentiated squamous cell carcinoma (P =0.005),and the DM rate was significantly higher than in the former group than in the latter two groups (P=0.000).The results of multivariate analysis showed that lesion site and the degree of pathological differentiation were independent prognostic factors for OS (P=0.014 and 0.010);lesion site was the independent prognostic factor for chest-regional recurrence (P=0.046);the degree of pathological differentiation was the independent prognostic factor for DM (P=0.000).Conclusions For patients with stage pT3N0M0 TESCC after two-field esophagectomy,the most common failure mode is chest-regional recurrence,especially in patients with upper thoracic esophageal cancer.Therefore,postoperative radiotherapy is suggested for upper-thoracic TESCC.

To study the genetic basis of spontaneous transformation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and clinical application value MSCs were isolated by combining utilization of density gradient centrifugation and adherence screening. After cell homogeneity analysis by flow cytometry, spontaneous transformation MSCs were isolated after six-month in vitro expansion. Then cell total RNA was obtained with Trizol reagent and studied for gene expression profile. Differentially expressed genes between normal MSCs and spontaneous transformation MSCs in cDNA microarray were determined by real-time RT-PCR for validation of the microarray data. Forty-four genes were differentially expressed after spontaneous transformation of MSCs, among which 21 were up-regulated and 23 down-regulated. The result of real-time RT-PCR was in accordance with that of the cDNA microarray. Several genes in SHH, Notch, TGF beta/BMPs signal pathway play an important role in spontaneous transformation of MSCs.
Animals ; Cell Transformation, Neoplastic ; genetics ; Cells, Cultured ; Gene Expression Profiling ; Mesenchymal Stromal Cells ; cytology ; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis ; Rats ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Time Factors