The latest progress of modern radiotherapy techniques in the management of breast cancer after breast-conserving surgery was introduced first.Then the clinical effect and the adverse effect of these advanced techniques were analyzed.Finally,in order to provide an up-to-date evidence based data on the role of modern radiotherapy techniques in the management of breast cancer,the importance of how to choose appropriate patients for these advanced techniques was discussed.

Granular cell tumor of the breast (GCTB) is a rare tumor which stems from Schwann cells.It is a largely benign tumor,but in the literature extremely infrequent cases can exhibit malignant characteristics.It tends to a particular problem as its characteristics are similar with breast carcinoma macroscopically,clinically,and radiologically.Typically,GCTB is benign and solitary lesion,yet including atypical GCTB and malignant GCTB,they can co-localize with breast malignancies multicentricity.The histopathological and immunohistochemical detection is the gold standard for diagnosis of GCTB up to now.And local expanded resection is the main treatment method at present.

Objective To evaluate the relationship of serum levels of interleukin (IL)-36α,IL-36β and IL-36γas well as their receptor antagonist IL-36Ra with disease severity in patients with psoriasis.Methods Venous blood samples were collected from 45 patients with generalized pustular psoriasis (GPP),34 patients with psoriasis vulgaris (PV),and 37 healthy human controls.Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was performed to determine the serum levels of IL-36α,IL-36β,IL-36γ and IL-36Ra.Nonparametric Mann-Whitney test was conducted to compare the levels of IL-36 and IL-36Ra among these groups,and Spearman's rank correlation analysis to assess the relationship between the serum levels of IL-36 and IL-36Ra and disease severity.Results No statistical difference was observed in the serum levels of IL-36 or IL-36Ra among the patients with GPP,patients with PV,and healthy human controls.The serum levels of IL-36β and IL-36γ (given as the median ± interquartile range) were significantly higher in 27 patients with GPP during episodes of pustules ((12.101 ± 11.315) ng/L and (34.541 ± 15.580) ng/L respectively) and in 7 patients with severe GPP ((11.218 ± 9.318) ng/L and (38.536 ± 17.332) ng/L respectively) than in the healthy human controls ((5.355 ± 9.020) ng/L and (23.052 ± 22.410) ng/L respectively,P ＜ 0.05 or 0.01).The serum level of IL-36γwas positively correlated with that of IL-36β in patients with GPP,patients with PV,and the healthy human controls (r =0.85,0.86,0.91,respectively,all P ＜ 0.01),and both IL-36β and IL-36γserum levels were lowly and positively correlated with the severity of GPP (r =0.33,0.41,respectively,both P ＜ 0.05).A positive correlation was also observed between the serum level of IL-36β and psoriasis area and severity index (PASI) scores in patients with PV (r =0.54,P ＜ 0.01).Conclusions The serum levels of IL-363 and IL-36γ are lowly and positively correlated with disease severity in patients with GPP,suggesting that IL-36β and IL-36γplay an important role in the pathogenesis of GPP.

Objective To investigate the effect of thalidomide on the proliferation of as well as the expression and secretion of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) by the human keratinocyte cell line HaCaT.Methods Cultured HaCaT cells were divided into several groups to be treated with dimethyl sulfoxide (negative control group) and various concentrations (0.01nmol/L-100 μmol/L) of thalidomide (experimental groups) respectively for 20 to 24 hours.Subsequently,water soluble tetrazolium-1(WST-1) assay was performed to estimate cellular proliferation,real time quantitative PCR to detect the mRNA expression of VEGF and TNF-α in HaCaT cells,and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to quantify the protein expressions of VEGF and TNF-α in the culture supernatants of HaCaT cells.Statistical analysis was done by one-way analysis of variance with least significant difference post hoc test.Results The survival rate of HaCaT cells was 74.3％,82.9％ and 90.8％ after 24-hour treatment with thalidomide of 100,10 and 1 μmol/L respectively,significantly lower than that in the negative control group (100％,all P ＜0.01).A significant decrease was induced in the mRNA expression (0.439-to 0.634-fold change,all P ＜0.01) and supematant level ((0.587-to 0.923-fold change,P ＜0.05) of VEGF in HaCaT cells by thalidomide of 0.01-100 nmol/L,as well as in the mRNA expression (0.493-to 0.587-fold change,P ＜0.05) and supernatant level (0.408-to 0.617-fold change,P ＜0.01) of TNF-α by thalidomide of 0.1-100 nmol/L.Conclusion Within a certain range of concentration,thalidomide could suppress the proliferation of,as well as the expression and secretion of VEGF and TNF-α by,HaCaT cells.

Objective:In this study,a prokaryotic expression of the 3-ketosteroid-Delta (1)-dehydrogenase (KSDD) which came from Arthrobacter simplex was built.Moreover,in order to investigate the catalytic mechanism of KSDD and improve its stability,the structure of KSDD was predicted by computer and the critical sites were confirmed by site-directed mutations.Methods:The recombinant plasmid was constructed by eukaryotic expression vector pET-22b and the recombinant strain was constructed and expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3).High-performance liquid chromatography was used to determine the transformation rate of 4-AD to ADD.The KSDD structure and key sites were predicted by SWISS-MODEL.Site-directed mutations for the amino acid residues of key sites were constructed and activities of the mutations were detected.Results:The recombinant strain E.coli pET-22-ksdd was successfully constructed.It was induced to express the dehydrogenase by IPTG and the conversion rate of 4-AD to ADD was 27％ at 21 ℃.The structure of 3-ketosteroid-Delta (1)-dehydrogenase and the four key sites was analyzed by SWISS-MODEL.Four mutants,Y120R,Y320L,Y488F and G492Y were constructed.Mutants Y120R and Y488F were inactivated,so they were proved to be the key active sites of KSDD.The conversion rate of mutant Y320L was consistent with that of wild type,but the stability at 37 ℃ was improved.The conversion rate of mutant G492Y was 1.2 times of the wild type and the stability has been improved at 37 ℃.Conclusions:At present,there are few studies about the structure and catalytic mechanism of dehydrogenase.The active sites of the enzyme were verified by this study,which laid the foundation for the further study of the properties of the enzyme KSDD.

0.05). The rate of RCC after HHSSCT was 4.7% in study group; after second NS soaking, the rate of RCC was 19.1% in control group. The difference between the two groups was statistically significant (P

Objective To investigate clinical manifestations,histopathological features and treatment of ulcerative colitis (UC) complicated by pyoderma gangrenosum (PG).Methods Data on clinical manifestations,auxiliary examination findings,treatment and prognosis were collected from 8 inpatients with UC complicated by PG in Peking Union Medical College Hospital between July 2009 and July 2016,and analyzed retrospectively.Results Of the 8 cases,5 were male,and 3 were female.Theaverage age of onset was 30.6 years and 35.1 years in males and females respectively.All the patients developed intestinal symptoms of UC before the onset of PG with an average time interval of 5 years.Moreover,all the patients had active total colonic type UC at the onset of PG,including 6 with moderately active UC and 2 with mildly active UC.PG manifested as painful ulcers in 8 patients,and affected lower limbs in 7 patients.Histopathological examination of skin lesions showed typical characteristics of vasculitis in 5 patients.Five patients were complicated by arthralgia.All the patients were treated with glucocorticoids and 5-aminosalicylic acid agents as the basic therapy,3 patients received extra treatment with immunosuppressive agents or minocycline,and 2 with infliximab.Conclusions PG is a severe skin manifestation of UC,commonly occurs in patients with total colonic type UC in the active stage,and mostly affects the lower limbs,with typical histopathological features of vasculitis.

BACKGROUNDTo investigate the expression of COX-2 and its relation to clinical pathophysiological features and prognosis in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

METHODSThe expression of COX-2 protein was detected in 52 NSCLC tissues by immunohistochemical (S-P) method.

RESULTSThe positive COX-2 expression was observed in 25 (48.1%) cases of NSCLC tissues. The positive rate of COX-2 expression was 76.5% and 34.3% in adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma respectively (P < 0.01). The positive rate of COX-2 expression in T3+T4 disease (92.3%) was remarkably higher than that in stage T1+T2 (33.3%) (P < 0.01). There was a remarkable difference in COX-2 expression rate between clinical stage I+II (28.1%) and clinical stage III+IV (80.0%) groups (P < 0.01). The positive rate of COX-2 expression was 83.3% in those with lymph node metastasis, but only 17.9% in those without lymph node metastasis (P < 0.01). In addition, there were significant differences in positive rate of COX-2 expression among patients with ≤2, > 2 but < 5, ≥5 years of survival span respectively (P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONSOverexpression of COX-2 in NSCLC, especially in adenocarcinoma, is closely related to invasion, lymph node metastasis and clinical stage of lung cancer. It may play a role in development of NSCLC, and also may be a prognostic marker.

Objective To evaluate the prognostic accuracy of the score of toxic epidermal necrolysis (SCORTEN) scoring system in patients with toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) or Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS).Methods Clinical data were collected from 39 patients with SJS/TEN hospitalized in Peking Union Medical College Hospital during April 1992 and March 2014,and retrospectively analyzed.Among the 39 patients,13 had died,and the other 26 patients,who were matched to the dead patients in a ratio of 2:1 for age,all had a definite diagnosis and were discharged with improved conditions.The SCORTEN scoring system was used to evaluate the 39 patients with SJS/TEN and calculate expected mortality.The expected mortality and actual mortality were compared between different groups stratified by age in the 39 patients.The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was drawn to assess the prognostic accuracy of the SCORTEN scoring system.Results According to the SCORTEN scoring system,15 out of the 39 patients scored 1 point,14 scored 2 points,6 scored 3 points,and 4 scored 4 points.The total number of expected deaths was 6.808,while that of actual deaths was 13.There was no significant difference between the expected mortality and actual mortality in every SCORTEN score-based group.The area under curve (AUC) was 0.832 8,indicating a good predictive ability of the SCORTEN scoring system.Conclusion The SCORTEN scoring system can predict mortality in TEN/SJS patients at early stage.

Carbon-limited continuous culture was used to study the relationship between the growth of Aspergillus niger and the production of glucoamylase. The result showed that when the specific growth rate was lower than 0.068 h(-1), the production of glucoamylase was growth-associated, when the specific growth rate was higher than 0.068 h(-1), the production of glucoamylase was not growth-associated. Based on the result of continuous culture, the Monod dynamics model of glucose consumption of A. niger was constructed, Combining Herbert-Pirt equation of glucose and oxygen consumption with Luedeking-Piret equation of enzyme production, the black-box model of Aspergillus niger for enzyme production was established. The exponential fed-batch culture was designed to control the specific growth rate at 0.05 h(-1) by using this model and the highest yield for glucoamylase production by A. niger reached 0.127 g glucoamylase/g glucose. The black-box model constructed in this study successfully described the glucoamylase production by A. niger and the result of the model fitted the measured value well. The black-box model could guide the design and optimization of glucoamylase production by A. niger.
Aspergillus niger ; metabolism ; Batch Cell Culture Techniques ; Carbon ; Culture Media ; Glucan 1,4-alpha-Glucosidase ; biosynthesis ; Glucose ; Industrial Microbiology ; methods ; Oxygen