Objective To study and establish the GC fingerprint of Rhizoma Ligustici from Suichuan to guide the standardization of planting Rhizoma Ligustici. MethodsTen batches of volatile oils were extracted by steam distillation, then separated by capillary gas chromatography and determined by GC/MS. ResultsThe similarity of ten batches of Rhizoma Ligustici from Suichuan is higher, all samples contain derivatives of phthalides and allyl-benzene. ConclusionThe method is reliable, accurate and can be used to evaluate the quality of Suichuan Rhizoma Ligustici and guide the planting.

OBJECTIVETo detect the expression of SCUBE3 in human osteosarcoma cell lines and surgical specimens of osteosarcomas and investigate its association with the patients' prognosis.

METHODSThe expression of SCUBE3 protein was detected in 5 osteosarcoma cell lines using Western blotting. CCK8 assay was used to assess the effect of SCUBE3 suppression mediated by two specific small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) on the proliferation of U2OS osteosarcoma cells, and the cell cycle changes were detected using flow cytometry. Immunohistochemistry was performed to detect the expression of SCUBE3 in 60 osteosarcoma tissues, and Kaplan-Meier method was performed for survival analysis of the patients.

RESULTSCompared with osteoblast hFOB1.19 cells, the osteosarcoma cell lines all showed significantly higher expressions of SCUBE3. In U2OS cells, suppression of SCUBE3 expression by siRNA significantly inhibited the cell proliferation (P<0.05). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis indicated that patients with high SCUBE3 expression had worse prognosis than those with low SCUBE3 expression (P=0.036).

CONCLUSIONSCUBE3 is up-regulated in the 5 osteosarcoma cell lines and in primary osteosarcoma tissues to promote the proliferation of osteosarcoma cells. A high SCUBE3 expression in osteosarcoma tissues is associated with a poor prognosis of the patients, suggesting that SCUBE3 can serve as a potential therapeutic target for osteosarcoma.

Bone Neoplasms ; metabolism ; pathology ; Calcium-Binding Proteins ; metabolism ; Cell Cycle ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Cell Proliferation ; Flow Cytometry ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Kaplan-Meier Estimate ; Osteosarcoma ; metabolism ; pathology ; Prognosis ; RNA, Small Interfering ; Up-Regulation

Breast cancer centers in European countries operate under a complete set of industry standards, which feature multi-disciplinary teamwork and offer " one package services" for patients, not only conducive to elevating treatment outcomes but also sizably downsizing the time consumption and expenditure of patients in seeking medical services. The authors systematically analyzed the basic standards, organizational structure, and management requirements for core team departments and doctors in breast cancer diagnosis and treatment centers in Europe, and came up with recommendations for the current situation and defects of breast cancer diagnosis and treatment in China.

Objective:To evaluate the safety and efficacy of the technique of minimally invasive separation surgery with small incision and free hand screw placement in patients with spinal metastases.Methods:Retrospectively reviewed the clinical data of 49 consecutive patients from May 2019 to December 2019 who underwent minimally invasive separation surgery with small incision and free hand screw placement for metastatic spinal tumors. Among them, there were 21 males with an average age of 55.62±2.97 years (range: 26-75 years) and 28 females with an average age of 52.50±1.76 years (range: 34-72 years). For patients who have primary tumor history with multiple metastases, routine pre-operative biopsy is not required; but for patients whose primary tumor is unknown and who have no history of tumor, pre-operative biopsy diagnosis is required. Before operation, Karnofsky Performance status (KPS) scoring system was used to evaluate the general condition of patients, Spinal Instability Neoplastic Score (SINS) scoring system was used to evaluate the spine stability, epidural spinal cord compression (ESCC) grading system was performed to access the degree of spinal cord nerve compression, and Frankel grading system was used to evaluate the neurological function. For patients who meet inclusion and exclusion criteria ware performed for decompression and internal fixation by a minimally invasive separation surgery with small incision and free hand screw placement. The demographic, neurological function, complications and perioperative data were collected and analyzed, including pre-operation neurological function, operation time, intraoperative blood loss, postoperative suction drainage, drainage tube extraction time, complications rates, hospital stay, and assessment of neurological recovery at 4 weeks after surgery.Results:Preoperative coil embolization was performed in 1 patient with kidney cancer. The mean intraoperative blood loss was 748.60±79.39 ml. Comparison of intraoperative blood loss of 12 rich blood supply (liver cancer, kidney cancer, thyroid cancer) and 37 poor blood supply spine metastases (970.80 ml vs 676.50 ml) was not statistically significant ( P>0.05). The average operation time was 213.40±9.87 min. The operation involved 1 segment was performed in 41 patients (83.67%) and 8 patients had separation of 2 or more segments. The post-operative drainage before discharge was 494.02±63.30 ml. The average drainage tube retention time was 4.50±0.26 d and the average length of hospital stay was 7.35±0.38 d. The post-operative hospitalization was 5.31±0.29 d. 79.59% of patients had the neurological functions of Frankel grade C and D before surgery and 95.92% of patients exhibited stable and improved function at 4 weeks after surgery which was significantly improved comparing with that before surgery ( P<0.05). The complications occurred were dural rupture (1 case), infection (1 case) and hematoma (1 case). Comparison:The minimally invasive separation surgery with small incision and free hand screw placement could achieve less trauma, low complications rate, rapid postoperative recovery. It is also comparable to the traditional open separation surgery in terms of spinal stability and improvement of neurological functions. It is an excellent alternative for patient with spinal metastases.

Objective:To explore the performance of the commonly used whole blood C-reactive protein (CRP) detection systems and give related recommendation on the performance requirements of detection systems.Methods:A total of 7 540 venous blood samples from 26 maternal, child and children′s hospitals were collected to conduct this multi-center study on the analytical performance of 5 commonly used whole blood CRP detection systems from March to April in 2019. The blank check, carryover, repeatability, intermediate precision, linearity, sample stability, influence of hematocrit/triglyceride/bilirubin, comparison with SIEMENS specific protein analyzer and trueness were evaluated. The 5 systems included BC-5390CRP autohematology analyzer, AstepPLUS specific protein analyzer, Ottoman-1000 Automated Specific Protein POCT Workstation, i-CHROMA Immunofluorometer equipment Reader and Orion QuikRead go detecting instrument. The 5 systems were labeled as a, b, c, d and e randomly.Results:Within the 5 systems, all values of blank check were less than 1.00 mg/L, the carryovers were lower than 1.00%. The repeatability of different ranges of CRP concentrations including 3.00-10.00, 10.00-30.00 and>30.00 mg/L were less than 10.00%, 6.00% and 5.00%, respectively, and the intermediate precision was less than 10.00%. The linearity correlation coefficients of the 5 systems were all above 0.975, while the slope was within 0.950-1.050. Whole blood samples were stable within 72 hours both at room temperature (18-25 ℃) and refrigerated temperature (2-8 ℃). The CRP results were rarely influenced by high triglyceride or bilirubin, except for the immmunoturbidimetric test based on microparticles coated with anti-human CRP F(ab) 2 fragments. When triglyceride was less than 15.46 mmol/L, the deviation of CRP was less than 10.00%. When bilirubin was less than 345.47 μmol/L, the deviation of CRP was less than 10.00%. CRP was more susceptible to Hct on the systems without Hct correction. The deviation of CRP between different Hct dilution concentration and 40% dilution concentration can reach as high as 67.48%. The correlation coefficients ( r) of 5 systems were all more than 0.975 in the range of 0-300.00 mg/L compared with Siemens specific protein analyzer. All systems passed the trueness verification using the samples with specified values of 12.89 and 30.60 mg/L. Conclusion:The performance of 5 systems can basically meet the clinical needs, but it is suggested that the whole blood CRP detection system without automatic Hct correction should be modified manually.