Objective To assess clinical safety and effect of intracoronary transplantation of autologous bone marrow cells in patients with acute myocardial infarction(AMI).Methods Eighty four AMI patients who had received emergency thromblysis or primary PTCA were enrolled in this study.Elective PCI was undergone in these patients 10-14 days after infarction.During the procedure,50 patients received introcoronary transplantation of autologous bone marrow derived mononuclear cells and the other 34 patients received normal saline as control.All patients achieved TIMI Ⅲ flow after PCI.Dobutamin stress echocardiography,SPECT and F-18-Fluorodeoxyglucose-PET were performed 1 day before and 6 months after the transplantation.All patients finished a 2-year follow up and stress echo examination.Twenty nine patients from the transplantation group and 22 patients from the control group accepted 6-month SPECT reassessment.Results No major adverse events were recorded in all patients who received autologous bone marrow cells transplantation during follow up.Less nitroglycerin usage and increased excercise were observed in the transplantation group.Stress echocardiography showed improvement in LVEF(27.00%?0.89% pre-operation,36.80%?0.58% after 6 months and 40.94%?0.58% after 2 years,P

Magnetic resonance (MR) images can be used to detect lesions in the brains of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). An automatic method is presented for segmentation of MS lesions using multispectral MR images in this paper. Firstly, a Pd-w image is subtracted from its corresponding T1-w images to get an image in which the cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) is enhanced. Secondly, based on kernel fuzzy c-means clustering (KFCM) algorithm, the enhanced image and the corresponding T2-w image are segmented respectively to extract the CSF region and the CSF-MS lesions combinatoin region. A raw MS lesions image is obtained by subtracting the CSF region from CSF-MS region. Thirdly, based on applying median filter and thresholding to the raw image, the MS lesions were detected finally. Results were tested on BrainWeb images and evaluated with Dice similarity coefficient (DSC), sensitivity (Sens), specificity (Spec) and accuracy (Acc). The testing results were satisfactory.
Algorithms ; Brain ; pathology ; Humans ; Image Enhancement ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Multiple Sclerosis ; diagnosis ; Sensitivity and Specificity

Four out of 10 patients of X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (X-SCID) were finally developed leukemia after receiving the treatment of gene therapy delivered by gamma-retroviral vectors. This is due to the vector integrated to the proximity of lmo2 etc proto-oncogene promoters, leading to the activation of onco-gene expression, which raises the concern of the bio-safety of gene therapy vectors. Lentiviral vectors, especially self-inactivating lentiviral vectors, are considered to be much safer than gamma-retroviral vectors. However self-inactivating lentiviral vectors also have encountered with some unsafe factors and one of them is the problem of transcriptional "read-through" . During the past years, achievements have been made to reduce lentiviral vector transcriptional read-through, which are reviewed herein.
Animals ; Genetic Therapy ; adverse effects ; methods ; Genetic Vectors ; genetics ; Humans ; Lentivirus ; genetics ; metabolism ; Promoter Regions, Genetic ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins ; genetics ; Transcription, Genetic ; genetics ; Virus Inactivation ; Virus Integration

Objective To develop a new method for the rapid determination of lomefloxacin,gatifloxacin,ciprofloxacin and oflox-acin in plasm and urine by solid phase extraction(SPE)and capillary electrophoresis.Methods The capillary was fused silica capil-lary with id/od of 75/365 μm and effective/total length of 40/47 cm.The running buffer was 40 mmol/L borate buffer at pH 9.0. Separation voltage was 13 kV.Temperature was 20 ℃.Detection wave-length was set at 280 nm.The sample was analyzed after the pretreatment of SPE.Results The analysis of lomefloxacin,gatifloxacin,ciprofloxacin and ofloxacin was completed in 6 minutes with satisfied accuracy and precision.Good linearity was found within the range of 1-40 μg/mL,and the r was 0.998 7,0.997 6, 0.998 3 and 0.994 2 respectively.The recoveries of four quinolones in plasm and urine ranged from 80.1% to 107.6%,and the rel-ative standard deviations(RSD)ranged from 2.1% to 6.2%.Conclusion This method is fast,simple,precise and it might be feasi-ble for the determination of lomefloxacin,gatifloxacin,ciprofloxacin and ofloxacin in plasm and urine samples.

BACKGROUND: Primary studies suggest that coronary artery stenosis is highly exactly shown by 16-slice spiral CT coronary artery imaging.OBJECTIVE: To compare the accuracy and limitation between coronary angiography and multi-slice computed tomography (MSCT) coronary artery imaging to diagnose moderate and severe coronary artery stenosis. DESIGN, TIME AND SETTING: Clinical diagnostic study based on gold standard, which was carried out in the Department of Cardiology, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University from June 2005 to March 2006. PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-eight patients with suspected coronary arteriosclerotic heart disease were examined by 64-slice spiral CT coronary artery imaging and coronary artery angiography during the 1-month hospitalization in the Department of Cardiology, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University from June 2005 to March 2006. METHODS: 280 segments of 28 patients were quantitatively analyzed coronary artery stenosis by selective coronary artery angiography and multi-slice spiral CT imaging based on eye-measurement diameter method. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: True positive, true negative, false positive, false negative, sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of coronary artery stenosis were measured by multi-slice spiral CT imaging.RESULTS: All 28 patients were included in the final analysis. Multi-slice spiral CT imaging showed that the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were 46.5%, 97.6%, 86.8%, and 84.3%, respectively. If excluding the effect of 31 coronary segments with severe calcification, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value were 66.7%, 98.6%, 90.3% and 93.6%, respectively.CONCLUSION: Multi-slice spiral CT imaging is simple, reliable, noninvasive and safe; moreover, it has a good potential for diagnosing especially excluding coronary arteriosclerotic heart disease, but still some limits.

Objective To explore the apoptosis effect of docetaxel combined gamma knife on hepatoma cell SMMC-7721 subcutaneous xenograft in nude mice.Methods Subcutaneous xenogyaft models were constructed and were divided into two groups:control group and experimental group.The experimental group was treated with docetaxel 60ug/0.3ml once every 3 days for 6 times and gamma irradiation once every other day for 6 times (with indoor temperature of 137Cs radiation source irradiating the tumor and of fractionated schedule 5Gy with the total dose of 10Gy every time).The control group was treated with physiological saline with the same dose of 60 ug/0.3 mL.Tumor growth was observed.Tumor samples were cut 30 days after the treatment and TUNEL was used to detect the apoptosis of tumor cells.Results Tumor growth rate in experimental group significantly slowed down.Apoptotic index in experimental groups was significantly higher than that in control group (P ＜ 0.05) Cornclusion Docetaxel combined gamma knife can inhibit the growth of hepatocellular carcinoma in nude mice.

Objective To study the application value of endoscopic purse-string sutures with titanium clips and endoloops for the gastric wall defect during endoscopic full-thickness resection (EFTR). Methods Data of iffteen hospitalized patients with gastric submucosal tumor (SMT) undergone EFTR was reviewed. The patients were all applied with endoscopic purse-string sutures with titanium clips and endoloops, which was performed after the EFTR when the gastric walls were perforated artiifcially. Results The gastric tumors were complete successfully resected in the iffteen patients through endoscopic surgery, applied the purse-string sutures with titanium clips and endoloops after the EFTR when the gastric walls were perforated artiifcially. Approximately, ifve clips were utilized on average. Postoperative surgical wound healing was followed up for 6 months, no tumors recurred. Conclusion It is safe, minimally invasive treatment method for rapid rehabilitation in endoscopic full-thickness resection utilized purse-string sutures with titanium clips and endoloops.

To investigate the relationship between severity of cerebrovascular atherosclerosis stenosis and that of coronary atherosclerosis stenosis.Methods Cerebral angiography and coronary angiography were performed in 34 patients who had coronary disease with cerebral ischemia.Patients were divided into 3 subgroups according to the degree ofstenosis on angiography,concomitant diseases,risk factors and biochemical data.Results The follow-up study showed that the incidence of cardiac and cerebrovascular death increased significantly in patients with moderate to severe stenosis of coronary and cerebral arteries;the severity of stenosis in the coronary artery parallels that in the solitary carotid artery,or dual carotid and vertebral arteries.Conclusions Patients with coronary and cerebral artery stenosis,especially those with multi-risk factors,such as hypertension,diabetes and cigarette smoking,should receive intensive treatment to reduce cardiac and cerebrovascular events.(J Geriatr Cardiol 2008;5:227-229)

Objective: To investigate the effects of mono-carbonyl analogues of curcumin (L6H21) on paraquat (PQ) -induced injury in HK-2 cell line and explore its underlying mechanisms. Methods: Cultured HK-2 cells were challenged by PQ with or without L6H21 treatment. Cell viability and apoptosis were determined by CCK-8 assay and flow cytometry, respectively. Gene expressions and protein levels of apoptotic and inflammatory factors were assessed by RT-PCR, ELISA, and western blot. Intracellular ROS production was detected by DCFH-DA staining. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) and malondialdehyde (MDA) were examined by chemical colorimetry. Results: 1) PQ challenge significantly inhibited HK-2 cells proliferation, which was prevented by L6H21 administration. PQ dramatically induced HK-2 apoptosis evidenced by increasing expressions of caspase-9, caspase-3 and Bax, while decreasing Bcl-2 level. However, PQ induced these apoptotic effects in HK-2 cells were reversed by L6H21. Similarly, PQ exposure obviously enhanced activity of NF-κB and levels of cytokines (TNF-α、IL-6) in HK-2 cells, which was inhibited by L6H21. Furthermore, administration of L6H21 inhibited PQ induced ROS and MDA production, and promoted SOD level in HK-2 cells. Conclusion L6H21 administration inhibits PQ-induced apoptosis in HK-2 cells possibly by reducing inflammation and oxidative damage.

As an effective vehicle for bio-research and for gene therapy, Lentiviral Vector (LV) has been drawn large attention in recent years. However, transcriptional read-through limits its application. In order to understand the extend of LV read-through in chromosome, a reliable method to assess transcriptional read-through rate is needed. Here, we report the method as follows: 293T cells were transfected with the lentiviral transfer vectors which borne with two LTRs at its two ends in order to mimic the state of "proviral vectors" in chromosome. Using the primers specific for 3'U5 and 3'U3, read-through and total transcripts were reverse transcribed, respectively. These two cDNAs were quantified by realtime PCR using the primers and probe specific for 5'end of 3'U3. Read-through rate was then calculated by the division of the two. Meanwhile, read-through product of green fluorescence protein was also analyzed by Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorter. They both reciprocally proved the principal and confirmed that self-inactivated LV appeared higher read-through rate than the wild type one. The method described in this article, therefore, provides a useful technique to study how to reduce read-through rate, and improve the bio-safety of LV.
Flow Cytometry ; Genetic Therapy ; Genetic Vectors ; Green Fluorescent Proteins ; biosynthesis ; HEK293 Cells ; Humans ; Lentivirus ; Transfection