OBJECTIVE: The research is aimed at investigating the developing rule and the relationship between syndrome differentiation in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and clinical factors of gastric cancer, so that it can be helpful to the clinical work and indicating the prognosis. METHODS: We collected the medical records and the information of four diagnostic methods of 325 cases of gastric cancer sufferers in the way of clinical epidemiological survey, and divided them into 6 syndromes including dysfunction of spleen, disharmony of liver and stomach, blood stagnation in stomach, yin deficiency of stomach, phlegm dampness stagnation and deficiency of both qi and blood. Then we used univariate analysis of variance, rank sum test and chi square test to analyse the relationship between syndrome differentiation and clinical-related factors such as age, gender, Karnofsky score and clinical stage, etc. RESULTS: The syndrome of dysfunction of spleen plays the primary role in the disease. Disharmony of liver and stomach always happens in early stage of stomach cancer, usually more often in radical operation cases and less in metastasis ones. It also has a high proportion in female. Phlegm dampness stagnation and blood stagnation in stomach usually can be seen in middle or advanced stage of the disease, which have lower Karnofsky score. Deficiency of both qi and blood is the syndrome of stomach cancer in advanced stage, which results in lower living quality, and with high rate of relapse and metastasis. Syndrome of yin deficiency of stomach has lower proportion in stomach cancer cases, and the clinical-related factors have low influence on it. CONCLUSION: Syndrome in TCM of gastric cancer is relevant to some clinical factors and varies in progress.

OBJECTIVE: The research is aimed at investigating the developing rule and the relationship between syndrome differentiation in traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and clinical factors of gastric cancer so as to guide clinical work and indicate prognosis. METHODS: We collected the medical records and the information of four diagnostic methods of 325 cases of gastric cancer sufferers in the way of clinical epidemiological survey, and divided them into 6 syndromes including dysfunction of spleen, disharmony of liver and stomach, blood stagnation in stomach, yin deficiency of stomach, phlegm dampness stagnation and deficiency of both qi and blood. Then we used logistic regression analysis to analyze the relationship between syndrome differentiation and clinical-related factors such as age, gender, Karnofsky score and clinical stage, etc. RESULTS: The syndrome spleen dysfunction is a dominant one among the syndromes of stomach cancer. Disharmony of liver and stomach always happens in early stage of stomach cancer and is frequently seen in women. Patients with syndrome of phlegm dampness stagnation or deficiency of both qi and blood have lower Karnofsky score and poorer living quality. Syndromes of blood stagnation in stomach and yin deficiency of stomach show no relationship with the clinical factors in this research. CONCLUSION: Syndrome differentiation in TCM of gastric cancer is related to some clinical factors to a certain extent.

Advanced gastric cancer has a low survival rate while traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) therapy has effects in inhibiting tumor growth, lengthening survival time and improving the quality of life.

Objective To explore the value of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP)in the treatment of chronic pancre-atitis (CP).Methods Thirty patients with CP who underwent ERCP from January 2008 to December 2012 were retrospectively analyzed. Serum amylase levels were determined before and at 24 hours after surgery.The reduction in abdominal pain was dynamically evaluated be-fore and after treatment.A follow -up of patients with steatorrhea and anxiety was performed.Regular reexamination using abdominal ima-ging or ERCP was performed to identify pancreatic lesions and conditions of pancreatic duct stents.Results All patients were successfully treated by ERCP and had pancreatic duct stents placed.The remission rate of abdominal pain reached 83.3% at 72 hours after surgery.One patient was assigned to surgery due to insignificant improvement in symptoms,and the case -fatality rate after surgery was 0.Conclusion ERCP is an effective method in the treatment of CP,which has the advantages of being safe,effective,and minimally invasive.

AIM: To investigate whether the expression of integrin ?_3 and the activation of focal adhesion kinase(FAK) are involved in neointima formation after de-endothelium.METHODS: The model of intima hyperplasia was prepared by balloon injury.The levels of osteopontin(OPN),integrin ?_3 and FAK in vascular tissue were detected by Western blotting and immunohistochemistry.RESULTS: There were similar expression patterns in OPN,integrin ?_3 and FAK following balloon injury.The levels of three proteins were markedly increased 3 days after operation and reached the peak at 7th day.The increased FAK was mainly the phosphorylated form.The migration and proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells was associated with the increase in the expression of integrin ?_3 and FAK,and was parallel with rapid turnover of extracellular matrix(ECM).CONCLUSION: The interaction of cells with ECM mediated by OPN and integrin ?_3 is essential for migration.The integrin ?_3-FAK pathway is involved in neointima formation.

Objective To evaluate the effect of csomeprazole with different dosage and usage regimes on intragastric pH of healthy volunteers. Methods It was a randomized, open-label, three-way crossover study. Fifteen healthy volunteers received esomeprazole with 3 different dosages (20 mg or 40 mg once daily or 20 mg twice daily) with 5 days each. Twenty-four continuous ambulatory intragastric pH was recorded at day 5 of each regime. Results The mean time of intragastric pH above 4 was higher in regime of 20 mg twice daily [(21.16 ±2.45) hours ] than that in regimes of 20 mg once daily [(18. 70±4.19) hours] and 40 mg once daily [(19.27±2.68 ) hours] (P<0.05). The percentages of the sleeping and active period that pH remained above 3,4,5 were significantly higher in regime of 20 mg twice daily(day time:95.0%±7.5% ,92.0%±10.6% ,86.7% ± 14.5% ;night time:93.2%± 13.1% ,87.8%±20.3% ,78.6%±28. 9 % )compared with regimes of 40 mg once daily(day time:87.9%±9.5% ,83.5%±11.7%,75.6%±15.50%, night time:75. 7%±20. 8%,66. 9%±23. 8%,53. 3%±30. 3%) and 20 mg once daily(day time: 85.1 % ± 16.3 %, 81.1 %± 18. 1%, 71.5 % ± 20.3 % ; night time: 72.9 % ± 30.5 %,67.2 % ± 31.9 %, 55.7 % ± 31.8 % ) (P< 0.05 ). Esomeprazole maintained intragastric pH above these pH thresholds for a similar propotion of sleeping and active periods with 40 mg once daily and 20 mg once daily.Conclusions Esomeprazole has strong inhibitory effect on intragastric acid. The regime of 20 mg twice daily is superior to 40 mg once daily and 20 mg once daily in both day and night time acid inhibition.There is no difference between esomeprazole 40 mg once daily and 20 mg once daily.

Expression of Ia-antigen on cells in lymphoid dendritic cells (LDCs)-enrt- ched fractions isolated from unstimulated rat spleens was observed with ABC immunoperoxidase and indirect immunofluorescent staining methods. The results appeared that there were three types of cells in stained preparaions: 1. Large cells with dendritic processes on their surfaces showed dark brown in colour with ABC staining method and emitted intense light-green fluorescence with immuno- fluorescent staining technic. 2. Large rounded or ovoid cells without obviously ramifications revealed colourless or light yellow-brown in colour with ABC sta- ining method and emitted no or weak yellow-green fluorescence with immuno- fluorescent staining technic. 3. Spherical lymphocytes of varying in size were similar to type 2 cells in immunoreactivity. The results of SEM and S-100 pro- tein staining confirmed that these three types of cells were LDCs, macrophages and lymphocytes in turn. It is indicated that LDCs consistently expressed Ia- antigen in large amount on their surfaces.

BACKGROUND:Tissue inhibitor of matrix metaloproteinase 1 (TIMP-1) is the corresponding antagonist of matrix metaloproteinase 13 (MMP-13), and their balance between expression and functional activity exerts an important role in the metabolic state of the extracelular matrix. During the development of osteoarthritis, however, TIMP-1 and MMP-13 expressions and their expression ratio show unclear changes in DH guinea pigs.
OBJECTIVE:To explore the expression levels of MMP-13 and TIMP-1 in DH guinea pigs with different ages, and to analyze the relationship between the ratio of MMP-13 to TIMP-1 and the age-dependent degenerative changes in the articular cartilage.
METHODS:Twenty-four female Dunkin Hartley guinea pigs were sacrificed at age of 2, 4, 8, 12 months separately, with six animals at each time point. The knee joints were colected and gross visual appearance of the articular cartilage was observed, then were decalcified and prepared for paraffin sections. VG staining and Mankin score were used to analyze the histological changes. Immunohistochemistry was conducted to assess the expression levels of MMP-13 and TIMP-1 in the cartilage. Integrated absorbance values were used as the quantitive analysis calculated by Image pro-Plus 6.0. Linear regression analysis was done to analysis the relationship between Mankin score and the ratio of MMP-13/TIMP-1. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Normal appearance in the articular cartilage was observed in 2-month-old DH guinea pigs, while degenerative changes in the articular cartilage were shown in 4-month-old animals, which became severer with age. Significant difference was found in Mankin score between any two groups (P < 0.05). The ratio of MMP-13 to TIMP-1 increased with age, and the ratio was positively correlated to the Mankin score (P < 0.05). Age-related articular cartilage degeneration occurred in Dunkin Hartley guinea pigs at 4 months of age, and devoloped with age, which is related with the imbanlance of the expression ratio of MMP-13 to TIMP-1.

Phagocytic capacities of both dendritic cells (DC) and macrophages(M?) in the DC-enriched fractions isolated from rat spleen were comparatively observed under electron microscope. Experiments were divided into two groups: in vitro and in vivo. In group 1, candida albicans(CA), cock red blood cells (CRBC) and CRBC opsonized with rat antiserum against CRBC (OCRBC) used as phagocytic markers were incubated with the DC-enriched fractions for 1h at 37℃ separately in vitro. In group 2, colloidal carbon (CC) (india ink) and heat killed Candida albicans (HKCA) were injected in vivo. The animals were sacrificed 18h later and DC-enriched fractions were isolated from the spleens. The results are as follow: generally, in the cytoplasm of DC, no phagocytic markers were identified except a few of DC ingested a small amount of CC in vivo and few CA occationally in vitro, while M? under the same conditions, ingested a lot of the substances mentioned above. It indicates that spleen M? phagocytose actively either to immunogenic or non-immunogenic, opsonized or non-opsonized particles (especially to opsonized particles), while DC in the same preparations are not.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the mechanism of Chinese herbal recipe Weichang'an (WCA) in inducing cell apoptosis of human gastric cancer grafted onto nude mice. METHODS: The high performance liquid chromatography was used for monitoring the stability of WCA. A human gastric cancer cell line SGC-7901 grafted in nude mouse was used as the animal model. The mice were divided into untreated group and two experimental groups. Animals in the two experimental groups received either WCA over a 34-day period or 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) over a 6-day period starting at the 8th day after grafting. Animals in the untreated group received normal saline on an identical schedule. Animals were killed 41 days after being grafted. To assess the effect of the treatment on tumor, the tumor weight was determined by the electron balance immediately after the animals were killed. SP immunohistochemical method was used to detect the expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) in grafts. Apoptotic indices (AI) of the tumor cells were examined by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated deoxyuridine triphosphate fluorescence nick end labeling (TUNEL) method. SP method was also used to detect the expressions of cleaved caspase-3, caspase-8 and caspase-9. SYBR green dye I real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (real-time quantitative [corrected] PCR) was used to assess the related gene alterations in mRNA level. The expressions of phospho-Stat3 (Tyr705) and bcl-2 proteins were detected by using SP method. RESULTS: Compared with the untreated group, tumor growth was significantly inhibited by treatment of WCA or 5-FU (P<0.01, respectively). The tumor inhibition rate in the WCA-treated group was 48.70% and that in the 5-FU-treated group was 60.10%. The average labeling index (LI) for PCNA in the WCA-treated group and 5-FU-treated group was significantly decreased as compared with that in the untreated group, respectively. The AI of human gastric cancer grafted in the nude mice detected by using TUNEL method was significantly increased to (9.72+/-4.51)% in the WCA-treated group, while it was (2.45+/-1.37)% in the untreated group. 5-FU-treated group was also found a significantly increased AI compared with the untreated group. The expressions of cleaved caspase-3 and caspase-9 in the WCA-treated group and 5-FU-treated group were significantly increased as compared with those in the untreated group. But caspase-8 showed no significant alteration either in the WCA-treated group or in the 5-FU-treated group. The expression levels of Stat3 (2(-)delta delta C(T))=0.16) and bcl-2 (2(-)delta delta C(T))=0.10) detected by using real-time quantitative [corrected] PCR were lower in the WCA-treated group than those in the untreated group. The expressions of phospho-Stat3 (Tyr705) and bcl-2 in the WCA-treated group were significantly decreased as compared with those in the untreated group. CONCLUSIONS: Chinese herbal recipe WCA can inhibit gastric cancer cell SGC-7901 growth in vivo, induce gastric cancer cell apoptosis and suppress the cell proliferation. WCA induces apoptosis through the caspase-9 and caspase-3 pathway in vivo. Its mechanism might be involved in the down-regulation of Stat3 and bcl-2 genes.