Objective To study factors associated with necrosis and calcification of cyst echinococcosis. Methods This study retrospectively analyzed 191 cases of hepatic cycstic echinococcosis admitted from 2005 to 2008 in the First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University Department of General Surgery, possible relevant factors screened were the patients' gender, age, operation frequency, hepatitis, gall stones, calcium of blood serum, multiple hepatic hydatid cyst, biliary fistulae and hepatic cycstic echinococcosis degeneration. Single-factor analysis and multi-factors analysis were conducted. Results The single-factor independent samples t-test showed that age is significantly related to hepatic cycstic echinococcosis degeneration (t = - 2. 455, P = 0. 008). Single factor Chi-square test showed that factors impacting on hepatic cycstic echinococcosis degeneration were multiple hepatic hydatid cyst and the biliary fistulae (x2 = 6. 848, P = 0. 009; x2 = 7. 149, P = 0. 008). The multiple-factor Logistic regression analysis showed that the age, the multiple hepatic hydatid cyst, and biliary fistulae are the related risk factors(x2 =5. 306,P = 0. 021,OR = 1. 665;x2 = 10. 377,P =0. 001,OR =3. 300;x2 = 4.455,P =0. 035, OR =2. 164) of hepatic cycstic echinococcosis patients with cyst echinococcosis degeneration. Conclusions Age, multiple hepatic hydatid cyst and biliary fistulae are the risk factors associated with degenerative necrosis and calcification of hepatic echinococcosis.

AIM To analyze the mechanism of the adriamycin induced cardiomyopathy. METHODS The patch clamp technique in the whole cell recording was used to study the effect of adriamycin on L type calcium channel current( I Ca L ) in the isolated cardiomyocyte of the guinea pig. RESULTS The current voltage( I U ) curveshowed the bell shape in the control and in 0 1 mmol?L -1 adriamycin. Their peak potentials were about +10 mV. The amlitude of peak calcium current increased from (-0 93?0 05) nA to (-1 31?0 08) nA( P

BACKGROUND: Adequate preparation of donors and recipients prior to living-related donor renal transplantation, short warm and cold ischemia time for donor kidney, good histocompatibility of human leukocyte antigen match, and low postoperative rejection incidence provide feasibility for use of low-dose immunosuppressive agents after living-related donor renal transplantation. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the safety and effectiveness of low-dose calcineurin inhibitors (CNI), an immunosuppressive agent, in living-related donor renal transplantation. METHODS: A total of 38 recipients who underwent living-related donor renal transplantation at the Center of Renal Transplantation of the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University from January 2006 to June 2008 were randomized for treatment with mycophenolate mofetil (750 mg twice a day), prednisone, and either standard-dose CNI (n=18) or low-dose CNI (n=20) during 12 months post-transplantation. Ciclosporin A was given orally (starting dose, 6 and 4 mg/kg per day, respectively) in two divided doses to achieve the 12-hour whole blood concentration as measured by fluorescence polarization immunoassay. The starting dose of tacrolimus was 0.12 and 0.08 mg/kg per day respectively, and its whole blood concentration was measured by enzyme-multiplied immunoassay technique. After transplantation, patients were followed up. Renal function, pulmonary infection, liver dysfunction, and CNI nephrotoxicity at different time periods were compared between different regimens. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: During 12 months post-transplantation, patient death occurred in one of 18 patients (5.6%) in the CNI standard-dose group and none of 20 patients (0%) in the CNI low-dose group. There was no significant difference in renal function and acute rejection between CNI standard-dose and CNI low-dose groups (P > 0.05). The incidence of liver dysfunction and CNI nephrotoxicity was significantly lower in the CNI low-dose group than in the CNI standard-dose group (P < 0.05). In addition, a low-dose CNI regimen helped recipients to lessen the economic burdens. These findings indicate that it is effective, safe and economical to use a low-dose CNI regimen in living-related donor renal transplantation.

Objective. Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) plays a key role in the metabolism of angiotensin Ⅱ (AT Ⅱ) and inactivation of bradykinins and tachykinins, which are potent bronchialconstrictors and mediators of inflammation asthma, and ACE is heavily expressed in the lungs. An insertion-deletion (D/I) polymorphism of ACE gene has been shown to be associated with levels of ACE. We investigate whether the polymorphism of ACE gene is associated with asthma and bronchial responsiveness.Methods. A case-control study was carried out in 50 asthmatics, 7 families with at least 2 asthmatic individuals, and 50 healthy subjects. The insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism of ACE gene was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Methacholine brocho-provocation and pulmonary function tests were performed in all asthmatics. Results. There was an higher gene frequency of DD genotype of ACE gene in asthmatic subjects and families individuals compared with healthy subjects (46%, 53% vs 16%, P＜0.05; odd ratio 4.98). Anhigher prevalence of DD genotype of ACE was in patients with bronchial hyperresposiveness (BHR) (67%vs 33%, P＜0.05; odd ratio 3.8). Accordingly, the mean values of FEV1% and FEV1/FVC were higher in asthmatics carrying non-DD alleles than patients with DD genotype (73.78% vs 56.56%, P＜0.05; 79.19% vs 69.29%, P＜0.05, respectively).Conclusion. These results suggested that DD allele of ACE genotype was significantly involved in genetic susceptibility to asthma. DD genotype of ACE might be a risk factor for the degree of airway obstruction, it could also be implicated in pathogenesis of bronchial hyperresponsiveness.

Objective:To study the relationship between circulating inflammatory proteins and liver cancer by Mendelian randomization.Methods:Data from the genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 91 circulating inflammatory proteins were sourced from the GWAS Catalog, involving 14 824 participants of European ancestry from 11 cohorts. Summary statistics for liver cancer were obtained from the GWAS database, encompassing a total sample of 197 611 cases, a two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis was conducted to evaluate the relationship between 91 circulating inflammatory proteins and liver cancer. Among them, inverse variance weighting, weighted median method, MR-Egger, simple mode, and weighted mode were the main analysis methods. Using odds ratio (OR) values to evaluate the causal relationship between them. Cochran Q-test, MR-PRESSO, MR-Egger intercept, and "leave-one-out" analyses were used for sensitivity analysis. Reverse MR, MR-Steiger tests were employed to rule out the influence of reverse causality.Results:Among the circulating 91 inflammatory proteins, C-C motif chemokine 20 ( OR=1.28, 95% CI: 1.01-1.62), CD40 receptor ( OR=1.31, 95% CI: 1.00-1.28), fibroblast growth factor 21 ( OR=1.47, 95% CI: 1.18-1.83), glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor ( OR=1.29, 95% CI: 1.08-1.54), interleukin-13 (IL-13) ( OR=1.24, 95% CI: 1.02-1.50), IL-20 levels ( OR=1.78, 95% CI: 1.30-2.44), IL-20 receptor subunit alpha ( OR=1.43, 95% CI: 1.06-1.93), and matrix metalloproteinase-10 ( OR=1.21, 95% CI: 1.04-1.39) have positive causal relationship with the occurrence of liver cancer. And IL-1 alpha ( OR=0.83, 95% CI: 0.71-0.96), IL-24 ( OR=0.68, 95% CI: 0.47-0.99), leukemia inhibitory factor ( OR=0.77, 95% CI: 0.60-0.98) and stem cell factor ( OR=0.87, 95% CI: 0.78-0.97) showed negative causal relationship with the occurrence of liver cancer. Heterogeneity tests for all 12 circulating inflammatory proteins revealed no outliers. Sensitivity analyses consistently demonstrated robustness, with no evidence of pleiotropy observed. Neither reverse MR nor MR-Steiger tests supported the existence of a reverse causal relationship between inflammatory proteins and liver cancer. Conclusion:The C-C motif chemokine 20, CD40L receptor, fibroblast growth factor 21, glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor, IL-13, IL-20, IL-20 receptor subunit alpha, MMP-10, IL-1 alpha, IL-24, leukemia inhibitory factor, and stem cell factor may be causally related to the development of liver cancer.

Objective:To explore diagnostic value of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) in patients with pulmonary infection after liver transplantation.Methods:The clinical data of 80 patients with pulmonary infection after liver transplantation in the the First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University from January 2016 to May 2019 were retrospectively analyzed. According to different pathogens, they were divided into bacteria infection group ( n=35) and non-bacteria infection group ( n=45). The general data, levels of serum TNF-α, C-reactive protein (CRP) and procalcitonin (PCT) were compared between the two groups. Logistic regression was performed to explore risk factors for pulmonary infection after liver transplantation. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were performed to analyze diagnostic value of TNF-α, CRP and PCT. Results:The levels of serum TNF-α, CRP and PCT in bacteria infection group were significantly higher than those in non-bacteria infection group ( P<0.05). Multivariate analysis showed that high TNF-α, CRP, and PCT levels were independent risk factors for bacterial pneumonia after liver transplantation. ROC analysis showed that sensitivity, specificity and areas under ROC curves (AUC) of TNF-α, CRP and PCT for diagnosis of bacterial pulmonary infection after liver transplantation were (80.12%, 72.12%, 80.18%), (83.45%, 73.46%, 83.38%) and (0.802, 0.751, 0.803), respectively. The AUC, sensitivity, and specificity between TNF-α and PCT for diagnosis of bacterial pulmonary infection after liver transplantation were similar ( P>0.05). The AUC, sensitivity and specificity of TNF-α for diagnosis of bacterial pulmonary infection after liver transplantation were better than those of CRP ( P<0.05). Conclusions:The diagnostic value of TNF-α for pulmonary infection after liver transplantation is similar to that of PCT, and is superior to CRP. It can be applied as a reliable index for identifying bacterial pneumonia and non-bacterial pneumonia.

In August 2023， the European Society for Organ Transplantation （ESOT） published the ESOT Consensus Statement on Biomarkers in Liver Transplantation online. The consensus statement focuses on biomarkers in liver transplantation， clinical applicability， and future needs and explores the role of new biomarkers in predicting liver transplantation outcomes by reviewing the literature on primary disease recurrence， development of chronic kidney disease （CKD）， and safe weaning of immunosuppression. This consensus statement conducts studies from the four aspects of recurrent liver disease after liver transplantation， recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma， weaning of immunosuppression， and CKD progression， emphasizes the importance of biomarkers in predicting or detecting disease recurrence， and proposes that large-scale prospective studies are still needed to improve the quality of evidence. The author’s team gives an excerpt of the consensus statement and systematically introduces the four aspects of the consensus statement and related discussions and conclusions， in order to provide more evidence-based medical evidence for identifying and exploring new biomarkers for liver transplantation.

ObjectiveTo investigate the application value of digital three-dimensional reconstruction in liver transplantation for hepatic alveolar echinocoecosis (HAE).MethodsClinical data of 21 patients with end-stage HAE undergoing liver transplantation (LT) and 6 living donors in the First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University between April 2012 and December 2014 were retrospectively studied. Among the 21 patients, 13 were males and 8 were females with the average age of (43±13) years old. Among the 6 donors, 4 were males and 2 were females with the average age of (40±9) years old. Fifteen cases underwent extracorporeal hepatectomy and autotransplantation and 6 cases underwent living donor LT. The informed consents of all patients and 6 living donors were obtained and the local ethical committee approval had been received. All patients and donors received computer tomography (CT) plain scan, 3-phase (arterial phase, portal venous phase and delayed phase) enhancement scan and computed tomography angiography (CTA). The total liver volume and the liver graft volume were measured according to the two-dimensional liver image. The digital three-dimensional liver reconstruction software was used to perform three-dimensional model reconstruction. The total liver volume and the liver graft volume were measured a second time. The liver section was designed and the individualized virtual surgery was performed. The actual total liver volume and the liver graft volume were measured during LT to assess the error rate of liver volume predicted before operation. The comparison of liver volume data was conducted usingt test and the comparison of the error rate of liver graft volume was conducted using Chi-square test.Results The intrahepatic anatomical relationship was clearly displayed by the three-dimensional model, which was in accordance with that observed during operation. The liver graft volume of 15 patients undergoing extracorporeal hepatectomy and autotransplantation and 6 patients undergoing living donor LT calculated by the digital three-dimensional reconstruction technology was (766±197) ml, which was signiifcantly smaller than (833±243) ml calculated by the two-dimensional measurement (t=-3.674,P<0.05). Compared with the actual liver graft volume of (955±194) ml measured during operation, the average error rate of the liver graft volume calculated by the three-dimensional reconstruction technology was (6±1) %, which was signiifcantly smaller than (13±2) % of that calculated by two-dimensional measurement (t=-14.346,P<0.05). The liver graft volume measured by the three-dimensional measurement was positively correlated with the actual liver graft volume measured during operation (r=0.967,P<0.05). All the operations were completed successfully. One patient died of acute renal failure 12 d after LT. No case was observed developing liver failure or hemorrhage or other severe complications. The growth of the liver graft was good and the anastomotic stoma of intrahepatic vessels was clear by CT reexamination and three-dimensional reconstruction after operation. ConclusionThe application of three-dimensional reconstruction technology in preoperative assessment and operation planning of LT for end-stage HAE can improve the precision and success rate and achieve good curative effect.