Objective To study the effect of preoperative immunonutrition on nutritional status and immunity for the patients with gastrointestinal cancer, and to evaluate whether the administration of immunonutrition could reduce the rate of postoperative complication and thus shorten the days of postoperative hospitalization. Methods Sixty patients with different gastrointestinal cancer were randomized to receive either immunonutrition (containing Arginine, RNA and ?-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids) for 7 days before surgery (EN, n=30) or a conventional diet (CONT, n=30). Variables of nutritional status and immunity, postoperative complications, infection and the days of postoperative hospitalization were measured. Results There were no significant differences in the immunological and nutritional variables between two groups before surgery. The serum concentrations of prealbumin(PALB) and transferrin(TRF) were lower than those before surgery in the CONT group on postoperative day 3 (P

BACKGROUND:L-type calcium channels, as a kind of voltage-dependent calcium channel, is the main way of extracellular calcium ions into the cell, and play an important role in maintaining cellmorphology and physiological activities, characterized by a large single-channel conductance, slow channel attenuation, and longer duration of channel opening. Previous studies showed that basic fibroblast growth factor can promote the proliferation of chondrocytes cultured in vitro.
OBJECTIVE:To explore the effect of the L-type calcium channels on regulating chondrocyte proliferation and differentiation in response to basic fibroblast growth factor with patch-clamp.
METHODS:The chondrocytes were harvested from the joints of 3-day-old New Zealand rabbits. The second passage of chondrocytes was divided into experimental group and control group. Chondrocytes were incubated in media containing 10μg/L basic fibroblast growth factor and media alone separately. The opening of L-type calcium channels under the action of basic fibroblast growth factor was detected by patch-clamp. The intracellular calcium concentration was detected with laser confocal microscopy in the chondrocytes after 2 weeks of culture with basic fibroblast growth factor. Chondrocyte proliferation was analyzed by cellTiter kit after 8 days of culture. Type Ⅱ col agen was assessed quantitatively by immunohistochemistrical staining after 10 days of culture.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Basic fibroblast growth factor has an inhibitory effect on the opening of the L-type calcium channels, resulting in a decrease in intracellular free calcium concentration (P<0.01). cellnumber was higher after culture with basic fibroblast growth factor than that cultured under conventional condition (P<0.01), and staining area of type II col agen significantly increased (P<0.05). Results verified that basic fibroblast growth factor can maintain intracellular Ca2+concentration at a low level by inhibiting the opening of L-type calcium channels, which can promote the proliferation and differentiation of chondrocytes.

BACKGROUND:The pathogenesis of knee intraarticular adhesion is yet unknown. Excessive proliferation of fibroblasts is considered to cause knee intraarticular adhesion. OBJECTIVE:To study the preventive effects of methotrexate on knee intraarticular adhesion through fibroblast apoptosis induced by endoplasmic reticulum stress. METHODS:The viability of the cultured fibroblasts treated with methotrexate(10-5-10-9mol/L)or PBSwas determined after 24 hours. Fibroblast apoptosis was detected by Hoechst33342 staining. Endoplasmic reticulum stress-and apoptosis-related proteins, including cleaved-PARP, CHOP, Bax and Bcl-2, were determined by western blotassay. Eighteen healthy male New Zealand white rabbits were used to establish the knee intraarticular adhesion models, and equaly randomized into three groups, and received topical application of 2 or 1 g/L methotrexate, or normal saline (control). The preventive effects of methotrexate on knee intraarticular adhesion and CHOP expression in scar tissue were observed. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Methotrexate inhibited the proliferation and viability of fibroblasts in a dose-dependent manner. The number of apoptotic fibroblasts was significantly increased compared with control group. Protein expression of cleaved-PARP, CHOP, and bax was increased, while protein expression of bcl-2 was decreased with time. The animal experiment showed that preventive effects of 2 g/L methotrexate on knee intraarticular adhesion were superior to 1 g/L methotrexate treatment. CHOP expression in the scar tissue in the methotrexate groups was higher than the control group and that was higher in high-dose methotrexate group. Our results suggest that methotrexate prevents knee intraarticular adhesionviaendoplasmic reticulum stress-induced fibroblast apoptosis.