BACKGROUND:Compared with organic fluorescent dyes and fluorescent proteins, rare earth nanomaterials have higher sensitivity, better optical stability, and lower cytotoxicity. OBJECTIVE: To investigate thein vitro cytocompatibility of (Y0.95Eu0.05)2O3 METHODS:(Y rare earth nanomaterial and the effect of amine functionalization on the material cytocompatibility. 0.95Eu0.05)2O3 nanomaterials were synthesized using sol-gel method, and underwent amine functionalization. Amine-functionalized samples (10, 25, 50, 100, 200 mg/L) and non-amine-functionalized (Y0.95Eu0.05)2O3 rare earth nanomaterial suspensions were co-cultured with vascular smooth muscle cels of Sprague-Dawley rats for 3 days. Cel proliferation was detected using Cel Counting Kit-8 assay. 100 mg/L amine-functionalized samples and non-amine-functionalized (Y0.95Eu0.05)2O3 rare earth nanomaterial suspensions were co-cultured with L929 cels for 48 hours. Cel apoptosis was observed using fluorescence staining. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:With increased mass concentration of material suspension, survival rate of vascular smooth muscle cels was gradualy reduced. At the mass concentration of 10, 25, 50 mg/L, cel survival rate was significantly higher in the amine-functionalized group than in the non-amine-functionalized group (P < 0.05). When the mass concentration of materials reached 200 mg/L, the cel survival rate decreased to 76% in the non-amine-functionalized group, but it was stil above 80% in the amine-functionalized group, showing significant differences between the two groups (P < 0.05). The growth of L929 cels was good and the number of apoptotic cels was less in the amine-functionalized group. Cels were sparse and the number of cel apoptosis was more in the non-amine-functionalized group, showing slight cytotoxicity. These data verified that amine-functionalization can improve cytocompatibility of (Y0.95Eu0.05)2O3 rare earth nanomaterial.

Objective:To develop a new preparation process of PLGA microparticles for protein drugs by SPG membrane emulsifi-cation combined with W/O/W double emulsion-solvent technique. Methods:Lysozyme was used as the model drug to prepare the mi-croparticles. The influence of formula factors on the properties of the microparticles was studied, and the physicochemical properties, in vivo compatibility and degradation of the microparticles were investigated as well. Results:The drug loading of lysozyme-loaded mi-croparticles was 35%, the entrapment efficiency was 72. 43% and the average size was 63. 89 μm with PDI of 0. 675. DSC and FTIR showed that lysozyme was entrapped in the microparticles. The microspheres had promising biocompatibility and sustained degradation in vivo. Conclusion:The paper describes a new satisfactory preparation process of PLGA microparticles for protein drugs with good in vitro and in vivo properties.

Objective To analyze the consistency of two rapid antigen assays for the diagnosis of influenza A and B. We evaluated the clinical usefulness of silver amplification immunochromatography influenza virus detection kit.Methods Nasopharyngeal swab samples were collected from patients who were suspected of influenza at Huashan Hospital between January and February 2015. Two samples were collected from the same one patient. The samples were tested simultaneously by using IMMUNO AG Cartridge Flu AB kit (AG1) and commercial immunochromatographic assay kit, Clearview exact influenza A&B (CV). PCR method was used as reference.Results A total of 91 samples were tested, of which 7 were positive for influenza A and 53 positive for influenza B by AG1 system; 7 positive for influenza A and 50 positive for influenza B by CV system; and 8 positive for influenza A and 60 positive for influenza B by PCR. The sensitivity and specificity of the AG1 system were 87.5 % and 100 % for influenza A, and 88.3 % and 100 % for influenza B; while the CV system showed sensitivity and specficity of 87.5 % and 100 % for influenza A, 83.3 % and 100 % for influenza B. The AG1 system was 100 % consistent with the CV system in the positive rate of influenza A, and 94.3 % consistent with the CV system in the positive rate of influenza B.Conclusions The AG1 system is well consistent with the conventional immunochromatography-based diagnostic tests in diagnosis of influenza. The AG1 system is useful in earlier diagnosis of influenza due to fewer human error in result interpretation.

Objective To analyze the association of postnatal weight gain proportion of very low birth weight (BW) preterm babies and the onset of severe retinopathy of prematurity,and investigate the optimal cut-off points and predictive ability of postnatal weight gain (WG) proportion for the onset of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP).Methods A retrospective cohort study.257 preterm infants underwent screening whose weight was less than 1500 g were enrolled in this study.Risk factors include BW,gestational age (GA),history of oxygen inhalation,need for blood transfusions,Apgar score in 1 to 10 minutes,embryo number,delivery mode,in vitro fertilization infants,and WG proportion within 6 weeks after birth and other systemic diseases were recorded.Their correlation with severe ROP is analyzed.Clinical outcomes were divided into severe ROP group (patients who suffered from ROP and required treatment) and mild and no ROP group (patients who suffered from ROP but do not require treatment and-patient without ROP).The severe ROP group included 18 patients and mild and no ROP group included 239 patients.Multiple logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve were used to determine if the WG proportion was independently related to severe ROP development and if it was capable of predicting severe ROP.This study determines the predict value by comparing the area under the ROC curve (AUC) of independent risk factors.Results GA (t=-4.835,P＜0.001),BW(t=-5.192,P＜0.001),history of oxygen inhalation (x2=6.001,P=0.009),proportion of infants who had oxygen inhalation for more than 10 days(x2 =10.019,P=0.002),postnatal WG proportion at 1 week(t =-3.663,P＜ 0.001),postnatal WG proportion at 2 weeks(t=-3.425,P=0.001) had significant difference between two groups.Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that GA (β =-0.858,P =0.008),BW (β =-0.005,P =0.010),postnatal WG proportion at 2 weeks (β=-8.745,P =0.035) were correlated to severe ROP significantly.And their area under the ROC were 0.836[95％ confidence interval (CI):0.752-0.920],0.826 (95％CI:0.947-0.903),0.744 (95％CI:0.598-0.891) respectively.The optimal cut-off points of GA,BW,and postnatal WG proportion at 2 weeks were 28.41 weeks,1241.96 g,12.80％ respectively.Conclusion Low WG proportion at 2 weeks of very low BW preterm babies is an important and independent risk factor for severe ROP and has certain predictive value of the onset of severe ROP.

Objective To study interleukin-23 (IL-23) levels in serum and dendritic cells of acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and to explore its relationship with the prognosis.Methods Peripheral blood mononuclear cells and serum were collected from 40 ACLF patients with CHB (including survival group 27 cases and non-survival group 13 cases) and 26 healthy controls.Monocytes were induced to immature dendritic cell in vitro and TNF-α was added to induce dendritic cell maturation.IL-23 mRNA of dendritic cells was detected by real time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and serum IL-23 level was measured by enzyme-linked immuno sorbent assay (ELISA).Differences among the parameters with normal distribution were compared using t test, those with non-normal distribution were compared using non-parametric Mann-Whitney U-test, and the relationship between two variables was assessed by Spearman′s rank correlation.Results International normalized rate (INR) and model for end-stage liver disense (MELD) scores in non-survival group of ACLF were higher than those in survival group (INR: 2.32 vs 1.64, U=69.00, P=0.002 2;MELD:36 vs 30, U=64.50, P=0.001 4).However, there were no significant differences between two groups at gender, age, alanin aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotrans ferase (AST), bilirubin, creatinine, hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA, hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) and serum IL-23.IL-23 mRNA level in dendritic cells at baseline in non-survival group of ACLF was significantly higher than that in survival group (76 vs 43, U=71.50, P=0.002 8).After treatment, serum IL-23 was significantly declined in survival group ([160±75] ng/L vs [91±49] ng/L, t=4.012, P=0.000 2), but not in non-survival group.Significant positive correlation was observed between IL-23 mRNA level in dendritic cells and MELD score at baseline (r=0.7198,P<0.01).Conclusions Persistent high serum IL-23 level suggests poor prognosis in ACLF patients with CHB.IL-23 mRNA expression in dendritic cells has good consistency with MELD score and the patients with high IL-23 mRNA expression has poor outcome.

Pain caused by surgery is an important clinical issue that seriously affects postoperative rehabilitation and health-related quality of life. Failure to effectively manage postoperative pain not only leads to a decrease in patient quality of life, increases medical expenses, but also has a negative impact on patient recovery. Therefore, it is of great clinical significance to address the challenges of acute postoperative pain management, find effective management strategies, and improve the quality of pain management. This article summarizes the current status of acute postoperative pain management in recent years, including the mechanism of pain occurrence, pain assessment methods, drug and non drug management strategies, and predictive factors for chronic postoperative pain. It also looks forward to future research directions and application prospects.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: To investigate the role of selected serum microRNA (miRNA) levels as potential noninvasive biomarkers for differentiating S0–S2 (early fibrosis) from S3–S4 (late fibrosis) in patients with a chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. METHODS: One hundred twenty-three treatment-naive patients with a chronic HBV infection who underwent a liver biopsy were enrolled in this study. The levels of selected miRNAs were measured using a real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction assay. A logistic regression analysis was performed to assess factors associated with fibrosis progression. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and discriminant analyses validated these the ability of these predicted variables to discriminate S0–S2 from S3–S4. RESULTS: Serum miR-29, miR-143, miR-223, miR-21, and miR-374 levels were significantly downregulated as fibrosis progressed from S0–S2 to S3–S4 (p < 0.05), but not miR-16. The multivariate logistic regression analysis identified a panel of three miRNAs and platelets that were associated with a high diagnostic accuracy in discriminating S0–S2 from S3–S4, with an area under the curve of 0.936. CONCLUSIONS: The levels of the studied miRNAs, with the exception of miR-16, varied with fibrosis progression. A panel was identified that was capable of discriminating S0–S2 from S3–S4, indicating that serum miRNA levels could serve as a potential noninvasive biomarker of fibrosis progression.
Biomarkers ; Biopsy ; Early Diagnosis* ; Fibrosis ; Hepatitis B virus ; Hepatitis B* ; Hepatitis B, Chronic ; Hepatitis* ; Humans ; Liver Cirrhosis* ; Liver* ; Logistic Models ; MicroRNAs* ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; ROC Curve

Objective:To summarize the prognosis of medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) patients with biochemical recurrence (the increase of postoperative calcitonin and no abnormal imaging) and to investigate the optimal cut-off value of calcitonin for postoperative structural recurrence (with imaging abnormality).Methods:Literature retrieval was conducted for PubMed, CNKI, EMbase, Web of Science, Cochrane and other databases, and literatures related to the increase of calcitonin after MTC surgery were included. Review Manager 5.4 software was used for Meta-analysis of the recurrence and death. SPSS 23.0 software was used and receiving operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to analyze the rising folds of postoperative calcitonin level in comparison with the maximum value of experiment detection, and to predict the outcome of biochemical recurrence transforming to structural recurrence, and then the optimal cut-off value could be worked out.Results:A total of 7 studies including 1 005 MTC patients (276 cases of biochemical recurrence and 542 cases of biochemical cure). Meta-analysis showed that structural recurrence rate in postoperative biochemical recurrence group [40.6% (112/276) vs. 2.2% (12/542); OR = 27.99, 95% CI 14.57-53.78, P < 0.001] and mortality [10.0% (19/190) vs. 0.96% (3/312); OR = 7.26, 95% CI 2.42-21.84, P < 0.001] were higher than those in the biochemical cure group (normal postoperative calcitonin level and no disease state). The data of 89 MTC patients with biochemical recurrence were collected in another 4 studies. ROC curve analysis showed that area under the curve of the rising folds of postoperative calcitonin level in predicting structural recurrence was 0.825; according to the cut-off value at all sections, the optimal cut-off value of the increased postoperative calcitonin was 50 times, the sensitivity was 66. 7%, the specificity was 88.6%. Conclusions:MTC patients with postoperative biochemical recurrence have higher structural recurrence rate and mortality compared with patients with normal postoperative calcitonin. The postoperative elevation of calcitonin more than 50 times the maximum value of the laboratory detection can be taken as the critical diagnostic value, when more than 50 times is prone to structural recurrence.

Cardiovascular disease is a health hazard to humans and systolic heart failure due to myocardial infarction is a major cause of death.It was previously thought that myocardial cells of the adult mammalian heart possess a limited ability to proliferate and self-renew.However,it has been widely reported that mammals have the ability to regenerate the myocardium,which is restricted to early postnatal life,and that it is strong enough to repair damaged heart tissue.The discovery of myocardial regeneration in neonatal hearts has provided an ideal animal model to investigate the mechanisms that affect myocardial regeneration,and many mechanisms that reverse myocardial cell cycle arrest and promote myocardial regeneration have been revealed.In this article,we review the factors affecting gene expression for myocardial regeneration(e.g.,ncRNAs and transcription factors),myocardial regeneration-related signaling pathways,and the regulation of myocardial regeneration by non-myocardial cells(e.g.,extracellular matrix,immune response,and epicardium)to provide directions for achieving myocardial regeneration after myocardial injury in adult mammals.

Objective: To investigate the in vitro and in vivo effects of 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA)-mediated photodynamic therapy against oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and preliminarily explore the possible mechanisms. Methods: SCC25 cells were divided into the control group (5-ALA of 0 mg/L) and the experimental group (5-ALA of 10, 25, 50, 100 and 150 mg/L). The production of protoporphyrin Ⅸ (PpⅨ) induced by 5-ALA in SCC25 cells was detected using the flow cytometry. SCC25 cells were divided into the control group (5-ALA of 0 mg/L), lazer alone group, 5-ALA alone group (5-ALA of 100 mg/L) and the 5-ALA combined with laser irradiation group (5-ALA of 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100 mg/L), the cytotoxicity of 5-ALA combined with laser irradiation (wave length 635 nm, power density 87 mW/cm² and laser dose 10.4 J/cm²) was evaluated in SCC25 cells using the methyl thiazolyltetrazolium assay (incubation times of 4, 8 and 12 h in each group) and the induction effect of combination treatment on the cell apoptosis was assessed by the flow cytometry (incubation time of 12 h in each group). The intracellular production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) triggered by 5-ALA combined with laser irradiation was determined using a fluorescence probe method (incubation time of 12 h in each group). A mouse OSCC xenograft model bearing SCC25 tumor was built, and the mice were divided into control group (saline), 5-ALA group (5-ALA of 50 mg/kg) and 5-ALA combined with laser irradiation group (5-ALA of 10, 25 and 50 mg/kg). Antitumor effect of 5-ALA combined with laser irradiation (wave length 635 nm, power density 158 mW/cm² and laser dose 94.8 J/cm²) was further measured. Results: 5-ALA induced the production of PpⅨ in SCC25 cells in a drug concentration (0-150 mg/L)-and incubation time (0-24 h)-dependent manner. When the 5-ALA concentration was 100 mg/L, the intracellular PpⅨ production was in a relatively stable state. Cell viability and apoptosis rate of 5, 10, 25, 50, 100 mg/L 5-ALA combined with laser irradiation are, respectively, (82.3±5.2)%, (3.13±0.38)%; (74.6±9.3)%, (5.38±0.55)%; (38.3±9.7)%, (17.97±2.72)%; (9.2±3.8)%, (24.47±3.37)%; (7.2±0.8)%, (43.01±5.96)%, which indicated that 5-ALA combined with laser irradiation notably inhibited the growth of SCC25 cells and also induced significant cell apoptosis compared with the control group [(96.3±6.0)%, (0.35±0.13)%, P<0.05]. After combination treatment (5-ALA of 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100 mg/L combined with laser irradiation, the mean fluorescence intensity of dichlorofluorescein is (1.46±0.12)×10⁴, (2.16±0.30)×10⁴, (3.57±0.34)×10⁴, (81.70±13.05)×10⁴, (113.00±7.35)×10⁴, respectively, a large amount of ROS was produced in SCC25 cells compared with the control group [(0.96±0.15) ×10⁴, P<0.05], which was in positive correlation with the intracellular PpⅨ content. 5-ALA (concentration of 10, 25 and 50 mg/kg) combined with laser irradiation greatly suppressed the tumor growth in SCC25 tumor-bearing mice compared to the control group (P<0.05). Conclusions 5-ALA-mediated photodynamic therapy can trigger the generation of intracellular ROS that has significant cytotoxicity and apoptosis induction effect, and thus inhibit the tumor growth both in vitro and in vivo.