Objective To study the relationship between arousal and sleep apnea in old people with sleep apnea syndrome(SAS). Methods Sixty-two aged patients were diagnosed of SAS after polysomnography (PSG). Records included total sleep time, apnea-hypopnea index(AHI),total arousal number(TAN), arousal index(AI), total respiratory-related arousal number(TRAN), total number of arousal lasted over 15 seconds (T15AN) and the severity of hypoxemia (desaturation). Sixty-four non-aged patients were included in control group. Ten aged patients were intervened with nasal continuous positive airway pressure (nCPAP) treatment. Data were compared with that before treatment. Results The results for the above parameters of the aged and the non-aged SAS patients were( 35.1?23.2)/h and (39.1?27.2)/h respectively for AHI, (15.8?11.4)/h and (20.4?13.0)/h for AI, 44.1% and 51.3% for the ratio of TRAN/TAN, only 6.1% and 6.7% for ratio of T15AN/TAN. 50% of 62 aged and 64 non- aged SAS patients were in severe desaturation. The AI and TRAN of the aged patients were significantly lower than that of non-aged patients (P

Objective To observe the analgesic effects of tramadol combined with atropine during the oocyte retrieval operation in assisted reproduction treatment(IVF/ICSI-ET)? Methods Three hundred patients(four hundred cycles of infertility totally)in the Center for Reproductive Medicine were equally assigned into treatment group and control group according to the different analgesia: the former were treated with intramuscular injection of 100 mg tramadol combined with 0?5 mg atropine for analgesia before the operation and the latter with 50 mg pethidine hydrochloride? The two groups were compared in terms of blood pressure,pulse,degree of pains, rate of fertility,rate of cleavage and rate of transplantable embryo? Result There were no differences between them in terms of blood pressure,pulse,pain degree,rate of fertility and rate of cleavage and rate of transplantable embryo(all P > 0?05),but the incidence of adverse effect in the treatment group was significantly lower than that in the control group(P < 0?05)? Conclusion The application of tramadol hydrochloride combined with atropine sulphatev for analgesia during oocyte retrieval operation of IVF-ET is advantageous for its safety,lower incidence of advers effect and stable vital signs?

Objective To explore the relationship between high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA and biological behavior of cervical carcinoma. Methods Sixty-six patients of cervical carcinoma with cytological examinations and 103 patients of cervical carcinoma followed-up after surgical operation were selected for high-risk HPV DNA test with second-generation hybrid capture technique (HC2 Ⅱ). Results ①HPV DNA was positive in 62 and negative in four of 66 patients of cervical carcinoma with an overall prevalence of 94%. ②There was no significant difference in positive HPV DNA of patients with cervical carcinoma between their varied clinical stages and pathologic grades. But, HPV positivity and HPV DNA load in patients with myometrial invasion were higher than those in patients without invasion (P < 0. 05).③ HPV DNA conversed to negative in 99 of 103 patients (96%) with cervical carcinoma after surgical operation from positivity before operation. Conclusions High-risk HPV infection may correlate with angiogenesis, invasion and metastasis of cervical carcinoma and HC2 Ⅱ can be used as an effective method to detect HPV DNA.

Objective To evaluate the therapeutic effect of etanercept in patients with Behcet's disease (BD). Methods Twenty six patients with active BD were eligible for anti-TNF-α treatment, which failed previously to commonly used drugs. All the patients were stopped previous therapy and treated with etanercept 25 mg twice a week. The clinical responses and laboratory parameters were evaluated at the baseline, week 2, 4, 8, 12 and 24, and week 12 of etanercept withdrawal. Results Etanercept was effective in several clinical lesions and lab. parameters at all time points. Especially at week 2, including oral ulcers, genital ulcers, erythema nodosum, pseudofolliculitis and swollen joints (P<0.01). Two of four cases of uveitis were contro-lled with addition of topical corticosteroids; The ileocecal junction ulcer of 1 patient healed after 2 months etanercept therapy; four cases of epididymitis reached complete remission at week 4. ESR(P=0.012) and CRP (P=0.013) were also rapidly decreased at week 2. Most patients were relapsed at week 12 of etanercept withdrawal compared with baseline except for swollen joints (0.65±1.09 vs 0.31±0.60, P<0.01) after etanercept withdrawal, in which the typical rebound was CRP from (481±312) mg/L to (549±267) mg/L (P=0.013).Conclusion Etanereept has rapid efficacy onset for most of the mucocutaneous disorders and possibly effective for arthritis, ophthalmitis, epididymitis and colonic ulcer of BD.

Objective To analyze the clinical features,and prognosis of the interstitial lung disease (ILD) in patients with dermatomyositis (DM) and polymyositis (PM) by chest X-ray,chest high-resolution CT scan (HRCT) and pulmonary lung function.Methods Thirty-three patients hospitalized with DM/PM associated ILD were retrospectively analyzed.Results Thirty-three patients with ILD were confirmed by HRCT.Abnormal pulmonary function tests were available in 82% of patients.Clinical-imaging analysis revealed that the pathological features of ILD were non-specific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP,57%) and unusual interstitial pneumonia (UIP,25%).UIP types showed a poor prognosis and high mortality (70%).Conclusion This study shows that HRCT is more sensitive for the diagnosis of ILD than lung function tests and chest X-ray.Combined HRCT and chest X-ray with lung function tests and blood gas analysis have shown that the major pathological types of ILD are NSIP and UIP,in which UIP are associated with high mortality and poor prognosis.

To monitor the trans-differentiation from adult stem cells to germ cells, we analyzed the vasa expression of goat testicular tissues in different ages and constructed the germ cell specific reporting vector pVASA-EGFP. The expression of vasa was verified by RT-PCR and immunofluorescence. The vector pVASA-EGFP was constructed by molecular technology, then transfected into goat bone mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) by Lipofectamine 2000. Moreover, we observed the expression of the vector through green fluorescent protein (GFP). Immunofluorescence results show that Vasa was expressed in all groups of goat testicular tissues, RT-PCR results show that the levels of vasa mRNA in 3-month group and 10-month group were significantly higher than that in 10-day group. Sequencing and restriction enzyme results show that the vector was successfully constructed. After transfection and RA treatment, GFP expression was observed, which proved the validity of our reporting system. All the results proved that vasa was expressed in different ages in goat testicular tissues, and the vector pVASA-EGFP is efficient in monitoring the trans-differentiation in vitro, which paves the way for further characterization and screening of the trans-differentiation of goat BMSCs.
Animals ; Cell Transdifferentiation ; Genes, Reporter ; Genetic Vectors ; Germ Cells ; cytology ; Goats ; Green Fluorescent Proteins ; Male ; Mesenchymal Stromal Cells ; RNA, Messenger ; Testis ; metabolism ; Transfection

Objective To investigate the expression of anti-apoptosis gene bag-1 and its relation to the differentiation of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC). Methods Immunohistochemical techniques were adopted to study the expression of bag-1 in ICC tissue ( n=48) and para-hepatocarcinoma bile duct ( control group, n=25). Results Expression of bag-1 in the ICC group was significantly higher than that in the control group. In the ICC group (P

[ ABSTRACT] AIM:To investigate the effect of phycocyanin on the apoptosis of human laryngeal cancer HEP-2 cells and to explore the inhibitory mechanism of phycocyanin to tumor.METHODS:Highly purified phycocyanin was ex-tracted from spirulina.The effects of phycocyanin at different concentrations on the growth of human laryngeal cancer HEP-2 cells were detected by MTT assay.In addition, the cell structures were observed under electron microscope.The cell ap-optosis was analyzed by flow cytometry.The production of reactive oxygen species ( ROS) was measured by flow cytometry. Enzymatic activities of caspase-3,-8 and-9 were measured by chemical colorimatry.The expression of Bax, Bcl-2, Fas, P53, caspase-3 and caspase-9 at mRNA and protein levels was determined by RT-PCR and Western blot.RESULTS:MTT test confirmed that phycocyanin inhibited the cell activity of HEP-2 cells with time and dose dependent manners.The result of electron microscope observation and flow cytometry indicated that phycocyanin induced the apoptosis of HEP-2 cells.The intracellular content of ROS was increased.The activities of caspase-3, -8 and -9 were increased.RT-PCR showed that the mRNA expression of Bax, Fas, P53, caspase-3, caspase-9 was increased and Bcl-2 was decreased.The results of Western blot were consistent with the results of RT-PCR.CONCLUSION:Phycocyanin might induce apoptosis of HEP-2 cells by down-regulating Bcl-2, up-regulating Bax, Fas and P53, and the transduction of apoptotic signals in the human laryngeal cancer cells.

Cycloheximide (CHX) inhibits protein synthesis in most eukaryotic cells and it is a well-known tool commonly used in biochemical research. In this paper, the antiviral spectrum of CHX against several DNA and RNA viruses have been evaluated. CHX showed strong inhibitory activities against several RNA viruses such as HIV-1, influenza viruses, coxsackie B virus, enterovirus (EV71) and several DNA viruses such as HSV and HCMV. Especially the strong inhibitory activities of CHX against coxsackie B virus and enterovirus caught our attention, since effective drugs available in clinic are limited. The SAR of CHX derivatives also has been discussed in the paper. The hydroxyl group at C-2' and carbonyl group at C-2" of CHX are essential for its antiviral activity. And modification to these groups results its derivatives' antiviral activities reduced or lost.

The purpose of this study is to find out anti-HIV-1 reverse transcriptase (RT)/protease (PR) activity and inhibition of virus replication in cell cultures of novel coumarin analogs and determine their structure-activity relationship. Coumarin derivatives have been demonstrated to inhibit the activity of HIV-1 RT/PR in cell free system. It also shows inhibition effects to HIV-1 replication in cell culture. Based on the Chinese traditional pharmacological characteristics and protein three dimension computer aided design, analogs of tetracyclic dipyranocoumarin were synthesized from natural leading compounds. We studied the relationship of antiviral effects and chemical structures via HIV-1 PR/RT enzyme models and cell culture model system. Seven compounds were designed and tested. Several compounds showed anti-HIV-1 activity in varying degrees, especially V0201 showed much higher anti-HIV-1 activity with 3.56 and 0.78 micromol x L(-1) of IC50 against HIV-1 PR/RT and 0.036 micromol x L(-1) against HIV-1 replication in PBMC cultures. V0201 with a novel structure may be a new leading compound. These new compounds are valuable for development of new anti-HIV drugs in the future.