Objective To investigate the distribution status of coal-burning fluorosis (endemic fluorosis) areas in Luoyang and to provide scientifc evidence for making strategies in prevention and control. Methods In 2006, a household per village was chosen to carry the general survey so as of disease condition, living habits and housing structure among 941 coal-burning pollution fluorine sickness natural villages in Yanshi, Mengjin, Xin'an, Luanchuan counties and Geely area which were under the jurisdiction of Luoyang. In the general survey, the sampled village having a population of more than 500 person was considered as a major survey village, and water fluoride, 8 - 12 year-old child fluorine spot on tooth and the urinary fluoride were surveyed. Water fluoride and the child urinary fluoride determination used the fluoride ion selective electrode method, and the children's dental fluorosis used Dean method. Results The endemic fluorosis of Luoyang existed 742 in endemic fluomsis villages, compared with history, a decrease of 199 in number. Ninety-six point seven per cent( 142 543/147 419) of the households were consuming smoke-free coal. Households using intact kitchens accounted for 93.6%( 137 919/147 419). Of which 63.0%(86 889/137 919) of kitchens were mixed up with bedrooms. Total 125 060 people were using coal- fired furnace for heating, of which 87.8%(109 802/125 060) had smoke-free facilities, 12.2%(15 258/125 060) had none. Among 52 endemic villages with population of more than 500 people surveyed, a total of 183 water samples were collected, 2 had water fluoride exceeding 1.0 rag/L, the highest water fluoride being 1.04 rag/L, averaging 0.39 mg/L Sixteen villages had a prevalence rate of dental fluorosis for children less than 30.00%, accounting for 30.8% (16/52), 36 endemic villages the prevalence of dental fluorosis detection rate of more than 30.00%, accounting for 69.2%(36/52). Twenty-thrce villages had a dental fluorosis index greater than 0.6, severe dental fluorosis was not found. Real-time measurement of 1408 urine samples of children aged 8 - 12 showed that urine fluoride highest value 6.88 nag/L, the minimum value of 0.10 mg/L, geometric mean 1.10 mg/L. The prevalence rate of dental fluorosis for children was 36.06%. Conclusions In Luoyang city, numbers of coal-burning endemic fluorosis villages are less than before, children's dental fluorosis has significantly declined, however some people still use kitchens connecting with bedrooms and lack smoke-free facilities, they need to be educated to change lifestyle and improve furnace to reduce soot fluoride pollution.

To investigate the effect of atorvastatin on lipid metabolism in type 2 elder diabetes patients with hyperlipidemia, 26 patients with type 2 elder diabetes complicated with hyperlipidemia were treated with atorvastatin (10 mg/d) for 8 weeks. The serum triglyceride (TG), high density protein cholesterol (HDL-C) and low density protein cholesterol (LDL-C) were measured before and after the treatment. Meanwhile, the non-denaturing polyacrylamide gradient gel electrophoresis was used for detection of small-sized LDL(SLDL). Our results showed that TG dropped from 4.88 +/- 0.72 mmol/L to 2.65 +/- 0.32 mmol/L; HDL-C was increased from 0.85 +/- 0.31 mmol/L to 1.28 +/- 0.29 mmol/L; LDL-C was declined from 3.71 +/- 2.98 mmol/L to 2.10 +/- 1.22 mmol/L, sLDL-A was increased from (42.49 +/- 8.1)% to (53.27 +/- 7.5)%; LDL-B was decreased from (57.91 +/- 8.1)% to (46.73 +/- 7.5% ) (P<0.05). The level of blood glucose was not changed at the end of 8th week. It is concluded that atorvastatin has satisfactory lipid-regulating effects on type 2 elder diabetes patients with hyperlipidemia.
Anticholesteremic Agents/*therapeutic use ; Cholesterol, HDL/blood ; Cholesterol, LDL/blood ; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2/*complications ; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2/drug therapy ; Heptanoic Acids/*therapeutic use ; Hyperlipidemias/complications ; Hyperlipidemias/*drug therapy ; Pyrroles/*therapeutic use ; Triglycerides/blood

OBJECTIVETo explore the better therapy in the treatment of ganglion.

METHODSNinety cases of ganglion were randomized into a two-way quintuple puncture group, a common quintuple puncture group and a fire needling group, 30 cases in each one. In the two-way quintuple puncture group, the "9-in-1" multiple penetrating needling technique was used. In the common quintuple puncture group, the traditional "5-in-1" multiple penetrating needling technique was applied. In the fire needling group, the traditional multiple fire needling technique was adopted. The treatment was given once a day, 3 treatments made one session and the efficacy was analyzed statistically after 1 session treatment in the three groups.

RESULTSAll of the three therapeutic methods achieved the efficacy on ganglion. The curative rate was 96. 7% (29/30) in the two-way quintuple puncture group, which was better obviously than 66.7% (20/30) in the common quintuple puncture group and 60. 0% (18/30) in the fire needling group (both P<0. 01).

CONCLUSIONThe two-way quintuple puncture technique achieves the remarkably superior efficacy on ganglion as compared with the common quintuple puncture technique and fire needling technique.

Acupuncture Therapy ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Female ; Ganglion Cysts ; therapy ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Treatment Outcome ; Young Adult

ObjectiveTo study an application of a method of improving the quality of sampling in review to determine the light areas of endemic fluorosis(referred to as endemic fluorosis) in quality control. Methods Of 15 light endemic fluorosis township(town), six were randomly sampled, and the prevalence of dental fluorosis in 22 village primary school children aged 8 to 12 were reviewed to determine the improved quality of sampling in Xuyong county Sichuan province. ResultsSix townships(towns) were selected by simple random sampling from 15 endemic fluorosis townships(towns) for review inspection in Xuyong country. A total of 22 villages were verified, accounting for 22.7％ of the total 97 villages verified. Of the 416 children for review inspection of dental fluorosis, 383 children were positive. The consistent rate of children' s dental fluorosis was 92.07％, and the verification to be slight villages was up to 21 endemic villages, accounting for 95.45％. ConclusionsThe application of a method of improving the quality of sampling can improve the efficiency of quality control, and improve the accuracy. It is a novel quality control method.

To improve the recognition of immunoglobulin D multiple myeloma and explore its clinical feature and laboratory examination characteristics, so as to reduce the the missed diagnosis and misdiagnosis, a case of IgD multiple myeloma (MM) with myelofibrosis and bone marrow necrosis is reported. The clinical feature, treatment and prognosis of IgDlambda MM were discussed. Immunoglobulin D multiple myeloma is a rare disease and predominantly occurs in young male patients, which shows an aggressive clinical course with poor response to conventional treatment and unfavorable prognosis. Immunoglobulin D multiple myeloma was usually misdiagnosed as a light chain type multiple myeloma by using routine laboratory examination. Immunoglobulin D monoclonal protein is not easy to be detected owing to its low protein level, resulting in missed diagnosis. Immunofixation electrophoresis is highly sensitive and specific for diagnosis of IgD MM, can enhance accuracy of diagnosis for this rare disease.
Adult ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin D ; blood ; Immunoglobulin lambda-Chains ; blood ; Male ; Multiple Myeloma ; blood ; complications ; diagnosis ; Primary Myelofibrosis ; blood ; complications ; diagnosis

OBJECTIVETo study of the role of nuclear transcription factor-κB (NF-κB) in high glucose-induced apoptosis in INS-1 cells.

METHODSRat insulinoma (INS-1) cells cultured in RPMI 1640 medium were treated with 11.1 mmol/L glucose, 33.3 mmol/L glucose, or 33.3 mmol/L glucose plus 5 µmol/L NF-κB inhibitors for 48 h. The expression of NF-κB subunit P65 protein in the cell nuclei was detected by Western blotting, IKK belta mRNA level by quantitative RT-PCR, and cell apoptosis by Annexin V-PI double staining.

RESULTSCompared with the control levels, IKK belta mRNA levels of the cells significantly increased in response to 33.3 mmol/L glucose exposure (P<0.01), which also resulted in significantly increased P65 protein expression in the cell nuclei (P<0.01) and cell apoptosis rate (P<0.05). Compared with those in the high glucose group, the expression of IKK belta mRNA and P65 protein and cell apoptosis rate decreased significantly after treatment with 33.3 mmol/L glucose plus 5 µmol/L NF-κB inhibitors (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONHigh glucose induces NF-κB activation in INS-1 cells, and inhibition of NF-κB activation may protect INS-1 cells from high glucose-induced cell apoptosis.

Animals ; Apoptosis ; drug effects ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Gene Expression Regulation ; Glucose ; adverse effects ; metabolism ; Insulinoma ; pathology ; Pancreatic Neoplasms ; pathology ; Rats ; Transcription Factor RelA ; metabolism

OBJECTIVETo develop a quantitative method for methylation analysis of the p16 gene based on mismatch hybridization and chemiluminescence.

METHODSGenomic DNA was modified by sodium bisulfite to convert all unmethylated but not methylated cytosines to uracil, and subsequently a pair of primer having no CpG sites was designed for amplification target DNA containing methylated or unmethylated CpG sites. The PCR product spanning CpG sites were hybridized with two oligonucleotide probes which perfectly matched the methylated and unmethylated CpG sequences respectively, and the hybrids were detected by chemiluminescent method. The percentage of methylated target sequences could be estimated by calculating the ratio of signals obtained with two probes.

RESULTSThe percentage of methylation of artificial mixtures DNA showed a linear relation. There was a negative correlation between the methyaltion index with p16 transcriptional mRNA of p16 gene in tumor cell lines.

CONCLUSIONCompared with existing methods, this assay is nonisotopic, rapid, simple, and can be widely applied to the study of DNA methylation.

Cell Line, Tumor ; CpG Islands ; DNA Methylation ; Genes, p16 ; Humans ; Luminescent Measurements ; Nucleic Acid Hybridization ; Promoter Regions, Genetic ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Sulfites

To investigate the effect of atorvastatin on lipid metabolism in type 2 elder diabetes patients with hyperlipidemia, 26 patients with type 2 elder diabetes complicated with hyperlipidemia were treated with atorvastatin (10 mg/d) for 8 weeks. The serum triglyceride (TG), high density protein cholesterol (HDL-C) and low density protein cholesterol (LDL-C) were measured before and after the treatment. Meanwhile, the non-denaturing polyacrylamide gradient gel electrophoresis was used for detection of small-sized LDL(SLDL). Our results showed that TG dropped from 4.88 +/- 0.72 mmol/L to 2.65 +/- 0.32 mmol/L; HDL-C was increased from 0.85 +/- 0.31 mmol/L to 1.28 +/- 0.29 mmol/L; LDL-C was declined from 3.71 +/- 2.98 mmol/L to 2.10 +/- 1.22 mmol/L, sLDL-A was increased from (42.49 +/- 8.1)% to (53.27 +/- 7.5)%; LDL-B was decreased from (57.91 +/- 8.1)% to (46.73 +/- 7.5% ) (P<0.05). The level of blood glucose was not changed at the end of 8th week. It is concluded that atorvastatin has satisfactory lipid-regulating effects on type 2 elder diabetes patients with hyperlipidemia.
Aged ; Anticholesteremic Agents ; therapeutic use ; Atorvastatin Calcium ; Cholesterol, HDL ; blood ; Cholesterol, LDL ; blood ; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 ; complications ; drug therapy ; Female ; Heptanoic Acids ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Hyperlipidemias ; complications ; drug therapy ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Pyrroles ; therapeutic use ; Triglycerides ; blood

OBJECTIVETo observe the effect of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) on interleukin-1β (IL-1β)-induced damage in INS-1 cells and explore its possible mechanisms.

METHODSINS-1 cells were divided into normal control group, IL-1β group, and GLP-1+IL-1β group with corresponding treatments. The cell viability was determined by MTT assay, the expression of IKKβ mRNA was detected by real-time PCR, and that of the protein p65 was detected by Western blotting.

RESULTSIn comparison with the normal control group, the cells in the IL-1β group showed a significantly decreased viability by 29% (P < 0.01); compared with those in IL-1β group, the cells in GLP-1+IL-1β group exhibited an significant increase in the cell viability by 30% (P < 0.01). In comparison with the normal control group, the cells in IL-1β group showed an significantly increased expression of IKKβ mRNA (1.967 ± 0.091 vs 1 ± 0, P < 0.05); GLP-1 significantly reduced IL-1β-induced increment of IKKβ mRNA expression to 1.287 ± 0.084 (P < 0.05). IL-1β treatment significantly increased NF-κB protein expression as compared to the control level (0.814 ± 0.111 vs 0.396 ± 0.026, P < 0.01), and GLP-1 significantly inhibited such effect (0.622 ± 0.059, P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONSGLP-1 inhibits IL-1β-induced β-cell damage probably by inhibiting the NF-κB pathway.

Cell Line ; Cell Survival ; Glucagon-Like Peptide 1 ; pharmacology ; Humans ; I-kappa B Kinase ; genetics ; metabolism ; Insulin-Secreting Cells ; cytology ; pathology ; Interleukin-1beta ; antagonists & inhibitors ; pharmacology ; NF-kappa B ; antagonists & inhibitors ; Protective Agents ; pharmacology ; RNA, Messenger ; genetics ; metabolism ; Signal Transduction ; drug effects

cblB defect is a rare type of methylmalonic aciduria. In this study, a Chinese boy was diagnosed with methylmalonic aciduria cblB type and a novel mutation in the MMAB gene. The clinical presentations, blood acylcarnitines profiles, urine organic acids and genetic features of the patient were reported. The boy presented with fever, feeding difficulty and lethargy at the age of 2 months. Seven days later, he had coma, cold limb, thrombocytopenia, metabolic acidosis and liver damage. His blood propionylcarnitine and urinary methylmalonic acid levels increased significantly, but the plasma total homocysteine level was in the normal range, which supported the diagnosis of isolated methylmalonic aciduria. Gene analysis was performed by direct sequencing. No mutation in the MUT gene was found. However, a reported mutation c.577G>A (p.E193K) and a novel mutation c.562G>A (p.V188M) in the MMAB gene were identified, which confirmed the diagnosis of methylmalonic aciduria cblB type. Progressive clinical and biochemical improvement has been observed after hydroxylcobalamin injection, protein-restricted diet with the supplements of special formula and L-carnitine. He is currently 3 years and 11 months old and has a normal development condition. The phenotypes of the patients with cblB defect are nonspecific. Metabolic analysis and MMAB gene analysis are keys for the diagnosis of the disorder.
Alkyl and Aryl Transferases ; genetics ; Amino Acid Metabolism, Inborn Errors ; genetics ; Humans ; Infant ; Male ; Mutation