Objective To analyze and investigate endoscopic and pathological characteristics in the diagnosis of early esophageal carcinoma. Methods The clinical data of 62 patients with early esophageal carcinoma who had been admitted to Southwest Hospital from January 2003 to December 2007 were retrospectively analyzed. Results Of all patients, 8 had upper esophageal carcinoma, 42 had middle esophageal carcinoma and 12 had lower esophageal carcinoma. The tumor growth patterns included surface diffusion growth (n = 30), bidirectional growth (n = 11), intracavitary growth (n = 9), intra-esophageal wall growth (n = 7) and mixed growth (n = 5). The diameter of lesions ranged from 1.0 cm to 2.9 cm in majority. Surgical resection was done in 38 patients, endoscopic mucosal resection in 23 patients and endoscopic submucosal dissection in 1 patient. Postoperative pathological examination showed that 13 patients had in situ carcinoma, 22 had intramucosal carcinoma and 27 had submucosal carcinoma. The lymph node metastatic rate of intramucosal carcinoma and submucosal carcinoma were 5% (1/22) and 15% (4/27), respectively. The numbers of squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, small cell carcinoma, sarcoma carcinoma and spindle carcinoma were 57, 2, 1, 1, 1, respectively. ConelusionsEarly esophageal carcinoma tends to appear in the middle part of esophagus, and with surface diffusion growth type. Most of the early esophageal carcinoma are squamous cell carcinoma. Endoscopy combined with lugol's iodine and methyleneblue staining is effective in detecting early esophageal carcinoma.

G-protein coupled receptors(GPCRs)belong to the biggest subfamily of transmembran receptors.Recently,more and more research has been suggested that the dimerization of GPCRs may regulate the physiological and pharmacological activity.With the development of biochemistry technology and molecular biology,a great progress has been achieved in the field of the dimerization of GPCRs.This article will generally demonstrate that the vital roles of the homodimerization and heterdimerization.

Objective To assess the potential diagnostic value of the potential of flexible image col-or enhancement system(FICE)with magnifying endoscopy for superficial esophageal lesions by observing the intrapapillary capillary loops(IPCL)in esophageal mucosa. Methods IPCL in patients with esophageal diseases were studied with Fujinon EG-590ZW FICE endoscopy. The relationship between changes of IPCL in 31 cases of superficial esophageal lesions and pathological findings was studied. Results The vascular patterns of IPCL were analyzed and classified as follows: Type Ⅰ,often seen in normal esophagus,were e- venly distributed with regular forms. TypeⅡ,protracted,often occured in esophagitis. Type Ⅲ showed two or three of such four changes as,dilatation,wave-like inflection,irregular caliber and deformity,which was mainly seen in dysplasia. While Type Ⅳshowed all the four changes mentioned above and frequently ap- peared in esophageal cancer. Of the 17 cases of esophagitis,fifteen cases were TypeⅡIPCL and the others Type Ⅲ. Of the 10 cases of dysplasia,eight were Type Ⅲ IPCL and two high-grade dysplasia showed Type Ⅳ IPCL. One sml early esophageal cancer showed Type Ⅲ IPCL and all three advanced esophageal cancer showed TypeⅣ IPCL. Conclusion The esophageal microvessels can be clearly seen by FICE with magnif- ying endoscopy,and the differentiation of superficial esophageal lesions can be fairly performed with the ob- servation of IPCL,it gives an important practical siginificance in diagnosing tumorous lesions.

Objective To investigate the quality of autoantibody testing around the whole country.Methods Laboratories that perform autoantibody testing were recruited by letters or telephone communications.The auto-antibodies examined by the quality-control survey included anti-nuclear antibody (ANA),anti-double-stranded DNA (anti-dsDNA) antibody,anti-extractable nuclear antigens (anti-ENA),antimitochondria antibody (AMA),anti-smooth muscle antibody (ASMA),and anti-citrulline antibody (CCP).Each autoantibody was tested for 3 samples,so 15 samples were tested in total.Sample distribution and data analysis were double-blinded.Qualitative interpretation,staining patterns were evaluated by IIF.The agreement with qualitative interpretation for each specimen was evaluated by ELISA,and Immuno-Blot/Dot-Blot.Results One hundred and eight laboratories participated in this study.The testing methods included indirect immumofluorescence (IIF),immuno-Blot (IB),Dot-Blot (DB),double diffusion method (DID),enzymelinked immunosorbent assay (ELISA),chemo-illuminescent assay,Dot-immunogold filtration assay.The accuracy rates were 82％,83％,95％,96％,86％,respectively for ANA,anti-dsDNA,AMA,ASMA,and anti-CCP antibody.Anti-ENA were further divided into anti-SNP,anti-Sm,anti-SSA,anti-SSB,anti-Scl-70 subgroups,and the accuracy rates were 84％,95％,98％,98％,88％,respectively.The distribution of quantitative values by different laboratories for ANA (by IIF),anti-dsDNA,anti-CCP antibody (by ELISA) varied remarkably.Conclusion Hospitals that enrolled in the survey and the items involved for quality control were increasing year by year.The accurate rates of ANA,anti-dsDNA in this survey were similar to the past national quality control surveys,the quality of AMA/ASMA,anti-CCP antibodies test was better than that of the past surveys,but the quality of anti-ENA antibodies test needs to be improved.

Objectives To investigate serum levels of B cell activating factor(BAFF)in Chinese patients with polymyositis(PM)or dermatomyositis(DM),and analyze the correlation of BAFF with autoantibodies and clinical phenotypes.Methods Serum BAFF levels of 28 PM patients and 30 DM patients(study group),and 25 matched healthy controls(control group)were measured by ELISA.Serum anti-Jo-1 antibody levels were also measured by ELISA in all the subjects.The results of the two groups were compared by unpaired t test and the relevance was analyzed by Pearson's correlation analysis.Results Serum levels of BAFF in PM/DM patients were significantly higher compared to healthy controls(P =0.000),but there was no statistically significant difference between the PM and DM patients(P ＞ 0.05).Patients with interstitial lung disease(ILD)had significantly higher serum BAFF level than the patients without ILD(P =0.000)or the controls(P =0.000).Serum BAFF levels of patients with positive antinuclear antibody(ANA)were significantly higher than those with negative ANA(P =0.003).For patients with anti-Jo-1 antibodies,the serum BAFF levels were correlated with the serum concentration of anti-Jo-1 antibodies(r =0.799,P =0.006).Conclusions Serum levels of BAFF are increased in Chinese PM/DM patients.These findings indicate that BAFF may be possibly enrolled in the pathogenesis of PM/DM.Detecting serum BAFF levels could have some implication for the diagnosis and treatment of PM/DM.

Objective To investigate the serum levels of soluble human leukocyte antigen (sHLA)-G in patients with polymyositis (PM) or dermatomyositis (DM),and to analyze its association with clinical features and possible role in the pathogenesis of PM/DM.Methods Serum sHLA-G levels of 26 patients with PM,70 patients with DM and 35 matched healthy controls were measured by ELISA.The relationship between the sHLA-G levels and clinical features or seroimmunological data in the patients with PM/DM was analyzed.Results Serum levels of sHLA-G in PM/DM patients were significantly higher compared to healthy controls [(44±70) U/ml vs (4±5) U/ml,P＜0.01].There was statistically significant difference between DM patients and PM patients [(54±81) U/ml vs (27±41) U/ml,P=0.004].The incidence of dysphagia was significantly higher in sHLA-G elevated group than those in sHLA-G normal group (P=0.001).Additionally,Spearman rank correlation analysis showed that the serum sHLA-G levels were positively correlated with serum C3 (r=0.284,P=0.021),but negatively correlated with CD3+ T cells (r=-0.233,P=0.047) and CD4+ T cells (r=-0.287,P=0.015) in the peripheral blood in patients with PM/DM.Serum levels of sHLA-G in non-treated PM/DM patients were significantly higher compared to treated patients [(77±99) U/ml vs (34±52) U/ml,P=0.021].No relationship between serum sHLA-G levels and PM/DM disease activity,or different drug therapy was found.Conclusion Serum levels of sHLA-G are increased in PM/DM patients.The increased production of sHLA-G,paralleled with higher incidence of dysphagia and lower level of CD3+ T cells and CD4+ T cells,indicates that sHLA-G may play an important role in the pathogenesis of PM/DM.

Objective To investigate the correlation between serum levels of B cell activating factor (BAFF) and disease activity in the patients with dermatomyositis (DM).Methods Serum BAFF levels of 61 patients with DM and 25 matched healthy controls were measured by ELISA.The results of the two groups were compared using unpaired Mann-Whitney U test and the relevance was analyzed using Spearman correlation analysis.Results Serum levels of BAFF in DM patients were significantly higher compared to healthy controls [(274 7±264 6) pg/ml 与 (832±170) pg/ml,Z=-5.492,P＜0.01].A cross-sectional assessment revealed that serum BAFF levels were positively correlated with global disease activity (r=0.501,P＜0.001),muscle disease activity (r=0.303,P＜0.05),and cutaneous disease activity (r=0.467,P＜0.01).High serum BAFF levels were associated with increased incidence of interstitial lung disease (x2=17.238,P＜0.01).The longitudinal study showed modest correlations between serum BAFF levels and global disease activity (r=0.658,P＜0.01),muscle disease activity (r=0.307,P＜0.05),as well as cutaneous disease activity (r=0.565,P＜0.01).Conclusion Serum levels of BAFF correlate with disease activity in DM patients.The results of this study suggest that BAFF is a serological biomarker for DM disease activity.

Objective To profile the differentially expressed genes in the muscle of polymyositis (PM) patients.Methods A mRNA microarray analysis was performed to profile mRNAs from 5 treatment-naive PM patients and 5 healthy controls.Gene Ontology and KEGG pathway analyses were applied to delineate the functional roles of the differentially expressed mRNAs.Quantitative real-time PCR analysis was conducted to validate the microarray data.The Student's t-test was used to analyze the statistical significance of the microarray results,and Benjamini-Hochberg FDR was used for multiple-test correction.Results Microarray analysis revealed that a total of 1 905 mRNAs (787 up-regulated and 1 118 down-regulated) were significantly differentially expressed in PM patients compared with the healthy controls (fold change＞2,P＜0.05).Six mRNAs were selected to analyze by quantitative RT-PCR to validate their expression levels and the results were consistent with that of the microarray analysis,and thus provide reliable validation for the microarray results.Gene ontology and KEGG pathway analysis for the differentially expressed mRNAs revealed that these genes were mainly involved in the biological process of infection and cytotoxic effect.In addition,there were some common signaling pathways that shared by PM and other autoimmune diseases.Conclusion There are differences in gene expressions between PM patients and healthy controls.The muscle damage in PM patients may be due to multi gene involvement and multi gene regulation.

Objective To explore the correlations between elevated cfDNA with lupus nephritis and indentify the influencing factors of cfDNA in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).Methods Fifty four patients with SLE [37 patients with lupus nephritis (LN) and 43 age-and sex-matched healthy controls] were included in the study.In 37 LN patients,26 patients were at active stage,and 11 patients were in remission.cfDNA concentration was measured with Picogreen Kit and low-density granulocytes (LDGs) was tested by flowcytometer.Correlation and regression analysis were performed to discover whether cfDNA is related to LN and identify the influencing factor of cffDNA.Results The cfDNA in SLE group was (237±40) ng/ml,which was significantly higher than that in healthy control group (188±41 ng/ml,P＜0.01).cfDNA in LN group was significantly higher than that in patients without LN (NLN) (247±47 ng/ml vs 214±31 ng/ml,P=0.028).cfDNA in patients with active LN was significantly higher than that in patient with inactive LN (RLN) (254±50 ng/ml vs 216±29 ng/ml,P=0.035).In SLE group,cfDNA was positively correlated with quantitative 24-hour urinary protein (r=0.350,P=0.013) and reversely correlated with albumin (r=-0.500,P＜0.01) and endogenous creatinine clearance rate (Ccr) (r=-0.354,P=0.044).Percentage of LDGs in peripheral blood mononuclear ceils (PBMCs) of the SLE group was (8.3± 12.9)％,significantly was higher than that in healthy controls [(1.2±0.7)％,P=0.004].The cfDNA was positively correlated with LDGs (r=0.636,P=0.002) and neutrophils (r=0.599,P＜0.01).Conclusion NETs excessively released by neutrophils as well as LDGs may be one of the main reasons for elevated cfDNA level in SLE.cfDNA level is associated with LN activity,suggesting that there is a intrinsic link between NETs-related biomarkers and active LN and that more specific biomarkers of NETs may become a clinical biomarker for active LN.

Objective To determine the sera levels of anti-nuclear matrix protein (NXP)-2 autoantibodies and their clinical associations in patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM).Methods Sera from 198 Chinese patients with IIM including 15 juvenile dermatomyositis (JDM),133 dermatomyositis (DM) and 50 polymyositis (PM),other connective tissue diseases (CTDs) including 70 systemic lupus erythematosus,60 rheumatoid arthritis,15 systemic sclerosis,46 primary Sj(o)gren syndrome,10 mixed connective tissue disease and 60 healthy controls were measured by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay.The anti-NXP-2 antibodies were detected.The positive sera were further examined by immunoprecipitation assays.Statistical analyses were performed using student's t test or Mann-Wittney U test and x2 test.Results The positive rate of sera anti-NXP-2 autoantibodies in patients with IIM was 5.1％ (10/198),20.0％ (3/15) in patients with JDM,3.7％ (5/133) in patients with dermatomyositis,and 4.0％(2/50) in patients with polym-yositis.There was statistical significant difference in anti-NXP-2-positive rates between JDM,DM and PM (P＜0.05).However,the autoantibody did not present in patients with other CTDs as well as healthy controls.The anti-NXP-2-positive patients had significantly younger age [(33±20) vs (45±17) years old (t=-2.09,P＜0.05)] and higher incidence of calcinosis [30.0％(3/10) vs 2.6％(15/188)] compared with the anti-NXP-2-negativepatients (x2=0.7,P＜0.01).There were no statistical difference between the two groups in gender,disease duration,arthritis,rash,dysphagia,myasthenia,conccurrence with interstitial lung disease and cancer.In follow-up assessment,among the three JDM patients with anti-NXP-2 autoantibodies,one of them who died 10 months later had increased serum level of anti-NXP-2 autoantibody,extensive subcutaneous calcinosis,severe myasthenia and rapid progress.Conclusion This is the first report of the serum levels of anti-NXP-2 antibodies in Chinese patients with IIM and other CTDs.We find that anti-NXP-2 antibodies only exist in patients with IIM and are associated with early and calcinosis.