Purpose:To investigate the toxicities and res po nse of liver cancers to 3-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3-DCRT) com bined with Trancatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) Methods :The histopathological confirmed liver cancer patients were treated by 3-DCRT co mbined with TACE, all patients received TACE before 3-DCRT The total irradiati on dose is 50 Gy to 58 Gy in daily fractions of 2 Gy Each planning target volu me (PTV) received a minimum of 90% of the prescribed dose Each mean liver dose not reached 30 Gy, V 30 Gy (the percentage of normal liver volume with ra diation dose≥30 Gy) less than 33% Results:Thirty patients were included in this study including 2 1 hepatocellular carcinoma Survivals at 1 year after 3-DCRT were 76%, with a median survival time of 8 months 2 patients developed Grade 1 acute liver toxi city and one patient experienced Grade 2 gastrointestinal complications No pat ient developed Grade 2 or greater liver toxicity Conclusions:The use of 3-DCRT technique for liver cancer is a safe and efficient method O ur experience indicated the total irradiation dose above 58 Gy is feasible in da ily fractions of 2 Gy, if the mean liver dose did not reach 30 Gy and V 30 G y

Objective To evaluate the efficacy of hypofractionated 3DCRT for primary liver cancer(PLC) with portal vein tumor thrombosis(PVTT).Methods Between April 1999 and August 2003,34 PLC patients with PVTT received hypofractionated 3DCRT.The severity of hepatic cirrhosis was 23 in Child-Pugh gradeA and 11 gradeB.The median value of GTV was 773?cm~3(105-2097?cm~3).The radiotherapy regimen consisted of 38-63?Gy in 7-15 fractions with 4-8?Gy per fraction(median value 5?Gy),the treatment was delivered 3 times per week during every other day.Results Having response rate(CR+PR) of 76%(26/34),the overall 1-,2-,and 3-year survival rate at was 36%,19% and 13%,respectively.Conclusion Hypofractionated three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy is effective for primary liver cancer with portal vein tumor thrombosis.

Objective:To evaluate the clinical value and the prognostic factors of postoperative radiotherapy in type B3 thymoma pa-tients. Methods:A total of 159 patients with thymoma were treated by surgery and postoperative radiotherapy. According to Masaoka staging system, 12, 33, 62, and 52 patients had stageⅠ,Ⅱ,Ⅲ, andⅣlesions, respectively. Myasthenia gravis existed in 38 patients. Altogether 58 patients underwent chemotherapy. Overall survival, disease-free survival, and local control rates were calculated by Ka-plan-Meier method. Prognostic factors were analyzed by Cox regression model. Results:With a median follow-up of 52 months (8-125 months), the overall 5-year survival rate was 81.6%. The 5-year progression-free survival rate was 76.2%. The 5-year local control rate was 82.6%. The recurrence rate was 32.6%, and the metastatic rate was 9.3%. In the univariate analysis, tumor size, Masaoka stage, re-section margin, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy were significantly associated with 5-year overall survival and progression-free surviv-al (P<0.05). In the multivariate analysis, Masaoka stage, resection margin, and radiotherapy were independent prognostic factors of 5-year progression-free survival (P<0.05). Radiotherapy could improve the regional control rate and the overall survival of patients in Ma-saoka stagesⅢ-Ⅳ. Conclusion:The major failure mode for type B3 thymoma is the recurrence of pleure. Radiotherapy can improve the regional control rate and the overall survival of patients in advanced stages. Masaoka staging, surgical margin, and radiotherapy are the independent prognostic factors for type B3 thymoma treated by postoperative radiotherapy.

Objective To comparatively analyze the immunological characteristics of patients with mild and severe influenza A (H1N1), and to provide the evidence for condition monitoring and treatment . Methods 52 cases with mild influenza A ( H1N1), 152 cases with severe influenza A ( H1N1) and 26 healthy subjects from July 1, 2009 to December 31, 2009 were enrolled in the study.Lymphocyte subsets in peripheral blood were analyzed by flow cytometry and the serum concentrations of interferon -γ( IFN-γ) and interleukin-4 (IL-4) were detected by enzyme-linked immune-sorbent assay (ELISA).Results The total lymphocyte counts were decreased obviously in patients with severe influenza A ( H1N1) than in mild pa-tients and in healthy subjects (P<0.01).The T lymphocyte, NK cells, CD4+T lymphocyte and CD8+T lym-phocyte were also decreased obviously in severe patients than in mild patients (P<0.01).The B lymphocyte and CD4+/CD8+were also decreased in severe patients than in mild patients but had no significant statistical difference (P=0.11, 0.175).The serum IFN-γlevels in patients with mild and severe influenza A (H1N1) were lower than those in control group, especially in patients with severe influenza A (H1N1) (compared with control group and mild group , P<0.01).And the changes of serum IL-4 levels were the same with the former, but there were no statistically significant differences in three groups (P>0.05).Con-clusion Immune dysfunction in patients with influenza A (H1N1) infection is associated with the severity of disease, especially cellular immunity .Therefore, monitoring of the immune system is valuable for the diag-nosis of influenza A(H1N1) infection.

OBJECTIVETo explore the effect of silencing the Notch2 gene by small interfering (si)RNA on the proliferation of the HepG2 human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells.

METHODSNotch2-siRNA was transfected as a liposomal formulation into HepG2 cells. The non-HCC cell lines SG07901 (gastric cancer) and SW620 (colon cancer) were used as controls. The mRNA expression of Notch2 and Hesl were detected by RTPCR, and the protein expression of Notch2 was detected by western blotting. The proliferation of transfected HepG2 cells was assessed by the cell counting kit-8 (CCK8) colorimetric assay.

RESULTSThe untransfected HepG2 cells showed significantly upregulated transcript expression of Notch2, and not of Notch1, Notch3 or Notch4, compared to the other non-HCC cell lines. Following transfection of Noteh2-siRNA into HepG2 cells, the mRNA expression of Notch2 and Hes1 and the protein expression of Notch2 were significantly decreased. The rales of proliferation inhibition in HepG2 following transfection of Notch2-siRNA showed an increasing time-related trend, with 2.64% ± 1620% at 12 h, 38.34% ± 8.80% at 24 h, 70.05% ± 7.80% at 48 h, 70.78% ± 10.00% at 72 h, and 74.22% ± 4.80% at 96 h.The inhibition rate at 24 h of transfection was significantly different from that of the groups of control cells.

CONCLUSIONNotch2 is upregulated in the common HCC cultured cell line HepG2. siRNA-mediated silencing of Notch2 exerts inhibition effects on HepG2 proliferation, suggesting the potential for this approach as targeted therapy for treating HCC.

Carcinoma, Hepatocellular ; pathology ; Cell Proliferation ; Down-Regulation ; Hep G2 Cells ; Humans ; Liver Neoplasms ; pathology ; RNA Interference ; RNA, Small Interfering ; Receptor, Notch2 ; metabolism

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic value of soluble Axl (sAxl) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in comparison with serum α-fetoprotein (AFP). Materials and Methods: Eighty HCC patients, 80 liver cirrhosis patients (LC), 80 patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, and 80 healthy controls (HC) were enrolled. sAxl levels were measured by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, serum AFP levelswere measured by an electrochemiluminescence immunoassay. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to evaluate diagnostic performances. Results: The results show that levels of sAxl were high expression in patients with HCC (p < 0.05), varied with disease state as follows: HCC > LC > HC > HBV. Logistic regression and ROC curve analysis identified the optimal cut-off for sAxl in differentiating all HCC and non-HCC patients was 1,202 pg/mL (area under the receiver operating characteristic [AUC], 0.888; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.852 to 0.924) with sensitivity 95.0%, specificity 73.3%. Furthermore, differential diagnosis of early HCC with non-HCC patients for sAxl showed the optimal cut-off was 1,202 pg/mL (AUC, 0.881; 95% CI, 0.831 to 0.931; sensitivity, 94.1%; specificity, 73.3%). Among AFP-negative HCC patients with non-HCC patients, the cut-off was 1,301 pg/mL (AUC, 0.898; 95% CI, 0.854 to 0.942) with a sensitivity of 84.6%, a specificity of 76.3%. The optimal cut-off for sAxl in differentiating all HCC and chronic liver disease patients was 1,243 pg/mL (AUC, 0.840; 95% CI, 0.791 to 0.888) with sensitivity 93.8%, specificity 61.9%. The combination of AFP and sAxl increased diagnostic value for HCC. Conclusion sAxl outperforms AFP in detecting HCC, especially in early HCC and in AFP-negative HCC. Combination sAxl with AFP improved the specificity for early HCC diagnosis. In summary, sAxl is a candidate serum marker for diagnosing HCC.

Objective To analyze the conding region of hantanvirus S gene and predict the structure of nucleoprotein for diagnostic antigen study.Methods RT-PCR was used to amplify the S gene of hantanvirus Hunan03 strain after designing specific primers.The amplification product was cloned into pGM-T vector and then the recombinant vector was transformed into E.coli TOP10,gene sequencing was carried out after blue-white selection and PCR screening for positive clones.The database of NCBI and Swiss-Prot/TrEMBL were used to predict and analyze the structure,biological characteristics and protein structures of S gene.Results The amplification product was about 1290 bp,the pGM-T/S vector was constructed and successfully sequenced,the whole length of the open reading frame (ORF) was composed of 1290 nucleotide residues,among them the GC content was 44.11％ and the AT content was 55.89％,it was composed of 429 amino acids (20 kinds),the accession number of the sequence submitted to GenBank was JN712306,its homology of nucleotides to the 76-118 strain was 83％ and the homology of amino acids was 98％,ten nonspecific variation sites were found.The grand average of hydropathicity was-0.405.There were three transmembrane domains and four non transmembrane domains in the secondary structure of nucleoprotein including 55％ of helix structure,6.1％ of sheet structure and 38.9％ of loop structure.Conclusion The bioinformatics analysis of Hunan03 strain S gene might be important for provide the substructure data to reveal the significance of S gene characteristics on hemorrhagic fever renal syndrome (HFRS) prevention and control.

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the effectiveness and safety of endovascular stent insertion for non-small cell lung cancer patients with superior vena cava syndrome.

METHODSWe retrospectively studied 123 patients referred to our hospital for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer presenting with superior vena cava syndrome. Patients were devided in two groups according to the use of endovascular stent insertion in superior vena cava syndrome or not. 64 patients underwent endovascular stent insertion was designed as the stenting group and 59 without stenting as control group. The differences between the two groups in complete response, complication and survival were analyzed.

RESULTSThe complete response rate of superior vena cava obstruction was 92.0% for the stenting group, and 42.0% for the control group, showing a significant difference between the two groups (P < 0.001). The median time to complete response was (3.76 ± 2.83) days in the stenting group, significantly shorter than that of the control group (28.08 ± 16.06) days (P < 0.001). The relapse rate after complete response was 12.0% in the stenting group and 16.0% in the control group, showing a non-significant difference between the two groups (P = 0.607). The median time to relapse was 2.7 months in the stenting group and 1.1 months in the control group (P = 0.533). In the stenting group, stent stenosis occurred in 1 case and thrombosis was observed in 3 cases. The incidence rate of complications was 6.3%. Thrombosis occurred in 1 case of the control group, with an incidence rate of complications of 1.7%, showing a non-significant difference between the two groups (P = 0.201). Seven among the 123 patients were still alive at the endpoint of following up. The median survival time was 8.0 months (stenting group) and 5.5 months (control group) (P = 0.382).

CONCLUSIONSEndovascular stent insertion is effective and safe for non-small lung cell cancer patients with superior vena cava syndrome, and it may be recommended as the first choice for palliative treatment of superior vena cava obstruction.

Adult ; Aged ; Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung ; complications ; surgery ; Female ; Humans ; Lung Neoplasms ; complications ; surgery ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Recurrence, Local ; Palliative Care ; Remission Induction ; Retrospective Studies ; Stents ; Superior Vena Cava Syndrome ; complications ; surgery ; Thrombosis

OBJECTIVETo investigate the relationship between the molecular characteristics and phylogenetic evolution of rabies N gene.

METHODSSaliva samples were collected from rabies cases, and RT-PCR was used to amplify the N gene of rabies virus with the specific primers. The amplifying product of RT-PCR was cloned to pUCm-T vector and transformed into E.coli XL1-Blue and then the blue-white selection, PCR screening and gene sequencing were carried out to identify the positive clones. Finally, ExPASy and other bioinformatics software were used to analyze and predict the structure and biological characteristics of the N genome.

RESULTSThe amplification product of RT-PCR was 1 353 bp, the recombinant plasmid pUCm-T/N was constructed, the whole length of the N gene open reading frame was composed of 1 353 nucleotide residues to code 450 amino acids (20 kinds), the accession number submitted to the Genbank was HM756692, its sequence homology of nucleotides and amino acids compared with the vaccine strain CTN-1-V was 90% and 99% respectively. The evolutionary analysis showed that the isolated strain belonged to genotype I with certain geographic regionality.

CONCLUSIONThe characteristics investigation and bioinformatics analysis of Hunan0806 N gene will provide fundamental data to reveal the significance of the N gene characteristics for rabies epidemiology and its prevention & control.

Amino Acid Sequence ; Gene Expression Regulation, Viral ; physiology ; Humans ; Models, Molecular ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Nucleocapsid Proteins ; genetics ; metabolism ; Phylogeny ; Protein Conformation ; Rabies ; virology ; Rabies virus ; genetics ; metabolism ; Saliva ; virology

OBJECTIVETo investigate the effect of co-expression of bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP2) and Sox9 on chondrogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in vitro and provide experimental evidence for tissue engineering of cartilage.

METHODSMouse embryonic bone marrow MSC C3H10T1/2 cells were infected with recombinant adenovirus expressing BMP2, Sox9 and green fluorescent protein (GFP) for 3-14 days, with cells infected with the adenovirus carrying GFP gene as the control. The mRNA expression of the markers of chondrogenic differentiation, including collagen type II (Col2a1), aggrecan (ACAN), and collagen type X (Col10a1), were determined by real-time PCR. Alcian blue staining was used for quantitative analysis of sulfated glycosaminoglycan in the cellular matrix. The expression of Col2a1 protein was assayed by immunohistochemical staining and Western blot analysis.

RESULTSAdenovirus-mediated BMP2 expression induced chondrogenic differentiation of C3H10T1/2 cells. Overexpression of Sox9 effectively enhanced BMP2-induced expression of the chondrogenic markers Col2a1, aggrecan and Col10a1 mRNAs, and promoted the synthesis of sulfated glycosaminoglycan and Col2a1 protein in C3H10T1/2 cells.

CONCLUSIONCo-expression of BMP2 and Sox9 can promote chondrogenic differentiation of MSCs in vitro, which provides a new strategy for tissue engineering of cartilage.

Animals ; Bone Morphogenetic Protein 2 ; genetics ; metabolism ; Cartilage ; cytology ; Cell Differentiation ; Cells, Cultured ; Chondrocytes ; cytology ; Humans ; Mesenchymal Stromal Cells ; cytology ; metabolism ; Mice ; SOX9 Transcription Factor ; genetics ; metabolism ; Tissue Engineering