Vitamin A deficiency is one of the world's three major micronutrient deficiency diseases,and xerophthalmia, night blindness are the only awareness of it in many clinicians'views.However,the advancements of the current study of its effect are far more than the traditional epithelial and ophthalmic parts.In fact,the progress in vitamin A closely associated to the clinic,especially the diarrhea,recurrent respiratory tract infections,anemia etc is more outstanding.Because there are many different factors in suffering from diverse diseases among people all over the world,it needs to consider more considerately and roundly when prevent,diagnose and treat those diseases correlated to vitamin A.Now the progress of this part is reviewed.

CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells(CD4+CD25+Tregs),a suppressor T cell population,have been shown to play an important role in maintaining peripheral tolerance and the prevention of autoimmunity.This review summarizes the characteristics and mechanism,as well as their role in rheumatoid arthritis(RA).An understanding of these issues is likely to facilitate the development of CD4+CD25+Tregs-cell-based therapies for the treatment of RA.

Different from Japan and Korea,the gastric cancer cases in China are mostly advanced gastric cancer cases.Surgical radical gastrectomy,as the primary method in treating gastric cancer patients has achieved enormous development in recent years,especially laparoscopic radical gastrectomy.Whereas,laparoscopic radical gastrectomy in treatment of advanced gastric cancer remains controversial.The heated debates are mainly focusing on the indications,choosing of surgical approaches and reconstruction methods,completion of laparoscopic D2 lymphadenectomy,short-term postoperative outcomes and long-term oncologiceffectiveness.In this article,current status of laparoscopic radical gastrectomy in treatment of advanced gastric cancer and results of relevant clinical trials were reviewed.

BACKGROUND: At present, there are fewer studies on the monitoring of nutritional status of the residents living in the draw-down area of ThreeGorge reservoir.OBJECTIVE: To investigate the nutritional status and dietary pattern of the residents before the formation of the draw-down area of Three-Gorge reservoir, so as to provide basic data for the continuous dynamic surveillance of food and nutrition.DESIGN: A cross-sectional study.SETTING: Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, School of Public Health, Chongqing University of Medical Sciences.PARTICIPANTS: The investigation was carried out between February and March 2004 in the draw-down area of Three-Gorge reservoir with denser population, larger area and greater influence, such as Kaixian and Yunyang counties, etc. The first surveillance of food nutritional status of the residents in the draw-down area was performed in 52 urban families and 50 rural families of Kaixian county, one family member was voluntarily selected from each family, whose main duty was to buy vegetables and food. Totally 102 subjects (42 males and 60 females) were investigated in this study. At the same time, the data of physical examination and detection of blood Hb in children from Kaixian county between May 1999 and November 2003 were analyzed.METHODS: The subjects were investigated in their house with questionnaires. Their general condition of family, food consumption and dietary nutrition were surveyed and analyzed. Nutrients intake was assessed by 24-hour recall, combined with food consuming frequency questionnaire, the Engel index, which was an important index for the level of family consumption, was detected in both rural and urban residents. Engel index=cost in food/total family income×100%.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: ① Amount of food consumption, intakes of energy and nutrients in residents of the draw-down area; ② Prevalence rate of low body mass and rate of growth retardation in children of the draw-down area.RESULTS: All the 102 residents of the draw-down area entered the analysis of results without deletion. ① Amount of food consumption in residents of the draw-down area: Among the urban residents of the draw-down area, the per capita food consumption was 243 g per day, and the consumptions of vegetable, fruit and fish were lower than the average national level, but that of grease food showed a higher level. Among rural residents of Kaixian county, the per capita food consumption was 268 g per day, and the consumption of foodstuff was obviously decreased, but those of meet and grease food showed an ascending trend. ② Energy intake in residents of the draw-down area: Among urban residents of Kaixian county, the per capita energy intake was 6 909 kJ per day, which was obviously lower than that in the urban residents of Chongqing city in 1998 and the average national urban level. The per capita energy intake in rural residents of Kaixian county was 7 577 kJ per day, which was 48.4% lower than that in the urban residents of Chongqing city in 1998 and 37% lower than the average national rural level. ③ Nutritional status in children of the draw-down area: The incidence rate of low body mass in children younger than 5 years in 1999 was close to the average national level (9.6%), it was obviously decreased from 2000, and then fluctuated between 1.0% and 4.8%. Since 1999, the incidence rate of growth retardation in children younger than 5 years of Kaixian county showed a gradually descending trend, but anemia and other common diseases still kept a higher incidence rate, the detection rate of anemia was 33.5% in 1999, and decreased to 20.8% in 2003.CONCLUSION: The current nutritional status of the Kaixian people living in draw-down area of Three-Gorge reservoir still needs further improvement, and dynamic food and nutrition surveillance in succession is necessary.

With high incident of cancer and chronic disease, it is more and more important to develop palliative care; as developing later, there is neither unified palliative care mode and related policy, nor mature assessment collaboration in China. It pointed out that Australia as an advanced country with stable development of palliative care and assessment collaboration, called palliative care outcomes collaboration (PCOC). It expatiated the PCOC on structure,function and operation. China should learn from the mode of Australia palliative care assessment and management collaboration, find references to improve and further develop Chinese palliative care assessment collaboration.

Objective: To study the effects of vitamin A deficiency (VAD) on brain development, learning and memory ability in young rats. Methods: A model of VAD in female rats and the offsprings were established. The growth and development, learning and memory ability, protein content, cell proliferative cycle of cortex and hippocampus, and hippocampus cell ultrastructure changes under electron microscopy of young rats were detected. Results: (1) The weights gain in VAD rats were decreased compared with the control. (2) The learning and memory scores in VAD rats was significantly lower than those of the control. (3) The protein content of cortex and hippocampus in VAD rats were significantly lower than those of the control. (4) The cell proliferative index (PI) of cortex and hippocampus in VAD rats were higher than those of the control. (5) The synapses between hippocampus pyramidal cells and the small bubbles in synapses in VAD rats were significantly decreased compared with the control. The astrocytes of hippocampus in VAD rats were significantly increased. Degeneration was observed in many astrocytes in VAD rats. Conclusion: VAD can affect the brain development and the ability of learning and memory in young rats.

Aim To investigate the effect of total flavonids of Litsea coreana Leve(TFLC)on cytokines production and immunity of peritoneal macrophage(PMΦ)from collagen-induced arthritis(CIA).Methods CIA was induced with Collagen II and Feund's complete adjuvant.The effect of TFLC on CIA was evaluated by body weight, hind paw swelling and histopathological changes.Interleukin-1(IL-1)in PMΦ of CIA rats was measured by mouse thymocyte proliferation method.Interleukin-2(IL-2)in splenocytes of CIA rats was determined by mouse spleen lymphocyte proliferation reaction.Tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α)in the supernatant of PMΦ was measured by radioimmunoassay(RIA).And the mRNA expression of TNF-α was detected by RT-PCR.Phagocytosis of PMΦ was measured by neutral red method.Results TFLC(50, 100, 200 mg·kg~(-1))singnificantly inhibited the paw swelling and increased body weight of CIA rats.The pathological damage of knee joint was reversed by TFLC.TFLC(0.05, 0.5, 5 mg·L~(-1))markedly reduced IL-1 and IL-2 in CIA rats.Meanwhile, TFLC singnificantly reduced TNF-α level and inhibited the expression of TNF-α mRNA in PMΦ.Conclusion TFLC has marked therapeutic effect on CIA rats, which is related to reducing the phagocytosis and inhibiting the secretion and expression of cytokines.

Objective To investigate the effect of estrogen receptor ?(ER-?)on the formation of mice endometriosis.Methods Endometriosis animal model was established with 30 ER-? knockout(?ERKO)mice and 22 ER-? non-knockout(?ER)mice.All the mice were divided into three groups:intact group(?ERKO 10 and ?ER 8),ovariectomy group(?ERKO 10 and ?ER 7)and ovariectomy + estradiol treatment group(?ERKO 10 and ?ER 7).The endometriotic grafts were taken out from all the mice 2 weeks after operation,and the weight,histological structure and the expression of MMP-9 in the grafts were analyzed and compared between ?ERKO and ?ER mice.Results The endometriotic grafts were significantly heavier 2 weeks after transplantation than that before transplantation in intact group(P0.05).In addition,no significant differences were found between the ?ERKO and the ?ER mice in endometriotic grafts' weight,the histopathologic structure and the expression of MMP-9.Conclusion ER-? may throw few influence on the formation of endometriosis.

Objective To observe the effects of LPS and PMA on proliferation of human len epithelial( HLE )cells and expression of epidermal growth factor receptor(EGFR) in HLE cells.Methods The expressions of EGFR protein of HLE cells from felus,adult lens age-related cataract and cultured HLE cells were detected by immunohistochemical staining.The expression of EGFR mRNA was detected by RT-PCR.The effects of LPS (0.5,1.0,2.0 mg?L-1 ) and PMA(25,50,100 nmol?L-1 )on proliferation of HLE cells were detected by MTT colorimetry method,and the EGFR mRNA expression in HLE cells was determined by RT-PCR. Results The expressions of EGFR protein and mRNA were positive in HLE cells from felus,adult lens age-related cataract and cultured HLE cells.The proliferation rates of HLE cells treated with 0.5,1.0,2.0 mg?L-1 LPS were (3.21?0.42)%,(12.25?1.34)% and (36.67?3.65)%,respectively.The proliferation rate of HLE cells in 2.0 mg?L-1 LPS group was higher than those in 0.5 and 1.0 mg?L-1 LPS groups(F=7.709,P0.05).PMA(25,50,100 nmol?L-1 )could not effect the expression of EGFR mRNA in HLE cells .Conclusion Inflammation stimulant factor such as LPS can promote the proliferation of HLE cells by increasing the expression of EGFR and result in occurrence of posterior capsular opacifition(PCO).

Objective:To investigate the effect of all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) on the differentiation of marrow stromal stem cells(MSCs)into neurons. Methods: Rat MSCs were expanded as undifferentiated cells in culture for 5-7 passages and pretreated with ATRA for 24 h, then induced by modified neuronal medium (MNM) for 18 h. The control cells were directly cultured in MNM without ATRA pretreatment. Immunocytochemistry was used to detect the expression of nestin, neuron-specific enolase (NSE), neuron-specific nuclear protein (NeuN) and microtuble-associated protein (MAP-2) in the experimental groups and the control cells. The change of cell proliferative cycles and the expression of retinoic acid receptor beta (RAR?) were detected before and after ATRA treatment. Results: 1. The expression of nestin, NSE, NeuN and MAP-2 was much higher than that of the control group. 2. No changes were found in the cell proliferative cycles before and after ATRA treatment. 3. No expression of RAR? was found in MSCs; but positive expression of RAR? was detected afer 24 h of ATRA treatment and it was (20.3?4.2)%. Conclusion: ATRA can activate gene transcription via nuclear receptor RAR? and promote MSCs transdifferentiation into neurons.