Normally, pancreatic islet?-cell mass is regulated by?-cell replication, neogenesis, apoptosis and cell size.?-cell mass in diabetic patients is conspicuously less than that in normal persons. Decline of?-cell mass is mainly caused by increased?-cell apoptosis. The change of?-cell mass is clinically becoming more and more important in regard to the progression of diabetes mellitus.

Objective To study the effects of mild and moderate iodine excess on thyroid function and morphology in Wistar rats with iodine deficiency. Methods Rats with iodine-deficiency were prepared by drinking 1% postassium perchlorate solution followed by drinking double distilled water (DDW) containing 0 ?g/L (iodine deficient control) iodine load, 840 ?g/L or 1680 ?g/L iodine load. Normal rats in DDW group drank DDW with 0 ?g/L iodine and had common diet. Serum TSH was measured with solid phase radioimmunoassay (IRMA) and serum TT_4, TT_3, rT_3 and thyroid TT_4 with radioimmunoassay (RIA). Thyroid morphological changes were observed under optical and electron microscopes. Metamorphic imaging system was used to measure the height of thyrocytes and the area of thyroid follicular cavities. Results At the 90 th day after starting treatment, serum TSH levels in 840 ?g/L iodine group and 1680 ?g/L iodine group were markedly lower than that in iodine-deficient control group (both P

Objective To investigate the effects of acupuncture on morphology and apoptosis related gene expression of lacrimal gland in dry eye model rabbit,and explore the possible mechanism of acupuncture on dry eye.Methods Eighteen healthy New Zealand white rabbits were randomly divided into three groups:blank group,model group,acupuncture group,6 rabbits in each group.Blank group did not accept any treatment.Model group and acupuncture group were treated with subcutaneous injections of scopolamine hydrobromide,4 times a day with the dose of 2.0 mg · kg-1,when the acupuncture group was also treated with acupuncture,once a day for fourteen days.Three groups were examined Schirmer Ⅰ test (S Ⅰt) at different stages,and morphological changes of lacrimal gland under light and electron microscope were observed.The immunohistochemical method was used to detect the protein levels of apoptosis related gene in lacrimal gland of all rabbits.Results Between the acupuncture group and model group,the S Ⅰt was significantly different on day 4,7,14 (all P ＜ 0.05).At the same time,compared with that before experiment,S Ⅰt had no significant difference on day 14 in acupuncture group (P ＞ 0.05).Optical and electron microscope showed the lacrimal gland epithelial cells of acupuncture group closely arranged with abundant cytoplasm,closed to that of the blank group.Meanwhile,the number of lacrimal epithelium cells with Bax,Fas and FasL positive expression was significantly less than that in the model group (all P ＜ 0.05).But when it compared with blank group,there was no significant difference of Bax/Bcl-2 and Fas/FasL positive expression in acupuncture group (all P ＞ 0.05).Conclusion Acupuncture can restrain the apoptosis and gland atrophy of lacrimal gland tissue of dry eye rabbit,and promote metabolism,thereby increase the tear secretion.

MATLAB Image Processing Toolbox (IPT) was used to analyze the filtered images and draw the gray value contrast curve respectively between cancerous and normal regions of liver tissue,and also detect the edge of the cancerous tissue region. Cancerous and normal region of 30 subjects were assessed with gray value curve. The change of cancerous region was significantly higher than the normal one. The gray value curve can effectively quantify the gray information of the image. Quantitative image parameters have an important reference value on the clinical diagnosis of liver cancer.

Objective To explore the relationship between expressions of VEGF-C, VEGF-D and metastasis in papillary carcinoma of the thyroid. Methods Immunohistochemical method was used to detect the microvessel density(MVD) and expressions of VEGF-C and VEGF-D protein in 20 samples of nodular goiter and 115 samples with papillary carcinoma of the thyroid. Results The positive rates of VEGF-C and VEGF-D protein in nodular goiter were 15.0% and 20.0% respectively, and those in papillary carcinoma of the thyroid were 87.0% and 72.2%, respectively. The intratumour MVD in nodular goiter and papillary carcinoma of the thyroid was 15.2?6.7 and 21.5?8.5 respectively. The expressions of VEGF-C, VEGF-D protein and MVD in papillary carcinomas of the thyroid were significantly higher than those of nodular goiter. The expressions of VEGF-C and VEGF-D protein were closely related to lymph node metastasis of papillary carcinoma of the thyroid(P

Indocyanine green (ICG) is a fluorescent dye which has various advantages including high absorption,low toxicity,not involved in biotransformation in vivo and rapid excretion in near-infrared range.Due to the high penetrating ability in biological tissues and low rate of being affected by other factors,near-infrared optical imaging has become a major method of functional imaging and diagnosis.It shows great prospects in optical detection.As the only clinical using near-infrared optical imaging contrast enhancer approved by FDA,ICG has been widely used in biomedical imaging,photodynamic therapy,pathology detection and many other medical related areas.This article focuses on the recent development of ICG application,especially concentrates on the clinical uses.

Objective To retrieval the ways of prevent complications of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery. Methods The operation included bullectomy in 462 patients, resection of mediastinal tumor or cyst in 86; esophageal diseases in 94, lobectomy or wedge resection of lung in 140, VATS hemostasis in 22, partial pericardial or pleural excision in 54 and biopsy for undetermined chest diseases in 54. Combined anesthesia with intubations of double lumen tracheal tube was performed in 866 patients and single-lumen tracheal tube in 46. Results 886 operations were completed by VATS, and 26cases were converted into thoracotomy for various reasons. Complications occurred in 36 patients (3.95%), including 10 cases occurred during the operation (esophageous mucous rupture in 4, nerve injury in 2 and insufficient hemostasis leading to postoperative bleeding in 4). 26 cases (2.85%) developed complications postoperatively, including persistent air leak (≥7 days) in 19, pleural effusion making a second water-sealed drainage necessary in 3, atrial fibrillation in 2 and infection in 1. One died for respiratory failure on the fifth postoperative day. Conclusion VATS experience should be gained systematically. In order to reduce the complications, more attentions must be paid to training of the thoracic surgeons in order to master the skill and the correlated knowledge of VATS.

Objective To discuss the necessity of mediastinal lymph node dissection in the resection of lung cancer. Method 740 patients with lung cancer underwent lobectomy or pneumonectomy during Jan. 1987 to Dec. 2002 in our hospital were retrospectively analyzed. Totally 3492 lymph nodes were removed and checked up pathologically. Result Lymph nodes with metastasic were confirmed in 362 out of the 740 cases, and the metastasis ratio was 48.9%, and among them in 276 patients suffered N_2 lesion, with the ratio of 37.3%. The statistic result showed that lymph node metastasis was correlated to the location, cell type, the size, T stage and differentiation of lung cancer. Conclusion Lymph node metastasis in lung cancer is common and related to multiple factors. In order to obtain radical cure, both mediastinal and hilar lymph nodes should be removed.

Aim To observe the effects of liver cirrho-sis on the expression of transforming growth factor-β1 ( TGF-β1 ) and ColⅠin rat myocardium and interven-tion of erythropoietin ( EPO ) . Methods Thirty-six male Sprague-Dasley rats were randomly divided into three groups:control group, liver cirrhosis group and EPO group, then the cardic hemodynamic parameters in vivo and levels of serum lactate dehydrogenase ( LDH ) as well as creatine kinase isoenzyme ( CK-MB) were measured. With Masson′s trichrome stain, changes of collagen formation of myocardial tissue in different groups were observed. Also the mRNA ex-pressions of TGF-β1 and ColⅠin myocardium were de-tected by RT-PCR. Results In contrast to control group, rats in liver cirrhosis group showed a decline in systolic and diastolic function of left ventricule, rising myocardial enzyme, a distinct increase of cardiac colla-gen deposition, as well as an elevation of TGF-β1 and ColⅠmRNA expressions. In contrast to liver cirrhosis group, rats in EPO group demonstrated an improve-ment in systolic and diastolic function of left ventricule as well as in cardiac collagen deposition, and a de-crease in both myocardial enzyme and TGF-β1 and ColⅠmRNA expressions. Conclusion Liver cirrhosis can lead to the changes of myocardial structure and function in rats,and it can accelerate myocardial inter-stitial fibrosis; EPO can protect the myocardial injury in liver cirrhosis rats.