Objective To report a simple, minimally invasive method of palliative drainage for symptomatic malignant ascites, in order to avoid repeated trips to hospital for paracentesis.Methods Since July 2000, 57 patients with symptomatic, large volume refractory ascites underwent percutaneous placement of Arrow catheter through a modified Seldinger technique with straight coaxial needles. There were 41 men and 16 women Age ranged from 34～83 years old with an average of 63, including 28 patients of primary liver cancer, 17 metastatic liver cancer, 5 Budd Charri syndrom, 4 pancreatic cancer, 2 peritoneal metastasis of gastric cancer and one with overian cancer. All patients underwent ascites drainage with Arrow catheter accompanied by medical treatment. Results The Arrow catheter had detained for 1 19 days with an average of 5.7 days. Draining amount of ascites was 800 12 000 ml, average 7 200 ml. No complication of sepsis, peritonitis, or significant hypotension after catheter placement but with 7 cases of persistent leakage around the catheter, 2 accidentally detached cathere, 2 cases of unfluent drainage and one case of inferior epigastric blood vessel injury.Conclusions Percutaneous placement of Arrow catheter using a modified Seldinger technique with coaxial needles is a safe, simple, and effective method for palliative drainage of malignant ascites that improves patients life quality.

After the first recognition occurs between the activated sperm and zona pellucida of the oocyte from the mammalians, ?-1,4-galactosyltransferase I (? 4GalT I) combines the N-GlcNAc terminals by O-ligands on the ZP3 of the zona pellucida, which plays a difunctional role in the fertilization. The G protein signal system on the sperm membrane then is consequently activated by ZP3 via ?4GalT I, contributing to the induction of acrosome reaction. It was proved that in the activation of the G protein system, both the BBXB and BBXXB motifs on the N terminal of the long ? 4GalT I are necessary.

OBJECTIVE To analyze impulsive-like behaviors of SD rats induced by pramipexole in Y-maze avoidance tasks. METHODS Behaviors of SD rats in Y-maze avoidance tasks were recorded with a camera and analyzed by Noldus Etho Vision XT8 software after acute subcutaneous injection of pramipexole(0.1,1 and 10 mg · kg-1),including right reaction numbers of 20 consecutive avoidance tasks,shuttle number of times between the three arms of Y-maze, distance covered in Y-maze and time spent in safe arms during 20 consecutive avoidance tasks. Then,the prepulse inhibition(PPI)of the startle reflex test was used to assess the effect of pramipexole on sensorimotor gating (SG). Effects of pramipexole on the dialyzed content of monoamine neurotransmitter and its metabolites in the striatum and amygdala of SD rats were measured by microdialysis in vivo. RESULTS Compared with normal control group,the rats of pramipexole group showed a significant increase in the shuttle number of times and distance covered in Y-maze between Y-maze avoidance tasks(P<0.01),but a statistically significant decrease in the time spent in safe arms(P<0.01),while the number of right reactions in Y-maze avoidance tasks was not changed. Such premature responses were quite similar to certain impulsive-compulsive behaviors in rodent models,such as five-choice serial reaction time tasks. In the PPI test,pramipexole displayed an impairing effect on SG(P<0.01). The microdialysis results showed that there was an increase of dopamine and 5-hydroxytryptamine in the striatum of pramipexole group, but not statistically significant. Monoamine neurotransmitters and their metabolites were not significantly changed in the amygdala. CONCLUSION Pramipexole can induce impulsive-compulsive behaviors in Y-maze avoidance tasks,which might be attributed to impaired SG.

Objective To investigate the effects of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) pretreatment on the liver function and mRNA and protein expressions of nuclear factor-KB (NF-KB) in brain-dead BA-Ma mini pigs. Methods The brain-dead model was established by increasing intracranial pressure by a modi-fied, slow and intermittent way. A total of 15 BA-Ma mini pigs were randomly and equally divided into three groups (five in each group), ie, control group (Group C) : treated only with opening and closing abdomen after anesthesia; group without NAC treatment (group B): brain-dead models without use of NAC; NAC treatment group (Group N): 1 and 12 hours after establishment of brain-dead models, 200 mg/kg NAC was added into 100 ml normal saline and intravenously transfused. Levels of ALT and AST in serum as well as TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-6 were determined at 3,6,12, 18,24 hours after brain death. The changes of liver tissues were observed by HE staining under a light microscope, the uhrastruc-rural changes of liver tissues observed under electron microscope, the expression of NF-KB detected by immnohistochemistry and change of NF-KB mRNA by RT-PCR. Results (1) Compared with Group C, serum ALT and AST began to increase at 12 hours after brain death, but IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α be-gan to increase three hours after brain death in Groups B and N. mRNA and protein expressions of NF-KB in Groups B and N began to increase six hours after brain death, when Group B increased more sharply than Group N, with statistical difference (P<0.05). (2) At 12 hours after brain death, injury of liver cells in Group B was severer than that in Group N. Conclusion NAC can inhibit the mRNA and pro-tein expressions of NF-KB, decrease the release of inflammatory factors and hence protect the hepatic structure and function during brain death.

Objective To understand the key risk factors of schistosomiasis transmission in Jingzhou City,so as to provide the evidence for improving the treatment of these risk factors. Methods Each village of six counties was investigated and 3 envi-ronments were surveyed each village for the distribution of Oncomelania snails and animal stools in the field. The results were ana-lyzed and the risk factors of schistosomiasis transmission were assessed. Results The density of living snails was 0.43 snails per 0.1 m2,the frequency of the frames with snails was 9.12%,and no schistosome infected snails were found. All of the animal stools collected from the field were from bovines. The schistosome positive rate of animal stools was 37.50%(3/8)among the environ-ments,and the schistosome infection rate of stools was 8.11%(3/37). The schistosome infection rate of animal stools was 0 near the residence living sites,and the positive rates were 12.50%and 8.33%in the ditches and slopes,respectively(χ2=0.07,P>0.05). Conclusions Bovine is still the main infectious source of schistosomiasis,i.e. the main risk factor of the disease transmis-sion. Therefore,the strategy of controlling bovine should be strengthened.

Objective To prepare recombinant adenovirus pAd-gal-9 containing murine galectin-9 and explore galectin-9's pro-apoptotic effect on T lymphocytes. Methods The recombinant adenovirus plas-mid pAd/CMV/V5-DEST-gal-9 was prepared by conventional molecular cloning and LR reaction. The pAd/ CMV/V5-DEST-gal-9 linearlized by Pac I was transfected into 293A cells with Lipofectin 2000. Eight days after transfection, the 293A cells were subjected to freeze/thraw circle for three times and the supernatant was collected after centrifugation. Higer titer pAd-gal-9 was produced by large-scale infection of 293A cells with the supernatant containing pAd-gal-9. The supernatant was condensed to get purified pAd-gal-9 by CsCl density gradient centrifugation. After titer determination with gradient dilution of harvested pAd-gal-9 infec-tion in 293A-seeded 96-wells, pAd-gal-9 was used to infect the CHO cell line. Immunohistological assay, Western blot and flow cytometry were employed to ascertain the subcellular location expression of galectin-9. We added solid-phase transgenic CHO cells or freshly-cultured supernatant to medium containing activated T cells to detect the pro-apoptotic effect of galectin-9. Results The pAd-gal-9 was prepared successful. Im-munohistochemical staining of CHO infected with pAd-gal-9 confirmed that galectin-9 was expressed in the cytosol. Intercellular staining indicated that mean fluorescence intensity of galectin-9 was significantly higher in pAd-gal-9-infected CHO group than control group. Supernatant from pAd-gal-9-infected CHO promoted the apoptosis of T cells. The percent of apoptotic T cells was higher than the Tim-3 positive T cells. Conclu-sion CHO infected with pAd-gal-9 can secret galectin-9 to promote the apoptosis of activated T cells via Tim-3-independent mechanisms.

Patient satisfaction is an important index of hospital quality evaluation and performance evaluation.This study established multi-attribute patient satisfaction index system based on the theory of customer satisfaction index,determined the index weight by combination weighting approach,and graded the hospitals and adjusted the weights by the RSR method.A set of comprehensive evaluation scheme is initially formed,which is suitable for patient satisfaction evaluation and performance evaluation.

Objective To investigate the effect of glutamine (Gln) on the content of reduced glutathione hormone (GSH) and aminoglutaminic acid (Glu) of spinal cord following ischemia-reperfusion injury. Methods Totally 40 healthy adult male rabbits were randomly divided into five groups: sham-operation group (S group), ischemia-reperfusion injury group (I/R group), low-dose glutamine group (L Gln group), median-dose glutamine group (M Gln group) and high-dose glutamine group (H Gln group). After glutamine preconditioning, the model of spinal cord ischemia-reporfasion injury was established according to Zivin's method. The general status of animals was observed and the changes of Jacobs scoring were recorded in each group. Malondialdehydes (MDA), GSH, Glu and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity in lumbar spinal cord tissues were determined using chemical colorimetry. The neuron number and deviation rate in spinal cord anterior horn were observed histopathologically. Results There was no significant difference between L Gin group and I/R group in behavior scoring, SOD activity, content of MDA and Glu, neuron number and deviation rate of spinal cord (P>0.05); however, there was a significant difference in GSH content of spinal cord (P<0.05). M Gln group and I/R group differed significantly (P<0.05) in behavior scoring, SOD activity, content of MDA, Glu, GSH, neuron number and deviation rate of spinal cord. Between H Gln group and M Gln group, there was no significant difference in behavior scoring, content of MDA and Glu, SOD activity, neuron number and aberration rate in spinal cord (P>0.05), whereas there was a significant difference in SOD activity and Giu content (P<0.05). Conclusion Pretreatment with medium-dose glutamine has a protective effect on spinal cord ischemia-reporfasion injury in rabbits, which may be related to the maintenance of GSH content, increase of SOD activity and reduction of MDA.

In order to prove that ectopic over-expression of Pim-2 could induce malignant transformation of human liver cell line L02, three groups of cells were set up including human liver cell line L02 (L02), L02 cells transfected with Pim-2 gene (L02/Pim-2) and L02 cells transfected with empty-vector (L02/Vector). Pim-2 expression levels were detected. The morphology, proliferation level, apoptosis rate and migration ability of the cells were detected respectively. Then the cells were subcutaneously inoculated into athymic mice and the microstructures of the neoplasm were observed. Compared with the controls, Pim-2 expression levels were significantly higher in L02/Pim-2 cells (P<0.05), and their morphology had obvious malignant changes. They also showed a significantly increased proliferation rate (P<0.05) and migration capacity (P<0.05), as well as a significantly decreased apoptosis rate (P<0.05). Only the athymic mice inoculated with L02/Pim-2 cells could generate neoplasm, and the morphology of the neoplasm coincided with that of the hepatoma. The results manifest that ectopic Pim-2 gene could be stably expressed in L02/Pim-2 cells. Both the morphological and biological changes of L02/Pim-2 cells demonstrate the trend of malignant transformation. L02/Pim-2 cells could generate hepatoma in athymic mice. In conclusion, Pim-2 could induce malignant transformation of human liver cell line L02.
Animals ; Apoptosis ; Cell Line ; Cell Movement ; Cell Proliferation ; *Cell Transformation, Neoplastic ; Humans ; Liver/pathology/physiology ; *Liver Neoplasms/genetics/pathology ; Mice ; Mice, Nude ; Neoplasm Transplantation ; *Oncogenes ; Protein-Serine-Threonine Kinases/genetics/*metabolism ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins/genetics/*metabolism

Objective To study the development characteristics of cavum sepit pellucidun (CSP)in prematures,neonates,infants and adults with MRI.Methods Brain MR images of different subjects including 141 prematures,106 neonates,171 infants and 35 046 adults were observed to determine the incidence and shape of CSP,and to measure its transverse diameter.Results CSP incidences were 100% (141/141)in prematures,97.17% (103/106)in neonates,2.26%(4/177)in infants and 0.82% (287/35 046)in adults respectively,and the CSP was cylinder (44.00%)or triangle in shape (56.00%)in prematures,triangle (76.40%)or fissure in shape (23.60%)in neonates.For infants or adults,each shape accounted for about a third of three kinds of shape respectively.Its mean transverse diameters were 5.7 mm in prematures,4.1 mm in neonates,13.3 mm in infants and 14.3 mm in adults respectivity.Conclusion CSP has different performances at development periods in human being brain.Most close after birth,while fewer remain in the whole life.