Chinese medicine and traditional health care are valuable cultural heritage in our country,it proves the theory and practice of the two all play an enormous role in the mankind's health for centuries,theories of the two all have a close connection.

Objective To investigate the MR imaging (MRI) appearances of postoperative residual liver after hepatic resection for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and the MRI features of tumor recurrences.Methods Twenty patients with previous surgical resection of HCC underwent MR examination of upper abdomen for routine follow-up study or due to clinical suspicion of tumor recurrence. MRI protocol included T1W axial unenhanced images and Gadolinium-enhanced sequences, Gadolinium-enhanced VIBE sequence, unenhanced T2W axial images and coronal TrueFisp sequence.Results Thirteen patients showed normal edge of surgical resection, while 6 patients demonstrated MR signs of incision edge recurrence of HCC and 1 patient was suspicious of tumor recurrence at the incision edge. Among the 20 patients, 12 had MRI features of tumor recurrence of the residual liver, including invasion of left, right and common hepatic ducts 3 cases. Three patients had metastatic lymphadenopathy in portal hepatis, portacaval space and retroperitoneal space. Two patients showed extensive tumor implantation of peritoneum and mesentery. Conclusion MRI is effective in differentiating normal surgical incision edge of residual liver from tumor recurrence. It is also very useful for the early detection of intra-hepatic and extra-hepatic tumor lesions.

AIM: HLCDG1 is a novel gene cloned recently, and its expression inhibits significantly the growth of A549 cells and tumorigenesis of A549 cells transplanted in nude mice. In this study, our aim was to construct HLCDG1 gene short/small interference double-strand RNA (siRNAs) expression vector and to observe its influence on cell cycle and proliferation of A549 cells. METHODS: Using RNA interference (RNAi) techniques, a DNA vector-driven siRNAs expression vector was constructed, and a lung carcinoma cell line stably expressing siRNAs was also selected. Sequentially, using flow cytometry analysis and MTT assay, the changes of cell cycle and cell proliferation in this cell line were observed. RESULTS: Four site-match and one site-mismatch plasmids were constructed, which were named pHL-si-1, pHL-si-2, pHL-si-3, pHL-si-4 and pHL-si-c. These plasmids were co-transfected with a pcDNA3.1(+)/HLCDG1 plasmid into A549 cells, respectively. Among five co-transfected A549 cell lines, a A549 cell line co-transfected by the pcDNA3.1(+)/HLCDG1 and pHL-si-1 plasmids, namely A549-HLCDG1-si-1, showed nearly complete inhibition of HLCDG1 expression. MTT assay and flow cytometry analysis indicated that A549-HLCDG1-si-1 cells, namely the HLCDG1 gene-silencing cells, got a faster growth compared with other HLCDG1 expression cell lines, and that HLCDG1 gene-silencing induced A549-HLCDG1-si-1 cells into S phase and G_2+M phase significantly. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that the HLCDG1 gene is proved to have a markedly inhibitory effect on growth in A549 lung carcinoma cells. This study might provide some understanding of the biological function and molecular mechanism of HLCDG1 gene.

Objective To assess the effectiveness of donepezil versus huperzine in the treatment of elderly patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).Methods Total 122 elderly patients with MCI were divided into two groups:donepezil treatment (5.0 mg once daily) (n=71) and huperzine treatment group (0.1 mg twice daily) (n=51).All the patients were followed up for 24 weeks.Before and 12 weeks,24 weeks after drug treatment,the cognitive functions were evaluated,including MMSE,MOCA,ADAS-cog,CDR,GDS,ADL,HIS and HAMD.Results There was no significant difference in age,sex,education time and neuropsychology rating scales between the groups before drug use.As compared with the score before drug use,the donepezil group showed a significant increase in MMSE after 12-weeks (t=4.47) or 24-weeks (t=6.16) (P＜0.01),a decrease in the score of ADAS-cog after 12-weeks (t=2.33,P＜0.05) or 24-weeks( t=3.68,P＜0.05),and an increase in the score of MOCA after 24-weeks drug use (t=2.56,P＜0.05).The huperzine group showed significant improvement in MMSE after 24-weeks drug use (t=2.80,P＜0.05),but there was no difference in other time points or in the score of MOCA and ADAS-cog as compared with the score before drug use.After 24 weeks' treatment,the donepezil group had higher MMSE (t=2.01,P＜0.05) and lower ADAS-cog (t=2.09,P＜0.05) scores than the huperzine group.30 patients (total effective rate was 42.3 ％) and 9 patients (total effective rate was 17.6 ％ ) became improved in donepezil and huperzine group,respectively,with significant difference (x2 =8.26,P＜0.01 ).There were 5 cases in the donepezil group and 3 cases in the huperzine group getting slight side-effects which disappeared by continuing to take drugs or by adjusting drug taking time.Conclusions Donepezil and huperzine as the cholinesterase inhibitors are effective and safe,and the efficacy of donepezil is faster and better in treating elderly patients with MCI.

To purify the extracellular domain of HER2 in vitro and improve its prokaryotic expression abundance, the cDNA fragment encoding extracellular domain of HER2 was obtained by PCR and cloned into the expression vector pGEX-6P-1. After transforming it into Escherichia coli BL21, we instituted an investigation of different inducing conditions to try out the optimal condition for expressing soluble fusion protein. As for insoluble inclusion bodies, they were dissolved in 8 M Urea and refolded in refolding buffer. The soluble protein and the refolded protein were purified with Glutathione Sepharose 4B, respectively. The results showed that both the soluble and insoluble protein existed in Escherichia coli, but the majority was insoluble. It is beneficial to the expression of soluble fusion protein by induction at lower temperature (30 degrees C) and higher optical density (A600= 1.8) with the use of certain additive in medium. By purification of the supernatant of the lysate and refolded protein, the yield of the fusion protein was about 1.23 mg per liter culture. As a result, we have obtained the maximum soluble extracellular domain of HER2 protein, and thus have laid a foundation for further work on functional study and antibody preparation for HER2.
Cloning, Molecular ; Escherichia coli ; genetics ; Genes, erbB-2 ; genetics ; Humans ; Prokaryotic Cells ; metabolism ; Protein Folding ; Receptor, ErbB-2 ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; Recombinant Fusion Proteins ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; isolation & purification