Objective: To evaluate the preliminary effect for serum albumin (ALB) level in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) treated by cardiac resynchronization (CRT).
Methods: A total of 54 CHF patients treated in our hospital from 2009-01 to 2013-12 were studied. The patients were divided into 2 groups: CRT group and Control group, in which the patients were treated by medication. n=27 in each group. The blood test of biochemistry, 24 hour dynamic ECG monitoring with QRS duration, echocardiography, ALB level, heart rate (HR), left ventricular end-diastolic dimension (LVEDD) and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) were recorded at admission as baseline information, and the above examinations were repeated 2 to 3 times during 6-15 months of follow-up period.
Results: The age, gender and baseline information were similar between 2 groups. Compared with admission, during followed-up period, CRT group had increased ALB, LVEF, P<0.05, decreased HR, P<0.001, shorter QRS duration, P<0.001 and LVED remained similar;while Control group had decreased ALB, P<0.05 and LVEF, LVED, QRS duration, HR remained similar. Logistic regression analysis indicated that in CRT group, with adjusted LVEF, QRS duration and ALB, serum ALB level was the most relevant indicator for CRT efifcacy, P<0.01.
Conclusion: CRT could improve the cardiac function and increase ALB in CHF patients, therefore serum ALB level might be related to CRT efifcacy at certain degree.

Sepsis is one of the most common pathogenetic causes of acute lung injury (ALI), and at present there is still a lack of effective targeted techniques and methods for its prevention and treatment. Autophagy is a homeostatic mecha- nism common to all eukaryotic cells, including adaption to environment, defense against invasion of pathogens, and maintenance of cellular homeostasis. Autophagy is also involved in a variety of lung-related diseases. In septic lung injury, autophagy not only serves to dissipate dysfunctional organelles, but also inhibits the release of inflammatory cytokines. This review aims at eliciting the role of autophagy in sepsis-induced ALI and further exploring the potential targets of autophagy in inhibiting inflammation, in an effort to provide a new perspective for clinical treatment of sepsis-induced ALI.
Acute Lung Injury ; etiology ; metabolism ; Autophagy ; Cytokines ; metabolism ; Inflammation ; metabolism ; Lung ; metabolism ; Lung Injury ; Sepsis ; complications ; metabolism

Objective To investigate the effect of Valsartan on Disintegrin metalloproteinases (ADAMs10,17) expressions in the process of heart failure (HF) after myocardial infarction (MI).MethodsAdult male Wistar rats weighing (200 ± 30) g were given humane care in compliance with the rules of the Animal Experimentation Committee of the first hospital of Harbin Medical University.And then the left anterior descending coronary artery was ligated.Based on UCG (LVEF ＜ 45％) Results The successfully MI-operated Wistar rats were divided randomly (random number) into three groups:HF group (HF group),placebo group (Pla group) and valsartan group (Val group).The rats in the Pla group and Val group were given the same volume of normal saline and valsartan 50 mg/ (kg · d),provided by Novartis company) by gavage.After 16 weeks,heart function was assessed by hemodynamic evaluation and serum TNF-α from LV cavity was measured by ELISA (R&D,USA).Muscle samples were extracted from the ischemic zone,and then the ADAMs 10,17 expressions were measured by immunoblotting.All the data were expressed by mean ± standard and evaluated by Student' s t test.Results After 16 weeks,the data of LV function including LVdp/dt LVdp/dtmin and LVSP were significantly improved in Val group than the others (P =0.006,P =0.015,P =0.003),and the LVEDP level was decreased (P =0.002).At the same time,the TNF-o level in the Val group was lower than that in the HF group (P =0.023).The ADAM17 and TNF-R1 expressions in the Val group was reduced compared with those in the HF group (P =0.01 1,P =0.022).However,ADAM10 expression is unchangeable in the four groups.Conclusions Valsartan may reduce the ADAM17 and TNF-R1 expressions in the ischemic zone,decrease the TNF-αconcentration and function in LV cavity so as to inhibit cardiac remodeling and improve heart function after MI.

Objective To investigate the value of 18F-FDG PET-CT in detection and accurate staging of extranodal non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL).Methods The results of PET-CT of 94 patients with NHL were retrospectively analyzed.The consistency of checking out lesions and accurate staging by PET-CT were compared with those by other imaging examination in extranodal NHL.Results 432 lesions were checked out by PET-CT, including 319 (73.8 ％) lymphoid tissues and organs with the average SUVmax of 13.4 (3.4-33.4), and 113 (26.2 ％) extranodal lesions with the average SUVmax of 13.5 (3.1-55.0).The detection consistent rate between CT and PET-CT for lymphoid tissues and lymph organ lesions was 95 ％, while the consistent rate of the extranodal lesions was only 54.9 ％.The detection rates of PET-CT for soft tissue, bone and gastrointestinal lesions were higher than those of CT, but the detection rate for the bone marrow lesion was lower than that for the bone marrow cytology.According to the results of PET-CT, the stages of 29 patients (31.0 ％) were re-adjusted, including up-regulated for 75.9 ％ (22/29) because of high detection rates of PET-CT for soft tissue and skeletal lesions, and down-regulated for 24.1％ (7/29) mainly due to the strong resolution capability of PET-CT for detection of non-neoplastic lymph nodes and spleen increasing or effusion.Conclusion 18F-FDG PET-CT can improve the detection rate of NHL extranodal lesions, especially for diffuse non-mass lesions in bone and soft tissues, which facilitates the accurate lymphoma staging.

BACKGROUND:Primary culture in vitro of neurons plays an important role in the development, regeneration, signal transduction mechanisms, neuropharmacology and gene expressions of the nervous system.
OBJECTIVE:To establish a simple method for primary culture of high-purity cortical neurons in neonatal Sprague-Dawley rats.
METHODS:Cortical tissues were acquired from neonatal Sprague-Dawley rats born 1 day. In traditional experimental group, the whole cortex was removed;in improved experimental group, the cortical tissues, 2-3 mm thick on the brain surface were removed. Single cel suspensions were prepared after papain digestion and centrifugation and were then seeded onto 24-wel culture plates containing neuron solutions for primary culture (1×105 per wel ). Cel s were identified by neuronal specific markers MAP-2 and Tuj1 after 3-day culture. The number of neurons and neurite length were observed under inverted phase contrast microscope and recorded at 6, 24, 48 and 72 hours, 5 and 7 days of culture, resprctively.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:The cultured cel s expressing MAP-2 and Tuj1 were neurons that could be used in the fol owing experiments. The purity of neurons in the improved experimental group was 92%at 3 days, while only 51%in the traditional experimental group. Cel s in both two groups had attached to the wal presenting with smal processes at 6 hours, and a simple neural network formed at the 3rd day until dense neural networks could be found at the 5th day. To conclude, our culture method herein is simple and convenient, and can be used to produce neurons with high purity, which wil be helpful for the experimental studies on cortical neurons from Sprague-Dawley rats.

Objective · To improve the surgical procedure of correcting upper eyelid retraction.Methods · Patients suffering upper eyelid retraction of 2-5 mm caused by thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy were treated with modified levator lengthening technique in Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital (Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine,China) from July 2013 to December 2014.Results· Of the 34 patients underwent the modified levator lengthening surgery for upper eyelid retraction correction,there were 7 males and 27 females.After 6 months,upper eyelid retraction got fully resolved in 25 cases and partly improved in 9 cases.The palpebral fissure height demonstrated an average decrease of 3.7 mm (P=0.000).Patient's ocular discomfort such as photophobia and tearing were either cured or improved.Conclusion · Modified levator lengthening surgery can effectively correct upper eyelid retraction,improve the patient's appearance and cure their ocular discomfort.

BACKGROUND: Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress has been proved to be related to the occurrence of diabetes, dilated cardiomyopathy and neurodegenerative diseases. Indeed, it is closely associated with osteoarthritis. OBJECTIVE: To explore the effect of ER stress on the chondrocyte viability as well as the occurrence and development of osteoarthritis in rats. METHODS: Rat chondrocytes were isolated and cultured, and the ER stress in the rat chondrocytes was by 10 mg/L tunicamycin. The expression levels of ER stress markers C/EBP-homologous protein and 78 kDa glucose-regulated protein were detected by western blot assay, and the proliferation and apoptosis of chondrocytes were detected by cell counting kit-8 assay and AnnexinV-FITC flow cytometry, respectively. In the in vivo experiment, 15 Sprague-Dawley rats were selected and subjected to anterior cruciate ligament transection and medial meniscectomy to establish an animal model of osteoarthritis. Tunicamycin, tauroursodeoxycholic acid and PBS (blank control group) were respectively injected into the articular cavity, and then the progression of osteoarthritis was assessed by hematoxylin-eosin staining at 4 weeks after treatment. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: After addition of tunicamycin, the expression levels of C/EBP-homologous protein and 78 kDa glucose-regulated protein were significantly upregulated, the viability of chondrocytes was decreased gradually, while the apoptotic rate was increased significantly. Results from gross observation and hematoxylin-eosin staining suggested that tunicamycin promoted the progression of osteoarthritis and tauroursodeoxycholic acid delayed the deterioration of cartilage in the rats. These findings indicate that ER stress results in the decreased chondrocyte viability and increased apoptosis, which may be an important pathogenesis of osteoarthritis. Additionally, tauroursodeoxycholic acid can effectively alleviate osteoarthritis induced by ER stress.

Objective:To investigate the treatment methods of peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL).Methods:The clinical data of 251 newly treated PTCL patients in the First Hospital of Jilin University from August 2011 to October 2021 were retrospectively analyzed, from which 168 patients were intercepted from February 2015 (the first targeted drug of PTCL, chidamide, was launched in China) to October 2021, among which 20 patients received chemotherapy combined with brentuximab vedotin (BV, BV group), 37 patients received chemotherapy combined with chidamide (chidamide group), and 111 patients received non-targeted therapy (non-targeted therapy group); all patients received ≥2 courses of treatment. Ten patients received autologous peripheral blood hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, with non-transplanted patients in the same period as controls. The clinical efficacy and prognosis of patients with different treatment methods were analyzed. Kaplan-Meier method was used for survival analysis and log-rank test was performed.Results:Of all 251 patients with PTCL, 26.7% (67/251) received targeted therapy in combination with chemotherapy. In the chidamide group, the efficacy could be evaluated in 36 cases, with an overall response rate (ORR) of 91.7% (33/36); in the non-targeted therapy group, the efficacy could be evaluated in 88 cases, with an ORR of 71.6% (63/88); in the BV group, 20 cases were evaluable, with an ORR of 75.0% (15/20). The difference in ORR between the non-targeted therapy group and the chidamide group was statistically significant ( χ2 = 5.89, P = 0.015), and the difference in ORR between the non-targeted therapy group and the BV group was not statistically significant ( χ2 = 0.09, P = 0.759). The 1-year progression-free survival (PFS) rates were 79.9%, 88.2% and 64.2%, and the 1-year overall survival (OS) rates were 85.7%, 89.7% and 70.1% in the chidamide, BV and non-targeted therapy groups, respectively; the PFS and OS in the chidamide and BV groups were better than those in the non-targeted therapy group (all P < 0.05), and the adverse effects were mostly tolerable. Among patients treated with chemotherapy combined with BV, the ORR of patients with CD30 expression rate <60% and ≥60% were 54.5% (6/11) and 100.0% (9/9), and the difference was statistically significant ( P = 0.038). In the 10 hematopoietic stem cell transplanted patients and 50 non-transplanted patients, 1-year PFS rates were 87.5% and 59.5%, 1-year OS rates were 90.0% and 67.1%, and the differences were not statistically significant (both P > 0.05). Conclusions:Chemotherapy-based combination therapy is the main treatment methods for PTCL, and chemotherapy combined with chidamide or BV targeted therapy and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation can improve the long-term survival of PTCL patients.

Objective:To investigate whether endogenous hydrogen sulfide (H2 S)was involved in the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis (OA)and its underlying mechanism,to detect H2 S and its synthases ex-pression in knee cartilage in patients diagnosed with different severity of OA,and to explore the transcrip-tion and expression of gene MMP-13 in chondrocytes treated with IL-1βor H2S.Methods:Synovial fluids of the in-patients with different severity of OA hospitalized in Peking University First Hospital were collected for measurement of H2 S content using methylene blue assay.Articular cartilages of the patients who underwent knee arthroplasty were collected for the cell culture of relatively normal chondrocytes.The chondrocytes were cultured to the P3 generation and H2 S molecular probes were used for detection of endogenous H2 S generation in the chondrocytes.Immunocytochemistry was used to detect the localization of H2 S synthases including cystathionine β-synthase (CBS),cystathionine-γ-lyase (CSE),and mercap-topyruvate sulfurtransferase (MPST)in OA chondrocytes.Western blot was used to quantify the protein expressions of CSE,MPST,and CBS in cartilage tissues of the patients who were diagnosed with OA and underwent knee arthroplasty.The relatively normal human chondrocytes were cultured to passage 3 and then divided into 4 groups for different treatments:(1 )the normal control group,no reagent was added;(2)the IL-1βgroup,5 μg/L of IL-1βwas added;(3)the IL-1β+H2S group,200 μmol/L of NaHS was added 30 min before adding 5 μg/L of IL-1β;(4)the H2 S group,200 μmol/L of NaHS was added. The transcription and expression of gene MMP-13 in chondrocytes of each group were determined with Real-time PCR and Western blot,respectively.And the total NF-κB p65 and phosphorylated NF-κB p65 in chondrocytes were detected with Western blot.Results:The content of H2 S in the synovial fluid of degenerative knee was (14.3 ±3.3)μmol/L.Expressions of endogenous H2 S and its synthases including CBS,CSE and MPST were present in the cytoplasm of chondrocytes.CSE protein expression in Grade 3 (defined by outerbridge grading)cartilage tissues was significantly increased as compared with that of Grade 1 cartilage tissues (1.67 ±0.09 vs.1.26 ±0.11,P<0.05).However,no significant difference of CBS or MPST expression among the different groups was observed.The expression of MMP-13 protein in the IL-1βgroup was significantly higher than that in the normal chondrocytes (1 .87 ±0.67 vs.0.22 ± 0.10,P<0.05 ),and that in the IL-1β+H2 S group was significantly decreased than that in the IL-1βgroup (0.55 ±0.11 vs.1.87 ±0.67,P<0.05),and that in the H2S group had no significant difference compared with that in the normal control group.The transcription of MMP-13 protein in the IL-1βgroup was significantly higher than that in the normal chondrocytes (31.40 ±0.31 vs.1.00 ±0.00,P<0.05), and that in the IL-1β+H2 S group was significantly decreased than that in the IL-1βgroup (24.41 ± 1.28 vs.31.40 ±0.31,P<0.05),and that in the H2S group had no significant difference compared with that in the normal control group.The total NF-κB p65 in the IL-1βgroup was significantly higher than that in the normal chondrocytes (2.13 ±0.08 vs.0.73 ±0.08,P<0.05),and that in the IL-1β+H2S group was significantly decreased than that in the IL-1βgroup (1 .24 ±0.13 vs.2.13 ±0.08,P<0.05 ),and that in the H2 S group had no significant difference compared with that in the normal control group.The phosphorylated NF-κB p65 in IL-1βgroup was significantly higher than that in the normal chondrocytes (1.30 ±0.13 vs.0.19 ±0.04,P<0.05),and that in IL-1β+H2S group was significantly decreased than that in the IL-1βgroup (0.92 ±0.26 vs.1.30 ±0.13,P<0.05),and that in the H2S group had no significant difference compared with that in the normal control group.Conclusion:H2 S affected the cartilage degeneration by partly inhibiting the degradation of extracellular matrix.