Animals ; Cardiovascular Diseases ; etiology ; metabolism ; Humans ; Inflammation ; metabolism ; Periodontitis ; complications ; metabolism ; microbiology ; Platelet Aggregation ; physiology ; Porphyromonas gingivalis ; pathogenicity ; RNA, Messenger ; metabolism ; Receptor, PAR-1 ; metabolism ; Receptor, PAR-2 ; genetics ; metabolism ; Receptors, Proteinase-Activated ; metabolism ; Receptors, Thrombin ; metabolism

In order to explore the dose-response patterns of Gancao (Radix Glycyrrhizae) in Shanghan Lun (Treatise on Febrile Diseases), all prescriptions containing Gancao in Shanghan Lun were analyzed by frequency and hierarchical clustering analysis. The doses of Gancao used in Shanghan Lun ranged from six zhu (Chinese unit, and one zhu is equal to 0.65 g) to four liang (Chinese unit, and one liang is equal to 15.625 g). Doses of one, two, three or four liang were commonly used. One liang Gancao as juvantia was usually matched with Mahuang (Herba Ephedrae), Xingren (Semen Armeniacae) and Guizhi (Ramulus Cinnamomi) for restricting the excessive diaphoresis of Mahuang. Two liang Gancao was often matched with some couple drugs, such as Guizhi and Shaoyao (Radix Paeoniae), Shigao (Gypsum Fibrosum) and Zhimu (Rhizoma Anemarrhenae), Fuzi (Radix Aconiti Lateralis) and Ganjiang (Rhizoma Zingiberis), for warming yang to supplement qi, nourishing yin, detoxifying Fuzi, and preventing qi impairment from heat evil. Three liang Gancao was mainly matched with Banxia (Rhizoma Pinelliae) or Renshen (Radix Ginseng) for treating middle energizer emesis. Four liang Gancao was matched with Ganjiang or tonifying herbs for invigorating vital qi and relieving spasm in deficiency syndromes with contraction, palpitation or diarrhea. Gancao is used for treating many syndromes in Shanghan Lun. It is frequently used to treat excess or heat syndromes with one or two liang in a dose and deficiency or cold syndromes with three or four liang in a dose.

Objective To explore the clinical significance of urine transferrin testing in the diagnosis of early pregnancy-induced hypertension syndrome (PIH).Methods Sixty-eight PIH patients (PIH group) who received treatment from January 2012 to October 2013 were enrolled in this study.Mild PIH was 21 patients,midrange PIH was 24 patients and severe PIH was 23 patients.Meanwhile,68 cases of healthy person were selected as control group.The level of urine transferrin,urea and creatinine were compared between two groups.Results The level of urine transferrin,urea and creatinine in PIH group were significantly higher than those in control group[(3.01 ± 1.82) mg/L vs.(1.29 ± 0.88) mg/L,(13.12 ± 5.51) mmol/L vs.(6.23 ± 3.68) mmol/L,(135.5 ± 62.3) μ mol/L vs.(85.1 ± 38.2) μ mol/L] (P ＜ 0.05).The sensitivity of urine transferrin,urea and creatinine in mild PIH was 76.19％,61.90％,57.14％.In midrange PIH was 75.00％,79.17％,75.00％.In severe PIH was 78.26％,86.96％,73.91％.The specificity of urine transferrin,urea and creatinine was 80.65％,56.45％,58.06％.The sensitivity of different degree of PIH was exceeded 75.00％.The sensitivity of urine transferrin in mild PIH was significantly higher than urea and creatinine (P ＜ 0.05).But the sensitivity of urine transferrin in midrange PIH and severe PIH had no significant difference (P ＞ 0.05).The specificity of urine transferrin was significantly higher than urea and creatinine (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions Urine transferrin is a good index in diagnosis of early PIH,which can reflect the early injury degree of the renal tubular and glomerular.It has active and important significance for the clinical diagnosis and treatment of PIH.

Hypertension is an important risk factor for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases,which can damage structure and function of vital organs such as the heart,brain and kidney.Pseudo hypertension (PHT) refers to the blood pressure measured by ordinary cuffmanometry is higher than that of the arterial puncture,which is an essential factor of refractory hypertension.Recent findings have suggested that the elderly patients with concomitant history of atherosclerotic disease,renal insufficiency,and diabetes mellitus have the highest risk of pseudohypertension.The incidence rate ofpseudohypertension is about 1.7％-50％ in domestic and international studies.In the clinical treatment,the misdiagnosis of hypertension of patients with excessive blood pressure will lead to severe perfusion defects.In this review,we will focus on the diagnosis and pathogenesis of pseudohypertension.

Objective To investigate the expressions of cancerous inhibitor of protein phosphatase 2A (CIP2A) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in hepatocellular carcinomas and their clinical significance.Methods The expressions of CIP2A and VEGF proteins were tested with immunohistochemistry in 60 cases of hepatocellular carcinomas and adjacent paracancerous tissues.Results The positive rate of CIP2A in hepatocellular carcinomas was significantly higher than adjacent paracancerous tissues (83.3％ vs 9.5％,P ＜ 0.05).Significant differences were also observed in the expression rate of VEGF between the patients with hepatocellular carcinomas and paracancerous tissues (75.0％ vs 14.3％,P ＜0.05).The expression of CIP2A in hepatocellular carcinomas was significantly positively correlated with its pathological grading,differentiation,and tumor node metastasis (TNM) stage (P ＜ 0.05).The expression of VEGF in hepatocellular carcinomas was significantly positively correlated with its pathological grading,differentiation,and TNM stage (P ＜ 0.05).Significantly positive correlation was found between expressions of CIP2A and VEGF with Spearman correlation analysis (rs =0.465,P ＜ 0.01).Conclusions The abnormal expressions of CIP2A and VEGF gene may promote tumor angiogenesis and progression of a hepatocellular carcinoma.The study supports positive regulation between expressions of CIP2A and VEGF in a hepatocellular carcinoma.

To understand the structure of the soluble region of Enterovirus 68 3A protein, we construct a prokaryotic expression vector expressing the soluble region of EV-D68 3A protein, and identify the forms of expression product after purification. The EV-D68 3A(1-61) gene was amplified by PCR and then cloned into the expression vector pET-28a-His-SUMO. The recombinant plasmid was transformed into Escherichia coli BL21 induced by IPTG to express the fusion protein His-SUMO-3A(1-61). The recombinant protein was purified by Ni-NTA Agarose and cleaved by ULP Protease to remove His-SUMO tag. After that, the target protein 3A(1-61) was purified by a series of purification methods such as Ni-NTA, anion exchange chromatography and gel filtration chromato- graphy. Chemical cross-linking reaction assay was taken to determine the multiple polymerization state of the 3A soluble region. A prokaryotic expression vector pET28a-His-SUMO-3A(1-61) expressing the solution region of EV-D68 3A was successfully constructed and plenty of highly pure target proteins were obtained by multiple purification steps . The total protein amount was about 5 mg obtained from 1L Escherichia coli BL21 with purity > 95%. At the same time, those results determined the homomultimer form of soluble 3A construct. These data demonstrated that the expression and purification system of the soluble region of 3A were successfully set up and provide some basic konwledge for the research about 3A crystal structure and the development of antiviral drugs targeted at 3A to block viral replication.
Amino Acid Sequence ; Enterovirus D, Human ; chemistry ; genetics ; metabolism ; Escherichia coli ; genetics ; metabolism ; Gene Expression ; Models, Molecular ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Protein Structure, Tertiary ; Sequence Alignment ; Viral Proteins ; chemistry ; genetics ; metabolism

Objective To investigate the relationship between interleukin (IL)-34 and bone erosions in psoriatic arthritis (PsA) patients.Methods Forty PsA patients,20 psoriasis (Ps) patients and 20 healthy volunteers were recruited into this study.The levels of IL-34 and osteoclast related cytokines [including tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α,receptor activator of nuclear factor-κB ligand (RANKL),osteoclast precursors (OPG)] were detected in the serum samples of all subjects.The correlations among IL-34,the number of osteoclast precursors (OCP),disease activity and imaging scores were analyzed.All data were analyzed by graphpad prism 6.Differences between groups was analyzed with One-way analysis of variance,q tests,and Spearman's correlation was used to explore the relation between disease activity/radiographic scores and laboratory results and followed by linear regressions.Results The serum level of IL-34 in patients with PsA [(328±476) pg/ml] was higher than that in Ps [(33±52) pg/ml,q =3.92,P＜0.01] and healthy controls [(32±32) pg/ml,q =3.93,P＜0.01],the erosive PsA group were higher than the non-erosive PsA group [(449±527) pg/ml and (47±24) pg/ml,q=4.04,P＜0.01].The levels of TNF-α,RANKL and OCP in patients with PsA [(125±79) pg/ml,(488± 475) pg/ml and (17.7±4.8) 5 sigh views] were higher than those in PS [(40±22) pg/ml,(26±3) pg/ml and (5.2± 0.8),q=7.32,6.14 and 2.94,P＜0.01] and healthy controls [(41±19) pg/ml,(65±8) pg/ml and (6.2±1.8),q=6.67,5.62 and 2.71,P＜0.01],whereas the OPG/RANKL ratio in PsA patients (0.5±0.4) was significantly lower than Ps patients (4.3±2.7,q=-3.30,P＜0.01) and healthy controls (1.8±0.6,q=-1.72,P＜0.01).IL-34,TNF-α and RANKL levels were all positively correlated with OCP (r=0.10,P＜0.05;r=0.12,P＜0.05;r=0.13,P＜0.(5,respectively).Conclusion The level of IL-34 is not only high in patients with PsA but also positively correlates with the number of OCP.In PsA,IL-34 is probably related to the OCP and osteoclast differentiation,and further participates in the process of bone destruction.Therefore,IL-34 is promising to become a new target or alternative choice for the treatment of PsA.

Objective To investigate the expressions of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K), Akt and E-cadherin and their clinical significance in thyroid papillary carcinomas.Methods Expressions of PI3K, Akt, and E-cadherin were detected in 62 cases of thyroid papillary carcinomas,30 cases of thyroid goiter and 30 cases of normal thyroid by immunohistochemistry (EnVison),and simultaneously compared with age, sex, tumor size, clinical tumor node metastasis( TNM) stages, and lymph node metastasis in thy-roid papillary carcinomas.Results The expression rate of PI3K, Akt, and E-cadherin was 74.2%(46/62), 66.1%(41/62), 16.1%(10/62),respectively.Expressions of three proteins in thyroid papillary carcinomas were significantly different from those in thyroid goiter and normal thyroid tissues ( P <0.05). The lower positive rates of PI3K and Akt proteins were obtained in the group of stageⅠ~Ⅱthan that in the group of stageⅢ~Ⅳ(χ2 =4.976, P =0.026;χ2 =6.233, P =0.013).Higher positive rates of PI3K and Akt proteins were obtained in the group of lymph-node metastasis than that in group of non-lymph-node metastasis (χ2 =6.675, P =0.010;χ2 =7.511, P =0.006).Higher positive rate of E-cadherin protein was obtained in the group of stage Ⅰ~Ⅱ than that in the group of stage Ⅲ ~Ⅳ (χ2 =6.558, P =0.010 ) .Higher positive rate of E-cadherin proteins was obtained in the group of non-lymph-node metastasis than that in the group of lymph node metastasis(χ2 =5.678, P =0.017).There was significant positive correlation between expressions of PI3K and Akt through Spearman correlation analysis ( r =0.423, P <0.05).PI3K was negatively correlated with E-cadherin with Spearman correlation analysis ( r =-0.527, P <0.05).Akt was also negatively correlated with E-cadherin ( r =-0.417, P <0.05).Conclusions PI3K/Akt pathway might regulate thyroid papillary carcinoma cells proliferation, invasion and metastasis.

Objective Little is known about the role of low oxygen concentration in the formation of the capsule of Cryptococ -cus neoformans .This study was to investigate the effect of hypoxic condition on the capsule size of Cryptococcus neoformans . Methods We cultured 39 Cryptococcus neoformans strains in liquid Sabouraud medium and then incubated them at the normoxic (21%) and hypoxic concentration (1%), respectively.After 72 hours of incubation, we observed the capsules formed at different ox-ygen conditions under the Olympus microscope and the measured their sizes using the Axiovision software . Results Of the total number of Cryptococcus neoformans strains , 30 showed larger capsules in the normoxic than in the hypoxic condition , 17 with statisti-cally significant differences in their diameters (P<0.05), while the other 9 strains exhibited just the opposite results , 4 with statisti-cally significant differences in their diameters ( P<0.05). Conclusion Hypoxia might inhibit the growth of the Cryptococcus neoformans capsule.However, further studies are needed on its correlation with the serum or gene types of the Cryptococcus neofor-mans strain.

Objective To analyze the clinical features of 385 postoperative thyroid nodules patients,and to compare the correlation affected by different factors between benign and malignant thyroid nodules.Methods Total 385 patients underwent thyroid operation in general surgery department of our hospital were enrolled.Their clinical data,ultrasonic scanning of thyroid,and pathological results were compared between benign and malignant thyroid nodules.Results (1)264 cases with benign nodules (68.57％) and 121 cases with malignant nodules (31.43 ％)were found among 385 cases.The average age of benign group was (48.1 ± 13.4) years old,while malignant nodules group was (45.6 ± 12.5) years old.(2) No gender difference was found between benign and malignant nodules group (P＞0.05).(3) According to body mass index (BMI),the highest prevalence of malignant nodules was in overweight group,followed by obesity group.(4) Fasting blood glucose was (5.61 ± 1.07) mmol/L in benign group and (5.86±1.21) mmol/L in malignant group(P＜0.05).(5) Thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) in benign nodules group was (1.62 ± 1.30) mIU/L,while in malignant nodules group,which was (2.02 ±2.59) mIU/L(P＜0.05).(6) Irregular shape,unclear boundary,calcification,and lymph node metastasis were more frequent in malignant group than those in benign group under ultrasonic scanning (P＜0.05).(7) Logistic regression analysis revealed that the existence of thyroid cancer was significantly associated with age,fasting blood glucose,ultrasonic images(lymph node metastasis,irregular shape,and calcification).Conclusion (1) Fasting blood glucose levels and TSH in the malignant nodules group are higher than those in the benign group.(2) A negative correlation exists between age and thyroid cancer prevalence.(3) Ultrasonic images,including lymph node metastasis,irregular nodule shape,and calcification,may suggest the high possibility of thyroid cancer.