To evaluate the effectiveness of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) combined with western medicine on breast cancer after surgical resection.

Purpose:To determine the impact of serum tissue polypeptide specific antigen (TPS) in the treatment for advanced cancer patients. Methods:Serum TPS was examined in 60 advanced cancer cases. 42 of the patients received hepatic arterial chemoembolization or chemotherapy. For those with tumors derived from digestive system, TPS monitoring was performed in serial during the therapeutic courses. Results:No significant differentiation was observed in terms of age, gender, disease or tumor stage. Patients with initial TPS lower than 300 U/L had the most favorable response rate to treatment (PR,CR or MR) of 52.94%, while those with initial TPS higher than 1000 U/L showed no evidence of remission after therapy. 55.56% of the latter developed into PD ( P

BACKGROUND:Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) had 3 kinds of receptors in vitro. Some researches had showed that LPA1, LPA2 and LPA3 receptors distributed widely in mouse cerebral cortex, nephritic external medulla layer and internal medulla layer, spermary, thymus, heart, lung, stomach, spleen, whereas less in liver, small intestine and skeletal muscles. Whether there are various LPA receptors in mouse VSMC membrane deserves further study.OBJECTIVE: To observe the mRNA expression of LPA receptors in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC).DESIGN: Observational comparative experiment.SETTING: Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology.MATERIALS: A total of 24 C57BL/6 mice aged 7-8 weeks, of either sex, with the body mass of approximately (25±3) g,were purchased from the Animal Department of Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Trizol was purchased from America Invitrogen; dNTP Mix, Rnasin were obtained from TaKaRa; M-MLV reverse transcriptase and buffer system were from Promega; Taq DNA-polymerase and buffer system were from Biostar.Oligo(dT)18 primer were from Sangon, Shanghai. Primer sequences were designed referring to literature and nucleotide sequence database and synthesized by Sangon, Shanghai.METHODS: The experiment was conducted at the Comprehensive Laboratory, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology between August 2005 and January 2006. Mice were anaesthetized by abdominal cavity with 20 g/L ketamine (5 mL/kg). Thoracic aorta was obtained sterilely, and VSMC was cultured with adherence method. The 4th-6th passage cells were used in the trial. Cell purity was over 95%. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was applied to determine the mRNA expression of LPA receptors gene in mouse VSMC.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Detection of mRNA expression of LPA receptors in mouse VSMC and comparison of receptor types.RESULTS: There were no significant differences between the expressions of LPA1 receptors and LPA2 receptors (P ＞ 0.05). Compared with LPA1 receptors and LPA2 receptors (0.79±0.05,0.82±0.06), the LPA3 receptor expression was lower (0.53±0.05, q =23.78,26.53, P＜ 0.01 ).CONCLUSION: There are 3 kinds of LPA receptors in VSMC, and their molecular masses are 600 bp, 463 bp and 899 bp,respectively. There are no differences for the expressions between LPA1 receptors and LPA2 receptors, while the LPA3 receptor expression is less.

Cell growth profiles were evaluated in shake-flask culture to improve sclareol production by the engineered yeast strain Saccharomyces cerevisiae S7. Product formation was tightly coupled with cell growth. High cell density cultures were performed with different carbon sources using a dissolved oxygen level feedback-control strategy in a 3 L bioreactor. The titers of sclareol were 253 mg/L, 386 mg/L and 408 mg/L, respectively, when glucose, ethanol and glucose/ethanol mixture were used as the carbons sources. The maximal titer was 27-fold higher than that obtained under shake-flask culture conditions. The results suggested that the presence of ethanol was beneficial to sclareol production. These results provided useful information for optimization of yeast cell factory and efficient production of terpenoids.
Bioreactors ; Culture Media ; Diterpenes ; metabolism ; Ethanol ; Glucose ; Industrial Microbiology ; methods ; Oxygen ; Saccharomyces cerevisiae ; metabolism

OBJECTIVETo achieve early diagnosis for inheritable hearing loss and determine carrier rate of deafness causing gene mutations in order to provide information for premarital, prenatal and postnatal genetic counseling.

METHODSA total of 17 000 dried heel blood spots of normal newborns in Chengdu were collected with informed consent obtained from their parents. Genomic DNA was extracted from dried blood spots using Qiagen DNA extraction kits. Microarrays with 9 common mutation loci of 4 deafness-associated genes in Chinese population were used. Nine hot mutations including GJB2 (35delG, 176del16, 235delC and 299delAT), GJB3 (538C> T), SLC26A4 (IVS 7-2A> G, 2168A> G), and mitochondrial DNA 12S rRNA (1555A> G, 1494C> T) were detected by PCR amplification and microarray hybridization. Mutations detected by microarray were verified by Sanger DNA sequencing.

RESULTSOf the 17 000 new-borns, 542 neonates had mutations of the 4 genes. Heterozygous mutations of GJB2, at 235delC, 299delAT, and 176del16 were identified in 254, 55, and 15 newborns, respectively. Two newborns had homozygous mutation of GJB2, 235delC. Heterozygous mutations at 538C> T of GJB3, 2168A> G and IVS 7-2A> G of SLC26A4 were found in 23, 17 and 128 newborns, respectively. For mutation analysis of mitochondrial DNA 12S rRNA, 1494C> T and 1555A> G were homogeneous mutations in 4 and 42 neonates, respectively. In addition, 6 complexity mutations were detected, which demonstrated that one newborn had heterozygous mutations at GJB2 235delC and SLC26A4, IVS7-2A> G, one had heterozygous mutation GJB2 235delC and 12S rRNA homogeneous mutation, 1555 A> G, one heterozygous mutations at GJB2, 299delAT, and GJB3, 538C> T, one at GJB2, 299delAT and 12S rRNA, 1555 A> G, two at GJB2, 299delAT, and SLC26A4, IVS7-2A> G. All mutations as above were confirmed by DNA sequencing.

CONCLUSIONThe total mutation carrier rate of the 4 deafness genes is 3.19% in healthy newborns at Chengdu. Mutations of GJB2 and SLAC26A4 are major ones (86.5% of total). The mutation rate of mitochondrial DNA 12S rRNA is 2.71‰, which may have deafness induced by aminoglycoside antibiotics. Newborn screening for mutation of genes related to hereditary deafness plays an important role in the early detection and proper management for neonatal deafness as well as genetic counseling for premarital, prenatal and postnatal diagnosis.

Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; genetics ; Base Sequence ; China ; Connexin 26 ; Connexins ; genetics ; DNA Mutational Analysis ; DNA, Mitochondrial ; chemistry ; genetics ; Deafness ; diagnosis ; ethnology ; genetics ; Dried Blood Spot Testing ; Genetic Predisposition to Disease ; ethnology ; genetics ; Genetic Testing ; methods ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Membrane Transport Proteins ; genetics ; Microarray Analysis ; methods ; Mutation ; Neonatal Screening ; methods ; RNA, Ribosomal ; genetics