BACKGROUND:With the in-depth study of cancer stem cels, increasing evidence has shown that cancer stem cels are the reason for cancer metastasis and recurrence, and therefore it is of great significance to isolate and identify cancer stem cels that can elucidate the pathogenesis of cancer and development of anticancer drugs.
OBJECTIVE: To isolate and culture gastric cancer stem cels and then to detect its biological characteristics.
METHODS: Cancer tissues from 16 patients with gastric cancer were cultured using adherent method and enzymic digestion methods to isolate gastric cancer stem cels. The cel morphology was observed under inverted microscope to drawn out growth curves. Osteogenic and adipogenic ability of cels were also detected.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Gastric cancer stem cels were isolated successfuly by both two methods. Under the microscope, the cels were fusiform- or polygon-shaped. At confluence, the cels grew in a vortex or radial manner. The cel growth curve showed that 1-3 days were latent period, 4-9 days were logarithmic growth phase, and over 10 days were growth plateau phase. Flow cytometry results showed that passage 3 gastric cancer stem cels highly expressed CD90, CD29, CD44, but lowly expressed CD34, CD45 and HLA-DR. After osteogenic induction, calcified nodules were clearly visible in the gastric cancer stem cels at passage 3; after adipogenic induction, bright and tiny fat droplets were seen in the cytoplasm. These findings indicate that cancer stem cels exist in the gastric cancer tissues, and have similar morphology, biological property and multipotent differentiation ability to normal cels, which are probably involved in gastric cancer occurrence and development.

Pancreatic carcinoma is one of the malignancies of the gastrointestinal tract with the most dismal prognosis.As a consequence of its anatomic and biological behavior,the 5-year survival is only 10％- 20％ even after curative resection.There are many problems which need to be solved in the diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic cancer.This paper aims to discuss the preoperative assessment of resectability,histological diagnosis,radical surgery,multidisciplinary and multimodality treatment to help to raise the standard of diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic cancer in China.

objective: To study the properties of keepers treated with different methods. Methods: Eighteen Z 3 magnetic attachments were divided into three groups at random. Cobalt chromium alloy was used for root cap. The keepers in the first group were cast to the caps, those in the second group were welded to the caps by Nd:YAG laser welding apparatus. Keepers in the third group were untreated. Universal testing machine was adopted to measure the breakaway retention of the attachments. The roughness of keeper surfaces was measured by roughness tester. Results: No statistical difference was observed as to the breakaway retention between magnetic attachments and laser welded coping keeper or between those and cast coping keepers. But retention of the keepers in the two groups was slightly lower than that of untreated keepers. Defects of pits were found on the surfaces of the cast coping keepers. The surface smoothness of the cast coping keepers was inferior to that of the laser welded coping keepers. Conclusion: Laser welded keepers and cast coping keepers can meet clinical demands for the use of magnetic attachments.

Objective To study the clinical feature, diagnosis and surgical treatment of mixed hepatocellular and cholangiocellular carcinoma(MHC).Methods The clinical materials of 14 surgically treated patients with MHC were retrospectively analyzed.Results There were nine males and five females, with age ranging from 33 to 62 years (mean 50 years). Some patients had a history of hepatitis B(71%), and cirrhosis(64%). Elevation of serum alpha-fetaprotein(AFP) was observed in nine patients(64%). The resection rate was 86%(12/14), and postoperative overall 1-, 3-, 5-year survival rates were 71%(10/14)?43%(6/14)?and 29%(4/14), respectively. In the tumor-resected patients, the 1-, 3-, 5-year survival rates were 83%(10/12)?50%(6/12)?and 33%(4/12),respectively. Conclusions MHC patients lack typical clinical manifestations. Radical surgery is an effective treatment for this disease. The cholangiocellular carcinoma component appears to determine the prognosis.

Objective To observe the short-term clinical efficacy of modified transanal Soave surgery on infants with hirschsprung′s disease (HD) in initial radial resection, and to analyze the influencing factors. Methods 132 HD infants were selected. After initial radial resection with modified transanal , Soave surgery was conducted under general or sacral anesthesia. Postoperative antibiotics were routinely given. Results 19-56 cm intestinal canal samples were excised, with average length of (35.07 ± 3.15) cm. The average surgical duration and intra-operative hemorrhagic volume were (120.48 ± 18.34) min and verage was (45.74 ± 8.14) mL. All infants′ gastrointestinal function was recovered in 24 h postoperatively. The total excellent and effective rate of anal function in 6 months was 90.90% postoperatively. Cox modal multivariate analysis suggested that anastomotic orifice stenosis and enteritis were the two factors that greatly influenced the excellent and effective rate of anal function 6 months after the surgery (P < 0.05). Conclusion The modified transanal Soave surgery has small trauma and low complication rate on HD infants in initial radial resection , and the postoperative enteritis and anastomotic orifice stenosis are independent influencing factors for the short-term efficacy.

Objective: Combined detection of anti-mutated citrullinated vimentin ( anti-MCV ) antibodies, anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide ( anti-CCP) antibodies and rheumatoid factor ( RF-IgM) levels to investigate the diagnostic value of anti-mutated citrullinated vimentin (anti-MCV) antibodies for rheumatoid arthritis(RA).Methods: A total of 359 patients with RA,128 patients with other rheumatic diseases and 90 healthy controls were involved.Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay ( ELISA) was used to detect anti-MCV and anti-CCP, and dynamic immune nephelometry was applied to detect RF-IgM .The sensitivity and specificity were obtained from the experimental data.Results:The sensitivities of anti-MCV,anti-CCP and RF-IgM were 85.1%,76.7% and 82.7%in RA respectively.The specificities were 93.2%,95.1%and 80.1%respectively.Combined detection of anti-MCV and anti-CCP,the sensitivity decreased to 70.2%; but the specificity increased to 98.7%.The sensitivity reached to 89.5% with specificity 97.6%when the union of anti-MCV and anti-CCP positivity was used as criterion.Conclusion:Anti-MCV and anti-CCP are novel makers for RA diagnosis with high sensitivity and high specificity.Combination of anti-MCV and anti-CCP is more helpful for RA diagnosis.

Objective To investigate the clinical significance of pre-operative ancl intra-operative insulinomas localization, and improve the diagnostic accuracy. Methods 75 patients with suspected insulinomas who were treated surgically were enrolled; all the patients had pathological evidence of insulinomas. The data of pre-operative ultrasound, CT, MRI and intra-operative ultrasound and surgical palpation were collected and analyzed. Results The sensitivity of localization procedures was as follows: ultrasonography 30.7% ( 23/75 ), CT 40.0% (24/60) , MRI 45.4% ( 22/48 ) , while surgical palpation was 80.4% , intra-operative ultrasound 96.4%. The accuracy of intra-operative procedures was higher than that of pre-operative procedures. Conclusions It was difficult to accurately localize insulinomas before operation, but intra-operative palpation and iutra-operative US was easy to perform and highly accurate. Therefore, too much emphasis should not be placed on pre-operative imaging tests.

Objective To investigate the possible effects of COL8A1 on the proliferation, invasion and drug sensitivity of murine hepatocarcinoma cell line Hca-F, we used an RNA interference (RNAi) approach to silence COL8A1 expression. Methods The expression levels of COL8A1 in HcaF/siRNA cells were assessed by RT-PCR and Western blot. The inhibitory effect of RNAi on Hca-F cell invasion in vitro was demonstrated by ECM invasion assay. The in vitro proliferative ability and drug sensitivity of COL8A1-deficient cells were determined by MTT assay. Results The expression of COL8A1 was significantly reduced in COL8A1/siRNA cells after 30h transfection, compared with both the RNAi control and the Hca-F cells. The reduced COL8A1 expression also attenuated the proliferative, invasive ability, as well as increased drug sensitivity of Hca-F/siRNA cells. Conclusion Our current results indicate that the expression of COL8A1 functionally mediates tumor cell proliferation, invasion, and drug sensitivity, and is a potential target for therapeutic anti-cancer drugs.

Objective To study the expression of HER-3 in breast cancer patients and analyze its relationship with the clinical pathology and prognosis of breast cancer,ER,PR and HER-2.Methods Data of 139 female breast cancer patients undergoing operations at the Second Hospital of Dalian Medical University from Jan.2006 to Oct.2006 were collected.These 139 patients didn't have preoperative chemotherapy or radiation therapy,but had postoperative endocrine therapies.Immunohistochemisty was used to detect the expression of HER-3 in the 139 patients.Data like the expression of ER,PR and HER-2,histological grading,tumor size and lymph node metastasis were obtained from their medical records.The relationship between indicators and breast cancer was analyzed.Results ①The positive expression rate of HER-3,HER-2,ER,and PR was 30.2％ (42/139),42.5％ (59/139),66.9％ (93/139),and 59.7％ (83/139) respectively.(②)The statistical items had no relation with patients' age(P ＞0.05).③HER-3 expression was correlated with tumor sizes,lymph node metastasis,histological grading,5 year survival rate and HER-2 expression(P ＜ 0.05),and had no relation with ER or PR(P ＞0.05).④)The combined expression of HER-3 & HER-2 was correlated with tumor sizes,axillary lymph node metastasis,histological grading,ER and PR.(P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions HER-3 detection is of great significance for the diagnosis and prognosis of breast cancer.The combined examination of HER-3,HER-2,ER,and PR in breast cancer tissues is of clinical significance for early diagnosis/treatment,medication and prognosis of the tumor,as well as for new drug research and development.

Objective To summarize the diagnosis and therapeutic experience of insulinoma in order to improve the surgical success rate and prognosis. Methods The clinical data of 138 patients with insulinoma from 1966 to 2007 were retrospectively analyzed. Results In this group of patients, hypoglycemia of different levels and Whipple triad were detected. 64 patients expressed different psychic symptom, 12 patients' psychic symptom were still present after blood glucose normalized after operation. Fasting serum insulin values in 88 patients were measured, and the insulin release index was higher than 0. 3. Before operation, tumor was detected in 8 of 75 patients by B-ultrasound scan, and in 17 of 68 patients by CT, and in 5 of 10 patients by MRI. The intra-operative B-ultrasound (IOUS) examination was applied in 44 cases, and 43 cases were successfully detected. The operations included enucleation of insulinoma (n=88) , resection of the body and tail of pancreass (n = 44) , pancreaticoduodenectomy (n=2) , and biopsy (n=1). The blood glucose symptoms normalized postoperatively in 132 patients. The blood glucose rebound in 110 patients, but blood glucose normalized within 2 weeks. After operation, 20 patients developed pancreatic fistula, 32 patients developed acute pancreatitis. Conclusions Insulinoma could be qualitatively diagnosed according to Whipple triad and the insulin release index. Operations with IOUS were simple and effective methods to localize the tumors. The only way to cure insulinoma was operation, and IOUS guided operation could avoid main pancreatic duct and vessel injury, decrease post-operative complications.