Objective To explore the role of CD73 in Toxoplasma gondii (T. Gondii) infection; To verify the host cells absent with CD73 would have less infection and replication of T. Gondii. Methods CD73 knockout and wild-type mice were infected with 20 cysts of ME 49 by oral gavage. The survival rate, clinic symptoms, pathology in the gut, and cytokine production were investigated in infected mice. Macrophages and dendritic cells with CD73-/- and CD73+/+ were infected with RH-YFP. The infective rates, the number of intracellular RH-YFP in the host cells, and the replication of intracellular RH-YFP were detected in these two type cells. Results CD73 knockout mice had a higher survival rate and milder clinic presentation with less morphologies in the gut in the acute T. Gondii infection compared with wild-type mice. CD73-/- macrophages and dentritic cells had less T. Gondii infection, and less intracellular parasite number and replication compared with CD73+/+ macrophages and dentritic cells in vitro. Conclusions CD73 as a GPI-anchored surface protein of host cell might be involved in forming the parasite vacuole, and promote the parasite's attachment and invasion of host eeUs. Host cells absence with CD73 would be less infection and replication of T. Gondii, and relative resistant parasites infection.

Acupuncture Therapy ; methods ; Adult ; Female ; Humans ; Jaw ; physiopathology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Temporomandibular Joint Disorders ; physiopathology ; therapy ; Young Adult

Objective To observe the clinical efficacy of superficial needling in treating temporomandibular joint disorder. Method Sixty patients with temporomandibular joint disorder were randomized into a treatment group and a control group, 30 in each group. The treatment group was intervened by superficial needling, and the patients were asked to repeatedly open and close mouth after the treatment; the control group was intervened by regular acupuncture. The treatment was given once a day, 10 d as a treatment course. The clinical efficacies were compared after 2 treatment courses.Result After the first treatment course, the total effective rate was 89.7% in the treatment group versus 86.2% in the control group; after the second course, the total effective rate was 96.6% in the treatment group versus 93.1% in the control group. There was a significant difference in comparing the therapeutic efficacy between the two groups after the second course (P<0.05). The relapse rate was 5.0% in the treatment group versus 33.3% in the control group, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05).Conclusion Superficial needling is an effective method in treating temporomandibular joint disorder.

AIM: To investigate the effects of melatonin (MT) on the immunological function in colon of rats immunological colitis. METHODS: The rats colitis was produced by enema with trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid and ethanol. The experiment groups included normal group, model group, 5-aminosalicylic acid (5-ASA) group (100 mg?kg~(-1)), MT groups (2.5,5.0,10.0 mg?kg~(-1)), and treated intracolon with saline, saline, 5-ASA and MT respectively (once per day, from the d7 after the establishment of colitis model to the end of the experiment). The content of interleukin (IL-1, IL-2) and tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-? in rats colon were detected; The inflammatory colon were homogenatized and incubated with lipopolysaccharides (LPS), and designed as control group, model group, 5-ASA group (100?mol/L), MT groups(0.01, 0.1, 1.0 mmol/L). The content of IL-1, IL-2, TNF-?, nitric oxide (NO), lactic dehydrogenase (LDH), myeloperoxidase (MPO) and malondiadehyde (MDA) in the supernant were detected. RESULTS: In model group, the contents of IL-1, IL-2 and TNF-? in colon elevated remarkably and MT depressed this effectively. In the inflammatory colon homogenates of rats colitis, the content of IL-1, IL-2, TNF-?, NO, LDH, MPO and MDA elevated remarkably, Pretreation with MT depressed the content of IL-1, TNF-?, LDH, MPO and MDA effectively. MT (1.0mmol/L) also reduced the production of NO obviously. CONCLUSION: The abnormal immunological function is shown obviously in rats colitis. MT normalizes this change in vivo and in vitro and attenuates the mucosal damage.

Objective To evaluate the capacity of atopy patch test in diagnosis of food allergy in children with atopic dermatitis (AD).Methods Egg and milk,as the most common food allergens among Chinese children,were employed in this study.Skin prick test (SPT) and atopy patch test (APT) with fresh egg and milk were carried out in 68 children with AD.Oral food challenges in an open style were performed to confirm the diagnosis of food allergy.Resuits Of these patients,58(85.3%)were sensitive to egg,40(58.8%)to milk and 34(50.0%) to both.Of 98 patients with positive challenge,47 showed late response,10 immediate reactions.and 41 mixed reactions.The sensitivity,specificity,positive predictive value (PPV),negative predictive value (NPV) and the agreement with food challenges in diagnosis of egg/milk allergy were 96.6%/67.5%.90.0%/82.1%,98.2%/84.4%,81.8%/63.9% and 95.6%/73.5%,respectively for APT alone,37.9%/30.0%,100%/89.3%,100%/80.0%,21.7%/47.2% and 47.1%/54.4%,respectively for SPT alone.APT was found to be more sensitive in diagnosis of late-phase reactions than SPT (P<0.01).No significant difference was found in the sensitivity between APT alone and the combination of APT and SPT in parallel algorithm for diagnosis of egg or milk allergy (x2=0.509,0.549,both P>0.05) or in the specificity between APT alone and that in serial algorithm( P=1.000;x2=3.514,P>0.05).Conclusions APT is superior to SPT in diagnosis of late responses to food,and the combination of SPT and APT does not facilitate the diagnosis of food or milk allergy compared with APT alone.

Objective To evaluate the significance of human interleukin-31(IL-31)in the pathogenesis of atopic dermatitis and its correlation with pruritus in patients with atopic dermatitis(AD).Methods Twenty-two children with mild to severe atopic dermatitis and 22 age-matched healthy controls were included in this study.Patients and controls were randomly and equally assigned into stimulation and non-stimulation groups.Venous blood samples were obtained from all participants,peripheral blood mononuclear cells were isolated from these samples and cultured with(stimulation groups)or without(non-stimulation groups)staphylococcal enterotoxin B(SEB)for 24 hours.Then,the mRNA expression of IL-31 on PBMCs was assessed via real-time reverse transcription-PCR.ELISA was used to detect the total serum IgE level in these objects.The severity of AD in patients was rated according to scoring atopic dermatitis(SCORAD).The relationship between the mRNA expression of IL-31 and the level of serum total IgE.severity of atopic dermatitis,and degree of pruritus.was evaluated.Results The expression of IL-31 mRNA on non-stimulated PBMCs from patients was 23.2 folds as high as that from the healthy controls(P＜0.01).The stimulation with SEB upregulated the mRNA expression of IL-31 on PBMCs.and the increase on PBMCs from patients was 20.44 times of that from the controls.The total serum IgE level was 260.05 IU/mL(5.9-1131.01 IU/mL)and 17.7 IU/mL(5-140.7 IU/mL)in the Patients and controls respectively(P＜0.01).There was no significant correlation between the mRNA expression of IL-31 and disease severity or total serum IgE level(r=0.07.0.22respectively.both P＞0.05)in patients witll AD.Condusions IL.3 1 is involved in t11e pathogenesis of AD,which is unlikely to be IgE-dependent.SEB can induce the rapid expression of IL-31 on PBMCs of healthy human,and is an important modulator for the production of IL-31.

This study was aimed to explore clinical effect on treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) of cold-dampness syndrome by the combination of Wen-Jing San-Han Tong-Luo (WJSHTL) decoction and acupuncture. A total of 88 RA patients were selected and randomly divided into the control group and the treatment group. All 44 cases in the control group were orally administrated with diclofenac sodium, sulphasalazine (SASP) and methotrexate (MTX). All 44 cases in the treatment group were treated with the combination of WJSHTL decoction and acupuncture on the ba-sis of western medication the same as the control group. Each group was treated for three months. Improvements of clinical symptoms, body signs and laboratory indexes were observed. The results showed that clinical symptoms, body signs and laboratory indexes were greatly improved in the comparison before and after treatment in both groups with statistical significance (P < 0.05). Compared to the control group, the treatment group had no statistical significance in the improvement of rest pain, swelling numbers and index, tenderness numbers and index, morning stiffness time, liver and kidney function. Compared with the control group, the treatment group had more obvious advantages in the improvement of joint function, hand grip strength, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) decreasing, C-reactive protein (CRP) and rheumatoid factor (P< 0.05). It was concluded that compared with single western medication, the combi-nation of WJSHTL decoction and acupuncture with western medication had certain advantages in the improvement of joint function of RA and management of patient's disease condition.

Background and purpose: The incidence and mortality of lung cancer ranked first in China. This study aimed to describe lung cancer survival in Shanghai, and provide background information for cancer prevention and treatment evaluation. Methods: Data of lung cancer cases diagnosed during 2002-2006, follow-up information and death report were collected from Shanghai Cancer Registry. Life table method and Ederer Ⅱ were used to calculate observed survival (OS) and relative survival (RS) respectively. Related demographic characteristics and status were also analyzed to present the survival situations of the lung cancer survivors in Shanghai. Results: In this study, 41802 lung cancer cases were included in analysis. The 5-year OS and RS for lung cancer were 13.75% and 20.23% respectively, and median survival time was 318 days. Survival rate was higher among females than males, with the 5-year OS of 15.49% and 13.00% respectively. The 5-year OS was higher among suburban residents (14.25%) than urban residents (13.23%). Survival rates decreased with increasing age and advanced stage. Patients aged 0-34 had a 5-year OS of 38.21%, while patients aged above 75 had a 5-year OS of 5.48%. Patients diagnosed with stage Ⅰ had a 5-year OS of 55.47%, while patients diagnosed with stage Ⅳ had a 5-year OS of 5.27%. Survival of lung cancer patients differed by tumor histological subtype. The 5-year OS of squamous lung cancer (24.40%) was higher than other histological types, followed by adenocarcinoma (22.26%), large cell (20.27%) and small cell lung cancer (12.22%). From 1972-1976 to 2002-2006, the 5-year OS of urban male patients increased from 6.8% to 12.4%, and 5-year OS of urban female patients increased from 7.3% to 14.9%. Analysis of RS gave the similar results. Conclusion: During the past 30 years, survival rate of lung cancer patients in Shanghai improved steadily, and the survival condition is above average among different countries and areas. However, survival rate of lung cancer is still low compared with other types of cancer. Future focus should be placed on the control of tobacco smoking, early detection by low-dose helical computed tomography and targeted therapy to further improve lung cancer survival.

Background and purpose:Head and neck cancer is common worldwide. This article aimed to describe the patterns of incidence of head and neck cancer and their changes in Shanghai from 2003 to 2012, in order to provide reference for prevention programs, research and control strategies on cancer.Methods:The data of lip, oral cavity and pharynx cancer cases were collected by the Shanghai Cancer Registry. The distributions of Shanghai lip, oral cavity and pharynx cancer incidences from 2003 to 2012 were described. The patterns were described according to gender, age, basis of diagnosis, histological type, diagnostic stage in detail. We compared incidences of recent 5 years (from 2008 to 2012) with those of previous 5 years (from 2003 to 2007).Results:On average from 2003 to 2012, 1105 new cases of head and neck cancer were diagnosed in Shanghai each year, with 2.08% among the total cancer cases. The crude rate was 8.01 per 100000 and the age-standardized rate was 4.45 per 100000. Nasopharyngeal cancer was the major subtype of the head and neck cancer, with 50.81% among the total head and neck cases. The crude and age-standardized rates among males were higher than those among females. The histologically verified percentage was 85.77%. The squamous carcinoma was the major histological type, with 57.58% among the total cases. The age-stan-dardized rate of nasopharyngeal cancer was in decline.Conclusion:The incidence of head and neck cancer was low in Shanghai during the past 10 years. Male cases were more than female cases. The major histological type was squamous carcinoma. Half of new cases were nasopharyngeal cancer which appeared to affect patients at a relatively young age. Patients with nasopharyngeal cancer were diagnosed at relatively advanced stages.

Background and purpose:Incidence and mortality of gastric cancer have increased gradually in China. Population-based cancer survival rate can relfect improvements in cancer diagnosis and treatment, as well as provide evidence for gastric cancer prevention and control.Methods:Data from gastric cancer incidence and follow-up between 2002 and 2006 were collected by the Shanghai Cancer Registry. Life table and EdererⅡ were used to calculate observed survival (OS) and relative survival (RS).Results:A total number of 28 243 gastric cancer cases were documented between 2002 and 2006 in Shanghai. The 5-year OS and RS of gastric cancer were 32.15% and 45.81%, respectively. Survival rates of gastric cancer varied by age, residence, diagnostic stage, and tumor histological type, but not by gender. Patients aged 35-44 years who were diagnosed at stageⅠ or with tubular adenocarcinoma, had the highest survival rates. Moreover, patients in rural areas had higher 5-year OS than those in urban areas. During the period 2002-2006,both 5-year OS and RS of gastric cancer increased dramatically, as compared with 1972-1976. Conclusion:Survival rates of gastric cancer varied by age, residence, diagnostic stage, and tumor histological type. The 5-year OS and RS signiifcantly increased in Shanghai over the past three decades, but are still far below developed countries. Early diagnosis of gastric cancer would be an effective strategy to improve survival and prognosis of patients with gastric cancer.