To investigate the change and clinical significance of interleukin(IL)-23 and IL-17 levels preliminarily in peripheral blood of patients with obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome(OSAHS).The levels of IL-23 and IL-17 in serum and culture supernatants of peripheral blood mononuclear cells(PBMCs)were determined by ELISA in patients with OSAHS and normal volunteers.To observe the changes of IL-23 and IL-17 levels before and after the treatment of Han-uvulopalatopharyngoplasty(H-UPPP) in patients with OSAHS.The levels of IL-23 and IL-17 in serum and culture supernatants of PBMCs in patients with OSAHS were significantly higher than those in normal control group(P<0.05),and the levels of serum IL-23 and IL-17 were increased with the disease severity.The levels of IL-23 presented positively correlated with those of IL-17 in both serum and culture supernatants of PBMCs(rs=0.644,P<0.01;rs=0.251,P<0.05).After two months later of H-UPPP surgery, the levels of serum IL-23 and IL-17 were significantly lower than that before the treatment(P<0.05)as well as the apnea-hypopnea index.The sleep quality and low oxygen was improved obviously, and the lowest oxyhemoglobin saturation elevated significantly(P<0.05).IL-23 and IL-17 may play an important role in pathogenesis and prognosisof OSAHS.

AIM: To detect unknown CD44 variants(CD44v) in nasopharyngeal cancer by using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR) to analyze the expression of cell adhesion protein CD44 gene in nasopharyngeal cancer tissue and cell lines.METHODS: Specific primers at up start code,down terminal code of CD44 and primers at the middle,splicing points of variable splicing exon v10 of CD44 were designed.cDNA of nasopharyngeal cancer tissues,5-8F and HNE1 cell lines were analyzed by RT-PCR.Products of RT-PCR were sequenced and further analyzed by bioinformatics.RESULTS: The new CD44v sequence possessed 1634 bp with a completed open reading frame.The start code was at 12 bp site and terminal code at 1301bp site.It was predicted to code 429 amino acids,and only variable splicing exon 10 existed in the flexible region.It was given an accessible number EF581837 by GenBank.CONCLUSION: A new CD44 variant predicted to code 429 amino acids exists in the studied nasopharyngeal cancer tissues and cell lines.