Objective To evaluate the development of the sphenooccipital synchondrosis on high resolution CT scans.Methods 269 cases,HRCT findings of the sphenoocipital synchondrosis ranged in age from 3 months to 74 years old were analysed.Four points were assessed on HRCT scans (a) The pattern of the synchondrosis, (b) The location and time of appearance of the ossification center in the synchondrosis, (c) The vestige of the synchondrosis after fusion of the sphenoid and occipital bones and (d) The development of sphenoid sinus.Results The pattern of the sphenooccipital synchondrosis could be classified into three types, including complete opening, partial and complete closure. The spheno-occipital synchondrosis was variable in shapes in opening group,a notch existed in 57 cases, the mean of the thickness of the spheno-occipital synchondrosis was 1.8 mm, there was negative correlation between the thickness of the synchondrosis and the age (r= -0.92,P

Objective To evaluate diagnostic significance of renal arteriography by injecting adrenalin in patients with renal tumour.Methods The renal angiography after administration of adrenalin (6 ?g) in 47 patients with renal malign ant tumour were performed.The angiographic results were analysed in comparison with that of pathology.The diagnostic accuracy parameters including sensitivity,specificity,accuracy,positive prediction rate,negative prediction rate,positive and negative index were caluclated.Results The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy in the detection of renal malign ant tumour were 93% ,94% and 94% respectively. Positive prediction rate were 97%,negative prediction rate was 89%, positive likelihood rate was 15.8, negative likelihood rate was 0.07 and Youden index was 0.87.Conclusion Medicaments angiography by injecting adrenalin is of important diagnostic value for renal tumour,especially for those which are vascularized and could not diagnosed by other technology qualitatively.

As a ligand-dependent transcription factor,retinoid-associated orphan receptor γt(RORyt)that controls T helper(Th)17 cell differentiation and interleukin(IL)-17 expression plays a critical role in the pro-gression of several inflammatory and autoimmune conditions.An emerging novel approach to the therapy of these diseases thus involves controlling the transcriptional capacity of RORyt to decrease Th17 cell development and IL-17 production.Several RORyt inhibitors including both antagonists and inverse agonists have been discovered to regulate the transcriptional activity of RORyt by binding to orthosteric-or allosteric-binding sites in the ligand-binding domain.Some of small-molecule inhibitors have entered clinical evaluations.Therefore,in current review,the role of RORyt in Th17 regulation and Th17-related inflammatory and autoimmune diseases was highlighted.Notably,the recently developed RORyt inhibitors were summarized,with an emphasis on their optimization from lead compounds,ef-ficacy,toxicity,mechanisms of action,and clinical trials.The limitations of current development in this area were also discussed to facilitate future research.

Objectives: To explore the critical values of temperature perception in various mucosa sites of oral cavity and to draw the perceptive temperature threshold maps in healthy volunteers. To observe the interrelationship between subjective cognitive perception and sympathetic skin response (SSR) under various levels of thermal stimuli. Methods: Forty-two healthy volunteers (recruited from the students of Tianjin Medical University, 16 females and 26 males) were enrolled in the present study. The whole oral mucosa of each subject was divided into multiple partitions according to the mucosa type as well as tooth position. Peltier patch (commodity name) semiconductor chip was placed in the central part of each subarea of the mucosa. The stimulus was increased or decreased at 1 ℃ each time from a baseline temperature of 37 ℃. Warm (WT) and cold (CT) perception thresholds were measured thereafter respectively. A topographic temperature map of the oral mucosa for each subject was drew. Furthermore, the SSR was elicited and recorded at three temperature levels of 50 ℃, 55 ℃, 60 ℃ respectively. Analog test with visual analogue scale (VAS) and McGill scales were also performed. Data were statistically analyzed with variance and generalized estimation equation. Results: The tip of the tongue was the most sensitive area with both WT [(38.8±2.1) ℃, P<0.05] and CT [(23.5±4.2) ℃, P<0.05]. The highest heat threshold of gingival mucosa was in the left lower posterior teeth area [(49.9±3.7) ℃, P<0.05], and the highest cold threshold of gingival mucosa was in the left upper posterior teeth area [(15.9±5.5) ℃, P<0.05]. The perceptive temperature threshold increased gradually from the midline to both left and right sides were observed symmetrically and bilaterally. There was no statistically significant differences in temperature perception threshold between males and females [WT, male (44.8±3.1) ℃, female (44.8±3.2) ℃, OR=1.100, P=0.930; CT, Male (18.4±4.9) ℃, female (20.8±4.8) ℃, OR=0.157, P=0.210]. The SSR amplitude at sites of the tongue tip and the lower lip were increased with the rise of temperature [tongue tip (4.58±4.04) mv, P<0.05, lower lip (2.89±3.01) mv, P<0.05]. However, SSR amplitude values had no significant differences between males and females [tongue tip, male (2.00±2.16) mv, female (1.89±1.20) mv, P=0.890; lower lip, male (0.94±0.82) mv, female (0.85±0.68) mv, P=0.887]. Nevertheless, the amplitude of SSR and the VAS score of subjects showed a similar trend. Conclusions The temperature perception levels were different amongst sites of lip, buccal mucosa, tongue dorsal mucosa and gingival mucosa. SSR amplitude values could reflect the responses of the mouth to the thermal stimuli.

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is one of types of inflammatory bowel disease with high recurrence. Recent studies have highlighted that microbial dysbiosis as well as abnormal gut immunity are crucial factors that initiate a series of inflammatory responses in the UC. Modulating the gut microbiota-intestinal immunity loop has been suggested as one of key strategies for relieving UC. Many Chinese herbal medicines including some of single herb, herbal formulas and the derived constituents have been reported with protective effect against UC through modulating gut microbiome and intestinal immunity. Some clinical trials have shown promising results. This review thus focused on the current knowledge on using Chinese herbal medicines for treating UC from the mechanism aspects of regulating intestinal homeostasis involving microbiota and gut immunity. The existing clinical trials are also summarized.

Tumor cells along with a small proportion of cancer stem cells exist in a stromal microenvironment consisting of vasculature, cancer-associated fibroblasts, immune cells and extracellular components. Recent epidemiological and clinical studies strongly support that vitamin D supplementation is associated with reduced cancer risk and favorable prognosis. Experimental results suggest that vitamin D not only suppresses cancer cells, but also regulates tumor microenvironment to facilitate tumor repression. In this review, we have outlined the current knowledge on epidemiological studies and clinical trials of vitamin D. Notably, we summarized and discussed the anticancer action of vitamin D in cancer cells, cancer stem cells and stroma cells in tumor microenvironment, providing a better understanding of the role of vitamin D in cancer. We presently re-propose vitamin D to be a novel and economical anticancer agent.

Long-term primary culture of mammalian cells has been always difficult due to unavoidable senescence. Conventional methods for generating immortalized cell lines usually require manipulation of genome which leads to change of important biological and genetic characteristics. Recently, conditional reprogramming (CR) emerges as a novel next generation tool for long-term culture of primary epithelium cells derived from almost all origins without alteration of genetic background of primary cells. CR co-cultures primary cells with inactivated mouse 3T3-J2 fibroblasts in the presence of RHO-related protein kinase (ROCK) inhibitor Y-27632, enabling primary cells to acquire stem-like characteristics while retain their ability to fully differentiate. With only a few years' development, CR shows broad prospects in applications in varied areas including disease modeling, regenerative medicine, drug evaluation, drug discovery as well as precision medicine. This review is thus to comprehensively summarize and assess current progress in understanding mechanism of CR and its wide applications, highlighting the value of CR in both basic and translational researches and discussing the challenges faced with CR.