In order to study the antitumor effect of human tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-?)gene modified fibroblasts, we have transfered TNF-? cDNA to fibroblasts NIH3T3 by a bicistronic retroviral vector pGCEN/TNF-?, which expressed TNF-? from the long terminal repeat and the selectable Neo~R from the encephalomyocarditis virus (EMCV) internal ribo-some entry site(IRES) . The results indicated that TNF-? modified NTH3T3, NIH3T3/TNF-? ,were able to express TNF-? at a high level for a long term culture. Furthermore, these modified fibroblasts could inhibit tumor progression signifi-cantly(P

Objective To study the MR performances of finger joints with health subjects and rheumatoid arthritis (RA)patients,and to detect the imaging quality of a custom-made finger coil.Methods Finger coil,extremity coil,flexible surface coil and 3 inch surface coil were used to scan the self-made water phantom with similar T2 WI sequence,then the signal to noise ratio (SNR)on single image was measured for the comparison.The middle finger specimen (1 finger)was used for the research,5 healthy volunteers (8 fingers)and 18 RA patients (22 fingers)were also scanned.Results The SNR of finger coil was over 1.5 times higher than that of the 3 inch surface coil and 4 times higher than that of the extremity coil and flexible surface coil.For the 22 fingers with confirmed RA,synovitis was found in 1 7,joint effusion in 10,bone marrow edema in 5,bone erosion in 7 and tenosynovitis in 6.Conclusion The finger coil has higher SNR.

Objective:To explore the value of magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in evaluating cerebrovascular small vessel disease (CSVD) in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).Methods:Eighty-two patients with SLE combined with CSVD treated at Yixing People's Hospital from January to December 2022 were selected. They were divided into acute phase infarction group (16 cases), chronic phase infarction group (26 cases), and chronic ischemic lesion group (40 cases) based on routine MRI examination results. All patients underwent DTI examination to obtain the average diffusion coefficient (DCavg) and anisotropy score (FA) of the affected and contralateral normal white matter areas, and the evaluation value of DTI for CSVD in SLE patients was analyzed.Results:The DCavg value on the affected side of 82 patients was significantly higher than that on the healthy side: (11.10 ± 3.48) 10 -3 mm 2/s vs. (8.18 ± 2.42) 10 -3 mm 2/s, and the FA value on the affected side was significantly lower than that on the healthy side: 0.28 ± 0.05 vs. 0.45 ± 0.08, with a statistical significant differences ( P<0.05). The DCavg values of the acute infarction group, chronic infarction group, and chronic ischemic focus group were (11.88 ± 3.50), (9.69 ± 3.24) and (8.52 ± 2.34) 10 -3 mm 2/s, respectively, with statistical significant differences ( P<0.05). The FA values of the acute infarction group, chronic infarction group, and chronic ischemic focus group were 0.28 ± 0.04, 0.33 ± 0.06 and 0.40 ± 0.07, respectively, with statistical significant differences ( P<0.05). The receiver operating characteristic curve was drawn, and the results showed that the area under the curve (AUC) of the acute phase infarction group and the chronic phase infarction group evaluated by DCavg and FA alone and in combination were 0.757, 0.756, and 0.820, respectively. The AUC of the chronic phase infarction group and the chronic ischemic focus group evaluated by DCavg and FA were 0.772, 0.776, and 0.813, respectively. The AUC value of the combined evaluation was relatively large. Conclusions:DTI has good evaluation value for CSVD in SLE patients and can accurately determine the type of CSVD.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the mutation of small sequence changes in microRNA-7 gene in Chinese patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). METHODS: We analyzed miR-7 variants in 225 PD patients from Chinese Han group by DNA sequence. RESULTS: None of the patients had miR-7 variants. CONCLUSION MiR-7 variation is not associated with PD in Chinese patients.
Aged ; Base Sequence ; China ; ethnology ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; MicroRNAs ; genetics ; Middle Aged ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Mutation ; Parkinson Disease ; genetics