Objective To investigate the characteristics and risk factors of thyroid dysfunction induced after interferon therapy in patients with chronic viral hepatitis.Methods The clinical data of 96 chronic viral hepatitis patients received interferon therapy were analyzed retrospectively.Serological markers of thyroid function and thyroid autoantibodies changes were observed,and were followed up for 1 year after treatment.Logistic regression analysis was performed to evaluate risk factors of thyroid dysfunction.Results Among the 96 cases,84 cases didn't develop thyroid dysfunction after interferon therapy(normal group),and 12 cases developed thyroid dysfunction after interferon therapy (abnormal group),the incidence was 12.5％ (12/96),there were 5 cases of Hashimoto's thyroiditis,3 cases of Graves disease,3 cases of destructive thyroiditis,and 1 case of non-autoimmune hypothyroidism.The time to develop thyroid dysfunction was 2-7 (3.8 ± 1.9) months after treatment,the duration of thyroid dysfunction was 1-11 (4.2 ± 0.9) months.Five patients received endocrine therapy,and 2 patients stopped interferon therapy.All patients regained normal thyroid function during 1-year followup after end of treatment.Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that female gender (OR =3.767) and anti-thyroid peroxidase antibodies (OR =1.117) were the independent risk factors for thyoid dysfunction.Conclusions Hashimoto's thyroiditis,Graves disease,destructive thyroiditis and non-autoimmune hypothyroidism are the main types of thyroid dysfunction induced after interferon therapy in patients with chronic viral hepatitis.The thyroid function and thyroid autoantibodies should be closely monitored during treatment in patients with chronic viral hepatitis receiving interferon therapy,especially in female and patients who have thyroid autoantibodies.

Objective To investigate the clinical efficacy of the optimization of treatment with lamivudine or de novo combination therapy with lamivudine and adefovir dipivoxil.Methods A total of 98 cases of chronic hepatitis B patients were randomly divided into optimization of treatment group and de novo combination therapy group,optimization of treatment group treated with lamivudine optimization therapy,de novo combination therapy group treated with lamivudine and adefovir dipivoxil,virological,serological,biochemical and other indices were detected every 12 weeks,analyzed treatment effect after 48 weeks.Results Two groups were comparable baseline before treatment(P ＞0.05).HBV DNA negative rate,e antigen-negative rate,and resistance rates at week 48 were 86％,37％,and 0 in the de novo combination therapy group,and 59％,12％ and 18％ in the optimized treatment group (P ＜0.05).The e antigen seroconversion and ALT normalization rates were 23％ and 91％ in the de novo combination group,and 6％ and 86％ in the optimized treatment group (P ＞0.05).There was similar incidence of adverse reactions.Conclusions Compared to the de novo combination therapy group,the lamivudine-optimized treatment group can achieve higher HBV-DNA negative rate,e antigen-negative rate,lower resistance rates,and good safety.

AIM: To identify the genes that were differentially expressed in the retina of rds mouse during the development of retinitis pigmentosa.METHODS: mRNA differential display method was used to compare and analyze mRNA samples prepared from the retina of rds mouse and normal mouse on postnatal day 25(P25). Differentially expressed fragments were cloned, sequenced and compared with GenBank database by BLASTN. Expression difference was further investigated by gene-specific primer RT-PCR.RESULTS: Obvious difference in gene expression occurred between rds mouse and normal mouse. One fragment, clone No.5, shared 91% homology with rat NADH-cytochrome b5 reductase (b5R) cDNA. Thus, it was identified as mouse b5R cDNA. Gene-specific RT-PCR confirmed that b5R mRNA level was increased in the retina of rds mouse compared with normal mouse on postnatal day 12, 25 and 37, respectively.CONCLUSION: Certain oxidative factors may up-regulate the expression of b5R resulting in large consumption of NADH and production of NAD +, through which apoptotic retinal cell death was enhanced.

Fast pyrolysis experiments of corn stalk were performed to investigate the optimal pyrolysis conditions of temperature and bed material for maximum bio-oil production under flue gas atmosphere. Under the optimized pyrolysis conditions, furfural residue, xylose residue and kelp seaweed were pyrolyzed to examine their yield distributions of products, and the physical characteristics of bio-oil were studied. The best flow rate of the flue gas at selected temperature is obtained, and the pyrolysis temperature at 500 degrees C and dolomite as bed material could give a maximum bio-oil yield. The highest bio-oil yield of 43.3% (W/W) was achieved from corn stalk under the optimal conditions. Two main fractions were recovered from the stratified bio-oils: light oils and heavy oils. The physical properties of heavy oils from all feedstocks varied little. The calorific values of heavy oils were much higher than that of light oils. The pyrolysis gas could be used as a gaseous fuel due to a relatively high calorific value of 6.5-8.5 MJ/m3.
Biofuels ; Biomass ; Bioreactors ; Furaldehyde ; chemistry ; Hot Temperature ; Kelp ; Temperature ; Xylose ; chemistry ; Zea mays

OBJECTIVETo study the effects of pulsed ultrasound (PUS) and pulsed electromagnetic fields (PEMF) on the secretion of extracellular matrix from a culture complex during in vitro chondrogenesis.

METHODSAll the rat bone marrow mesen- chymal stem cell pellets were cultured in achondrogenic medium. Different intensities of PUS (100, 150, and 200 mW · cm⁻²) and PEMF (1, 2, and 5 mT) were applied to the cell pellets for 2 weeks. Group N was cultured without PUS and PEMF stimu- lation as control. The culture medium was collected after 2 weeks of culture. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect the type of collagen and glycosaminoglycan (GAG) in the culture medium.

RESULTSPUS increased the secreting-type collagen and GAG from cell pellets compared with group N (P < 0.05), whereas there was no difference in different intensities (P > 0.05). PEMF had no significant effect on the secretion of the type of collagen (P > 0.05). A PEMF of 1 mT had no significant effect on the secretion of GAG (P > 0.05). A PEMF 2 and 5 mT decreased the secretion of GAG (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONTo prevent the secretary of extracellular matrix may play a role in chondrogenic effect of PEMF.

Animals ; Bone Marrow Cells ; radiation effects ; Cells, Cultured ; Chondrogenesis ; radiation effects ; Electromagnetic Fields ; Extracellular Matrix ; Glycosaminoglycans ; Hematopoietic Stem Cells ; Mesenchymal Stromal Cells ; radiation effects ; Rats ; Ultrasonic Waves

BACKGROUND:Implant stability is mainly influenced by peri-implant inflammatory stimulation.
OBJECTIVE:To build a beagle model of peri-implantitis under orthodontic force and to observe the bone remodeling of the Beagle dog model.
METHODS: Micro-implants were randomly implanted into the maxilary interradicular region at the center of the mesial and distal roots of bilateral P2, P3, P4 and M1 of Beagle dogs. One side served as a loaded micro-implant with peri-implantitis under 100 g of orthodontic force at 1, 2, 3, 4 weeks of peri-implantitis, and the force lasted for 1 month. After that, the animals were kiled to prepare specimens with micro-implants. Bone-to-implant contacts were calculated and histological changes of the bone interface under continuous orthodontic force at different stages of peri-implantitis were observed under light microscope.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:There were a large number of inflammatory cels after micro-implants were implanted with silk thread ligation to the cervical part. Over time, inflammatory cels were gradualy diffused to the tip of micro-implant, and there were a great quantity of colagenous fibers, osteocytes and active bone remodeling. When the inflammation was diffused to the tip of micro-implant after 2 weeks of peri-implantitis, woven bones composed of newly formed trabeculae appeared, and imflammatory cels dispersed. The medulary cavity was irregular after colagen fibrils absorption, and there were 3-4 layers of osteoblasts in the bone lacunae, with active bone formation. These findings indicate that the Beagle model of pure titanium peri-implantitis under orthodontic force was successfuly built in the experiment, and bone formation became active at 2 weeks after modeling.

Objective To observe the therapeutic effect of Shilin Qinghua Decoction(SQD) for the treatment of urinary calculi.Methods Two hundred urinary calculi patients were equally randomized into two groups: the treatment group received SQD(mainly composed of Herba Lysimachiae,Endothelium Corneum Gigeriae Galli,Radix Paeoniae Alba,Talcum,Radix Clematidis,Poria,Semen Vaccariae,Herba Plataginis,Herba Polygoni Avicularis,Herba Dianthi,Succinum powder),and the control group received uralyt.Twenty days constituted one treatment course,and the treatment lasted 1～3 course(s) according to the illness state.The therapeutic effect was evaluated after 2 months.Results The total effective rate was 96.0% in the treatment group and 81.0% in the control group,the difference being obviously significant(P

Tooth agenesis, belonging to the abnormal tooth development, is a common disease in clinic. The disease not only affects the person's chewing function, but also influences the pronunciation, appearance and mental health. In the past, genetic linkage and molecular biology research have made clear of part of the genetic mutations' sites of the syndromic and non-syndromic tooth agenesis. Although the mechanism was not clear yet, but the important mutations are now known to be involved in many factors. Thesyndromic and non-syndromic tooth agenesis related gene are reviewed in this paper.
Anodontia ; Humans ; Mutation ; Odontogenesis ; Tooth

Objective: To investigate the effect and regulatory mechanism of Smurf2 on the negative regulator Smad7 of TGF-β1/Smad signaling pathway in hypertrophic scar fibroblasts. Methods: From January to October 2014, 8 patients with hypertrophic scar after burn were admitted. The age of patients ranged from 1 year 8 months to 7 years, and the time of scar hyperplasia ranged from 2 to 12 months. The residual normal skin of the same patient was used as the control. The fibroblasts were isolated from hypertrophic scar and normal skin respectively and cultured. The third to fifth passage cells were used for the experiments. ① The protein expression of Smad7 in the two groups was detected by Western Blot. ② Hypertrophic scar fibroblasts and normal skin fibroblasts were treated with exogenous TGF-β1 at concentration of 10 ng/ml for 0 min, 5 min, 15 min, 30 min, 1 h, 2 h and 12 h. The expression of Smad7 protein and mRNA were detected by Western Blot and RT-PCR, respectively. ③ The cell lysates of the two groups were collected and incubated with the ubiquitin mixture for 1 h, 2 h and 6 h at 37℃, respectively. The degradation level of Smad7 protein was detected by Western Blot. ④ The cell lysate of hypertrophic scar fibroblasts was collected and incubated with ubiquitin mixture with or without proteasome inhibitor (MG132: MG115=1: 1) to study its inhibitory effect on the degradation of Smad7 in vitro. ⑤ Immunoprecipitation (IP) technique was used to detect the interaction between Smad 7 and E3 ubiquitin ligase Smurf2 in hypertrophic scar fibroblasts. ⑥ The expression of Smad7 protein in hypertrophic scar fibroblasts stimulated by TGF-β1 after Smurf2 silencing by small interference RNA (siRNA) technique were detected by Western blot. Results: ① There was no significant difference in the expression level of Smad7 protein between hypertrophic scar and normal skin fibroblasts(t=0.76, P=0.46). ② Expressions of Smad7 mRNA and protein in normal skin fibroblasts stimulated by exogenous TGF-β1 gradually increased in a time-dependent manner(P<0.05). The expression of Smad7 mRNA in the hypertrophic scar fibroblasts increased at all-time points except at 5min , (P<0.05), while there was no significant difference in the expression level of Smad7 protein at all-time points with or without TGF-β1 stimulation(P>0.05). ③ Degradation of Smad7 protein was enhanced in hypertrophic scar fibroblasts (the expression level of Smad 7 protein at each time point was compared with that of the control group and the last time point, P<0.05), while there was no significant difference in Smad7 protein degradation in normal skin fibroblasts(P=0.162). ④ Enhanced degradation of Smad7 in hypertrophic scar fibroblasts was blocked by the addition of the proteasome inhibitors MG132/MG115. ⑤ In hypertrophic scar fibroblasts, the Smurf2-Smad7 complex was detected, which indicated the interaction between Smurf2 and Smad7 in hypertrophic scar fibroblasts. ⑥ The expression of Smad7 protein was not increased in the hypertrophic scar fibroblasts stimulated by TGF-β1, whereas the stimulation of TGF-β1 increased the expression of Smad7 protein after silencing of Smurf2 gene expression. Conclusions In the hypertrophic scar fibroblasts, Smurf 2 attenuates the inhibitory effect of Smad 7 on TGF-β1 signaling pathway through the degradation of Smad7 by ubiquitination, which may be involved in the formation of hypertrophic scar.

OBJECTIVEOsseointegration of orthodontic microscrew implant is influenced by tooth extraction. This study aims to evaluate the safety margin of the osseointegration of orthodontic implants by investigating the healing process of the implant-bone interface through histopathological studies and quantitative determination.

METHODSTwelve male beagles were selected and randomly divided into four groups. An orthodontic microscrew was implanted beside the tooth extraction area. Animals were killed in 1, 3, 8, and, 12 weeks to investigate tissue response. Histomorphological observation and bone implant contact ratio (BIC) tests were performed at different healing time after implantation.

RESULTSA new bone was formed on the implant-bone interface of the control group. Bone resorptions were also detected in the experimental group 3 weeks after implantation. The BIC level of the control groups increased during the first 8 weeks; no change was observed anymore after the 8th week. On the other hand, the BIC value in the experimental group decreased in the first 3 weeks. It then increased rapidly and reached its peak of 80.08% in the 8th week. No significant difference wa s found between the experimental and control groups in the first 3 weeks. After the 3rd week, the BIC value of the experimental group (44.35%) was lower than that of the control group (55.46%) (P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONThe healing process after implantation was influenced by tooth extraction. Bone resorption was detected at an early stage. However, vigorous bone remodeling was observed subsequently.

Animals ; Bone Remodeling ; Bone and Bones ; Dental Implantation, Endosseous ; Dental Implants ; Dogs ; Male ; Mandible ; Osseointegration ; Prostheses and Implants ; Tooth Extraction ; Wound Healing