Whether three genes [?-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase (ALAD) gene, Vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene and hemochromatosis gene] can make certain individuals more vulnerable to lead are discussed. Polymorphisms of ALAD gene have been associated with the accumulation and distribution of lead in the blood, bone and internal organs in humans and animals. VDR gene has been implicated in the control of calcitriol levels in serum, which normally regulates calcium absorption and can in turn affect lead levels. Hemochromatosis gene, associated with a disease that leads to excessive iron accumulation, may also influence the absorption of lead.

Objective To detect the induction of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and nitric oxide (NO) production in immunostimulated retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells to seek for the supplying of the arginine, a substrate for NOS; as well as the effects of produced NO on the tight junction of RPE-J cells. Methods Rat′s RPE-J cells were treated with interferon-?(INF-?), tumor necrosis factor-?(TNF-?) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and Northern and Western blotting were applied to analyze the expression of the citrulline-NO cycle enzymes and related enzymes and the effect of dexamethasone and cyclic adenosine monophosphate (camp) on the expression of iNOS. Immunocytochemistry reaction and Western blotting were used to evaluate the effect of produced NO on the tight junctions of RPE-J cells. Results iNOS and argininosuccinate synthetase (AS) were highly induced at both mRNA and protection levels in immunostimulated RPE cells while arginiosuccinate lyase (AL) was not induced. NO was produced by cells after stimulation with TNF?, IFN? and LPS. The induction of iNOS mRNA and the production of NO by these immunostimulated cells was further enhanced by cAMP. NO was produced from citrulline as well as from arginine. And the produced NO impaired the tight junction of RPE-J cells, decreased the production of tight junction related protein ZO-1. Conclusion In activated RPE-J cells, citrulline-arginine recycling is important for NO production, and the produced NO weakened the function of tight junction of RPE-J cells.

Objective To investigate the role of deoxycholic acid (DCA) in the pathogenesis of Barrett esophagus.Methods Normal human esophageal mucosal epithelial cells were cultured in vitro with defined keratinocyte serum-free media (D-KSFM).The cultured cells were treated with different concentrations of DCA and specific p38 mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) inhibitor. The expression of p38,phosphorylated p38 (p-p38) and caudal-related homeodomain transcription 2 (CDX2) at protein level were assessed by Western blot.The correlation between p-p38 and CDX2 was analyzed.The data were analyzed by one way ANOVA and LSD test.Results After being cultured with DCA for 24 h,the expression of p-p38 and CDX2 increased along with the increasing of DCA concentration.Compared with the control group (p-p38 was 13.7％ ± 1.0％ and CDX2 protein was 0),the difference was statistically significant (P＜ 0.05).When DCA was at 500 μmol/L,the expression of p-p38 and CDX2 reached the highest level (44.0％ ± 1.7％ and 8.59± 1.25).After pretreated with SB203580 for two hours and then 500 μmol/L DCA was added into cell culture,both expression level of p-p38 and CDX2 decreased compared with 500μmol/L DCA group (p-p38:28.3％ ±2.2％ vs50.5％±9.5％,CDX2:0.94±0.13 vs 2.31±0.41) after 24 h.Conclusions DCA can induce the expression of CDX2 in normal human esophageal mucosal epithelial cells,which is related with the activation of p38.The phosphorylation of p38 maybe involved in the pathogenesis of Barrett esophagus.

Objective To evaluate the diagnostic and therapentic value of ERCP for choledocholithiasis.Methods ERCT and EST in 142 cases with suspected choledoholithiasis were performed for treating choledocholithiasis.All the imaging data were analyzed retrospectively.Results Among 142 cases,128 cases were choledocholithiasis,3 cases were suspected choledocholithiasis,6 cases were normal and 5 cases were miss-diagnosis.The diagnostic accuracy of ERCT was 90.1%(128/142).EST were successful in 129 cases,and 4 cases were failure,the successful rate was 96.9%.Conclusion ERCT is of important value in diaguosing choledocholithiasis and EST is safe and reliable for treating choledocholithiasis.

AIM: To investigate the effects of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) on protein and mRNA expression of macrophage inflammatory protein-1? (MIP-1?) in cultured human umbilical vein endothelial cells(HUVECs). METHODS: HUVECs were cultured with AGEs at different concentrations for 24 h and at a concentration of 400 mg/L for different time.The levels of mRNA and protein expression of MIP-1? in cultured HUVEC were detected by in situ hybridization and Western blot, respectively. RESULTS: In situ hybridization showed that after exposure of HUVECs to AGEs at different concentrations (100 mg/L, 200 mg/L, 400 mg/L) for 24 h, the average integrated optical density values (18.76?3.17, 26.58?1.61, 34.23?2.25) of MIP-1? mRNA expression in HUVECs were higher than that in control group (13.83?1.24, P

Objective To analyze Mycoplasma detection and drug sensitivity test of 3 127 urogenital tract infection women ,and to provides important basis for clinical diagnosis and treatment .Methods Mycoplasma detection and drug sensitivity of 3 127 uro-genital tract infection women were detected .Results Among 3 127 cases ,1 800 patients were detected Mycoplasma ,and the posi-tivity was 57 .6% .The infection rates of Ureaplasma urealyticum(Uu) ,Mycoplasma hominis(Mh) and Uu+ Mh mixed infection were 46 .2% ,1 .2% ,10 .1% .Uu was sensitive to minocycline ,doxycycline and clarithromycin .Mh was sensitive to minocycline , doxycycline and josamycin .Uu+ Mh mixed infection was sensitive to minocycline ,doxycycline and josamycin .Conclusion Myco-p lasma infections have been the major pathogen of urogenital tract diseases ,the clinical treatment should be based on drug sensitivity test .

Objective To develop the knowledge-attitude-practice scale for evaluating intra-abdominal pressure measurement in ICU nurses and assess its reliability and validity preliminary. Methods Applied the methods of literature review and Delphi expert consultation to form the knowledge-attitude-practice scale for evaluating intra-abdominal pressure measurement in ICU nurses on the basis of the knowledge-attitude-practice framework. A total of 165 nurses from ICU department were finally involved. Items analysis, exploratory factor analysis, content validity, internal consistency test and split-half reliability were used to evaluate the scale. Results Factor analysis revealed five factors (23 items), accounting for 52.5%of the total variance. The Cronbach αcoefficient was 0.869 for the total scale and 0.612, 0.749 and 0.848 for the subscales of knowledge, attitude and practice. The split-half coefficient was 0.784. Conclusions The knowledge-attitude-practice scale has good reliability and validity, and can be used to assess the intra-abdominal pressure measurement in ICU nurses.

Objective To investigate the clinical efficacy of pedicled adrenal transposition for the treatment of adrenocortical and medullary hyperplasia, Methods Twenty cases of adrenal hyperpla-sia (6 men and 14 women; mean age,36 years ) had history of hypertension from 0.5 to 5 years. Of all cases, 15 had centripetal obesity and purple striae, 2 had weakness and polyuria, 3 had durative hypertension. Serum potassium and aldosterone were increased in 4 and 3 cases, respectively. Urinary 17-OH and 17-KS were increased in 15 cases. Epinepgrine, norepinephrine and dopamine increased in 3 cases, VMA increased in 4 cases. CT scan and MRI revealed adrenal diffuse enlargement with in-creased thickness or nodules in 18 and 3 cases, respectively, 131I-MIBG scan showed positive in 3 ca-ses. Preoperative diagnoses were Cushing's syndrome in 11 cases, hyperaldosteronism in 2 cases, pheochromocytoma in 1 case, adrenomedullary hyperplasia in 2 cases, Cushing's syndrome-cate-cholamine syndrome in 4 cases. All cases were treated with transposition of pedicled adrenal gland into the subcutaneous tissues. Results All operations were successful. The average operation time was 120 min, the average blood loss was 40 ml and the average hospital stay was 10 d. No obvious surgical complications occurred. Pathological studies of all the cases revealed the coexistence of adrenocortical and medullary hyperplasia. Seventeen cases were followed up for 0.5-8 years. Thirteen cases had no symptom and normal biochemical results. Four cases still had hypertension and abnormal biochemical results. They were recovered after adrenal operation of the ther side. Conclusion Transposition of pedicled adrenal gland could be an available option to treat patients with adrenocortical and medullary hyperplasia.

Objective To evaluate the value of the physiological and operative severity score for the enumeration of mortality and morbidity (POSSUM) and P-POSSUM in predicting the risks of orthopedic surgeries for senile patients with femoral neck fracture.Methods A total of 108 patients with femoral neck fractures who underwent hip joint replacement were retrospectively studied using POSSUM and P-POSSUM scoring system to predict their mortality and complication rate.The difference between predictive value and observed value was analyzed by chi-square test.Meanwhile,the patients were divided into two groups based on their POSSUM scores.The differences between two groups were analyzed.Results According to POSSUM scores,47 patients were predicted to have complications(the mean rate was 43.52％),but only 37 did actually (the rate was 34.26％).There was no significant difference between predicted values and observed values (P =0.238).The predicted death toll was 11 cases (the mean rate was 10.19％),but actually only 2 patients died (the rate was 1.85％).Predicted value was higher than observed value.In terms of complications,death toll agreed well with the predicted values calculated by P-POSSUM (predicted death of 4 cases' the mean mortality being 3.70％ ; actual death of 2 cases' the mortality was 1.85％) without significant difference (P =0.625).We divided the patients into two groups with the POSSUM scores 40,and there was no significant difference between predicted values and observed values (P =0.527,P =0.285).Conclusions POSSUM has better predictive ability of morbidity,but overestimates mortality.P-POSSUM more accurately predicts mortality than POSSUM.The predicted results of POSSUM and P-POSSUM scoring systems are satisfactory in the high risk group.

Objective To investigate the effects of heat-killed Staphylococcus aureus (HKSA) on the apoptosis and expression of iNOS and IL-1β in THP-1 monocytes in the presence of high concentration of glucose.Methods THP-1 cells were cultured in medium containing 25.0 mmol/L(HG) or 5.5 mmol/L (LG,control) D-glucose for 12 h-8 d.The THP-1 cells cultured for 6 d were extracted on the 0-48 h with or without HKSA,then apoptosis and expression of iNOS and IL-1β were examined.Apoptosis was analyzed by flow cytometry and expressions of IL-1β and iNOS were quantitated by real-time PCR.Results The expression of iNOS and IL-1β in THP-1 monocytes was increased significantly in the presence of high concentration of glucose for 12-48 h(P＜0.05),reaching the highest level at 24 h and returned to baseline after 4 d.The expression was significantly lower than that of control after 4-6 d.Apoptosis rate was also increased significantly after 48 h to 4 days.HKSA infection enhanced apoptosis,but inhibited the expression of iNOS and IL-1 β in the presence of high concentration of glucose.The expression of iNOS and IL-1β increased significantly at 6 h(P＜0.01),reaching the highest level at 12 h,but the levels were significantly lower than those in control groups (P＜0.05).Conclusion These data suggest that high concentration of glucose can interfere with the anti-bacterial function of monocytes by reducing their expression of iNOS and IL-1β and enhancing their apoptosis.