Cofactor engineering, a vital part of metabolism engineering, changes the redox cofactor regeneration approach. Its main goal is to rebuild the components of metabolic products. The bioconversion of xylose for the production of ethanol is being studied intensively because ethanol is an alternative energy source and a potential liquid fuel. Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been traditionally used in producing ethanol from fermentable sugars but it cannot utilize xylose, only its isomer xylulose. Introduction of the xylose fermentation pathway from Pichia stipitis into S. cerevisiae enables xylose utilization in recombinant S. cerevisiae, but the ethanol yields of xylose fermentation with recombinant S. cerevisiae has been low and large amounts of the byproduct xylitol are produced. The major reason is that the catabolism of xylose with the fungal pathway leads an imbalance of redox cofactor. The process of the catabolism of xylose requires NADPH and NAD~+, both of which have to be regenerated in separated processes. More and more attention has therefore focused on the redox cofactor balance in S. cerevisia. The research progress of cofactor engineering to solve the imbalance of redox cofactor in xylose metabolism recombinant S. cerevisiae was introduced. This included expression of transhydrogenase, increasing the utilization of NADPH, and achieving the anaerobic reoxidation of NADH. Reversing the cofactor specificity of enzymes is another effective way.

Breast Neoplasms ; chemistry ; genetics ; Chromogenic Compounds ; Female ; Genes, erbB-2 ; Humans ; In Situ Hybridization ; methods ; Receptor, ErbB-2 ; analysis

Objective To study the expression of CD44v6 in non-small-celt lung cancer and significance in judgement of prognosis.Methods CD44v6 expression in non-small-cell lung cancer tissues was detected in 62 patients with lung cancer operation in 1995-2002 year by immunohistohemistry method.Results The positive rate of CD44v6 in NSCLC was 61.3%,which was related to lymph node metastasis and 3-year survival rate in patients,but not to cell differentiation,pathological sort and TNM stage.Conclusion The positive expression of CD44v6 may be involved in lymph node metastasis and survival rate in NSCLC patients.It might be useful to evaluate the possibility of cancer metastasis and prognosis.

Adult ; Antineoplastic Agents ; therapeutic use ; Carcinoembryonic Antigen ; metabolism ; Carcinoma, Signet Ring Cell ; drug therapy ; metabolism ; pathology ; surgery ; Cell Transformation, Neoplastic ; pathology ; Cisplatin ; therapeutic use ; Female ; Humans ; Hysterectomy ; Keratin-20 ; metabolism ; Ovarian Neoplasms ; drug therapy ; metabolism ; pathology ; surgery ; Teratoma ; drug therapy ; metabolism ; pathology ; surgery

Ethanol production from lignocelluloses of consolidated bioprocessing (CBP) is a system in which cellulase and hemicellulase production, substrate hydrolysis, and fermentation are combined or partially combined by ethanologen microorganisms that express cellulolytic or hemicellulolytic enzymes or engineering cellulolytic microorganisms with ethanol production properties. Due to its potential for significant cost reduction, CBP is receiving more and more attention. In this review article, we discuss the factors that influence the expression level of cellulases in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and updated progress in bioethanol production from lignocellulose by the CBP strategy using the yeast species.
Biofuels ; microbiology ; Cellulases ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; metabolism ; Ethanol ; metabolism ; Fermentation ; Industrial Microbiology ; methods ; trends ; Lignin ; metabolism ; Recombinant Proteins ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; metabolism ; Saccharomyces cerevisiae ; genetics ; metabolism

Objective To compare the efficacy of uniform multi-drug therapy (UMDT) versus routine multi-drug therapy (RMDT) for the treatment of multi-bacillary (MB) leprosy patients based on bacterial index changes and frequencies of leprosy reaction.Methods This study recruited newly diagnosed leprosy patients after taking informed consent in three districts of Guizhou province as well as in one district of Yunnan province from November 2003 to June 2005.The patients received 6-month UMDT or 2-year RMDT.Clinical follow up and bacterial reexamination were carried out once a year.Changes of bacterial index (BI) and frequencies of leprosy reaction were compared between the patients receiving RMDT and UMDT.Results A total of 166 patients received UMDT and 170 received RMDT in this study.Among the UMDT-treated patients,114 were skin smear positive,and 83 had been followed up for 42 months; of the RMDT-treated patients,149 underwent all the bacterial examinations during a 48-month follow up.The mean bacterial index decreased from 2.84 before treatment to 0.33 at the end of the 42-month follow up in the 83 patients,and from 2.55 to 0.26 at the end of the 48-month follow up in the 149 patients,with no significant difference in the changes of bacterial index between the two groups (t =0.77,P ＞ 0.05).Bacterial index became negative in 73.5％ (61/83) of the UMDT-treated patients and in 77.2％ (115/149) of the RMDT-treated patients (x2 =0.40,P＞ 0.05)at the end of follow up.During the follow up peroid,the incidence of type Ⅰ leprosy reaction was 14.6％ (13/89) in the UMDT group,significantly higher than that in the RMDT group (3.4％ (5/149),x2 =10.08,P＜ 0.01 ).Conclusions There is no significant difference in mean bacterial index changes and bacterial clearance rate during the follow up peroid between UMDT- and RMDT-treated patients.The incidence of type Ⅰ leprosy reaction is higher in the UMDT group than in the RMDT group,and further investigation is needed to clarify the mechanisms underlying the phenomenon.

Objective To compare the clinical efficacy between continuous and intermittent androgen deprivation in high risk prostate cancer.Methods Sixty-four patients with high risk prostate cancer were treated from January 2008 to April 2009,36 cases who accepted goserelin and bicalutamide were taken as intermittent hormonal therapy (intermittent treatment group),while 28 cases who accepted bilateral orchiectomy in addition to flutamide were regarded as continuous hormonal therapy (continuous treatment group).The comparison of tumor specific mortality,time of prostate specific antigen (PSA) to nadir,tine to PSA recurrence,serum testerone and quality of life score were assessed between the two groups.Results In continuous treatment group and intermittent treatment group,follow-up period was (26.4 ± 10.3) and (28.1 ± 8.7) months,the time of PSA to nadir was (3.8 ± 2.1 ) and (4.0 ± 3.6) months,the time to PSA recurrence was (20.1 ± 12.3) and (24.5 ± 14.6) months,respectively.There was no significant difference between the two groups.At the time of 18,24 and 30 months after therapy,serum testerone was 0.85,0.88,0.89 μg/L in continuous treatment group,while 1.21,1.36,1.48 μg/L in intermittent treatment group,respectively (P ＜ 0.05 ).Similarly,quality of life score was 38.7,40.5,39.8 scores in continuous treatment group,while 49.2,51.4,52.3 scores in intermittent treatment group at the time of 12,18 and 30 months after therapy,respectively (P ＜ 0.05 ).Conclusions Clinical efficacy could not been found between continuous and intermittent endocrinic therapy of prostate cancer.During intermittent,quality of life seems to be better and increases in accordance with serum testerone recurrence at given time.

Objective In order to investigate the relationship between hearing loss and diabetic peripheral neuropathy( DPN ) via comparing the pure tone thresholds and vibration perception threshold(VPT) in type 2 diabetic patients and control person without diabetes. Methods 173 subjects including 138 type 2 diabetic patients(DM)and 35 non-diabetes controls were examined for VPT and hearing threshold. Nerve conducting velocity ( NCV )including sensory nerve conducting velocity( SCV )and motorial nerve conducting velocity( MCV )of diabetic patients were determined. The participants were divided into three groups: control group (n = 35 ), DM group without peripheral neuropathy( non-PN group, n = 74 ), and DM group complicated with peripheral neuropathy (PN group,n = 64 ). The clinical characteristics, biochemical parameters , the incidence of sensorineural hearing loss ( SNHL),pure tone threshold, and VPT were compared among three groups. At last, the relationship between hearing thresholds and NCV were analyzed. Results The incidence of hearing impairment of sensorineural type was 29.69% in PN group, which was significantly higher than that of non-PN group( 17.57% )and control group( 17. 14% ). There was significant differences in age, duration of diabetes, glycolated hemoglobin (HbA1c), glycolated serum albumin ( GA), Fasting blood glucose( FPG), 2h postprandial blood glucose( PPG), VPT, and hearing threshold among the three groups( all P＜0. 05 ). The value of hearing threshold increased significantly( all P＜0. 05 ) in 3 VPT subgroups with VPT≤ 15 V, VPT 16-25 V, and VPT ＞25 V. The Spearman correlation analysis showed median NCV was negatively correlated with hearing threshold on 1.00, 2.00, 4. 00, and 8. 00 kHz ( All P ＜ 0. 05 ). The logistic regression analysis indicated that the age( regression coefficient =0. 088, P＜0. 01 ) was the independent risk factor of SNHL, median nerve MCV ( regression coefficient = -0. 135, P = 0. 046 ) was the important influencing factor of SNHL. Conclusion Diabetic patients are more likely to suffer from impaired middle-frequency and high-frequency hearing, DPN in patients is often complicated with hearing impairment. Age and median nerve MCV were major risk factors of SNHL in diabetic patients.

The ideal treatment and recovery of osteoarticular injury remain to be resolved. Small intestinal submucosa (SIS), a naturally-occurring decellularized extracellular matrix, has been recognized as an ideal scaffold for tissue engineering and widely used in repairing various tissues and organs. Nowadays its application has also been gradually increased in the field of orthopedics. We reviewed laboratorial studies and clinical trails about the application of SIS in bone and joint repair, aiming to evaluate its effects on the repair of bone, cartilage, meniscus, ligament and tendon. SIS has showed promising results in repairing bone, meniscus, ligament or tendon. However, additional studies will be required to further evaluate its effects on articular cartilage and tendon-bone healing. How to optimize SIS material,is also a focused problem concerned with making SIS a potential therapeutic option with high value for orthopedic tissue repair.
Animals ; Cell- and Tissue-Based Therapy ; Humans ; Intestinal Mucosa ; cytology ; Intestine, Small ; cytology ; Joint Diseases ; physiopathology ; surgery ; therapy ; Tissue Engineering ; instrumentation ; methods ; Tissue Scaffolds ; chemistry

OBJECTIVE:To introduce the application of intelligent sorting system for prepared infusion in PIVAS of our hospi-tal. METHODS:Intelligent sorting system established by our hospital with barcode scanning technology and relevant hardware de-vices such as automatic drug sorting devices was introduced from system operation environment,system software design and sys-tem function. The effects of the system was evaluated through comparing with manual sorting mode. RESULTS:The intelligent sort-ing system used had such functions as sorting batch selection,intelligent sorting and discharging,information tracing management. Compared to manual sorting,the number of staff under intelligent sorting mode decreased from 7 to 2,sorting errors within 3 months were reduced by 99.0%(591 times vs. 6 times),and the daily sorting errors were reduced by 98.9%(6.57 times vs. 0.07 times). CONCLUSIONS:The system runs stably and sorts accurately,the errors is reduced,the working efficiency is improved and intensity of sorting is reduced,compared to manual sorting.