Objective To study the elongation factor 1α(EF-1α) gene functions in prostate cancer cell line DU145 in the aspects of cell proliferation and clone formation by using the RNA interference technique. Methods DU145 cell lines were divided into control group, transfection control group transfected with scramble siRNA and experimental group transfected with EF-1α siRNA. After transfecting EF-1α siRNA into DU145 cell line, the down-regulation of EF-la expression in DU145 cell line was confirmed by Western blotting and immunofluorescence staining. Then, the cell proliferation and clone formation assays were carried on in these 3 groups of DU145 cells. Results Compared with controls, the specific down-regulation of EF-1α expression was achieved in experimental group only. Compared with control group, after the down-regualtion of EF-1α in DU145 cell line, the cell proliferation rate decreased from day 4 to day 7 after transfection by 45. 9%, 53. 5% , 35. 3% and 38. 1% , respectively(P<0. 05). The clone formation number in experimental group decreased by 67.0% (P<0. 01). Conclusions The down-regulation of EF-1α has a negative impact on prostate cancer cell proliferation and clone formation. EF-1α might be an appropiate targeting gene in prostate cancer targeting therapy.

Objective To study the effect of down-rdgulation of EF-1 alpha gene in prostate cancer cell line DU-145 on cancer cell migration and invasion by using RNA interference technique. Methods The prostate cancer cell line DU-145 was divided into three groups: the control group (untransfected with siRNA), randomly control group (randomly transfected with siRNA) and experimental group (transfected with EF-1 alpha siRNA). Localization of EF-1 alpha and its relationship with F-actin in cytoplasm were analyzed by immunofluorescence technique. Cancer cell migration and invasion capability of DU145 cells were studied by transwell technique in these three groups. Results EF-1 alpha expression in DU145 cell line was down-regulated by using RNA interference technique. EF-1 alpha was localized in cytoplasm and co-located with F-actin. The down-regualtion of EF-1 alpha did not change the F-actin distribution in cytoplasm. The cell migration and invasion study showed that after seeding 20×104 DU145 cells into the upper chamber of transwall for 12 hours, the cells collected in the lower chambers were (10.6±1.0)×104 in control group, (11.2±0.8)×104 in randomly control group and (3.9±0.6)×104 in experimental group. Compared with controls, the cancer cell migration and invasion capability was significantly inhibited to only 37.1% (t= 13.9, P<0.05) after the specific down-regulation of EF-1 alpha expression in DU145 cells. Conclusions The down-regulation of EF-1 alpha expression has negative impacts on prostate cancer cell migration and invasion. EF-1 alpha plays important roles in prostate cancer local invasion.

Objective To investigate the clinical efficacy of gentle moxibustion plus oral Gushen Dingchuan pills in treating the clinical remission stage of bronchial asthma.Methods Ninety patients with bronchial asthma in the clinical remission stage were randomized to groups A,B and C,30 cases each.group A received moxa-stick gentle moxibustion;group B,oral administration of Gushen Dingchuan pills;group C,moxa-stick gentle moxibustion plus oral administration of Gushen Dingchuan pills.The course of treatment was three months in all the three groups.The TCM symptom score and the Asthma Control Test (ACT) score were recorded and serum immunoglobulin E (IgE) content was measured in the two groups before and after treatment.The clinical therapeutic effects were compared between the groups.Results The total efficacy rate was 76.7％ in group A,80.0％ in group B and 93.3％ in group C.there was a statistically significant difference in the total efficacy rate between group C and group A or B (P＜0.05).There were statistically significant pre-/post-treatment differences in the TCM symptom score,the ACT score and serum IgE content in all the three groups (P＜0.01).There were statistically significant post-treatment differences in the TCM symptom score,the ACT score and serum IgE content between between group C and group A or B (P＜0.01,P＜0.05).Conclusion Gentle moxibustion plus oral Gushen Dingchuan pills can improve immunologic function in patients with bronchial asthma in the clinical remission stage.

OBJECTIVETo investigate the knowledge and the attitude toward prostate cancer (PCa) among Chinese city men and raise some suggestions for the improvement of the present state.

METHODSIn October 2007, a questionnaire investigation was conducted among males in 17 Chinese cities on the knowledge of PCa in the following 6 aspects: general state of PCa susceptible city men, basic knowledge, risk factors, symptoms, management and outcome, and attitude toward the treatment of PCa. The influences of education on their scores were analyzed and compared.

RESULTSWe distributed 1,700 copies of the questionnaire and collected 376 (22.1%) valid ones. The subjects averaged 67.1 +/- 10.1 years of age, 80.1% with junior high school education and above. As for the basic knowledge of PCa, 92.6% of them admitted hearing of it, but only 45.5% knew what it was, with statistically significant differences among men of different educations. The most common accesses to PCa knowledge were media (43.3%), hospital consultation (25.2%) and health booklets (10.1%). Of the total number of subjects, 32.7% regarded "Father has prostate cancer" as a risk factor, 82.2% knew that PCa could be treated by surgery, but only 8.9% knew that " hormonotherapy has an important role in PCa treatment". More positive attitudes toward PCa treatment and its consequence were found among those with higher education.

CONCLUSIONPCa susceptible men in Chinese cities have insufficient knowledge on the disease. Strengthened education in this aspect can improve the present state and promote early diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer.

Aged ; China ; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice ; Humans ; Male ; Men ; psychology ; Middle Aged ; Prostatic Neoplasms ; prevention & control ; psychology ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Urban Population

OBJECTIVETo investigate the efficiency and safety of transperitoneal laparoscopic adrenalectomy for the treatment of adrenal tumors and to describe surgical technique and management of intraoperative complications.

METHODSFrom February 2002 to April 2008, 24 male and 44 female consecutive patients with average age (53.4 +/- 12.1) years old were treated with transperitoneal laparoscopic adrenalectomy because of adrenal tumors. Of the patients, 27 cases had right adrenal tumors, 39 cases had left adrenal tumors and 2 cases had bilateral adrenal tumors. The average tumor size was (2.9 +/- 2.0) cm with the maximal diameter of 10 cm. We evaluated this technique in respect of operating time, estimated blood loss, complications during surgery, postoperative complications, duration of hospital stay and pathological results.

RESULTSAll the surgeries had been completed successfully without conversion to open surgery. The average operating time was (157.7 +/- 51.5) min, the average estimated blood loss was (68.1 +/- 54.2) ml. No major complication happened during operation. The average drainage time was (2.6 +/- 1.5) days. The average post-operative hospital stay was (8.7 +/- 4.3) days. Four cases (6.0%) developed surgical field liquefaction and 2 cases (2.9%) experienced delayed closure of the drainage wound.

CONCLUSIONSTransperitoneal laparoscopic adrenalectomy is feasible and safe in the treatment of adrenal tumor with low risk of intra-operative and post-operative complication.

Adrenal Gland Neoplasms ; surgery ; Adrenalectomy ; methods ; Adult ; Aged ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Laparoscopy ; methods ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Treatment Outcome

OBJECTIVETo study on mechanisms of acupuncture in relieving visceral pain.

METHODSIn SD rats CRD was used as noxious visceral stimuli. Activities of spinal dorsal horn wide dynamic (WDR) neurons of L1-L13 were recorded by extracellular microelectrode technique. Acupuncture was given at ipsi-lateral and contra-lateral Zusanli (ST 36) of the same segmental innervation of rectum and colon.

RESULTSVisceral noxious afferent could significantly activate spinal dorsal horn convergent neurons, and mechanical stimulation of contra-lateral body surface and hand acupuncture at Zusanli (ST 36) could inhibit this noxious response. When the spinal cord was acutely blocked, the inhibiting CRD effect of needling CRD effect of needling contra-lateral Zusanli (ST 36) completely disappeared.

CONCLUSIONAcupuncture and visceral noxious afferent signals converge and interact each other in spinal level, and acupuncture at acupoint can inhibit the spinal dorsal horn neuron respon se activated by visceral noxious afferent and this action needs the participation of the center above the spinal cord.

Animals ; Colon ; innervation ; Nociceptors ; Posterior Horn Cells ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Rectum ; Spinal Cord

OBJECTIVETo explore the effect of different nutrition therapies on abnormal glucose metabolism during pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes.

METHODSThe 83 cases of pregnant women with abnormal glucose metabolism who came to nutrition clinic were randomly divided into two groups before 30 weeks pregnancy: 42 cases in traditional food exchange serving group (FES) and 41 cases in food exchange serving based on glycemic load group (FES + GL). Traditional food exchange serving and food exchange serving based on glycemic load were used as the different nutrition therapies for two groups respectively until the time of delivery. The influence of two nutrition therapies on the blood glucose and pregnancy outcomes were observed.

RESULTSThe daily food glucose load (GL) after nutrition therapy in the FES + GL group (145.9 ± 26.3) were significantly decreased than that of the FES group (179.9 ± 28.9, t = 5.602, P < 0.01). Fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and 2 h postprandial glucose (2 h PG) ((4.63 ± 0.97) and (6.15 ± 1.07) mmol/L, respectively) after nutrition therapy in the FES + GL group were significantly lower than that in pre-nutrition therapy ((4.96 ± 0.81) and (9.13 ± 1.61) mmol/L, t = 2.237, 11.202, respectively, all P values < 0.05). The 2 h PG in the FES + GL group ((6.15 ± 1.07) mmol/L) after nutrition therapy was significantly lower than that of the FES group ((6.86 ± 1.26) mmol/L, t = 2.760, P < 0.05). 19.51% (8/41) of the total incidence of complications in the FES + GL group was lower than that (11/42, 26.19%) in the FES group, but the difference was not significant (χ² = 0.524, P > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONFES based on GL was much easier to reduce blood glucose compared with FES. Two nutrition therapies can improve maternal and neonatal outcomes in pregnant women with abnormal glucose metabolism.

Adult ; Blood Glucose ; metabolism ; Diabetes, Gestational ; diet therapy ; metabolism ; Female ; Glucose Metabolism Disorders ; diet therapy ; metabolism ; Humans ; Nutritional Support ; methods ; Pregnancy

OBJECTIVETo gain some insights into the critical events relating to HBV transcriptional regulation by comparing HBV replicative characteristics in different cell lines.

METHODSHepatic cell lines QSG-7701 and HepG2 were transfected with plasmid PUC18-HBV 1.2 by standard calcium phosphate precipitation method, and 1.0 microg pSEAP2-control vector was included in the transfection procedures to serve as an internal control monitoring the transfection efficiency. Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) in the medium was detected by ELISA method and HBV DNA was quantitated using fluorescent quantitative PCR. The intracellular HBsAg and HBcAg were detected with immunofluorescent staining. The gene expression profiles of QSG-7701 and HepG2 were compared using oligonucleotide microarray; partial differentially expressed genes were verified with quantitative RT-PCR.

RESULTSIn the medium of the cultured HepG2 cells, HBsAg and HBV DNA could be detected 6 days after the transfection, whereas in QSG-7701 cells, the HBsAg and HBV DNA could be detected for 2 weeks. The HBV DNA in the culture medium of QSG-7701 was about 50 times more than that of the HepG2 cells which were kept in 1 x 10(7)copies/ml(-3) x 10(7)copies/ml for 0 to 10 days after the transfection. On the 4th day after the transfection, 20% to 30% of the QSG-7701 cells were positive with HBsAg and HBcAg immunofluorescent staining. The gene microarray analysis showed that most transcription factors involved with HBV life cycle in QSG-7701 and HepG2 cells had similar levels, whereas some factors involved with HBV transcriptional regulation and core particle disassembly, such as interleukin-6 (R=5.1340), retinoid X receptor, alpha (R=5.1268), hepatic leukemia factor (R=3.2538), serine protease PRRS23 (R=2.8356), hepatitis B virus x interacting protein (R=0.4939), serine protease inhibitor Kazal type 1 (R=0.0740) and matrix metalloproteinase 3 (negative in QSG-7701) were all differentially expressed by HepG2 cells.

CONCLUSIONDifferent than HepG2 cells, the QSG-7701 cells could support a high level and relatively stable HBV replication after HBV DNA transient transfection. The HBV core particles were probably recycled in the QSG-7701 cells. The differential gene expressions between QSG-7701 and HepG2 might explain the mechanism of the different HBV replication patterns. Hepatic cell line QSG-7701 might serve as a useful tool for HBV transcriptional regulation research.

Cell Line ; Gene Expression Regulation, Viral ; Genetic Vectors ; Genome, Viral ; Hep G2 Cells ; Hepatitis B virus ; genetics ; physiology ; Humans ; Virus Replication

OBJECTIVESome members of the S100 gene family have been suggested to be associated with cancer development and metastasis. Our previous cDNA micro-array studies have showed S100A6 expression is elevated in gastric cancer compared with that in paired normal mucosa. To validate our previous results and further investigate the possible role of S100A6 gene in gastric cancer, we carried out this detailed S100A6 expression analysis in more matched gastric cancer samples.

METHODSS100A6 expression was detected in 20 paired fresh surgical samples of gastric tumor tissue and matched non-cancerous mucosa by QRT-PCR. A gastric cancer tissue microarray (TMA) containing 1020 duplicate matched normal mucosa, gastric cancer tissue and metastatic lymph node tissue cores from 208 gastric cancer patients was constructed. S100A6 expression was detected by immunohistochemistry and the correlation between S100A6 expression with clinicopathological factors and survival was analyzed.

RESULTSAs quantitated by QRT-PCR, S100A6 transcript level was elevated in 73.7% of the primary cancer lesions with an average 2.25-fold up-regulation than that in matched non-neoplastic mucosa. As displayed by immunohistochemistry, the positive rate of S100A6 in non-neoplastic mucosa, tumor lesions and metastatic lymph nodes was 34.3%, 84.1% and 90.9%, respectively. S100A6 expression level in cancer and metastatic lymph node was significantly higher than their matched non-neoplastic mucosa (P < 0.05). 65.5% of patients showed an increased S100A6 expression in cancer tissue compared with that in matched normal mucosa. S100A6 overexpression was associated with larger tumor size and deeper invasion (P = 0.022 and P = 0.009). No evidence was found for an association between S100A6 expression level and other variables, including tumor grade, nodal metastases, and TNM stage. There was no association between S100A6 expression level and survival. But compared with paired non-neoplastic mucosa, an increased S100A6 expression in tumor lesion predicated a decreasing suvival if compared with a decreased S100A6 expression, though the difference was statistically not significant.

CONCLUSIONElevated expression of S100A6 gene may be an early event in the development and progression of gastric cancer. Further study of this gene may be helpful for understanding the nature of gastric carcinoma.

Cell Cycle Proteins ; metabolism ; Follow-Up Studies ; Gastric Mucosa ; metabolism ; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic ; Humans ; Lymphatic Metastasis ; Neoplasm Invasiveness ; Neoplasm Staging ; RNA, Messenger ; metabolism ; S100 Calcium Binding Protein A6 ; S100 Proteins ; metabolism ; Stomach Neoplasms ; metabolism ; pathology ; surgery ; Survival Rate ; Tumor Burden ; Up-Regulation

BACKGROUNDThe effectiveness and influence of surgery followed by adjuvant chemoradiotherapy (CRT) on the survival of patients with resectable esophageal carcinoma are still under debate. The outcomes of clinical trials have not been consistent. This study aimed to perform a meta-analysis of eligible published clinical trials to compare CRT with surgery without adjuvant chemoradiotherapy (non-CRT) for resectable esophageal carcinoma.

METHODSComputerized bibliographic and manual searches were undertaken to identify all eligible literature between 1990 and 2012. PubMed, EMBASE, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, and Wanfang databases were our primary sources for published clinical trials. The quality of the methodology and reliability of the data from all of the clinical trials were assessed. All data were extracted by three independent researchers.

RESULTSSeven studies that included a total of 523 patients were selected. It was found that CRT significantly improved survival. The odds ratio (OR) in comparing CRT and non-CRT groups was 1.75 (95% confidence intervals (CI): 1.17 - 2.60, P = 0.006) for 1-year survival, 2.07 (95%CI: 1.45 - 2.96, P < 0.0001) for 3-year survival, and 2.17 (95%CI: 1.45 - 3.26, P = 0.0002) for 5-year survival. There have been no CRT treatment-related deaths reported in the literature. The incidence of related complications was high in the cases with CRT. Patients treated with CRT had a lower incidence of local-regional cancer recurrence (OR: 0.49, 95%CI: 0.31 - 0.76, P = 0.002) and a similar incidence of distant cancer recurrence (OR: 0.90, 95%CI: 0.60 - 1.34, P = 0.60).

CONCLUSIONSIt was found that patients with resectable esophageal carcinoma could gain a survival benefit from CRT. However, CRT was associated with a high incidence of related complications.

Carcinoma ; surgery ; therapy ; Chemoradiotherapy, Adjuvant ; methods ; Esophageal Neoplasms ; surgery ; therapy ; Humans