OBJECTIVE: To explore the nature of pathology of sluggishness of lung-defensive qi and to offer objective experimental indexes for weifen syndrome (defensive phase syndrome). METHODS: According to the completely random design, the plasma levels of vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) and thromboxane B2 (TX2) of 19 patients with weifen syndrome and 13 patients with qifen syndrome (qi phase syndrome) were detected by radioimmunoassay. The plasma levels of VIP and TX2 at different stages of weifen syndrome and qifen syndrome were observed. RESULTS: The plasma levels of VIP in weifen syndrome and in the late stage of weifen syndrome increased greatly at different stages as compared to qifen syndrome and the blank group (P < 0.01), while the plasma level of TX2 of weifen syndrome was higher only at the late stage than the blank group and qifen syndrome (P < 0.01). As for the levels of VIP and TX2 in weifen syndrome with different internal organs infected, there was no significant difference (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: VIP may be an index reflecting the pathology of weifen syndrome, and it is one of the material foundations of sluggishness of lung-defensive qi, but it has nothing to do with the infected internal organs. The level of TX2 increases only after the fever of patients with weifen syndrome subsided, so it can not be the basis for diagnosis of the early stage of weifen syndrome. It doesn't increase in qifen syndrome either, the mechanism remains to be further studied.

Objective:To compare the effects of propofol, fospropofol disodium and sevoflurane on pulmonary metastasis after radical mastectomy for breast cancer in mice.Methods:SPF-grade healthy female C57 mice, aged 4-6 weeks, weighing 14-18 g, were used in this study. Eighteen mouse breast cancer models were successfully prepared by luciferase-labeled mouse 4T1 breast cancer cells, and the mice were divided into 3 groups ( n=6 each) by the random number table method: sevoflurane group (S group), propofol group (P group) and fospropofol disodium group (PD group). Group S inhaled 3% sevoflurane, propofol 200 mg/kg was intraperitoneally infused in group P, and fospropofol disodium 182 mg/kg was injected via the tail vein in group PD, and anesthesia was maintained for 3 h to perform radical mastectomy in three groups. The lung metastasis of mouse breast cancer cells was evaluated by in vivo imaging at 2 weeks after surgery, and then the mice were sacrificed, and lung tissues were obtained for determination of the expression of extracellular regulatory protein kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2), phosphorylated ERK1/2 (p-ERK1/2), P38 and phosphorylated P38 (p-P38) by Western blot. Results:Compared with S group, the number of lung metastases and total number of cell metastases in breast cancer cells were significantly decreased, and the expression of p-ERK1/2 and p-P38 in lung metastases was down-regulated in P group and PD group ( P<0.05). There was no significant difference in the parameters mentioned above between P group and PD group ( P>0.05). Conclusions:Propofol and fospropofol disodium have better efficacy than sevoflurane in reducing lung metastasis after radical mastectomy, which may be related to down-regulation of p-ERK1/2 and p-P38 expression in mice.

Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) has become an important regulator of many cellular processes, including cell proliferation. Although studies have shown that a variety of lncRNAs play an important role in the occurrence and development of hematopoietic malignancies, a more comprehensive and unbiased method to study the function of lncRNAs in leukemia cell lines is lacking. Here, we used short hairpin RNA (shRNA) library combined with high-throughput sequencing to screen lncRNAs that may affect the proliferation of leukemia cell lines, and identified lncRNA C20orf204-203 among 74 candidate lncRNAs in this study. Further experiments showed that C20orf204-203 was localized in the cytoplasm in both K562 and THP-1 cell lines. C20orf204-203 knockdown decreased the proliferation of K562 and THP-1 cell lines accompanied with the increased proportion of early apoptotic cells. We observed the increased mRNA level of BAD gene while decreased protein level of TP53 and BCL2. The expression of Caspase 3 decreased and Caspase 3-cleaved protein increased in THP-1 cell line. However, their changes were inconsistent in the two cell lines. Our experimental results showed that knockdown of lncRNA C20orf204-203 in leukemia cell lines affected cell proliferation although the mechanism of action in different cell lines may differ. Importantly, our research demonstrated the feasibility of using shRNA library combined with high-throughput sequencing to study the role of lncRNA in leukemia cell lines on a large scale.
Caspase 3 ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Cell Proliferation/genetics* ; Humans ; Lentivirus/genetics* ; Leukemia/genetics* ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 ; RNA, Long Noncoding/metabolism* ; RNA, Messenger ; RNA, Small Interfering/genetics*