Objective To investigate the association between pet ownership and lung function in children without asthma,and to provide scientific basis for the improvement of lung function in children. Methods Data was drawn from the cross-sectional study ,the clusters were randomly selected from 1 to 2 junior middle schools and primary schools in 24 administrative regions of seven cities in Liaoning Province. The ATS questionnaire survey was performed,and lung function including the forced expiratory volume in 1 second(FEV1),forced vital capacity (FVC),maximal mid-expiratory flow(MMEF)and peak expiratory flow(PEF)was measured by utilizing portable electronic spirometers. Results In this study ,about 6280 children without asthma aged 7 ~ 14 years were enrolled,49.47 % of the children was male. The average lung function of FVC,FEV1,PEF and MMEF was (2.63±0.75)L,(2.47 ± 0.70)L,(4.80 ± 1.42)L/s and(3.37±1.05)L/s,respectively. By adjusting confounding fac-tors,we found pet ownership in the first 2 years of life was significantly associated with the predicted lung function impairment of FVC<85%(aOR=1.30;95%CI:1.01~1.67);current pet ownership was significantly associated with the predicted lung function impairment of FVC < 85%(aOR = 1.32;95% CI:1.09 ~ 1.61),the predicted FEV1<85%(aOR=1.47;95%CI:1.19~1.83),the predicted PEF<75%(aOR=1.48;95%CI:1.16~1.88) and the predicted MMEF<75%(aOR=1.35;95%CI:1.09~1.66). The in utero exposure was not related to lung function impairment. Conclusion Pets ownership has damaging effects on lung function in children without asth-ma,and it reduces FVC,FEV1,PEF and MMEF in children.

Huaier (Trametes robiniophila) has been widely used as an adjuvant drug for cancer treatment in China. The anti-cancer effect of Huaier extract has been confirmed in liver cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, gastric cancer, and so on. The main mechanisms by which Huaier exerts an anti-neoplastic effect include inhibition of the growth and proliferation of cancer cells, induction of apoptosis of cancer cells, suppression of angiogenesis, inhibition of the invasion and migration of cancer cells, regulation of oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes expression, improving immunity, and reversal of drug resistance in cancer cells. In order to provide references for further study and clinical application on anti-tumor effect of Huaier, the latest research progress on anti-tumor effect of Huaier in recent years is summarized in this paper.
Animals ; Antineoplastic Agents ; pharmacology ; Humans ; Trametes

Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Central Nervous System Neoplasms ; drug therapy ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Leukemia, Promyelocytic, Acute ; drug therapy ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies ; Young Adult

Objective To detect the changes in the expression of discoidin domain receptor 2(DDR2)and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-13 in different stages of cartilage and synovium damage of osteoarthritis rats.The relation between DDR2 and the degree of cartilage damage was explored.Methods Modified papain knee joint injection approach was adopted to establish animal model of OA.The expression and distribution of protein of DDR2 and MMP-13 were checked in articular cartilage and synovium at different stages of OA.Results The expressions of DDR2 in articular cartilage and synovium of experimental groups were different from those of the normal group (P＜0.01).They were higher in cartilage than those in the corresponding synovium.The expressions of MMP-13 demonstrated the same characteristics with those of DDR2,r=0.93(P＜0.01).Conclusions The important role of DDR2-MMP-13 in cartilage damage has been proven in the pathogenic process of OA.The upregulated expressions of DDR2 in articular cartilage and synovium have a detrimental effect on cartilage degeneration.

OBJECTIVE:To optimize the preparation technology of roxithromycin microspheres.METHODS:The microspheres of roxithromycin were prepared by the emulsion-solvent diffusion method with ethylcellulose used as capsule wall material.The preparation technology of microspheres was optimized by orthogonal experiment taking encapsulation efficiency as index with the ratio of roxithromycin to ethylcellulose(A),the concentration of ethylcellulose(B)and the ratio of water phase to oil phase(C)as factors.The appearance,particle diameter,drug-loading amount,encapsulation efficiency,in vitro release and bitter smell were studied.RESULTS:The optimal preparation conditions were as follows:A was 1∶1,B was 30 ?g?mL-1 and C was 4∶1.The microspheres obtained were round and well-distributed with mean diameter of 75.0～90.0 ?m,drug-loading amount of 45%～46%,encapsulation efficiency of over 90% and sustained release for over 13 hours.No bitter taste of the roxithromycin-ethylcellulose microspheres was felt by the majority of subjects.CONCLUSION:The roxithromycin microspheres made by optimization technology was bitter-masked and sustained release.

Background and purpose:The BRAF V600E mutation is a highly attractive drug target. Therefore, determining the BRAF gene mutation status of patients is essential in order to assess patients' eligibility for targeted BRAF geneinhibitor therapy. The aim of this study was to validate the utility of immunohistochemistry to rapidly obtain the BRAF gene mutation status. This study aimed to analyze the correlation of the BRAF V600E gene mutation and VE1 protein ex-pression with the clinical pathological characteristics in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC).Methods:The mutation status of BRAF V600E was detected by DNA sequencing. Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression of BRAF V600E protein in 108 cases of PTC, 54 cases of thyroid adenoma and 54 cases of normal thyroid tissue.Results:The gene mutation rate of BRAF V600E is 67.6%, and VE1 protein expression rate is 64.8% in 108 cases of PTC. The differences were statistically significant compared with thyroid adenoma and goiter (P<0.05), but have no correlation with the clinical pathological characteristics.Conclusion:BRAF V600E gene mutation and VE1 protein expression are useful biomarkers for the pathological diagnosis of PTC. High consistency was observed between the immunohistochemical staining results and the DNA sequencingresults of BRAF V600E gene mutations. Immunohistochemical technique detecting the BRAF V600E protein expression can effectively reflect indirectly BRAF V600E gene mutation status in PTC.BRAF V600E gene mutation has no contribution to the development of papillary thyroid carcinoma.

Aberrant activation of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase(PI3K)-protein kinase B(PKB,Akt)-mammalian target of rapamycin(mTOR) pathway is commonly observed in human cancer and is critical for cell survival, proliferation and differentiation.A variety of small molecule inhibitors targeting PI3K-Akt-mTOR pathway are under clinical studies.This review will summarize the recent studies in terms of the PI3K-Akt-mTOR signaling pathway and cancer,research progress of the antitumor activity possessed by PI3K-Akt-mTOR inhibitors,as well as the recent research in the related field conducted by our group.

BACKGROUND: The effective method to obtain neural stem cells through in vitro culture that deserves to pay more attention in experimental studies of stem cells.OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effective methods to culture neural stem cells in vitro using culture medium containing different growth factors.DESIGN: Single sample observation.SETTING: Laboratory of Cell Biology, College of Life Science, Sichuan University.MATERIALS: Ten SD rats which were pregnant for 14 days, DMEM/F12 1:1, basic fibroblasts growth factors, epidermal growth factor; nestin antibody IgG , β- microtubule protein Ⅲ antibody IgG , glial fibrillary acidic protein antibody IgG, biotin labeled second antibody and third antibody and fluorescinisothiocyate (FITC)-labeled second antibody were used in this experiment.METHODS: This experiment was carried out at the Laboratory of Cell Biology, College of Life Science, Sichuan University from 1999 to 2001. ① Brain tissue was taken out from the procerebrum of fetal rat, then primary neural stem cell clone was obtained through enzymatic digestion, mechanical treatment, centrifugation and culture. ② Neural stem cells were inoculated and cultured at 2×108 L-1 and divided into 4 groups with 6 bottles of cells in each group. DMEM/F12 (1:1 )culture medium containing 0.1 volume fraction of fetal bovine serum was added , serving as DMEM/F12 group; culture medium containing 20 μg/L basic fibroblast growth factor was added , serving as basic fibroblast growth factor group; culture medium containing 30 μg/L epidermal growth factor was added , serving as epidermal growth factor group; Culture medium containing basic fibroblast growth factors was added to culture for 2 hours, then culture medium containing epidermal growth factors was used for further culture, serving as basic fibroblast growth factor+ epidermal growth factor group. Culture flask was change after 24-hour culture; another 14 days later, primary clone number was counted under the microscope, and expressions of specially labeled albumen nidogen of stem cells were detected with immunohistochemistry.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: ① Primary clone of neural stem cells.② Clone culture result of unicell. ③ Induction and differentiation results.RESULTS: ① The cells isolated from the brain of fetal rats possess the ability to consecutively passage and form clone , and immunofluorescent staining showed cell nidogen expression positive in the cell sphere. ②Clone rate of neural stem cells was the highest (0.630%)using ordinal culture of basic fibroblast growth factor and epidermal growth factor. ③ The cultured neural stem cell clone can be induced and differentiated neurons and glinl cells.CONCLUSION: ① The results proved that the cultured and isolated cells are neural stem cells. ②Ordinal treatment of basic fibroblast growth factor and epidermal growth factor is an effective method to obtain neural stem cells.

Objective To observe the effect of osteopontin (OPN) and integrin αtvβ3 in collageninduced arthritis (CIA) and the possible mechanism of Tripterygium wilfordii polyglycoside (TWP) in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods CIA rats model were developed and were randomly divided into the experimental group and the TWP group.And tissue samples were obtained 4 weeks later.Then the expressions of OPN and integrin αvβ3 in the synovium,synovium fluid and serum of each group were determined by immunohistochemical stain and ELISA.Variance analysis was used for data analysis.Results The concentrations of OPN of the normal controls,experimental group and the TWP group in the serum were (5.7±2.9), (7.8±6.2), (5.0±1.9) ng/ml respectively and there were significant differences between these 3 groups (F=6.74,P=0.016).The concentration of OPN (measured by mean grey value) in the synovium and cartilage of the three groups were 229±15,81±15,93±13 and 211±17,91±19,100±15 and there were significant differences between the three groups (F=52.48,P＜0.01; F=18.98,P=0.01).The concentrations of protein αvβ3 (measured by mean grey value) in the synovium and cartilage were 235±16,91±16,131±14 and 198±10,99±15,113±14,respectively and there were significant differences between the three groups (F=23.03,P=0.002; F=12.04,P=0.008).The expressions of OPN and integrin αvβ3 in the synovium,synovium fluid and serum of the experimental group were markedly higher than that of the controls.The expressions of OPN and integrin αvβ3 in the synovium,synovium fluid and serum of the treatment group were obviously lower than the experimental group.Conclusion OPN and integrin αtvβ3 are involved in the hyperplasia of the synovium,cartilage and bone destruction in CIA rats.The underlying molecular mechanism that TWP is effective in treating synovitis and bone destruction of RA is possibly related to down-regulation of the expression of OPN protein and integrin αvβ3.

The region of about 4.0 kb upstream of Spodoptera litura nucleopolyhedrovirus (SpltNPV) chiA gene was sequenced, in which six open reading frames(ORF1～6) were found. These ORFs are 156, 297, 540, 369, 1281, and 228 nucleotides long, encoding the proteins of 51, 98, 179, 122, 426, and 75 amino acids with the molecular weight of 6.15 kD, 11.46 kD, 21.70 kD, 14.69 kD, 47.59 kD, and 9.09 kD respectively. One early promoter motif CAGT in ORF1 and ORF3, two early promoter motifs CAGT in ORF2, one late promoter motif TAAG in ORF4 and two late promoter motifs TAAG in ORF5 were found in 5′noncoding regions of these ORFs. The polyadenylation signals, AATAAA, are located downstream of the translation stop codon of ORF1, ORF4 and ORF5. ORF4 is the homologous gene of AcMNPV ORF53, BmNPV ORF42, OpMNPV ORF56 and LdMNPV ORF54. Compared with all genes from baculoviruses, ORF1, ORF2 and ORF6 have no homologous genes. It is suggested that ORF1, ORF2 and ORF6 may be three novel baculovirus genes.