The structure analysis of porcine hemoglobin alphabeta dimer and the calculation of solvent accessible surface of the amino acids showed the epsilon-amino groups of the lysine are suitable for modification by polyethylene glycol (PEG). The modification of the lysine residues will not affect the carring oxygen capacity of Hb. Three types of linker have been designed to connect PEG and porcine hemoglobin. The lysines between porcine and bovine hemoglobin (pHb and bHb) are highly conserved, but the solvent accessible surface of conserved lysines are different. These suggested that the properties of homologous proteins are similar in pHb and bHb, but the characteristic derived from the homology analysis will be deviated from the actual status. The results of molecular dynamics simulation suggested that the chemical modified porcine hemoglobin would be no immunogenicity.

·AIM: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of ganciclovir combined with traditional Chinese medicine ( TCM ) in treatment of herpes simplex keratitis (HSK). ·METHODS: All randomized controlled trials ( RCTs) of ganciclovir combined with TCM for HSK were searched in CNKI, VIP, Wanfang, PubMed, Cochrane Library and EMbase database. The clinical endpoints of the total effective rate, relapse rate, heal time, and adverse reaction rate were collected to assess the drugs' efficacy and safety. The improved Jadad Scale was used to evaluate the methodological quality of included literatures. The RevMan5. 3 software and Stata 12. 0 were applied for meta-analysis. ·RESULTS: We finally included 15 RCTs involving 1 285 patients. As for the total effective rate, relapse rate and heal time, significant differences were noted between ganciclovir combined with TCM group and ganciclovir alone group. For the total effective rate, RR and 95% CI were 1. 23 ( 1. 15 ~ 1. 31 ) according to the number of patients and 1. 18(1. 02-1. 38) according to the number of diseased eyes. For relapse rate, RR and 95% CI were 0. 25 (0. 17-0. 36). For heal time, MD and 95% CI were -7. 58 (-10. 89 to - 4. 26 ). No statistic difference of adverse reaction rate between the two groups was observed [RR=0.53, 95% CI(0. 23-1. 22)]. The side effects in the two groups were mild and could be relieved by themselves. ·CONCLUSION: The ganciclovir combined with TCM can improve the total efficacy, reduce the relapse rate, and shorten the course of treatment for HSK with good safety.

OBJECTIVETo explore the feasibility of establishing an isolated porcine liver machine perfusion model and assess its value in high-intensity focused ultrasound studies.

METHODSTwenty-one isolated porcine livers were perfused with autologous blood for 4 h through dual vessels (portal vein and hepatic artery) cannulation using an extracorporeal circulation machine under a sub-normothermic perfusion condition. The perfusion model was assessed by monitoring the liver color, texture, liver weight gain, hemodynamic parameters, color Doppler flow imaging, bile output and histopathology.

RESULTSNineteen isolated porcine livers were successfully cannulated with dual vessels, and failure of hepatic artery intubation occurred in two porcine livers. After machine perfusion for 4 h, the isolated livers maintained a soft texture with stable hemodynamic levels within relative normal physiological ranges. The bile output was more than 3 ml/h within the initial 3 h of perfusion. Histopathological examination demonstrated no morphological or structural changes of the liver tissues.

CONCLUSIONThe isolated porcine liver perfusion model is stable and feasible, and can be used for high-intensity focused ultrasound studies.

Animals ; Equipment Design ; Extracorporeal Circulation ; instrumentation ; methods ; Hemodynamics ; Liver ; blood supply ; diagnostic imaging ; Liver Circulation ; physiology ; Swine ; Ultrasonography

OBJECTIVETo establish a convenient and rapid method for constructing a digital model of the maxillofacial soft tissue based on three-dimensional laser surface scanning to allow direct and accurate observation of the soft tissue changes in the course of orthodontic treatment.

METHODSThe point cloud data of three-dimensional laser scanning of the maxillofacial region were acquired from a healthy woman with Angle Class I occlusion, who maintained a horizontal Frankfort plane during scanning with the scanner placed at a distance of 80 cm. The scanning was repeated twice after wearing the dental cast for an Angle Class I occlusion. The three-dimensional digital model of the maxillofacial soft tissue was constructed based on the point cloud using GeoMagic10.0 software.

RESULTSThe high-resolution three-dimensional model of the maxillofacial soft tissue reconstructed allowed accurate observation of the distinct facial anatomical landmarks and represented directly the soft tissue changes in the process of orthodontic treatment by merging the models. Using the analytic tool provided by the software, this model also allowed direct quantitative measurement of the nasolabial angle and the distances from the esthetic plane to the upper lip, labral inferior, and mentolabial sulcus, which were 111.86°, -3.57 mm, -2.54 mm, and 3.95 mm before orthodontic treatment as compared to 114.31°, -2.73 mm, -1.06 mm, and 3.46 mm during treatment, and 116.53°, -0.15 mm, 0.64 mm, and 3.11 mm after the treatment, respectively.

CONCLUSIONThree-dimensional laser surface scanning enables accurate and rapid construction of the digital model of the facial soft tissues, which may provide valuable assistance in orthodontic treatment.

Adult ; Cephalometry ; methods ; Face ; Female ; Humans ; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted ; Imaging, Three-Dimensional ; methods ; Lasers ; Orthodontics, Corrective ; methods ; Software

OBJECTIVETo explore the six degrees of freedom of jaw opening and closing movement with motion capture and analysis system to establish a quantitative method for studying mandibular movement and a digital basis for virtual reality study of mandibular movement.

METHODSIn a male adult with normal dentition without temporomandibular joint disorders, 3 fluorescent markers were pasted in the upper dentition and 4 in the lower dentition. Six cameras of the motion capture system were arranged in a semi-circular fashion. The subject sat in front of the camera at an 80-cm distance with the Frankfort plane kept parallel to the horizontal plane. The degree-of-freedom (3 linear displacement and 3 angular displacement) of jaw opening and closing movement was obtained by collecting the marker motion.

RESULTSSix degrees of freedom of jaw opening and closing were obtained using the motion capture system. The maximum linear displacements of X, Y and Z axes were 5.888 089 cm, 0.782 269 cm, and 0.138 931 cm, and the minimum linear displacements were -3.649 83 cm, -35.961 2 cm, -5.818 63 cm, respectively. The maximum angular displacements of X, Y and Z axes were 0.760 088°, 2.803 753°, and 0.786 493°, with the minimum angular displacements of -2.526 18°, -0.625 94°, and -25.429 8°, respectively. Variations of linear displacements during jaw opening and closing occurred mainly in the Y axis, and those of angular displacement occurred mainly in the Z axis.

CONCLUSIONThe six degree-of-freedom of mandibular movement can be accurately obtained with the motion capture system to allow quantitative examination of the mandibular movement.

Adult ; Humans ; Male ; Mandible ; physiology ; Movement ; physiology ; Range of Motion, Articular ; Temporomandibular Joint ; physiology ; Video Recording

BACKGROUNDRecently, due to the rapid development of proteomic techniques, great advance has been made in many scientific fields. We aimed to use magnetic beads (liquid chip) based matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) technology to screen distinctive biomarkers for lung adenocarcinoma (adCA), and to establish the diagnostic protein profiles.

METHODSUsing weak cation exchange magnetic beads (MB-WCX) to isolate and purify low molecular weight proteins from sera of 35 lung adCA, 46 benign lung diseases (BLDs) and 44 healthy individuals. The resulting spectra gained by anchor chip-MALDI-TOF-MS were analyzed by ClinProTools and a pattern recognition genetic algorithm (GA).

RESULTSIn the working mass range of 800 - 10 000 Da, 99 distinctive peaks were resolved in lung adCA versus BLDs, while 101 peaks were resolved in lung adCA versus healthy persons. The profile gained by GA that could distinguish adCA from BLDs was comprised of 4053.88, 4209.57 and 3883.33 Da with sensitivity of 80%, specificity of 93%, while that could separate adCA from healthy control was comprised of 2951.83 Da and 4209.73 Da with sensitivity of 94%, specificity of 95%. The sensitivity provided by carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) in this experiment was significantly lower than our discriminatory profiles (P < 0.005). We further identified a eukaryotic peptide chain release factor GTP-binding subunit (eRF3b) (4209 Da) and a complement C3f (1865 Da) that may serve as candidate biomarkers for lung adCA.

CONCLUSIONMagnetic beads based MALDI-TOF-MS technology can rapidly and effectively screen distinctive proteins/polypeptides from sera of lung adCA patients and controls, which has potential value for establishing a new diagnostic method for lung adCA.

Adenocarcinoma ; blood ; diagnosis ; Adult ; Aged ; Female ; Humans ; Lung Neoplasms ; blood ; diagnosis ; Magnetics ; Male ; Microspheres ; Middle Aged ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization ; methods

Objective To evaluate the feasibility of using brain tissues from Shanghai Brain Bank for the applications on biological research through the analysis of pH value of cerebrospinal fluids, RNA integrity number (RIN), transcriptome, proteome and morphology of brain tissues. Methods The pH value of fresh cerebrospinal fluid was detected by pH test paper; the RNA integrity of cryopreserved brain tissues was examined by Agilent RNA 6000 Nano chip and Agilent 2100 bioanalyzer; the transcriptome sequencing of superior temporal gyrus or caudate was performed using BGIseq-500 sequencer; the proteome of cryopreserved brain tissues was analyzed by Q Exactive HF mass spectrometer; at last, the morphology of the superior temporal gyrus was observed by HE staining. Results The pH value of the cerebrospinal fluid on average was about 6.5. The RIN values of more than 65% of brain tissues were more than 6, indicating good RNA quality. The clean reads ratio after transcriptome sequencing filtering was basically above 80%, indicating that the quality of sequencing library was high. The mass spectrometry analysis of frozen brain samples yielded more than 4000 protein groups and 30 000 peptides, indicating high quality of proteomic data. The morphology of brain tissues was relatively normal, with clearly visible neurons. Conclusion The quality of RNA and protein of brain tissues from Shanghai Brain Bank meets the basic needs for molecular and biological research, and the fixed brain samples can be used for morphological observations.