BACKGROUNDTo study the diagnostic value of detection of p16 methylation of sputum exfoliated cells for peripheral lung cancer.

METHODSBefore operation, p16 methylation of the sputum exfoliated cells was detected in 20 normal persons and 50 patients with peripheral pulmonary nodi by p16 methylation-specific PCR (MSP) for judging the nature of the nodi. The results were compared with pathological reports after operation.

RESULTSThe p16 MSP positive rate of sputum exfoliated cells of peripheral lung cancer patients (27/44, 61.4%) was much higher than that of benign pulmonary nodi (1/6, 16.7%) and normal persons (3/20, 15.0%)(Chi-Square=4.281 and 11.869 respectively, both P < 0.05). No significant difference of p16 MSP positive rate of sputum exfoliated cells was found between benign pulmonary nodi and normal persons (Chi-Square= 0.136, P > 0.05). No significant difference of p16 MSP positive rate of sputum exfoliated cells was found between squamous cell carcinoma (13/18, 72.2%) and adenocarcinoma (8/19, 42.1%) (Chi-Square=3.416, P > 0.05 ). If the positive p16 MSP of sputum was chosen as criterion for peripheral lung cancer, its positive predictive value, negative predictive value, sensitivity and specificity were 96.4%, 22.7%, 61.4% and 83.0% respectively.

CONCLUSIONSThe detection of p16 methylation of sputum exfoliated cells is contributable to the diagnosis of lung cancer.

Objective To investigate the occurrence of p16 gene methylation in the population chronically exposed to arsenic in Inner Mongolia,and to study the molecular mechanisms of carcinogenesis associated with arsenic exposure.Methods The study group was composed of 40 cases of typical arseniasis selected from the epidemic area,and the two control groups consisting respectively of 40 non-arseniasis cases selected from the same epidemic area,and 40 healthy persons enrolled from non-epidemic area.Methylation of p16 gene in the blood specimens were analyzed for all the subjects with MS-PCR techniques,and statistical analysis was performed using chi square test.Results The positive rates of p16 hypermethylation in blood specimens were 65.0%,47.5% and 20.0% respectively in study group and two control groups,and the rate of hypermethylation increased with the increase in arsenic exposure with drinking water in epidemic areas.The positive rate of p16 hypermethylation showed significant differences(P

Chlamydial infection in human urogenital tract induces inflammation and causes tissue damage and scarring. It is thought that cytokine production by the Chlamydia-infected cells plays a key role in chlamydial disease processes. Although many cytokines have been detected during chlamydial infection, little is known about the molecular mechanisms on how Chlamydia triggers and sustains the inflammatory cytokine cascades. In the current study, chlamydial infection of the human cervical epithelial cell line HeLa cells can induce the production of IL-8, IL-1α, IL-1β and IL-6. Using inhibitors for probing intracellular kinase signaling pathways required for the Chlamydia-induced cytokines, it was found that the Chlamydia-activated MAPK / P38 pathway is required for the chlamydial induction of IL-1α and IL-6 while both the Chlamydia-activated MAPK/ERK and MAPK/P38 pathways contribute to the production of IL-8.

Objective To study the white matter fiber integrity in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder by using MR diffusion tensor imaging (DTI).Methods Twelve patients with posttraumatic stress disorder and twelve healthy volunteers were examined with MR T1WI、T2WI and DTI.Fractional anisotropy maps、directionally encoded color maps were created with the software of DTV-II.Fractional anisotropy (FA) were measured in the genu (anterior),body and splenium (posterior) of corpus callosum,horizontal part and posterior part of the bilateral cingulste fibers.Results In normal volunteers group,FA measurements in white matter regions were normal and reconstructed FA images and directionally encoded color(DEC) maps could display main white fibers in normal controls.The FA value of the splenium (posterior) of corpus callosum and horizontal part of the bilateral cingulate fibers was significant lower in PTSD patients than in normal controls (P<0.05).Conclusions The fiber bundle of the limbic system in patients with PTSD may have structural abnornalities.

Objective Using manganese enhanced MR imaging(ME-MRI)as a standard to validate the accuracy of white matter diffusion tenor tractography(DTT)with different gradients orientations in macaque monkeys.Methods Seven adult male macaque monkeys were scanned for DTY images with different number of gradients orientations.When all data were acquired.3 μl of 0.8 mol aqueous solution of MnCl2 was injected into the primary motor cortex representing forelimb for ME-MRI scanning 48 hours later.On the images of fractional anisotropy(FA),seed region for fiber tracking was chosen according to the subcortical enhanced range on ME-MRI,then the DTT fiber tracts proiecting on axial images of FA were compared with enhancement region on T1WI of ME-MRI.Results Under the calculation method for fiber tracking in the study,different motion-probing gradients orientations led to results consistent with ME-MRI for the brain above the midbrain level.All group's concordance score of fibertracking results were good.Among them,30 and 64 orientation fiber tracking results were optimal.Below the midbrain level,there was significant difference between DTT fiber tracking and ME-MRI fiber tracking. Conclusion Different motion-probing gradients orientations do not influence DTT fiber tracking.But below the midbrain level.the results of DTT fiber tracking were not reliable according to the standard results of ME-MRI fibe tracking.

Aim To investigate the role of GC in indu-cing apoptosis of amygdaloid neurons.Methods Cul-turing primary neurons of amygdala,the neurons were identified by immunefluorescence techniques with anti-body against microtubule associated protein-2 (MAP2 ) and antibody against GC receptor.Using flow cytome-try to detect the effects of different concentrations of dexamethasone on the amygdala neuron apoptosis. Then the experiment was divided into four groups:CON ,DEX ,DEX +MIF and MIF .The rate of apopto-sis of the four groups was detected by TUNEL tech-nique and the expressions of BAX mRNA of four groups by Real-time PCR technique.Results (1 )Compared with the control group, the percentage of apoptotic cells increased significantly with DEX(10 -8 mol·L-1~10 -6 mol · L-1 )treatment in a concentration-de-pendent manner.(2)the TUNEL test showed that the percentage of apoptotic cells of DEX group increased significantly,compared with control group.While it decreased significantly in DEX+MIF group,compared with DEX group.There was no difference between MIF group and control group.(3 )Compared with control group,the expressions of BAX mRNA of DEX group increased significantly.While the expressions of BAX mRNA of DEX +MIF group decreased significantly, compared with the DEX group.There was no difference between MIF group and control group.Conclusion GC can independently induce the apoptosis of primary cultured neurons in the amygdala by combining with GC receptor.

AIM: To study the anti-inflammatory effect of the Antivirus Oral Liquid(AOL) in experimental rabbit conjunctivitis model. METHODS: Rabbit's staphococcus aureus conjunctivitis models and cantharides tincture conjunctivitis models were made to observe different groups of animals' symptom of eye stimulation,negative rate of bacteria and conjunctiva histopathology.And then AOL compared with the effect of amphemycin gutta or Shumu(gutta.) RESULTS: It showed that AOL possessed significant anti-inflammatory effect on bacterial conjunctivitis.The negative rate of bacteria was more than 90% after being given AOL for 4 days successively.Compared with the models group,the hyperemia and edemda were markedly relieved.The result showed that AOL possessed significant anti-inflammatory effect on irritable conjunctivitis.The hyperemia and edema were markedly relieved at the second day after being given AOL,and the inflammatory symptoms had almost disappeared after being given AOL for 4 days successively. CONCLUSION: AOL has a good effect on the therapy of staphylococcus aureus conjunctivitis and cantharides tincture.

Objective To investigate the epidemiological characteristics of patients with craniocerebral injury in primary level hospital of Pearl River Delta and provide evidences for developing reasonable prevention and management policy of this disease. Methods The gender,age,injury time,occupation,injury mechanism, injury information,the relation between the craniocerebral injury and the alcohol drink in the 1 898 patients with craniocerebral injury admitted to Changping People's Hospital of Dongguan in Guangdong Province were analyzed with descriptive epidemiological method. Results There were more male cases with craniocerebral injury than in female ones(1 402 cases vs. 496 cases). The major group of craniocerebral injury consisted of patients aged between 20 to 39 years old〔1088 cases(57.32%)〕. The incidence of the injury in productive workers was higher than that of employees in other kinds of work〔57.48%(1 091 cases)vs. 42.52%(807 cases)〕. The incidences of such cases were the highest between March to May〔28.71%(545 cases)〕and in October〔9.69%(184 cases)〕,December〔11.22%(213 cases)〕than those in other months. The peak days of the incidence in a week were Saturday〔392 cases(20.65%)〕and Sunday〔375 cases(19.77%)〕,but the rate of Thursday was the lowest〔201 cases(10.59%)〕. The peak time in a day was between 18 to 24 o'clock〔961 cases(50.63%)〕. Traffic accident was the leading cause of the injury accounting for 52.95%. The incidence of mild to moderate craniocerebral injury(79.98%)was much higher than that of severe and especially severe injury(20.02%). The alcohol drink was bound up with craniocerebral injury. Conclusion The occurrence of craniocerebral injury has certain regularities concerning the respects of patients' gender, age, occupation,injury time,injury mechanism,types of injury,etc and based on the epidemiological characteristics,a proper management policy should be taken to effectively reduce the morbidity of craniocerebral injury.

Objective To evaluate the distribution and age-related changes of brain iron content in healthy people using MR quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM).Methods Sixty three healthy right-handed volunteers underwent the routine MRI and SWI scan to get SWI-unfiltered phase images and magnitude images.QSM were reconstructed from the SWI-unfiltered phase images and magnitude images using SMART software.The regions of interest at the bilateral frontal white matter and nuclei (caudate nuclews,globus pallidus,putamen,substantia nigra,dorsal thalamus,red nucleus and dental nucleus) were drawn manually,and the susceptibility was measured.The linear correlation between the susceptibility and iron concentration cited from Hallgren and Sourander's post-mortem brain study was calculated.Wilcoxon test were applied to calculate the difference between the bilateral frontal white matter and bilateral nuclei.The correlation of age with susceptibility of bilateral frontal white matter and bilateral nuclei were analyzed by Spearman correlation analysis.Results The median susceptibility (extent) of frontal white matter,caudate nucleus,globus pallidus,putamen,dorsal thalamus,substantia nigra,red nucleus and dentate nucleus of 63 healthy people were-12.81 (-31.56,8.72),39.27 (22.35,75.13),93.99 (19.19,158.75),29.16 (4.11,81.53),2.91 (-27.80,27.95),83.14 (38.57,185.79),63.49 (13.83,142.09),63.30 (36.78,128.53) ppb (× 10-9),respectively.There was high consistency with Hallgren and Sourander's study (r=0.91,P＜0.05).The susceptibility of globus pallidus was the highest,followed by substantia nigra.The least susceptibility was seen in the frontal white matter.The susceptibility of right caudate nucleus,substantia nigra,red nucleus and dental nucleus was higher than that of left side (Z value was-3.18,-4.44,-3.70 and-2.64,respectively,P＜0.05).The susceptibility of bilateral globus pallidus of the male was significantly different from that of the female (Z value was-2.27 and-2.42,respectively,P＜0.05).There was positive correlation between age and the susceptibility of bilateral caudate nucleus,putamen,red nucleus and dental nucleus (r value was 0.30 to 0.49,P＜0.05).Conclusions QSM based on the SWI-unfiltered phase and magnitude images can clearly display the cerebral nuclei and evaluate the brain iron content accurately,which is consistent with the histopathological results.Iron content of bilateral caudate nucleus,putamen,red nucleus and dental nucleus increase with aging.

Objective:To evaluate the clinical efficacy of maintenance chemotherapy for patients who had local advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and was responsive to primary radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Methods:One hundred and twenty patients with stage ⅢA or ⅢB NSCLC received 4 cycles of chemotherapy combined with radiotherapy. The 63 patients who achieved certain remission were randomly divided into maintenance chemotherapy group(n=33) and control group(n=30). The patients in maintenance chemotherapy group (treatment group) received vinorelbine (20 mg/m2, d 1 and d 8, per 28 d a cycle) and those in control group were not given maintenance chemotherapy. The clinical efficacy, survival rate and adverse reaction of the two groups were evaluated. Results:There are a longer median time to progression(TTP) in treatment group compared with control group (8.5 month vs 5.0 month, P<0.05). The 1-and 2-year survival rates were 66.7% and 36.4% in the treatment group and 60.7% and 32.1% in the control group, respectively. The difference between the survival rates of two groups was not significant (P>0.05). Conclusion:Maintenance vinorelbine-based chemotherapy prolonged the median time to progression but had no effect on survival time in patients with local advanced NSCLC who responded to induction chemotherapy.