AIM:To investigate the correlation between matrix metalloproteinase-9(MMP-9),tissue metalloproteinase inhibitor-1(TIMP-1),MMP-9/TIMP-1 and carotid atheromatous plaque stability in cerebral infarction patients.METHODS:80 patients with cerebral infarction were categorized as microemboli-negative group(n=70)and microemboli-positive group(n=10),20 normal human were served as control group.The MMP-9 and TIMP-1 levels in plasma were determined by mean of ELISA in 3 groups.RESULTS:The levels of MMP-9 and TIMP-1 in plasma were significantly higher in cerebral infarction patients than those in control group(P

Objective　To study the similarities and differences on in vitro replication and expression of hepatitis C virus (HCV) between human fetal hepatocytes (HFH) and 7721 cell line. Methods　Human fetal hepatocytes and a hepatoma cell line 7721 were incubated with a serum from hepatitis C patient. After incubation, the presence of HCV RNA, the expression of HCV NS3 antigens in cells and/or supernatant were examined by RT-PCR, in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry, respectively. Results　It was found that: ①The intracellular HCV RNA was first detected on d 2～3 post-incubation and then could be intermittently detected in cells and/or supernatant subsequently (HCV RNA could be detected in 7721 cells during a period of at least 66 days. In HFH, HCV RNA could be detected up to 25 days after incubation); ②HCV-NS3 antigen could be expressed in infected cells; ③Minus-strand RNA of HCV was mainly located within cytoplasm by in situ hybridization. Conclusion　The results suggest that both the fetal hpatocytes and the hepatoma cell line 7721 are susceptible to HCV, and especially 7721 cell line can stably support HCV replication in vitro and may be used as the target cell for long-term cultures of HCV.

It is important to reduce blood loss and protect the function of reserved liver during hepatectomy.Selective hepatic vascular occlusion can keep the blood supply of reserved liver and make blood loss less than other methods of blood occlusion, so it helps more to the recovery of liver function.In summary, promotion and application of this technology is worth while.This article reviews the developing progress and the latest studies of selective hepatic blood occlusion to introduce the latest advancement in this area.

BACKGROUND:In recent years, endoplasmic reticulum stress-caused apoptosis plays a crucial role in ischemia impairment and has become the hotspot of studies addressing myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. The lower limb ischemic preconditioning (LIP) has the obvious protective effect on the immature myocardium, but until now, no study reports whether LIP effects on endoplasmic reticulum stress apoptosis in immature myocardial cells. OBJECTIVE:To investigate the effect of LIP on endoplasmic reticulum stress and apoptosis.
METHODS:Langendorff-perfused isolated rabbit hearts were used in this study. Twenty-four immature rabbits were randomized into three groups. Control group:Isolated rabbit heart was only perfused with Krebs-Henseleit for 180 minutes. I/R group:Isolated rabbit heart was perfused 20 minutes, and then ischemia for 60 minutes fol owed by reperfusion 100 minutes. LIP group:Limbs were repeatedly obstructed 5 minutes and relaxed 5 minutes for three times, to establish Langendorff models, and then repeated the method of ischemia/reperfusion in I/R group. The myocardial apoptosis was assayed with TUNEL method. The expression of glucose-regulated protein 78, Bcl-2, Bax and Fas was detected with western blot analysis.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Compared with I/R group, apoptosis rate was significantly lower, the expression of Bcl-2 was significantly higher, and the expression of glucose-regulated protein 78, Bax and Fas was significantly lower in LIP group. This study demonstrated that LIP regulates myocardial cellapoptosis through reducing the expression of endopasmic reticulum stress GRP78, Bax and Fas and increasing the expression of Bcl-2.

Objective To investigate the expression and significance of MMP-9 and Ki67 for predicting the progres-sion and prognosis of pancreatic cancer. Methods S-P immunohistochemical method was used to detect the expressions of MMP-9 and Ki67 in 100 pancreatic cancer tissue specimens. The relationship between the expressions of MMP-9 and Ki67 and patient age, tumor size, lymph node metastasis, tumor differentiation, clinical stages and prognosis were analyzed. Re-sults There were higher expressions of MMP-9 protein 46%(46/100) and Ki67 protein 53%(53/100) in 100 samples of pancreatic adenocarcinoma. And the expressions of MMP-9 and Ki67 were inversely associated with tumor differentiation, clinical stages, and lymph node metastasis of pancreatic cancer (P＜0.05). There were no significant differences in the ex-pressions of MMP-9 and Ki67 between patient age and tumor size. The expressions of MMP-9 and Ki67 were positive corre-lated (rs=0.405,P＜0.05). Moreover, the overall survival rates were correlated with patient age, lymph node metastasis, tumor differentiation and the expression of MMP-9, but no correlation with tumor size, clinical stages, and the expression of Ki67. Conclusion The expressions of MMP-9 and Ki67 were associated with pancreatic cancer progression. And the detection of expression of MMP-9 may have practical value in prognosis in patients with pancreatic cancer.

Objective To evaluate the surgical outcomes in octogenarians and older of gastric cancer and to identify the reasonable therapy for these patients.Methods From Jan 2000 to Dec 2010,the clinicopathological data of 533 patients with gastric cancer undergoing gastrectomy were analyzed retrospectively.We conducted comparative analysis for the differences in clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis between 80 years and older (≥80 y,n =75) and younger (＜ 80 y,n =458).Results There were significant differences in comorbidities,anemia and histological type between the two groups.There was no significant difference in operative morbidity and mortality between the two groups.The 5-year survival rate for octogenarians was lower (21.1％) than nonoctogenarians (32.8％),but with no significant difference.TNM stage was the only independent prognostic factor for gastric cancer in octogenarians.Conclusions Older gastric cancer patients have comparative postoporative complication rate and survival with younger patients.

Objective To investigate the expression of astrocyte elevated gene -1( AEG-1) and matrix metallopeptidase 9(MMP-9)in colorectal tissues and evaluate its correlation with clinical pathologic factors of colorectal cancer.Methods AEG-1 and MMP-9 expression in normal colorectal mucous (n=45),low-grade adenoma(n=31),high-grade adenoma(n=15)and colorectal carcinoma(n=146)were examined by immuno-histochemistry .Statistical analyses were applied to test the significance of its expression .Results AEG-1 ex-pression levels were gradually elevated in normal tissues ,low-grade adenoma ,high-grade adenoma and colorec-tal carcinoma respectively .Furthermore ,there was a similar trend for MMP -9from normal mucous to adenoma and carcinoma .Statistical analysis revealed that AEG -1 expression was markedly correlated with the UICC stage,T classification,N classification,M classification,and histological differentiation in the colorectal cancer pa-tients,but not with age,gender,tumor location and tumor size.In addition,AEG-1 expression was positively cor-related with the MMP-9 expression in colorectal cancer .Besides,those patients with high AEG-1 and MMP-9 levels had shorter survival time ( P<0 .05 ) .Conclusion AEG-1 may be involved in carcinogenesis and pro-gression of colorectal carcinoma and can be a novel prognostic biomarker in patients with colorectal carcinoma .

Objective To investigate the expression level of human epididymis protein 4 ( HE4 ) in se-rous ovarian cancer tissues and its relationship with clinicopathological features .Methods The expression level of HE4 in 140 serous ovarian cancer patients and its relationship with clinicopathological features were detected by immunohistochemistry.To compare the correlation between HE4 and CA125, the histological expressionOf CA125 was also detected by IHC .Results the positive expression rate of HE 4 and CA125 in moderately and poorly differentiated serous ovarian cancer tissues were respectively 89.76%and 81.89%;the positive expression rate in well differentiated group were respectively 46.61% and 15.38%,in the advanced stages were 92.44%and 83.19%,in the early stages were 47.62%and 33.33%.the positive expression rate of lymphatic metastasis were 95.65%and 84.35%,without lymphatic metastasis were 40.00%and 36.00%,the positive expression rate of peritoneal implantation were 90.00% and 87.27%, without peritoneal implantation were 70.00% and 33.33%;the positive expression rate of ascites were 89.76% and 79.53%,without ascites were 46.15% and 38.46%.Besides,the positive expression rates of HE4 and CA125 were 86%and 76%,the differences were sta-tistically significant.Both the positive expression in ovarian cancer are correlated positively (P<0.05).The ex-pression of HE4 and CA125 has nothing with the occurrence of pausimenia and the number of parity in patients with ovarian cancer(P>0.05).Conclusion The expression of HE4 in serous ovarian cancer is related with FI-GO stages,the degree of tumor differentiation ,lymph node metastasis and ascites .

Objective To detect the level of serum fragmented cytokeratin 18 (CK-18 M30) in patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), to explore the relationship between the expression of CK-18 M30 and NASH. Methods 33 healthy people as control group, 24 nonalcoholic simple fatty liver (NAFL) patients, and 21 NASH patients were included in this study. CK-18 M30, ALT, AST and GGT were detected in all patients’ vein blood. NAFLD activity points (NAS) was examined in biopsy specimens of NAFL patients and NASH patients. Pearson correlation was applied to analyze the correlations between serum CK-18 M30, ALT, AST, GGT and the NAS of liver tissue in NASH group. Results Serum CK-18 M30 level of healthy control, NAFL and NASH group were (96.557 2 ± 41.226 8)U/L, (104.321 7 ± 45.167 3)U/L, (263.125 5 ± 61.578 1)U/L respectively. Serum CK-18 M30 level in NASH patients positively correlated with both NAS of liver tissue and serum ALT, which correlation coefficient r values were 0.601 5 and 0.420 6. Conclusion The concentration of serum CK-18 M30 could be used as a marker in the diagnosis of NASH.

BACKGROUND:Previous studies of our research group have confirmed that the texture of porcine reticular dermis at lateral ventral part is softer and has more extensibility than other parts. Therefore, it may serve as the raw material of xenogenic aceluar dermal matrix. However, its comparison with human and rat reticular dermis has not been reported systematicaly in aspects of histomorphology and material characterization. OBJECTIVE:To compare the reticular dermis from the lateral region of porcine abdomen and rat dorsal part with the reticular dermis from human in histology, biomechanics, molecular structure, thermal stability and other properties. METHODS:The reticular dermis samples were taken from adult human, the lateral region of porcine abdomen, the back of rats, for gross observation. Paraffin sections were observed by hematoxylin and eosin staining and sirius red staining under a light microscopy. The relevant data of micrograph were measured by imagine analysis software. These samples were also vacuum-freezing dried and rehydrated, and then their mechanical properties were tested with a electronic tensile machine to calculate the Young’s modulus. Some vacuum-freezing dried samples were powdered and detected by Fourier transform infrared spectrometer and simultaneous thermal analyzer. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:There were no differences in colagen fiber bundle diameter of the reticular dermis from adult human and the lateral region of porcine abdomen, but the reticular dermis from the back of rats was thinner than that from adult human (P < 0.01). The gap between the reticular layer of the dermis of the lateral region of porcine abdomen was lower than that from adult human (P < 0.0.1); however, there was no difference in the gap between the reticular layers of the dermis of the rat back and adult human (P=0.17). Colagen fibers of porcine reticular dermis were arranged tightly in disorder; the content of type I colagen and ratio of type I/III colagen were higher than those in the reticular dermis from adult human (P < 0.05), but the content of type III colagen was less than that in the reticular dermis from adult human (P < 0.05). Contents of type I and III colagen and their ratio were similar between the reticular dermis of rats and adult human (P > 0.05). There was no significant difference in the Young’s modulus of the three kinds of reticular dermises. Hydrogen bonds involved in the reticular dermal colagen molecules ranged as folows: rats > swine > human. Rat reticular dermis has better thermal stability than that of swine and adult human.