Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a serious threat to public health worldwide with an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and all-cause morbidity and mortality. In this study, a urinary metabolomic approach was performed on high performance liquid chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry to discriminate 36 male MetS patients and 36 sex and age matched healthy controls. Pattern recognition analyses (principal component analysis and orthogonal projections to latent structures discriminate analysis) commonly demonstrated the difference between MetS patients and no-MetS subjects. This study found 8 metabolites that showed significant changes in patients with MetS, including branch-chain and aromatic amino acids (leucine, tyrosine, phenylalanine and tryptophan), short-chain acylcanitine (tiglylcarnitine), tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle intermediate (cis-aconitic acid) and glucuronidated products (cortolone-3-glucuronide and tetrahydroaldosterone-3-glucuronide). The candidate biomarkers revealed in this study could be useful in providing clues for further research focusing on the in-depth investigation of the cause of and cure for MetS.

Objective To investigate the effects of trimetazidine on the oxidative stress in maintenance he-modialysis (MHD) patients. Methods Eighty-six MHD patients and 30 healthy volunteers were recruited in the study. The activity of glutathione peroxidase (GSHPx) was measured by colorimetry and superoxide dismutase (SOD) in serum was measured by hydroxylamine method. The levels of serum malondialdehyde (MDA) were meas-ured by thiobarbituric acid reaction. Serum advanced oxidation protein products (AOPP) levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). All MHD patients were randomly divided into two groups, treatment group (n = 46) and control group (n = 40), who had undergone hemodialysis for at least three months before the study and were in a stable clinic status without signs of infection or disease activity. In the treatment group,20 mg of trimetazidine was taken orally three times each day for twenty-four weeks, when the parameters for oxidative stress were studied. The levels of GSHPx. SOD, MDA and AOPP in serum were measured before and after the treat-ment. Results At the initiation of the investigation, the serum levels of GSHPx [(584.37±215.70) μmol/L, (580.87±309.12) μmol/L vs (769.06±302.46) μmol/L] and SOD [(347.87±82.09) kU/L, (348.16±75.33) kU/L vs (428.34±15.23)kU/L] in the M HD patients were significantly lower than those in the normal eontrol group (P < 0.01), whereas the content of MDA [(4.94±1.32) nmol/L, (4.97±1.61) nmol/L vs (3.56±0.46)nmol/L] and AOPP [(120.95±59.24) μg/L,(121.76±69.12) μg/L vs (47.69±20.15) μg/L] in MHD patients was higher than those in the control group( P < 0.05 and P <0.01, respectively). After treatment for twelve weeks, the scores of GSHPx and SOD were significantly increased in the treatment group compared to that before treatment (P <0.01). However, the contents of the MDA and AOPP decreased. There were significant differences in the levels of GSHPx, SOD,MDA and AOPP between the two groups of MHD patients after the treatment with trim-etazidine. Conclusions Trimetazidine in maintenance hemodialysis patients appears to be associated with an im-provement of oxidative stress.

Objective To investigate the expression of Ezrin in gastric cancer tissues and its clinical significance.Methods Gastric cancer tissues and adjacent normal gastric tissues from 60 patients with gastric cancer were collected from June 2008 to May 2009 at the Southwest Hospital.The mRNA and protein expressions of Ezrin were detected by using the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and western blot.The relationship between Ezrin and the gender and age of patients,and tumor differentiation,pathological staging,depth of invasion and lymph node metastasis was analyzed.All data were analyzed using the t test,chi-square test and Spearman rank correlation.Results The Ezrin mRNA expression level was increased in 33 (55％) cases of adjacent normal gastric tissues and 21 (35％) cases of gastric cancer tissues; the Ezrin protein expression level was increased in 45 (75％) cases of adjacent normal gastric tissues and 22 (37％) cases of gastric cancer tissues.The mRNA and protein expressions of Ezrin in the normal adjacent gastric tissues were 1.30 ± 0.04 and 3.57 ± 0.45,respectively,which were significantly higher than 0.53 ± 0.36 and 0.96 ± 0.18 in the gastric cancer tissues ( t =5.309,22.617,P ＜ 0.05 ).The mRNA expression of Ezrin was positively correlated with the protein expression of Ezrin (r =0.602,P ＜ 0.05 ).The mRNA and protein expressions of Ezrin were related to the pathological stages,depth of invasion and state of lymph node metastasis (x2 =6.41,6.49,4.62; 5.40,8.87,4.12,P ＜ 0.05),but not to the gender,age and tumor differentiation (x2 =0.50,0.07,1.07 ; 0.01,1.16,1.96,P ＞ 0.05).Conclusion The mRNA and protein expressions of Ezrin are significantly decreased in the gastric cancer tissue,which might be responsible for genesis,development and metastasis of gastric cancer.

Aim To observe the effect of kanamycin on the change of Ca2+ concentration in outer hair cells caused by acetylcholine to explore the relationship between kanamycin ototoxicity and the cochlear efferent nervous system.Methods After the guinea pigs were killed by decapitation,the OHCs were isolated in artificial perilymph and divided into three groups:control group,acetylcholine(ACh) group and kanamycin + ACh group.OHCs were loaded with Fluo-3/AM for 30 min and then the change of Ca2+ fluorescence intensity was observed.Results Ca2+ fluorescent intensity in OHCs remained basically unchanged in control group,increased 3.06 times(n=6) in ACh Group,and increased 1.75 times(n=6) in kanamycin +ACh Group.Conclusions Kanamycin can obviously inhibit the increasing of Ca2+ concentration in OHCs caused by ACh.

Objective:To study the frequency and distribution of HLA-A alleles and HLA-A*02 subtypes in the lung cancer patients in Yunnan Xuanwei area.This study aims at providing the significant genetic information for lung cancer research and treatment.Methods:Genomic DNA samples were collected from lung cancer patients and healthy donors residing in Yunnan Xuanwei area.HLA-A alleles and HlA-A*02 subtypes were typed by PCR-SSP assay.Case-control study was used to study the difference of frequency distribution between patients and normal controls.The polymorphisms of HLA-A*02 were also observed in cancer patients.Results:The positive rates of HLA-A*02 was significantly higher in cancer patients than in healthy controls (P=0.004,OR=2.432,95% CI=1.314-4.500),which were 68.75% and 47.50%,respectively.The gene frequency of HLA-A*02 was significantly higher in cancer patients than in healthy controls(P

Objective To analyze the clinical value of ultrasound and ultrasound-guided core needle biopsy ( UNB) in the evaluation of axillary lymph node metastasis for breast cancer.Methods A total of 454 cases of breast cancer treated between June 2008 and August 2014 at our hospital were retrospectively analyzed.UNB was performed on patients with abnormal ultrasonic diagnosis of axillary lymph nodes.Among them, 354 cases underwent neoadjuvant chemotherapy or endocrine therapy while 100 cases underwent surgery after UNB.The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and false negative rate of ultrasound and UNB were evaluated.Results Among the 454 patients with abnormal axillary lymph nodes of ultrasound imaging, the metastasis rate with UNB was 70.9%,while the negative rate was 29.1%.Among the 100 cases who underwent surgery after UNB, the metastasis rate was 25% while the ultrasound imaging lymph node longitudinal and transversal ( L/T)≤1.5,the lymph node size>1 cm,and the metastasis rate was 92.3%(12/13).UNB showed that sensitivity was 64.1%, specificity 100%, accuracy 86%, positive predictive value 100%, negative predictive value 81.3%,and false negative rate was 18.7%.The results of UNB seemed consistent with those of postoperative pathological diagnosis, the Kappa value being 0.685.Based on 2 and 3 needles, the above mentioned 6 indices were 50% and 77.8%, 100% and 100%, 77.8% and 92.5%, 100% and 100%, 71.4% and 89.7%,and 28.6%and 10.3%, respectively.The Kappa value of UNB based on 3 needles was higher than on 2 needles (0.822 vs 0.526 ) .Conclusion Ultrasound is a valuable tool for detecting axillary lymph node metastasis in breast cancer.UNB can accurately determine the axillary lymph node metastasis status.UNB based on 3 needles shows a higher accuracy than on 2 needles.

Objective To investigate the changes of cortical thickness and surface area in patients with bipolar depression(BD),and to explore the relationship between abnormal changes in gray matter and clinical symptoms.Methods 28 BD patients and 28 healthy controls underwent T1-weighted MRI.The Freesurfer software was used to process the T1 images,which used a set of automated sequences to analyze cortical thickness and surface area on 66 regions (33 regions of each hemisphere),and the correlation with clinical features was also calculated.Results Compared with controls,BD patients showed thinner cortical thickness in left medial orbitofrontal cortex((2.40±0.12) mm vs (2.55 ±0.18) mm,P=1.2× 10-3) and left rostral anterior cingulate((2.66±0.21) mm vs (2.88±0.27) mm,P=3.1 × 10-4),and smaller area of left cuneus((1 443.13± 131.00) mm2vs (6 634.70±600.16) mm2,P=2.7× 10-4) and right superior frontal gyrus ((6 634.70±600.16) mm2vs (7 300.50±653.39) mm2,P=1.3× 10-3).In addition,the negatively correlation was found between the cortical area of left cuneus and effective illness duration (r=-0.471,P=0.018),and the cortical thickness in left rostral anterior cingulate and total score of HAMD-17(17-item Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression) (r=-0.508,P=0.009).Conclusion There are abnormal altertion of cortical thickness and cortical areas of emotional circuit in bipolar depression,but the brain areas are not completely overlapping.Correlation analysis suggests that cortical thickness and area is related to different clinical features.

OBJECTIVETo explore the scientificity of Yunqi theory based on incidence of disease related recognitions such as year evolutive phase, host climatic qi, six climatic factors, celestial manager qi, qi in the earth by analyzing data of hypertension incidence.

METHODSA total of 1,265 inpatients with confirmed first diagnosis as hypertension were recruited at Dongzhimen Hospital, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine from February 4, 1999 to February 4, 2011. Each period (including year evolutive phase, host climatic qi, guest climatic qi) was deducted based on Yun-qi theory. Their ratios of different phases and qi in the total number of hypertension inpatients number were calculated and statistically tested.

RESULTSThere was statistical difference in ratios at year evolutive phase, celestial manager qi, and qi in the earth (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONThe incidence of hypertension has certain difference in each period, which is consistent with Yun-qi theory.

Beijing ; epidemiology ; Humans ; Hypertension ; epidemiology ; Incidence ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Qi ; Research

OBJECTIVETo explore potency material bases of Xuebijing (XBJ) formula, and to analyze its effects at the molecular network level.

METHODSTotally 16 sepsis-related targets were selected and classified into three categories such as inflammation, immune, and coagulation referring to biological roles. Then molecular database of chemical compositions in XBJ formula were constructed to explore mutual actions with inflammation, immune, and coagulation targets.

RESULTSDanshen root and safflower, with more effector molecules with immune and coagulation targets, have extensive anticoagulation and anti-inflammation effects. The former 10 molecules with better mutual actions with sepsis targets were sequenced as tryptophane, danshensu, gallic acid, salvianolic acid D, protocatechuic acid, salvianolic acid A, danshensu C, vanillic acid, rosmarinic acid, phenylalanine. There existed two phenomena in XBJ formula as follows. One component had stronger actions with multi-targets, for example, danshensu had actions with 13 targets. Meanwhile, different components acted on the same target protein, for example, 8 molecules acted with MD-2.

CONCLUSIONXBJ formula had certain potential synergistic effects with sepsis targets, which could provide certain referential roles for findina new type anti-septic drugs.

Caffeic Acids ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; pharmacology ; therapeutic use ; Gallic Acid ; Hydroxybenzoates ; Inflammation ; Lactates ; Sepsis ; drug therapy