OBJECTIVE: To observe whether injection of medicine into low hydraulic resistance point along meridian brings about higher medicinal effect and to explore the efficacy of the theory that meridians are made up of channels featuring low hydraulic resistance by observing the diuretic effect of injecting furosemide or saline into the low hydraulic resistance point Shuifen (CV 9), vein and Zusanli (St 36) respectively. METHODS: Acute edema was induced in pigs by rapid intravenous injection of 2 000 ml normal saline. The pigs were divided into four groups: Shuifen (CV 9) injection of half dose furosemide group (SFF group), intravenous injection of full dose furosemide group (VF group), Zusanli (St 36) injection of full dose furosemide group (ZSLF group), and Shuifen (CV 9) injection of half dose normal saline group (SFS group). The accumulated urine quantity and the urine quantity generated in every 15-minute period were measured in each group respectively, every 15 minutes after injection, and the measurement lasted for two hours at one experiment. Each group involved eight times of experiments with one pig used for one experiment, which means the whole observation involved 32 times of experiments. RESULTS: The accumulated urine quantities observed in both SFF group and VF group were higher than those in the ZSLF group and the SFS group all through the measurement, showing significant differences during the period from the 15th minute to the 45th minute (P<0.05). But no significant difference was observed between the SFF group and the VF group during the whole 2-hour measurement (P>0.05). Analysis of urine quantity generated in every 15-minute period showed that diuretic effect climaxed during the 15th minute to the 30th minute in both SFF group and VF group. By contrast, ZSLF group reached diuresis climax during the 45th minute to 60th minute and no diuresis climax was observed in the SFS group all through the measurement. CONCLUSION: Injection of medicine into low hydraulic resistance point along meridian generates faster and more powerful medicinal potency, and this is likely to be applied to clinical practice. The theory that meridians are channels featuring low hydraulic resistance is important to the elucidation of meridians.

Objective To evaluate clinical significance of two real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR kits for quantitative detection of HBV DNA and detection performance at different viral load levels.Methods A series of calibrators with different concentrations(1×106,5×105,1×105,5×104,1×104,5×103,1×103,5×102,1×102,1×101 kIU/L) were prepared with AB-type sera using the second generation WHO international standard (NIBSC code:97/750). HBV viral load in the sera of 78 patients,30 healthy blood donors and 10 calibrators were detected by real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR HBV DNA test kit from PIJI Bio-Technical Development Company Ltd (PG kit) and Cobas AmpliPrep/Cobas TaqMan HBV test kit. The correlation of the two methods was evaluated, and the performance of the two kits different viral load levels was evaluated. The false negative rate was analyzed. Negative control, low positive control and high positive control were included in every batch. Results Both two kits showed the correct results for the 10 specimens from the WHO international standards. The lowest detection limit of HBV DNA for Roche Cobas AmpliPrep/Cobas TaqMan HBV test and PG kit were 2.00 (kIU/L, lg) and 3.00 (kIU/L,lg) ,respectively. There was linear correlation between the results from Roche Cobas AmpliPrep/Cobas TaqMan HBV test and PG kit ( R2=0.938 7, P < 0.01 ), the upper limit of Roche kit had coincided with theoretical value. The samples with HBV DNA level above the upper limit of detection were diluted and retested to obtain the precise result. The result form Roche Cobas AmpliPrep/Cabas TaqMan HBV test [(8.35±0.20) kIU/L, lg] was higher than that from PG kit [(7.73±0.42 ) kIU/L, lg] (t=3. 776, P <0.05) . The detection of 108 serum samples showed that the level of HBV DNA detected by Roche Cobas AmpliPrep/Cobas TaqMan HBV test [(5.88±1.64) kIU/L, lg] was higher than that by PG kit [(5.25±1.55 kIU/L,lg] (t=12. 297 ,P <0.01 ). The correlation coefficients were high in samples with high HBV viral load[HBV DNA(>5.00 and≤7.00) kIU/L,Ig,R2=0. 779 7, P <0.01 ;HBV DNA( >7.00 ands≤9.00) kIU/L,lg,R2=0.603 7, P <0.01]. The correlation coefficient was low in samples with low HBV viral load[HBV DNA ( > 3.00 and≤5.00) kIU/L, lg, R2=0. 417 3, P <0.01 )]. When HBV DNA ( >3.00 and≤4.00) kIU/L,lg,the false negative rate was 33.3% (5/15). When HBV DNA ( > 1.08and≤3.00) kIU/L,lg,none of positive samples was detected with PG kit. Conclusions PG kit is not as good as Cobas AmpliPrep/Cobas TaqMan HBV test . The linear correlation between the results from the two kits is good. The correlation between the results detected with PG kit and Cobas AmpliPrep/Cobas TaqMan HBV test is higher in the high viral load groups than in the low viral load group. It is suggested that PG kit had a narrower linear range.

Objective To investigate the correlation between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of FOXP3 gene and the susceptibility of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods Two SNPs rs2280883 and rs3761549 of FOXP3 gene in 392 HCC patients and 372 healthy controls were analyzed by Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/ Ionization Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-TOF).Results At rs3761549,C allele frequency was significantly higher ( OR =1.32,95％ CI 1.03 -1.70,P =0.027) in HCC patients than healthy controls.Compared with healthy controls,HCC patients had higher frequencies of TT genotype (79.6％ ) at rs2280883 or CC genotype (77.6％) at rs3761549 of FOXP3 gene.Patients carrying rs2280883 TT genotype ( OR =1.53,95％ CI 1.10 - 2.14,P ＜ 0.00001 ) or rs3761549 CC genotype ( OR =1.92,95％ CI 1.39 - 2.64,P ＜ 0.00001 ) were more susceptible to HCC.Stratified analysis showed that rs3761549 CC genotype was significantly associated with higher incidence of portal vein tumor thrombus ( x2 =5.578,P =0.018 ),and rs3761549 TT/CT genotype was significantly associated with higher rate of tumor recurrence in HCC patients (x2 =6.561,P =0.010).Conclusions FOXP3 gene polymorphisms at rs2280883 and rs3761549 might be associated with increased susceptibility to HCC. rs3761549,CC genotype and TT/CT genotype were respectively associated with higher incidence of portal vein tumor thrombus and tumor recurrence in HCC patients.

Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) are a heterogeneous subset of lymphocytes, mainly T cells, present in tumor parenchyma and stroma. After being digested and isolated from tumor tissue and then cultured in vitro for activation and multiplication, it can be infused back into the patient's body to kill tumor cells. TILs have the advantages of high diversity of TCR, excellent ability to infiltrate into tumor sites, and low toxicity and are considered promising for the treatment of malignant solid tumors. At present, TIL therapy has been tested as a second-line treatment in a variety of solid tumors and has achieved preliminary results. Although there is still no clinical cohort report on the application of TILs in biliary tract cancer (BTC), recent clinical reports on multiple cancers have provided information on the efficacy of TIL therapy in a small number of BTC patients, which preliminarily confirmed the safety and efficacy of TIL therapy. However, since BTC is generally considered an immunologically repulsive tumor in which most effector T cells are sequestered at the tumor edge, the antitumor effect of TILs in BTC remains difficult to predict. Combination therapy with different anti-tumor methods and the development of new techniques to modify cells to enhance the anti-tumor ability of TILs are possible directions for breakthrough in the future.