Acupuncture Points ; Adolescent ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Electroacupuncture ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Rhinitis, Allergic ; therapy ; Treatment Outcome

Background The afferent signals of proprioceptor in extraocular muscles play an important role in controlling eye position and conjugate movement. Palisade ending in the extraocular muscles is the main source of proprioceptive information, and its abnormalities in structure and function may be associated with the occurrence of nystagmus. Objective This study was to observe the changes of palisade ending in the extraocular muscles of patients with congenital nystagmus ( CN) and discuss the probable mechanism. Methods Modified Kestenbaum procedure was performed on 10 patients with CN, and the extraocular muscle samples were collected during the operation. Normal extraocular muscle samples were obtained from the enucleated eyeballs after ocular wound. The ultrathin sections of extraocular muscles were prepared and double-staining by uranyl acetate and lead citrate. The morphological changes of the palisade ending of extraocular muscles were examined under the transmission electron microscopy. Written informed consent was obtained from each subject before surgery. Results The ultrastructure of palisade ending in the extraocular muscle of CN subjects showed the different degrees of alterations. The mild changes included the collapse and disconnection of external capsules and the nonhomogeneous electron-dense substracts. The degeneration and dissociation of myelin in nerve endings, swelling and vacuolation of mitochondria were also exhibited. Myeloid body was found in axon. In the severe patients,the necrosis of Schwann' s cells,dissolve of axon and disappear of capsules were seen. Conclusion The palisade ending of extraocular muscle in the patients with CN are obviously abnormal in comparison with normal one. These alterations are probably associated with the etiology and pathogenesis of CN.

Objective:To explore the clinicopathological factors in node-negative colon cancer patients with synchronous liver metasta-ses and to improve the efficiency of follow-up and rate of early diagnosis for high-risk patients. Methods:Clinical data of 140 colon cancer patients who underwent operation from January 2008 to December 2012 in Beijing Cancer Hospital were analyzed. The high-risk variables associated with synchronous liver metastases were subjected to univariate and multivariate analyses. Results:Synchro-nous liver metastases developed in 13 out of the 140 node-negative colon cancer patients. Eight out of those 13 patients (61.5%) ex-hibited complications with incomplete colon obstruction, and 6 cases underwent surgical treatment for both primary tumor and liver metastases. Both univariate and multivariate analyses revealed that preoperative abnormal serum carcinoembryonic antigen levels (≥5 ng/mL) and vascular invasion were significant independent risk factors for synchronous liver metastases. Conclusion:The risk of syn-chronous liver metastases for colon cancer patients with negative lymph node is slightly high. Vascular invasion and abnormal preoper-ative CEA levels are significant independent risk factors for synchronous liver metastases. Specific examination of livers is necessary for the special cohort at the time of diagnosis or after operation to avoid misdiagnosis.

Objective To investigate the clinical efficacy of laparoscopy-assisted radical gastrectomy for gastric cancer.Methods The retrospective cohort study was adopted.The clinical data of 210 patients with gastric cancer who underwent laparoscopy-assisted radical gastrectomy at the Peking University Cancer Hospital between May 2009 and December 2012 were collected.Fifty-two,43 and 115 patients were respectively detected in stage Ⅰ,Ⅱ and Ⅲ of postoperative pathological stage.Laparoscopy-assisted radical distal,proximal and total gastrectomies were selectively performed according to the location and extent of tumors.(1) Overall treatment indicators were observed,including surgical procedure,with or without conversion to open surgery,operation time,volumes of intraoperative blood loss and transfusion,number of lymph node dissected,time to anal exsufflation,duration of hospital stay,occurrence of complications,radical degree of tumors of pathological examination.(2) Other indicators were observed,including pathological features of patients in stage Ⅰ,Ⅱ and Ⅲ [gender,age,body mass index (BMI),scores of American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA),medicinal complication,location of tumors,degree of tumor differentiation and with or without vascular tumor thrombi],intraoperative and postoperative situations (surgical procedure,conversion to open surgery,operation time,volumes of intraoperative blood loss and transfusion,number of lymph node dissected,time to anal exsufflation,duration of hospital stay and radical degree of tumors),postoperative complications,reoperation,death within postoperative day 30 and during follow-up,3-and 5-year survival rates.(3) Evaluation criteria:stages and classification of tumors were evaluated according to the tumor node metastasis (TNM) classification of malignant tumours (Seventh Edition) published by American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) and Union for International Cancer Control (UICC).Severity of complications was evaluated according to Clavien-Dindo classification.Patients were followed up by outpatient examination,telephone interview and correspondence once every half a year up to December 31,2015,abdominal / pelvic CT,chest X-ray and blood test were performed once every half a year within 2 years and once every year within 2-5 years postoperatively,and gastroscopy was performed once every year.Overall survival time was counted from operation date to end of follow-up or time of death.Measurement data with normal distribution were presented as x ± s and comparison between groups was analyzed using the ANOVA.Measurement data with skewed distribution were presented as M (range) and comparison between groups was analyzed using nonparametric test.Comparisons of count data were analyzed using the chisquare test.Survival curve was drawn by the Kaplan-Meier method,and survival analysis was done using the Logrank test.Results (1) Overall treatment:all the 210 patients underwent successful radical gastrectomy,including 100 undergoing distal gastrectomy,35 undergoing proximal gastrectomy and 75 undergoing total gastrectomy.There were 198 patients undergoing radical gastrectomy and 12 patients converted to open surgery.Operation time,volume of intraoperative blood loss,number of patients with blood transfusion and number of lymph node dissected were (258 ± 54) minutes,(103 ± 86) mL,19 and 29 ± 12,respectively.Postoperative recovery:time to anal exsufflation and duration of hospital stay were (3.8 ± 0.9) days and (17 ± 7) days.Fortyfive patients had postoperative complications and 2 were dead within 30 days postoperatively.R0 and R1 resections were respectively applied to 209 and 1 patients.(2) Comparisons among the patients with the different pathological stage:numbers of patients in stage Ⅰ,Ⅱ and Ⅲ were 9,17 and 36 with tumor located in the upper stomach,3,9 and 22 with tumor located in the middle stomach,40,16 and 47 with tumor located in the lower stomach,0,1 and 10 with tumor located in the cross-region stomach,30,23 and 23 in G1 and G2 of tumor differentiation,21,19 and 92 in G3 and G4 of tumor differentiation,7,13 and 69 with vascular tumor thrombi,respectively,with significant differences in above indicators among the patients in stage Ⅰ,Ⅱ and Ⅲ (x2 =25.990,32.928,35.027,P ＜ 0.05).(3) Intra-and post-operative comparisons among the patients with the different pathological stage:numbers of patients in stage Ⅰ,Ⅱ and Ⅲl were respectively 40,20 and 40 with distal gastrectomy,3,8 and 24 with proximal gastrectomy,9,15 and 51 with total gastrectomy,and number of lymph node dissected were 26 ± 9,29 ± 13 and 31 ± 12 in patients with stage Ⅰ,Ⅱ and Ⅲ,showing significant differences in above indicators among the patients in stage Ⅰ,Ⅱ and Ⅲ (x2 =25.730,F =4.336,P ＜ 0.05).(4) Numbers of patients with postoperative overall complications were 11,8 and 26 in stage Ⅰ,Ⅱ and Ⅲ,showing no significant difference (x2 =0.301,P ＞ 0.05).(5) Of 210 patients,203 were followed up for a median time of 43 months (range,1-80 months) with a follow-up rate of 96.67％ (203/210).Sixty-eight patients were dead till the end of follow-up,including 60 died of recurrence of tumor,2 died of surgical complications and 6 died of other causes.Postoperative 3-,5-year overall survival rates were 96.1％,87.8％,62.4％ and 92.9％,77.5％,52.7％ in patients with stage Ⅰ,Ⅱ and Ⅲ,respectively,with a significant difference (x2 =29.071,P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion Laparoscopy-assisted radical gastrectomy for advanced gastric cancer is at least equivalent to early gastric cancer in the safety,with the satisfactory long-term outcomes.

Objective To study the effects of nitric oxide synthase(NOS) and nitric oxide(NO) in post-asphyxial renal injury in neonatal rats.Methods Forty-eight Wistar neonatal rats were randomly divided into 4 groups:controls,2 h,24 h and 48 h post-asphyxia groups (12 in each group).The rats were decapitated in different times(2 h,24 h and 48 h) after asphyxia for 30 minutes.The renals were dissected to determined the concentrations of NO and NOS.And the scores of renal tubules were measured under light microscope.Results Compared with control group,the levels of NO and NOS significantly increased at 2 h and 24 h after asphyxia.The scores of renal tubules were significant difference at 24 h and 48 h after asphyxia compared to controls.Conclusion These findings suggest NOS and NO may play an important role in the development of post-asphyxia renal injury.

Objective - To optimize the extraction and quantification methods for the determination of S phenylmercapturic acid - Methods (SPMA) in urine with performance liquid chromatography mass spectrometry. The urine was hydrolyzed with 50.0% sulfuric acid. The hydrolysate was purified by solid phase extraction column. Purified samples were separated by C18 chromatographic column and detected by tandem mass spectrometry. The isotope labeled SPMA was used as the internal Results - standard. The internal standard curve was used for quantification. The linear range of SPMA was 0.50 50.00 μg/L with the correlation coefficient of 0.999 8. The detection limit and the lower limit of quantification were 0.05 and 0.17 μg/L, - - - - respectively. The recovery rate was 97.0% 102.0%. The within run and between run relative standard deviation were 0.6% 1.0% - and 1.7% 6.5%, respectively. The mass concentration of urinary SPMA in the occupational benzene exposure group was - vs P higher than the non occupational benzene exposure group by this method (median: 2.81 0.28 μg/g creatinine, <0.05). Conclusion Compared to the national standard method, this optimized method of solid phase extraction and internal standard for quantification eliminates the matrix effect. This method is accurate and precise, and is suitable for the determination of SPMA acid in urine.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect and molecular mechanism of interferon-α (INF-α) on the apoptosis of the mouse podocyte cell line MPC5 induced by hepatitis B virus X (HBx) protein. METHODS: MPC5 cells were transfected with the pEX plasmid carrying the HBx gene. RT-PCR was used to measure the mRNA expression of HBx at different time points. MPC5 cells were divided into 4 groups: control group (MPC5 cells cultured under normal conditions), INF-α group (MPC5 cells cultured with INF-α), HBx group (MPC5 cells induced by HBx), and HBx+INF-α group (MPC5 cells induced by HBx and cultured with INF-α). After 48 hours of intervention under different experimental conditions, flow cytometry was used to measure the apoptosis of MPC5 cells, and quantitative real-time PCR and Western blot were used to measure the mRNA and protein expression of slit diaphragm-related proteins (nephrin, CD2AP, and synaptopodin) and the cytoskeleton-related protein transient receptor potential cation channel 6 (TRPC6). RESULTS: MPC5 cells transfected by pEX-HBx had the highest expression of HBx mRNA at 48 hours after transfection (P<0.05). Compared with the control, INF-α and HBx+INF-α groups, the HBx group had a significant increase in the apoptosis rate of MPC5 cells (P<0.05). Compared with the control and INF-α groups, the HBx group had significant reductions in the mRNA and protein expression of nephrin, synaptopodin, and CD2AP and significant increases in the mRNA and protein expression of TRPC6 (P<0.05). Compared with the HBx group, the HBx+INF-α group had significant increases in the mRNA and protein expression of nephrin, synaptopodin, and CD2AP and significant reductions in the mRNA and protein expression of TRPC6 (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS INF-α can inhibit the apoptosis of podocytes induced by HBx, possibly through improving the abnormal expression of slit diaphragm-related proteins (CD2AP, nephrin, and synaptopodin) and cytoskeleton-related protein (TRPC6) induced by HBx.
Animals ; Apoptosis ; Hepatitis B virus ; Interferon-alpha ; Mice ; Podocytes ; Trans-Activators

This study was aimed to investigate the effect of fetal bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (FBM-MSC) on the development of human Th1 cells. FBM-MSC were isolated, cultured and expanded in vitro. The cells were identified by their phenotype profiles and differential capacity. Human CD4(+) T cells from healthy donors were cultured alone or co-cultured with FBM-MSC (FBM-MSC/CD4). In these two cultures, the quantities of Th1 cells (interferon-γ(+)) were analyzed by flow cytometry. The results indicated that the immunophenotype and multilineage differentiation of FBM-MSC satisfied the generally accepted criteria. FBM-MSC played an inhibitory role in the development of Th1 cells. Flow cytometry analysis showed that the percentage of Th1 cells in FBM-MSC/CD4 was significantly lower than that in CD4(+) T cells cultured alone. The protein level of IFN-γ in FBM-MSC/CD4 detected by ELISA was also lower than that in CD4(+) T cells cultured alone. It was also demonstrated that the expression level of IL-6 in FBM-MSC/CD4 was much higher than that in CD4(+) T cells cultured alone or FBM-MSC. The neutralizing antibody of IL-6 could increase the quantities of Th1 cells and the expression levels of IFN-γ. It is concluded that FBM-MSC may play an inhibitory role in the development of human Th1 cells, and the IL-6 pathway may be one of mechanisms involved in the inhibitory role.
Bone Marrow Cells ; cytology ; Cell Differentiation ; Flow Cytometry ; Humans ; Immunophenotyping ; Interleukin-6 ; metabolism ; Mesenchymal Stromal Cells ; cytology ; metabolism ; Th1 Cells ; cytology

Objective: This study aimed to compare the short- and long-term outcomes of laparoscopy-assisted radical gastrectomy between elderly and non-elderly patients with gastric cancer. Methods: A total of 219 patients who underwent laparoscopy-assisted radical gastrectomy in the Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery IV, Peking University Cancer Hospital & Institute from April 2009 to October 2013 were included in this retrospective study. All patients were divided into elderly (≥65 years) and non- elderly (<65 years)groups. We compared these groups based on clinicopathological characteristics, postoperative morbidities, and survival. Results:Theelderly group showed higher ASA scores and higher number of preoperative comorbidities (P<0.05). The operative time, blood loss,and conversion rate did not differ significantly between the groups (all P>0.05). The mean time to first ambulation in elderly group was 2.2±2.3d while first ambulation time in the non-elderly group was 1.4±1.3d,which showed significant difference between the two groups (P<0.05). No significant differences were observed between groups in terms of postoperativemorbidities (34.8％ vs. 28.5％, P> 0.05) as well as 3-year disease-free survival and overall survival (P>0.05). However, the elderly patients withpostoperative morbidities experienced significantly poorer overall survival rate than non-elderly patients (44.5％ vs. 70.5％, P<0.05). Conclusion: Laparoscopy-assisted gastrectomy can be safely and successfully performed in an elderly population with acceptable short- and long-term outcomes.Enhanced perioperative treatment is necessary to improve postoperative outcomes.

Objective To investigate the constitution,density changes and carrier rate about Yersinia pestis of rodents in plague foci,and to provide the scientific evidence for plague prevention.Methods According to the program of national monitoring plague,two survey procedures,namely quadrat of single-ha for 24 h and 5 m mouse jam,were used to monitor the host animals; culture and identification of Yersinia pestis in liver or spleen of the experimental animals was carried out by using self-made medium in the north of Beiyuanzi village in Dingbian town Shaanxi province.Results One hundred twelve rodents were captured using the first procedures and the rodent average density was 8.62 ind./hm2 and six species of rodents were found namely Meriones unguiculatus ( 100 individuals),Microtusfortis(5 individuals),Ochotona daurica(3 individuals),Meriones meridianus (2 individuals),Mus musculus Linnaeus (1 individual) and Cricetulus barabensis (1 individual).One hundred seventy-three field mouses were captured using the second procedures including Mus musculus Linnaeus (136 individuals),Cricetulus barabensis (36 individuals),and Microtus fortis ( 1 individual ).Among them,Microtus fortis was found in the salt marshes in the southern edge of Ordos Plateau steppe in plague area of Dingbian county.Yersinia pestis was not identified in all animals.Conclusions Microtus fortis is found in natural foci of plague in Shaanxi province for the first time,and a new geographic region was found.Its epidemiological significance needs further study.