Dust ; prevention & control ; Germany ; Humans ; Metallurgy ; Occupational Exposure ; prevention & control ; Occupational Health ; Population Surveillance ; Silicon ; adverse effects

Adenoma ; Adult ; Ear Neoplasms ; Ear, Middle ; pathology ; Humans ; Male

Objective To analyze the differentially expressed genes in esophageal squamons cell carcinoma (ESCC), para-cancerous tissue (PCT) and normal esophagus tissue (NET) using oligomicroarray and to identify the target genes related to the development and progression of esophageal carcinoma. Methods The total RNAs isolated from ESCC, PCT or NET using one step Trizol method were purified and reversely transcribed into cRNAs. The cRNAs were then fluorescence labeled and hybridized with Agilent oligomicroarray (21 074 probes). The fluorescence intensity features were detected by Agilent scanner and quantified by feature extraction software. The selected candidate genes were confirmed by real time real time fluorescent quantitative RT-PCR immunohistochemistry andWestern blotting.Results ① The oligomicroarray demonstrated that there were 38 up-regulated genes and 61 down-regulated genes. ② The real time fluorescent quantitative RT-PCR revealed that five genes (CTHRC1, INHBA, SPP1 ,LUM, HRK)were more differentially expressed in up-regulated genes. Of which, CTHRC1 displayed more disparity.③ Immunohistochemistry examination showed that the higher expression of CTHRC1 (56.5 %, 26/46) was observed in ESCC. There was significantly difference in expression of CTHRC1 between patients with or without lymph node metastasis (P<0.05). ④ CTHRC1 protein was expressed in both TE-13 and Eca-109 cell lines. Conclusion CTHRC1 is probably one of the most significant biomolecules in ESCC.

Animals ; Feasibility Studies ; Female ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred BALB C ; Plethysmography ; methods ; Tidal Volume ; physiology

Acute Coronary Syndrome ; blood ; Aged ; Cell Membrane ; metabolism ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Thromboplastin ; metabolism

Objective: To investigate applicability for Boston naming test (30 items) (BNT) in Chinese elderly and identify effect for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's dementia(AD) using BNT. Methods:100 normal elderly, 38 amnesic MCI, 34 mild AD and 38 moderate AD were evaluated by neuropsychological tests (include BNT, mini mental state examination and auditory verbal memory test, etc). MMSE total score of 4 groups were 28.4?1.5, 26.1?2.6, 20.7?1.7, and 15.6?3.3, respectively. Results: Age, sex, level of education were found to be significant factors affecting overall scores of spontaneous naming in normal elderly group. Spontaneous naming score for participants of elementary, high school and college groups were 22.2?3.3, 25.5?2.5 and 26.3?1.8, respectively. Scoring of male participants higher than that of females. Spontaneous naming score of 4 groups were 24.9?3.0, 20.9?3.6, 18.7?4.0 and 15.7?4.2, respectively. As cut-off ≤22 score of spontaneous naming of BNT, the sensitivities for MCI, mild AD and moderate AD were 61%, 79% and 95% respectively; the specificities were all around 81%. Selective impairment of unfamiliar items occurred MCI and mild AD and hold of familiar item across diagnostic groups. Semantic cue naming and recognition ability by BNT showed there was progressive damage in AD patients, but less than that of spontaneous naming of BNT. Conclusion: The ability of naming is influenced by age, gender and educational level. Patients with MCI or mild AD have impairment in naming.

Objective To investigate the value of MR imaging methods for the quantification of fat content in a customized lipid phantom at 3.0 T.Methods Eleven homogeneous fat-water phantoms (50 ml)with fat volume percentages from 0 to 100％ were constructed with reference to Bernard's methods.Fat tractions of the lipid phantom were acquired using water selective saturation (WS),fat selective saturation (FS),in-and out-of-phase imaging (IOP),iterative decomposition of water and fat with echo asymmetry and least-squares estimation (IDEAL) gradient echo imaging and IDEAL Quant imaging methods on a 3.0 T MRI system.For statistical comparisons,paired-sample t test,Pearson correlation test,and Bland-Ahman maps were applied.Results Evaluated fat fractions acquired by WS,IDEAL Gradient echo imaging and IDEAL Quant were (49.6±28.8)％,(46.0±28.4)％,(51.0±32.0)％,the result has no significant difference with the true fat contents(t values were-0.186,-2.218,2.713;P values were 0.856,0.051,0.055).Evaluated fat fractions acquired by FS,corrected algorithm and IOP were (64.2±26.7)％,(58.9±31.9)％ and (45.3±32.3)％,these three kinds of methods have significant difference with the true fat contents (t values were 5.168,4.273,-6.441;P＜0.01).All the chemical shift imaging methods correlated with the true phantom model fat fractions,r values were 0.977(FS),0.978 (corrected algorithm),0.982 (WS),0.99 8(IOP),0.993 (IDEAL Gradient echo imaging),0.999 (IDEAL Quant) (all P＜0.01).Each method's 95％ confidence interval of the mean difference acquired by Bland-Altman map was WS (-14.7％ to 13.8％),FS (-3.6％ to 32.0％),corrected algorithm (-4.6％ to 22.5％),IOP(-9.4％ to 0.0％),IDEAL gradient echo imaging (-15.9％ to 7.8％),IDEAL Quant(-2.0％ to 4.0％).IDEAL Quant had the best correlation and confidence with the true fat fraction.Conclusions Chemical shift imaging methods (IOP,IDEAL Gradient echo imaging,IDEAL Quant) can acquire more accurate fat quantification results than chemical saturation imaging methods (FS,Corrected algorithm,WS) in a customized lipid phantom at 3.0 T.IDEAL Quant can acquire the best fat quantification result compared with the other imaging methods.

Medical college of Xi`an Jiaotong university offered the functional experiment course in 1997. The courseincludes the basic knowledge of medical scientific research, the experimental design and the implementation of theexperiment, totally 24 hours. The course determines the key role of students in teaching, cultivates their ability to studyindependently and raises their comprehensive ability. The course assessment shows a good result.[

Objective To investigate the effects of the intracellular delivery of HPV16E7_(49-57) epi- tope modified by cell-penetrating peptide HIV-Tat_(49-57) and its influential factors.Methods The unique HLA-A2+/H-2kb+ limited CTL epitope of HPV16E7 fused with a cell-penetrating sequence (HIV-Tat_(49-57)) was designed and a 18-mer peptide was synthesized with aid of polypeptide solid phase synthesis technique. The intracellular transport capabilities of these peptides were tested with indirect immunofluorescence assay and laser confocal microscopy.In addition,the CTL epitope and 18-met peptide were used to stimulate PBMC of healthy C57BL/6 mice,and the E7_(49-57) specific CTL responses were measured by LDH cytotoxicity detection kit in PBMC of those mice.Results The HIV-Tat_(49-57) peptide could efficiently assist HPV 16E7_(49-57) peptide in penetrating into BHK cells in a time and dose-dependent manner (P＜0.05).Further- more,the specific CTL activity induced by the 18-mer peptide was much stronger than that induced by the single epitope.Conclusion The results show that HIV-Tat_(49-57) can efficiently deliver the exogenous anti- genic peptide into the cytoplasm of live cells,and induce specific CTL response.This is a new way to de- sign peptide-based vaccine of HPV.

BACKGROUNDAntibodies against acetylcholine receptor, acetylcholinesterase, ryanodine receptor and titin have been found in patients with myasthenia gravis. However, the relations between these antibodies and character of myasthenia gravis are unknown. This study aimed to detect multiple antibodies in myasthenia gravis and to investigate its clinical significance.

METHODSThese antibodies were detected by enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent assay in 89 cases of myasthenia gravis, 66 cases of other neurological diseases and 66 healthy controls. The incidences of antibodies were compared using the chi-square test.

RESULTSAcetylcholine receptor, acetylcholinesterase, titin and ryanodine receptor antibodies were detected in 53.9%, 20.2%, 64.0% and 55.0% of myasthenia gravis patients respectively, higher than in patients of other neurological diseases and controls groups. The combination of the four antibodies assays provided 94.4% sensitivity and 84.0% specificity for the diagnosis of myasthenia gravis. Acetylcholinesterase antibody occurred more frequently in acetylcholine receptor antibody negative patients with adverse reactions to neostigmine test. Titin antibody provided 82.1% sensitivity and 52.5% specificity for myasthenia gravis with thymoma. Incidences of titin and of ryanodine receptor antibody were higher in late onset myasthenia gravis than in early onset myasthenia gravis. The proportion of titin antibody positive patients increased with the severity of myasthenia gravis as graded by a modified Osserman scale.

CONCLUSIONSTesting for acetylcholine receptor, acetylcholinesterase, titin and ryanodine receptor antibodies can offer a better diagnostic method for myasthenia gravis than each antibody test alone. Titin antibody combined with computed tomography was better for the diagnosis of thymoma. Titin antibody occurred most frequently in severe myasthenia gravis.

Adult ; Age of Onset ; Antibodies ; metabolism ; Case-Control Studies ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Myasthenia Gravis ; immunology ; metabolism ; pathology ; Thymoma ; immunology