Objective To investigate the clinicopathological characteristics,immunophenotype and the differential diagnosis of ectopic hamartomatous thymoma (EHT).Methods Three cases with EHT were studyed for clinicopathological and immunohistochemical features, the available literature on this subject was reviewed as well.Results The tumors of 3 patients with EHT were located at left lower neck,right supraclavicular area,and left supraclavicular area respectively,and were underwent local resection.The well-defined nodular tumors were en-capsulated with gray-yellowish cut surface,with size of 2.5 cm ×1.9 cm,4.5 cm ×4.5 cm,and 3.0 cm ×2.5 cm,respectively.Microscopi-cally,the tumors were composed of spindle cells,epithelium,and adipose tissue with the predomination of spindle cell.A gradual transition from epithelial cells to spindle cells was frequently present.Immunohistochemically,both the spindle cell and epithelial components were dif-fusely and intensely positive for AE1 /AE3,CK7,CK19,and P63.Two patients with EHT were followed up for 18 and 27 months,both without any evidence of metastasis or recurrence.Conclusion EHT is an exceedingly rare benign tumor with distinctive location and histological fea-tures and should be differentiated from biphasic synovial sarcoma,malignant schwannoma with epithelial differentiation,mixed tumor,thymoli-poma,et al.The total focal excision is the first treatment of choice for EHT.

Objective:To study the expression of tenascin in hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)and to investigate the roles of tenascin expression in microvessel angiogenesis,invasion,metastasis and prognosis of HCC.Methods:Formalin fixed,paraffin wax embedded specimens from 63 HCC patients were stained with an anti-tenascin monoclonal antibody,and the measurements were also done for paracancerous specimens from the same patients and specimens from 15 patients with liver cirrhosis and 10 normal liver.The correlation was analyzed between expression of tenascin and clinicopathological features as well as microvessel angiogenesis.Results:Tenascin immunoreactivity was observed in 65.1% samples of HCC,69.8% of paracarcinoma,20.0% of liver cirrhosis and negative of normal liver samples.Positivity and intensity of tenascin expressions in samples of HCC and paracarcinoma were higher than those in samples of cirrhotic and normal liver.Tenascin expression was correlated with Edmondson-Steiner grades,tumour numbers,capsule invasion,tumour metastasis and microvessel angiogenesis.Conclusion:The up-regulation of tenascin expression may play an important role in invasion and metastasis of HCC.

Objective: To construct HBV adr gene vaccine pCMVS 2-S and to observe the specific humoral immune responses in C57BL/6 mice after gene immunization. Methods: The HBV gene vaccine was injected into tibialis anterior muscles of C57BL/6 mice. ELISA was used to detected the anti-HBs antibody in mice sera at various time points after gene transfer. Results: Anti-HBs in sera of mice was tested positive 1 week after plasmid injected, the level of antibody peaked 4 weeks later, and kept high titer for at least 2 months. Conclusion: The good response of humoral immunity can be induced by injection of pCMVS 2-S in C57BL/6 mice.

Objective To evaluate the specificity of CD105 labeled microvessel density (MVD)and its clinical significance.Methods Formalin fixed,paraffin wax embedded specimens from 63 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) were stained with anti-CD105 monoclonal antibody.A correlation was analyzed between the expression and distribution of MVD-CD105 in HCC/adjacent non-tumorous tissues and clinicopathological features.Results CD105 immunoreactivity was seen in all the specimens of HCC and adjacent non-tumorous tissues.Immunoreactivity intensity was higher in adjacent non-tumorous tissues than in HCC (χ2=9.184,P＜0.01).The mean scores of M VD-CD105 were also higher in adjacent non-tumorous tissues than in HCC.The levels of expression and distribution of MVD-CD105 in HCC were associated with tumor metastasis and TNM staging (P＜0.01).The levels of expression and distribution of MVD-CD105 in adjacent non-tumorous tissues were associated with TNM staging and 2-year survival rate (P＜0.01).Conclusions CD105 showed no specificity in labeling MVD of HCC specimens.The higher level of expression and distribution of MVD-CD105 in HCC was associated with local tumor metastasis and progression.CD105 cannot be used as a target for anti-angiogenesis therapy for HCC.