Background and purpose:Early evaluating the therapeutic efficacy of transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) in patients with hepatic cancer is still a diffcult clinical problem. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the ability of the apparent diffusion coeffcient (ADC) to help predict early disease progression after TACE.Methods:Institutional review board approval was obtained, and all patients signed informed consent. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) (b=50, 500, 1 000 mm2/s) were performed before and 1 month after initiating TACE for 23 patients with hepatic cancer (14 were male, 9 were female; mean age: 53.3 years;range: 21-85 years). Contrast-enhanced MRI was performed 3 months after initiating TACE. Patients were classiifed as either progressing or non-progressing according to RECIST 1.1. The preoperative ADC values of tumor and the ADC values of tumor 1 month after TACE were analyzed by pairedt-test in both progressing and non-progressing group. Unpairedt-test was used to compare ADC parameters between progressing and non-progressing group. In all the 23 hepatic cancer patients, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed to determine a threshold ADC ratio (ADC%) to differentiate progressing from non-progressing patients.Results:Thirteen progressing and 9 non-progressing patients were evaluated. Increase in ADCs of tumor was observed in non-progressing patients at 1 month after TACE compared with preoperative ADCs. There was a signiifcant difference between the 2 groups (P=0.01). In progressing group, preoperative ADCs of tumor were similar to those at 1 month after TACE (P=0.221). There was no significant difference in preoperative ADCs of tumor and ADC% between the progressing and non-progressing groups. In patients with hepatic cancer, 1 month ADC ratio in non-progressing patients were signiifcantly higher than those of progressing patients (P=0.029). Using ROC to evaluate the ability of ADC% could predict early disease pro-gression after TACE. Using -6.455% as the threshold, the area under the ROC curve was 0.867 (95%CI: 0.643-1.000). The sensitivity was 100%, and the speciifcity was 66.7%.Conclusion:One month after TACE, the increases in ADCs of tumor were observed only in the non-progressing group; and the ADC ratio seems to be a promising tool for helping predict the early disease progression after TACE in patients with hepatic cancer.

Objective To estimate the application value of dual-source CT on preoperational evaluating new type of three branches aortic arch covered stent graft implantation on DeBakey type I aortic dissection.Methods 20 cases with DeBakey type I aortic dissec-tion prepared to performe three branches aortic arch covered stent graft implantation were reviewed,and their CT findings were ana-lyzed in order to evaluate the guiding value for operation.Results The location and size of entries were determined and the diameter of aortic arch and three branchesas well as the intervals of three branches were also measured by dual-source CT.Furthermore, blood-supply for main vessel and complications related with covered stent were further analyzed prior to operation.The surgical pro-tocols were designed according to preoperational CT findings.Among all cases,13 cases were fit for new type of three branches aor-tic arch covered stent graft implantation.While the rest cases (N=7)were adopted other operations due to non-fitted indications. Conclusion Dual-source CT is of significance for preoperational evaluating new type of three branches aortic arch covered stent graft implantation on DeBakey type I aortic dissection.

Objective: To explore the effect of autophagy on process of high phosphate salt induced vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) calciifcation in experimental rats. Methods: Rats’ model of VSMC calciifcation was induced by phosphate incubation. VSMC were divided into 3 groups:①Control group,②Calciifcation group which included 3 subgroups as 4-day subgroup, the cells were cultured by 3.2 mmol/L phosphate for 4 days, 6-day subgroup and 8-day subgroup,③Calciifcation+ 3-MA (autophagy inhibitor) group, in which the 8-day cells were cultured with 5mmol/L 3-MA. Calcium nodule formation and calcium deposition in VSMC were measured by Alizarin red staining and o-cresolphthaleincomplexone method, protein expressions of Runx2, α-SMA and LC3 II were examined by Western blot analysis, autophagosome formation in VSMC was measured by transmission electron microscope and the localization and expression of Runx2 and LC3 II in VSMC were observed by immunolfuorescent microscope. Results: Compared with Control group, the cells at 8-day subgroup showed more calcium nodules, higher calcium deposition, increased protein expressions of Runx2, LC3 II, more autophagosome and decreased α-SMA expression, allP<0.05. Compared with 8-day subgroup, the cells in Calcification+3-MA group presented increased calcium deposition, decreased lfuorescence distribution of LC3 II and more cells with positive Runx2 protein expression, all P<0.05. Conclusion: Autophagy has the protective effect on process of phosphate induced VSMC calciifcation in experimental rats.

Objective To summarize the experiences and protocol of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) technique in donors with brain death and unexpected cardiac arrest.Method We described here the organ donation of one case of brain death complicated with hemodynamic instability and cardiac arrest,and the corresponding recovery of the receptor liver.A 50-year old female developed brain death due to brain aneurysmal hemorrhage.He was given two kinds of high-dose vasopressor,but hemodynarnic instability was not improved.After ECMO support,the hemodynamics turned to stable,but unexpected cardiac arrest happened.The total operating time of ECMO was 5 h,including 4 h after cardiac arrest.The liver was transplanted into a 65-year old female with hepatocellular carcinoma (diagnosed by Hangzhou Criteria) by classic orthotopic liver transplantation with end-to-end anastomosis.Result One liver and two kidneys were obtained successfully,and all the receptors recovered uneventfully.The post-operative ALT and AST levels reached the peak at 169 U/L and 365 U/L respectively,and returned to normal two weeks later.Conclusion ECMO can be used to support brain death complicated with hemodynamic instability and unexpected cardiac arrest.It can save precious time for organ donation,and preserve the function of liver and kidney as well.

The mainly antigenic sites for the adenovirus neutraliation are present on Loop1 and Loop2 of hexon.Majority research were focus in the human adenovirus.Little was known on infectious canine hepatitis virus (ICHV), which was also called canine adenovirus typeⅠ.Here,ICHV (the isolated strain) DNA was isolated and purified from the cultured MDCK cells.The Loop1 and Loop2 fragments were amplified by polymerase chain reaction(PCR) method,and then was connected by ligase T4.The target fragment was then connected with vector pET28a.The nucleotide sequence ecoding Loop1 and Loop2 was determined.The nucleotide sequence identity of Loop1 region between the isolated strain and CLL, RI261 and Toronto A26/61 strains is 100%, 100% and 83.8%, and the nucleotide sequence identity of Loop2 region between the isolated strain and CLL, RI261 and Toronto A26/61 strains is 88.1% , 88.1% and 99.3%, and amino acid identity is 93.6%, 93.6% and 98.6%.The recombinant Loop protein was expressed in E.coli and was approximately 36kDa in size,and then was purified. Then BALB/c mice were injected subcutaneously in the back and armpit with the recombinant Loop protein.The anti-ICHV antibody titers of immunized serum was tested by indirect ELISA and the titers were up to 1:320.Western blot demonstrated that immunized sera could specifically combine with ICHV. The research laid a foundation for creating new genetic engineering products of infectious canine hepatitis virus.

Objective To elucidate the interaction between osteoblast of bone marrow microenvironment and leukemia cells,and to investigate the role of osteoblast in the leukemia cells survival and apoptosis and the influence of leukemia cells on the osteoblast.Methods Leukemia cells from AML1-ETO9a-Rac1 mouse leukemia model and osteoblast cells were used.The ratio of GFP+ leukemia cells that co-cultured with or without osteoblast was detected by FACS.In addition,the apoptosis level of leukemia cells was detected by flow cytometry by PI and Annexin Ⅴ labeling.Activation level of PARP was determined by Western-blot.Real-time PCR (RT-PCR) was utilized to detect the mRNA level of TPO,N-cadherin,OPN and Ang1 in osteoblast which was separated from leukemic mice.Results The ratio of GFP+ cells in AE9a-Rac1 leukemia cells co-cultured with osteoblast cell was significantly higher than that of AE9a-Rac1 leukemia cells cultured alone.The apoptotic level of AE9a-Rac 1 leukemia cells cultured alone was significant higher than that of AE9a-Rac 1 leukemia cells in co-culture system.Western blot showed that activated level of PARP in AE9a-Rac1 leukemia cells co-cultured with osteoblast was lower than that cultured alone.RT-PCR result showed that TPO and N-cadherin mRNA levels in primary osteoblast separated from leukemic mice were higher than that from normal mice.Ang1 and OPN mRNA levels of osteoblast from leukemia mice were lower.Conclusion Osteoblast cell can support the survival and inhibit the apoptosis of leukemia cells.Leukemia cells can influence the functions of osteoblast by microenvironment associated cytokines production.

Objective To investigate the clinical feasibility of contrast?enhanced three dimensional T2WI turbo?spin?echo sequence with short?term inversion recovery and sampling perfection using different flip angle evolutions (3D STIR T2WI SPACE) sequence in the brachial plexus neurography. Methods Thirty two patients were prospectively chosen and performed with brachial plexus plain scanning on a 3.0 T MR scanner by using plain and contrast?enhanced 3D STIR T2WI SPACE sequence. Thirteen of them underwent plain scan, 9 of them underwent contrast?enhanced scan, and 10 of them underwent both plain scan and enhanced scan. The visibility of the brachial plexus were scored and contrast to noise ratio (CNR) were measured by two experienced radiologists. The results between plain and contrast?enhanced imaging were compared by t test. The 10 subjects received both enhance and plain imaging, were performed with paired t test. Results In 32 patients, the visibility score of brachial plexus nerve and CNR were 7.8 ± 1.3 and 24.97±3.41 in the plain scan group, and 13.1±1.7 and 38.49±4.95 in enhanced scan group, respectively. There were statistically significant differences in the two groups(t=-11.72,P<0.01;t=-10.47, P<0.01). In 10 cases with plain and enhanced brachial plexus imaging, the average score of the brachial plexus were 7.4 ± 1.7 and 13.3 ± 1.6, the average CNR were 26.23 ± 4.43 and 38.19 ± 5.03 respectively. There were statistically significant differences (t=- 8.22, P<0.01; t=- 5.64,P<0.01). The score results were analyzed for consistency. Plain images Kappa value was 0.684, which shows moderate consistency and enhanced images Kappa value= 0.822, which shows excelent consistency. Conclusions The contrast?enhanced 3D STIR T2WI SPACE sequences may suppress background tissue signals, which is helpful to display brachial plexus, therefore it is of important value for the early diagnosis of brachial plexus neuropathy.

Objective To investigate the prognostic value of regulatory B cells (Bregs) in patients with acute pancreatitis .Methods Flow cytometry analysis was performed to detected the percentages of CD19+IL-10+and CD19+CD24hiCD27hi Bregs in peripheral blood samples collected from patients with acute pancreatitis (36 cases with mild acute pancreatitis and 15 cases with severe acute pancreatitis ) as well as the surface costimulatory molecules including CD80 and CD86 on CD19+CD24hiCD27hi Bregs.Their correlations with lymphocytes and C-reactive protein ( CRP) were further analyzed .Results The numbers of lympho-cytes, CD19+lymphocytes, CD19+IL-10+and CD19+CD24hi CD27hi Bregs in peripheral blood samples col-lected from patients with severe and mild acute pancreatitis as well as the mean fluorescence intensities ( MFI) of CD80 and CD86 were significantly lower than those from healthy subjects .Compared with patients with mild acute pancreatitis , the numbers of lymphocytes and CD 19+lymphocytes , the absolute numbers of CD19+IL-10+and CD19+CD24hiCD27hi Bregs as well as the mean fluorescence intensities (MFI) of CD80 and CD86 in patients with severe acute pancreatitis were significantly decreased .The percentages of CD19+IL-10+and CD19+CD24hiCD27hi Bregs in patients with mild acute pancreatitis were significantly increased af-ter an initial drop , but in patients with severe acute pancreatitis those values were continuously decreased along with the disease progression .The percentage of CD19+IL-10+Bregs was positively correlated with the percentage of CD19+CD24hiCD27hi Bregs and the absolute number of CD19+lymphocytes, but was negatively correlated with CRP .Conclusion The abnormal number and function of CD 19+IL-10+and CD19+CD24 hi CD27hi Bregs might be one of the important reasons causing immune dysfunction in patients with acute pan -creatitis.

OBJECTIVE:To provide reference for quality evaluation of Ejiao. METHODS:The contents of 17 amino acids in 18 batches of Ejiao from 18 manufacturers were analyzed by automatic amino acid analyzer;the content data was processed by prin-cipal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA),in order to understand the relationship among these amino acids and categorize the Ejiao products. RESULTS:Except for a batch of Ejiao,the other 17 batches contained 17 various amino acids,including 7 necessary amino acids(Thr,Val,Met,Ile,Leu,Phe and Lys)for human being,especially the contents of Gly and Pro were higher. The total content of amino acids was arranged from 66.1% to 82.0%,showing great difference. Four main components were extracted by PCA,the cumulative contribution of which was 89.578%,and accordingly it may be consid-ered that Pro,Ala,Glu,Asp,Leu,Ile and Thr were characteristic amino acids of Ejiao products. In hierarchical clustering analy-sis,3 tree figures of commercial Ejiao product were achieved and Euclidean distance was varied among 0-25. CONCLUSIONS:There is great difference in total control of amino acid in commercial Ejiao product;Ejiao products from various manufacturers dif-fer in their amino acid contents. Ejiao is rich in collagen,and therefore,using amino acid determination would be helpful to moni-tor its quality.

Ultrafine powder and cell wall-broken powder of herbal medicine lack of the morphological characters and microscopic identification features. This makes it hard to identify herb's authenticity with traditional methods. We tested ITS2 sequence as DNA barcode in identification of herbal medicine in ultrafine powder and cell wall-broken powder in this study. We extracted genomic DNAs of 93 samples of 31 representative herbal medicines (28 species), which include whole plant, roots and bulbs, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds. The ITS2 sequences were amplified and sequenced bidirectionally. The ITS2 sequences were identified using Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) method in the GenBank database and DNA barcoding system to identify the herbal medicine. The genetic distance was analyzed using the Kimura 2-parameter (K2P) model and the Neighbor-joining (NJ) phylogenetic tree was constructed using MEGA 6.0. The results showed that DNA can be extracted successfully from 93 samples and high quality ITS2 sequences can be amplified. All 31 herbal medicines can get correct identification via BLAST method. The ITS2 sequences of raw material medicines, ultrafine powder and cell wall-broken powder have same sequence in 26 herbal medicines, while the ITS2 sequences in other 5 herbal medicines exhibited variation. The maximum intraspecific genetic-distances of each species were all less than the minimum interspecific genetic distances. ITS2 sequences of each species are all converged to their standard DNA barcodes using NJ method. Therefore, using ITS2 barcode can accurately and effectively distinguish ultrafine powder and cell wall-broken powder of herbal medicine. It provides a new molecular method to identify ultrafine powder and cell wall-broken powder of herbal medicine in the quality control and market supervision.