Objective To examine the serum von Willebrand factor (vWF) and soluble Pselectin levels in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF), and to observe the influence of beta-blocker treatment on endothelial function and platelet activation in NVAF patients. Methods The 25 subjects, 17 males and 8 females, with persistent NVAF and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF)≥50%, were enrolled in NVAF group. Those with myocardial infarction, cardiomyopathy or hyperthyroidism were excluded. Another 35 subjects with sinus rhythm were as control (age,gender and LVEF matched with NVAF group, and with similar cardiovascular diseases). Serum vWF and soluble P-selectin levels were tested by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results The serum vWF level was significantly higher in NVAF group than in control group [(1945.2±111.3) g/L vs. (1862.3±101.6) g/L, P＜0.05]. However, there was no significant difference in serum soluble P-selectin level between NVAF group and control group [(24.32±9.21) g/L vs. (24.68±11.70) g/L, P＞0. 05]. After administration of beta-blocker, a down-regulation was found in serum vWF level [(1758. 3±152. 4) g/L, P＜0. 01], but not in soluble P-selectin level [(21.05±8. 94) g/L, P＞0. 05]. There was no relationship between serum level of vWF and soluble P-selectin (r=-0.008,P＞0. 05). Conclusions High serum level of vWF is found in patients with persistent NVAF as compared with control, indicating endothelial damage/dysfunction in those patients. After administration of beta-blocker, serum level of vWF drops dramatically in NVAF patients, indicating possible endothelial function protection of beta-blocker.

BACKGROUND:Single fracture or colapse of the posterolateral tibial plateau fractures is relatively rare in the clinical work. Rational choice of surgical approach and internal fixation for posterolateral plateau fracture is significant to restore the lower limb force line, maintain the joint stability and obtain good biocompatibility.
OBJECTIVE:To compare the stability and biocompatibility of Carlson posterolateral and posterior midline approaches for the treatment of posterolateral tibial plateau fractures with “T” shaped locking plate.
METHODS:From July 2011 to July 2014, 43 patients with posterolateral tibial plateau fractures, who were treated in the Affiliated Hospital of Jining Medical University, were retrospectively analyzed. Al patients were assigned to two groups according to approaches. In the Carlson posterolateral approach group, 22 cases received “T”-shaped plate insertion by Carlson posterolateral approach. In the posterior midline approach group, 21 cases received “T”-shaped plate insertion by posterior midline approach. After repair, perioperative data, fixation effects and knee function score were compared and analyzed between both groups.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1) 43 cases (43 knees) of posterolateral tibial plateau fractures were folowed up strictly. (2) No significant difference in operation time, fracture healing time, total load time, Hospital for Special Surgery score at 12 months postoperatively, tibial plateau angle and posterior slope angle immediately and 12 months postoperatively was detected between both groups (P > 0.05). (3) Significant differences in fracture exposure, blood loss, and excelent and good rate of Rasmussen at 12 months postoperatively were identified in both groups. Moreover, above indexes were better in the Carlson posterolateral approach group than in the posterior midline approach group (P< 0.05). (4) These findings confirmed that for a single fracture or colapse of the posterolateral tibial plateau fractures, two kinds of surgical approaches can achieve ful and direct exposure. Carlson posterolateral approach has good repair effect, fixation effect and biocompatibility.

Objective To evaluate the mutagenicity of hydrolysate of Meretrix meretrix Linnaeus soft tissue, so as to provide experimental basis for its exploitation.Methods Three mutagenicity tests were used to evaluate the mutagenic effects, including Ames test, CHL chromosome aberration assay and bone marrow micronucleus assay in mice.Results In Ames test, the revertant colonies numbers in each group were twice less than the numbers of spontaneous revertant colo-nies, five bacterial strains showed negative results with or without S9 activation, and the result of Ames test was negative. The CHL chromosome aberration assay and bone marrow micronucleus assay showed that the chromosome aberration rate and micronucleus rate of each dose group showed no significant difference compared with the negative control group, respec-tively ( P>0.05) .Conclusions Under this condition, the results show that all of the Ames test, chromosome aberration assay and bone marrow micronucleus assay are negative, and no mutagenicity is observed in the hydrolysate of Meretrix mer-etrix Linnaeus soft tissue.

Kidney transplantation is the preferred treatment for eligible end-stage renal disease patients. However, the supply of donated kidneys has been consistently insufficient to meet the transplantation requirements of the population. In this paper, I discuss the feasibility of several policy options that engage potential donors or key individuals in a Singapore context, including financial and non-financial incentives for deceased/living organ donors and their families, improving actualisation rates of both donation after brain death, donation after cardiac death through quality improvement programmes and remuneration schemes, and a media platform for directed organ donation. I conclude by highlighting the most feasible policies to be considered.
Altruism ; Health Policy ; Humans ; Kidney ; surgery ; Kidney Failure, Chronic ; surgery ; Kidney Transplantation ; methods ; Living Donors ; Nephrectomy ; Quality Improvement ; Singapore ; Tissue Donors ; Tissue and Organ Harvesting ; Tissue and Organ Procurement

The Conus venom is secreted by the duct and theca of venom. Most of conotoxins are composed of 10-40 amino acid residues with several disulfide bridges. They can specifically target neurotransmitter receptors including nAChRs, calcium ion channels, sodium ion channels and potassium ion channels, etc. Some conotoxins, such as that target N-Ca2+ channels, nAChR alpha9alpha10 subtype, TTX-R Na+ channels or NMDA receptors, have potent antinociceptive activities, omega-MVIIA, an Ca2+ channels blocker was approved by FDA in December, 2004 for marketing. Because of lower molecular weight and high specificity, conotoxins are the powerful pharmacology tools and potent analgesics without addiction. This review briefly summarizes the research progress of antinociceptive conotoxins and addresses on their targets and structure-activity relationships.
Analgesics ; pharmacology ; Calcium Channels ; drug effects ; Conotoxins ; pharmacology ; Sodium Channels ; drug effects ; Structure-Activity Relationship

Objective To study the repair function of united endothelial progenitor cells (EPC)transplantation on injured liver endothelium by bone marrow transplantation (BMT) conditioning.Methods C57BL/6 mice were divided into four groups randomly: normal control group, without any treatment; irradiation alone group, administered a total body irradiation(TBI) pretreatment, without BMT; (3) BMT alone group: C57BL/6 mice were infused with bone marrow mononuclearcells (MNC) 5 × 106/only through caudal vein not more than 4 h after the same TBI pretreatment as the irradiation alone group; united transplantation group: receiving the same way as the BMT alone group, but C57BL/6 mice were infused with EPC 5 × 105/only at the same time. Two, 4, 7, 14, and 21 days after the TBI, the changes of the liver weight were observed regularly. The histopathological examination of liver was done at the 4th, 7th, 14th, and 21st day after the TBI. Results In irradiation alone group, BMT alone group and united transplantation group the liver weight began to increase significantly on the day 2 and peaked at 14th day after the TBI, and the peaks were respectively (1.65±0. 15) times (P＜0. 05), (1.61 ±0.06) times (P＜0.05), and (1.11 ±0.40)times (P＜0. 05) of those in normal control group. At the day 14, the liver weight in irradiation alone group, BMT alone group and united transplantation group began to decrease, and on the day 21 the liver weight in united transplantation group had been completely restored to normal level, however the liver weight in irradiation alone group and BMT alone group were still significantly heavier than that in normal control group (P＜0. 05). Liver histopathological examination revealed that there were obvious sinusoidal endothelial cells (SEC) injury, hepatocyte edema and severe inflammatory cell infiltration in irradiation alone group, and on the day 7 the hepatocyte edema and necrosis were significantly worse than before, and almost no alive SEC were found. On the day 14 the injury of SEC in BMT alone group was lighter than before, but on the day 21 the injury had not returned to normal. On the day 7 the injury of SEC, hepatocyte edema and necrosis were alleviated in united transplantation group as compared with irradiation alone group and BMT alone group, and on the day 14 the injury had returned to normal basically. Conclusion The transplantation conditioning could damage recipient liver endothelium and the injury would persist, and united EPC infusion could repair the injured SEC following BMT.

This article describes the progress of developing the training base and training methods for bronchoscopists at Changhai hospital in recent years,and then discusses the potential issues and solutions that might occure in the course of training,and finally explores the model and methodology to optimize the training program for Chinese bronchosocpists.

BACKGROUND:Theex-vivo expanded autologous adipose-derived stem cels have the capability of multipotential differentiation and have a broad application prospect in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. OBJECTIVE:To observe the nasal mucosal structural repair and functional reconstruction usingex-vivo expanded autologous adipose-derived stem cels. METHODS:Ten patients with mucosal damage due to the physical or chemical factors were enroled, including six cases of mucosal scar and four cases of mucosal ulceration. Autologous adipose tissue was extracted forin vitro isolation, culture and expansion of adipose-derived stem cels. Before transplantation, quality safety testing was done. Al the patients were injected adipose-derived stem cels (1×107/cm2 0.1 cm mucosal tissue sample at 30 days before and after transplantation for hematoxylin-eosin staining, Masson ) at an interval of 15 days, totaly for three times. Nasal volume, minimum cross-sectional area, and mucociliary clearance function were determined at 30, 90, 150 days after the final injection. Three of 10 patients were selected to take a 0.1 cm× trichrome staining, and AB-PAS staining. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Clinical symptoms were aleviated in al patients undergoing transplantation of adipose-derived stem cels. Compared with the baseline data, the nasal volume and minimum cross-sectional area were both decreased at 30, 90, 150 days after transplantation (P < 0.05), and the mucociliary clearance function was improved but not significantly (P > 0.05). Compared with the baseline data, the inflammation of the nasal mucosa was significantly reduced, colagen fibers arranged neatly, the deposition was decreased, and mucin secreted from goblet cels was increased in the selected three patients at 30 days after cel transplantation. These findings indicate thatex-vivo expanded autologous adipose-derived stem cels can be used to reconstruct the nasal mucosal structure and its function.

Objective To investigate the expression of FBXW7 during the development of Notch1induced murine leukemia.Methods Notch1 over-expressing murine model of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia was used to study the expression of FBXW7 by real-time PCR methods.Bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMNC) were isolated on different days after transplantation and CD45.2+ GFP+ leukemia cells were sorted by flow cytometry at late stage.The expression changes of FBXW7 were tested by real-time PCR.Results The mouse bone marrow cells both from leukemia and control groups expressed FBXW7.Different expression patterns of FBXW7 were observed during the development of leukemia. The expression of FBXW7 was gradually increased in control group, whereas the expression level of FBXW7 in leukemia group was decreased steadily and reached one-sixth of that in control group on 12th day.Furthermore,lower expression level of FBXW7 was observed in CD45+.2 GFP+ leukemia cells.Conclusion Decreased expression of FBXW7 is observed in Notch1-induced mouse leukemia model,suggesting that the abnormal ubiquitin degradation pathway mediated by FBXW7 might contribute to the leukemogenesis in Notch1-induced murine leukemia model.

Objective To study on the effectiveness of endoscopic ultrasonography(EUS)in detec- ting insulinoma preoperatively.Methods Fifteen patients with clinical and biochemical signs of insulinoma were examined by EUS using a radial-scanning ultrasound endoscope and abdominal ultrasonography,CT, DSA prior to surgery.The outcome was evaluated on the basis of surgery and examination of the resected specimens.Results Fifteen patients with 16 lesions of insulinoma were identified by surgery and pathology. The aceuraey of diagnosis with EUS was 13/15(86.7%),and that with B-US,CT,DSA was 3/15(20%), 5/15(33.3%),9/14(64.3%)respectively.In the 14 lesions identified by EUS,10 lesions were depicted to be hypoechogenic,1 lesion was isoechogenic and 3 lesions were hyperechogenie.All 14 lesions were well demarcated and surrounded by normal pancreatic tissue.The minimum size of the lesion visualized by EUS was 0.5cm.Ten lesions were correctly detected by EUS with size of 0.5～2.0cm.EUS missed diagnosis in 2 lesions not for their small size.EUS falsely indicated a 10mm lesion from two lesions inside the head of pancreas.One lesion outside the pancreatic tail and one lesion in the pancreatic head were missed by EUS in another case.Conclusion EUS is superior in assessing the location of pancreatic insulinoma than other ima- ging methods such as B-US,CT,DSA.