Animals ; Glutamine ; blood ; metabolism ; Male ; Physical Conditioning, Animal ; physiology ; Physical Exertion ; physiology ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Sleep Deprivation ; metabolism ; physiopathology ; Thymus Gland ; metabolism ; Time Factors

Animals ; Ascites ; metabolism ; pathology ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular ; metabolism ; pathology ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Liver Neoplasms ; metabolism ; pathology ; Lymphatic Metastasis ; Male ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred Strains ; Neoplasm Transplantation ; Ubiquitin Thiolesterase ; metabolism

Objective To evaluate the clinical significance of glycated albumin (GA), a parameter in reflecting recent glycemic control, in patients with impaired glucose regulation (IGR) and newly diagnosed diabetes mellitus. Methods From January to June 2007, 516 subjects who accepted oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) in out-patient department were randomly enrolled, including 130 with normal glucose regulation (NGR), 154 with IGR and 232 with diabetes mellitus. The fasting plasma glucose (FPG), 0.5 h plasma glucose (PG), 1hPG, 2hPG, 3hPG after glucose loading, HbA1c and GA were measured in each subject. The correlation between GA and the other parameters were analyzed. Results There were significant differences in the values of GA among NGR, IGR and diabetes mellitus groups (all P < 0.01), but no difference in the values of HbA1c between NGR group and IGR group (P > 0.05). GA was positively correlated with HbA1c (r = 0.75, P < 0.01). Stepwise regression analysis showed that FPG, 2hPG and body mass index were the major independent contributing factors. Conclusion The combination of plasma glucose with GA measurement may be helpful in evaluating the status of glucose metabolism.

Objective To investigate the influence of uremic serum on the monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1) expression of human umbilical vascular endothelial cells (HUVECs) in vitro and the effect of up-regulation of berne oxygenase 1 (HO-1) on the synthesis of MCP-1 of HUVECs in uremic milieu. Methods HUVECs were incubated to confluence and then preineubated with heroin and/or protoporphyrin zinc IX (ZnPP)for 6 hours.The cultures were subsequently incubated with M199 cell medium containing 10% serum of healthy people or with medium containing 10% serum of maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients.HO-1 protein and mRNA expression was detected by immunohistochemistry and semi-quantitative RT-PCR.MCP-1 mRNA expression was measured by semi-quantitative RT-PCR,and MCP-1 protein was quantified by ELISA. Results Up-regulated expression of MCP-1 mRNA and protein was detected in HUVECs incubated with medium containing 10% serum of MHD patients.The protein synthesis was 2.95 folds of the control.Heroin induced expression of HO-1 mRNA and protein,and concurrently inhibited the up-regulated MCP-1 expression induced by uremic serum.Such effects of heroin could be blocked by ZnPP. Conclusions Uremic serum induces the expression of MCP-1 in HUVECs.Up-regulated expresson of endothelial HO-1 induced by heroin inhibits the enhancement of MCP-1 synthesis.HO-1 may be beneficial to the alleviation of endothelial cell injury in uremic milieu.

The epidemic of rabies has rapidly increased and expanded in Yunnan province in recent years.In order to further analyze and understand the etiological reasons for the rapid expansion of rabies in Yunnan,a strain of rabies virus CYN1009D in Yunnan was isolated,and the complete genomic sequencing was carried out,and the bioimfomative analysis on genes/encoded proteins and phylogeny with reference to sequences in GenBank was performed.The complete genome of CYN1009D was 11923 nt in length and belonged to genotype I.The genes encoding different structural proteins were all conserved in their lengths,in comparison to other strains in China.The amino acid sequence was conserved at different antigen sites of NP,but the variation was detected at the secondary phosphorylation site of position 375; variations were also detected in the phosphorylation sites at positions 63-63 and 162 of PP; the sites playing important roles in virus synthesis,budding and viral morphology in MP were conserved; two glycosylation sites were detected at Asn37 and Asn319in GP,the neutralizing antigen sites in GP were conserved; the initial amino acid of LP (ML) was different from that of most of the strains in China (MM); the variations in G-L region in the intergenic region were significant.The phylogenic tree showed that CYN1009D has a closer genetic relationship to the strains in Southeast Asia,indicating that prevention and control on rabies in borderland areas should be reinforced meanwhile efforts are made to control rabies in China.

Objective To investigate the diagnostic value of echocardiography in arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) by summarizing and comparing the electrophysiological and the imaging features.Methods The echocardiography and MRI were performed in the 65 cases of ARVC to measure the right ventricle and the free wall,noted as TTE-RV,MRI-RV and TTE-RVFW.The velocity of tricuspid valve regurgitation (TRmax) and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) were measured.The three-dimensional electric anatomical model of right ventricular was get by the Carto system,and the right ventricular area (Area-RV),the scar area (Area-Scar) was calculated.Results Twenty-seven cases (41.5 ％) was confirmed by the echocardiography,21 cases (32.3 ％) was suspiciously diagnosed,14 cases (32.3％) was miss diagnosed,and 3 cases (4.6％) was misdiagnosed.Statistically significant difference could be detected among the echocardiography confirmed groups and the other two groups for the parameters TTE-RV,MRI-RV,Area-RV,Area-Scar,and TTE-RVFW (P ＜ 0.05).Also there was a statistically significant difference of the parameters of Area-RV and Area-Scar between the suspiciously and miss diagnosed groups (P ＜0.05).Different echocardiographic findings was found in ARVC with different stages,but myocardial fibrosis and low voltage scar could be detected in all patients on the MRI imaging and and electrophysiological mapping.Conclusions The diagnosis of typical ARVC can be confirmed by echocardiography,but for the patients with early and middle stages,comprehensive evaluation should be refered to the clinical data.

Objective To investigate the diagnostic value of texture analysis derived from conventional MR imaging in differentiating benign and malignant breast lesions. Methods Thirty-six patients with malignant breast lesion and 33 patients with benign breast lesion were retrospectively analyzed in our study. All patients underwent conventional MR imaging including axial T1WI, T2WI, and contrast-enhanced T1WI before surgery. Texture features were calculated from manually drawn ROIs by using MaZda software. The feature selection methods included mutual information (MI), Fishers coefficient, classification error probability combined with average correlation coefficients (POE + ACC) and the combination of the above three methods(FPM). These methods were used to identify the most significant texture features in discriminating benign breast lesion from malignant breast lesion. The statistical methods including raw data analysis (RDA), principal component analysis (PCA), linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and nonlinear discriminant analysis (NDA) were used to distinguish malignant breast lesion from benign breast lesion. The results were shown by misclassification rate. Results In the three kinds of sequences, the texture features for differentiating malignant breast lesion and benign breast lesion were mainly from T2WI which had the lowest misclassification rate 4.35%(3/69). The misclassification rates of the feature selection methods were similar in MI, Fisher coefficient and POE+ACC (15.94%to 56.52%for MI;17.39%to 56.52%for Fisher coefficient and 17.39%to 56.52%for POE+ACC). However, the misclassification rate of the combination of the three methods (4.35%to 53.62%for FPM) was lower than that of any other kind of method. In the statistical methods, NDA (4.35% to 27.54%) had lower misclassification rate than RDA (33.33% to 56.52%), PCA (33.33% to 53.62%) and LDA (15.94% to 44.93%). Conclusion Texture analysis of conventional MR imaging can provide reliably objective basis for differentiating benign from malignant breast lesions.

Background Studies demonstrated that human amniotic epithelial cells (AECs) have some characteristics of embryonic stem cells and they were used to re-establish the surface of eyes. Human AECs may serve as new seed cells in tissue engineering for corneal epithelium reconstitution in the future. Objective The present study was to investigate the application value of human amniotic epithelium cells transfected by lentiviral vectormediated enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) gene as new seed cell source for engineering the corneal surfacelayer. Methods Lentiviral vector carrying the objective gene EGFP was transfected into human amniotic epithelial cells (pLenti6/V5-DEST),and the transient expression of the transgene in the human amniotic epithelial cells was observed under the fluorescence microscope. Flow cytometry was used to detect the positive expression rates of EGFP in transfected cells. The transfected human amniotic epithelial cells were seeded onto the fresh corneal stromal surface of New Zealand white rabbit and cultured in vitro. The stem cell deficiency ( SCD ) models were established by cutting off the limbus of cornea in 20 eyes of New Zealand white rabbits, and the model rabbits were then divided into 2 groups randomly. The transplanted grafts carrying the pLenti6/V5-DEST-EGFP gene-transferred human amniotic epithelium cells were regarded as the pLenti6/V5-DEST-EGFP group, and the corneal stroma graft without any epithelial cell served as the control group. The opacity of stroma and corneal conjunctivalization and vascularization were observed daily. The rabbits' eyes were extracted one month after operation. The expression of EGFP in the cornea was detected under the fluorescence microscope, and the expression of CK8, CK18 and CK12 in cornea was detected by immunohistochemical staining. Results The shape of the transferred human amniotic epithelial cells resembled normal human amniotic epithelial cells. 48 hours after the transient transfection of EGFP presented with the highest expression level throughout the observation duration, with a positive expression rate of EGFP of 61.5% ,showing significant differences in comparison with that of 12 ( 5.24% ) , 24 ( 38.27% ) or 96 ( 39. 10% ) hours ( P ＜0. 05) post-transfection; but no obvious difference was found in the positive rate of transiently transfected EGFP between 48 hours and 72 hours ( 58.36% ) ( P＞0. 05 ). Six cornea grafts were clear in 1 month and two corneas were rejected during the observation period in the pLenti6/V5-DEST-EGFP group. A few new blood vessels were seen around the graft. Ten corneas of the control group became opaque and cloudy with new blood vessels growth around the grafts. Imunohistochemistry revealed the positive expressions of CK8, CK1 8 and CK12 in the corneal epithelial layer in the pLenti6/V5-DEST-EGFP group. However,the expression of CK12 was absent in the control group. Conclusion Human amniotic epithelium cells transfected with the pLenti6/V5-DEST-EGFP gene is a new and ideal feed cell type to reconstruct the corneal surface layer. Lentivirus is a relatively safe gene transfection vector.

OBJECTIVETo observe the clinical efficacy of TCM for reinforcing Shen and activating blood circulation to dredge Channels in auxiliary treating chronic aplastic anemia (CAA), and to explore its mechanism.

METHODSSeventy-nine patients with CAA were randomly divided into the treated group treated with TCM plus western medicine and the control group treated with western medicine alone. The clinical efficacy was observed and levels of plasma sFas and sFasL before and after treatment were determined by ELISA.

RESULTSThe basic cure rate and total effective rate in the treated group were 37.50% and 87.50%; while in the control group were 20. 51% and 61.54% respectively. Comparison between the two groups showed significant difference (P < 0.01). The sFas level was markedly lower in both groups before treatment, but after treatment, it got elevated in the treated group significantly (P < 0.05), as compared with that in the control group, the difference was significant (P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONTCM is effective in treating CAA with less toxic and side-effect, the mechanism might be the inhibition on over apoptosis of hematopoietic cells in CAA patients through regulating immune function of organism.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Anemia, Aplastic ; drug therapy ; Apoptosis ; drug effects ; Child ; Chronic Disease ; Drug Therapy, Combination ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; therapeutic use ; Female ; Hematopoietic Stem Cells ; pathology ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Phytotherapy ; Single-Blind Method ; Ubiquinone ; therapeutic use

Aged ; Cartilage Diseases ; Humans ; Male ; Thyroid Cartilage ; pathology