Objective To study the difference of galectin-3 and HBME-1 expression between benign and malignant thvreid nodules and to evaluate their clinical value.Methods Using immunohistochemical SP method,the paraffin-embedded tissues of 30 ewes papillary thyroid carcinoma(PTC)and 30 cases nodular goiter(NG) were examined to deteet the expression of Galectin-3 and HBME-1.Results The rates of positive staining of Galectin-3.HBME-1.Galectin-3 combined with HBME-1 in PTC were 93.3%(28/30),83.3%(25/30)and 100.0%(30/30),respectivdy,were higher than that of NG[20.0%(6/30),6.7%(2/30)and 26.7%(8/30)].There were significant differences between PTC and NG(X2＝32.85,35.65,34.74,all P＜0.01).The sensitivity,specificity,positive predietive value.negative predictive value and accuracy rate of using Galectin-3,HBME-1,Galectin-3 combined with HBME-1 in differentiation NG from FrIE were 93.3%,83.3%,100.0%;80.0%,93.3%,73.3%;82.3%,92.6%,78.9%:92.3%,84.8%,1 00%;86.7%,88.3%,86.7%,respectively.Conclusion Immunohistochemical stains of Galectin-3 and HBME-1 may be used as two lnarkel's for differentiating PTC and NG,it is especially sensitive when the two markers are jointly used.

Objective To investigate the effect of insulin on D_5 dopamine receptor expression and function in renal proximal tubule (RPT).Methods Immortalized RPT cells and D_5 receptor transfected HEK293 (HEK-D_5) cells were used in the study to investigate the effect of insulin on D_5 receptor expression and function,and those effects were compared in RPT cells from Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats and spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). The function of D_5 receptor was determined by measurement of the Na~+-K~+-ATPase activity in HEK-D_5 cells. Results Insulin increased D_5 receptor protein expression in a concentration and time-dependent manner in WKY RPT cells,but not in SHR.The basal level of D_5 receptor expression was higher in WKY cells than that in SHR cells. Stimulation with fenoldopam(D_1-like dopamine receptor agonist) inhibited the Na~+-K~+-ATPase activity;pretreat- ment with insulin increased the inhibitory effect of fenoldopam on Na~+-K~+-ATPase activity in HEK-D_5 cells. Conclusion The abnormal regulation of insulin on D_5 receptor expression and function might be involved in the path- ogenesis of essential hypertension.

Adolescent ; Aortic Valve ; abnormalities ; Aortic Valve Insufficiency ; complications ; pathology ; surgery ; Aortic Valve Stenosis ; complications ; pathology ; surgery ; Child ; Endocarditis ; complications ; pathology ; surgery ; Female ; Heart Defects, Congenital ; complications ; pathology ; surgery ; Heart Valve Prosthesis Implantation ; Humans ; Male ; Rheumatic Heart Disease ; complications ; pathology ; surgery

A new neo/E counterselection technique was set up using Red recombination, which could be used in constructing recombinant plasmid. Firstly, linear targeting cassettes were amplified by PCR; secondly, two steps of homology recombination occurred in vivo: (1) The neo/E counterselection targeting cassette, consisting of a unique endonuclease recognition site and an antibiotic resistance gene, was introduced into the targeted region. (2) The neo/E cassette was replaced in the second round of recombination by another linear targeting cassettes DNA fragment carrying the targeted gene. For selecting a correct recombinant plasmid from the mixture of nonrecombinant and recombinant clones, the unique endonuclease recognition site in the nonrecombinant clones was cut by endonuclease and then transformed into the E. coli competent cells, up to 20% correct recombinants were yielded. A recombinant plasmid of pGL3-Basic PC1900T was successfully constructed in this way. Application of this technique offers a new and highly efficient way for recombinant plasmids construction.
Bacteriophage lambda ; genetics ; DNA, Recombinant ; genetics ; Escherichia coli ; genetics ; Genetic Engineering ; Plasmids ; genetics ; Rec A Recombinases ; genetics ; metabolism ; Recombinant Proteins ; biosynthesis ; genetics

This study was undertaken to establish a murine model for unrelated allogeneic umbilical cord blood transplantation (UCBT). The characteristics and percentage of hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells between near-term fetal and neonatal murine peripheral blood (FNPB) and bone marrow (BM) were evaluated by flow cytometry and semisolid methylcellulose culture. BABL/c (H-2(d)) recipient mice conditioned with high dose CTX were transplanted with FNPB form C57BL/6 (H-2(b)) mice and the survival rate, hematopoietic and immunological reconstruction, graft versus host disease (GVHD) and engraftment level were observed. The results showed that the numbers of day 14 CFU-GM and CFU-GEMM in FNPB (176.40 +/- 78.39)% and (141.40 +/- 56.57)%, respectively were much higher than those in BM (75.20 +/- 26.41)% and (68.80 +/- 23.95)%, respectively. Moreover the percentage of Sca-1(+) CD34(+) cell subsets in FNPB (3.63 +/- 1.13)% was also higher than that in BM (1.41 +/- 0.8 7)%. FNPB transplantation improved survival rate and reconstituted hematopoietic and immune function in recipients. There was no evidence of GVHD. Chimeric analysis showed that the proportion of donor cells in BM of recipients was 27.94% at 21 days after transplantation. It was concluded that FNPB contains more hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells with high expansion ability and weak allogeneic immunity, which was similar to human UCB. The murine model for allogeneic UCBT (C57BL/6-->BALB/c) was established successfully.
Animals ; Animals, Newborn ; Fetal Blood ; cytology ; Flow Cytometry ; Graft vs Host Disease ; etiology ; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation ; Immunity ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred BALB C ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; Models, Animal ; Transplantation, Homologous

Objective To evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of gabapentin combined with stellate ganglion block in the treatment of chro-nic tension-type headache.Methods One hundred and sixty-six pa-tients with chronic tension -type headache were randomly divided into experiment group ( n=83 ) and control group ( n=83 ) .All of the sub-jects received oral gabapentin at initial dose of 100-200 mg? d-1 , the dose could be adjusted gradually according to the therapeutic effect.Pa-tients in experiment group combined with stellate ganglion block, 2 times a week; patients in control group took eperisone 50 mg, orally, three times a day.The pain ( assessed before the treatment and every Friday during treatment period ) , depression and anxiety ( assessed before the treatment and every other Friday during treatment period) , quality of life assessment( assessed before and after the treatment ) of the two groups were observed.Results The pain scores were significantly lower after treatment ( P<0.01 ) , but there was no significant difference between the two groups ( P>0.05 ) .The increase of gabapentin in experiment group was obviously less than that in control group ( P<0.01).The de-pression and anxiety after treatment significantly reduced than that of before treatment (P<0.01);14 d after treatment, there was no significant difference between two groups (P>0.05);28 d after treatment, depression scores of patients in experiment group were significantly lower than that in control group (P<0.01), but there were no significant differences in anxiety between the two groups (P>0.05).Conclusion Patients with chronic tension-type headache took gabapentin combined with stellate ganglion block had better curative effect and compliance with less side effect.

Orthodenticlehomeobox 1 (OTX1) overexpression had previously been associated with the progression of several tumors. The present study aimed to determine the expression and role of OTX1 in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The expression level of OTX1 was examined by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) in 10 samples of HCC and paired adjacent non-cancerous tissues, and by immunohistochemistry (IHC) analysis in 128 HCC samples and matched controls. The relationship between OTX1 expression and the clinicopathological features werealso analyzed. Furthermore, the effects of OTX1 knockdown on cell proliferation and migration were determined in HCC cell lines. Axenograft mouse model was also established to investigate the role of OTX1 in HCC tumor growth. TheqRT-PCR and IHC analyses revealed that OTX1 was significantly elevated in HCC tissues compared with the paired non-cancerous controls. Expression of OTX1 was positively correlated with nodal metastasis status (P = 0.009) and TNM staging (P = 0.001) in HCC tissues. In addition, knockdown of OTX1 by shRNA significantly inhibited the proliferation and migration, and induced cell cycle arrest in S phase in vitro. Tumor growth was markedly inhibited by OTX1 silencing in the xenograft. Moreover, OTX1 silencing was causable for the decreased phosphorylation level of ERK/MAPK signaling. In conclusion, OTX1 contributes to HCC progression possibly by regulation of ERK/MAPK pathway. OTX1 may be a novel target for molecular therapy towards HCC.
Aged ; Animals ; Blotting, Western ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular/metabolism/*pathology ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Cell Movement ; Cell Proliferation ; Disease Progression ; Female ; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Liver/metabolism/pathology ; Liver Neoplasms/metabolism/*pathology ; Lymphatic Metastasis ; MAP Kinase Signaling System ; Male ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred BALB C ; Mice, Nude ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Staging ; Otx Transcription Factors/antagonists & inhibitors/genetics/*metabolism ; Phosphorylation ; RNA Interference ; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction ; S Phase Cell Cycle Checkpoints ; Transplantation, Heterologous

Estrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha) has been a primary target of treatment as well as a prognostic indicator for breast cancer. The level of human X-box binding protein 1 (XBP-1) mRNA was related with that of ERalpha in breast tumors and was over-expressed in some breast tumors. These previous studies suggested that XBP-1 may interact with ERalpha. XBP-1 has two isoforms, XBP-1S and XBP-1U, as the result of unique splicing. GST pull-down assay showed that both XBP-1S and XBP-1U bound to ERalpha in vitro. The binding of XBP-1S to ERalpha was stronger than that of XBP-1U to ERalpha. Co-immunoprecipitation revealed that the binding was in a ligand-independent manner. XBP-1S and XBP-1U interacted with the region of ERalpha that contains a DNA-binding domain. The ERalpha-interacting regions on XBP-1S and XBP-1U have been mapped to two regions, the N-terminal basic region leucine zipper domain (bzip) and the C-terminal activation domain. These findings suggest that XBP-1S and XBP-1U may participate in ERalpha signaling pathway through the mediation of ERalpha.
Breast Neoplasms ; genetics ; metabolism ; Cell Line, Tumor ; DNA-Binding Proteins ; genetics ; metabolism ; Estrogen Receptor alpha ; genetics ; metabolism ; Female ; Humans ; Protein Interaction Domains and Motifs ; physiology ; RNA, Messenger ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; Regulatory Factor X Transcription Factors ; Signal Transduction ; Transcription Factors ; genetics ; metabolism ; X-Box Binding Protein 1

The present paper is aimed to study the processes of stress reaction and their judgment bases in rat induced by 35 GHz millimeter wave quantitatively. The relative change in the average energy of each EEG frequency band decomposed by wavelet analysis was calculated for extracting the stress indicator for the purpose. The rat would experience quiet period, guarding period, deadlock period and prostrating period in sequence. The judgment bases of different stress periods in rat induced by millimeter wave were obtained by analyzing the skin temperature, skin injury and changes of blood biochemical indexes during each stress period. The stress period changed from quiet period to guarding period when the skin temperature of irradiated area reached the thermal pain threshold. It was from guarding period to deadlock period when the skin had gotten serious injury. Then the rat reaction sensitivity decreased, and injury of its visceral organs occurred. The rat got to prostrating period when the sustained irradiation caused the rat's visceral organs to get more serious injury. The further sustained irradiation finally induced death of the rat.
Animals ; Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation ; Electroencephalography ; radiation effects ; Electromagnetic Radiation ; Male ; Random Allocation ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Skin ; radiation effects ; Skin Temperature ; radiation effects ; Stress, Physiological ; radiation effects

Objective To explore the diagnosis and therapy experience of vascular ring combined with tracheal compression in infants and neonates.Methods Sixteen cases(including 7 boys and 9 girls,aged 1 day to 12 months)with vascular ring combined with tracheal compression hospitalized in Guangdong General Hospital from Jun.2004 to Dec.2009 were enrolled.In these 16 children,13 cases had congenital heart malformations.All children underwent X-ray,echocardiography and spiral computed tomography examination.Nine cases received bronchoscopy study.Fifteen cases performed surgical division of vascular ring with cardiopulmonary bypass and 1 case underwent vascular ring division and tracheoplasty.Eleven cases received management of congenital heart defect simultaneously.Results Vascular ring anomalies included pulmonary artery sling in 5 children,right aortic arch-left ligmentum/aberrant left subclavian artery in 8 cases,double aortic arch in 1 case,innominate artery compression in 1 case,and pulmonary sling combined with right aortic arch-aberrant left subclavian artery in 1 case.There were 2 ring-sling complex cases in this study.The diagnosis of vascular ring were correctly made by echocardiography in 7 children and made by spiral computed tomography in all 16 cases.Two cases combined with tracheal ring died.In the follow-up study of 11 cases,5 cases were still vulnerable to wheezing.Conclusions The common presentation of tracheal compression in infants and neonates associated with vascular ring are tachypea,stridor,and dyspnea.Multi-slices spiral computed tomography is an important imaging modality.Surgical divisions of vascular ring are safe procedure in most cases and tracheal compression can be relieved by this operation.In patients with severe tracheal stenosis,tracheoplasty should be recommended.