OBJECTIVE: To investigate the efficacy of combined medical treatment on auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder and the effect of related factors on the prognosis. METHOD: Eleven cases (22 ears) diagnosed as auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder using multiple criteria including pure tone auditory threshold, impedance audiometry, acoustic reflexes, distortion products otoacoustic emission (DPOAE) and auditory brainstem response (ABR) were subjected to combined medical treatment . Eleven auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder patients diagnosed during the corresponding period but refused treatment were selected as control group. The change of pure tone auditory threshold and speech discrimination score after treatment or follow-up were evaluated for both 2 groups, and the relationship between the patients' gender, age, accompanying symptoms and curative effect were also analyzed. Data were analyzed by SPSS 19.0 statistical software using pared-sample t-test, independent-sample test and Pearson's chi-square test. RESULT: The effective rate of combined medical therapy was 59.09% (13/22) in the therapy group. PTA levels before and after-treatment were (53.92 +/- 18.86) dB HL and (47.44 +/- 14.98) dB HL respectively in 22 ears with the combined medical therapy, the improvement of which showed statistically significance (t = 5.20, P < 0.05). No obvious hearing change was noted in the 11 patients who refused therapy (P > 0.05). Speech discrimination score before and after-treatment were (29.20 +/- 25.80)% and (41.60 +/- 22.90)% respectively for the treatment group. The average improvement of speech discrimination score was (12.40 +/- 13.80)% with statistically significant difference (t = 4.02, P < 0.05). Patients accompanied with tinnitus had relatively poorer effect compared with individuals without tinnitus (t = -3.85, P < 0.05). Age is negatively correlated with the prognosis (r = -6.72, P < 0.05). Gender had no effect on the prognosis (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION The combined medical therapy with glucocorticoids helps improving the pure tone auditory threshold and speech discrimination score of auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder. In light of our findings we support the combined medical therapy as an option for patients with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder.
Adolescent ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Female ; Glucocorticoids ; therapeutic use ; Hearing Loss, Central ; drug therapy ; Humans ; Infant ; Male ; Treatment Outcome ; Young Adult

The strain of Cunninghamella echinulata 9980 was first selected with high aminoacylase activity . In three submerged cultures, the aminoacylase activity in the mycelial cell was compared . A number of factors have effects on the resolution reaction. The results showed that, peptone culture gave the highest aminoacylase activity with 680U/g.The optium temperature,pH,and substrate concentration were 55℃, 7.0,and 0.2mol/L,respectively. The ions in the buffer lowered the activity,but the Co~(2+) in 10~(-4)~10~(-3 )mol/L was necessary for its activity.

Objective To investigate the influence of early diet on recovery of physical and gastrointestinal function in patients after spinal operation.Methods 120 patients were randomly divided two groups:experimental group(n=60)and control group(n=60).The experimental group began to eat 4 hoursafter the tracheal cannula being extracted post operation,while the control group did it after 24 hours.The time for eating,normal diet recovery,passage of gas by allus,and incidence of constipation in two groups after the operation were compared.Results Compared with the control group,the time for eating,normal diet recovery and passage of gas by anus were remarkably advanced and incidence of constipation was obviously decreased in the experimental group.There was significant difference between the two groups in terms of the time for eating,normal diet recovery and passage of gas by anus and incidence of constipation(P<0.05).Conclusions Early diet after spinal operation could promote recovery of gastrointestinal function,relieve abdominal distention,increase appetite and resistance,and prevent occurrence of constipation.

Purpose To investigate the expression of C-C chemokine receptor 9 (CCR9) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and to explore its prognostic value. Methods The expression of CCR9 was detected by immunohistochemistry in tumor tissues and corre-sponding adjacent normal tissues from 119 NSCLC patients. Additionally, the correlation between CCR9 expression and the clinicopath-ologic features of NSCLC and the relationship between prognostic factors and overall survival rate were analyzed by statistical methods. Results The positive expression rate of CCR9 was significantly higher in NSCLC tissues (54. 6%) than that in adjacent normal lung tissues (10. 1%) (P<0. 05). The expression of CCR9 in NSCLC was correlated with histopathologic type, lymph node status and p-TNM stage (P<0. 05). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis suggested that the positive expression of CCR9 was negatively correlated with the overall survival rate (Log-rank=9. 917, P=0. 002). Univariate analysis showed that the lymph node status, p-TNM stage and the positive expression of CCR9 made great difference to postoperative overall survival (P<0. 05). Multivariate analysis showed that CCR9 expression was an independent prognostic factor for overall survival of NSCLC patients ( RR=0. 447, 95%CI:0. 201 ~0. 993, P<0. 05). Conclusion The expression of CCR9 may predict a poor prognosis in the patients with NSCLC, so it can be used as a novel NSCLC biomarker.

This study was aimed to distinguish Leonurus japonicus samples produced from different regions and growth environments in Sichuan by electronic nose. The sensor response value of odors of Leonurus japonicus sam-ples were obtained through electronic nose. Principal component analysis (PCA) and discriminant factor analysis (DFA) were used to combine the optimum feature parameters. The results showed that the PCA distinguish index was 82, and the DFA comprehensive classification rate was 97.96% among samples from different regions. The PCA distin-guish index was 84, and the DFA comprehensive classification rate was 100% among samples from different growth environments. The distinguishment and differentiation were effective. It was concluded that electronic nose can be ap-plied to identify the origin and growth environment of Leonurus japonicus from Sichuan to provided reference for odor differentiation.

Enterocolitis, Necrotizing ; metabolism ; pathology ; Female ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Infant, Newborn ; Intestinal Mucosa ; metabolism ; pathology ; Male ; Platelet Activating Factor ; metabolism

BACKGROUND:Previous studies have confirmed that ethanol can promote adipogenic differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs), and up-regulate the expression of PPARγ and aP2 in the tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) signaling pathway. As a member of the ZIP protein family, Zrt/Irt-like protein 1 (ZIP1) is closely related to bone metabolism and osteogenic differentiation.OBJECTIVE:To study the effect of BMSCs transfected by ZIP1 on TNF-α signaling pathway in the process of adipogenic differentiation.METHODS:The BMSCs from rabbits were isolated and cultured under different concentrations of alcohol (0.03, 0.09,0.15, 0.21 mol/L), followed by transfection by ZIP1 siRNA and ZIP1 expression vector.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:After culture in alcohol, the expression levels of aP2 and PPARγ proteins were both significantly increased (P < 0.05), and the level of triglyceride was increased in all alcohol groups except for 0.03 mol/L alcohol group (P < 0.05). After siRNA transfection, the expression levels of aP2 and PPARγ as well as the level of triglyceride were increased significantly in all the alcohol groups (P < 0.05); however, ZIP1 transfection decreased the expression levels of aP2 and PPARγ proteins (P < 0.05). To conclude, ZIP1 siRNA could promote the adipogenic differentiation of BMSCs through the activation of TNF-α signaling pathway.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the genetic polymorphisms of 16 Y-STR loci and to evaluate the forensic application in Miao, Yao and Dong nationalities of Guangxi population. METHODS: Genotypes of Y-STR loci were tested in a total of 253 healthy unrelated individuals (67 Miao people, 99 Yao people, 87 Dong people) using AmpFlSTR Yfiler PCR amplification kit. Allele frequencies and population genetics parameters of the 16 Y-STR loci were statistically analyzed. The allele frequencies were compared among the three nationalities. RESULTS: Most alleles were detected at locus DYS385 while fewest alleles were detected at locus DYS437 among the three nationalities. GD values were ranged from 0.2619 (DYS438) to 0.9417 (DYS385) for Miao nationality, 0.3170 (DYS391) to 0.955 9 (DYS385) for Yao nationality and 0.305 3 (DYS391) to 0.943 3 (DYS385) for Dong nationality, respectively. There were no statistically significant differences detected (P>0.05) at loci of DYS391 and DYS438 among the three nationalities. CONCLUSION The 16 Y-STR loci can be applied to practices and basic research of forensic genetics in the three main nationalities of Guangxi population.
Alleles ; China/ethnology* ; Chromosomes, Human, Y/genetics* ; Ethnicity ; Forensic Genetics ; Gene Frequency ; Genetic Loci/genetics* ; Genetic Markers ; Genetics, Population ; Genotype ; Humans ; Microsatellite Repeats/genetics* ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Polymorphism, Genetic

Aim To study the main active ingredients,key targets and pathways of Cigu Xiaozhi Decoction(CXD)based on network pharmacology,and to ana-lyze and verify the mechanism of CXD on the transfor-mation of"inflammatory cancer"in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis(NASH)by animal experiments.Meth-ods The potential targets and signaling pathways of CXD in the treatment of NASH"inflammatory carcino-ma"were predicted based on network pharmacology.The mouse model of NASH was induced by methionine-choline deficiency diet(MCD),and CXD and epider-mal growth factor receptor(EGFR)inhibitors were given for 28 days.The mice were killed after the inter-vention,and the liver histopathology of each group was observed by hematoxylin-eosin method(HE).The rel-ative expression levels of EGFR,phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase(PI3K)and protein kinase B(AKT)in liver tissue of mice in each group were detected by Western blot.The contents of interleukin-6(IL-6),interleu-kin-1 β(IL-1β)and tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α)in serum were detected by enzyme-linked immunosor-bent assay(ELISA).Results A total of 284 poten-tial active components,159 potential therapeutic tar-gets and 20 key targets of CXD were identified by net-work pharmacological screening.CXD could affect multiple biological processes such as cell proliferation and inflammatory response,involving multiple signa-ling pathways such as tumor and PI3K/AKT.Animal experiments showed that CXD could reduce the levels of IL-6,IL-1β and TNF-α in serum of NASH mice.The relative expression of PI3K and AKT protein in liv-er tissue decreased,and the relative expression of EG-FR protein was increased.Conclusion CXD can reg-ulate EGFR/PI3K/AKT signaling pathway by partici-pating in biological processes such as cell proliferation and inflammatory response,and improve liver tissue injury in NASH mice.

The transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) and CD8-positive T cells are two important immune factors that function at opposite directions. The purpose of this study was to verify the relationship between the two factors and their associations with long-term effects of adjuvant chemotherapy or endocrine therapy in breast cancer. Expression of TGF-β1 precursor and CD8 was immunohistochemically detected on surgically-obtained tumor samples of 130 (stage I-III) invasive breast carcinomas from Chinese subjects, who were followed up for a mean time of 112 months. Interstitial CD8-positive cells and TGF-β1 precursor-positive cells adjacent to tumor nests were counted. Infiltration of CD8-positive lymphocytes into tumor nests and TGF-β1 precursor expression in tumor cells were observed and survival analysis was performed. Our results showed that density of interstitial CD8-positive lymphocytes was an independent adverse prognostic factor for distant disease-free survival (DDFS) (HR=8.416, 95% CI=1.636-43.292, P=0.011) in hormone receptor-positive patients who were on adjuvant endocrine therapy. For breast cancer patients who did not receive adjuvant chemotherapy, those without infiltration of CD8-positive cells into tumor nests had a shorter overall survival (OS) than their counterparts with CD8-positive cell infiltration into tumor nests (Log-Rank, P=0.003). But OS of patients without infiltration of CD8-positive cells into tumor nests was significantly prolonged by adjuvant chemotherapy (Log-Rank, P=0.013) and paralleled that of patients with CD8-positive cell infiltration. Although OS was shorter in the tumor cell TGF-β1 precursor (t-TGF-β1-pre)-positive patients than in the negative patients in patients without receiving chemotherapy (P=0.053), OS of t-TGF-β1-pre-positive patients was significantly prolonged by adjuvant chemotherapy (P=0.035) and was longer than that of t-TGF-β1-pre-negative patients. Analysis showed that t-TGF-β1-pre was an independent positive prognostic factor for DDFS (HR=0.392 95% CI=0.157-0.978, P=0.045) in patients who received adjuvant chemotherapy. This study suggested that density of interstitial CD8-positive lymphocytes was of prognostic value in hormone receptor-positive patients who received adjuvant endocrine therapy. Our study verified that adverse immunologic signatures consisting of absence of CD8-positive cells in tumor nests or expression of TGF-β1 precursor in tumor cells in breast cancer were associated with worse prognosis and significantly improved long-term survival with adjuvant chemotherapy, respectively.
Biomarkers, Tumor ; metabolism ; Breast Neoplasms ; drug therapy ; metabolism ; surgery ; CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes ; metabolism ; Chemotherapy, Adjuvant ; Combined Modality Therapy ; Female ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Kaplan-Meier Estimate ; Middle Aged ; Outcome Assessment (Health Care) ; methods ; statistics & numerical data ; Prognosis ; Proportional Hazards Models ; Protein Precursors ; metabolism ; Retrospective Studies ; Transforming Growth Factor beta1 ; metabolism