[Summary] Radical prostatectomy, external beam radiation and active surveillance are the main treatments for localized prostate cancer. However, many patients are difficult to accept the psychological burden of active surveillance and the distress caused by potential side effects of radical therapy, including incontinence and erectile dysfunction, which make them limited. With the development of minimally invasive techniques, such as brachytherapy, cryoablation, high-intensity focused ultrasound, photodynamic therapy, and irreversible electroporation, novel procedures are playing an increasingly important role in the treatment of localized prostate cancer with their effective, minimally invasive, and safe advantages. This article mainly reviewed the above several minimally invasive treatment methods.

Melanoma is the most aggressive and lethal malignant tumor in skin cancers. Operation resection is used to treat stageⅠ/Ⅱmelanomas, but traditional operation, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy inflicts adverse effects on late-stage melanomas. StageⅢ/Ⅳmelanomas are some of the most ineffectively treated tumors with poor prognosis. As a cancer treatment, targeted immunotherapy in-hibits negative regulatory factors and enhances systemic anti-tumor immune effects. Radiotherapy not only kills tumor cells, but also en-hances systemic immune responses. Recent studies showed that targeted immunotherapy combined with radiotherapy can promote con-trol on local and distant tumors and prolong overall survival. The synergistic effects of these two therapies are superior to a single thera-py. This review summarized the progress on these research fields.

Objective To discuss the action mechanism for the treatment of chronic bronchial asthma through the clinical observation of the combination inhalation of Qinyi Heji, then evaluate its therapeutic effect. Method Patients were divided into two groups, one absorbed the Chinese herbal medicine Qinyi Heji inhaler, and the other absorbed becotide. The variation of integral of symptom and sign, the lung function and the eosinophilic granulocytes in phlegm and blood were observed. Result The combination inhalation of Qinyi Heji can improve the integrals of symptoms and signs, the lung funcion remarkably, and lower the eosinophilic granulocytes in phlegm and blood. Conclusion The combination inhalation of Qinyi Heji can antispasm, antigasp, relieve the inflammation, disappear phlegm and so on. Absorbing the medicines can improve the symtom and sign, resists the airway abnormal inflammation of bronchial asthma, and improve lung function.

Aim To investigate the effect of prenatal alcohol on insulin sensitivity of rat offspring and its underlying mechanism. Methods Female Sprague Dawley rats were given ethanol 4 g?kg-1?d-1 by gavage throughout pregnancy. At 16 wk of age, the rat offsrping underwent intravenous glucose tolerance test. The mRNA level of adipose leptin, resistin and adiponectin were determined by RT-PCR. Serum leptin, resistin and adiponectin were measured with RIA kits. Results Newborn ethanol rats had lower birth weight than control [(5.7?0.1) g vs (6.9?0.1) g,P

Objective To investigate the relationship between matrix metalloproteinase-3 (MMP-3) gene promoter polymorphisms 5A/6A and the restenosis after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Methods A total of 437 patients with PCI were selected in this study. Patients were divided into mutant genotype group (5A/5A+5A/6A, n=136) and wild genotype group (6A/6A, n=301) according to MMP-3 polymorphism. The angiography and clinic data were collected before and after coronary angiography in two groups of patients. The serum level MMP-3 and genotype analysis were compared be-tween two groups. Results There was no significant difference in the restenosis rate between two groups (42.2%vs 33.1%, P>0.05). The restenosis degree was significantly higher in wild genotype group than that in mutant genotype group (56.28%± 11.10%vs 36.00%±10.17%, P＜0.01). There was no significant difference in the serum level of MMP-3 between two groups (13.38μg/L ± 3.00μg/L vs 12.33μg/L ± 2.96μg/L, P>0.05). There was a higher restenosis rate in patients carrying 6A al-lele than that of patients carrying 5A allele (P＜0.05). Carrying wild genotypes are risk factors for restenosis after PCI. Con-clusion Patients carrying 6A allele have significantly higher risk of resteonsis than patients carrying 5A allele.

Objective To investigate the different radioprotective effects of total flavonoids of Astragalus (TFA) on human normal mesenchymal stem cells(hMSCs) and hepatoma cells injured by 60 Coγ-ray radiation.Methods hMSCs and HepG-2 cells were cultured and randomly divided into TFA-treated and untreated groups.The cells of different groups were irradiated with 60 Co γ-rays at the dose of 6 Gy.MTT method was utilized to detect the survival rates of the hMSCs and HepG-2 cells pretreated or untreated with TFA before irradiation.Cell clone formation test was used to measure the cellular radiosensitivity.The apoptosis rates of different groups were determined by flow cytometer assay.The expression rates of the apoptosis-promoting proteins Fas and Bax and the apoptosis-inhibiting protein Bcl-2 were analyzed by Western blotting.Results MTT showed that the survival rates of hMSCs pretreated by TFA were 1.15-1.95 times higher than that of the pure irradiation group.On the contrary,the survival rates of the TFA pretreated HepG-2 cells were only 0.53-0.23 times that of the pure irradiation group.There was a good dose-effect relationship between the cell survival rate and the TFA concentration.Cell clone formation rate indicated that combined treatment of TFA and radiation inhibited the cell proliferation more effectively than single TFA or pure radiation.Flow cytometry showed that 6,24 and,48 h post-irradiation to 6 Gy,the apoptosis rates of the hMSCs were 23.3% ,11.2% ,and 2.9% ,respectively in the TFA pretreated group and were 29.3% ,24.9% ,and 13.6% in the pure radiation group.However,the apoptosis rates of the HepG-2 cells at 6,24,and 48 h post-irradiation to 6 Gy were 11.6% ,17.3% ,and 20.1% ,respectively in the TFA pretreated group and were 6.9% ,9.3% ,and 15.8% ,respectively in the direct radiation group.Western blotting showed that the expression levels of Fas and Bax proteins in the HepG-2 cells were significantly higher in the TFA pretreated group than in the pure radiation group.On the contrary,the expression level of the apoptosis inhibiting protein Bcl-2 was significantly lower in the TFA pretreated group than in the pure radiation group.Conclusions TFA has obvious effects of radiological protection on human hMSCs and has no effects of radiological protection but effects of apoptosis enhancement on hepatoma cells.The promotion of apoptosis of TFA on hepatoma cells is primarily through increasing the expression of apoptotic proteins such as Fas and Bax and reducing the expression of anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2.

Objective To apply Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM) on the patients injured in Sichuan Earthquake. Methods COPM was applied to evaluate 51 patients in hospital before and 1 months after treatment. The first evaluation confirmed the problems on occupational activities for them. Then the plan was made to solve the problems. The second evaluation was to assess the effect of the treatment.Results The problem of self-care activity is more than that of productive activities and leisure activities(P<0.01). Total scores of performance of occupational activity and satisfaction improved(P<0.01, P<0.01)Conclusion COPM is helpful to confirm the problems of occupational activities and contribute to develope the primary goals for rehabilitation and treatment programs.

As an effective procedure for type 1 diabetes mellitus and end-stage type 2 diabetes mellitus, islet transplantation could enable those patients to obtain proper control of blood glucose levels. Instant blood-mediated inflammatory reaction (IBMIR) is a nonspecific inflammation during early stage after islet transplantation. After IBMIR occurs, coagulation cascade, complement system activation and inflammatory cell aggregation may be immediately provoked, leading to loss of a large quantity of transplant islets, which severely affects clinical efficacy of islet transplantation. How to alleviate the islet damage caused by IBMIR is a hot topic in islet transplantation. Heparin and etanercept, an inhibitor of tumor necrosis factor-α, are recommended as drugs for treating IBMIR following islet transplantation. Recent studies have demonstrated that multiple approaches and drugs may be adopted to mitigate the damage caused by IBMIR to the islets. In this article, the findings in clinical and preclinical researches were reviewed, aiming to provide reference for the management of IBMIR after islet transplantation.

Objective To identify the key genes and targeted protection methods affecting the survival of human islets. Methods Using bioinformatics method, the gene expression profile (GSE53454) was selected through screening and comparison from Gene Expression Omnibus(GEO) database. GEO2R tool was employed to screen the differentially expressed gene(DEG) between the human islets exposed (exposure group) and non-exposed (non-exposure group) to interleukin (IL)-1β and interferon (IFN)-γ for 24, 48 and 72 h, respectively. Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analyses were performed by DAVID. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed by STRING and Cytoscape apps. Results A total of 69 up-regulated DEGs and 2 down-regulated DEGs were identified. GO analysis showed that during the biological process, DEGs were enriched in the aspects of virus defense and inflammatory response. In cellular components, DEGs were significantly enriched in extracellular space, outside plasma membrane and extracellular regions. Regarding molecular functions, DEGs were significantly enriched in chemokine activity and cytokine activity. KEGG analysis revealed that DEGs were mainly enriched in multiple signaling pathways, such as cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, virus protein-cytokine and cytokine-receptor interaction, etc. Ten key genes (STAT1, CXCL10, IRF1, IL6, CXCL9, CCL5, CXCL11, ISG15, CD274, IFIT3) with high connectivity were selected by STRING analysis, all of which were significantly up-regulated in human islets exposed to IL-1β and IFN-γ. Six genes (STAT1, CXCL10, CXCL9, CXCL11, CCL5, IL6) were screened by KEGG enrichment analysis, mainly in Toll-like receptor signaling pathway. Conclusions STAT1, CXCL10, CXCL9, CXCL11, CCL5 and IL6 are the key genes affecting the survival of human islets, which are mainly enriched in Toll-like receptor signaling pathway and act as important targets for islet protection.

Islet transplantation is one of the effective therapies for diabetes mellitus. Nevertheless, multiple issues still exist, such as shortage of donors and adverse reactions caused by long-term use of immunosuppressants, which limit the islet survival post-transplantation. Microencapsulated islet transplantation may overcome these difficulties to certain extent, whereas many factors, such as the destruction of immune isolation microenvironment within the microcapsules and insufficient supply of oxygen and nutrients, constrain the application of microencapsulated islet transplantation in clinical practice. In recent years, how to enhance the effect of microencapsulated islet transplantation has been gradually studied. The application of stem cells in microencapsulated islet transplantation has steadily become a research hot spot. Therefore, the optimizing strategies for microencapsulated islet transplantation and the application of stem cells in microencapsulated islet transplantation were reviewed, and the potential improvement techniques of microencapsulated islet transplantation were investigated in this article, aiming to provide reference for further clinical application of microencapsulated islet transplantation.