OBJECTIVETo evaluate the relationship of micrometastatic cancer cells in the blood and prognosis of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

METHODSBlood samples were collected from peripheral vein perioperatively and from the pulmonary vein intraoperatively in NSCLC patients. Cancer cells were detected by flow cytometry, as described previously. The patients were followed up and analyzed statistically.

RESULTSCancer cells in blood samples were detected in 20 of 58 patients (34.5%). Patients under 57 years of age or with stage III/IV lesions had higher positive findings than those over 57 years or with stage I/II lesions (P = 0.000 and 0.006, respectively). On the basis of 40 month follow-up data, the 2- and 3-year survival rates of patients with positive and negative results were 30.0% vs 20.0%, and 52.6% vs 50.0%, respectively. There was significant difference between the overall survival curves which favored patients with negative findings (P = 0.0291 and 0.0092, respectively).

CONCLUSIONThis study indicates that cancer cells can be detected in the blood perioperatively from NSCLC patients which means poor prognosis.

Adult ; Aged ; Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung ; pathology ; surgery ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Lung Neoplasms ; pathology ; surgery ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Staging ; Neoplastic Cells, Circulating ; pathology ; Prognosis ; Survival Rate

To investigate the absorption kinetics of Cu B-SDC/PLC-MMs in rat different intestinal segments and compared with the absorption of Cu B suspension. The in vitro everted gut sacs model was established to study the absorption characteristics of Cu B-SDC/ PLC-MMs in rat duodenum, jejunum, ileum and colon, and the content of cucurbitacin B was detected by HPLC method, and the effects of concentrations on intestinal absorption were evaluated as well. The results showed that the absorption of Cu B-SDC/PLC-MMs was linearity at different intestine segment and different concentrations (R2 > 0.9), which was consistent with zero order rate process. The Ka of different intestine segments showed a concentration-dependent increasing along with the raised concentration of Cu B-SDC/ PLC-MMs, indicating that it was likely to be a mechanism of passive absorption. The best absorption site of Cu B-SDC/PLC-MMs was ileum, and its absorptions in different intestinal segments were superior to cucurbitacin B suspension. SDC/PLC-MMs could significantly enhance the intestinal absorption of cucurbitacin B, and the study of intestinal absorption kinetics of Cu B-SDC/PLC-MMs had gave a support to its further reasonable solidfication.
Animals ; Deoxycholic Acid ; administration & dosage ; Female ; Intestinal Absorption ; Kinetics ; Male ; Micelles ; Nanoparticles ; Phospholipids ; administration & dosage ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar ; Triterpenes ; administration & dosage ; pharmacokinetics

Objective To summarize the technique and managements of complications in endovascular embolization on intracranial aneurysm with Guglielmi detachable coils(GDC),and to evaluate the effect of the treatment.Methods One hundred and thirty six cases with Aneurizym were treated using GDC to embolize the aneurismal sac via femoral artery approach.Results One hundred and thirty six aneurysms were cured.Of them 132 cases recovered clinically,4 patients died.The mortality was 2.9%. The sac of 123 aneurysms were embolizied at 100%,8 cases with 95% embolization,5 with 90% embolization.3 aneurysms reptured during the embolization,cerebral vasospasm happened in 7 eases. microcoil escaped in 2 case.Three recurring cases were cured after second GDC embolization.The technique-related complications occured in 13 cases.No re-bleeding occurred during the 6 to 54-month follow-up.Conclusion Endovascular embolization of intracranial aneurysm with coils is a safe and effective treatment for intracranial aneurysm.Advances in Techniques and treating the complications correctly would decrease the complications and improve future outcomes.

The cry gene family, produced during the late exponential phase of growth in Bacillus thuringiensis, is a large, still-growing family of homologous genes, in which each gene encodes a protein with strong specific activity against only one or a few insect species. Extensive studies are mostly focusing on the structural and functional relationships of Cry proteins, and have revealed several residues or domains that are important for the target recognition and receptor attachment. In this study,we have employed a maximum likelihood method to detect evidence of adaptive evolution in Cry proteins, and have identified 24 positively selected residues, which are all located in Domain Ⅱ or Ⅲ. Combined with known data from mutagenesis studies, the majority of these residues, at the molecular level, contribute much to the insect specificity determination. We postulate that the potential pressures driving the diversification of Cry proteins may be in an attempt to adapt for the "arm race" between δ-endotoxins and the targeted insects, or to enlarge their target spectra, hence result in the functional divergence. The sites identified to be under positive selection would provide targets for further structural and functional analyses on Cry proteins.

Purpose To investigate the relationship of HIF-1α,BCL-2 and clinicopathological features in salivary adenoid cystic carcinoma by detecting the levels of two proteins.Methods Immunohistochemical of SP staining assay was used to detect the level of HIF-1α and BCL-2 expression in fifty-six section from primary resection of salivary adenoid cystic carcinoma.Furthermore,the correlation between the expressions of two proteins with clinical data was evaluated through differently statistical analysis.Results Thirty-six samples (64.3％) were found to express HIF-1α.The level of HIF-1α was significantly correlated with TNM stage of tumors and the primary site of salivary adenoid cystic carcinoma (P ＜ 0.05).Positive BCL-2 expression was detected in fifty-five cases (98.2％).The level of HIF-1 α was positively correlated with that of BCL-2 (P ＜ 0.05)and the significant correlation between HIF-1α and TNM stage was dependent upon the strong expression of BCL-2 (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion It is therefore indicated that the expression of HIF1α and BCL-2 may influence the clinical stage of salivary adenoid cystic carcinoma.

Adolescent ; Antibodies, Viral ; blood ; China ; epidemiology ; Female ; Humans ; Influenza A virus ; immunology ; Male ; Seroepidemiologic Studies ; Students, Medical ; Vietnam ; epidemiology ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo trace the segmental distribution of somatic sensory neurons of the skin and dorsal nerve in the rabbitś penis.

METHODSThe experiment was performed on 8 adult male rabbits with the nerve tracing method of retrograde axonal transport of horseradish peroxidase (HRP), which was injected into the dermis around the penis and the dorsal nerve of the penis. The rabbits were sacrificed five days later to harvest the spinal cord segments and the dorsal root ganglia of lumbosacral segments for histological study.

RESULTSThe HRP tracing showed that a number of labeled HRP positive neurons appeared in spinal ganglia (S2 - S4) in all the rabbits, and distributed segmentally. The counts of the positive neurons different segments were: S2 (215.0 +/- 10.2) , S3 (242.2 +/- 8.3) and S4 (109.7 +/- 8.4) respectively, with statistically significant difference between the two groups.

CONCLUSIONThe rabbit's sensory nerve fibers in both the skin and the dorsal nerve of the penis are rooted in the S2-S4 segments of spinal ganglia, which distribute regularly.

Animals ; Anterior Horn Cells ; anatomy & histology ; Biomarkers ; Male ; Neurons, Afferent ; Neurons, Efferent ; Penis ; innervation ; Rabbits ; Random Allocation ; Skin ; innervation

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of a short-term (3-day) simulated microgravity with and without daily dorsoventral gravitation (-G(x)) for 1 h on myogenic tone and vasoconstrictor responsiveness of the middle cerebral artery and mesenteric third-order small artery in rats. The tail-suspension (SUS) model was used to simulate cardiovascular deconditioning due to microgravity. Daily restoring to normal standing (STD) posture for 1 h was adopted to provide -G(x) as the countermeasure. Segments of middle cerebral artery and mesenteric third-order small artery were isolated and cannulated. Vascular diameters in response to increased intraluminal pressure (from 20 mmHg to 120 mmHg, by 20 mmHg steps) of isolated arteries under no-flow conditions were recorded by a Pressure Myograph System in both physiologic salt solution (PSS) (active diameter, Da) and calcium-free PSS (passive diameter, Dp). The myogenic tone was calculated by (Dp-Da)/Dpx100%. Vasoconstrictor responsiveness of the isolated middle cerebral artery to serotonin and that of small mesenteric artery to phenylephrine were assessed in the PSS under an intraluminal pressure of 40 mmHg. The results showed that SUS induced an enhancement of the myogenic tone and vasoconstrictor responsiveness in the isolated middle cerebral artery but a depression of those in the small mesenteric artery. Daily STD for 1 h prevented the depression of myogenic tone and vasoconstrictor responsiveness in the small mesenteric artery, but did not prevent the functional enhancement in the middle cerebral artery. These data suggest that a short-term simulated microgravity may result in different alterations in the function of the cerebral artery and the resistance vessel in the hind-body. Moreover, only the decrease of function in these resistance vessels, not in the cerebral arteries, can be prevented by such a countermeasure of daily STD for 1 h.
Animals ; Cerebral Arteries ; pathology ; Hindlimb Suspension ; Mesenteric Arteries ; pathology ; Pressure ; Rats ; Serotonin ; pharmacology ; Vascular Resistance ; Vasoconstriction ; Weightlessness Simulation

OBJECTIVETo develop a PCR-based method for gene assembly of tetanus toxin C fragment (TETC) DNA sequence from a large number of oligodeoxyribonucleotides (oligos).

METHODSTo allow for its cloning and expression in Lactococcus lactis, the TETC gene sequence was designed according to the known TETC gene sequence (GenBank accession number M12739, 367-1719) and the amino acid coding in Lactococcus lactis. The sequence contained 1383 nucleotides (nt) with Sal I site added to its 5' end and Xho I and Hind III sites to its 3' end. There were 209 synonymous codon substitutions in the designed gene sequence as compared with the sequence reported in GenBank for amino acid coding in Lactococcus lactis and elimination of the restriction site of EcoR I and Kpn I. The 1380 nt of the sequence was divided into 68 oligos designated as TETC 1 to TETC 68, each containing 40 nt. A 16 nt oligos designated as TETC 69 was designed as the downstream primer. The TETC 1-24 fragment was acquired using the oligos TETC 1 to TETC 24 by PCR-based gene assembly method, and the TETC 23-46 and TETC45-68 fragments were assembled similarly. The full-length TETC gene was assembled using TETC 1 and TETC 69 as the primers when the 3 fragments were mixed. The target gene was gel-purified and digested with Sal I and Hind III, followed by ligation to the pBluescript II SK(+) and digestion with the same enzymes. The positive clones were confirmed by restriction enzyme excision and sequencing.

RESULTSThree 500-bp fragments were acquired by PCR-based gene assembly, and the full-length TETC gene was obtained from the 3 fragment mixed at a equal concentration by a second PCR-based gene assembly using TETC 1 and TETC 69 as the primers. The target gene was cloned to pBluescript II SK(+) vector, and sequence analysis of the positive clones indicated that the assembled sequence was identical to the designed coding sequence of TETC gene.

CONCLUSIONPCR-based assembly of the synthesized constitutive gene fragments into the complete sequence can be an effective strategy for synthesis of long DNA sequences in vitro.

Base Sequence ; Cloning, Molecular ; Genes, Synthetic ; genetics ; Lactococcus ; genetics ; Peptide Fragments ; genetics ; metabolism ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; methods ; Recombinant Proteins ; metabolism ; Tetanus Toxin ; genetics ; metabolism

OBJECTIVETo explicate the spinal nerve source of the rabbit penis cutaneous sensation.

METHODSTwelve adult male rabbits were randomly divided into two groups of equal number. While mechanical stimuli were given to the penis by different von Frey hairs, single fiber activities were recorded in vivo in the left (Group A) and right (Group B) S1-S4 spinal nerves, respectively. The mechanical threshold, adaptability and conduction velocity of the fibers were analyzed.

RESULTSWhen the ipsilateral penis was mechanically stimulated, discharges were detected in S2 and S3 spinal nerve fibers, but not in S1 and S4. The discharge fibers were 39.67 +/- 3.14 (S2) and 21.00 +/- 2.19 (S3) in the left spinal nerve and 40.00 +/- 3.16 (S2) and 19.67 +/- 2.58 (S3) in the right. There was no obvious difference between the numbers of the left spinal nerves and the right ones (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONThe rabbit penis cutaneous sensation originates from S2 and S3 spinal nerves.

Animals ; Electrophysiology ; Male ; Neurons, Afferent ; physiology ; Penis ; Rabbits ; Random Allocation ; Sensory Thresholds ; Skin ; innervation ; Spinal Nerves ; physiology