Objective To evaluate the therapeutic responses to transsphenoidal surgery and medical therapy in terms of normalization of prolactin(PRL),mortality,morbidity and the cost-effectiveness of PRL normalization in order to establish an individualized therapeutic protocol for the patients with prolactinoma.Methods A retrospective study was undertaken of a consecutive series of patients with prolactinoma who were followed for at least 1 year after transsphenoidal surgery or medical treatment.The clinical characteristics and the long-term outcomes(normalization of PRL,morbidity or mortality)were assessed.Utilizing the principle of medical economics and data from the two types of treatment,we worked out a Markov chain and calculated the lowest cost of two kinds of therapeutic protocols.Results(1)The success rate of normalizing serum PRL through surgical treatment in microadenoma was 85%(22/26),and that of medical treatment was 95%(19/20).There was no statistical difference between the two therapies(P＞0.05).The success rate of normalizing serum PRL through surgical treatment in macroadenoma was45%(19/42),and that of medical treatment was 5/5.There was a statistical difierence between the two therapies(P＜0.05).(2)According to the Markov model,it would cost a microprolactinoma patient 25 129.25 yuan to normalize serum PRL by surgical treatment.This is comparable to the cost of medical treatment which would be 24 943.99 yuan.Whereas for a macroprolactinoma patient surgery would cost 35 208.20 yuan and medical treatment would cost 25 344.38 yuan.Conclusions Medical therapy is superior to surgical treatment in regard to complication rate and cost-effectiveness for macro-and extra big prolactinomas.Transsphenoidal surgery remains an option for patients with microadenomas.Markov model is an effective way to predict the treatment cost for patients with hyperprolactinoma at different ages and with different canses

Objective: To identify the clinical and immunological characteristics of pediatric antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) patients with pulmonary embolism. Method: Among 47 pediatric APS patients from Peking Union Medical College Hospital during the year of 2000 to 2015, 12 patients were diagnosed of pulmonary embolism, who were investigated and compared with APS patients without pulmonary embolism. Result: Twelve patients (among whom 6 cases were primary and the other 6 were secondary APS)had pulmonary embolism and all of them were non-shock type, which was the first presenting manifestation in 6 of them.Eight cases were misdiagnosed as infection, while 3 cases were missed.Among patients with pulmonary embolism, 10 patients suffered from deep vein thrombosis at the same time, mainly in lower extremities.2 cases had thrombotic recurrence, which happened only in primary APS patients, because of irregular monitoring of International Normalized Ratio, or not taking aspirin after quitting warfarin.Positive anticardiolipin (ACL) and lupus anticoagulant (LA) were found in 10 and 9 patients respectively.Four primary APS patients had positive anti-nuclear antibodies (ANA). During follow-up of 3-100 months (median 23 months) of primary APS, no one had evolved manifestations of systemic lupus erythematosus.Primary APS was more often seen in males (M∶F 5∶1 vs. 0∶6) and the patients were much younger ((15±1) vs. (17±0) years old) than those with secondary APS.Besides that, no statistically significant difference was seen between primary and secondary APS (P all>0.05). Compared with APS patients without pulmonary embolism, pulmonary hypertension was more common in patients suffered from pulmonary embolism (3/12 vs. 0, P<0.05). Conclusion Pulmonary embolism can be the first symptom in pediatric APS patients and all of them are non-shock type, which tends to be misdiagnosed or missed. A majority of them suffer from deep vein thrombosis in the lower extremities.Rethrombosis takes place when the anticoagulant therapy is irregular.Positive anti-nuclear antibodies can be seen in primary APS patients, but no manifestations of lupus come out during follow-up.There is no significant difference between primary APS and secondary APS.Pulmonary hypertension is more common in APS patients suffered from pulmonary embolism.

Understanding the regulatory networks for germ cell fate specification is necessary to developing strategies for improving the efficiency of germ cell production in vitro. In this study, we developed a coupled screening strategy that took advantage of an arrayed bi-molecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) platform for protein-protein interaction screens and epiblast-like cell (EpiLC)-induction assays using reporter mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs). Investigation of candidate interaction partners of core human pluripotent factors OCT4, NANOG, KLF4 and SOX2 in EpiLC differentiation assays identified novel primordial germ cell (PGC)-inducing factors including BEN-domain (BEND/Bend) family members. Through RNA-seq, ChIP-seq, and ATAC-seq analyses, we showed that Bend5 worked together with Bend4 and helped mark chromatin boundaries to promote EpiLC induction in vitro. Our findings suggest that BEND/Bend proteins represent a new family of transcriptional modulators and chromatin boundary factors that participate in gene expression regulation during early germline development.
Animals ; Cell Differentiation/genetics* ; Chromatin/metabolism* ; Embryonic Stem Cells ; Germ Cells/metabolism* ; Germ Layers/metabolism* ; Mice