Objective To evaluate the expressions of estrogen receptor (ER) α and β in human prostate cancer and adjacent non-cancerous tissues,and to evaluate the correlation between the expression and the clinicopathological features and prognosis.Methods Immunohistochemical staining was used to detect ERα and ERβ in 85 prostate adenocarcinoma tissues,adjacent non-cancerous tissues,and 29 benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) tissues.The correlation between the expression and the clinicopathological features was analyzed by Spearman's coefficient.Cox's proportional hazards regression model was used to identify the risk factors for biological recurrence.Results There were significant differences between the expression of ERα in prostate cancer,adjacent non-cancerous tissues,and BPH [epithelial cell 0 (0/85),11.8％ (10/85) and 24.1％ (7/29),P=0.000; and in stromal cell 52.9％ (45/85),67.1％ (57/85),31.0％ (9/29),P =0.003].There were significant differences between the expression of ERβ in these groups [epithelial cell 36.5％ (31/85),61.2％ (52/85),100.0％ (29/29),P =0.000; and in stromal cell 49.4％ (42/85),72.9％ (62/85),79.3％ (23/29),P =0.001].The ERα expression in cancerous stromal cells was positively correlated with the PSA level (r =0.296,P =0.006) and Gleason score (r =0.404,P =0.000).The ERβ expression was negatively correlated with Gleason score in cancerous epithelial cells (r =-0.254,P =0.019) and stromal cells (r =-0.315,P =0.003).Multivariate analysis revealed that negative expression was an independent poor prognostic factor for the biological recurrence free survival after radical prostatectomy (HR =0.107,95.0％ CI 0.019-0.592,P =0.010).Conclusions There were significant differences between the expression of ERα and ERβ in prostate cancer,adjacent non-cancerous tissues,and BPH.ERα in cancerous stromal cells,ERβ in cancerous epithelial and stromal cells were related to the differentiation of prostate adenocarcinoma.ERβ in cancerous epithelial cells can be used as an independent prognostic factor for biological recurrence after radical surgery.

This study was purpose to investigate apoptosis pathway of leukemia K562 cells induced by anticoagulant fraction from Agkistrodon acutus venom (AVVC-1). The mitochondrial transmembrane potential (ΔΨm) of leukemia K562 cells was detected by flow cytometry with JC-1 single staining. The expression of cytochrome C in the mitochondrial of leukemia K562 cells was analyzed by Western blot after AVVC-1 treatment. The distribution of cytochrome C in leukemia K562 cells was measured by immuno-fluorescence test. The results showed that the potential of mitochondrial membrane decreased after treatment with different concentrations of AVVC-1 (12.5, 25, 50, 100 µg/ml) for 6 h (P < 0.01). The expression level of cytochrome C protein in mitochondria obviously declined after treatment with 30 µg/ml AVVC-1 for 48 h, and the fluorescent intensity of cytochrome C in cytosol was enhanced at the same time. It is concluded that AVVC-1-induced K562 cell apoptosis is related with mitochondrial damage, and cytochrome C may be a useful agent for investigating human leukemia therapy by using AVVC-1.
Agkistrodon ; Animals ; Apoptosis ; drug effects ; Cytochromes c ; metabolism ; Humans ; K562 Cells ; Membrane Potential, Mitochondrial ; drug effects ; Mitochondria ; metabolism ; Snake Venoms ; pharmacology

The distal femoral fracture, tibial plateau fracture and patellar fracture may all develop into traumatic knee arthritis, which is probably associated with knee dysfunction problems. Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is an effective treatment for end-stage knee arthritis. The distal femoral valgus cut angle (VCA) is an important reference for distal femoral resection in TKA and significantly affects postoperative prosthesis position and lower extremity alignment after TKA. For VCA, the specific methods for definition, measurement methods, clinical application and influencing factors are currently controversial. Hence, the authors review the research progress in the role of VCA in TKA from the above-mentioned four aspects, hoping to provide a reference for accurate preoperative planning and intraoperative performance of TKA.

AIMTo promote the provision of reproductive health services to young people by exploring the attitudes and perceptions of university students in Shanghai, China, toward reproductive health.

METHODSFrom July 2004 to May 2006, 5 243 students from 14 universities in Shanghai took part in our survey. Topics covered the demands of reproductive health-care services, attitudes towards and experience with sex, exposure to pornographic material, and knowledge on sexual health and sexually transmitted infections (STIs)/AIDS.

RESULTSOf the 5 067 students who provided valid answer sheets, 50.05% were female and 49.95% were male, 14.86% were medical students, and 85.14% had non-medical backgrounds. A total of 38.4% of respondents had received reproductive health education previously. The majority of students supported school-based reproductive health education, and also acquired information about sex predominantly from books, schoolmates, and the Internet. Premarital sexual behavior was opposed by 17.7% of survey participants, and 37.5% could identify all the three types of STIs listed in the questionnaire. Although 83.7% knew how HIV is transmitted, only 55.7% knew when to use a condom and 57.8% knew that the use of condoms could reduce the risk of HIV infection.

CONCLUSIONThe reproductive health service is lagging behind current attitudes and demands of university students. Although students' attitudes towards sexual matters are liberal, their knowledge about reproductive health and STIs/AIDS is still limited. It is therefore necessary to provide effective and confidential reproductive health services to young people.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Attitude to Health ; China ; Female ; HIV Infections ; prevention & control ; transmission ; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice ; Health Services Needs and Demand ; statistics & numerical data ; Health Surveys ; Humans ; Male ; Perception ; Reproductive Health Services ; utilization ; Sexual Behavior ; Sexually Transmitted Diseases ; prevention & control ; transmission ; Student Health Services ; utilization ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Universities

To investigate the potential molecular markers and drug-compound-target mechanism of Mahuang Shengma Decoction(MHSM) in the intervention of acute lung injury(ALI) by network pharmacology and experimental verification. Databases such as TCMSP, TCMIO, and STITCH were used to predict the possible targets of MHSM components and OMIM and Gene Cards were employed to obtain ALI targets. The common differentially expressed genes(DEGs) were therefore obtained. The network diagram of DEGs of MHSM intervention in ALI was constructed by Cytoscape 3. 8. 0, followed by Gene Ontology(GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes(KEGG) enrichment analyses of target genes. The ALI model was induced by abdominal injection of lipopolysaccharide(LPS) in mice. Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid(BALF) was collected for the detection of inflammatory factors. Pathological sectioning and RT-PCR experiments were performed to verify the therapeutic efficacy of MHSM on ALI. A total of 494 common targets of MHSM and ALI were obtained. Among the top 20 key active compounds of MHSM, 14 from Ephedrae Herba were found to be reacted with pivotal genes of ALI [such as tumor necrosis factor(TNF), tumor protein 53(TP53), interleukin 6(IL6), Toll-like receptor 4(TLR4), and nuclear factor-κB(NF-κB)/p65(RELA)], causing an uncontrolled inflammatory response with activated cascade amplification. Pathway analysis revealed that the mechanism of MHSM in the treatment of ALI mainly involved AGE-RAGE, cancer pathways, PI3 K-AKT signaling pathway, and NF-κB signaling pathway. The findings demonstrated that MHSM could dwindle the content of s RAGE, IL-6, and TNF-α in the BALF of ALI mice, relieve the infiltration of inflammatory cells in the lungs, inhibit alveolar wall thickening, reduce the acute inflammation-induced pulmonary congestion and hemorrhage, and counteract transcriptional activities of Ager-RAGE and NF-κB p65. MHSM could also synergically act on the target DEGs of ALI and alleviate pulmonary pathological injury and inflammatory response, which might be achieved by inhibiting the expression of the key gene Ager-RAGE in RAGE/NF-κB signaling pathway and downstream signal NF-κB p65.
Acute Lung Injury/genetics* ; Animals ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal/pharmacology* ; Lipopolysaccharides ; Lung/metabolism* ; Mice ; NF-kappa B/metabolism* ; Network Pharmacology ; Receptor for Advanced Glycation End Products/metabolism* ; Signal Transduction

For qualitative and quantitative analysis of related substances in clotrimazole cream, HPLC-Q-TOF spectrometer was used to analyze the fragmentation pathways and identify structures of the related substances. Five related substances named by BP (2018) were identified as impurity A ((2-chlorophenyl)-diphenylmethanol), impurity B (para-clotrimazole isomer), impurity E (2-chlorobenzophenone), impurity F (1-tritylimidazole) and impurity 4 (9-(2-chlorophenyl)-fluorene), respectively, by using impurity references matching and comparison with the literature data. Four related substances were detected in clotrimazole cream except impurity E, and 9-(2-chlorophenyl)-fluorene is the first identified impurity in this preparation. To establish an HPLC method for determination of the related substances in Clotrimazole Cream, the Agilent Poroshell Bonuns RP column was used (100 mm×4.6 mm, 2.7 μm) with UV detection at 215 nm. The mobile phase was acetonitrile-10 mmol·L^-1 dipotassium phosphate buffer (adjusted with phosphoric acid to pH of 5.80) with a flow rate of 1.0 mL·min^-1. Gradient elution was used. The column temperature was maintained at 40℃. A good linear behavior was achieved between component's concentrations and peak area for impurity A, B, E, F within the range of 0.20-10.02 μg·mL^-1, 0.20-10.00 μg·mL^-1, 0.20-10.10 μg·mL^-1, 0.10-5.01 μg·mL^-1 with the correlation coefficients were 0.999 7, 1.000 0, 1.000 0, 0.999 9, respectively. The average recoveries were 94.3%, 95.0%, 100.0%, 99.6% with RSDs were 2.8%, 2.2%, 1.1%, 2.7%, respectively (n=9). LOQ were 200.4, 200.0, 202.0, 100.2 ng·mL^-1, respectively. LOD were 57.25, 57.14, 57.71, 28.63 ng·mL^-1, respectively. The developed method was simple, rapid, accurate and effective for testing related substances in clotrimazole cream to control its quality, ensuring the safety of clinical medication.