Objective To estimate the biological effects of leptin on human HaCaT keratinocytes and explore their molecular mechanisms.Methods Cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) was used to evaluate the proliferation of cultured HaCaT cells treated with different concentrations of leptin for 24 and 48 hours.Some HaCaT cells were classified into four groups to remain untreated,be treated with leptin (100 μg/L) and piceatannol (a specific inhibitor of STAT3 phosphorylation) alone or in combination for 24 hours,respectively,followed by the evaluation of cell proliferation using CCK-8 kit.Flow cytometry was performed to assess cell cycle of HaCaT cells treated with leptin of 100 μg/L,Western blot to determine the phosphorylation level of Erk1/2 and STAT3 in HaCaT cells treated with leptin of 100 μg/L for different durations.Statistical analysis was done by Student's t-test for unpaired data using GraphPad Prism 5 software.Results The proliferation of HaCaT cells was accelerated to different degrees after treatment with leptin of 50 and 100 μg/L for 24 and 48 hours,and the accelerating effect was in a dose-dependent manner within 24 hours (r =0.9989,P ＜ 0.05).Piceatannol apparently inhibited the promotive effect of leptin on the proliferation of HaCaT cells.There was an obvious elevation in the percentage of cells at S phase ((57.70 ± 5.88)％ vs.(42.50 ± 7.55)％,P ＞ 0.05),but a significant decrease in that at G0/G1 phase ((39.70 ± 1.57)％ vs.(45.20 ± 1.44)％,P ＜ 0.05),with a significant increase in proliferation index (0.603 ±0.0157 vs.0.564 ± 0.0144,P ＜ 0.05) in HaCaT cells treated with leptin of 100 μg/L for 24 hours compared with the untreated controls.Western blot showed that leptin of 100 μg/L markedly enhanced the phosphorylation level of STAT3 in HaCaT cells.Conclusion Leptin may upregulate the proliferation of HaCaT cells through activation of STAT3 pathway.

Hyoscyamine 6 beta-hydroxylase (H6H) is the last rate-limiting enzyme directly catalyzing the formation of scopolamine in tropane alkaloids (TAs) biosynthesis pathway. It is the primary target gene in the genetic modification of TAs metabolic pathway. Full-length cDNA and gDNA sequences of a novel H6H gene were cloned from Datura arborea (DaH6H, GenBank accession numbers for cDNA and gDNA are KR006981 and KR006983, respectively). Nucleotide sequence analysis reveals an open reading frame of 1375 bp encoding 347 amino acids in the cDNA of DaH6H, while the gDNA of DaH6H contains four exons and three introns, with the highest similarity to the gDNA of H6H from D. stramonium. DaH6H also exhibited the most identity of 90.5% with DsH6H in amino acids and harbored conserved 2-oxoglutarate binding motif and two iron binding motifs. The expression level of DaH6H was highest in the mature leaf, followed by the secondary root, and with no expression in the primary root based on qPCR analysis. Its expression was inhibited by MeJA. DaH6H was expressed in E. coli and a 39 kD recombinant protein was detected in SDS-PAGE. Comparison of the contents of scopolamine and hyoscyamine in various TAs-producing plants revealed that D. arborea was one of the rare scopolamine predominant plants. Cloning of DaH6H gene will allow more research in the molecular regulatory mechanism of TAs biosynthesis in distinct plants and provide a new candidate gene for scopolamine metabolic engineering.

Objective To analyze the clinical and CT manifestations of the chest and abdomen lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM). Methods The clinical and CT manifestations of 13 patients with LAM proved histopathologically were reviewed retrospectively.Results Twelve patients onset with intrapulmonary manifestations all had progressive dyspnea, other symptoms included pneumothorax of recurrent attacks, chest distress, hemoptysis, cough, chylothorax and so on. During the course of disease, 12 patients had no extrapulmonary symptoms, abdominal great goiter was found unintentionally in the rest one without any intrapulmonary symptoms. Pectoral CT manifestations included sporadic or asystematic cysts in pulmones with size of 2-20 mm, and most had thin and clear capsule wall. The lung parenchyma among cysts was mostly normal. Four patients had pneumatocele, 2 had pleural effusion. Abdominal CT was performed in 10 patients and 7 had abnormal findings: renal angiolipoleiomyoma (ALL) in 3 including one had retroperitoneal multiple lymphangiomyomas and effussion and seroperitoneum, another 2 had multiple liver ALL and spleen accretion. The rest 4 patients included retroperitoneal lymphadenectasis in 2, seroperitoneum in one, as well as retroperitoneal lump and spleen accretion in one patient.Conclusion Pectoral and abdominal symptoms in LAM are not specific, but the CT manifestations somehow specific, which are helpful to the identification and early diagnosis of LAM.

BACKGROUND: Serum creatinine (SCr) is the most commonly used parameter to estimate renal function impairement, but there are some shortcomings. Many factors including age, gender, drug, diet, muscle mass and metabolic rate can influence SCr, leading to an inaccurate estimation of kidney impairment. Studies have shown that cystatin C (CysC) is not affected by factors such as muscle mass, age, gender, diet, inflammation or tumor. The present study was undertaken to compare the sensitivity of CysC and SCr in evaluating renal function impairment at early stage of shock. METHODS: Seventy-one patients aged 38.3±21.4 years, who had been treated at the Emergency Medicine Department of the First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University between February 2006 and June 2007, were studied. They were divided into groups A, B, C, and D according to the shock time. Serum sample was drawn from each patient at 1, 2, 3, 4 hours after shock to determine SCr and CysC. CysC and SCr were determined again at 72 hours and 7 days after shock. RESULTS: CysC increased earlier than SCr in the 71 patients, and CysC decreased slower than SCr when shock was corrected. CysC increased at 1 hour after shock. There was a negative correlationship between CysC, SCr and glomerular filtration rate (GFR), especially at early stage of shock. CONCLUSIONS: There is renal injury at early stage of shock. CysC is more sensitive than SCr in assessing renal function at the early stage of shock.

A series of novel sorafenib analogues were designed and synthesized. The cytotoxic activities of these compounds were tested in four tumor cell lines. Some of the compounds showed potent antiproliferative activity against the tested cell lines with IC50 = 4-20 micromol x L(-1). Some compounds demonstrated competitive antiproliferative activities to sorafenib against tested cancer cell lines. Among them, compound 7c demonstrated significant inhibitory activities on ACHN, HCT116 and MDA-MB-231 cell lines with IC50 values of 9.01, 4.97, 6.61 micromol x L(-1), respectively.
Antineoplastic Agents ; chemical synthesis ; chemistry ; pharmacology ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Cell Proliferation ; drug effects ; Humans ; Inhibitory Concentration 50 ; Molecular Structure ; Niacinamide ; analogs & derivatives ; chemical synthesis ; chemistry ; pharmacology ; Phenylurea Compounds ; chemical synthesis ; chemistry ; pharmacology ; Structure-Activity Relationship

Objective To analyze the CT imaging features of Castleman disease and enhance our knowledge of Castleman disease.Methods Twenty two patients with lymph node biopsy-proved or surgeryproved Castleman disease were retrospectively reviewed in this study.Of the 22 patients,18 had localized lesion and 4 patients had multicentric lesions.Correlation was made between CT and pathologic findings.Results Eighteen patients with localized Castleman disease had the hyaline-vascular type and showed well-circumscribed masses with soft-tissue density [mean CT value,(45 ± 16) HU],punctate or bifurcate calcification and linear low-density areas on non-enhanced CT images.All localized masses showed significant enhancementwith an increase of(56 ± 22)HU on arterial phase and showed residual enhancement and some low-density areas on delayed phase.Enhancing patterns were variable,including homogeneous enhancement,gradual enhancement from the edge to the center of mass and heterogeneous enhancement.Four patients with localized lesion demonstrated enhancing vessels around masses.Four patients with muhicentric CD belonged to the plasma cell type and had multiple enlarged lymph nodes.Plasma cell type masses with homogeneous density also showed enhancement after injection of contrast media but appeared to reveal a less increase of (32 ± 10) HU than the hyaline vascular type.Conclusions The localized Castleman disease showed certain characteristics on CT imaging includingcalcification and contrast enhancing patterns,which could help in the differential diagnosis of this disease.The muhicentric Castleman disease did not reveal any useful imaging features.

The fermentation of Bacillus cereus DLSL-2 was investigated through single-factor test. The optimized fermentation conditions are: temperature 30℃,initial pH 7.0,250 r/min. Uniform design was used in shaking flask to optimize the fermentation medium of bacillus cereus . The most suitable medium was identified as follows:4.88% defated soybean power ,1.45% maize starch, 0.106% K 2HPO 4, 1.78% yeasts extract, 5.6% inoculum. the optimized medium allowed the B.cereus biomass concentration to be increased from 3.2?109 cfu/mL to 7.1?109 cfu/mL.

AIM: To evaluate visual outcome and wearing times in eyes fitted with a rigid gas permeable contact lenses and to assess the role of these lenses in therapeutic contact lens practice.METHODS: Patients fitted with RGP from May 2004 to December 2005 were retrospectively reviewed. Ocular diagnosis,flat and steep curvatures by corneal topography. The data included initial base curve, power, and the number of changes made in parameters during the follow-up. The outcome data included visual acuity and the duration of follow-up and lens wear. Complications and complaints were also noted.RESULTS: Forty-Three eyes of 25 patients had keratoconus were reviewed. The mean age of patients was 19.88 ±3.11years. 26 (60.5%)eyes achieved 20/20 visual acuity;15(34.9%) eyes achieved 20/25 to 20/40; and 1 (2.3%) eyes achieved 20/50 to 20/70. 37 (86.0%) eyes achieved visual improvement. No infection or neovascularization was noted; a corneal abrasion occurred in one eye.CONCLUSION: RGP may be a better alternative in selected patients with keratoconus rather than penetrating keratoplasty.

mRNAs of alpha-adrenoceptor (α-AR) subtypes are found in neurons in dorsal root ganglion (DRG) and change after peripheral nerve injury. In this study, the distribution of α-AR subtype proteins was studied in L5 DRG of normal rats and rats with chronic constriction injury of sciatic nerve (CCI). Using immunofluorescence technique, it was found that α1A-, α1B-, and α2A-AR proteins were expressed in large, medium, and small size neurons in normal DRG, and significantly increased in all size neurons 14 days after CCI. α1D- and α2C-AR was also expressed in all size neurons in normal DRG. However, α1D-AR was significantly increased and α2C-AR was decreased in small size neurons 14 days post CCI. α2B-AR neurons were not detectable in normal and CCI DRG. Co-expression of α1A- and α2A-AR in the same neuron was observed in normal DRG and increased post CCI. Collectively, these results indicated that there is distinct distribution of α-AR subtypes in DRG neurons, and the distribution and levels of expression of α-AR subtypes change differently after CCI. The up-regulation of α-AR subtypes in DRG neurons may play an important role in the process of generating and transmitting neuropathic pain.