Objective:To study the expression of miRNA-7 in B lymphocytes of primary Sj?gren's syndrome (pSS) and its relationship with phosphatase andtensin homolog deleted (PETN) and disease activity.Methods:Twenty newly diagnosed outpatient and inpatient pSS patients were used as case group collected from January 2017 to December 2019 of Qinghai Provincial People's Hospital. Twentyhealthy persons were used as the control group. Disease-related indicators of the case group were collected. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR)was used to detect miRNA-7 and PETN mRNA expression in B lymphocytes of the two groups and the consistency between miRNA-7 expression in the plasma and B lymphocytes of the case group was analyzed. Western Blotting method was used to detect the PETN protein in B lymphocytes of the two groups. Correlation analysis was used to analyze the relationship between miRNA-7 expression in B lymphocytes and disease activity in the case group. Linear regression analysis was performed between miRNA-7 and PETN mRNA.Results:The expression of miRNA-7 (0.53±0.17) in the B cells increased and the expression of PTEN mRNA (0.88± 0.24) and protein (0.51±0.12) in the case group were reduced compared with that of miRNA-7(0.39±0.11), PTEN mRNA(2.32±0.30) and protein(1.03±0.21) of the control group. The above differences were statistically significant ( t=2.990, P<0.05; t=16.98, P<0.05; t=8.41, P<0.05). Linear regression showedthat PTEN miRNAwas negatively correlated with miRNA-7 ( b=-0.78, P<0.01), the expression of miRNA-7 in the case group was positively related with EULAR Sj?gren′s syndrome Disease Activity Index (ESSDAI), IgG, IgA, anti-SSB and was negatively correlated with C4 and WBC. Conclusion:There is a certain relationship between miRNA-7 and disease activity. MiRNA-7 may participate in the pathogenesis of pSS byregulating PETN in B cells of pSS. MiRNA-7 has certain clinical value for disease activity evaluation.

Colon, Transverse ; injuries ; Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation ; methods ; Humans ; Intestinal Perforation ; complications ; Intra-Abdominal Hypertension ; complications ; Male ; Respiratory Distress Syndrome, Adult ; complications ; therapy ; Young Adult

A 23-year-old man in remission from acute myeloblastic leukemia after allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation developed peripheral neuropathy presenting as sciatic and peroneal nerve deficits. Electrophysiological tests localized the lesions to the left sciatic and common peroneal nerve. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed nerve thickening and enhancement, while a positron emission tomography-computed tomography scan demonstrated increased fluorodeoxyglucose uptake tracking along the nerve, suggesting peripheral nerve infiltration. This report demonstrates an unusual presentation of acute leukemia relapse presenting as focal neuropathy

PURPOSE: The Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) guidelines for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) uses the post-bronchodilator spirometry for diagnosis and severity staging. We evaluated differences in the severity classification of COPD, based on pre- and post-bronchodilator spirometry. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From 2000 to 2004, 207 COPD patients who underwent spirometry before and after inhalation of 400 microg of fenoterol were analyzed. A responder to the bronchodilator test (BDT) was defined by the American Thoracic Society (ATS) as an increase in forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) or forced vital capacity > or = 12% and > or = 200 mL, and by the European Respiratory Society (ERS) as an increase in FEV1 > or = 10% of the predicted value. COPD severity was classified according to the 2008 GOLD guidelines. RESULTS: For the entire study population, the FEV1 increased by 11.8 +/- 12.5% of baseline after BDT and 41.1% and 27.1% of subjects were classified as responders using the ATS and ERS criteria, respectively. Based on pre-BDT spirometry, 55, 85, 58, and 9 patients were classified as Stage I-IV COPD, respectively. Sixty-seven (32.4%) patients changed severity staging after BDT, including 20.0%, 28.2%, 44.8%, and 66.7% of pre-BDT patients Stages I through IV, respectively. More ATS or ERS BDT-responders had a change in severity staging than non-responders (52.9% vs. 18.9% and 62.5% vs. 21.2%, both p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that the severity staging of COPD using pre-BDT spirometry might lead to significant differences as compared to staging, based on post-BDT spirometry, as recommended by the current GOLD guidelines.
Bronchodilator Agents/*diagnostic use ; Fenoterol/diagnostic use ; Forced Expiratory Volume/drug effects ; Humans ; Practice Guidelines as Topic ; Prognosis ; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive/*diagnosis ; Spirometry/methods

The prevalence of asthma and allergic disease has increased worldwide over the last few decades. Many common environmental factors are associated with this increase. Several theories have been proposed to account for this trend, especially those concerning the impact of environmental toxicants. The development of the immune system, particularly in the prenatal period, has far-reaching consequences for health during early childhood, and throughout adult life. One underlying mechanism for the increased levels of allergic responses, secondary to exposure, appears to be an imbalance in the T-helper function caused by exposure to the toxicants. Exposure to environmental endocrine-disrupting chemicals can result in dramatic changes in cytokine production, the activity of the immune system, the overall Th1 and Th2 balance, and in mediators of type 1 hypersensitivity mediators, such as IgE. Passive exposure to tobacco smoke is a common risk factor for wheezing and asthma in children. People living in urban areas and close to roads with a high volume of traffic, and high levels of diesel exhaust fumes, have the highest exposure to environmental compounds, and these people are strongly linked with type 1 hypersensitivity disorders and enhanced Th2 responses. These data are consistent with epidemiological research that has consistently detected increased incidences of allergies and asthma in people living in these locations. During recent decades more than 100,000 new chemicals have been used in common consumer products and are released into the everyday environment. Therefore, in this review, we discuss the environmental effects on allergies of indoor and outside exposure.
Adult ; Asthma ; Child ; Humans ; Hypersensitivity ; Immune System ; Immunoglobulin E ; Incidence ; Inflammation* ; Prevalence ; Respiratory Sounds ; Risk Factors ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Tobacco ; Vehicle Emissions

Asthma, a chronic inflammatory disorder of the airway, has features of both heritability as well as environmental influences which can be introduced in utero exposures and modified through aging, and the features may attribute to epigenetic regulation. Epigenetic regulation explains the association between early prenatal maternal smoking and later asthma-related outcomes. Epigenetic marks (DNA methylation, modifications of histone tails or noncoding RNAs) work with other components of the cellular regulatory machinery to control the levels of expressed genes, and several allergy- and asthma-related genes have been found to be susceptible to epigenetic regulation, including genes important to T-effector pathways (IFN-γ, interleukin [IL] 4, IL-13, IL-17) and T-regulatory pathways (FoxP3). Therefore, the mechanism by which epigenetic regulation contributes to allergic diseases is a critical issue. In the past most published experimental work, with few exceptions, has only comprised small observational studies and models in cell systems and animals. However, very recently exciting and elegant experimental studies and novel translational research works were published with new and advanced technologies investigating epigenetic mark on a genomic scale and comprehensive approaches to data analysis. Interestingly, a potential link between exposure to environmental pollutants and the occurrence of allergic diseases is revealed recently, particular in developed and industrialized countries, and endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) as environmental hormone may play a key role. This review addresses the important question of how EDCs (nonylphenol, 4 octylphenol, and phthalates) influences on asthma-related gene expression via epigenetic regulation in immune cells, and how anti-asthmatic agents prohibit expression of inflammatory genes via epigenetic modification. The discovery and validation of epigenetic biomarkers linking exposure to allergic diseases might lead to better epigenotyping of risk, prognosis, treatment prediction, and development of novel therapies.
Acetylation ; Aging ; Animals ; Anti-Asthmatic Agents ; Asthma ; Biomarkers ; Developed Countries ; Endocrine Disruptors ; Environmental Pollutants ; Epigenomics ; Gene Expression ; Histones ; Hypersensitivity ; Interleukin-13 ; Interleukins ; Methylation ; Prognosis ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Statistics as Topic ; Tail ; Translational Medical Research

We report here on a 26-year-old pregnant female who developed hirsutism and virilization during her third trimester along with a significantly elevated serum testosterone level. Abdominal US and MR imaging studies were performed, and they showed unique imaging features that may suggest the diagnosis of pregnancy luteoma in the clinical context. After the delivery, the serum testosterone level continued to decrease, and it returned to normal three weeks postpartum. The follow-up imaging findings were closely correlated with the clinical presentation.
Adult ; Contrast Media ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Female ; Gadolinium DTPA/diagnostic use ; Hirsutism/etiology ; Humans ; Luteoma/complications/*diagnosis ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Ovarian Neoplasms/complications/*diagnosis ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy Complications, Neoplastic/*diagnosis ; Pregnancy Outcome ; Ultrasonography, Prenatal ; Virilism/etiology

PURPOSE: To determine the duration of antimuscarinic therapy for overactive bladder syndrome (OAB) appropriate for assessment of the efficacy of treatment, and to evaluate the possible predictive factors for response to therapy. METHODS: All OAB patients who visited a urology outpatient clinic of a tertiary referral center and who were prescribed 5 mg of solifenacin or 4 mg of tolterodine extended release capsules daily were enrolled in the study. Patients were asked to continue therapy for 6 months. All enrolled patients completed the patient perception of bladder condition, overactive bladder symptom score (OABSS), and the modified Indevus Urgency Severity Scale questionnaires. All patients underwent uroflowmetry. RESULTS: A total of 164 patients were enrolled and 125 patients (76%) had at least one follow-up visit. The mean follow-up interval was 1 month (range, 0.5-6 months). Sixty-two patients (49.6%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 40.7-58.5) responded to antimuscarinic treatment. The median time for the onset of response was 3 months (95% CI, 1-6). Multivariate Cox proportional-hazards model revealed that elevated baseline OABSS was an independent predictor of responsiveness to therapy. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis revealed an optimal OABSS cutoff value of > or =7, with an area under the ROC curve of 0.79 (95% CI, 0.70-0.88; sensitivity, 91.9%; specificity, 60.7%). CONCLUSIONS: The median time for a therapeutic response was 3 months, and OABSS was the only predictor for responsiveness. These findings may serve as a guideline when prescribing antimuscarinic treatment for OAB patients.
Ambulatory Care Facilities ; Capsules ; Cholinergic Antagonists ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; ROC Curve ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Solifenacin Succinate ; Tertiary Care Centers ; Tolterodine Tartrate ; Treatment Outcome ; Urinary Bladder ; Urinary Bladder, Overactive* ; Urology

OBJECTIVETo investigate the association of SOX9 expression and clinicopathologic factors and prognosis of gastric cancer.

METHODSA retrospective cohort study including 112 gastric cancer patients admitted to the Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital from 2004 to 2006 was performed. Immunohistochemical analysis was used to evaluate the expression of SOX9 in the 112 specimens of gastric cancer tissues and 70 non-cancerous tissues adjacent to the tumor.

RESULTSLow expression of SOX9 was seen in 5(7.1%) tissues out of 70 non-cancerous tissues adjacent to the tumor. A total of 94(83.9%) patients had varying expression of SOX9, of whom 51(45.4%) had overexpression. Univariate analysis demonstrated that the expression of SOX9 was significantly associated with Lauren classification (P<0.05), tumor invasion(P<0.01), lymph node metastasis(P<0.05), distant metastasis(P<0.05) and tumor stage(P<0.05), however there was no significant association between SOX9 expression and sex, age, histological type, histology differentiation or tumor size. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that the 5-year survival rate of patients with SOX9 over-expression was significantly lower than that of patients with low expression(29.4% vs. 49.2%, P=0.031). Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that histology differentiation(P=0.046), tumor invasion(P=0.001), and distant metastasis(P<0.01) were independent prognostic factors for gastric cancer, however the over-expression of SOX9 was not significant(P=0.948).

CONCLUSIONSThe expression SOX9 is associated with the growth, invasion, and metastasis of gastric cancer, as well as the prognosis. However, SOX9 expression is not an independent factor for the prognosis in patients with gastric cancer.

Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Female ; Humans ; Kaplan-Meier Estimate ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies ; SOX9 Transcription Factor ; metabolism ; Stomach Neoplasms ; metabolism ; pathology

OBJECTIVEPersistent replication of hepatitis B virus (HBV) is one of the major obstacles in HBV infection treatment. Reduction or clearance of HBV propagation would be one of the aims of HBV therapy. The drugs approved in clinical used such as nucleotide analogs or interferon, were limited effects on HBV replication. The newly developing gene therapy method, dominant negative mutants, were be used as new promising HBV therapy strategy, and a dominant negative mutant of HBVX gene pRev X-GFP which we have reported in our previous study has some effects both on HBV replication and expression in transient expression, but the effects were interfered by persistent secretion of HBV in HepG2 2.2.15 cells without transfection pRev X-GFP in the experiment. To make sure the effects of dominant negative mutant of pRev X-GFP, we established a HBX DN stable express cell clone, and evaluated the effects of HBX dominant negative mutant on HBV replication.

METHODSThe X gene mutant, in which a specific point mutation of 3'-end ATG to AAG and fused with human green fluorescence protein (GFP) were cloned into pRev TRE vector, assigned to pRev HBX-GFP dominant mutant (pRev X-GFP). And the plasmid contains the wild type X gene or GFP gene was cloned into the same vector to construct pRev Xwt, pRev GFP constructs. All the constructs then transfected into HepG2 2.2.15 cells by liposome. After 7 days resistance selection of hygromycin (300 microg/ml), and cell clones which stable expression HBX-GFP, HBXwt, GFP were obtained. After reseeding of 106 cells of each clones in 12 wells with a 12 well cell plate and another 12 wells 2.2.15 cell were serve as blank control. The cells and media were harvested after cultured in DMEM with 10% FBS for 3 days. HBV-related DNA was assayed by dot blot and Southern blot.

RESULTSThe 100% expression of pRev HBX-GFP, GFP and wild type X constructs were obtained. The stable expressed HBX-GFP can significantly reduce HBV DNA level both in cell media and cells by dot blot and Southern blot analysis, but not for pRev Xwt and pRev GFP.

CONCLUSIONThe dominant negative mutant pRev HBX-GFP can significantly inhibit the HBV gene expression. It also suggested that X gene might be one of promising target for HBV gene therapy.

Carcinoma, Hepatocellular ; pathology ; Cloning, Molecular ; DNA Replication ; Genetic Vectors ; Green Fluorescent Proteins ; genetics ; Hepatitis B virus ; genetics ; physiology ; Humans ; Liver Neoplasms ; pathology ; Point Mutation ; Trans-Activators ; genetics ; Transfection ; Tumor Cells, Cultured ; Virus Replication