This newly-emerging field uses tissue-specific cells in a three-dimensional organization, provided by a scaffolding material, to return functionality of the organ. For these applications, the choice of scaffolding material is crucial to the success of the technique. In addition to the chemical properties of the material, physical properties such as surface area for cell attachment are essential. Various methods of creating pores in these materials to increase surface area are reviewed here. Scaffolds formed using the different techniques, which include fiber bonding, solvent casting/particulate leaching, gas foaming and phase separation, are compared on the basis of porosity, pore size, and promotion of tissue growth.
Absorbable Implants ; Biocompatible Materials ; Lactic Acid ; chemistry ; Polyesters ; Polyglycolic Acid ; chemistry ; Polymers ; chemistry ; Surface Properties ; Tissue Engineering

OBJECTIVEAccurate segmentation of lung fields in chest radiographs (CXR) is very useful for automatic analysis of CXR. In this work, we propose to use dense matching of local features and label fusion to automatically segment the lung fields in CXR.

METHODSFor an input CXR, the dense Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) descriptors and raw image patches were extracted as the local features for each pixel. The nearest neighbors of the local features were then quickly searched by dense matching directly from the whole feature dataset of the reference images. The dense matching included three steps: limited random initialization, propagation of nearest neighbor field, and limited random search, with iteration of the last two steps for several times. The label image patches for each pixel were extracted according to the nearest neighbor field and weighted by the matching similarity. Finally, the weighted label patches were rearranged as the label class probability image of the input CXR, from which thresholds were obtained for segmentation of the lung fields.

RESULTSThe Jaccard index of the proposed method reached 95.5% on the public JSRT dataset.

CONCLUSIONA high accuracy and robustness can be obtained by adopting dense matching of local features and label fusion to segment the lung fields in CXR, and the result is better than that of current segmentation method.

Algorithms ; Cluster Analysis ; Humans ; Lung ; Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted ; Radiography, Thoracic

OBJECTIVETo clone the full-length cDNA of a gene responsible for vascular smooth muscle cell (v-SMC) proliferation in atherogenesis, and study its function.

METHODSOxidized low density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) at optimal concentration was used as the stimulant to induce v-SMC proliferation in culture medium. A cDNA subtractive library of v-SMC proliferation specific to ox-LDL stimulation was established using subtractive hybridization technique. Methods, including blotting, Northern hybridization and gene sequencing, were used to clone new gene fragments. By using full-length cDNA screening and protein expression techniques, one full-length cDNA was cloned and its function was studied.

RESULTSOne full-length cDNA was cloned. The new gene (Genbank AF 174647) expressed a 44 kDa protein, which might be associated with the activity of ox-LDL.

CONCLUSIONThe new gene cloned may be associated with SMC proliferation in atherogenesis.

Amino Acid Sequence ; Arteriosclerosis ; genetics ; Base Sequence ; Blotting, Northern ; Cell Division ; drug effects ; Cells, Cultured ; Cloning, Molecular ; Gene Library ; Humans ; Lipoproteins, LDL ; pharmacology ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Muscle, Smooth, Vascular ; cytology ; drug effects ; Nucleic Acid Hybridization

Objective: To investigate the protective effect and mechanism of Xuebijing (XBJ) on paraquat (PQ) -induced apoptosis in Human kidney cell line-2 (HK-2) cells. Methods: Routinely cultured HK-2 cells, (1) Cell growth inhibition experiment after PQ and XBJ intervention: PQ was divided into 0、200、400、800、1600 and 3200 μmol/L PQ groups, and the cell survival rate was detected after intervening 24、48 and 72 h. XBJ was divided into 0、5、10、20、40 mg/ml XBJ groups, and the cell survival rate was detected after intervening 24、48 and 72 h.To determine the rational drug concentration and the duration of action of XBJ and PQ. (2) PQ-induced HK-2 cell growth inhibition experiment antagonized by XBJ: The cells were divided into normal control group, PQ group (800 μmol/L) and PQ+XBJ group (The cells were pretreated with 5、10 and 20 mg/ml XBJ for 1 h, then cultured with PQ of 800 μmol/L) , After cultured 24 h、48 h and 72 h separately, the cell survival rate was detected. (3) HK-2 cells were divided into normal control group、PQ group (800 μmol/L PQ cultured for 24 h) 、PQ+XBJ group (pretreated with 10 mg/ml XBJ for 1 h, and then 800 μmol/L PQ cultured for 24 h) and XBJ group (10 mg/ml XBJ cultured 24 h). The apoptosis of cells was detected by flow cytometry. The protein expression of Bcl-2 and BAX in each group was detected by Western blotting. The expressions of caspase-3 and caspase-9 were detected by caspase-3 and caspase-9 activity kit active. Results: (1) PQ could significantly reduced the survival rate of HK-2 cells and showed time and concentration dependence. The survival rate of HK-2 cells was about 55% after 800 μmol/L PQ contacted 24 h, XBJ under 20 mg/ml was no significant effect on the survival rate of HK-2 cells after cultured 72 h. (2) Compared with the PQ group, the survival rate of HK-2 cells of PQ+XBJ group was significantly increased (P<0.05). (3) Compared with the normal control group, the cell apoptosis rate of PQ group was significantly increased (P<0.05). Compared with the PQ group, the cell apoptosis rate of PQ+XBJ group was significantly decreased (P<0.05). (4) Compared with the normal control group, Bcl-2 protein expression in PQ group was significantly decreased and BAX protein expression in PQ group was significantly increased (P<0.05) ; compared with PQ group, Bcl-2 protein expression in PQ+XBJ group was significantly increased, BAX protein expression in PQ+XBJ group was significantly decreased (P<0.05). (5) Compared with the normal control group, the activities of caspase-3 and caspase-9 in PQ group were significantly increased (P<0.05). Compared with PQ group, the activities of caspase-3 and caspase-9 in PQ+XBJ group were decreased significantly (P<0.05) . Conclusion XBJ (10 mg/ml) has obvious protective effect on HK-2 cell injuried by PQ (800 μmol/L) , It can improve the survival rate of cells through reducing the apoptosis of HK-2 cells which induced by PQ.

Objective:To evaluate the preoperative localization value of endoscopic ultrasound guided fine needle tattooing (EUS-FNT) for laparoscopic distal pancreatectomy in pancreatic lesions with a maximum diameter ≤3 cm.Methods:From November 2017 to October 2022, at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, the data of patients with pancreatic lesions ≤3 cm who underwent laparoscopic distal pancreatectomy were retrospectively analyzed. Eight patients who underwent EUS-FNT assisted laparoscopic distal pancreatectomy were included in the fine needle tattooing (FNT) combined laparoscopic group. And 14 patients who underwent simple laparoscopic distal pancreatectomy were taken as the simple laparoscopic group. The success rate and complications of EUS-FNT were observed. The differences in operation time, surgery-related complications and complete resection rate of lesions between the two groups were compared. Mann-Whitney U test and descriptive analysis were used for statistical analysis. Results:In the FNT combined laparoscopic group, the lesions of 4 cases were located in the pancreatic body and 4 cases in the pancreatic tail. In the simple laparoscopic group, the lesions of 4 cases were located in the pancreatic body and 10 cases in the pancreatic tail. There was a significant difference in lesion size between the two groups (14.5 mm (10.8 mm, 16.5 mm) vs. 27.0 mm (23.5 mm, 30.0 mm), Z=-3.09, P=0.001). In the FNT combined laparoscopic group, EUS-FNT was successfully performed in all 8 patients. The average time of laparoscopy after EUS-FNT was (98.4±8.8) min. The marks were clearly visible under the laparoscopic field of view, and no complications such as abdominal hemorrhage and hematoma were observed. Laparoscopic pancreaticocaudectomy was performed in 5 cases and pancreaticocaudectomy plus splenectomy in 3 cases. The median operation time was 192.5 min (176.3 min, 203.8 min). The amount of intraoperative bleeding was large in 2 patients and blood transfusion was needed. The lesions were one-time completely resected in all 8 patients. The postoperative pathology were 6 cases of pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasm, 1 case of intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN), and 1 case of solid pseudopapilloma. In the simple laparoscopic group, laparoscopic pancreaticocaudectomy was performed in 2 cases and pancreaticocaudectomy plus splenectomy in 12 cases. The median operation time was 202.5 min (192.8 min, 235.0 min), which was longer than that of FNT combined laparoscopic group, but the difference was not statistically significant ( P>0.05). The amount of intraoperative bleeding was large in 2 patients and blood transfusion was needed. In 1 patient with pancreatic body lesions, no lesion was found in the specimen examination after the first pancreatectomy, and the lesions were completely resected after the second partial pancreatectomy. Active abdominal hemorrhage occurred in 1 patient on the second day after operation, and underwent interventional embolization for hemostasis. Two weeks after surgery, 1 patient was found to have a encapsulated fluid with a long diameter of 6 cm around the pancreas by computed tomography re-examination 2 weeks after surgery. The postoperative pathology were 5 cases of pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasm, 2 cases of IPMN, 1 case of solid pseudopapilloma, 1 case of pancreatic cyst with glandular low-grade intraepithelial neoplasia, 1 case of ectopic spleen, and 4 cases of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Conclusion:EUS-FNT can effectively localize small pancreatic lesions before laparoscopic distal pancreatectomy, shorten the operation time and improve the complete resection rate under laparoscopy.

ObjectiveTo compare the efficacy and safety of acupuncture combined with auricular acupoints patches and nicotine transdermal patch in treating moderate to severe nicotine dependence. MethodsIn a rando-mized controlled trial， 64 quit smoking voluntary subjects with moderate to severe nicotine dependence were randomly divided at a ratio of 1∶1 into a treatment group and a control group， with 32 cases in each group. The treatment group was given acupuncture combined with auricular acupoints patches， twice weekly， four weeks as a course for two courses. The control group was given nicotine transdermal patch， one patch per day for 24 hours， 8 weeks. The cure rate was assessed after treatment and at follow-up （the 16th week after treatment）.The daily smoking volume， exhaled carbon monoxide （CO） value， Nicotine Dependence Scale （FTND）， Minnesota Nicotine Withdrawal Symptoms Scale （MNWS）， and Pittsburgh Sleepiness Index Inventory （PSQI） were evaluated before and after treatment and at follow-up， and adverse effects were recorded. ResultsIn terms of the cure rate， there were both six cured cases （20%） after treatment and at follow-up in the treatment group， while in the control group， seven （23.3%） and five （16.7%） patients were cured after treatment and at follow-up， respectively， with no statistically significant differences between the two groups both after treatment and at follow-up （P＞0.05）. The daily smoking volume and exhaled CO value significantly decreased after treatment and at follow-up in both groups （P＜0.05）， but were not significantly different between the groups after treatment and at follow-up （P＞0.05）. After treatment and at follow-up， FTND， MNWS， and PSQI scores were significantly reduced in both groups compared with those before treatment （P＜0.05）. There was no statistically significant difference in the FTND scale scores between the two groups after treatment and at follow-up （P＞0.05）， while the MNWS and PSQI scale scores were lower in the treatment group than in the control group （P＜0.05）. ConclusionAcupuncture combined with auricular acupoint patches for moderate to severe nicotine dependence has comparable effect with the first-line drug nicotine patch in terms of increasing the cure rate and decreasing the degree of nicotine dependence， and is superior to nicotine patch in terms of relieving withdrawal symptoms and improving sleep， with stable long-term effect.