This study investigated the intracellular localization of asparagine synthetase (ASNS) in the relation with chemoresistance in leukemia. pIRES-GFP-ASNS-Flag/Neo expression vector was transiently tansfected into SK-N-MC cells and 297T cells respectively. Immunofluorescence and Western blot analysis were performed for cellular localization of ASNS respectively. U937 cells were treated with L-asparaginase for 48 h and examined for endogenous ASNS expression on plasma membrane by immunofluorescence staining. Immunofluorescence staining showed that the transiently expressed ASNS was partly localized on transfected-SK-N-MC cell surface. Moreover, Western blotting exhibited that ASNS expressed both in cytosol and on plasma membrane of transfected-293T cells. Immunofluorescence staining with anti-ASNS-specific monoclonal antibody revealed that endogenous ASNS was localized on the plasma membrane of U937 cells, except for its distribution in the cytosol. In addition, ASNS exhibited a higher expression on plasma membrane after treatment with L-asparaginase as compared with the untreated cells. It was concluded that the subcellular translocation of ASNS may play an important role in L-asparaginase resistance in leukemia cells.

OBJECTIVETo learn about the photosynthetic characteristics of Sarcandra glabra and provide the theoretic references for its better planting.

METHODThe photosynthetic parameters of twenty different provenances of Sarcandra glabra were determined by Li-6400 portable photosynthesis system, and the data was analyzed by Excel and SAS software.

RESULTThe results showed that the light saturation point of different Provenances of S. glabra were almost about 800 micromol x m(-2) x s(-1), while the light compensation point of them were from 14.70 micromol x m(-2) x s(-1) to 48.68 micromol x m(-2) x s(-1). The curve of net photosynthetic rate had two peaks on sunny day, the first one was in the morning and the other one was in the afternoon. The photosynthetic "noon- break" of S. glabra appeared between 11:00-13:00, when the net photosynthetic rate goes down sharply. Intercellular CO2 concentration (C(i)), CO2 concentration (CO2S) and transpiration rate (T(r)) all have effect on the diurnal change of net photosynthetic rate (P(n)) of S. glabra, and the average correlation coefficient between P(n) and the parameters above were orderly as -0.89 (P < 0.01), -0.75 (P < 0.05) and 0.69 (P < 0.05);

CONCLUSIONS. glabra was a plant with characteristics of shade-tolerance, and through the way of covering, sprinkling for decreasing the surrounding temperature would be effective to reduce its "noon-break" time and increas its efficiency of photosynthesis.

Magnoliopsida ; classification ; physiology ; radiation effects ; Photosynthesis ; radiation effects ; Phylogeny ; Sunlight

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is considered to be a malignancy that is intrinsically resistant to methotrexate (MTX). As compared to acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) blasts, AML blasts, except those of acute monocytic leukemia (AML-M(5)), form fewer amounts of long chain polyglutamate of MTX (MTXPG), when incubated with MTX, thus providing an explanation for their lack of responsiveness to MTX. To explore the novel approach of treatment in patients with AML-M(5), the U937 cell line, which has the monocytic characters, was used. Cell growth inhibition was mearsured by XTT assay after 24 and 48 hours in the continuous presence of various concentrations of MTX ranging from 1 nmol/L to 100 micro mol/L. After 24 hours MTX treatment, the IC(50) value for U937 cells was 0.04 micro mol/L. After 48 hours treatment, the IC(50) was 0.037 micro mol/L and IC(90) was 0.39 micro mol/L. To understand the mechanism of MTX cytotoxicity, the process of cell death was analyzed. A variety of assays, including trypan blue exclusion, flow cytometry, light microscopy (Wright's staining) and DNA fragment electrophoresis, were performed. There were no significant apoptotie changes after shorter exposure of MTX (4 and 6 hours). After 8 hours at various concentrations of MTX treatment ranging from 5 nmol/L to 10 micro mol/L, the percentage of the cells in the pre-G(1) (apoptotic) was 3.2% at 0.1 micro mol/L and it reached a peak of 18.2% at 5.0 micro mol/L. The DNA synthesis in S-phase was inhibited from 41.2% (0.01 micro mol/L) to 19.1% (10 micro mol/L). DNA ladder band, a feature of apoptosis, was observed. The arrest of cell growth and apoptotic properties induced by MTX have lead to its evaluation as a potentially therapeutic agent in the treatment of AML-M(5).

OBJECTIVESpecies containing extremely aromatic compounds in leaves of Chimonanthus was analyzed to evaluate its genetic diversity and genetic relationships.

METHODAFLP molecular marker technique was used in the study, UPGMA cluster analysis was conducted with the software of POPGENE32.

RESULTSFive hundred and fifty-nine bands were amplified by 10 pairs of primers screened, of which 226 bands were polymorphic, and the percentage of polymorphic bands was 36.8%. Observed number of alleles, effective number of alleles, Nei's genetic diversity index and Shannon's information index were 1.992 6, 1.306 5, 0.199 2 and 0.325 1, respectively. Genetic distances of the 21 populations were ranged from 0.039 2 to 0.289 4.

CONCLUSIONSpecies containing extremely aromatic compounds in leaves of Chimonanthus with low genetic diversity play an important role in enhancing the protection of species and germplasm resources. Form the molecular level, the studies demonstrated the correctness of the result by Zhang Ruohui that species containing extremely aromatic compounds in leaves of Chimonanthus were divided into Ch. salicifolius, Ch. Zhejiangensis, Ch. nitens and Ch. grammatus.

Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism Analysis ; Calycanthaceae ; classification ; genetics ; DNA, Plant ; genetics ; Genetic Variation ; genetics

Objectives To evaluate the long-term outcomes of childhood low-or intermediate-risk neuroblastoma (NB) and their relevant prognostic factors. Methods A total of 70 new cases of low-or intermediate-risk NB diagnosed and treated by NB-99 protocol between 1999 and 2008 were analyzed retrospectively. Results Of these 70 NB patients, fourteen patients were in low-risk group and 56 were in intermediate-risk group. Sixty-seven patients reached complete remission (CR) or very good partial remission and 3 (5%) achieved partial remission. Ten patients relapsed. One patient occured second malignant neo-plasm. No patients died of chemotherapy-related adverse events or infections. The 5 year overall survival rate was 85.9%, event-free survival rate was 81.0%. Bone marrow infiltration, age at diagnosis, stage, lactate dehydrogenase level had a significant effect on prognosis. Conclusion Develop cytogenetic and molecular biology tests and pretreatment risk stratification are im-portant for further improvement of treatment protocol.

Health service is an important part of the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta. Taking the cooperation practice between Shanghai Tenth People′s Hospital and Suzhou Yinshanhu Hospital as an example, this article introduced the multi-agent cooperation mode of the loose medical alliance including the government, urban hospitals and cross provincial grassroots medical institutions. Among them, the local government provided policy, fund guarantee and guidance, the urban hospital exported management ideas, medicine talents and technologies, and the primary hospital conducted dual training by inviting in and going out to achieve double growth. Through the high gap cooperation between tertiary hospital and primary hospital, Yinshanhu hospital had been comprehensively developed. The loose medical alliance with multi subject coordination and cross region could give full play to the advantages of the loose healthcare alliance mode, achieve multi-win, and have reference significance for promoting the regional integration of medical and health services in the Yangtze River Delta.

The cross regional loose medical alliance is an important carrier in the current integrated development process of medical services in the Yangtze River Delta region. Smith policy implementation process model was used to analyze the development difficulties of cross regional loose medical alliances from idealized policies, policy implementation institutions, policy target groups, and policy implementation environment. Such medical alliances were formed under the background of integrated development in the Yangtze River Delta, with Shanghai′s tertiary public hospitals as leading units and medical institutions in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui provinces as member units. Analysis showed that the policies for such medical alliances development had not yet clearly defined the organizational management mode, operational mechanism, and implementation path, and the corporate governance structure of medical alliance was immature; The policy implementation agencies were relatively lagging behind in the support of special funds and the formulation of related supporting policies; Participation of policy target groups was insufficient and their incentive mechanisms was imperfect; There were problems in the policy implementation environment, namely inconsistent medical and health service regulations and systems in different regions, different health financing capabilities of local governments, insufficient coordination of medical institution management concepts, and a lack of unified standards in information systems. Based on the above difficulties, this study proposed to strengthen the development planning and layout of cross regional loose medical alliances, and improve the corporate governance structure; To strengthen the government′s main responsibility and improving policy implementation capabilities; To improve the internal cooperation and operation mechanism of cross regional loose medical alliances, and enhance the sense of identity of the target group; To optimize the policy implementation environment and implement various support measures, so as to provide references for further promoting the coordinated development of high-quality medical resources in the Yangtze River Delta region.

OBJECTIVEMucopolysaccharidosis(MPS) is a congenital hereditary disease. Only a few patients with this disease can be controlled by enzyme replacement therapy. Most of them are short of effective interference. To exploit the effect of treatment with allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, two children were treated with the transplantation.

METHODSThe two patients included a 23 month MPS-IH and an 18 month old MPS-VI at the time of transplantation. Busulfan of 20 mg/kg plus 200 mg of Cyclophosphamide were used as the conditioning regimen. Peripheral stem cells were collected from a 9/10 high resolution matched unrelated donor and a matched sibling carrier donor, respectively. The heart and lung were affected in the patient with MPS-IH. Medium obstructed pulmonary impairment was found by pulmonary function test at the time of transplantation. Medium mitral valve countercurrent and patent ductus arteriosis(PDA) were found by Doppla examination.

RESULTSThe number of hematopoietic stem cells was comparative between the two donors with total nucleated cells and CD34+ cells of 11 x 10(8)/kg and 17 x 10(8)/kg, and 7.6 x 10(6)/kg and 7.2x 10(6)/kg respectively. Neutrophil engrafted at day 11. The process of transplantation in the MPS-VI patient went smoothly with grade II graft versus host disease(GVHD) briefly and only 1 U RBC and 2 U platelet were transfused. For the MPS-IH patient, the process of transplantation was tough with platelet reaching to 20 x 10(9)/L till day 40 and 5 U RBC and 7 U platelet were transfused during transplantation. Grade III GVHD was resolved by steroid, mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) and CD25 antibody. Pneumonia recurred 3 times with 2 times rescued by trachea intubation and mechanical ventilation because of accompanying acute heart failure. At day 14 the lymphocytes in both patients were 100% from donors as evidenced by short tandem repeat-PCR(STR-PCR). MPS associated enzyme activity was increased to 70 nmol/h.mg and 66 nmol/h.mg at 3 month and still remained 50.9 nmol/h.mg and 44.5 nmol/h.mg at 2 years post transplantation. Till now the 2 patients have been followed up for 25 months and 28 months with good general condition. The cardiac and pulmonary functions have improved obviously in the MPS-IH patient. The cornea became clear in this patient.

CONCLUSIONAllogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is an effective measure to treat patient with MPS-IH and MPS-VI. Transplantation at earlier stage of age can decrease transplant related complications. It requires longer time follow up for observing the clinical effects for these patients.

Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Graft vs Host Disease ; drug therapy ; etiology ; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation ; adverse effects ; methods ; Humans ; Infant ; Intraoperative Complications ; drug therapy ; etiology ; Male ; Mucopolysaccharidoses ; enzymology ; pathology ; physiopathology ; surgery ; Recovery of Function ; Transplantation, Homologous

This study investigated the intracellular localization of asparagine synthetase (ASNS) in the relation with chemoresistance in leukemia.pIRES-GFP-ASNS-Flag/Neo expression vector was transiently tansfected into SK-N-MC cells and 297T cells respectively.Immunofluorescence and Western blot analysis were performed for cellular localization of ASNS respectively.U937 cells were treated with L-asparaginase for 48 h and examined for endogenous ASNS expression on plasma membrane by immunofluorescence staining.Immunofluorescence staining showed that the transiently expressed ASNS was partly localized on transfected-SK-N-MC cell surface.Moreover,Western blotting exhibited that ASNS expressed both in cytosol and on plasma membrane of transfected-293T cells.Immunofluo-rescence staining with anti-ASNS-specific monoclonal antibody revealed that endogenous ASNS was localized on the plasma membrane of U937 cells,except for its distribution in the cytosol.In addition,ASNS exhibited a higher expression on plasma membrane after treatment with L-asparaginase as compared with the untreated cells.It was concluded that the subcellular translocation of ASNS may play an important role in L-asparaginase resistance in leukemia cells.

OBJECTIVETo analyze clinical manifestations and genetic mutation in a child with severe short stature and other malformations.

METHODSThe child has undergone history taking and physical examination. Genome DNA was extracted from peripheral blood samples of the proband and her family members. Candidate genes were captured with Agilent SureSelect and sequenced on an Illumina platform. Suspected mutation was verified by Sanger sequencing.

RESULTSThe patient, a six-year-and-10-month old girl, presented with non-symmetrical short stature, dysmorphism, abnormalities of limbs and spine, amblyopia of left eye, and cataract of right eye, in addition with frequent respiratory infection and micturition. Laboratory testing suggested 25-hydroxy vitamin D deficiency (18.9 ng/mL). Spine X-ray showed multiple malformations with centrums. Her mother also featured short stature (138 cm). Her aunt had short stature (130 cm) and limb-length discrepancy. Her little brother was 2.5 years old, and his height was 81 cm (-3.4 SD). Exome sequencing revealed a heterozygous mutation c.184C to T (p.Arg62Trp) in the proband and her mother. The same mutation was not found in her father and brother.

CONCLUSIONThe patient was diagnosed with X-linked chondrodysplasia punctata 2. Mutation of the EBP gene probably underlied the disease in this family.