Acupuncture Therapy ; Female ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Ventricular Premature Complexes ; therapy

Objective To evaluate the diagnostic value of virtual touch tissue quantification (VTQ) for nonpalpable breast masses.Methods Two hundred and one nonpalpable breast masses in 176 women who had been scheduled for a sonographically guided core biopsy or operation were examined with the B-mode sonography and VTQ.The pathologic diagnosis was used as the golden standard.The diagnostic performances of the two methods were evaluated with receiver operating characteristic curve(ROC).Results The mean shear wave velocity (SWV) measurement values were (6.17 ± 1.95)m/s in malignant masses and (3.39± 1.82)m/s in benign masses(P ＜0.01),respectively.The area under the ROC curve was 0.789 for the VTQ and 0.840 for the BI-RADS-US,respectively.No statistically difference was found between them.The area under the ROC curve of the combination of the two methods was 0.934,the diagnostic performance of the combination was better than that of BLRADS-US(P ＜0.01)and VTQ alone (P ＜0.01).Conclusions VTQ is a good method for diagnosing nonpalpable breast lesions.The combination of BI-RADS-US and VTQ has better diagnostic perform ance for differentiation of nonpalpable breast lesions,which has important value in clinical application.

Coronary Artery Disease ; Humans ; Osteoprotegerin

Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Female ; Heavy Metal Poisoning ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Poisoning ; diagnosis ; therapy ; Prognosis ; Thallium ; poisoning ; Treatment Outcome ; Young Adult

Objective　To observe the effects and mechanism of TNFα and IL-1 on protein catabolism of skeletal muscles of mice in the early stage of severe burn. Methods　A BALB/c mice model was established with full thickness scalded of 18%～20% TBSA including the back and one hind limb. The catabolic rate of protein of soleus muscle was reflected with the net tyrosine releasing rate. The changes of the tyrosine releasing rates of the injured and uninjured limbs, the levels of TNFα and IL-1 of the plasma and soleus muscle, and the activities of lysosomal proteolytic enzymes were observed in 72 h after scald injury of the mice. Results　After injury, the levels of TNFα and IL-1 of plasma, injured and uninjured limbs were all increased, and reached the summit at the 48th h, but those of the injured limb were much higher than those of the uninjured one, then gradually the levels were decreased in 72 h. The protein catabolic rate of uninjured limb was higher than the normal at h 48, but it came to normal level at h 72. The rate of the injured limb was higher than that of normal and uninjured limbs significantly 72 h after the scalding. hrTNFα and hrIL-1 enhanced the protein catabolic rate and the activities of lysosomal protrolytic enzymes in the soleus muscle of normal mice in vivo and in vitro respectively. Conclusion　In the early stage of scald injury, TNFα and IL-1 could enhance the lysosomal protease activity, increase the protein catabolic rate in skeletal muscle and promote the negative nitrogen balance directly. These effects may not depend on the actions of emergent hormones.

Background Vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF) has been shown to be associated with the pathogenesis of age-related macular degeneration (AMD),therefore VEGF is a target for the treatment of wet AMD.However,the mechanism of VEGF in the pathogenesis of AMD is not clearly understood.Studying the correlation between VEGF gene polymorphism and AMD is becoming a new research hotspot,but relevant studies on Han Chinese have not been performed.Objective This study was to investigate the association between the VEGF +936C/T gene polymorphism and AMD in the Chinese population.Methods A pilot prospective and nonrandomized controlled trial was designed.This protocol complied with Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the Ethic Committee of Chinese PLA Second Artillery General Hospital.Written informed consent was obtained from each subject prior to entering the study.Two hundred AMD patients and 200 age-and gender-matched normal controls were enrolled in this study.The genomic DNA was extracted from the peripheral blood samples of the subjects,and analysis of the VEGF polymorphisms at the +936 position in the promoter and 3＇-untranslated regions was performed by the restriction fragment length polymorphism method.Frequencies of the VEGF+936C/T genotype were compared between the two groups,and the risk of the VEGF+936C/T gene polymorphism in pre-disposing AMD was evaluated.Results No significant differences were seen in the incidence rates of smoking(P ＝ 0.76),hypertension(P ＝ 0.84),hyperlipidemia (P=0.71),diabetes mellitus (P=0.86) and cardiovascular disease(P=0.89) between the AMD group and the normal control group,and BMI was matched between the two groups (P =0.18).The prevalence of the TT genotype was 9.0％ (18/200)in the AMD group,but that in the normal control was 3.5％ (7/200),showing a significant difference between the two groups (P =0.03).The odds ratio (OR) was 2.73 with a 95％ confidence interval(CI) of 1.11 to 6.68 for AMD in this genotype.The CC and CT genotypes were not significantly different between the two groups (P =0.52,P =0.57).The genotype frequency and allele frequency conformed to HardyWeinberg equilibrium law.There were no significant differences found in the CC,CT,TT genotype frequencies among the early AMD,geographic atrophy AMD and choroidal neovascular AMD (all at P＞0.05).Conclusions The VEGF+936TT genotype is associated with AMD in Han Chinese population.

To study the effect of miR-490 on Coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) replication, HeLa cells were trans- fected with miR-490 in vitro, and infected with a Renilla luciferase (RLuc)-expressing CVB3 variant (RLuc-CVB3). The activities of RLuc in these cells were measured at 8h intervals from 0 to 40 h post-infection (p.i.), and the effects of miR-490 on RLuc-CVB3 replication were observed. In a further study, HeLa cells were transfected with either miR-490 or antisense miR-490 (AMO-miR-490), and were then infected with an enhanced green fluorescence protein (EGFP)-expressing CVB3 variant (EGFP-CVB3). The replication of EGFP-CVB3 was then determined by detecting the expression of EGFP. We observed that miR-490 could significantly inhibit the expression of RLuc in infected cells at 32 h p. i. Furthermore, in HeLa cells infected with EGFP-CVB3 at 32 h p.i., EGFP expression was also significantly inhibited by the presence of mniR-490. The inhibitory effect of miR-490 on EGFP expression in EGFP-CVB3-infected cells could be reversed by tranfection with AMQ-miR-490. These results indicated that miR-490 significantly inhibits the replication and expression of QVB3.
Enterovirus B, Human ; genetics ; physiology ; Enterovirus Infections ; genetics ; metabolism ; virology ; HeLa Cells ; Humans ; MicroRNAs ; genetics ; metabolism ; Virus Replication

There exist a number of mercury-resistant bacterial in environment, Mer operon is involved in the resistant mechanism, MerRTPA of Mer operon encodes the proteins related to the regulation, transport and reduction of mercury ion, respectively. The toxic mercury ion is transported by MerTP from medium to cytoplasmic mercuric reductase, MerA, and deoxidized to non-toxic and volatile element mercury, Hg(0). Bacterial mercury-resistant system originated from ancient times, and evolved into the Mer operon with diversity by gene integration and insertion. Mercury-resistant bacteria highly specifically absorb mercury ion, and can be used in recovering the mercury-polluted environment as well as the genetic selective marker.

Aim To explore the effects of clausenamide(Clau) on hippocampal heme oxygenase(HO-1 and HO-2) expressions in diabetic rats.Methods The diabetic rats model was produced by injecting streptozotocin (48 mg?kg-1). After 3 months,the HO-1 and HO-2 mRNA and protein expressions in hippocampus of diabetic rats were detected by RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry respectively.Results ① The results of RT-PCR showed that the protein expressions of HO-1 and HO-2 mRNA in hippocampus of diabetic group were higher than those of control group(P

NDV strain ZJ1 strain , a highly virulent NDV strain, has been prevalent among the waterfowls in China mainland in the past years. Multi-basic amino acid sequence distribute in the protease cleavage site of F protein of this strain. Recombinant expressing plasmid pCI-FT, was generated by converting multi-basic amino acid sequence of 112, 115, 117 of the protease cleavage site of F_ 0 protein, to the non-basic amino acid sequence characteristic of avirulent NDV strain. The result from co-expression of mutant or parental F protein with homologous HN protein in COS-1 cells revealed that both mutant and parental F protein had fusion activity. The result from co-expression of mutant or parental F protein with homologous HN protein in CEF cells showed that the cleavage activity of mutant F protein was significantly reduced. The study built a foundation for mutagenesis of amino acid sequence of the protease cleavage site of F_ 0 protein at the full-length cDNA clone level, study on factors contributing to virulence and construction of candidate vaccine strain, and so on.