Objective: To improve the understanding of the clinical feature and early diagnosis of relapsing polychondritis(RP). Method: Eleven patients with RP were analyzed retrospectively and the reported literatures were reviewed. Result: Nine cases had initial involvement of auricular cartilage while two polyarthritis. The treatment of 2RP patients with respiralory tract involvement was invalid and 1 patient died. Nine cases were initially misdiagnosed, with a misdiagnosis rate of 81.82%. Conclusion: RP involves cartilage and connective tissue. The prognosis with respiralory tract involvement is poor. RP is a sort of paroxysmal and progressive inflammation involving cartilages all over the body with a variety of clinical manifestations. Early diagnosis of RP is based on full understanding of its clinical features.

AIM:To explore the clinical value of combined detection of C-reactive protein ( CRP ) , erythrocyte sedimentation rate ( ESR) and white blood cell ( WBC) count in patients with ocular syphilis.
METHODS:Dates of CRP, ESR, WBC, TPPA and RPR of 51 ophthalmopathy patients caused by syphilis and 50 normal control from Jan. 2012 to Dec. 2015 in eye hospital were recruited and analyzed statistically.
RESULTS:The positive rates of CRP, ESR and WBC of oculopathy patients were 16%, 18% and 39%, respectively, which were higher than those in the control group. In patients group, the positive rate of ESR was higher than CRP and WBC. There were no obvious relationships between RPR titers and positive ratios of CRP, WBC and ESR.
CONCLUSION: The blood level of CRP, WBC and ESR may have certain help in estimating and monitoring condition of patients with ocular syphilis.

Objective To compare the differences between state-owned hospitals and private-funded hospitals in Shanghai on the introduction and application of hospital marketing conception. Methods Questionnaire and interviews were conducted to reflect understandings in marketing conception,advertisements,hospital brand,customers' sense of satisfaction,etc. Results State-owned hospitals were less concerned in marketing conception compared with their private counterparts,even less sufficient in marketing input or management. Conclusion The state-owned hospitals should update their conception and enhance their ability of marketing management.While the private hospitals need to maintain the moderation of marketing and deal with the relationship among marketing,profit and development properly.

Objective To explore the values of diffusion-weighted imaging(DWI)and apparent diffusion coefficient(ADC)measurements in various lesions of multiple sclerosis(MS).Methods Sixty patients with clinically diagnosed remitting-relapsing MS(RRMS)were included to undergo conventional brain MRI and DWI scans.the lesions were included when the diameter was more than 5 mm.mean ADC values were measured for various lesions of MS.The statistical analyses were performed to determine the differences of mean ADC values among various lesions of MS.and to compare the correlation between ADC values of lesions and Expanded Disability Status Scale(EDSS)scores.Results (1)The ADC value of hypointense lesions was significantly higher than that of isointense lesions(F=55.90,P<0.05),the ADC values were(127.5 ±9.3)×10-5mm2/s and(95.7 ±6.3)×10-5mm/s respectively.The nodular enhancing lesions had a significantly lower ADC value than the ring-enhancing lesions(F=64.18,P<0.01).the ADC values were(114.7 ±12.3)×10-5mm2/s and(140.7 ±11.0)×10-5mm2/s respectively.The ADC value of confluent lesions was substantially higher that of discrete lesions(t=9.04,P<0.01).the ADC values were(141.4±6.5)×10-5mm2/s and(105.4±13.9)×10-5mm2/s respectively.(2)No correlation between ADC of lesions and EDSS scores was found(r=0.35,P>0.05).Conclusion DWI and quantitative ADC are useful to explain the pathological changes in different lesions and to monitor the disease duration of MS.

Objective To investigate the brain magnetic resonance imaging(MRI)findings in 33 patients with neuromyelitis optica(NMO).Methods Patients who fulfilled the latest diagnostic criteria of NMO and whose brain MRI did not satisfied with diagnostic criteria of multiple sclerosis(MS)were enrolled.All the patients underwent brain MRI and spinal cord scannings and subsequent images analysis.Results Thirty-three patients with NMO were included to study.Five out of 33(15.2%)patients did not have brain parenchymal abnormalities,28 out of 33 patients(84.8%)were detected to have brain abnormal findings.Brain parenchymal lesions were well-defined in 22 patients(66.7%),no non-specific or atypical brain parenchymal lesions were found in the supratentorium or infratentorium in the other 6 cases(18.2%).However,brain MRI disclosed macroscopic,symmetrical diffuse FLAIR and T2-visible hyperintensity in deep white matter.Fifteen cases had more than one lesion(≥2 lesions),and the other 7 cases had single lesion.Supratentorial lesions were mostly punctate or small dots in nonspecific hyperintensity in juxtacortical,subcortical and deep white matter regions,a few were atypical patches.In the infratentorium,brainstem was an easily involved region(14/33,42.4%),especially in medulla(7/33,21.2%).Conclusions Brain MRI abnormalities are common in Chinese NMO,and brain lesions do not exclude the diagnosis of NMO.The observations of brain lesions are helpful to improve and revise diagnostic criteria of NMO.

Objective To investigate quantitatively the thermal sensation characteristics of the patients with facial palsy and the value of quantitative thermal test (QTT) in prognostication.Methods The QTT threshold of the fore ear and cheek of 30 patients with peripheral facial palsy was tested,their facial nerve conduction velocity was measured,and House-Brackmann facial nerve grading system was used to estimate facial nerve function at 2～3 weeks,a month,two months and half a year post onset.Results It was found that 12 out of 30 patients had abnor- mal QTT threshold value;the majority of them suffered from herpes virus and diabetes.In those with abnormal QTT, 8 were with diabetes mellitus (account for 66.7%),3 with partial shingles (account for 25%),and 1 with positive serum virus infection (account for 8.3%).Those with normal QTT were significantly different from those with abnor- mal QTT,with regard to the House-Brackmann rating scores after 2 and 6 months post onset (P

Objective To investigate the role of stromal cell derived factor-1α (SDF-1α)-laminin (LN) crosstalk in migration and differentiation of neural stem cells (NSCs).Methods Original generation of NSCs collected from 14-day pregnant fetal rats were separated and cultivated, and the phenotype characteristics were identified with immunofluorescence. The third generation of NSCs were collected, and they were divided into four groups: poly-L-lysine (PLL) group, PLL+SDF-1α group, LN group and LN+SDF-1α group. The NSCs in PLL and LN groups were inoculated into plates coated with 0.1 mg/mL PLL or 1 mg/mL LN, and the NSCs in PLL+SDF-1α and LN+SDF-1αgroups were inoculated into plates coated with PLL or LN and 1 mg/mL SDF-1α containing medium. The effect of SDF-1α-LN crosstalk on NSCs migrated numbers was determined by using Transwell cell migration test, and the differentiation of NSCs was determined by immunofluorescence staining.Results Primary NSCs were successfully isolated and cultivated, neurospheres formed at 3-5 days with typical NSCs morphology positively expressing Nestin which was the specific antigen of NSCs. Compared with PLL group, the number of NSCs migration in PLL+SDF-1α group showed no significant change (cells: 3.00±0.99 vs. 2.3±0.67,P > 0.05). Compared with LN group, the number of NSCs migration in LN+SDF-1α group was significantly increased (cells: 85.33±9.61 vs. 31.67±5.86,P < 0.05). Immunofluorescence staining showed that the differentiation rates of PLL and PLL+SDF-1α groups were almost zero, and some early differentiation neurons were detected in LN group with the differentiation rates of (12.50±2.56)%. The differentiation of early neuronal cells was significantly increased after SDF-1α-LN crosstalk, the neuronal differentiation rate was (21.40±3.41)%, and it was significantly higher than that of LN group (P < 0.05).Conclusion SDF-1α crosstalk with LN in extracellular matrix can significantly and synergistically enhance the migration and differentiation of NSCs in vitro.

Objective Bevacizumab ( BM ) is an angiogenesis inhibitor widely used in cancer therapy, but its off-target effect of proteinuria may lead to discontinuation of treatment.This study was to explore the mechanisms of BM inducing proteinuria in mice. Methods Twenty-four healthy mice were randomly divided into four groups, saline control, low-dose BM, medium-dose BM, and high-dose BM, treated by injection of normal saline and BM at 10, 35, and 60 mg per kg of the body weight, respectively, though the tail vein.At 4 weeks after injection, 24-hour urine was collected to determine the total urine protein and blood obtained from the eyeballs for biochemical analysis.Then all the mice were sacrificed and the kidneys harvested for observation of pathologic changes in the glomeruli as well as for immunohistochemistry, Western blotting, and real-time PCR analysis. Results Compared with normal saline,BM obviously elevated the level of 24-hour urine protein, with statistically significant differences between the control and the medium-and high-dose BM groups (0.23 ±0.02 vs 1.14 ±0.13 and 1.43 ±0.10, P<0.01), but not between the control and the low-dose BM (0.23 ±0.02 vs 0.29 ±0.07, P>0.05).No significant differences were observed among the four groups in the levels of Cr, BUN, AST and ALT (P>0.05).Under the optical microscope, the kidneys showed normal structures in the control group, no signifi-cant pathologic changes in the low-dose BM, and vacuolus-like alteration with atrophic glomerular endothelial cells in the medium-and high-dose BM groups.Immunohistochemical analysis demonstrated the expressions of VEGF and podocin were moderately or strongly positive in the control and low-dose BM groups, by weakly positive or negative in the medium-and high-dose BM groups.Compared with the control group, the expression of the VEGF protein in the renal tissue was significantly decreased in the high-dose BM group (0.76 ±0.09 vs 0.39 ±0.05, P<0.01) but had no remarkable difference from that in the low-dose (0.81 ±0.10) or medium-dose BM (0.64 ±0.08) group (P>0.05), and the expression of the podocin protein was significantly reduced in the medium-dose BM (0.67 ±0.07 vs 0.43 ±0.10, P<0.05) and high-dose BM (0.67 ±0.07 vs 0.19 ±0.04, P<0.01), but not in the low-dose BM group (0.67 ±0.03) (P>0.05).The mRNA expressions of VEGF and podocin were not significantly changed in the low-dose BM group as compared with the control (1.07 ±0.61 and 1.12 ±0.09 vs 1.23 ±0.25 and 1.17 ±0.19, P>0.05) but remarkably de-creased in the medium-dose (0.82 ±0.38 and 0.71 ±0.18) and high-dose BM groups and (0.47 ±0.64 and 0.42 ±0.09) groups (P<0.01). Conclusion Bevacizumab damages glomerular filtration membrane and induce proteinuria partially by down-regulating the protein and mRNA expressions of VEGF and podocin.

Objective To investigate the phenotypes and percentages of B 10 cells in different tis-sues from wild-type mice and to identify their biological functions .Methods The percentages of B10 cells derived from different tissues of mice and their responses to lipopolysaccharide ( LPS) stimulation were ana-lyzed by flow cytometry .Magnetic-activated cell sorting ( MACS ) and fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) were used to purify B10 cells, CD4+CD25-T cells and Treg cells.CD4+CD25-T cells and Treg cells labeled by CFSE were co-cultured with or without B10 cells, and then their proliferation were evaluated after 72 h.Results (1) A subset of CD19+CD5+CD1dhigh regulatory B cells was identified in spleen , pe-ripheral blood and lymph nodes from wild-type mice , of which the highest frequency was detected in spleen (3.95%±0.79%, P<0.05).The isolated B cells from different tissues were stimulated by LPS , PMA, ionomycin and monensin (L+PIM) in vitro to express IL-10.Among them, splenic CD19+IL-10+B cells showed the highest expression of IL-10 (P<0.05).(2) Prolonged LPS stimulation (48 h) to CD5+CD1dhigh B cells enhanced the expressions of IL-10 (P<0.01).(3) CD19+CD5+CD1dhigh B cells inhibited the prolif-eration of CD4+CD25-T cells in vitro in a dose-dependent manner (P<0.01), but increased the secretion of IL-10 by CD4+T cells (P<0.01) and the proliferation of Treg cells in vitro (P<0.01).Conclusion Com-pared with other tissues , the percentage of B10 cell subset in spleen is the highest in wild-type mouse , and B10 cells subset can be activated through Toll-like receptor ( TLR ) signaling pathway .The responses of CD4+CD25-T cells and Treg cells in co-culture with B10 cells are regulated by B 10 cell subset through an increased IL-10 production .B10 cells might be a useful cell population for the treatment of inflammatory au-toimmune diseases.

Objective To study the alterations of CD19+CD5+CD1dhigh B, Th1 and Th17 cells in non-obese diabetic ( NOD) mice and the correlation between B10 cells and type 1 diabetes in NOD mice. Methods Flow cytometry ( FCM) was used to measure the levels of CD19+CD5+CD1dhigh B, CD19+IL-10+B, CD4+IFN-γ+Th1, CD4+IL-17+Th17 and CD4+CD25+Foxp3+T cells in NOD mice ( 4 weeks old NOD mice:group A, n=10;8 weeks old NOD mice:group B, n=10; NOD mice with diabetes: group C, n=10) and age-matched C57BL/6 mice ( control group, n=20 ) .Hematoxylin-eosin staining of pancreatic tissues was performed for histopathological assessment of the development of insulitis in NOD mice.Results (1) Histopathological analysis showed that mice from A, B and C groups respectively showed no insulitis, insulitis and obvious insulitis with no intact islets.(2) The highest levels of B10 cells in NOD mice were ob-served in group B, followed by those in group C and group A (P<0.01).No significant differences with the levels of B10 cells were found among different tissues of 4 weeks old NOD mice (P>0.05).More B10 cells were detected in pancreatic lymph nodes than in other tissues of 8 weeks old NOD mice, the levels of which were also higher than those in pancreatic lymph nodes of mice form group C ( P<0.01) .The highest levels of B10 cells were detected in peripheral lymph nodes among all tissues samples collected from NOD mice with diabetes (P<0.01).(3) The levels of Th1 and Th17 cells in mice from group C were remarkably in-creased as compared with those in mice from group A and B (P<0.01).(4) The percentages of CD4+CD25+Foxp3+T cells in mice from group C showed no differences with those in mice from A and B groups. No significant difference with Treg cells were observed between NOD mice and age-matched C57BL/6 mice (P>0.05).Conclusion The percentages and distribution of B10 cells in NOD mice changed with age and the development of insulitis.The decrease of B10 cells might participate in the development of type 1 diabe-tes in NOD mice.