Objective To explore the application value of real time three-dimensional echocardiography (RT-3DE) on right ventricular systolic function in patients with moderate and severe pulmonary hypertension (PH).Methods Twenty-five patients with moderate PH (group Ⅱ) and 25 patients with severe PH(group Ⅲ) were selected,30 normal cases were selected to be control group(group Ⅰ).Tricuspid annular systolic peak velocity (S'),right ventricular Tei index(RIMP),tricuspid annular planet systolic excursion(TAPSE) and right ventricular fractional area change(RVFAC) were measured by conventional ultrasound echocardiography.Right ventricular end diastolic volume (RVEDV),right ventricular end systolic volume (RVESV),right ventricular stroke volume (RVSV) and right ventricular ejection fraction (RVEF) were measured by RT-3DE.The correlation between all the parameters and pulmonary artery systolic blood pressure (PASP),and the correlation between RVEF and S',RIMP,TAPSE,RVFAC were analyzed respectively.Results The differences of RVEDV,RVESV,TAPSE,RVFAC in each group were all statistically significant (all P ＜0.01);RIMP,RVEF between group Ⅰ and group Ⅱ,as well as between group Ⅰ and group Ⅲ were statistically significant (all P ＜0.01);S',RVSV only between group Ⅰ and group Ⅲ was statistically significant (P ＜0.01).The correlation coefficients of RVEF and RIMP,S',TAPSE,RVFAC were-0.707,0.402,0.574,0.763,respectively (all P ＜ 0.01).The best parameters associated with RVEF in each group were RVFAC,RIMP,RVFAC,which correlation coefficients were 0.787,-0.679,0.744,respectively (all P ＜0.01).Conclusions RT-3DE is a objective and accurate method to evaluate the right ventricular volume and RVEF in patients with moderate and severe PH,and it can select out the sensitive indicators to evaluate those patients' right ventricular systolic function from conventional echocardiographic parameters,provide important reference value for clinical.

Objective To investigate the role of interleukin-1 receptor type 1 (IL-1R1) signaling in H1N1 influenza virus infection. Methods IL-1R1 knockout ( IL-1R1-/-) mice and wild type ( WT) mice were infected intranasally with 2×104 TCID50(50% tissue culture infective dose) of influenza virus H1N1 PR8. Changes in clinical signs, survivals and bodyweights of those mice were monitored daily for 14 consecutive days. Three mice from each group were sacrificed at 3, 7 and 14 days post infection (d. p. i), from which whole lungs were harvested. A part of the lobes was fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde for histopatho-logical assessment and the rest were split and stored at-80 centigrade for further analysis. Real-time quanti-tative PCR and cytometric bead array ( CBA) were performed to detect viral loads in lungs and inflammatory cytokines in supernatants of lung homogenates. Results The mice in both groups showed severe symptoms after the infection of PR8. The maximum bodyweight loss of IL-1R1-/- mice [(24. 22±0. 80) % at 8 d. p. i] was lower than that of WT mice [(28. 03±1. 51)% at 9 d. p. i] (P<0. 05). The IL-1R1-/- mice with PR8 infection showed a higher survival rate (90%) as compared with that of the control group (40%) (P<0. 05). No statistical differences in virus loads were observed between the two groups at 3, 7 and 14 d. p. i. The lung weight to body weight ratio of IL-1R1-/-mice [(1. 42±0. 03) %] was lower than that of WT mice [(1. 79±0. 08) %] at 3 d. p. i (P<0. 05). Pathological changes in IL-1R1-/- mice were less severe than those in WT mice. CBA detection assay revealed that the proinflammatory cytokines in lungs of IL-1R1-/-mice were less than those in WT mice. Conclusion IL-1R1 signaling plays a pathogenic role in mice infec-ted with 2×104 TCID50 of influenza virus PR8 by promoting inflammatory responses.

Objective:To explore the application value of non-invasive pressure-strain loop (PSL) in evaluating left ventricular systolic function of young strength athletes with different heart rates.Methods:Thirty-five young wrestlers were collected randomly and divided into 2 groups according to the heart rate: group 1 (heart rate of 40-59 beats/min, n=20) and group 2 (heart rate of 60-80 beats/min, n=15). Thirty healthy young males were selected as the control group at the same period. Non-invasive PSL was used to obtain left ventricular global longitudinal strain (GLS), longitudinal peak strain dispersion (PSD), global myocardial work index (GWI), global constructive myocardial work (GCW), global wasted myocardial work (GWW) and global myocardial work efficiency (GWE) in three groups, and the differences between them were measured. Results:Compared with the control group, GWE in the athlete group 1 and 2 reduced, PSD, GWW were increased, and GWI, GCW in the athlete group 1 were decreased, and all differences were statistically significant (all P<0.05). Compared with the athlete group 1, PSD, GWI, GCW, GWW in the athlete group 2 increased and GWE was reduced (all P<0.05). Conclusions:PSL can quantitatively evaluate the left ventricular myocardial work of young strength athletes with different heart rates, and then assess the effect of heart rates on the left ventricular systolic function of athletes.

Objective To assess the left ventricular systolic function in young strength male athletes by three-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography (3D-STE).Methods A total of 45 young strength male athletes (athlete group) and 30 healthy young men (control group)were enrolled.Traditional echocardiography combined with 3D-STE were applied for all the subjects to obtain heart rate (HR),left ventricular end-diastolic diameter (LVEDD),the thickness of interventricular septum (IVS) and posterior wall thickness (PWT),relative wall thickness (RWT),left ventricular end-diastolic volume (EDV),endsystolic volume (ESV),left ventricular ejection fraction(LVEF),stroke volume (SV),left ventricular mass (LVM),left ventricular global longitudinal strain (GLS),global circumferential strain (GCS),global area strain (GAS),global radial strain (GRS).Results There were a significant increase inLVEDD,IVS,PWT,RWT,EDV,ESV,SV,LVM and significant decrease in HR,GLS,GCS,GAS and GRS in athlete group compared with the control group (P ＜ 0.05).However,there was no significant difference in LVEF between two groups (P ＞0.05).Conclusions There are subclinical changes of left ventricular systolic functionin of young strength male athletes.3D-STE can accurately assess the changes,and provide reliable information for clinical assessment of athletes' heart function.

Objective:To investigate the intervention effect of ventricular zone expressed PH domain-containing 1 (VEPH1) on epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) and proliferation of human cutaneous melanoma (CM) cells based onthe transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) signaling pathway.Methods:The melanoma cells were cultured in vitro. After transfecting the melanoma cells with overexpression or interference plasmids of VEPH1 or TGF-β overexpression plasmids, or treating the cells with SB-431542 (TGF-β pathway inhibitor), we detected the expression of genes and proteins relevant to VEPH1, TGF-β, and EMT by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and Western blot to observe the effect of these proteins on CM cell proliferation. Results:qRT-PCR results showed that the expression of VEPH1 in melanoma cells (B16-BL6, B16 and A375 cells) was significantly lower than that in HaCaT cells, and the lowest expression was found in A375 cells, so A375 cells were selected for follow-up experiments. After transfection with VEPH1 overexpression plasmid or SB-431542, the mRNA and protein expression of E-cadherin in A375 cells were significantly increased, the mRNA and protein expressions of TGF-β, Smad4, N-cadherin and vimentin were significantly decreased, and the cell proliferation was significantly decreased ( P<0.05). Compared with the VEPH1 vector group, the expression of TGF-β, Smad4 and N-cadherin in the VEPH1 vector+ SB-431542 group was significantly reduced ( P<0.05); the expression of E-cadherin was increased, and the cell proliferation was also significantly decreased ( P<0.05). The expression of TGF-β, Smad4, N-cadherin and vimentin were increased after co-transfection with VEPH1 vector, while the expression of E-cadherin was decreased, and the cell proliferation was also enhanced ( P<0.05). The expression of VEPH1 in A375 cells was significantly decreased after transfection with si-VEPH1 plasmid, while that in SB-431542 and TGF-β vector group was not significantly decreased. Conclusions:VEPH1 can inhibit human CM cells by the intervention on TGF-β signaling pathway. This study reveals the potential of VEPH1 as a diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic target for CM.

Objective To make quantitative analysis on collected cell images combined with machine learning integrated clustering algorithm, so as to explore a method for fast recognition and classification of cells in mixed cultures based on morphology. Methods The morphometric properties of A549 and 3T3 cells in vitro were characterized by immunostaining, the fluorescent images were then analyzed with CellProfiler to extract the parameters of cell morphology. The parameters were loaded into CellProfiler Analyst to be trained with machine learning algorithm, and a rule was developed to form a generalization capability for cell classification in mixed cultures. Results The accuracy of the training classifier was 81-24%, and the binary classifications of A549 and 3T3 cells could be realized. Conclusions The method of machine learning is very effective in parameter clustering. The application of machine learning into cell image recognition can provide pre-judgment for rapid pathological examination of tissue sections, thereby reducing the workload of doctors and improving the accuracy of diagnosis.