Objective To explore the expression of c-met mRNA in nasopharyngeal carcinomas(NPC) and its relation with clinical biological behavior. Methods In situ hybridisation was used to detect mRNA expression of c-met in 15 cases NP and 55cases NPC. Results The positive rate of c-met mRNA in NP and NPC cells were were 13.3 %(2/15) and 61.8 %(34/55) respectively. The expression of c-met mRNA was significantly correlated with lymphnode metastasis, local invasion(basilar destroying) (P 0.05). Conclusions The abnormality expression of c-met gene expression was well correlated with the biological behavior of metastasis and invasion. The expression of c-met mRNA could serve as an important index to estimate the prognosis of NPC. c-met may be a new diagnostic/therapeutic targert of NPC.

Objective To investigate the significance of procalcitonin(PCT),C-reactive protein(CRP),white blood cell(WBC) and other inflammatory markers in the diagnosis of pediatric patients with HFMD.Methods 138 cases of pediatric patients with foot and mouth disease(study group)and 50 cases of healthy children(control group)were recruited in the study.Procalcitonin (PCT),white blood cell(WBC),neutrophil count(NC),lymphocyte count(Ly),immunoglobulins,C-reactive protein and other indi-cators were determined and compared.Results PCT,CRP,WBC,NC,Ly% and IgM levels were higher in study group than those in control group,the differences were all statistically significant(P <0.05 );IgG,IgA levels in control group were lower than that in control group,the differences were statistically significant(P <0.05).Conclusion PCT,WBC,NC,Ly,CRP and IgA,IgG,IgM can provide experimental evidence for diagnosis of children with hand foot and mouth disease.

Objective To investigate the clinical and renal pathologic features of isolated hematuria in children and the relationship between them. Methods A retrospective review of 251 cases of isolated hematuria undergone renal biopsy from 1995 to 2008 in our hospital were conducted to analyze their clinical manifestations and renal pathologic features. Results Among the pathologic changes, minor abnormalities was found in 93 cases (37.05%), normal biopsies in 62 cases (24.70%), IgA nephropathy (IgAN) in 52 cases (20.72%), thin basement membrane nephropathy (TBMN) in 17 cases(6.77%), mesangial proliferative giomerulonephritis(MsPGN) in 16 cases (6.37%), focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) in 5 cases (1.99%), focal proliferative glomerulonephritis (FPGN) in 5 cases (1.99%), capillary proliferative glomerulonephritis (EnPGN) in 1 case (0.40%). IgAN was more popular in gross hematuria group than that in microscopic hematuria group (31.88% vs 16.48%, P＜0.05). zcording to Haas classification, the ratio of class Ⅲ in two groups had no statistical significance (microscopic vs gross: 16.67% vs 4.55%, P＞0.05). In the 35 cases (102 cases were detected) with elevated urinary microalbuminuria, the proportion of IgAN Ⅲ was significantly higher than those cases without urinary microalbuminuria (14.28% vs 0%, P＜0.01). There were more FSGS and FPGN (total 20.00%) and less minor abnormalities (28.57%) in these cases as compared to the normal albuminuria cases (1.49% and 58.21%, all P＜0.01). Conclusion The main pathologic changes of isolated hematuria in children are minor abnormalities, normal and IgAN. IgAN is more popular in the cases with gross hematuria. Elevated urinary microalbuminuria may be an indicator of more serious pathologic changes in children with isolated hematuria.

Objectives:To explore the possibility of using experimental animal models as a new means for studying the pathogenesis and symptomatologic development of radiation-induced lung injury,and provide theoretical and experimental evidences for early prevention and treatment with the traditional Chinese medicine.Methods:80 female Wistar rats were divided randomly into the model group and control group with 40 rats in each group respectively.The rats in model group were anesthetized and fixed,and a 2cm?3cm area of the right lungs received 6mV X-ray radiation at 3Gy?2/w and a maximal 10/5w.Eight rats randomly selected from each group were sacrificed at the end of weeks of 3,5,8,12 and 26.Diagnostic techniques of TCM were employed to analyze symptomatological and developmental characteristics of TCM in radiation-induced lung injury during exposure by dynamic examination and comparison of living rats,gross lung samples and tissue sections.Results: Signs and symptoms including redness around nose and eyes,yellowish secretion,tachypnea,dry stool,lethargy,sluggishness, inactiveness were observed in model group in early stage of radiation exposure,which consistent with dominant heat in the interior and primordial qi exhaustion syndrome.Swollen lungs,bright redness on surface and red bleeding patches were observed in early stage of radiation;microscopic examination showed interstitial tissues,and readily visible congestion,hemorrhage and edema of pulmonary interstitial tissues,consistent with damaged blood collaterals by heat and blood escaping circulation syndrome.In the later stage of radiation exposure,the lungs showed dark appearance,apparent purple petechia,hard texture and poor elasticity.Microscopic examination showed remote hemorrhage foci,pulmonary capillary stasis or closure,and focal fibrotic clumps,consistent with obstruction of collaterals by blood stasis syndrome.No abnormal changes were observed in the control group.Conclusions:Animal experiments can redeem the clinical inadequacy of traditional inspection,auscultation and olfaction,interrogation and feeling pulse and palpation diagnostic techniques,modern pathological methods can be utilized to study symptomatology of traditional Chinese medicine.Symptomatological and developmental characteristics of'heat toxin impairment in radiation-induced lung injury characterized by heat damaging pulmonary collateral syndrome in early stage and pulmonary collateral stagnation syndrome in the advanced stage'can be revealed at living organism,gross lung sample and microscopic pulmonary tissue levels,thus providing theoretical basis for early prevention and treatment of radiation-induced lung injury using'cooling blood to remove apthogenic heat'.

Objective To investigate the effects of cochlear implantation on residual hearing and to evaluate the potential impact of long -term electrical stimulations on residual hearing .Methods 58 hearing impaired children with cochlear implants were included in this study .All subjects could cooperate with behavioral audiometry .Audio-metric evaluations were carried out pre -implantation and 3 ,12 ,24 months post -implantation respectively .Of 58 subjects ,43 were followed up more than 1 year and 17 were followed up more than 2 years .Results All 58 subjects showed significant differences (P<0 .05) between pre- and 3 months post-implantation of residual hearing at the individual frequencies of 0 .25 ,0 .5 ,1 ,2 and 4 kHz .43 subjects followed up more than 1 year showed statistic differences (P<0 .05) between pre- and 3 months post -implantation ,pre- and 12 months post-implantation at 0 .25 ,0 .5 ,1 ,2 and 4 kHz respectively .Comparing 3 months with 12 months post -implantation ,there were sta-tistic differences at 0 .25 and 0 .5 kHz ,while no significant difference (P>0 .05) at 1 ,2 and 4 kHz .Of 17 subjects followed up more than 2 years ,there were significant differences (P<0 .05) between pre- and various return visits post-implantation .Post-implantation return visits ,there were significant differences between 3 months and 12 , 24 months at 0 .25 and 0 .5 kHz respectively ,not any significant differences on 1 ,2 and 4 kHz .There were no sig-nificant differences on each frequency between 12 months and 24 months post- implantation .Conclusion Residual hearing after cochlear implantation could decrease to some extent for various reasons .There were significant differ-ences between 3 and 12 months post-implantation at 0 .25 and 0 .5 kHz .Not any significant differences were ob-served between 12 months and 24 months post-implantation at each frequency .

AIM: To observe the activity and distribution of astrocytes and glial fibrillary acid protein(GFAP) after middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO). METHODS: The rat MCAO model was made by two-kidney, tow clip renovascular hypertensive rat stroke prone(RHRSP). Rats were killed and brain samples were collected at the end of 1,3,6 and 9 weeks after MCAO, respectively. The ultrastructure of astrocytes was determined at broder of infarct (A area); distant of infarct (B area) and opposite of hemisphere (C area) by electron microscope. The number and optical density of GFAP-positive cells were also observed. RESULTS: The astrocyte proliferation distributed in the whole brain after MCAO. The highest numbers of GFAP-positive cells were observed at A area, then B area. The lowest numbers of GFAP positive cells were found in C area. The time course of GFAP-positive cell change was that the highest number was observed at 1 week after MCAO, then decreased by time from 3, 6 weeks to 9 weeks. The optical density of GFAP-positive cells showed the same patterns. CONCLUSION: The correlation between astrocyte proliferation and tissue damage after MCAO can be estimated by GFAP expression. The astrocyte proliferation plays an important role in healing process after MCAO.

Objective To evaluate the therapeutic effects and dose-effect relationships of different doses of the blood-cooling and blood flow-promoting drugs(凉血活血方) on radiation-induced lung injury of rat.Methods Seventy-two Wistar rats were randomly allocated into four groups: irradiation group(group A),small-dose group(group B,9 g?kg-1?d-1),middle-dose group(group C,18 g?kg-1?d-1) and high-dose group(group D,36 g?kg-1?d-1).All groups were repeatedly exposed to small dose of X-ray in the right hemi-thorax,and then the mice were sacrificed at different time points.The living animal features,the macro-changes of lung were observed,and pulmonary histopathological changes in all the groups were investigated,and the results of observation were compared.Results The symptoms of red patches around the nose and dry stool in groups C and D were less than those of groups A and B.After 26 weeks,lung coefficient in groups B,C and D was the same as that in group A,but right lung wet weights and lung coefficients at each time point in groups B,C and D were significantly lower than those in group A,and during 5th week,the right lung wet weights in groups C and D were obviously lower than the weight in group B(all P

BACKGROUND:celltherapy by the implantation of autologous bone marrow cells has been used for the treatment of ischemic heart diseases in clinical trials for decade. However, as the outcomes of celltransplantation obviously vary among patients, it is essential to identify the risk factors that may influence the level and function of progenitor cells in bone marrow, in order to identify the patients who would benefit the most from this treatment. OBJECTIVE:To observe the impact of perioperative cardiovascular risk factors on number and function of bone marrow progenitor cells from patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting surgery.
METHODS:We col ected clinical and laboratory data from 44 patients scheduled to undergo sternotomy for coronary artery bypass grafting procedures. Bone marrow was aspirated from the sternum during the operation and bone marrow mononuclear cells were isolated by density centrifugation with Ficol lymphoprep and then detected using trypan blue exclusion method. Levels of progenitor cells in bone marrow were evaluated using flow cytometry. Function of bone marrow progenitor cells were assessed by clonogenic and migration assays.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:We assessed the number of bone marrow mononuclear cells out of 20 mL bone marrow in duplicate samples from patients with coronary heart disease scheduled for coronary artery bypass grafting that was (10-89)×106 cells with over 95%activity. A negative correlation was observed between the number of bone marrow mononuclear cells and the age (n=44, r=-0.788, P=0.001). Levels of CD34+, CD133+, and CD34+CD133+cells in bone marrow mononuclear cells was (0.94±0.39)%, (0.46±0.28)%, and (0.53±0.26)%. Levels of CD34+cells and CD133+cells in patients with diabetes were significantly lower than those in patients without diabetes. Female, advanced age and poor heart function were related with reduced colony-forming ability of progenitor cells. A positive correlation was observed between level of CD34+cells and migration ability of bone marrow mononuclear cells. The results show that by density gradient centrifugation, we can harvest a sufficient number of bone marrow mononuclear cells in the treatment for ischemic heart disease. Age, gender, diabetes, heart function are correlated with bone marrow mononuclear cellnumber and functions.

BACKGROUND:Currently, cellular composition and the features of the nucleus pulposus are stil not to be clarified.
OBJECTIVE:To establish the in vitro culture system of rat nucleus pulposus-derived mesenchymal stem cells and to identify their multi-lineage differentiation potential.
METHODS:Mesenchymal stem cells from the nucleus pulposus tissues of Sprague-Dawley rats were cultured in vitro. Then, cells at passage 3 were induced to differentiate into osteoblasts, adipocytes and chondrocytes as experimental group. cells cultured with basic culture medium served as controls.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:cells isolated from rat nucleus pulposus could form the sunflower-like colonies and exhibit clone-like growth when they cultured at a low density. cells at passage 3 became homogeneous and exhibited fibroblast-like morphology. After 28 days of osteogenic induction, arizarin red positive signals were detected in the experimental group. The mRNA expressions of RunX2, osteopontin and osteocalcin were significantly increased in the experimental group, compared to the control group (P<0.05). After 21 days of adipogenic induction, oil red-O positive cells were detected in the experimental group. The mRNA expressions of C/EBPαand PPARγ2 were significantly increased in the experimental group, compared to the control group (P<0.05). After 21 days of chondrogenic induction, safranin O/fast green staining was positive in the experimental group. The mRNA expressions of aggrecan and Col2a1 were significantly increased in the experimental group, compared to the control group (P<0.05). Our findings in this study suggested that nucleus pulposus-derived mesenchymal stem cells could be isolated from the Sprague-Dawley rat nucleus pulposus and exhibited clonal-like growth when they were cultured in vitro. These cells were confirmed to have the potential to differentiate into adipocytes, osteoblasts and chondrocytes in vitro.

Image segmentation is still a difficult problem since its effect would vary with the subjects processed. An approach of subtracting background from the entire image of retinal blood vessels presented in this paper. The background subtraction is based on the real image itself taken photographically and is not dependent on the prior knowledge of system for recording image, the approach achieves the grayscale enhancement of retinal blood vessels in preprocessing and provides a quality image for the next process of binarization. This experiment in the preprocessing of subtraction shows good enhancement effect.
Algorithms ; Artifacts ; Fluorescein Angiography ; methods ; Humans ; Image Enhancement ; methods ; Retinal Vessels ; anatomy & histology