Asthma is a chronic airway inflammatory disease,which is caused by both genetic and environmental factors.For one thing, asthma is associated with genetic factors;for another thing, many exogenous triggering factors,such as diatery intake, smoke exposure and air pollution can impact on the development of asthma.Recently,many studies have showed that epigenetic changes which are influenced by the both factors play an important role in the pathophysiology of asthma.This article reviews the update advances about the epigenetic regulation and epigenetic therapy in asthma.

MicroRNA,known as micro-RNA or miRNA,is a class of small non-coding RNA whose ma-ture products is ～22 nucleotides long.It negatively regulates gene expression at the post-transcriptional lev-el.More and more studies confirm the important role of miRNA in carcinogenesis and tumor development by reg-ulating cell apoptosis,and the research focuses on tumor-associated miRNA in tumor cell apoptosis may bring widest perspective on treatment and diagnosis of tumor in the future.

Objective: To evaluate the feasibility of performing muscle-sparing thoracotomy and intercostal sutures in the treatment of upper and/or middle thoracic esophageal cancer for the purpose of tumor control and postoperative quality of life improvement.Methods: Seven patients with esophageal cancer were treated with vertical muscle-sparing thoracotomy and Mckeown esophagectomy.Detailed clinic data were summarized and analyzed with patient follow-up information.Results: Of the 7 patients,five were still alive with a 71.4% five-year survival rate.There were no deaths resulting from the operation in this group.The mean length of thoracic incision was 11 cm.The range of hospital stays was 14 to 25 days,with a mean length of 18 days.No patients complained of impaired shoulder action,and the incision pain was hardly perceived without external stimulation 1 month after operation.Conclusion: Performing the muscle-sparing thoracotomy in the treatment of early-stage esophageal cancer located in the upper and /or middle thoracic segment yields a satisfactory long-term survival rate with an improved life quality in terms of incision pain relief and shoulder function.

MicroRNA-451 (miR-451) is significantly lowly expressed in glioma,gastric cancer,colorectal cancer,liver cancer and other tumor tissues.Upregulation of miR-451 can significantly inhibit tumor cell proliferation,invasion and metastasis as well as increasing tumor cell apoptosis and improving radiotherapy and chemotherapy sensitivity and other biological effects.

Objective To summarize the management and diagnosis of testicular tumors in children.Methods The clinical characteristics, diagnosis, treatment and outcome of patients with pediatric testicular tumors, who were referred to Department of Pediatric Surgery, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University from January 2003 to December 2013 ,were analyzed retrospectively.Results All of the 76 prepubertal patients were diagnosed initially with a painless scrotal mass.The mean age of the patients at diagnosis ranged from 1 to 156 months[mean(32.3 ±4.4) months].There were 39 cases(51.3％) with ages of0-1 years,18 cases (23.7％) with ages of 1-3 years,10 cases (13.2％) with ages of ＞ 3-7 years,9 cases(11.8％) with ages of ＞ 7-14 years.There were 37 cases in left side and 39 cases in right.And there were 59 cases (77.6％)of benign tumors and 17 cases(22.4％)of malignant tumors.Of the benign tumors,42 cases(55.2％)were teratomas, including 34 cases of mature teratoma and 8 cases of immature teratoma;11 cases were epidermoid cyst;11 cases were other benign tumors as lymphangioma.Among the 17 cases of malignant tumors, 16 cases (21.1％) were yolk sac tumors, which were I stage;1 case was embryoma.Thirty-three patients had abnormal alpha fetoprotein (AFP)concentrations before surgery,including 9 patients with mature teratoma,7 patients with immature teratoma, 16 patients with yolk sac tumors, 1 patient with embryonal carcinoma of testis.Of the 59 cases of benign tumors,testis-sparing surgery was done in 50 tumors, the other 9 patients underwent testis-excising because of tumor severely oppressing testis.All the 17 cases of malignant tumors underwent testis-excising.There were 76 cases in the follow-up.One patient with yolk sac tumor died for pulmonary metastasis during the follow-up.Others were alive and free of tumor recurrence.Conclusions The age range of the prepubertal testicular onset was 1 year or younger, most of the tumors were benign, and the most common subtype was teratoma.AFP highly expressed in yolk sac tumors, it was help to diagnosis.Testis-sparing surgery should be performed for the benign tumors and testis-excising for the malignant tumors.

OBJECTIVE:To investigate the general patterns and characteristics of the adverse drug reactions(ADR) induced by interferon and to provide guidance for its rational use in the clinic.METHODS:A total of 64 ADR cases induced by interferon reported in the domestic medical journals during the period 2000～2006 were collected and analyzed statistically. RESULTS:The ADR induced by interferon was more often seen in patients aged 30～39 years old(35.94%),with male showing higher proportion than female(68.75% vs. 31.25%).ADR more often occurred after multiple dosing and were characteriz-ed predominantly by allergic reactions of immune system in which multiple organs or systems may be involved.CONCLUSION:Interferon should be used rationally based on indications of medication and be closely monitored to prevent and reduce the occurrence of ADR.

Genetic susceptibility factor is one of the important reasons to induce breast cancer. Breast cancer risk variants are divided into three categories including high, moderate and low penetrances. Traditional BC susceptibility gene discovery approaches limit the search for breast cancer susceptibility genes with high and moderate risk variants. Whole exome sequencing technology provides a quick and efficient method to discover breast cancer susceptibility genes. At present, a number of breast cancer susceptibility genes have been identified by whole exome sequencing method, which provides useful guidance for the risk assessment and pathogenesis of hereditary breast cancer. In this paper, we reviewed the whole exome sequencing technology and discussed the experimental design, data filtering strategy, statistical significance and correlation analysis.

AIM: To evaluate the application and effect of questionnaire based on professional knowledge method combined with problem - based learning ( PBL ) in ophthalmology short-term teaching.
METHODS: Ninety non ophthalmic students of Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine from January to August 2015 were randomly divided into observation group (45 students) and control group (45 students). Observation group: using questionnaire based on professional knowledge method combined with PBL teaching method; the control group: using traditional teaching method.
RESULTS: The survey results showed that: non ophthalmic students were unfamiliar with eye diseases knowledge; there was no significant difference in the clinical operation examination between the 2 groups (P>0. 05 ). There were significant differences in the eye disease knowledge, eye disease knowledge related to their own major and the total score between the 2 groups (P< 0. 05), especially students in the observation group had higher scores of eye disease knowledge related to their own major. There was no significant difference in the rate of improvement of learning pressure between the 2 groups (P> 0. 05), the differences of improvement rate on other problems between 2 groups was statistically significant ( P < 0. 05 ), and the improvement rate was higher in the observation group.
CONCLUSION: Questionnaire based on professional knowledge combined with PBL teaching method can effectively improve the learning effect in ophthalmology teaching.

Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor ; immunology ; pharmacology ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Liver Failure ; immunology ; therapy

Objective To study the therapeutic effect of cardura on lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) and ejectile dystunction(ED) in men with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).Methods One hundred and one cases with BPH and typical LUTS were investigated using the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) and International Index of Erectile Function 5 (IIEF-5)before and after treatment. The patients were given cardura 4 mg, once a day for 8 weeks. The LUTS and ED were was analyzed after treatment. Results The IPSS was scores ( 14.3 ± 4.0) after treatment, and it was lower than before (mean scores: 19.9±6.5, t= 7.534, P＜0.001). The IIEF2-5 was(14.9±8.8)scores after treatment, and it was higher than before (mean scores: 9.5±8. 5, t = 5. 335, P＜ 0. 001 ), respectively. There was statistically significant correlation between IIEF2-5 and IPSS score (r= -0. 327, P＜0. 001 ). Various indexes were significantly improved after cardura treatment as compared with pretreatment (P＜0.001). Conclusions LUTS is dangerous factor for sexual dysdysfunction, and the severity of LUTS is closely related to the development of sexual dysfunction. Cardura can at once improve the sexual function and LUTS of BPH patients.