BACKGROUND: There is no accepted treatment for liver fibrosis recently. Bone marrow meaenchymal stern cells (BMSCs) used in the treatment of liver fibrosis has been reported as an effectively treatment, but the mechanism is unclear.OBJECTIVE: To study the regulation of hepatic stellate cells mediated by human BMSCs in vitro.DESIGN, TIME AND SETTING: The cytological in vitro study was performed at the Center for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering of Sun Yat-sen University and the Central Laboratory of Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University from June to December 2008.MATERIALS: Human bone marrow masenchymal stem cells were collected from normal youth volunteers; Human hepatic stellate cells and normal liver call line L-O2 were supplied by the Animal Experimental Center of Sun Yat-sen University.METHODS: The purified human BMSCs and hepatic stellate calls were set up in Transwell co-culture system. The incubation density was 2×104cells/well. L-O2 was set up instead of human BMSCs as negative control. Hepatic stellate cells cultured alone served as blank control group. The culture was performed for 72 hours.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Morphology of hepatic stellate cells and results of immunocytochemical staining. Apoptosis of hepatic stellte calls was determined by flow cytometry. Western blot were used to assay the expression of α-actin.RESULTS: Activated hepatic stellate cells presented fiat and thin shape under an inverted microscope. Fat drop was lack in cytoplasm, a -actin located in hepatic stellate calls, with the presence of high tension fibers. Compared with the L-O2 + hepatic stellate cell and hepatic stellate call groups, the apoptotic rate of hepatic stellate cells was significantly increased in the BMSC + hepatic stellate cell group (P < 0.05). α -actin expression was significantly down-regulated.CONCLUSION: Human BMSCs can inhibit activation of hepatic stellate ceils and promote them apoptosis, which may be the anti-hepatic fibrosis mechanism of BMSCs.

Objective To evaluate the effect of combination splenectomy and endoscopic varices ligation in comparison with Hassab procedure in the treatment of portal hypertension. A prospective, controlled study was carried out on Splenectomy with EVL in comparision with portoazygous disconnection--the Hassab procedure to assess whether SEVL can achieve better results in the treatment of portal hypertension. Methods From Jan 1999 to June 2002, 103 cirrhotic patients with portal hypertension were admitted. These patients were randomized into two groups. Group A were treated by splenectomy combined with EVL(53 cases) , and group B were treated with Hassab procedure(50 cases). Results In both groups, there was a significant postoperative decrease in free portal pressure, the velocity and volume of portal flow (all P0.05). Portal vein thrombosis developed in 7 cases (13%) in group A, and in 14 cases (28%) in group B, P

Third-grade class A hospitals undertake three tasks-medical service,scientific research and teaching.scientific research is the motivation for third-grade class A hospitals' continuous development and also an important symbol of their medical and academic level.On the purpose of evaluating overall scientific level of such hospitals this thesis analyze the scientific projects and the outcomes of 34 hospitals by using the method of literature research and questionnaire,extracting advantages for scientific research,seeking their problems and coming up with corresponding strategy.have analyzed the achievements we acquired as well as the problems still existing.According to the reality of Fujian Province,some suggestions are coming up with so as to improve the scientific research.

Objective To find out the importance of human bocavirus (HBoV) as an infectious agent for population in Beijing, China. Seroprevalence study was conducted by using expressed recombinant major capsid VP2 protein as an antigen.Methods Serum specimens collected from infants and children who visited the Children's Hospital Affiliated to the Capital Institute of Pediatrics for health check-up and adults visiting the Xuanwu Hospital, Beijing for diseases other than respiratory infections from April 1996 to March 1997 were used for the investigation. The major capsid protein VP2 from HBoV was expressed in E. coli strain BL21 (DE3) with the transformed PET30b vector inserted with full-length VP2 gene of HBoV and the specific antigenicity of this expressed protein was validated by previous study. Western blotting was used to detect specific IgG antibody against HBoV in collected serum specimens diluted to 1:200. Mock expressed protein was E. coli cells strain BL21 (DE3) with the transformed PET30b vector without insert. Anti-His monoclonal antibody and rabbit anti-HBoV VP2 polypeptides hyper-immune serum were used as positive control for antibody detection.Results Out of 677 serum specimens tested, 400 (59.1% ) were positive for HBoV by Western blotting. About 45.3% (34/75) of the newborns under 1 month of age had anti-HBoV antibodies, and antibody positive rates were decreased in age groups of 1 and 2 months (41.4% and 31.3%, respectively) then increased in the following ages from 6 months to 7 years old ( from 45.6% to 69.7% ). The antibody positive rates were maintained at a relatively constant level ( about 70% ) in the age groups from 7 years to 40 years of age and became lower ( 61.8% - 62. 8% ) in those over 50 years.Conclusions The high seroprevalence of antibody against recombinant HBoV VP2 protein and early age antibody acquisition indicate that HBoV has been circulating in population of Beijing, China as early as in 1996 and most of children had been exposed to HBoV by the age of 7 years. Infants under the age of 6 months were susceptible to this virus.

BACKGROUND:Previous studies have confirmed that bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells in vitro can promote hepatic stel ate cellapoptosis and inhibit its activity, in which the mechanism of action remains unknown. OBJECTIVE:To screen out apoptosis-related genes during hepatic stel ate cellapoptosis regulated by bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells using gene chip technology. METHODS:Purified human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells were seeded in 6-wel Transwel plate and cocultured with hepatic stel ate cells. Cultured human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells alone served as control group, and cultured for 72 hours. The alterations in apoptosis-related genes were analyzed between culture alone group and coculture group using gene chip technology. The genes strongly associated with regulation of hepatic stel ate cells were selected. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:By the functional classification of second-generation SABiosciences Gene chips, apoptotic gene screening found that after coculture, significantly upregulated genes in bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells contained:AKT1, PIK3R2, DAPK1, DHCR24, NOTCH2 and BDNF. Combined with previous findings, we hypothesized that NOTCH may play a key role in the regulation of hepatic stel ate cells by bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells.

OBJECTIVESTo develop techniques which can be used to detect genetic material of measles virus from clinical samples to make diagnosis and differentiate atypical measles from other exanthematous infections early in clinical course.

METHODSA nested reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was developed to amplify gene fragment with the size of 301 bps from N gene of measles virus in throat swabs and urine samples collected from infants and children who were suspected measles cases. Before the test was used for clinical samples, preliminary tests were performed to determine the sensitivity and specificity of the test. The sensitivity of the test was determined by plaque assay using measles virus strain Edmonton and the specificity of the test was determined by cross-reaction with rubella virus, respiratory syncytial virus, influenza A and B viruses, enterovirus, adenovirus, human cytomegalovirus (hCMV), EB virus, and herpes simplex virus I. Serum specific IgM antibody against measles virus was also tested by ELISA.

RESULTSMeasles virus with the titer of 0.53 pfu could be detected by using the nested RT-PCR developed in this study. No amplification was found with the nested RT-PCR when rubella virus, respiratory syncytial virus, influenza A and B virus, enterovirus, adenovirus, hCMV, EB virus, and herpes simplex virus I were used as templates. Out of 116 throat swabs collected from suspected measles cases, 70 (60.3%) were measles RNA positive. For urine samples, 48 out of 74 (64.9%) were positive. Both throat swab and urine samples were collected simultaneously from 73 patients. Among those, 71 (97.3%) showed consistent results. Serum specimens were collected from 110 suspected patients. Among those, 65 (59.1%) and 61 (55.5%) were measles virus specific IgM antibody positive detected with ELISA kits from two different sources, respectively. Out of 110 sera samples, 106 (96.4%) showed consistent results. The consistency of the gene amplification and specific IgM antibody detection was 80.8% as shown by 84 out of 104 patients from whom throat swab and sera were collected at the same time.

CONCLUSIONThe data indicate that the nested RT-PCR developed in this study is sensitive and specific for detection of gene fragment of measles virus from clinical samples. The test is superior to the commonly used specific IgM antibody detection because of identifying gene material in early clinical stage, and even single clinical sample can be tested.

Humans ; Measles ; diagnosis ; genetics ; Measles virus ; genetics ; isolation & purification ; RNA, Viral ; genetics ; isolation & purification ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Sensitivity and Specificity

OBJECTIVETo find out the importance of human bocavirus (HBoV) as an infectious agent for population in Beijing, China, seroprevalence study was conducted by using expressed recombinant major capsid VP2 protein as an antigen.

METHODSSerum specimens collected from infants and children who visited the Children's Hospital Affiliated to the Capital Institute of Pediatrics for health check up and adults visited the Xuanwu Hospital, Beijing for diseases other than respiratory infections from April 1996 to March 1997 were used for investigation. The major capsid protein VP2 from HBoV was expressed in E. coli strain BL21 (DE3) with the transformed PET30b vector inserted with full-length VP2 gene of HBoV and the specific antigenicity of this expressed protein was validated by previous study. Western blot was used to detect specific IgG antibody against HBoV in collected serum specimens diluted to 1:200. Mock expressed protein was E. coli cells strain BL21 (DE3) with the transformed PET30b vector without insert. Anti-His monoclonal antibody and rabbit anti-HBoV VP2 polypeptides hyper-immune serum were used as positive control for antibody detection.

RESULTSOut of 677 serum specimens tested, 400 (59.1%) were positive by Western blot. About 45.3% (34/75) of the newborns under 1 month of age had anti-HBoV antibodies, and antibody positive rates were lower in the age groups of 1 and 2 months (41.4% and 31.3%, respectively) and were higher in the following ages from 6 months to 7 years (from 45.6% to 69.7%). The antibody positive rates were at a relatively constant level (about 70%) in the age groups from 7 years to 40 years and became lower (61.8% - 62.8%) in groups of age over 50 years.

CONCLUSIONThe high seroprevalence against recombinant HBoV VP2 protein and early age antibody acquisition indicate that HBoV has been circulating in Beijing, China as early as in 1996 and most of children had been exposed to HBoV by the age of 7 years. Infants under the age of 6 months were susceptible to infection with this virus.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Antibodies, Viral ; blood ; Blotting, Western ; Bocavirus ; immunology ; Capsid Proteins ; immunology ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; China ; epidemiology ; Female ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin G ; blood ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Parvoviridae Infections ; epidemiology ; immunology ; Prevalence ; Seroepidemiologic Studies ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo characterize the prevalence of influenza B virus infection in infants and young children in Beijing.

METHODSMDCK cell culture, indirect fluorescence assay (IFA) and hemagglutination inhibition (HI) assay were used to isolate and identify type B influenza viruses from clinical samples collected from outpatients and inpatients who visited the Affiliated Children's Hospital because of acute respiratory infections from Nov. 2000 to Jun. 2006.

RESULTSOut of 10,770 clinical samples collected during this surveillance period, 384 (3.57%, 384/10,770) were positive for influenza B viruses. Circulation of influenza B viruses was revealed in the later epidemic season of influenza viruses each year. The detection rate for influenza B virus was higher than 10% each year during the survey, except in the period from 2003--2004 which was 2.91%. The highest detecting rate was 23.69% of the specimens collected in Mar. 2006. During the period of this study, most of the influenza B virus were identified from children who visited the outpatient department of the Affiliated Children's Hospital. Among those outpatients who were positive for influenza B, 77.6% (264/340) were older than 3 years of age, whereas the inpatients positive for influenza B, 66.0% (29/44) were under 3 years of age. Coinfection of influenza B virus with other respiratory viruses was not common, only one of the influenza B virus positive specimen was found also positive for influenza A3. There was no significant difference in positive rate between influenza virus B and A3. A significantly higher positive rate of influenza B virus than that of influenza A3 virus was seen from Sep. 2005 to May 2006 (23.9% vs 1.1%). B/Yamagata/16/168 lineage viruses were dominant during 2000--2002, and B/Victoria/2/87 lineage viruses became dominant during 2002--2003. After 2003, co-circulation of Victoria and Yamagata lineages of influenza B viruses was identified with predominance of Yamagata lineage viruses, while Victoria lineage viruses predominated during the 2005--2006 epidemic season.

CONCLUSIONInfluenza B viruses were identified from February to May in every influenza season during this surveillance period of 2000--2006. Most of the positive specimens were those collected from outpatient department. Victoria and Yamagata lineages of influenza B viruses co-circulated in Beijing, China in recent years.

Adolescent ; Age Distribution ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; China ; epidemiology ; Female ; Humans ; Infant ; Influenza B virus ; classification ; isolation & purification ; Influenza, Human ; epidemiology ; virology ; Male ; Prevalence

Objective: To investigate the present situation of spiritual health and empathy of undergraduate nursing students, and explore the correlation between them. Methods: Convenient sampling was used and 498 senior nursing students were recruited from 2 universities in Shandong Province. They were investigated using the general questionnaire, the Spiritual Health Scale Short Form and Chinese version of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. Results: The total score of spiritual health was (92.87±12.28), the 5 dimensions of the item score from high to low were connection to others (4.46±0.62), meaning derived from living (4.15±0.69), self-understanding (4.03±0.72), transcendence (3.95±0.74) and religious attachment (2.60±1.08). The total score of Interpersonal Reactivity Index was (57.50±8.35), the 5 dimensions of the item score from high to low were perspective taking (2.78±0.61), empathy concern (2.72±0.56), fantasy (2.61±0.57), personal distress (2.32±0.78). Nursing students’ spiritual health score and empathy was positively correlated (r=0.334, P<0.01). Regression analysis, single-child (B=0.202, P<0.05), exercise habit (B=0.363, P<0.01), religious belief (B=0.381, P<0.01), academic performance (B=0.205, P<0.05), nursing career in the future (B=0.285, P<0.01) were the influencing factors of nursing students′ spiritual health. Conclusions Spiritual health is closely related to empathy; the higher the level of spiritual health, the higher the empathy ability. It suggests that nursing educators can improve nursing students′ empathy by improving the spiritual health of nursing students.

Objective The objective of this study was to develop a rapid,sensitive and specific method for identifying and typing for adenovirus from clinical specimens and to learn about the viruses identified in Beijing on the molecular bases.Methods Primers were designed using hexon gene of adenovirus as target.One primer pair was designed as universal primers for amplifying a 1278 bp gene fragment located at the hcxon gene of adenovirus types 3,7,11 and 21.Four primer pairs located within the region of this 1278 bp fragment were designed specifically for amplifying adenovirusea types 3,7,II and 21.Which were used for a multiplex nest-PCR in a single tube.The products from this multiplex nest-PCR were 502 bp(for type 3),311 bp(for type 7),880 bp(for type 11)and 237 bp(for type 21)，respectively.The type of the adenovirus being tested could be determined after agarose eleetrophoresis analysis of the PCR products．Sequencing was performed for part of the Hexon genes at the 5'end from types 3．7 and 11 strains isolated from clinical specimens and the sequences were compared with corresponding genes published in GenBank．Results PCR products with predicted sizes were visualized in the agarose gel for prototype strains of adenovirus types 3,7,11 and 21,but not for other respiratory viruses,indicating that the technique is specific for typing without cross reaction with other viruses.Out of 61 clinicaI specimens which had been proved to be adenovirus positive by tissue culture and/or immunofluerescence assay,37 were found as adenovirus type 3(37161,60.73％),17 8S adenovirus type 7 (17/61,27.9％),3 Was adenovirus type 11(3161,4.9％).1 Was positive for both type 3 and 7(1／61,1.6％),suggesting that the patient Was co-infected with type 3 and 7 adenoviruses．No adenovirns type 21 was detected.Out of the 61 positive specimens,three showed positive on both tissue culture and immunofluerescence but could not be identified under the methods we used,suggesting that these 3 strains (4.9％)were with the types other than types 3,7,11 and 21．Data from sequence analysis indicated that adeno~ruses types of 3.7 and 11 in this study shared high homology with corresponding types of the strains published in GenBank.Three of the type 3 adenovirus in this study shared highest homology with the adenovirus type 3 identified in Guangzhou,China in 2005.Three of the type 7 adenovirus shared highest homology with the adenovirus type 7 identified in Japan in 1998 and 3 of type 11 adenovirus shared highest homology with the adenovirus type 11 identified in Japan in 2004.Comparing with types 3 and 7.The type 11 in this study showed highest diversity with the corresponding type in GenBank,indicated by the dispersing of the varied amino acids within the region of HVRl and HVR, of the Hexon genes.Conclusion This multiplex nest-PCR method had the advantages of rapid,sensitive and specific and could be used for identilying types of adenoviruses in clinical specimens.Although adenovirus types 3.7 and 1l from Beijing strains shared high homology with the corresponding genes in GenBank,some variances were noticed,especially in type 11 strains.