AIM: To quantitatively investigate transforming growth factor-β(TGF-β) and its receptors in normal bulbar conjunctival tissues and pterygium tissues. METHODS: Thirty cases of pterygium patients were randomly selected to undergo surgical resection of pterygium lesion, and the normal margin of bulbar con-junctival tissues were collected as control. Gene expres-sion was detected quantitatively by the method of quantitative real-time PCR (QRT-PCR) analysis. RESULTS: The expression level of TGF-β1 and TGF-β2 was 4.26×10-7±1.45×10-7 and 1.08×10-10±0.68×10-10 in normal bulbar conjunctival tissues, while 10.67×10-7±7.47×10-7 and 8.23×10-11±6.63×10-11 in pterygium tissues. The expression level of TGF-βRⅠand TGF-βRⅡwas 0.003015±0.0036 and 5.33×10-5±5.05×10-5in normal bulbar conjunctival tissues, while 0.000379±0.000281 and 1.002×10-5±9.04×10-6 in pterygium tissues. The expression level of TGF-β1 and TGF-β2 in pterygium was elevated (P<0.01). TGF-β1 expression level in pterygium increase 2.9±2.8 times than in normal conjunctiva. TGF-β2 expression level in pterygium increase 7.5±1.4 times than in normal conjunctiva. The expression level of TGF-βRⅠin pterygium was significantly lower (P<0.05). The expression level of TGF-βRII in pterygium was significantly lower (P<0.01). CONCLUSION: QRT-PCR is an effective method to quantitatively detect gene expression in eye. The upregulation of TGF-β1 and TGF-β2 and downregulation of their receptors expression may play an important role in the pathogenesis of pterygium, which is noteworthy further investigation in diagnosis and treatment of pterygium.real-time PCR; gene expression

Objective To detect DNA damage of peripheral blood lymphocytes in patients and family members of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD),and to study the effect of irradiation on genomic stability of lymphocytes. Methods Before and after 0.5 Gy radiation dose,single-cell gel electrophoresis (SCGE) was employed to analyze DNA damage of lymphocytes in 10 ADPKD patients (group A),3 members without clinical symptoms of a ADPKD family (group B) and 20 healthy control people (group C).The damage was estimated based on the content of DNA in tail (TDNA％) with comet analysis software (CASP). Results Both before and after irradiation,the TDNA％ (8.85％±0.14％,14.84％±0.77％) and the value-added (6.00％±0.77％) of TDNA％ of group A were significantly higher than those of group C (7.50％±0.37％,12.46％±0.26％,4.96％±0.44％) respectively.There were no significant differences between group B and group C or group A and group B.While 1 person in group B had higher TDNA％ as compared to group C both before and after irradiation. Conclusions The lymphocytes of ADPKD patients are more sensitive to ionizing radiation as compared to healthy people.The genomic instability in ADPKD patients or member of ADPKD family may trigger cystic formation in multi-organs when exposing to environmental agents. SCGE may provide a new approach to elucidate the pathogenesis and prognosis of ADPKD.

Objective To investigate symptom characteristics and their their prevalence in terminally ill patients with ovarian carcinoma.Methods A retrospective study was carried out based on clinical data of 98 terminally ill patients with ovarian carcinoma who died in our hospital during January 1995 to December 2004.Fifteen most common symptoms were analyzed with a focus on the followings:symptom incidence,survival time after symptom occurrence,regularity of symptom cluster,and common causes of death.Fifteen symptoms were:pain,cachexia,pleural effusion and ascites,dyspnea,fever,intestinal obstruction,renal failure,bone marrow depression,lung infection,hemorrhage,deep venous thrombosis (DVT),intestinal or pancreatic fistula,mycotic infection,jaundice and emergency conditions.Results (1)The most prevalent symptom was pleural effusion and ascites(63%),followed by pain(60%), cachexia(59%),dyspnea(52%)and intestinal obstruction(49 %).(2)The symptom which lasted longest survival time was mycotic infection(77 days),followed by intestinal or pancreatic fistula(75 days), intestinal obstruction(67 days),pain(60 days)and eachexia(60 days).Symptoms such as bone marrow depression,renal failure,dyspnea and emergency conditions were comparatively critical associated with shorter survival times(14,13,12,7 days,respectively).(3)Terminal symptoms occurred typically in clusters,with 4.9?1.5 symptoms per case.Of 98 cases,84 cases(86%)had 4 or more symptoms,with the median survival time of 63 days from the last day of anti-cancer therapy,and a slow death process.The remaining 14 cases(14%)with 3 or fewer symptoms survived only 25 days,of which 10 cases(71%)died of emergency diseases.The survival time for two groups was significantly different(P

Ebola virus can cause severe Ebola hemorrhagic fever. The mortality rate is 90 percent. Up till now, there is no effective vaccine or treatment of Ebola virus infection. Relaed researches on Ebola virus have become a hot topic in virology. The understanding of molecular mechanisms of Ebola virus infection of cells are important for the development of vaccine and anti-virus drugs. Therefore, this review summarized the recent research progress on the mechanisms of Ebola virus infection.
Carrier Proteins ; physiology ; Ebolavirus ; pathogenicity ; Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola ; etiology ; Humans ; Membrane Fusion ; Membrane Glycoproteins ; physiology ; Pinocytosis

BACKGROUND: Good neurological outcome after cardiac arrest (CA) is hard to achieve for clinicians. Experimental and clinical evidence suggests that therapeutic mild hypothermia is beneficial. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness and safety of therapeutic mild hypothermia in patients successfully resuscitated from CA using a meta-analysis. METHODS: We searched the MEDLINE (1966 to April 2012), OVID (1980 to April 2012), EMBASE (1980 to April 2012), Chinese bio-medical literature & retrieval system (CBM) (1978 to April 2012), Chinese medical current contents (CMCC) (1995 to April 2012), and Chinese medical academic conference (CMAC) (1994 to April 2012). Studies were included if 1) the study design was a randomized controlled trial (RCT); 2) the study population included patients successfully resuscitated from CA, and received either standard post-resuscitation care with normothermia or mild hypothermia;3) the study provided data on good neurologic outcome and survival to hospital discharge. Relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were used to pool the effect. RESULTS: The study included four RCTs with a total of 417 patients successfully resuscitated from CA. Compared to standard post-resuscitation care with normothermia, patients in the hypothermia group were more likely to have good neurologic outcome (RR=1.43, 95% CI 1.14–1.80, P=0.002) and were more likely to survive to hospital discharge (RR=1.32, 95% CI 1.08–1.63, P=0.008). There was no significant difference in adverse events between the normothermia and hypothermia groups (P>0.05), nor heterogeneity and publication bias. CONCLUSION: Therapeutic mild hypothermia improves neurologic outcome and survival in patients successfully resuscitated from CA.

Objective To evaluate the diagnostic value of MRI in brachial plexus injury.Methods Total 98 patients with brachial plexus injury were examined by MRI before operation.Fifty-four of 98 patients MR imaging were obtained by 0.5 Tesla scanner and other 44 patients were obtained by 1.5 Tesla scanner.The scanning sequences include: SE T_1WI,T_2WI,FFE T_2WI and T_2WI SPIR. Exploration of the supraclavicular plexus was carried out and the MR imaging were compared with the operative finding in 63 patients.Thirty-five patients who had not surgery were followed-up.Results MR imaging found pre-ganglionic injuries in 45 patients and post-ganglionic injuries in 56 patients.Pre-and post-ganglionic injuries simultaneously in 16 patients among them.MR imaging can not find injury sings in 13 patients.The positive rate was 86.73%.MR imaging finding of pre-ganglionic injuries include:(1) Spinal cord edema and hemorrhage,2 patients (4.44% ).(2)Displacement of spinal cord,17 patients (37.78%).(3)Traumatic meningoceles,37 patients (82.22%).(4)Absence of roots in spinal canal, 25 patients(55.56% ).(5)Scarring in the spinal cnanl,24 patients (53.33%).(6)Denervation of erector spine,13 patients (28.89%).MR imaging finding of post-ganglionic injuries include:(1)Trunk thickening with hypointensities in T_2WI,23 patients (41.07%).(2)Nerve trunk complete loss of continuity with disappeared of nerve structure,16 patients (28.57%).(3)Continuity of nerve trunk was well with disappearance of nerve structure,14 patients(25.00%).(4)Traumatic neurofibroma,3 patients (5.36%).Conclusion MR imaging can reveal Pre-and post-ganglionic injuries of brachial plexus simultaneously.MR imaging is able to determine the location (pre-or post-ganglionic)and extent of brachial plexus injury,provided important information for treatment method selection.

OBJECTIVETo explore the changes and significance of the level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and mitochondria membrane potential (Delta Psi) in HepG2 cells under the stress of cisplatin (CDDP).

METHODSHepG2 cells were incubated with CDDP. The changes in the level of ROS were determined by a probe (2,7-dichloro fluorescein-ciactate, DCFH-DA) and the changes of Delta Psi were reflected as changes of intensities of fluorescence seen under a laser scan microscope using a probe (rhodamine-123). All these changes in cells at 0 h, 24 h, 48 h, 72 h, 120 h, 168 h were dynamically observed.

RESULTSThe level of ROS was much higher after the CDDP treatment than the non-treated, and the increase lasted for 24 h and 48 h. Then it started to decrease at 72 h, gradually returning to normal level at 120 h. Under the selective pressure of CDDP, the fluorescence intensity of rhodamine-123 in HepG2 cells was decreasing at 24 h and 48 h, then gradually started to increase at 72 h. There were no such changes in the cells of the controls.

CONCLUSIONThe changes of ROS and Delta Psi in HepG2 cells under the pressure of CDDP suggest that the cells change themselves adapting to such pressures.

Carcinoma, Hepatocellular ; metabolism ; pathology ; Cisplatin ; pharmacology ; Hepatocytes ; cytology ; metabolism ; Humans ; Liver Neoplasms ; metabolism ; pathology ; Membrane Potentials ; drug effects ; Mitochondria, Liver ; physiology ; Reactive Oxygen Species ; metabolism ; Tumor Cells, Cultured

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the short-term and long-term effects of dense endoscopic variceal ligation (DEVL) for bleeding esophageal varices.

METHODSPatients with acute or with a history of esophageal variceal bleeding underwent regular DEVLs with a 2-3 week interval between 2 sessions until their varices disappeared at the lower 5-6 cm part of the esophagus. Follow-up study and gastroscopy were performed at 3, 6 and 12 months after the final DEVL in all patients. The results at 3 months were classified as short-term effects and those after 6 months as long-term ones.

RESULTS126 patients underwent DEVLs with 403 sessions and 3641 ligations; each patient was ligated with a mean of 3.2 sessions and at 28.9 points. The cure rate of acute variceal bleeding was 100.0%; short-term rate of variceal eradication was 94.4% and variceal rebleeding occurred in 3.9% patients. After a mean of 22.3 months follow-up period, the recurrence of esophageal varices was observed in 11.9% patients, but the variceal rebleeding rate was only 3.2% and no patients died from it.

CONCLUSIONDEVL was very useful and effective in both short-term and long-term variceal eradication and prevention of variceal rebleeding.

Adult ; Aged ; Esophageal and Gastric Varices ; etiology ; surgery ; Esophagoscopy ; Female ; Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage ; surgery ; Humans ; Ligation ; methods ; Liver Cirrhosis ; complications ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Treatment Outcome