Objective To investigate the therapeutic efficacy of HPV16 E7 peptide pulsed dendritic cells (DCs) in recurrent condyloma acuminate (CA). Methods A total of 32 cases of recurrent CA (more than 3 times) were divided into the treatment group and the control group. Patients (11 cases, HPV16 +and HLA A2 +) in the treatment group received treatment with DCs, while the other 21 cases in the control group were treated with interferon. A follow up of 6 months was conducted in all patients. The pathological lesions, the peripheral T cell subpopulations of the patients, and the therapeutic efficacy before and after treatment were observed. Results The size of the lesions became smaller or disappeared in the treatment group. The infiltrated lymphocytes increased, but the koilocytotic cells decreased in the lesions. No significant change in the peripheral T cell subpopulations was found before and after therapy. The recurrence rates in the treatment group and the control group were 18.2% and 61.9%, respectively. Conclusion The therapy by E7 peptide pulsed dendritic cells can improve the local immune status in the skin and reduce the recurrence rate significantly in patients with recurrent CA.

Objective To study the effects of 8-methoxypsoralen (8-MOP) on a ctivation, proliferation and melanin synthesis of hair-follicle melanocytes. Me thods The cultured human hair follicle melanocytes were treated with various con centrations of 8-MOP(10～500 ?mol/L) in vitro. The effects of 8-MOP were obse rved on cellular morphologic changes, proliferation, tyrosinase activity and mel anin contents of cultured melanocytes. Results Seven days after treatment with 8-MOP(50 ?mol/L), striking changes were found in cellular morphology with many elongated dendrites, and deposition of brown granules in cytoplasm. Tyrosinase a ctivity and melanin contents also remarkably increased in treated cells compared to those in untreated cells(P

Objective To clarify the cellular localization of triptolide and to explore its in-cell action sites.Methods 4-(Bro-momethyl)-7-methoxycoumarin was employed to label triptolide,then labelled triptolide was incubated with human hepatoma carci-noma cells.Subsequently,incubated cells were subjected to stain with fluorescent dye DiI or PI,which were specific to cytoplasmic membrane system and nucleus,respectively.Results Compared with the non-triptolide control,coumarin labelled triptolide shown a light blue fluorescence under UV excitation;Co-localization with DiI showed that triptolide exist in cytoplasm and(or)on cell mem-brane;Co-localization with PI showed that triptolide located in cell nucleus.Moreover,microscopic observation indicated that the fluorescence intensity in nucleus was denser than that in cytoplasm.Conclusion The presnt study demonstrate that triptolide main-ly act in nucleus,followed by acting in cytoplasm and(or)on cell membrane.

Pulse waves contain rich physiological and pathological information of the human vascular system. The pulse wave diagnosis systems are very helpful for the clinical diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Accurate pulse waveform is necessary to evaluate the performances of the pulse wave equipment. However, it is difficult to obtain accurate pulse waveform due to several kinds of physiological and pathological conditions for testing and maintaining the pulse wave acquisition devices. A pulse wave generator was designed and implemented in the present study for this application. The blood flow in the vessel was simulated by modeling the cardiovascular system with windkessel model. Pulse waves can be generated based on the vascular systems with four kinds of resistance. Some functional models such as setting up noise types and signal noise ratio (SNR) values were also added in the designed generator. With the need of portability, high speed dynamic response, scalability and low power consumption for the system, field programmable gate array (FPGA) was chosen as hardware platform, and almost all the works, such as developing an algorithm for pulse waveform and interfacing with memory and liquid crystal display (LCD), were implemented under the flow of system on a programmable chip (SOPC) development. When users input in the key parameters through LCD and touch screen, the corresponding pulse wave will be displayed on the LCD and the desired pulse waveform can be accessed from the analog output channel as well. The structure of the designed pulse wave generator is simple and it can provide accurate solutions for studying and teaching pulse waves and the detection of the equipments for acquisition and diagnosis of pulse wave.
Algorithms ; Equipment Design ; Heart Rate ; Humans ; Liquid Crystals ; Models, Cardiovascular ; Pulse Wave Analysis ; instrumentation ; Regional Blood Flow

Objective To study the effects of recombinant chimeric toxin Dsg3EC_(1-2)PE40 on T and B cells from PV patients. Methods The recombinant protein Dsg3EC_(1-2)PE40 was expressed on BL21TrxB (DE3) cells, then identified and purified. ELISPOT assay was used to detect and quantitate autoantibody-producing B cells in different concentrations of recombinant chimeric toxin, and MTT assay and ~3H-TdR assay to observe the metabolism and proliferation of T cells from PV patients in vitro. Results The purity of expressed protein Dsg3EC_(1-2)PE40 was up to 80%. The number of anti-Dsg3 antibody-producing B cells in PBMC from PV patients decreased by 40% with treatment of Dsg3EC_(1-2)PE40, which was significantly lower (P

Objective To screen and clone the genes related to alopecia areata. Methods Dermal papillae of lesional and non lesional follicles were separated from alopecia areata scalp respectively. Suppression subtractive hybridization was used to investigate the difference of expressed genes in dermal papillae of lesional (tester) and non lesional (driver) follicles, and the differentially expressed genes in dermal papillae of lesional follicles were cloned and sequenced. Results A subtractive library of dermal papillae of lesional follicles from alopecia areata was established. A differentially expressed gene in dermal papillae of lesional follicles was successfully cloned and proved to be an autoantigen gene. Conclusions The subtractive library may contain the differentially genes related to alopecia. The autoantigen gene related to alopecia areata need to be further investigated.

Objective To investigate the status of expression and gene polymorphism of cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated molecule4(CTLA4)on peripheral blood mononuclear cells(PBMCs)from patients with psoriasis.Methods Expression of CTLA4mRNA/antigen and polymorphism of CTLA4gene were analyzed in33and133patients with psoriasis confirmed clinically and/or pathologically,respectively.Expression of CT-LA4mRNA and antigen was detected by in situ hybridization and immmunohistochemistry.CTLA4exon1and3'untranslated region were amplified by polymerase chain reaction(PCR)and the amplified products were identified by single-stand conformation polymorphism(SSCP),restriction fragment length polymorphism(RFLP)or sequencing.Results Expression of both mRNA and antigen of CTLA4was significantly weaker on PBMCs induced by staphytococcal enterotoxin B(SEB)in patients with psoriasis than that in normal con-trols,without a regular pattern.The guanine49on exon1in association with fragment106bp of3'untranslat-ed region was shown to be linked to the susceptibility of psoriasis.Conclusion Defective translation and ex-pression of CTLA4take place in patients with psoriasis,which is possibly related to the polymorphism of CT-LA4.Our results suggest that CTLA4may be one of the candidate genes which cause autoimmunity in psoria-sis.

Objective To investigate specific cellular immune response induced by dendritic cells(DCs) activated by human papilloma virus (HPV) 16 E7 peptide. Methods DCs separated from peripheral blood mononuclear cells were induced with granulocyte/macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and interleukin-4 (IL-4), the DCs were then activated by HPV 16 E7 peptide. After that the surface antigens on the DCs were detected by flow cytometer. Homogenic mixed lymphocyte reaction (HMLR) with DCs was performed. LDH release assay was also used to detect the activity of cytotoxic T lymphocytes(CTL)to Caski tumor cells, which was induced by DCs. Results The surface antigens on the activated DCs were highly expressed, such as CD1a(58.4 ? 6.7)%, CD80(70.6 ? 3.4)% and HLA-DR(74.8 ? 4.2)%. HMLR showed that the activated DCs stimulated T cell proliferation significantly. Antigen-specific CTL induced by the activated DCs specifically killed Caski tumer cells, but had no effect on SiHa and AN3CA cells. Conclusions DCs loaded with HPV 16 E7 peptide can induce highly effective and specific cellular immune response.

Objective To investigate the role of IL-2,IFN-? and IL-10 in pemphigus acantholysis. Methods Acantholysis was observed histopathologically in the skin organ culture model of pemphigus after interacting with different concentrations of IL-2, IFN-? and IL-10 for 24 h?48 h and 72 h. Results The acantholysis was promoted by IL-2 and IFN-?, and the severity of acantholysis was related to the concentrations of IL-2 and IFN-?. The effect of IFN-? was weaker than that of IL-2. IL-10 could inhibit the acantholytic effect of IFN-? significantly, and inhibit the acantholytic effect of IL-2 when its concentration was higher than 100 pg/mL. Conclusions Th1 cytokines can promote acantholysis induced by antibody of pemphigus (Pab) while Th2 cytokines can inhibit the acantholysis induced by Pab, and the effect of Th1 cytokines. Th2 lymphocytes may play an important role in the pathogenesis of pemphigus.

A 28-year-old female patient presented with indurated erythema and nodules on the right lower limb for 2 years,with mild itching and pain.Skin examination showed a well-circumscribed irregular dark red patch measuring about 10 cm × 5 cm in size on the extensor aspect of the right thigh.On the patch,there were scattered or densely distributed mung bean-to soybean-sized quasi-circular violaceous nodules with a smooth surface,which were hard on palpation.Subcutaneous nodules with medium hardness were found on palpation,and hyperpigmentation was observed on the surface of some nodules.Local skin temperature was increased,with tenderness on palpation.Histopathologically,mononuclear cells showed nodular or sheet-like distribution in the middle and upper dermis,some of which had pale-staining cytoplasm.Moreover,plenty of plasma cells were observed.Immunohistochemistry revealed that histiocytes were stained strongly positive for S100.The number of IgG4-positive plasma cells increased obviously,and was more than 50 per high-power field (× 200).The proportion of IgG4-positive plasma cells in IgG-positive plasma cells was 45％.Finally,the patient was diagnosed with cutaneous Rosai-Dorfman disease with increased IgG4-positive plasma cells.