Objective To investigate the expression of microRNA-224 in HepG2 cells and analyze its target genes to reveal its role in the carcinogenesis of hepatoma. Methods The genes with differential expression in HepG2 cells and LO2 cells were obtained by gene expression microarray analysis. The up-regulated target genes of microRNA-224 were predicted by bioinformatics method, and their functions were analyzed. Results Compared with LO2 cells, microRNA-224 was highly expressed in HepG2 cells. A total of 264 target genes of microRNA-224 were predicted, including genes involved in cell cycle, signal transduction, cell differentiation, proliferation and apoptosis. Conclusions MicroRNA-224 is highly expressed in HepG2 cells. MicroRNA-224 plays an important role in the carcinogenesis of hepatoma via regulating the expression of its target genes directly or indirectly.

Objective:To explore the relationship between pulmonary function and coronary artery disease (CAD) with the severity of coronary artery lesions in relevant patients.
Methods:A total of 200 patients received coronary angiography (CAG) in our hospital were studied. The patients were divided into 2 groups: Non-CAD group, n=88 and CAD group, n=112. The degree of coronary stenosis was assessed by GENSINI score;the pulmonary function, echocardiography and fasting blood level of brain natriuretic peptide(BNP) were examined in all patients.
Results:Forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) in CAD group (2.33±0.54) L/1s was lower than Non-CAD group (2.63±0.39) L/1s, P=0.04. Multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that decreased FEV1 was the independent risk factor for CAD (OR=2.9, 95%CI 1.89-4.23, P<0.01). Spearman correlation analysis showed that FEV1 was negatively related to blood level of BNP (r=-0.54, P<0.01), positively related to the ratio of E/A (r=0.27, P=0.03). GENSINI score was positively related to smoking (r=0.31, P=0.01), diabetes (r=0.19, P=0.03) and negatively related to FEV1 (r=-0.40, P<0.01). With adjusted variables, partial correlation analysis presented that FEV1 was negatively related to GENSINI score (r=-0.21, P=0.01).
Conclusion:Decreased FEV1 is not only related to CAD occurrence, but also related to the degree of coronary stenosis in relevant patients.

·AIM: To analyze the clinical manifestation of Alport syndrome, especially the ocular features.·METHODS: The physical, ophthalmologic and audiologic examination results of thirty two patients with Alport syndrome were analyzed retrospectively.·RESULTS: Thirty (93.7%) patients had some family history. All patients had renal disease: eighteen(56.3%) patients with chronic renal failure, four(12.5%) patients with renal insufficiency, and the other ten(31.3%) patients with hematuria. Twenty (62.5%) patients had sensorineural deafness. Thirteen (40.6%) patients had ocular deformity, five(15.6%) patients had typical ocular changes: three patients with anterior lenticonus, and two patients with macular flecks.·CONCLUSION: Ocular anomalies are not requisite for the diagnosis of Alport syndrome. But its typical ocular features should be recognized by the ophthalmologists which supports the diagnosis.

BACKGROUND: Recently, some people believed that the mechanisms of primary hepatic carcinoma might be caused by poor differentiation or disdifferentiation of hepatic stem cells. Studies on hepatic stem cells are in the early stage at present, and the theory of "stem cell origins" of human primary hepatic carcinoma deserves further verification. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the activation, distribution, origin and immunological expression characteristics of hepatic stem cells in different histopathologic types of primary hepatic carcinoma. DESIGN: Observational comparative study. SETTING: Tumor Center, Research Institute of Surgery, Daping Hospital, Third Military Medical University of Chinese PLA. PARTICIPANTS: Experiments were performed at the Laboratory of Tumor Center, Research Institute of Surgery, Daping Hospital, Third Military Medical University of Chinese PLA from September 2003 to July 2004. We took 94 cases of hepatic cellular cancer, 12 cases of intrahepatic cholangiocellular carcinoma and 10 cases of mixed hepatocarcinoma paraffin-embedded tissue blocks as research objects, with 5 cases of liver cirrhosis and 4 cases of normal liver as experimental control. These materials were collected from the archive of the Department of Pathology of Daping Hospital. Primary hepatic carcinoma tissues and corresponding adjacent liver tissues were obtained from patients who had undergone surgery for the removal of their tumors. All the patients were not treated by chemotherapy or radiotherapy before the operation. They had signed the informed consent. Main Antibodies were bought from Santa Cruz Company.METHODS: The histological and immunohistochemical characteristics were examined by haematoxylin and eosin staining and immunohistochemistry (SP method), including mouse antihuman cytokeratin 19 monoclonal antibody, mouse antihuman cytokeratin 7 monoclonal antibody, mouse antihuman cytokeratin 8&&18 monoclonal antibody, mouse antihuman c-kit monoclonal antibody, mouse antihuman Thy-1 monoclonal antibody, mouse antihuman alpha fetoprotein monoclonal antibody. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Expression of immunological markers of hepatic stem cells in different histopathologic types. RESULTS: Immunological markers of hepatic stem cells expressed variously in different histopathologic types of primary hepatic carcinoma. Hepatic stem cells differentiated into hepatoma carcinoma cells in all the types. The highest expression rate of hepatic stem cell immunophenotype was found in the mixed hepatocarcinoma (P < 0.05). Immunophenotypes of hepatic stem cells were negative in normal group and cirrhosis group. CONCLUSION: Hepatic stem cells of varied differentiations and origins existed in different histopathologic types of primary hepatic carcinoma.

OBJECTIVETo study the difference of microRNA expression between HepG2 cells and L02 cells, and to identify the target genes of microRNA-18 (miR-18).

METHODSThe differentially expressed miRNAs between HepG2 cells and L02 cells were identified by miRNA chip. Target genes of miR-18 were predicted bioinformatically. Furthermore, the expression of B-cell translocation gene 2 (BTG2), a putative target gene of miR-18, was analyzed in hepatocellular carcinoma tissues and the surrounding non-cancerous tissues by RT-PCR and northern blot.

RESULTSmiR-18 was over-expressed in HepG2 cells compared to L02 cells. Altogether 609 genes, including genes involved in cell proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis and transcriptional regulation, are identified as putative miR-18 targets. The mRNA level of BTG2 was much lower in hepatocellular carcinoma tissues than in the corresponding non-cancerous tissues.

CONCLUSIONmiR-18 is over-expressed in HepG2 cells compared to L02 cells, and it may negatively regulate the expression of BTG2, a tumor suppressor gene.

Apoptosis ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular ; genetics ; metabolism ; pathology ; Cell Proliferation ; Cells, Cultured ; Gene Expression Profiling ; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic ; Hep G2 Cells ; Humans ; Immediate-Early Proteins ; genetics ; metabolism ; Liver ; cytology ; Liver Neoplasms ; genetics ; metabolism ; pathology ; MicroRNAs ; genetics ; metabolism ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Tumor Suppressor Proteins ; genetics ; metabolism

Objective:To understand the symptom cluster and its connection with sense of coherence in patients with digestive tract cancer during chemotherapy.Methods:A total of 212 patients with digestive tract cancer during chemotherapy were surveyed with the M.D.Anderson Symptom Inventory (MDASI) and the Sense of Coherence (SOC) scale in 2 hospitals in Anhui Province.Exploratory factor analysis were used to extract the symptom clusters.Spearman correlation analysis were used to determine the relationships between the symptom clusters and SOC.Two subgroups were classified based on the scores of symptom clusters by using cluster analysis,and two independent samples t-tests were used to compare the differences between the two groups.Results:According to the factor analysis,four symptom clusters were identified,including psychological symptom cluster,gastrointestinal symptom cluster,fatigue-pain symptom cluster and neurotoxic symptom cluster.The cumulative variance contribution rate was 64.16％.The fatigue-pain symptom cluster was divided into fatigue symptom cluster and pain symptom cluster according to the correlation.Those 5 symptom clusters were negatively correlated with the SOC (r =-0.14-0.57,Ps ＜ 0.05).Two subgroups were classified based on the cluster analysis,patients in the high-score group (n =81) had significantly lower SOC scores (P ＜ 0.001) than those in low-score group (n =131).Conclusion:It suggests that digestive tract cancer patients during chemotherapy could experience several physiology and psychology symptom clusters,which are significantly negatively correlate with the sense of coherence.

Objective To investigate the southern region of Zhejiang hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection. Methods A cluster sampling strategy was used to sample all blood donors from February to Ocwber in 2008 in Wenzhou blood center. Their blood was tested for IgG and lgM antibody against HEV. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR) and sequencing were applied to detect its genotypo and sequence homology in HEV IgM-positive specimen. Results The prevalence of anti-HEV IgG in 3044 cases of blood donors was 33.28%. IgG increased with age. There are certain increase in positive rates between the 20-year-old group and over 40 years of age group from 21.16% to 50.36%. The positive rate of IgM was 0.92% . The ratio of infection among different age group was the highest in the age range from 31to 40 years and up to 1.90%. lgG and IgM through their negative and positive analysis of samples found in their group with donors age, sex and blood type does not significantly related to each other. Nucleic acids were found in three cases through PCR amplification in all 28 cases of HEV IgM positive samples.The total positive rate was one-thousandth, of which two cases for gene 4,1 cases of infection for gene 1. Conclusion The results indicate that there was a certain percentage of HEV virus in voluntary blood donors in south Zhejiang.

OBJECTIVETo study the drug resistance status on HIV-1 patients who had been treated with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) and those treatment-naive ones in Hubei province.

METHODSNested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to amplify 2 kb DNA fragment in HIV pol gene from peripheral blood of the HIV infected patients and the PCR products were sequenced. The sequences were compared to the Stanford HIV drug resistance database.

RESULTSNineteen patients were treated with regimens composed of two Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NRTIs) and one Non-Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NNRTI), with 25 patients as treatment-naive. Some protease (PR) drug-resistant mutations were found in these samples, such as D30N (2.27%), D30G (2.27%), M46I (4.55%), M46N (2.27%), I47V (4.55%), I84V (4.55%), I84L (2.27%), N88S (2.27%) and L90S (2.27%) that all belonged to major drug-resistant but A71T (29.55%) belonged to minor resistance mutations Five treated patients were detected having mutations associated RT drug resistance: M41L (5.26%), A62V (5.26%),D67N (5.26%), L210W (5.26%), T215Y (15.79%); K103E (5.26%), K103N (10.53%), Y181C (5.26%), G190A (5.26%), K238N (5.26%), while five treatment-naive patients were detected to have had mutations associated RT drug resistance M184V (4%), K65N (4%), Y115M (4%), F116L (4%), M184I (4%), V179D (4%), G190R (4%).Some additional mutations were detected in RT whose role involve in drug resistance still remained unknown. F214L was positively associated with HAART treatment (P = 0.03).

CONCLUSIONSignificant differences were found between drug resistance mutations to RTIs in treated and treat-naive patients in Hubei province,indicating that drugs had affected the occurrence of drug resistance mutations. At the same time, novel RT mutations F214L might be associated with HAART or some other drugs.

Antiretroviral Therapy, Highly Active ; China ; Drug Resistance, Viral ; genetics ; Genotype ; HIV Infections ; drug therapy ; HIV-1 ; drug effects ; genetics ; Humans ; Mutation ; Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors ; therapeutic use

OBJECTIVESTo detect the expressions of Tec tyrosine kinase in hepatocellular carcinoma and the levels of phosphorylation of tyrosine kinase in liver cancer tissues, paracancerous tissues and normal liver tissues and to find the significance of their differences.

METHODS200 specimens of tissues, including liver cancer tissues, surrounding liver tissues not more than 1.5 cm from the cancers, and normal liver tissues were investigated for Tec protein expression and Tec phosphorylation by tissue microarrays and immunohistochemistry (SP method).

RESULTSThe positive immunohistochemical stainings of Tec in cancerous tissues and non-cancerous tissues showed no obvious differences, nevertheless, the immunostaining levels in liver cancer tissues were much higher than in non-cancerous tissues and they correlated with the grading of tumors (P < 0.05). The phosphorylation of Tec was significantly expressed in liver cancer tissues (73%) in comparison with other tissues (42%, 10% both P < 0.05), but it did not correlate with any clinicopathological characteristics.

CONCLUSIONOverexpression of Tec is associated with the tumorigenesis and development of liver cancer; inhibiting Tec or degrading Tec phosphorylation directly might affect the progression of liver cancer.

Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular ; metabolism ; Female ; Humans ; Liver Neoplasms ; metabolism ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Proteins ; genetics ; metabolism ; Phosphorylation ; Protein-Tyrosine Kinases ; genetics ; metabolism

OBJECTIVETo investigate the influence of home nurture environment on language development and social emotion in children with developmental language disorder (DLD).

METHODSThe 1-3 Years Child Home Nurture Environment Scale, Gesell Developmental Scale, and Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment Scale were used for the evaluation of 125 children with DLD. A total of 130 children with normal language development matched for age and sex were enrolled as control group.

RESULTSCompared with the control group, the DLD group had a significantly higher proportion of children in a bad home nurture environment and significantly lower scores of all domains of home nurture environment (P<0.05). In children with DLD, the home nurture environment score was positively correlated with the level of language development (r=0.536, P<0.01) and the score of ability domain in social emotion (r=0.397, P<0.01) and was negatively correlated with the scores of the domains of explicit behavior, covert behavior, and imbalance in social emotion (r=-0.455, -0.438, and -0.390 respectively, P<0.01). Home nurture environment had direct influence on language development in children with DLD and affected their language development via the mediating effect of social emotion.

CONCLUSIONSHome nurture environment influences language development and social emotion in children with DLD, and social emotion has a partial mediating effect between home nurture environment and language development.

Child, Preschool ; Emotions ; Environment ; Female ; Humans ; Infant ; Language Development ; Language Development Disorders ; psychology ; Male ; Social Behavior