AIM:To explore whether A3 adenosine receptor plays a role in the modulation of vascular reactivity after hemorrhagic shock in rat,and to find out the prospective drug target to restore the decreased vascular reactivity following hemorrhagic shock. METHODS:The hemorrhagic shock (40 mmHg) model was established in rat,and the reactivity of superior mesenteric artery (SMA) to norepinephrine (NE) was observed. A3AR expression at protein level and mRNA level were measured by Western blotting and RT-PCR respectively. RESULTS:The vascular reactivity of SMA to NE after hemorrhagic shock (40 mmHg) was decreased significantly in a biphasic response manner. The expression of A3AR mRNA in SMA after hemorrhagic shock decreased without significant difference. The expression of A3AR protein has a slight increase without statistical difference after 30 min of hemorrhagic shock and then has a significant decrease (especially at 2 h and 4 h after hemorrhagic shock). The usage of IB-MECA,a selective A3AR agonist,significantly increased the responsiveness of SMA to NE in hemorrhagic shock in rat. MRS1523,the selective A3AR antagonist,significantly abolished the restoration of the vascular reactivity to NE by IB-MECA in hemorrhagic shock in rat. CONCLUSION:A3AR plays a role in the modulation of vascular responsiveness to NE in hemorrhagic shock in rat,and the selective agonist of A3AR could restore the reactivity of SMA to NE in hemorrhagic shock in rat.

Abstract: Objective To explore the correlation between lung function in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-1β (IL-1β) levels in exhaled breath condensate (EBC), and to provide a convenient methodological basis for the diagnosis and treatment of COPD and the determination of its efficacy. Methods A total of 81 COPD patients and 40 healthy controls were selected from the respiratory department of the Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University from August 2020 to February 2022 as the research subjects. The COPD patients were divided into 41 cases in the acute exacerbation group and 40 cases in the remission group according to their status. All participants underwent lung function detection, venous blood and EBC collection, and the levels of TNF-α and IL-1β in EBC and venous blood were analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and correlation analysis was performed by Pearson correlation analysis method. Results The levels of TNF-α and IL-1β in EBC of in the acute exacerbation group, the healthy control group, the remission group were (5.16±0.18) pg/μL and (7.75±0.27) pg/μL, (2.66±0.31) pg/μL and (2.41±0.24） pg/μL, (3.61±0.29) pg/μL and (3.17±0.38) pg/μL, respectively. Compared with the healthy control group, the levels of TNF-α and IL-1β in EBC in the COPD acute exacerbation group were significantly higher than those in the healthy control group and the COPD remission group (F=9.451, 8.217, P<0.001). Serum tests were consistent with this result. Correlation analysis showed that the levels of TNF-α and IL-1β in EBC were significantly positively correlated with the level of serum inflammation levels (P<0.001), while significantly negatively correlated with lung function (P<0.001).  Conclusions TNF-α and IL-1β in EBC are potential biomarkers of inflammation in patients with COPD, and their detection can be used to effectively assess lung function in patients with COPD. 

The contribution of particles to cardiovascular mortality and morbidity has been enlightened by epidemiologic and experimental studies. However, adverse biological effects of the particles with different sizes on cardiovascular cells have not been well recognized. In this study, sub-cultured human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were exposed to increasing concentrations of pure quartz particles (DQ) of three sizes (DQPM1, <1 μm; DQPM3-5, 3-5 μm; DQPM5, 5 μm) and carbon black particles of two sizes (CB0.1, <0.1 μm; CB1, <1 μm) for 24 h. Cytotoxicity was estimated by measuring the activity of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and cell viability. Nitric oxide (NO) generation and cytokines (TNF-α and IL-1β) releases were analyzed by using NO assay and enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent assay (ELISA), respectively. It was found that both particles induced adverse biological effects on HUVECs in a dose-dependent manner. The size of particle directly influenced the biological activity. For quartz, the smaller particles induced stronger cytotoxicity and higher levels of cytokine responses than those particles of big size. For carbon black particles, CB0.1 was more capable of inducing adverse responses on HUVECs than CB1 only at lower particle concentrations, in contrast to those at higher concentrations. Meanwhile, our data also revealed that quartz particles performed stronger cell damage and produced higher levels of TNF-α than carbon black particles, even if particles size was similar. In conclusion, particle size as well as particle composition should be both considered in assessing vascular endothelial cells injury and inflammation responses induced by particles.

As the most potent antigen-presenting cells (APC), dendritic cells are important in launching both humoral and cellular immune responses against tumor. Although the high evaluation of DC in immunotherapy for cancer by means of DC vaccines, more studies have indicated DC is a heterogeneous population and proved that DC subsets are prominent determinants for the effectiveness of immune responses. Different DC subsets display different receptors and surface molecules, and express different sets of cytokines/chemokines, which result in distinct immunological outcomes. Clinical trials with ex vivo generated DC vaccines also manifest unexpected immunological tolerance as well as allergic response. It is essential to study the biological aspects of human DC subsets, which may be a key to the generation of novel DC-based vaccines. In this article, the progress of studies on biology of dendritic cells including their origins, differentiation, function and application of DC subsets is reviewed.
Cancer Vaccines ; therapeutic use ; Dendritic Cells ; immunology ; Humans ; Neoplasms ; therapy

OBJECTIVETo observe therapeutic effect and safety of acupuncture at the five-zangshu for treatment of perimenopausal syndrome (PMS).

METHODSForty cases of PMS were randomly divided into a treatment group and a control group, 20 cases in each group. The treatment group were treated with acupuncture at the five-zangshu and the control group with oral administration of Premarin tablets. The therapeutic effects and changes of Kupperman scores, and serum estradiol (E2), follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH) levels before and after treatment were observed.

RESULTSThe total effective rate was 90. 0% in the treatment group which was better than 65.0% in the control group (P<0. 05). After treatment, serum E2 level significantly increased (P<0.01), with a significant difference between the two groups (P<0.05), and with a significant difference between the two groups in Kupperman symptom score index (MI) after treatment (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONTherapeutic effect of acupuncture at the five-zangshu is better than that of Premarin for treatment of perimenopausal syndrome.

Acupuncture Points ; Acupuncture Therapy ; methods ; Estradiol ; blood ; Female ; Follicle Stimulating Hormone ; blood ; Humans ; Luteinizing Hormone ; blood ; Middle Aged ; Perimenopause ; blood

Boronic Acids ; therapeutic use ; Bortezomib ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; POEMS Syndrome ; therapy ; Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Transplantation ; Pyrazines ; therapeutic use ; Transplantation, Autologous

ObjectiveTo investigate the correlationship between clinical and histopathological results of adrenocortical hyperplasia,adenoma and adenocarcinoma in the adrenocortical glomerular,fascicular and reticular zones. MethodsA total number of 167 702 surgical specimens were collected by the Department of pathology at the General Hospital of Tianjin Medical University from 1993 -2008.Of these,there were 631 adrenocortical specimens.Statistic analysis was done with Run test,t or t'test and x2 test on data in the aspects of proportion rate,mean age,sex proportion and relationship between clinical and pathological results of adrenocortical diseases.ResultsThe total number of adrenal diseases and adrenocortical diseases were 910 cases (0.54％) and 631 cases (0.38％),respectively.The number of adrenocortical glomerular,fascicular,reticular diseases were 310 cases (49.13％),319 cases (50.55％) and 2 cases (0.32％),respectively.The rate of adrenal diseases and adrenocortical diseases specimens did not change during the 16 year study period.The trend in proportion of hyperplasia,adenoma,adenocarcinoma in adrenocortical glomerular,fascicular and reticular zones did not change as well.The proportion pattern showed that there were more cases of adenoma than of hyperplasia and adenocarcinoma.The functional diseases of adrenocortical glomerular,fascicular and reticular zone (90.97％,79.00％,100.00％ ) were higher than nonfunctional diseases in the corresponding zones (9.03％,21.00％,0％ ) and both were higher in female patients.The mean age of nonfunctional patients with adenoma,glomerular zone adenocarcinoma and hyperplasia,adenoma of fascicular zone was higher than that in functional diseases.Interestingly,the mean age of glomerular zone adenocarcinoma patients (62.7 yrs) was higher than that in hyperplasia patients (47.8 yrs) and in adenoma patients (44.8 yrs).The mean and male diagnostic ages of adenocarcinoma of fascicular (44.3 yrs,50.0 yra) were higher than that in adenoma (44.0 yrs,49.1 yrs) and hyperplasia (41.5 yrs,40.9 yrs) respectively.But the female mean diagnostic age of fascicular adenocarcinoma (38.7 yrs) was lower than that in adenoma (42.4 yrs) and hyperplasia (41.9 yrs) respectively and the lowest average age was for nonfunctional adenocarcinoma (34.4 yrs).The diameters of the functional and nonfunctional adenocarcinoma were large (4.3 cm and 4.0 cm in glomerular zone,7.1 cm and 8.0 cm in fascicular zone).The carcinoma cells were in serious atyrpia,haemorrhage,necrosis and capsular or vascular infiltration.The rates of functional hyperplasia,adenoma with hypertension in Conn,Cushing or adrenogenital syndrome of adrenocortical glomerular,fascicular,reticular zone were higher than that without hypertension,but their tumor diameters were similar.The diameters of functional adenoma in glomerular or fascicularer ( 1.7 cm,2.3 cm ) were lower than that of nonfunctional adenoma (2.3 cm,2.4 cm ) and the diameters of glomerular tumors were smaller than that of fascicular tumors.Nonfunctional adenoma ( 2.5 cm,2.0 cm ) of glomerular or fascicular by check up finding were bigger than that of non-endocrine adenoma ( 2.5 cm,2.3cm).There were seven cases with adrenogenital syndrome (2 male cases,5 female cases ),among these,there were 4 fascicularer adenoma cases,1 adenocarcinoma case,1 network hyperplasia case and 1 adenoma case.ConclusionsGenetic abnormality plays an important role in pathogenesis of adrenocortical disease and environment had less influence.Radiological examinations (CT and MRI) of adrenocortical diseases are the first choice and have important roles in evaluating tumor characteristics.There is close relationship between clinical manifestation and pathology.However,the exact diagnosis of definite type of disease and nature of tumor needs to be made by pathologic examination.

OBJECTIVETo observe the effects of prenatal exposure to lead on nephroblastoma over-expressed gene (NOV) protein and mRNA expression in hippocampus of rats' offspring, and to explore the molecular mechanism of lead on learning and memory.

METHODSThe pregnant rats were divided into 1 control group and 3 lead expose groups randomly: low( 125 mg/L), middle (250 mg/L) and high (500 mg/L). 8 rats in each group. From pregnancy ld until birth, the rats were given double evaporated water or lead acetate water of different doses according to their groups. The samples of descendants were taken on embryo 18 th day, postnatal 1st day, 21st day, 60th day. The contents of lead in blood and hippocampus were determined by hydride generation atomic absorption spectrometry method. The expression of NOV protein and mRNA in hippocampus were observed by immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization.

RESULTSThe lead contents of blood [(312.46 +/- 43.55), (419.35 +/- 62.25), (541.45 +/- 47.90) microg/L] and hippocampus[(2.10 +/- 0.18), (2.58 +/- 0.12), (3.41 +/- 0.23) microg/L] were significantly higher in lead exposed groups than that of control [(214.31 +/- 40.77), (0.76 +/- 0.13) microg/L] (P < 0.05) on the embryo 18th, 1st and 21 st day, while there was no significantly difference among them on 60 th day. The expression of NOV protein in all lead exposed groups were significantly decreased compared with control group (P < 0.05) on 1st and 21 st day, while there was no significantly difference among them on 60th day. The expression of NOV mRNA of all the lead exposed groups were significantly decreased compared with control group (P < 0.05) on the embryo 18th, 1st and 21st day, while there was significantly difference only in the high dose group (0.0355 +/- 0.0100) compared with control (0.0900 +/- 0.0200) (P < 0.01) on 60th day.

CONCLUSIONPregnancy low level lead exposure could decrease the NOV protein and mRNA expression in hippocampus of offspring, which might be one of the molecular mechanisms of effect of lead on learning and memory.

Animals ; Female ; Gene Expression ; Hippocampus ; metabolism ; Lead ; adverse effects ; blood ; Nephroblastoma Overexpressed Protein ; genetics ; metabolism ; Pregnancy ; Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects ; RNA, Messenger ; genetics ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar

Objective To systematically evaluate the comprehensive effect of subglottic secretion drainage (SSD) on patients with mechanical ventilation (MV) in intensive care unit (ICU). Methods The randomized controlled clinical trials (RCTs) comparing SSD (intervention group) versus non-SSD (control group) in adult patients with MV in ICU was collected through the databases such as the PubMed database of the National Library of Medicine, CNKI, Wanfang database and the Chinese journal of science and technology database (VIP). The subjects were ICU patients with MV, and the retrieval time ranged from January 2006 to December 2016. Two reviewers independently screened the studies according to the inclusive and exclusive criteria, extracted the data, and assessed the quality. Then RevMan 5.3 software was used for Meta-analysis. Sensitivity analysis was performed using Stata 11.0 software. Funnel plot was used to analyze publication bias. Results In the 1004 documents obtained from preliminary screening, a total of 13 studies involving 2052 patients were enrolled after excluding duplicated documents and literature did not meet the inclusion criteria, with 1021 patients in intervention group, and 1031 in control group. Meta-analysis showed that compared with control group, the application of SSD in patients with MV could contribute to the reduction of the incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia [VAP; risk ratio (RR) = 0.54, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) = 0.46-0.64, P < 0.00001], the duration of MV [mean difference (MD) = -3.29, 95%CI = -4.53 to -2.05, P < 0.00001] and length of hospital stay (MD = -4.27, 95% CI = -7.36 to -1.18, P = 0.007) were shortened, while there was no significant difference in ICU or hospital mortality rate between the intervention group and control group (RR = 0.89, 95%CI = 0.73-1.09, P = 0.25). The sensitivity analysis for studies enrolled in Meta-analysis of MV duration showed that individual research results were stable through step remove of the included literatures and combined calculation of the remaining literature value, suggesting that individual research results were stable, and would not have a significant impact on the overall results. The results of the funnel analysis showed that there was a symmetry in the inclusion studies, and no significant publication bias was found. Conclusions SSD did have effect in reducing the incidence of VAP, shortening the duration of MV and length of hospital stay, while there was no significant effect on reducing mortality rate. Effective use of SSD is an important measure to prevent VAP. It is necessary to objectively evaluate the clinical effect of SSD.

Objective:To explore the possibility of using peritoneal alternatively activated M2 macrophages to prevent rejection after islet allotransplantation in a murine model.Methods:Peritoneal monocytes from C57BL/6 mice were induced and modulated to M2 and M0 macrophages in vitro,then the phenotype of macrophage was assessed by flow cytometry.C57BL/6 mice were induced diabetic by streptozotocin (STZ) injection and transplanted with islets isolated from BALB/c mice under the left kidney capsule.The recipients were randomly divided to 3 groups (n=8).A total of 2.5× 106 M2 macrophages were injected intravenously at 0,3,7 d after transplantation in islet+M2 group;2.5×106 M0 macrophages were injected intravenously at 0,3,7 d after transplantation in islet+M0 group;the mice in islet+PBS group were injected with PBS.Blood glucose was monitored after transplantation.On day 10 after transplantation,2 recipients in each group were randomly selected and sacrificed,and the left kidneys were resected for pathological examination.Results:Achievement of euglycemia was significantly prolonged after islet transplantation in the islet+M2 group than that in the other two groups (P＜0.01).The median survival time of islet allografts in the islet+PBS group,the islet+M0 group,and the islet+M2 group were 6.5 (4-10),7.5 (4-10),and 24(＞ 15) d,respectively.Pathological examination also showed that the grafts in islet+M2 group remained an intact structure with positive insulin stain and no apparent lymphocytes infiltration,while the graft was rejected in other 2 groups with negative insulin stain and massive lymphocytes infiltration.Conclusion:Peritoneal alternatively activated M2 macrophages can prevent rejection after islet allotransplantation,prolong the survival time of islet allografts and enhance the tolerance of the recipient to blood glucose in mice.