Adult ; Aged ; Benzamides ; therapeutic use ; Case-Control Studies ; Female ; Humans ; Imatinib Mesylate ; Immunoglobulins ; metabolism ; Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive ; drug therapy ; immunology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Piperazines ; therapeutic use ; Pyrimidines ; therapeutic use ; T-Lymphocyte Subsets

Some phytoestrogen-containing Chinese herbs have both estrogenic and antiestrogenic activity. With the development of phgtoestrogen study and the application of herbs in breast cancer, phytoestrogen-containing herbs become the hot researches, but consensus is hampered by conflicting data from various in vitro and in vivo experiments. This article will address the effects of some kinds of herbs on breast cancer cell proliferation, the mechanism and their biological activity. The review will focus on 3 popular botanical herb: Angelica sinensis (dong quai) , Salvia miltiorrhiza (dan-shen root) and ginseng.

Once uveal melanoma (UM) has distant metastasis, the median survival time of the patient is less than 12 months. There is currently a lack of standard treatment for metastatic UM. In recent years, immunotherapy is splendid in the field of oncology. Immune checkpoint therapy, cancer vaccine therapy and T cell adoptive therapy have been applied to UM therapy. However, most of the clinical effects are limited and the survival benefit is not high. The recent early research results of the new immunotherapeutic drug IMCgp100 are encouraging.

Abstract: Beginning with 4-level quality control measures of clinical research in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), we elaborated the implementation process and demands of quality control measures of each level, including quality control, monitoring, auditing, and inspection. On the basis of joint inspection experience of 41 projects of the "Prevention and Treatment of Difficult and Complicated Diseases of TCM" plan of the "11th Five-year National Key Technology R&D Program", we analyzed the ensuring effect of 4-level quality control system and joint inspection model, and then pointed out the existing problems in the executing process of quality control system at different levels and joint inspection model. Finally we investigated what should be revised in the quality control system and joint inspection model, thus providing the theoretical support for quality inspection improvement of TCM clinical research.

[Objective]To investigate the relationship of baseline antimullerian hormone(AMH)and live birth rate of IVF/ICSI and further explore the prognostic effect of AMH on live birth rate.[Methods]All non-polycystic ovary patients who underwent their first embryo transfers in our unit and had basal serum AMH evaluated between 2010 and 2015 were evaluated in this retrospective study. Patients were grouped according to their AMH level,i.e. low AMH group with AMH less than 1.1 ng/mL(n = 485),middle AMH group with AMH between 1.1 ng/mL and 7.0 ng/mL (n = 1 989),and high AMH group with AMH higher than 7.0 ng/mL (n=468). For age subgroup analysis,patients were stratified as follow:group A(age≤29 years),group B(30~34 years),group C(35~39 years)and group D(over 40 years). We compared clinical outcomes between AMH groups in different age groups usingunivariate and multivariate analysis. ROC analysis was utilized to assess predictive value of AMH on live birth rate.[Results](1)In both fresh and frozen embryo transfers,baseline AMH was significantly related to clinical outcomes. The lower AMH was,the lower implantation rate,clinical pregnancy rate,and live birth rate. However,higher miscarriage rate was observed. All difference reached statistically significant.(2)In age subgroup analysis,we demonstrated AMH was related to live birth rate in patients in group A,B, and C,regardless of fresh or frozen embryo transferred. In those over 40 years,AMH was related to live birth rate in frozen cycles (P < 0.05)but not fresh cycles(P = 0.092). The further multivariate analysis confirmed the above results after controlling po?tential confounding variables.(3)The AUC of ROC analysis for AMH predicting live birth rate were 0.647,0.633 for fresh and fro?zen cycles respectively.[Conclusion]Baseline AMH as one of excellent ovarian reserve markers ,was significantly related to live birth rate in fresh or frozen cycles. Baseline AMH was an independent prognostic factor of live birth rate,but its predictive value on live birth rate was of limited clinical value.

Background Stickler syndrome is a genetic connective tissue disorder that affects the ocular,skeletal,orofacial and auditory systems.To determine the gene mutation loci can offer a basis for genetic diagnosis and management of Stickler syndrome.Objective The aim of this study was to research the clinical characteristics of a pedigree with Stickler syndrome and identify the disease-causing gene mutation.Methods This study was approved by Ethic Committee of Peking Union Medical College Hospital.The clinical study and pedigree analysis were performed in one family with Stickler syndrome type Ⅰ (STL Ⅰ).Nine family members were examined with informed consent.The entire coding regions of COL2A1 gene with flanking intronic regions were amplified by PCR and directly sequenced.The detected sequence change was confirmed to be mutationloci by examining whether they existed in normal control individuals.Mutant proteins were predicted with online software.Results There were 4 generations and 11 members in this family,and 2 members died,including 1 patient.Three patients were found in 9living families.Inheritance of this family complicd with an autosomal dominant inheritance mode.All affected individuals showed the consistent phenotypes with STL Ⅰ,including high myopia,membranous vitreous anomaly and surface central flat,short nose,palatoschisis,etc.Mutation screening of COL2A1 gene revealed that the first base of intron 12 was deleted(IVS12+1G del).Nucleotide sequence analysis showed that this mutation led to the functional abnormal of this gene by forming termination cordon in advance.This mutation occurred in all affected individuals,however,no mutation was observed in any unaffected member or 100 normal unrelated individuals.Conclusions This study identifies a novel splice-site mutation(IVS12+ 1G del)in COL2A1 gene in a Chinese STL Ⅰ pedigree.This is the first report on a mutation in a Chinese STL Ⅰ family.

Communicable Diseases, Emerging ; genetics ; Genomics ; Humans

OBJECTIVETo explore various factors affecting the clinical pregnancy outcomes of artificial insemination with donor sperm (AID).

METHODSWe retrospectively analyzed 15,744 cycles of AID in 6302 women and investigated the association of the clinical pregnancy outcomes of AID with the treatment protocols, the times of insemination per cycle, the age of the infertile women, the status of the oviduct, and the number of AID cycles.

RESULTSThe pregnancy rate of AID was higher in the chlomiphene-treated women than in those of the natural cycle group (P = 0.003) but showed no significant differences either between the chloramiphene and human menopause gonadotropin (HMG) or between the HMG and natural cycle groups (P > 0.05), and so was it in the women that had received AID twice per cycle before and after ovulation (26.3%) than in those that had undergone only once before (7.0%) or after ovulation (23.7%) (P < 0.05). However, the pregnancy rate was remarkably lower in the women aged 35-40 years (16.5%), especially in those over 40 years (1.2%), than in those under 35 years (26.0%) (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in the success rate of AID between the women with oviductal adhesion and those without (27.4% vs. 28.1%, P > 0.05). The pregnancy rate of the first cycle of AID (27.6%) was markedly higher than those of the second (24.7%), third (23.9%), and fourth (23.1%) (P < 0.01), but with no significant differences among the latter three cycles (P > 0.05), while that of the fifth cycle (19.0%) was remarkably lower than those of the first four (P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONThe age of the infertile women is an important factor affecting the success rate of AID. AID twice per cycle is better than once only. For those without oviductal factors, at least 4 cycles of AID are required before in vitro fertilization.

Adult ; Age Factors ; Female ; Fertilization in Vitro ; Humans ; Infertility, Female ; Insemination, Artificial ; Insemination, Artificial, Heterologous ; Ovulation ; Ovulation Induction ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy Outcome ; Pregnancy Rate ; Retrospective Studies

In this article, a new TCM clinical trial of phaseⅢ was served as an example of application of Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC). It briefly introduced seven data acquisition modules commonly used in clinical research of new traditional Chinese medicine, namely demographics, subject characteristic, clinical event, medical history, questionnaire, laboratory inspection and adverse event. It also introduced the process of transferring the above modules to Study Data Tabulation Models (STDM), and discussed the feasibility and some issues that required attention of CDISC application in clinical research of new traditional Chinese medicine.

This paper was aimed to discuss the feasibility and attentions of application of instrumental variable (IV) methods in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) outcome research. First, the application of IV was introduced, which included the basic principles and hypothesis, statistical model, estimator of IV and weak IV. Then, an example was given to illustrate the evaluation criteria and attentions of IV. The resultsshowed that IV method was proposed as a potential approach to the problems of confounding in statistics. But using IV methods should be based on a series of statistical hypotheses. It was concluded that the IV analysis was a method controlling confounding bias, but generally it was not chosen as the preferred analytical method. The issue of searching for valid and plausible IV seemed to be the biggest obstacle in the outcome of TCM researches.