OBJECTIVETo measure the serum level of secretory type II phospholipase A2 (sPLA2) in patients with coronary heart disease and investigate the possible relationship with IL-8 and LPA.

METHODSA total of 110 patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS), 63 patients with stable coronary heart disease (SCHD) group and 89 non-CHD control patients were studied. Serum levels of sPLA2, IL-8, LPA and hs-CRP were measured and the correlation among these parameters was observed.

RESULTSThe levels of serum sPLA2 [(68 +/- 17) U/ml], IL-8 [(182 +/- 80) pg/ml] and LPA [(2.85 +/- 0.36) micromol/L] were significantly higher in CHD patients than those in controls [sPLA2: (55 +/- 12) U/ml; IL-8: (119 +/- 33) pg/ml; LPA: (2.34 +/- 0.36) micromol/L, all P < 0.01], and sPLA2 and IL-8 were also significantly higher in ACS patients [sPLA2: (71 +/- 18) U/ml; IL-8: (195 +/- 78) pg/ml] than those in SCHD patients [sPLA2: (63 +/- 12) U/ml; IL-8: (159 +/- 79) pg/ml, both P < 0.01]. Serum sPLA2 level was positively correlated with hs-CRP, IL-8 and LPA (r = 0.203, P = 0.007; r = 0.658, P < 0.01; r = 0.231, P = 0.005, respectively). The relative risk of having CHD is 6.248 (P < 0.01) with the sPLA2 level above 63.75 U/ml.

CONCLUSIONElevated serum sPLA2 level is a risk factor for CHD.

Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; C-Reactive Protein ; metabolism ; Coronary Angiography ; Coronary Disease ; blood ; diagnostic imaging ; Female ; Group II Phospholipases A2 ; Humans ; Interleukin-8 ; blood ; Lysophospholipids ; blood ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Phospholipases A ; blood ; Phospholipases A2

OBJECTIVEWe aim to describe the environment iodine concentration in salt, water and soil along Zhejiang Province coast in the China foreland. It will be helpful for us to judge whether this area is insufficient in iodine and universal iodized salt is necessary or not.

METHODSWe collected iodized salt samples, drinking water samples (tap water in the towns, and well water or spring water in the villages), water samples from different sources (ditches, lakes, rivers) and soil samples through random sampling in June, 2005. Salt, water and soil iodine was detected by arsenic-cerium redox method. Statistical analysis was expressed as mean+/-SEM by Windows SPSS 13.0.

RESULTS(1) The iodine concentration in salt was 27.9+/-4.33 mg/kg (n=108). (2) Seventy-five water samples were collected. The water iodine value was 0.6-84.8 microg/L (mean of 11.66 mug/L). The watershed along the Qiantang River has significantly higher iodine content than the water in Lin'an in mountain area (P<0.01). The iodine content and mean iodine content of tap water, well or spring water and natural water sources were 4.30+/-2.43 microg/L (n=34), 23.59+/-27.74 microg/L (n=19) and 12.72+/-10.72 microg/L (n=22) respectively. This indicated that among environmental water sources, the ditch iodine content was the highest with river water iodine being the lowest (P<0.01). (3) Soil iodine value was 0.11-2.93 mg/kg (mean of 1.32 mg/kg). Though there was no statistical difference of soil iodine in different districts (P=0.131), soil iodine content correlated positively with water iodine content.

CONCLUSIONIodine concentration in salt accords with national policy of adding iodine in salt. Foreland has more iodine in water than mountain area. The data reflected that water and soil iodine in foreland area was not high, which suggests universal iodized salt should be necessary. Environment iodine has relatively close association with pollution.

China ; Iodine ; analysis ; Rivers ; chemistry ; Sodium Chloride ; analysis ; Sodium Chloride, Dietary ; analysis ; Soil ; analysis ; Water ; analysis ; Water Supply ; analysis

BACKGROUNDThe heavy incidence and mortality of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, as well as no specific drugs in curing the disease, clearly indicate the need for development of the more effective hantavirus vaccine. Refining the DNA vaccination strategy to elicit more clinically efficacious immune responses is now under intensive investigation. In the present study, we examined the effects of using an interleukin-12 expression plasmid as a genetic adjuvant to enhance the immune responses induced by a DNA vaccine based on the S gene encoding nucleocapsid protein against hantavirus.

METHODSBALB/c mice were immunized three times by intramuscular inoculations of DNA vaccine encoding of hantanvirus nucleocapsid protein alone or in combination with a plasmid expressing murine interleukin-12 (pcIL-12). Booster immunizations were employed 2 times at 2-week interval. To evaluate the humoral and cellular immune responses, antigen-specific lymphocyte proliferation and antibody production were assayed by MTT method and ELISA respectively. The level of interleukin-4 and interferon-gamma in the splenic lymphocytic cultured supernatant were detected with ELISA kit at day 5, 10, 17, 35 and 42 after primary immunization.

RESULTSAntigen-specific IgG antibodies was increased markedly at day 17 in the experiment groups and reached a plateau after day 35. As pcIL-12 co-injected, a significant inhibition of antigen-specific IgG levels was displayed over the period and the antibody mean titre was decreased to only about 1:50 at day 42 after primary immunization, significantly lower than the group immunized with pcDNA3.1 + S alone, in which the mean titre was about 1:70. Interferon-gamma was increased remarkably by the co-injection of pcIL-12 compared with the injection of pcDNA3.1 + S alone. However, the production of interleukin-4 was inhibited by pcIL-12 co-injection. Furthermore, pcIL-12 co-injection efficiently enhanced antigen-specific lymphocyte proliferation.

CONCLUSIONHumoral and cytokine responses elicited by pcDNA3.1 + S inoculation can be modulated by co-inoculation with pcIL-12 and efficiently induced Th1-dominant immune responses.

Animals ; Cytokines ; biosynthesis ; Genetic Therapy ; Hantavirus ; immunology ; Immunoglobulin G ; blood ; Immunophenotyping ; Interleukin-12 ; genetics ; Lymphocyte Activation ; Male ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred BALB C ; Nucleocapsid ; genetics ; immunology ; Vaccines, DNA ; immunology ; Viral Vaccines ; immunology

OBJECTIVESTo measure the plasma levels of urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA), urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR) and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), and study the relationship between the plasma levels of uPA, PAI-1 and the serum albumin (Alb), collagen type IV (CIV), the serum hyaluronic acid (HA), prothrombin time (PT) and prothrombin activity (PTA) in patients with different stages of liver cirrhosis following chronic hepatitis B.

METHODS72 cases with liver cirrhosis of different stages were classified according to child-pugh's categories A, B, C, in which there were 23 cases in child A, 29 cases in child B, and 20 cases in child C. The plasma levels of uPA, uPAR, PAI-1 and the serum levels of HA, CIV were detected by ELISA. The serum PCIII concentration was determined by radioimmunoassay.

RESULTSWith the progression of hepatic fibrosis, the plasma levels of uPA, uPAR and PAI-1 were (1.36+/-0.43) microg/L, (3.03+/-1.48) microg/L and (24.09+/-7.14) microg/L respectively in group A, (1.79+/-0.62) microg/L, (4.80+/-2.22) microg/L and (41.40+/-17.52) microg/L respectively in group B. The highest levels were in child C, whose levels were (1.88+/-0.64) microg/L, (4.82+/-2.02) microg/L and (52.60+/-16.87) microg/L respectively, compared with group A and group B, t value were from 2.81 to 7.38, all of P value were less than 0.01. There was negative correlation between the plasma levels of uPA and the serum PCIII (r=-0.4785, P<0.05) in child A, but, positive correlation between the plasma PAI-1 and the serum HA (r=0.5447, P<0.01) in child C. The value of PAI-1/uPA was significantly decreased in child A, but increased in child B and child C.

CONCLUSIONIn the late of liver cirrhosis, increased PAI-1 together with uPA, uPAR are associated with overall inhibition of matrix degradation. The plasma levels of uPA and PAI-1 were correlation to the progression of liver cirrhosis.

Female ; Hepatitis B, Chronic ; complications ; Humans ; Liver Cirrhosis ; blood ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor 1 ; blood ; Receptors, Cell Surface ; blood ; Receptors, Urokinase Plasminogen Activator ; Urokinase-Type Plasminogen Activator ; blood

OBJECTIVETo study the expression of Galectin-3 in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissues and the clinical value of serum Galectin-3 in the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma.

METHODSImmunohistochemistry method was used to detect the expression of Galectin-3 in the 46 pairs of HCC tissues and their para cancerous tissues. The relationship between expression levels of Galectin-3 and clinical parameters was analyzed. Serum Galectin-3 in different liver diseases were measured with ELISA. The sensitivity and specificity of galectin-3, alpha fetoprotein (AFP) and gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase II (GGT-II) for diagnosis of HCC were compared and the complementary diagnostic values of Galectin-3 and AFP and GGT-II for HCC were studied.

RESULTS(1) The positive rate of Galectin-3 in the tissue of HCC was 78.2%, dramatically higher than that in para cancerous tissues (15.2%) (P is less than 0.01). The expression levels were correlated with differentiation and with the high expression in poor differentiation tissues; (2) Based on ROC curve, the cut-off of serum Galectin-3 for HCC diagnosis was set as 0.62mug/L, the serum galectin-3 positive rate was 64.5% in HCC cases, which was apparently higher than that in liver cirrhosis, chronic hepatitis and healthy persons (P is less than 0.05); (3) Serum Galectin-3 was not correlated with AFP and GGT-II. Combined determination of the three markers had the complementary diagnostic value for HCC and might increase the diagnostic sensitivity to 94.7%.

CONCLUSIONGalectin-3 is overexpressed in HCC tissues and is correlated with the tumor differentiation, suggesting that Galectin-3 may be associated with the carcinogenesis and development of HCC. Serum galectin-3 increases in the HCC cases and combined determination of serum Galectin-3, AFP and GGT-II can increase the diagnostic efficiency for HCC. Galectin-3 could be a novel serum tumor marker for HCC.

Carcinoma, Hepatocellular ; blood ; metabolism ; Female ; Galectin 3 ; blood ; metabolism ; Humans ; Liver ; metabolism ; Liver Neoplasms ; blood ; metabolism ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Serum ; chemistry

The binding mechanism between pefloxacin mesylate (PM) and transferrin (Tf) was explored using spectral experiment combined with molecular modeling techniques. The binding parameters and thermodynamic functions of PM-Tf solution system were measured at different temperatures. The effect of PM on molecular conformation of Tf was investigated and the interaction mechanism was also discussed. The results showed that dynamic quenching mechanism occurs with PM binding to Tf. The value of binding distances (r) is low, which indicates the occurrence of energy transfer. The drug had conformational effect on Tf, which resulted in changes of hydrophobic environment of the binding domain in Tf. According to the obtained thermodynamic parameters, the main interaction force between PM and Tf is attributed to hydrophobic bonding. The results of molecular modeling revealed that hydrophobic and hydrogen bonds are main binding forces in the PM-Tf system. These results were in accordance with spectral experiments. The research results have given a better theoretical reference for the study of pharmacological mechanism between protein and quinolone.
Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions ; Models, Molecular ; Pefloxacin ; chemistry ; metabolism ; Protein Binding ; Protein Conformation ; Thermodynamics ; Transferrin ; chemistry ; metabolism

To explore the difference of negative regulatory factors among T lymphocyte subsets in bone marrow (BM) of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and their relations to apoptotic gene Fas, different lymphocyte subsets in BM were categorized by monoclonal antibodies with 3 color fluorescence using flow cytometry, and the intracellular cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) were determined following marrow cells culture. Then Fas mRNA of bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMMNC) were examined by RT-PCR. The results showed that TNF-alpha, IFN-gamma levels in BM of MDS both increased, the former produced by cells CD4+CD45RO+, CD8+CD45RO+, the latter by cells CD4+CD45RO+, CD8+CD45RO+, CD8+CD45RA+, in which the cells CD8+CD45RO+ were dominant. Fas mRNA expression had relationship with IFN-gamma produced by T cells but not with TNF-alpha. It is concluded that in hematopoietic microenvironment of MDS, not only the T lymphocyte subsets are in disorder, but also negative regulatory factors secreted by T lymphocyte increase. T lymphocytes play an important role in producing IFN-gamma in patients with MDS.
Adult ; Aged ; Bone Marrow Cells ; metabolism ; Female ; Humans ; Interferon-gamma ; biosynthesis ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Myelodysplastic Syndromes ; metabolism ; pathology ; RNA, Messenger ; analysis ; T-Lymphocyte Subsets ; metabolism ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha ; biosynthesis ; fas Receptor ; genetics

Objective: To explore the reentry rate of reactive blood donors in the bloodborne pathogen infection screening in Hangzhou City, and analyze the donation behavior of those who successfully returned. Methods: A retrospective analysis of the return data of blood donors with reactive bloodborne pathogen screening markers was conducted at Zhejiang Provincial Blood Center from June 2017 to May 2022. The reentry process for blood donors with reactive bloodborne pathogen screening markers in Hangzhou City is as follows: after the initial screening period of 6 months, donors can voluntarily apply for return to the blood center. Samples are collected and subjected to routine enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) screening for HBsAg, anti-HCV, HIV Ab/Ag, and anti-TP, as well as a single nucleic acid (HIV/HCV/HBV) test. For samples that show non-reactivity in both ELISA and nucleic acid tests, serum biomarker testing for the reasons of exclusion is performed using chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA), and those with non-reactivity are allowed to return. Results: A total of 4 583 reactive blood donors who met the criteria for re-entry applied for reentry, out of which 475 applications were received from donors in the Hangzhou area. Among these, 279 donors were successfully readmitted, resulting in a success rate of 58.74% (279/475). By the end of December 2021, out of the 174 donors who successfully returned, 114 donors chose to donate again. They collectively donated 39 530 ml of whole blood and 1 147.2 therapeutic doses of platelets. Among these, 21 donors once again showed reactivity for pathogen infection biomarkers, accounting for 18.42% (21/114). Conclusion: The reentry strategy has somewhat mitigated the attrition of blood donors. Nevertheless, there are instances where donors who were successfully readmitted show reactivity once more in the screening for pathogen infection biomarkers.
Humans ; Blood Donors ; Blood-Borne Pathogens ; Retrospective Studies ; Mass Screening/methods* ; Biomarkers ; HIV Infections ; Nucleic Acids ; Hepatitis B virus

Objective: To explore the reentry rate of reactive blood donors in the bloodborne pathogen infection screening in Hangzhou City, and analyze the donation behavior of those who successfully returned. Methods: A retrospective analysis of the return data of blood donors with reactive bloodborne pathogen screening markers was conducted at Zhejiang Provincial Blood Center from June 2017 to May 2022. The reentry process for blood donors with reactive bloodborne pathogen screening markers in Hangzhou City is as follows: after the initial screening period of 6 months, donors can voluntarily apply for return to the blood center. Samples are collected and subjected to routine enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) screening for HBsAg, anti-HCV, HIV Ab/Ag, and anti-TP, as well as a single nucleic acid (HIV/HCV/HBV) test. For samples that show non-reactivity in both ELISA and nucleic acid tests, serum biomarker testing for the reasons of exclusion is performed using chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA), and those with non-reactivity are allowed to return. Results: A total of 4 583 reactive blood donors who met the criteria for re-entry applied for reentry, out of which 475 applications were received from donors in the Hangzhou area. Among these, 279 donors were successfully readmitted, resulting in a success rate of 58.74% (279/475). By the end of December 2021, out of the 174 donors who successfully returned, 114 donors chose to donate again. They collectively donated 39 530 ml of whole blood and 1 147.2 therapeutic doses of platelets. Among these, 21 donors once again showed reactivity for pathogen infection biomarkers, accounting for 18.42% (21/114). Conclusion: The reentry strategy has somewhat mitigated the attrition of blood donors. Nevertheless, there are instances where donors who were successfully readmitted show reactivity once more in the screening for pathogen infection biomarkers.
Humans ; Blood Donors ; Blood-Borne Pathogens ; Retrospective Studies ; Mass Screening/methods* ; Biomarkers ; HIV Infections ; Nucleic Acids ; Hepatitis B virus

OBJECTIVETo investigate the application of titanium mesh and free forearm flap for reconstruction of maxillary defect resulted from tumor resection.

METHODSFrom 2004 to 2008, 19 cases with maxillary tumor underwent tumor resection. The defects were reconstructed immediately with titanium mesh for bony defects and free forearm flap for oral mucosa defects.

RESULTS16 cases achieved satisfactory functional and cosmetic results. The speech assessment was good without oronasal reflux. The titanium mesh was exposed and infected in 3 cases. Then the meshes were taken out and the defects were covered with the forearm flap to close the oronasal fistula. The midface was slightly depressed with no functional morbidity.

CONCLUSIONSIt is simple and practical to reconstruct maxillary defect with titanium mesh and free forearm flap. Both the functional and cosmetic results are satisfactory.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Female ; Forearm ; surgery ; Humans ; Male ; Maxillary Neoplasms ; surgery ; Middle Aged ; Reconstructive Surgical Procedures ; methods ; Skin Transplantation ; Surgical Flaps ; Surgical Mesh ; Titanium ; Young Adult