This paper introduces the ideas and methods concerning the design of network-based curriculm of hepatobiliary surgery. Design of network-based curriculm should highlight independence of online learning,emphasize network-based resources to support learning.Net-work-based curriculm should emphasize the evaluation of learning effect.

BACKGROUNDThe vertebral artery (VA) and atlantoaxial joint (AAJ), with complicated structures, are located in the depths of the head-neck boundary area, the regional anatomy of which cannot be shown globally and directly. This study aims to evaluate three-dimensional CT angiography (3DCTA) in displaying the AAJ, atlantoaxial segment of the vertebral artery (ASVA) and the identification of their interrelations.

METHODSSixty-eight subjects without pathology of the ASVA and AAJ were selected from head-neck CTA examination. All the 3D images were formed with volume rendering (VR) together with techniques of separating, fusing, opacifying and false-coloring (SFOF). On the 3D images, the ASVA and AAJ were observed, and their interrelations were measured.

RESULTSAll the 3DCTA images were of high quality and up to our requirements. They could clearly and directly show the ASVA, ascending along the AAJ. There were 5 curves in the course of the ASVA, of which 2 curves were away from the atlantoaxial joint, one in the 2nd curve of 0.0 mm - 5.4 mm, the other in the 4th of 2.6 mm - 9.2 mm. There was no significant difference in the measurements between left and right (P > 0.05). The curved parts of the ASVA slightly expanded, with the biggest diameter of 5.6 mm in the 4th curve. Statistical comparison shows that the left ASVA is larger than the right (P < 0.05). Variations of the ASVA were found in 8 cases and of the AAJ in 12.

CONCLUSIONS3DCTA can globally and directly demonstrate the structures of the AAJ, ASVA and their interrelations. The 3D imaging data make up and enrich the research contents of regional anatomy and lay the foundation for related study and applications.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Atlanto-Axial Joint ; diagnostic imaging ; Female ; Humans ; Imaging, Three-Dimensional ; methods ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; methods ; Vertebral Artery ; diagnostic imaging ; Young Adult

To determine the relationship between the urinary endothelin (ET-1), nitric oxide (NO) levels and the clinical, pathologic types of primary glomerulonephritis (GN) patients, urinary levels of ET-1 and NO were detected in 27 patients with biopsy-proven primary GN and 12 normal controls by radioimmunoassay and by copper-plated and cadmium column reduction assay, respectively. The results showed that urinary ET-1 levels in the patients with primary GN were significantly higher than in normal controls (p < 0.01), while the urinary ET-1 levels in patients with moderate mesangial proliferation GN were significantly higher than those in patients with mild mesangial proliferation GN (p < 0.05). Urinary ET-1 levels in patients whose clinical feature was nephrotic syndrome were found to be higher than in patients whose clinical feature was nephritic syndrome. However, urinary NO levels were to the contrary (p < 0.05). The ratio of ET-1/NO in primary GN patients was significantly higher than that in normal controls, and it positively correlated with the 24-hour urinary excretion of protein. These results suggest that urinary ET-1 levels are related to the proliferation of mesangial cells. The imbalance between ET-1 and NO may be related to the pathogenesis of primary GN and the occurrence of proteinuria.
Adolescence ; Adult ; Endothelin-1/urine* ; Endothelin-1/physiology ; Female ; Glomerulonephritis/urine* ; Glomerulonephritis/etiology ; Human ; Male ; Middle Age ; Nitric Oxide/urine* ; Nitric Oxide/physiology ; Nitric-Oxide Synthase/metabolism

OBJECTIVETo explore the role of treg cells and its functional markers in pathogenesis of chronic hepatitis B, and the correlation with disease progression.

METHODS20 cases of healthy control people,53 cases of chronic hepatitis B patients and 24 cases of liver cirrhosis patients were enrolled into the groups. Detecting the frequencies of CD4+ CD25+ Fox3+ cells, CD4+ CD25+ CD127(low) cells, CD39+ treg cells and CTLA-4+ treg cells in treg cells by flow cytometry. Clinical parameters were investigated in the same time.

RESULTSThe frequencies of treg cells, CD4+ CD25+ CD127(low) cells and CD39+ treg cells were significant different among healthy control group, CHB group and LC group (P < 0.01). The frequencies of treg cells, CD4+ CD25+ CD127(low) cells and CD39+ treg cells were significantly different in moderate-severe CHB group compared with mild CHB group (P < 0.05, P < 0.05, P < 0.01). In CHB group the frequencies of CD4+ CD25+ Foxp3+ cells were positively correlated with ALT (r = 0. 289, P < 0.05) and AST (r = 0.302, P < 0.05), the frequencies of CD4+ CD25+ Foxp3+ cells had a significant positive correlation with the frequencies of CD4+ CD25+ CD127(low) cells (r = 0.478, P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONThe frequencies of treg cells and its functional markers probably had a dynamic tendency in the process of chronic hepatitis B and were closely related with the change of liver function parameters. CD39+ treg cells may be a group of functional treg cells, which indicated that CD39 be a sensitive marker to react treg cells function. In some sense, CD4+ CD25+ CD127(low) cells frequency could represent treg cell frequency.

Adult ; Biomarkers ; DNA, Viral ; blood ; Female ; Hepatitis B e Antigens ; blood ; Hepatitis B, Chronic ; immunology ; virology ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory ; immunology

OBJECTIVETo observe the effect of Qingyi Decoction (QYD) in treating severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) and its impacts on blood levels of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), interleukin 6 and 8 (IL-6 and IL-8).

METHODSOne hundred and ten patients of SAP were equally randomized into the treated group and the control group, they were treated with the same therapeutic program excepting that QYD was given only to the treated group. The post-treatment incidence of severe complication, mortality and operation transferring rate, as well as the changes of APACHE II scores and blood levels of TNF-alpha, IL-6 and IL-8 in patients of both groups were observed.

RESULTSThe incidences of the two severe complications, acute respiratory distress syndrome and intestinal paralysis, in the treated group was 3.6% and 5.4% respectively, while in the control group, 12.7% and 18.2%, showing statistical significance between groups (P < 0.05). The APACHE II score in the treated group decreased significantly on the 7th day, which was better than that in the control group (8.14 +/- 2.30 scores vs 3.35 +/- 2.20 scores, P < 0. 05). In addition, the efficacy in the treated group was also superior to that in the control group in terms of reducing mortality, operation transferring rate, and blood levels of TNF-alpha, IL-6 and IL-8 on the 7th and 9th day (P < 0. 05).

CONCLUSIONQYD could markedly improve the prognosis of SAP patients by way of lowering the blood levels of TNF-alpha, IL-6 and IL-8.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; therapeutic use ; Female ; Humans ; Interleukin-6 ; blood ; Interleukin-8 ; blood ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Pancreatitis, Acute Necrotizing ; blood ; drug therapy ; Phytotherapy ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha ; blood ; Young Adult

Objective To investigate the effect of different concentrations of magnesium-calcium alloy extract on the expression of matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP9) and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-3 (TIMP3) in human colonic epithelial NCM460 cells.Methods The different concentrations of extracts (the volume fraction was 10％,50％ and 100％ respectively) were made with magnesium-calcium alloy.The 5 × 106 L-1 NCM460 suspension was randomly divided into control group,experimental group 1,experimental group 2 and experimental group 3.The cells in the control group were cultured by 2 000 μL high glucose Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium (containing 10％ volume fraction of fetal bovine serum).The cells in the experimental group 1,2 and 3 were cultured by 2 000 μL magnesium-calcium alloy extract with volume fraction of 10％,50％ and 100％ respectively.The expressions of MMP9 and TIMP3 mRNA in NCM460 cells was detected by real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction,and the expression of MMP9 and TIMP3 protein in NCM460 cells was detected by Western blot at after one,three and five days of cultivation respectively.Results The expression of MMP9 mRNA and TIMP3 mRNA in NCM460 cells of the experimental group 1,2 and 3 was significantly lower than that in the control group after one day of cultivation (P ＜ 0.05).After three and five days of cultivation,the expression of MMP9 mRNA in NCM460 cells of the experimental group 1 was significantly lower than that in the control group (P ＜ 0.05),but the expression of MMP9 mRNA in the NCM460 cells of the experimental group 2 and 3 was significantly higher than that in the control group and the experimental group 1 (P ＜ 0.05).The expression of MMP9 mRNA in NCM460 cells of the experimental group 3 was significantly higher than that in the experimental group 2 after five days of cultivation (P ＜ 0.05).The expression of MMP9 mRNA in NCM460 cells of the experimental group 1,2 and 3 after three and five days of cultivation was significantly higher than that after one day of cultivation(P ＜ 0.05).There was no significant difference in the expression of MMP9 mRNA in NCM460 cells of the experimental group 1 between three and five days of cultivation (P ＞ 0.05).The expression of MMP9 mRNA in NCM460 cells of the experimental group 2 and 3 after five days of cultivation was significantly higher than that after three days of cultivation(P ＜ 0.05).The expression of TIMP3 mRNA in NCM460 cells of the experimental group 2 and 3 was significantly higher than that in the experimental group 1 after one day of euhivation (P ＜ 0.05).After three days of cultivation,the expression of TIMP3 mRNA in NCM460 cells of the experimental group 1,2 and 3 was significantly lower than that in the control group (P ＜ 0.05);the expression of TIMP3 mRNA in NCM460 cells of the experimental group 2 was significantly lower than that in the experimental group 1 and 3 (P ＜ 0.05).After five days of cultivation,the expression of TIMP3 mRNA in NCM460 cells of the experimental group 1,2 and 3 was significantly higher than that in the control group (P ＜ 0.05).The expression of TIMP3 mRNA in NCM460 cells after three and five days of cultivation was significantly higher than that after one day of cultivation (P ＜ 0.05),and the expression of TIMP3 after five days of cultivation was significantly higher than that after three days of cultivation in the experimental group 1 (P ＜ 0.05).The expression of TIMP3 mRNA in NCM460 cells after three days of cultivation was significantly lower than that after one day of cultivation (P ＜ 0.05),and the expression of TIMP3 after five days of cultivation was significantly higher than that after one and three days of cultivation in the experimental group 2 (P ＜ 0.05).The expression of TIMP3 mRNA in NCM460 cells after five days of cultivation was significantly higher than that after one and three days of cultivation in the experimental group 3 (P ＜ 0.05).After five days of cultivation,there was no significant difference in the expression of MMP9 protein in NCM460 cells between the experimental group 1 and control group (P ＞ 0.05),the expression of MMP9 protein in NCM460 cells of the experimental group 2 and 3 was significantly higher than that in the control group and the experimental group 1 (P ＜ 0.05),but there was no significant difference in the expression of MMP9 protein in NCM460 cells between the experimental group 2 and 3 (P ＞ 0.05).After five days of cultivation,the expression of TIMP3 protein in NCM460 cells of the experimental group 1,2 and 3 was significantly higher than that in the control group (P ＜0.05);but there was no significant difference in the expression of TIMP3 protein in NCM460 cells among the experimental group 1,2and 3 (P ＞ 0.05).Conclusions The high concentration of magnesium-calcium alloy extract has certain influence on the expression of MMP9 and TIMP3 gene in NCM460 cells,which may lead to the early inflammatory reaction,and the mechanism may be related to the calcium ion concentration in the extract.

Cell Line ; Dialysis Solutions ; adverse effects ; Epithelial Cells ; metabolism ; Fibrosis ; Humans ; Peritoneal Dialysis, Continuous Ambulatory ; adverse effects ; Peritoneum ; metabolism ; pathology ; RNA Interference ; RNA, Messenger ; analysis ; RNA, Small Interfering ; pharmacology ; Transforming Growth Factor beta ; antagonists & inhibitors ; genetics ; Transforming Growth Factor beta1

Aneurysm ; surgery ; Aneurysm, Infected ; surgery ; Aneurysm, Ruptured ; surgery ; Carotid Arteries ; surgery ; Carotid Artery Diseases ; surgery ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Reconstructive Surgical Procedures

OBJECTIVE: To explore the effects of exogenous transforming growth factor-beta 1 (TGFbeta1) on peripheral nerve regeneration after the peripheral nerve injury and if TGFbeta1 regulates the expression of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) in the anterior horn motoneurons of spinal cord during regeneration. METHODS: Forty-eight rats were crushed on the right sciatic nerve and then randomly divided into 2 groups: TGFbeta1 group and NS group. In TGFbeta1 group, TGFbeta1 50 microL (0.1 microg/mL) was injected into the proximal nerve near to the crushed nerve and after the operation the injured leg was injected with equal TGFbeta1 whereas the NS was replaced in the NS group. The rats of each group survived for 3, 7, 14 and 21 days after the lesion. The bFGF expression in the anterior horn motoneurons of spinal cord was detected by immunohistochemistry (IHC). Semi-thin section and Fast Blue retrograde tracing were also performed with the rats surviving for 21 days to observe the regeneration of distal end in the injured right sciatic nerve. RESULTS: The number of bFGF immunoreactive positive motoneurons in TGFbeta1 group was obviously higher than that of the NS group (P < 0.05). In the distal sciatic nerve of the rats treated with TGFbeta1, the number and diameter of regenerating myelinated axons and the thickness of myelinated sheath were more than those of the NS group (P < 0.05). The number of motoneurons in spinal cord and neurons in dorsol root ganglia (DRG) labelled with Fast Blue in the NS group was obviously lower than in the TGFbeta1 group (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION Exogenous TGFbeta1 plays an important role in promoting the peripheral nerve regeneration; TGFbeta1 up-regulates the bFGF expression in the anterior horn motoneurons of spinal cord during the peripheral nerve regeneration.
Animals ; Female ; Fibroblast Growth Factor 2 ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; Male ; Motor Neurons ; metabolism ; Nerve Regeneration ; drug effects ; Random Allocation ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Sciatic Nerve ; injuries ; metabolism ; physiology ; Spinal Cord ; metabolism ; Transforming Growth Factor beta ; pharmacology ; Transforming Growth Factor beta1

OBJECTIVE: To compare the nephrotoxicity of high- and low-osmolar contrast media (HOCM and LOCM), and to determine the protective role of fosinopril or telmisartan and its possible mechanism. METHODS: Forty eight healthy SD rats were randomly divided into 6 groups: a normal control group, a glycerol control group, a low-osmolar contrast media (LOCM) group, a high-osmolar contrast media (HOCM) group, a fosinopril group, and a telmisartan group. Glycerine for inducing kidney damage was given to all rats except the normal control group. Twenty-four hours after the injection of glycerine, the mixed fosinopril suspension (10mg/kg) or telmisartan (5mg/kg) was poured into the stomach in the preventive group. Serum creatinine (SCr) and plasma angiotensin II (AngII) levels were detected by an automatical biochemical analyzer and radioimmunoassay; caspase-3 activity and claudin-1 expression of the renal tissue were detected by fluorometric method and immunohistochemical method. The renal injury was assessed by hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining and terminal deoxynucleotide mediated nick and labeling (TUNEL) staining, respectively. RESULTS: In diatrizoate-injected rats, SCr and AngII levels were increased (P<0.05). Expression of claudin-1 protein and caspase-3 activity in the renal tissue was upregulated. The histologic changes and percentage of apoptotic cells were milder in the LOCM rats than those in the HOCM rats. In the group pretreated with fosinopril or telmisartan, no increase in the levels of SCr and AngII was discovered. The expression of claudin-1 protein and caspase-3 activity was significantly lower than that in the HOCM group. The renal injuries induced by diatrizoate were alleviated. CONCLUSION Both HOCM and LOCM could cause cellular apoptosis in the kidney.LOCM was less toxic to rat kidney than HOCM. Nephrotoxicity induced by HOCM might be related to caspase-3, claudin-1 and AngII. Fosinopril or telmisartan may protect the renal tissue from nephrotoxicity induced by diatrizoate.
Angiotensin II ; blood ; Animals ; Apoptosis ; drug effects ; Benzimidazoles ; pharmacology ; Benzoates ; pharmacology ; Caspase 3 ; metabolism ; Claudin-1 ; metabolism ; Contrast Media ; administration & dosage ; toxicity ; Creatinine ; blood ; Female ; Fosinopril ; pharmacology ; Kidney ; drug effects ; metabolism ; pathology ; Male ; Protective Agents ; pharmacology ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Telmisartan