The process of aging can induce major alterations in structure and function of myocardium. 41 female Wistar rats-weighing 50-586 g were divided into 5 groups (1,3, 6,10, 21 mo.). The 21-month group was taken as aged rats. Myo-cardial homogenates (W/V= 1 g/10 ml) were prepared. The local myocardial immunoreactive Ang I, II and the ventricular ANF levels in different parts of the myocardium were measured by sensitive RIA. The sections of the myocardial tissue were prepared. The local Ang II and ANF were measured by immunohistochemistry. The results showed that auricular Ang II and ANF is markedly higher than the ventricular ones. Local myocardial Ang II is for the most part present in the cytoplasm. There is a positive correlation between the local Ang I and Ang II levels. There are significant differences in levels of Ang I, Ang II and interventricular septum ANF between various age groups. There is a perfect negait ve correlation between levels of Ang as well as ANF and the age in months. The reduction in local Ang II level is most striking in the 21-month group. The reduction of local Ang II level in the ventricles exceeds that in the atria. The experiment suggested that as age increases, some important hormonal functions of the heart gradually weaken; such a change is most noticeable in the ventricles.

The data is taken from Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey(CLHLS)between 2005 and 2008 to study health insurance’s impact on Chinese rural elders’ health demand. It found that health insurance significantly increased Chinese rural elders’ total health expenditure by 19%; however, it could neither significantly lengthen life expectancy nor decrease the risk of death. Chinese rural elders’ excessive demand induced by health insurance is probably inefficient. Therefore, to insure Chinese rural elders’ diseases could be treated, the government should improve medical security and control unreasonable increases in health service price.

Adjuvant treatment after deifnitive surgery is an integral part of the management of locoregionally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (HNSCC). Earlier stage HNSCC with N+disease may require adjuvant radiotherapy, while locoregionally advanced disease requires postoperative chemoradiation therapy for eradicating subclinical residual disease. Tri-modality with surgery followed by concurrent chemoradiation can improve the local control, disease free survival, and overall survival rates in patients with advanced HNSCC as compare to surgery or surgery plus radiation. However, treatment induced adverse-effects should be addressed when deciding on the treatment options. Molecular targeted therapy is a new treatment modality and its efifcacy when used in concurrent with radiation as a deifnitive treatment has been suggested. However, adjuvant use of radiation and targeted therapy requires further investigation before it can be recommended routinely in clinical practice. The association between HPV and HNSCC, as well as the clinical implication of such association require further study as well.

Objective To observe the serum inflammatory factors level in patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) and coronary heart disease (CHD).Methods Venous blood was collected at 6 AM from 53 natiems with both OSAS and CHD and 37 simple snorers following a full night polysomnography (PSG) test.Serum MMP-9、TIMP-1 test were conducted.Results MMP-9,TIMP-1 level in patients with OSAS and CHD was significantiv higher than that of the simple snorers (P<0.05).Conclusion serum MMP-9 and TIMP-1 level increase in patients with OSAS and CHD.It is suggested that elevated level of serum MMP-9 and TIMP-1 might play an important role in the development of CHD in patients with OSAS.

Objective To investigate the effect of polymorphism of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1(PAI-1) promotor region gene,plasma tissue plasminogen activator(t-PA)and PAI-1 on patients with acute pulmonary thromboembolism(APTE).Method Fifty-two patients with APTE were divided into two groups according to the presence or absence of traditional enviromnent risk facters,and there were26 patients in each gnup,and auother 57 healthy indiriduals as controls were analyzed.The genotypos of subjects were determined for the 4G/5G polymorphism of PAI-1 gene using polymerase chain reaction based restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis.Plasma PAI-1 and tPA were measured by ELISA.Results(1)The ratio of 4G/4G genotype in group without traditional environment risk factors was much higher than that of the other two groups.(2)Plasma t-PA decreased and plasma PAI-1 elevated significantly in group without traditional environment risk factors compared with that of the other two groups.(3)Except the 5G homozygous,plasma PAI-1 level in group without traditional environgment risk factors was significantly higher than the other two groups.There existed correlation between 4G allele and plasma PAI-1.Conclusions 4G/5G polymorphism of PAI-1 gene is associated with AFFE.4G/4G genotype increases the risk of APTE for individuals without traditional risk factors.There are hypercoagulation and hypofibrinolysis in APTE patients without traditional risk factors.

Objective To observe the expression of free Ca2+ and Angiotensin Ⅱ 1 type receptor(AT1 R)in vascular smooth muscle cells(VSMCs)of patients with hypertensive or normotensive coronary artery diseases(CAD).Methods During the coronary artery bypass graft operation,the surplus saphenous vein of patients who admitted to our Cardiac Surgery Department was collected and cultured.All patients were divided into hypertensive or normotensive group.Free Ca2+ in the cultured human VSMCs was determined by confocal laser scanning microscope(CLSM)after different kinds of AngiotensinⅡ being added,respectively.Total RNA was extracted from cultured VSMCs.Then RT-PCR was conducted for the observation of the expression of AT1R in both groups.Results Ca2+in human VSMCs rapidly increased when stimulated by Angtensin Ⅱ in two groups.After stimulated by Angiotensin Ⅱ,both free Ca2+ level and the expression of AT1R in VSMCs of hypertensive patients were higher than those of the normotensive patients(P＜0.05).Conclusion There are certain changes of free calcium in the cultured human vascular smooth muscle cells,when stimulated by Angiotensin Ⅱ.There are also difierences in AT1R expression between hypertensive CAD patients and normotensive CAD patients.

Two hundred and fourteen patients with non-ST-segment elevation acute coronary syndrome (NSTEACS) underwent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).Serum ischemic modified albumin (IMA) levels were measured in patients at admission.The major adverse cardiac events (MACE),including cardiac death,nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI) and recurrent ischemia leading to urgent revascularization were observed during 1-y period of follow-up.Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves,Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox regression were used to assess the prognostic value of IMA for 1-y MACE.Twenty one patients experienced major adverse cardiac events during 1-y follow up period,including 6 cases of cardiac death,8 cases of new or recurrent MI,7 cases of target vessel/lesion revascularization or coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG).ROC showed that the area under the ROC curve (AUC) was 0.667,and when IMA was used to predict 1-y major adverse cardiac events,the cut-off value of 65.3 kU/L was most effective.Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that IMA was significantly correlated with the occurrence of 1-y MACE(P ＜ 0.01).But Cox regression model showed that IMA levels were not independent risk factor for 1-y MACE in NSTEACS patients,when adjusted with other risk factors.

BACKGROUND: Integrin α5β1 has been shown to be related to acetabular cartilage degeneration due to developmental dysplasia of the hip.OBJECTIVE: To investigate the expression of integrin α5β1 in differently degenerated cartilage tissues of the knee after knee osteoarthritis.METHODS: Seventy-five degenerated articular cartilage specimens at the weight-bearing surface of femoral lateral and medial condyles were removed from patients with knee osteoarthritis who underwent total knee replacement, and were then allotted to four groups based on Mankin's grading system: normal (n=6), mild degeneration (n=24), moderate degeneration (n=26) and severe degeneration (n=19) groups. The expression of integrin α5β1 in each group was detected using real-time PCR, immunohistochemistry and western blot assay.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The detected results were consistent in the three kinds of assays, and the expression level of integrin α5β1 was ranked as follows: severe degeneration group > moderate degeneration group > mild degeneration group > normal group (P < 0.05). To conclude, differential expression levels of integrin α5β1 are found in different degenerative degrees of articular cartilage in knee osteoarthritis. Furthermore, the expression level of integrin α5β1 is increased with the degenerative severity.

PURPOSE: Mitofusin2 gene (Mfn2, also named Hyperplasia suppressive gene, HSG) is very important in the origin and development of hypertension. However, the mechanism of Mfn2/HSG expression regulation was not uncovered. This study was designed to explore the association of a novel 5'-uncoding region (UCR) -1248 A>G variation of HSG/Mfn2 gene and hypertension. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 472 healthy, normotensive subjects [normotension (NT) group], 454 prehypertensive subjects [prehypertension (PH) group] and 978 hypertensive patients [essential hypertension (EH) group] were screened for an association study between 5'-UCR -1248 A>G of Mfn2/HSG and hypertension by polymerase chain reaction and DNA sequencing after venous blood was drawn and DNA was extracted. RESULTS: When comparing the A and G frequency in EH, PH and NT groups, in total, NT group significantly had higher A frequency than in PH group [odds ratio (OR)=1.605, confidence interval (CI) 95%=1.063-2.242, p=0.025] and EH group (OR=5.395, CI 95%=3.783-7.695, p<0.01). When subgrouped by gender, A frequency in NT group was still significantly higher than in EH group (male: OR=4.264, CI 95%=2.780-6.543, p<0.01; female: OR=8.897, CI 95%=4.686-16.891, p<0.01), but not from PH group, either in male group or in female group. Ordinal Logistic Regression analysis showed that A>G variation was significantly related with blood pressure level (B=-1.271, Wald=40.914, CI 95%=-1.660 - -0.881, p<0.01). CONCLUSION: 5'-UCR -1248 A>G variation of Mfn2/HSG gene was a novel variation and may be associated with hypertension in Chinese.
China ; Female ; GTP Phosphohydrolases/*genetics ; Gene Expression Regulation ; Genetic Association Studies ; Genotype ; Humans ; Hypertension/*genetics ; Logistic Models ; Male ; Mitochondrial Proteins/*genetics ; *Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide ; Sequence Analysis, DNA