Cholangiocytes are the epithelial cells that line the intrahepatic biliary tree and also the target of cholangiopathies. Despite the heterogeneous etiology ,most of cholangiopathies share the common pathological process which is the imbalance between proliferation and apoptosis of cholangiocytes. The article is a review about the characteristics and mechanism of proliferation and apoptosis of cholangiocytes and their relationship to cholangiopathies.

Background and purpose:As a new candidate tumor suppressor gene, p33ING1b has many biological functions. This study was done to investigate its role in the regulation of the proliferation of human colon cancer cell line SW480. Methods:The pcDNA3.1(+)/p33ING1b/SW480 cells were identified by Western blot and S-P immunohistochemical method. In order to elucidate the effect of expression of exogenous p33ING1b gene on the colorectal cancer cell SW480, the proliferation rates were analyzed by growth curves and colony formation assay in soft agar for cells including SW480, pcDNA3.1(+)/p33ING1b/SW480 and pcDNA3.1(+)/SW480. At same time, the apoptotic rate of cells and the cell cycle analysis were also tested by flow cytometry.Furthermore,using western blot analysis,we detected the expression level of the protein p53, p21WAF1,Bax and Bcl-2 in those three group cells, which initially indicate the molecule mechanism of inducing apoptosis by gene p33ING1b. Results:The cell growth rates of SW480 cells transfected with pcDNA3.1 (+)/p33ING1b were slower than those transfected with pcDNA3.1(+) or untransfected.The colony formation efficiency of pcDNA3.1(+)/p33ING1b/SW480 were decreased and the apoptotic rates were increased compared with pcDNA3.1(+)/SW480 and SW480(P0.05). Conclusion:After overexpression of exogenous p33ING1b protein in SW480 cell, there were inhibition of the proliferation rate and induction of apoptosis, the molecular mechanism might be associated with up- regulated expression of Bax and down-regulated expression of Bcl-2 by p33ING1b gene.

ObjectiveTo assess the association of rs1344706 and rs4667001 polymorphism of ZNF804A gene with schizophrenia,and the relationship between rs1344706 polymorphism and antipsychotic drug efficacy.MethodsThe studies concerning association of ZNF804A gene polymorphism with schizophrenia and its drug efficacy were retrieved in databases such as Medline and CNKI,and then screened according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria.Meta-analysis was performed by RevMan 5.1 following quality assessment and data extraction.ResultsEleven high-quality studies under the criteria were included.For rs1344706,T allele frequency was significant higher in the schizophrenia group than control group ( OR=1.13,95％ CI (1.06-1.21 ),P=0.0003).Moreover,for rs4667001,G allele frequency was significant higher in the schizophrenia group ( OR =1.14,95％ CI( 1.04-1.26),P =0.005 ).In addition,the difference of PANSS scores reduction between T allele and GG genotype carriers was not significant in both positive and negative symptoms after four-week treatment,and the same trend of difference was in the comparison between TT genotype and G allele carriers.ConclusionThe data supports that T allele of rs1344706 and G allele of rs4667001 in ZNF804A gene are associated with the susceptibility of schizophrenia,but rs1344706 polymorphism is not related to antipsychotic drug efficacy.

Objective The surgery time for patients with infective endocarditis (IE) has been transformed.It has been supported that,for the patients with surgical indications,the surgery time should be as early as possible to improve the clinical outcome.The purpose of the research is to identify whether the patients with IE could get further benefit from early surgery.Methods Between June 1996 and July 2011,135 IE patients'data has been collected retrospectively,all of whom were verified through the modified Duke categories.The patients were devided into group A( the new therapeutic schedule group after 2008 ) and group B( the traditional therapeutic schedule group before 2008 ) by the year of 2008.The end points of observation were death associated with IE,cardiac failure,embolism,and re-infection.The comparison between the groups was by means of non-parameter rank and inspection test,variance analysis,t test,chi-square test,fisher exact test.The outcome comparison between the groups was via the Kaplan-Meier survival analysis.Results There were no significant differences in baseline data between the groups.No survival differences could be observed via the Kaplan-Meier analysis( Log Rank P =0.189).During the following-up visit,compared with the patients in group B,the mortality in group A is lower(9.4％ vs.23.0％,P=0.016),the incidence of heart failu re was less in group A (5.4％ vs.26.2％,P ＜0.001 ).No differences could be found in re-infection between the two groups(0 vs.4.9％,P =0.112 ). More patients in group A underwent surgery (67.6％ vs.32.8％,P ＜0.001 ).Conclusion The new therapeutic sehedule of IE coull reduce the mortality rate and promote the cardiae funetion.The incidence of re-infeetion didn't increase.

To improve the usage rate and quality of emergency equipment in the hospital, the emergency equipment management was studied. The specialized management and common use of emergency equipment in a hospital was analysed with statistical methods. The usage rate, economic effectiveness and management quality of the equipment were evaluated. Based on the practical experience, the superiorities of the specialized management and common use of emergency equipment in hospitals were summarized, and the inferior positions and their improvement approaches were proposed. As a result, the hospital resource allocation was optimized and the equipment management level was improved by using the specialized management and common use of emergency equipment in the hospital.
Emergency Service, Hospital ; organization & administration ; Materials Management, Hospital ; organization & administration

OBJECTIVETo explore the relationship between genetic polymorphisms in methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR), methionine synthase reductase (MTRR), the central enzymes in folate metabolism that affects DNA methylation and synthesis, and the risk of Down syndrome in China.

METHODSGenomic DNA was isolated from the peripheral lymphocytes of 64 mothers of children with Down syndrome and 70 age matched control subjects. Polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism were used to examine the polymorphisms of MTHFR 677C-->T, MTRR 66A-->G and the relationship between these genotypes and the risk of Down syndrome was analyzed.

RESULTSThe results show that the MTHFR 677C-->T polymorphism is more prevalent among mothers of children with Down syndrome than among control mothers, with an odds ratio of 3.78 (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.78 approximately 8.47). In addition, the homozygous MTRR 66A-->G polymorphism was independently associated with a 5.2-fold increase in estimated risk (95% CI, 1.90 approximately 14.22). The combined presence of both polymorphisms was associated with a greater risk of Down syndrome than the presence of either alone, with an odds ratio of 6.0 (95% CI, 2.058 approximately 17.496). The two polymorphisms appear to act without a multiplicative interaction.

CONCLUSIONMTHFR and MTRR gene mutation alleles are related to Down syndrome, and CT, TT and GG gene mutation types increase the risk of Down syndrome.

Alleles ; Case-Control Studies ; China ; Down Syndrome ; diagnosis ; ethnology ; genetics ; Female ; Ferredoxin-NADP Reductase ; genetics ; Folic Acid ; metabolism ; Genetic Predisposition to Disease ; Genotype ; Homozygote ; Humans ; Lymphocytes ; metabolism ; Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase (NADPH2) ; genetics ; Polymorphism, Genetic ; Risk Factors

Three algorithms of electrical impedance tomography (EIT) are studied in this paper. The image resolution, anti-noise property and computation rapidity of the reconstruction algorithms are compared. As a result, it shows that back-projection algorithm has good anti-noise property, that NOSER algorithm generates images with good resolution, and that sensitivity matrix algorithm has moderate property.
Algorithms ; Electric Impedance ; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted ; methods

Objective:To investigate the clinicopathological characteristics, treatments, and survival of patients with esophageal adeno-squamous carcinoma (EASC). Methods:A total of 494 patients with EASC were selected from the clinical information databases of 500, 000 cases with esophageal and gastric cardiac carcinomas in the Henan Key Laboratory for Esophageal Cancer Research. Among the 494 EASC cases, 361 were males with an average age of 61.47 ± 8.32 years, and 133 were females with an average age of 65.56 ± 8.06 years. SPSS 21.0 software was applied to determine the statistical differences among the different groups. A life-table method was also used to calculate the five-year survival rate. A linear regression model was used to analyze the correlation of changes at different peri-ods. Results:The incidence of EASC in our database was 0.196%(494/251707). EASC occurred predominantly in male patients (male:female=2.71:1.00). The peak age was within 60-69 years in both males and females (39.6%vs. 40.6%). Notably, the incidence of male patients showed a downward trend (R2=0.063), whereas that of female patients showed an upward trend (R2=0.004). The prevalence of EASC was obviously higher in low-incidence areas for esophageal cancer than in high-incidence areas (53.1%vs. 46.9%, P<0.001). Ac-cording to the TNM staging criteria for esophageal cancer, phases II and III patients comprised the majority of cases, which accounted for 40.8%(173/424). The positive lymph node metastasis rate was 47.0%(206/438), and the number of positive lymph node metasta-ses ranged within 1-2 (48.5%, 100/206). In addition, preoperative biopsy was performed in 467 cases, and more than half of the pa-tients (53.96%, 252/467) were diagnosed before the operation. Surgical resection was the predominant treatment method for EASC (88.8%, 419/472). Only 1.9%patients (9/472) underwent radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The five-year survival rate of male patients who were neither smoking nor drinking of alcohol was higher than that of male smokers (26.5%vs. 12.1%). In patients with stagesⅠ,Ⅱ, andⅢ+Ⅳcarcinomas with surgery as lone treatment, the three-year survival rates were 64.7%, 50.9%, and 48.5%, respectively. Correspondingly, these rates were 51.7%, 47.8%, and 33.1%after adjuvant radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Conclusion:EASC is a rare type of esophageal malignant tumor. The preoperative biopsy pathological diagnosis has high misdiagnosis rate. Smoking and drinking of alcohol can influence the prognosis of patients. In EASC patients, lymph node metastasis easily occurs, and a simple surgery is bet-ter than other cancer treatments.

OBJECTIVETo assess the accuracy of ultrasound-guided 16G and 18G core needle biopsy for detecting ultrasound visible breast lesions with different sonographic features.

METHODSA total of 955 sonographically detected breast lesions examined with ultrasound-guided core needle biopsy (US-CNB) and subsequently surgically excised from July 2005 to July 2012 were retrospectively reviewed. Histological findings of US-CNB and the surgical specimens were analyzed for agreements, sensitivities, false negative rates, and underestimate rates according to different sonographic features.

RESULTSThe pathological results of the US-CNB showed malignant lesions in 84.1%, high-risk lesions in 8.4%, and benign lesions in 7.5% of the samples. The overall agreement rates were 92.4% for 16G CNB and 92.8% for 18G CNB; their complete sensitivities and false negative rates were both 98.6% and 1.4%, respectively; the high-risk underestimate rates and DCIS underestimate rates were 48.0% and 46.2% for 16G CNB vs 53.3% and 41.2% for 18G CNB, showing no significant difference between the two groups (P>0.01). For both 16G and 18G CNB, the agreements were better for mass lesions than for non-mass lesions (P<0.01). For the mass lesions with a diameter no greater than 10 mm, the agreement rates were lower than the overall data (P<0.01). Calcification in the lesions did not affect the agreement rates (P>0.01).

CONCLUSIONUltrasound-guided 16G and 18G CNB are both accurate methods for evaluating ultrasound visible breast mass lesions with a diameter larger than 10 mm.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Biopsy, Fine-Needle ; instrumentation ; methods ; Biopsy, Needle ; instrumentation ; methods ; Breast ; pathology ; Female ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Ultrasonography, Mammary ; Young Adult

Objective:To explore the key points and implementation of establishing a whole-process clinical research management system.Methods:Based on the problems in practice, combined with project management experiences, this article analyzed the construction of the whole-process clinical research management system.Results:The establishment of the management system provides a comprehensive and sustainable safeguard for clinical research, as well as the improvement of efficiency and quality of clinical research.Conclusions:The establishment of an effective whole-process management system for clinical research project is a useful exploration of the research service model in China.