Objective To establish a new technique isolating pancreatic islet of langerhans and evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of adult islet transplantation.Methods Pancreases were stored using the "2-layer method" of the oxygenated perfluorochemical (PFC) and UW solution. The Pancreases were digested by Liberase collagenase enzyme and purified using continuous gradients of Ficoll-diatrizoic acid on a refrigerated COBE 2991 centrifuge to separate the islets. Cultured islets were infused by surgical approach to the liver via portal vasculature. Clinical metabolic data such as blood glucose, dose of insulin, C-peptide, HbA1c, liver function and renal function, was determined and compared with the pre-transplant data.Results Islets of langerhans were isolated successfully in 42 pancreases. The average of islet yield was 285000 islet equivalents(IEQ). Islet purity and viability were 95.7%, 93.2%, respectively. The stimulation index(SI) as assessing function of human islet was 2.43 and negative-etiology in vivo. Twenty clinical islet transplant infusions have been carried out in 11 subjects with type 1 diabetes mellitus(T1DM). The average islet mass for infusion was 11200 IEQ/kg. The treatment strategies for islet transplantation was glucocorticoid-free immunosuppressive regimen. During 7 months to 4 years follow-up, 7 recipients had insulin independence, the dosage of insulin decreased by 60% in 4 patients after islet transplantation. The level of blood glucose and HbA1c, liver and renal function were normalized throughout follow-up period. All patients had C-peptide positive after islet transplantation. No adverse effects and complications related to islet infusion procedure.Conclusions New technique has proved to be suitable for isolating pancreatic islet of langerhans. Adult islet transplantation can be used as an effective and safe way for treating T1DM.

0.05).The graft function of high dose group returned to normal within 3 to 7 days after operation.Delayed recovery of graft function occurred in 2 cases of routine dose group;in 1 case it returned to normal on the 21st day after operation, in the other the serum creatinine level fell down to 300 ?mol/L on the 45th day.There was no severe adverse event such as fever,chill,headache,heart-throb,dyspnea during ATG intravenous perfusion.And no serious infection occurred in the 2 groups during the first 3 months postoperatively.Hepatic function damage occurred in 1 case of high dose group.Follow-up ranged from 4 to 14 months.All recipients of high dose group survived with good graft function;5 of them could do housework. Only one graft lost its function in routine dose group. Conclusions On the basis of optimal selection of the donor and recipient,preoperative single-bolus high-dose ATG is effective and safe for the sensitive recipients as immune induction therapy, which may become one of the new induction treatments before transplantation.

BACKGROUND: The number of living renal donation has increased in China and abroad, thus, it is important to guarantee the safety of donors. How to accurately diagnose potential renal disease and provide guidance plays an import role in protecting safety of living renal donors.OBJECTIVE: To establish an evaluation method for analyzing the correlation between histological abnormalities and clinical predonation parameters.METHODS: The related data on renal transplantation of Fuzhou general Hospital of Nanjing Military Area Command of Chinese PLA were retrospectively reviewed. Paracentesis were performed when the vessels of kidney were mutilated and perfusions were finished. Time-zero renal biopsy was evaluated for following pathological changes: interstitial fibrosis, tubularatrophy, arteriolar hyalinosis, mesangial proliferation, and glomerulosclerosis. Predonation data were demography, body weight, body mass index' systolic/diastolic blood pressure, serum creatinine, glomerular filtration rate, and proteinuria.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: There were no signs of kidney disease in preoperative examination of all the 62 patients, time-zero renal biopsy found there were 28 donors with histological changes, interstitial fibrosis with age and serum creatinine, tubularatrophy with diastolic blood pressure and protein excretion rate, arteriolar hyalinosis with serum creatinine and glomerular filtration rate, mesangial proliferation only with body mass index, and finally the presence of glomerulosclerosis did not correlate with any variable.

BACKGROUND: Recent data suggested that Notch signal pathway plays important regulatory effects in peripheral transplantation immunological response, promotes differentiation of regulatory T cells, induces antigen specific immune tolerance. We proposed that Notch/Notch ligand may play important roles in MHC/TCR interface.OBJECTIVE: To construct the eukaryotic expression vector of rat Deltai gene (Notch ligand), and to examine its expression in dendritic cells.METHODS: The complete encoding cDNA of rat-Delta1 was isolated from bone marrow cells by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and this gene was recombined into pcDNA3.1(+) plasmid vector.pcDNA3.1/Delta1 plasmid was transfected into rat dendritic cells with lipofectamine gene transfection method.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Double enzyme digestion detection demonstrated that Delta 1 had been successfully constructed in Hindilll and xbal of pcDNA3.1. A positive clone pcDNA3.1/Delta1 was delivered to Shanghai Sangon Biological Engineering Technology & Services Co., Ltd. for sequencing. Sequencing results were identical to Delta1 gene sequence in Genebank, with correct reading frame. The Delta 1 gene-transfected dendritic cells showed similar morphology as their parent cells. Western blotting assay detected that Delta 1 expression was significantly increased in cells. The eukaryotic expression vector pcDNA3.1/Delta1 was constructed, and significant increase of Delta 1 expression was detected after transfection.

BACKGROUND: Presently, the kidney source is limited. Urinary fistula-induced nephrectomy of transplanted kidney is regrettable. Reasonable diagnosis of urinary fistula should be paid great attention by workers of organ transplantation. OBJECTIVE: To study the diagnosis and treatment of the urinary fistula in kidney transplantation patients. METHODS: The clinical data of 16 patients with the urinary fistula following kidney transplantation, who was recruited from the Organ Transplantation Center, Fuzhou General Hospital of Nanjing Military Area Command of Chinese PLA, were retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The morbidity of the urinary fistula following kidney transplantation was 1.26%, the conservative treatment were used to 13 cases of simple urinary fistulas, 11 of 13 cases were successful (84.6%). 2 case failed (15.4%), pedicled omentum grafts were successful used to treat 3 cases of complex urinary fistulas after renal transplantation by one operation. Intensive care and active measures should be given to the urinary fistula patients after kidney transplantation. The key to the successful treatment involved with the diagnosis in early stage and the correct measures. With biological characteristics of omentum, applying pedicled omentum grafts to repair complex urinary fistulas and simple urinary fistulas which were failure of the conservative treatment after renal transplantation has advantages as followings, convenient to draw material, recovering tissue quickly and low recurrence rate. It is fit for clinic.

Objective To discuss the clinical features of primary epididymal rhabdomyosarcoma and review the diagnostic and therapeutic advances. Methods One 16-yesr-old male presented with right scro-turn swelling mass for 4 months. Physical examination revealed an ovoid and solid mass of 4.5×3.5×3.0 cn in right scrotum. The mass was hard and its surface was smooth without tenderness. Transillumination test was negative. There was no palpable inguinal lymph node. Pre-operative diagnosis was inflammatory nodule of right epididymis. Results Right epididymectomy was performed under caudal anesthesia une-ventfully. The pathological study showed that the neoplasm was composed of small round shape ceils with small and anachromasis nucleus. The immunohistochemical study showed that these cells were positive for myoglobin, aetin and desmin, but negative for smooth muscle actin. Electron microscopy showed that paral-leling thin filaments were found with no asrcomere-like structure in the intracytoplasm. The pathologic diag-nosis was right epydidymal rhabdomyosarcoma. The patient refused further therapy. A mass was found with rapid growth accompanied with pain in the right scrotum 2 months after the first operation and was clinically diagnosed as tumor recurrence. This patient had then undergone right radical orchiectomy. Frozen section analysis revealed negative surgical margin. The pathologic diagnosis was embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma re-currence. Patient underwent subsequent chemotherapy with ifosfamide, etoposide and vincristine. After one year follow-up, he was generally well without evidence of recurrence. Conculsions Primary embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma is a rare tumor with aggressive growth patterns. The diagnosis depends on the pathologi-cal examination because the clinical presentation is not specific. Combination therapy with radical orchiecto-my, chemotherapy and radiotherapy provides patients an excellent long-term prognosis.

Objective To assess the feasibility of computed tomography angiography (CTA) in renal artery using the iterative reconstruction technique (iDose4) in Brilliance iCT (Philips Ltd.).Methods 90 patients (body weight 60-70 kg) supposed to undergo renal artery CTA were selected and randomly divided into three groups:A(120 kV,120 mAs),B(120 kV,60 mAs) and C(100 kV,100 mAs).CTA images from Group A were obtained using filtered back projection and those from the rest groups were generated by iDose4.Then CT number of renal artery,noise (denoted as standard deviation SD),signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) of images for each group were measured and recorded.Images were post-processed using volume reformation (VR) 3D imaging and image quality were assessed in five-level grade (1-5).Results The five parameters (CT number of renal artery,SD value,SNR,CNR and VR grade) of group A and group B were statistically insignificant (P ＞ 0.05).While SD values of group C were comparable to those of group A and B,the rest four parameters of group C were apparently larger,which was statistically significant (tCT value =-12.326,tSNR =-7.136,tCNR =-7.649,ZVR =-2.690,PVR ＜ 0.05).Conclusions Image quality could still fit the diagnosis requirements using iDose4 when mAs decreased lower than 50％.The image quality increases when radiation dose is halved at 100 kVp kV.

Objective To evaluate the efficacy and safety of alemtuzumab in renal transplant recipients treated with induction therapy. Methods Eighty-nine cadaveric renal transplant recipients in our department were randomly divided into experimental group (n = 43) treated with alemtuzumab induction, 15 mg i. v. and control group (n = 46). Main immunosuppressive therapy regimen consisted of steroids, tacrolimus or cyclosporine and mycophenolate mofetil in all recipients. Post-transplant kidney function, acute rejection,infection, DGF, graft survival, lymphocyte counts were recorded within 1 year. ATP values in CD4+ T cells after transplantation was determined by using Cylex ImmuKnow assay. Results There was significant difference in the incidence of biopsy-proven acute rejection, but no significant difference was found in ImmuKnow ATP values during 6 months after transplantation and lymphocyte counts during 3 months, graft survival and the incidence of infections between the two groups. Conclusion Induction therapy with alemtuzumab appeared to be effective in the prevention of acute rejection.

Objective To summarize the occurrence of malignant tumor following renal transplantation and investigate the measures of prevention and treatment.Methods The clinical data of 1 037 cases of renal transplantation in our centre between Dec. 1979 and May 2001 were retrospectively. Results Of the 1 037 cases of renal transplantation, 15 cases were diagnosed as having malignant tumor with the incidence being 1.4% . The most common types of tumor were liver cancer (6/15), followed by Kaposi's sarcoma (4/15), pulmonary cancer (2/15). The main treatments included surgical resection, reducing the dosage of immunosuppressants, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.Conclusion There is higher incidence of malignance in the renal transplantation recipient than general crowd. The effect of treatment depended on early diagnosis of cancer and early surgical operation. At the same time, the dosage of immunosuppressants was reduced to maintain normal function of the graft.

Objective To study the correlation between the post-transplant renal allograft function and the variation of serum cystatin C (CyC) concentration in renal allograft recipients. Methods One hundred and ninety-three renal allograft recipients accepted the same combination immunosuppressive regimen of tacrolimus, mycophenolate and prednisone were enrolled into the study. Patient's serum and urine samples were collected on day 5 post-transplant to detect serum cystatin C, serum and urine creatinine (SCr). Correlation analysis was used to analyze correlation between CyC concentration and SCr concentration or the calculated creatinine clearance rate (CkCCr) by using the Cockcroft-Gault equation and urine creatinine clearance rate (CCr). Specificity and sensitivity of using the CyC concentration to evaluate glomerular filtration rate (GFR) were calculated as well.Results The mean concentrations of serum CyC and SCr on day 5 post-transplant were (1.91±1.2)mg/L and (174.0±129.1)μmol/L, respectively. While the CCr and CkCCr were (67.9±27.3)ml/min and (68.1±27.8)ml/min, respectively. Forty-two patients had a CyC concentration below 1.25 mg/L, 102 patients'CyC concentrations were between 1.25 and 2.0 mg/L and 49 patients'CyC concentrations were above 2. 0 mg/L. As for SCr, 62 patients had a concentration below 125 μmol/L, 83 patients'concentrations were between 125 and 200 μmol/L and 48 patients'concentrations were above 200 μmol/L. For CkCCr, there were 52 cases with a concentration above 80 ml/min, 96 cases with a concentration between 80 and 60 ml/min and 45 cases with a concentration below 60 ml/min. Serum CyC concentration had a negative correlation with CkCCr (r=-0. 907, P＜0. 001) and had a significantly positive correlation with SCr concentration (r=0. 886, P＜0. 001). SCr had a significantly negative relationship with CkCCr (r=-0. 889 ,P＜0. 001). Serum CyC had higher correlation with CkCCr than the correlation between SCr and CkCCr. The ROC curves showed that areas under curve of CyC, SCr, CCr and CkCCr were 0. 877, 0. 771, 0. 832 and 0. 909, respectively. Specificity and sensitivity of CyC, SCr,CCr and CkCCr were 69.3%, 96.1%, 77.1%, 71.3%and 91.6%, 52.2%, 67.5%, 84.6%, respectively.Conclusions Serum CyC concentration elevates earlier than SCr concentration when there is slight renal function impairment. Serum CyC concentration might become a more sensitive marker to evaluate the post-transplant renal allograft function in renal transplant recipients.