Ceramics ; Ergonomics ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Occupational Exposure ; Workload

OBJECTIVE: To explore the effect of bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2 ) on the expression of membrane Type 1-matrix metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP) and the activation of matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) in human A549 lung carcinoma cells. METHODS: Western blot was used to analyse the expression of MT1-MMP protein levels in A549 cells. Enzyme-linked immunosorbentassay was used to show the actions of BMP-2 on the activation of MMP-2 in A549 cells. RESULTS: Treatment with BMP-2 in A549 cells caused a dose- and time-dependent increase in the expression of MT1-MMP protein. BMP-2 dose-dependently activated MMP-2 in A549 cells. CONCLUSION BMP-2 might promote MT1-MMP expression and MMP-2 activation in lung carcinoma cells, which can lead to the increase of extracellular matrix followed by acceleration of tumor cell migration and invasion. It is probably another key mechanism of BMP-2 upregulated lung carcinoma cell migration.
Bone Morphogenetic Protein 2 ; pharmacology ; Humans ; Lung Neoplasms ; metabolism ; pathology ; Matrix Metalloproteinase 1 ; biosynthesis ; Matrix Metalloproteinase 2 ; metabolism ; Neoplasm Invasiveness ; Tumor Cells, Cultured

Objective To compare the effects of hepatic vein occlusion with tourniquet and Satinsky clamp in reseeting liver tumor involving the second hepatic portal.Methods From Jan 2003 to Jun 2006,180 patients underwent major liver resection with the selective hepatic vascular exclusion (SHVE).According to methods of hepatic vein occlusion,they were divided into two groups:Occlusion with tourniquet(tourniquet group,n=95)and occlusion with Satinsky clamp(Satinsky clamp group,n= 85).In tourniquet group,the hepatic veins were encircled and occluded with tourniquet,and in Satinsky clamp group,the hepatic veins were not encircled and clamped directly with Satinsky clamp.Data regarding the intraoperative and postoperative courses of the patients were analyzed.Results There was no difference between the two groups regarding the operating time,ischemia time,intraoperative blood loss and postoperative complications rate.The dissecting time of hepatic veins was significantly shorter in Satinsky group(6.2?2.4 min vs 18.3?6.2 min).lu the tourniquet group,five hepatic veins(one fight hepatic vein and four common trunk of left-middle hepatic veins)could not be dissected and encircled because of the tumors involving the cava hepatic junction.Another patient's common trunk of left-middle hepatic vein was inadvertently lacerated during the dissection.Hepatic veins in these 6 patients were occluded with Satinsky clamp successfully.Conclusion Occlusion with Satinsky clamping is safer and easier procedure than tourniquets in the resection of liver tumor involving the second porta hepatis.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the relationship between bone alkaline phosphatase (BAP) and cross-linked N-telopeptides of type I collegen(NTX) and bone mineral density in healthy men aged 20-80. METHODS: BAP and NTX of 389 healthy men were measured by ELISA. BMD at the lumbar spine and the hip as measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. The correlation of bone biochemical markers with age and BMD fit 10 regression models. RESULTS: BAP and NTX negatively correlated with age. The cubic regression model was better with age-related changes of bone biochemical markers as compared with the other regression models and the coefficients of determination of fitting curve were 0.013-0.029 (P< 0.05). The value of bone biochemical markers as the highest during 20-29 age groups, then they decreased to a nadir level in the 50-59 years age. After 60 years, bone formation markers remained stable; however resorption marker increased slightly. After adjustment for age, weight, height, BMI, and smoking, bone biochemical markers were negatively correlated with most sites of BMD. CONCLUSION BAP and NTX may be relatively sensitive and specific markers to evaluate age-related changes of bone turnover. It may benefit the prevention of osteoporosis by monitoring the level of BAP and NTX.
Adult ; Age Factors ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Alkaline Phosphatase ; metabolism ; Biomarkers ; Bone Density ; Bone and Bones ; metabolism ; Collagen Type I ; metabolism ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Osteoporosis ; prevention & control ; Peptides ; metabolism

Objective To explore the distribution of water with high level arsenic and prevalence of arsenism along Huai'he River and the surrounding area of Hong'ze lake in Huai'an of Jiangsu. Methods Wate rsamples were collected and tested in 2008 from 18 villages of 6 towns according to history data in 3 counties like Xuyi,Jinhu and Hongze. Samples having arsenic level higher than 0.05 mg/L were investigated by epidemiological method and the patients were diagnosed by Standard of Diagnosis for Endemic Arsenism. Results All 5199 water samples were determined,and 260 water samples were exceeding the national drinking water quality level (0.05 mg/L) in 3 counties,the rates of exceeding diagnosis were 5.6%(247/4454),0.7%(4/597),6.0%(9/148) respectively. Total detected rate of endemic arsenic disease was 5.94%(128/2155). The detected rates of age group of 0 ～ ,20 ～,30 ～ ,40 ～ ,50 ～ ,60 ～ ,70 ～ ,80 ～ were 2.86%(1/35),2.11%(2/95),1.26%(3/239),3.10%(16/516),5.53% (32/579),10.07%(41/407),11.84%(27/228),10.71%(6/56) respectively. The detected rate of male (9.10%,78/857) was higher than that of female(3.85%,50/1298,χ~2 = 25.46,P < 0.01). Conclusions Huai'he River and the surrounding areas of Hong'ze lake like Xuyi,Jinhu and Hongze are identified existing endemic arsenic disease area. The prevention of arsenism should be strengthened in these areas.

OBJECTIVETo investigate the effect of chemokine stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1) and its receptor CXCR4 on liver metastasis of human colon cancer.

METHODSExpression of CXCR4 in different colon cancer cell lines and SDF-1 in different tissues were detected by using Western-blot technique. Effect of SDF-1 and anti-CXCR4 monoclonal antibody (McAb) on proliferation and migration of HT-29 cells were measured using MTT methods. Model mimicking liver metastasis of human colon cancer was established by injecting HT-29 cells intrasplenically into BALB/C nude mice. Mice were randomly divided into AMD3100 treated group and control group. Liver metastatic rate and tumor foci were measured 7 weeks after.

RESULTSHT-29 cells expressed higher level of CXCR4 protein, and liver tissue expressed higher level of SDF-1 protein. Compared with the control, SDF-1 could significantly induced the proliferation and migration of the HT-29 cells, and anti-CXCR4 McAb could inhibited both functions of SDF-1. The liver metastasis rate in the control group was 100%, and it was 40% in the AMD3100 treating group (P < 0.05). The mean liver metastasis number also significantly decreased by AMD3100 (7.8 +/- 2.6 vs 22.4 +/- 8.6, P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONSSDF-1/CXCR4 biological axis play an important role in liver metastasis of human colon cancer. Arrest of CXCR4 can inhibit liver metastasis of colon cancer through blocking cell proliferation and migration induced by SDF-1.

Animals ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Cell Movement ; Cell Proliferation ; Chemokine CXCL12 ; metabolism ; physiology ; Colonic Neoplasms ; metabolism ; pathology ; HT29 Cells ; Humans ; Liver Neoplasms, Experimental ; secondary ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred BALB C ; Mice, Nude ; Receptors, CXCR4 ; metabolism ; physiology ; Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays

OBJECTIVETo study the validity of criteria currently used in China for the classification of symmetric small for gestational age infants (SGA) as compared with its definition.

METHODSThis study included 417 inpatients diagnosed as SGA in authors' hospital from January 1998 to June 2002. Symmetric SGA was diagnosed by the following three criteria: (1) the Ponderal Index (PI), (2) the crown-heel length-to-head circumference ratio (BL/HC) issued in Chin J Pediatr (1988;26:164 - 165), as well as (3) the SGA definition. The definition criterion was considered as the "gold standard". The sensitivity, specificity, false positive and negative values, positive and negative predictive values, exact agreement ratio, diagnosis index, and Cohen's Kappa value were used to evaluate the validity and agreement of the methods of PI and BL/HC. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to evaluate the validity of the diagnosis.

RESULTSOf 417 SGA infants, 376 (90.17%), 376 (90.17%) and 187 (44.84%) subjects were diagnosed as symmetric type with PI, BL/HC and the definition criteria, respectively. (2) The agreement rate and Kappa value between PI and BL/HC was 80.82% and -0.093 (SEM 0.026), respectively. And the agreement rates between PI or BL/HC and the definition criterion were 49.88% and 50.84%, respectively. As compared with the definition criterion, the PI and BL/HC methods had sensitivities of 91.8% - 96.4%, specificities of 9.3% - 25.9%, positive predictive values of 45.8% - 51.1%, negative predictive values of 72.7% - 82.8%, diagnosis indices of 4.9% - 17.7% and Kappa values of 0.070 - 0.167. (3) The areas under the ROC curves in full-term and preterm infants by PI method were 0.635 (95% CI, 0.573 - 0.697) and 0.698 (95% CI, 0.622 - 0.725), respectively. PI cutoffs at 2.47 in full-term SGA, at 2.43 in preterm SGA, and BL/HC cutoff at 1.43 produced the maximum diagnosis indices that were 24.7%, 39.6% and 33.7%, respectively. When the PI at 2.50 (full-term), PI at 2.31 (preterm) and BL/HC values at 1.46, the sensitivity closed mostly to the specificity. The sensitivities and specificities in full-term and preterm infants were 59.4% and 59.3%, 65.3% and 65.5%, and 66.3% and 65.5%, respectively.

CONCLUSIONIn the classification of SGA, the results showed a poor agreement between PI or BL/HC and the definition criterion. The results suggested that the current cutoffs of PI and BL/HC might not be appropriate for the diagnosis of symmetric SGA. Low AUC suggested that PI and BL/HC could not give a valid diagnosis at any cutoffs.

Anthropometry ; methods ; Birth Weight ; Body Height ; China ; Female ; Gestational Age ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Infant, Premature ; Male ; Reproducibility of Results ; Sex Factors

OBJECTIVETo explore whether fractional anisotropy (FA) value could be taken as a quantitative indicator for tracing and reexamining amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and to analyze the correlation between FA value and integrative medical treatment.

METHODSTotally 18 ALS patients were recruited in this study. All patients received diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) using 3. OT (Propeller HD) MRI twice. Six regions of interest (ROI) were selected to measure FA values. Survival analyses were performed in 11 cases of end point events.

RESULTS(1) Three ROI (cerebral peduncle, posterior limb of internal capsule, and corona radiata) all indicated that FA value was the highest in patients with mild health status scale of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS/HSS). (2) There was statistical difference in the means of FA values in cerebral peduncle, posterior limb of internal capsule, and corona radiata of 18 cases between initial examination and reexamination (P < 0.01). (3) Kaplan-Meier survival curve showed the survival rate of ALS patients decreased as time went by, with the median survival time of 48 months.

CONCLUSIONSFA value was inversely proportional to the severity of ALS, the more severe, the lower FA values. FA value was an objective indicator for assessing the severity of ALS. ALS is an incurable disease till now. Integrative medical treatment might become one direction for ALS patients.

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis ; diagnosis ; therapy ; Anisotropy ; Diffusion Tensor Imaging ; Humans ; Integrative Medicine

A transmitting and receiving system used in high frequency ultrasound imaging is introduced and has been used for image collection of 10MHz, 20MHz and 50MHz HF ultrasonic imaging equipment. Its experimental results show that this transmitting and receiving system is capable of obtaining a better quality of medical images.
Equipment Design ; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted ; instrumentation ; Ultrasonography ; instrumentation ; methods

Based on the pulse-coded transmitting and wide-band receiving system, this paper describes A research of phase inversion technique to extract high-frequency ultrasonic tissue harmonic information by making use of wide-band ultrasonic transducer on frequency of 20 MHz, 35 MHz and 50 MHz. The results indicate that adopting the method in this paper is with better fundamental frequency inhibition and at the same time can increase the amplitude of second harmonic information effectively. This method is superior to that traditoncal one by using RF filter to extract tissue harmonic information.
Artifacts ; Humans ; Image Enhancement ; methods ; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted ; Transducers ; Ultrasonography ; instrumentation ; methods