Recent studies showed that copy number variations in certain genes are closely correlated to progression and prognosis of pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Relevant reports in the 57th American Society of Hematology(ASH) annual meeting in 2015 will be reviewed together with research progress in recent years.

Objective:To construct an adenovirus-mediated mouse endostatin vector (Ad-mEndo) and to observe its inhibitory effect on the pulmonary metastasis of osteosarcoma in nude mice, so as to discuss the relationship between ES expression and the pulmonary metastasis of osteosarcoma. Methods: Recombinant adenovirus plasmid pDC315-mEndo was constructed and used to prepare recombinant Ad-mEndo. Osteosarcoma MG-63 cells were subcutaneously injected into the right fore limbs to establish nude mouse model of osteosarcoma; and the models were randomly divided into 3 groups: Ad-mEndo group, Ad-EGFP group and PBS group; animals receiving no transplantation served as blank control. The corresponding agents were injected (20 ?l per time) for a consecutive of 5 times on a weekly basis. The tumor volumes, histopathological characteristics were observed; ELISA was employed to examine the serum ES level. Animals were sacrificed 7 weeks later and the pulmonary metastasis was observed. Results: Sixteen days later,the tumor volume was (1.53?0.05)cm3 in Ad-EGFP group, (1.56?0.07)cm3 in the PBS group, and (0.91?0.03)cm3 in the Ad-mEndo group, with the tumor inhibitory rate being 40.7% in the last group. The serum ES level in the Ad-mEndo group was significantly higher than that of the other groups (P

Objective To determine the feasibility of human routine blood tests as a surrogate for CD4+ T cell count through studying the correlation of CD4+ T cell count with total lymphocyte count(TLC),hemoglobin(Hb),blood platelet(PLT),and white cell count(WBC)in HIV/AIDS patients.Methods 1 038 person-time blood tests among 778 HIV/AIDS patients were performed and Spearman correlation analysis was used.Predictive power and the cut-off for potential predictors of CD4+ T cell count were assessed through receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curves.Combination test was used to assess the capability of multipie indexes to serve as surrogate markers for CD4+ T cell counL Results Significant correlations with CD4+ T cell count were observed for TLC,Hb,PLT and WBC.The Spearman correlation coefficients were r=0.64,P=0.000;r=0.36,P=0.000;r=0.24,P=0,000;r=0.09,P=0.000,respectively.No correlation between TLC and CD4+ T cell count was found when,TLC was more than 2 000 × 106/L(r=0.12,P=0.15).The areas under ROC curve of TLC and Hb for predicting CD4+ T cell count were between 0.82 to 0.84,and 0.66 to 0.70,respectively.When CD4+ T cell count were less than 50,200,350 cells/μl respectively,the optional cut-off value was TLC＜1 100 × 106/L,1 200 × 106/L and 1 400 × 106/L.When the study combined TLC＜1 200 × 106/L and Hb＜120 g/L for prediction of CD4+ T cell count＜200/μl,the sensitivity was 45.3% and specificity was 82.8%.Conclusion There is no significant application value for combination of TLC＜1 200×106/L and Hb＜120 g/L as a surrogate for prediction of CD4+ T cell count＜200/μl.

Objective • To investigate the effect of protein arginine methyltransferase 4(PRMT4) on the development and progression of gastric carcinoma and the underlying molecular mechanisms. Methods • The expression levels of PRMT4 in 32 specimens of gastric cancer and adjacent tissues were measured by immunohistochemistry technology. Public databases were used to analyze the expression of PRMT4 in gastric cancer and its effect on the survival of patients with gastric cancer. PRMT4 expressions of gastric cancer MGC-803 and MKN-45 cells were down-regulated by short hairpin RNA-mediated knockdown, and PRMT4 expression of gastric cancer SGC-7901 cells was up-regulated by using plasmid-mediated overexpression. Cell biology methods, such as MTT assay, colony formation assay, flow cytometry, and Transwell assay were used to study the effect of PRMT4 on proliferation, apoptosis, migration and invasion of gastric cancer cells. Luciferase reporter assay was used to detect transcription activity of endogenous transcription factor TCF (T cell factor) after PRMT4 silencing. The mRNA level changes of Wnt/β-catenin pathway downstream target genes after PRMT4 silencing were detected by real-time PCR. The protein level changes of Wnt/β-catenin pathway-related proteins after PRMT4 silencing and overexpression were detected by Western blotting. Results • PRMT4 was highly expressed in gastric cancer tissues. Patients with higher expression of PRMT4 had shorter survival than those with lower expression of PRMT4. The proliferation, colony formation, migration and invasion ability of gastric cancer cells were inhibited; the cell apoptosis was induced by silencing of PRMT4. The Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway was also inhibited by PRMT4 knockdown. The proliferation, colony formation, migration and invasion ability of gastric cancer cells were induced; the cell apoptosis was inhibited by overexpressed PRMT4. The Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway was also activated by PRMT4 overexpression. Conclusion • PRMT4 is highly expressed in gastric cancer. It can promote the growth, migration and invasion of gastric cancer cells through Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway.

Objective: To investigate distribution and drug resistance of pathogens of burn patients. Methods: A total of 3 357 strains were cultured and isolated from 25 286 specimens of wounds excretion, deep venous catheters, venous blood, stool, mid-stream urine, sputum, puncture fluid, and throat swab of 11 510 burn patients hospitalized in our burn wards from January 2007 to December 2015. After being identified by API bacteria identification panels and automatically bacteria identification equipment, drug-resistances of Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter baumannii, and Klebsiella pneumoniae to 28 common antibiotics were tested by drug sensitivity test with K-B paper disk diffusion method. The WHONET 5.6 software was used to analyze constituent ratio of gram-negative bacteria and gram-positive bacteria in each year, distribution of pathogens in each year, and drug resistance of the above-mentioned 4 pathogens in 9 years to 28 common antibiotics. Data were analyzed by the linear model curve fitting. Results: (1) From 2007 to 2015, constituent ratios of gram-negative bacteria were respectively 41.22% (101/245), 41.88% (165/394), 45.92% (169/368), 42.54% (208/489), 52.35% (267/510), 56.89% (194/341), 58.99% (210/356), 56.95% (172/302), and 50.28% (177/352), with significantly increasing trend (R²=0.625, P<0.05); constituent ratios of gram-positive bacteria were respectively 58.78% (144/245), 58.12% (229/394), 54.08% (199/368), 57.46% (281/489), 47.65% (243/510), 43.11% (147/341), 41.01% (146/356), 43.05% (130/302), 49.72% (175/352), with significantly decreasing trend (R²=0.625, P<0.05). In 9 years, constituent ratio of Staphylococcus aureus ranked the first in all bacteria, and constituent ratios of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella pneumoniae were with significantly increasing trend (R²=0.811, 0.778, P<0.01). (2) In 9 years, drug-resistant rates of Staphylococcus aureus to gentamycin and rifampicin were with significantly decreasing trend (R²=0.727, 0.766, P<0.01); drug-resistant rates of Staphylococcus aureus to phosphonomycin were always in lower levels of 4.6% to 19.5%. In 9 years, drug-resistant rates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa to ceftazidime and ciprofloxacin had no significant change in trend (R²=0.023, <0.001, P>0.05), while drug-resistant rates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa to other 10 common antibiotics were with significantly increasing trend (R²=0.764, 0.793, 0.785, 0.768, 0.752, 0.749, 0.789, 0.786, 0.706, 0.629, P<0.01). In 9 years, drug-resistant rate of Acinetobacter baumannii to ampicillin/sulbactam was with significantly decreasing trend (R²=0.652, P<0.01), and drug-resistant rate of Acinetobacter baumannii to amikacin was with significantly increasing trend ( R²=0.531, P<0.05). In 9 years, drug-resistant rates of Klebsiella pneumoniae to piperacillin, ampicillin/sulbactam, cefuroxime, ceftazidime, cefotaxime, cefepime, imipenem, meropenem, amikacin, and gentamicin were with obviously increasing trend (R²=0.481, 0.672, 0.694, 0.532, 0.810, 0.641, 0.809, 0.709, 0.579, 0.810, P<0.05 or P<0.01). Conclusions Constituent ratios of gram-positive bacteria of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella pneumoniae of burn patients hospitalized in our burn wards from 2007 to 2015 were significantly increased, while constituent ratios of Staphylococcus aureus of those children always ranked the first. Drug-resistence of bacteria of those children in our burn wards was serious. Drug-resistant rate of Staphylococcus aureus only to phosphonomycin was always in lower level. Drug-resistant rates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa to 10 common antibiotics except ceftazidime and ciprofloxacin were significantly increased. Drug-resistant rate of Acinetobacter baumannii only to ampicillin/sulbactam was significantly decreased. Drug-resistant rates of Klebsiella pneumoniae to most common antibiotics were significantly increased.

OBJECTIVETo study changes in the drug-resistance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) and the use of antibiotics in burn wards so as to optimize the use of antibiotic in the future.

METHODSBacteria were isolated from specimens of blood, venous catheter, stool, sputum, urine, wound tissue from 5717 patients hospitalized in our burn wards within the duration of January 2005 to December 2009. The number of specimens examined and positive rates of bacteria were calculated. Changes in constituent ratio of cocci and bacilli, spectrum of bacteria, the drug-resistance rate of PA, and the usage of antibiotics were analyzed. The number of specimens examined, constituent ratio of cocci and bacilli, drug-resistance rate were processed with chi-square test. Bivariate correlation analysis was performed between the usage of antibiotics and the drug-resistance rate.

RESULTS(1) The number of specimens examined showed no statistical difference during the five years (with rates from 73.2% to 76.1%, χ(2) = 5.583, P > 0.05), while constituent ratio of cocci and bacilli showed statistical difference (with ratios from 105:134 to 169:126, χ(2) = 14.806, P < 0.01). The positive rates of bacteria were increasing in the five years. (2) One thousand six hundred and seventy-five strains were identified during the five years from different kinds of specimens, with 29 from blood, 39 from venous catheter, 3 from stool, 157 from sputum, 13 from urine, and 1434 from wound tissue. Among them, Staphylococcus aureus accounted for 28% to 42%, PA accounted for 10% to 25%, Acinetobacter baumannii accounted for 10% to 19%, and they were the predominant strains. (3) The difference among drug-resistance rates of PA to each kind of 12 antibiotics during the five years were statistically significant (with χ(2) values from 47.911 to 308.095, P values all below 0.01). The drug-resistance rates of PA to some antibiotics showed downward trend in the former four years, including amikacin, ceftazidime, and imipenem/cilastatin, but it rebounded in the fifth year. (4) There was descending trend in usage of cefoperazone/sulbactam and levofloxacin, but vancomycin was always used widely. (5) Drug-resistance rates of PA to 7 antibiotics, including amikacin, imipenem/cilastatin, and ciprofloxacin, etc., were positively correlated with usage of various antibiotics (with r values from 0.879 to 0.978, P < 0.05 or P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONSIn our burn wards, drug-resistant PA was prevalent. Disinfection and isolation measures, appropriate use of antibiotics, etc. can reduce PA infection.

Anti-Bacterial Agents ; therapeutic use ; Burn Units ; Burns ; drug therapy ; microbiology ; Drug Resistance, Bacterial ; drug effects ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Pseudomonas Infections ; drug therapy ; microbiology ; Pseudomonas aeruginosa ; drug effects ; isolation & purification

OBJECTIVETo investigate the molecular genetic mechanism of a Chinese patient with mucopolysaccharidosis type I (MPS I).

METHODSPCR-sequencing analysis was applied to detect the mutations in exons in alpha-L-iduronidase gene (IDUA) of the patient. Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) and allele-specific oligonucleotide hybridization (ASO) were used to confirm the identified mutations. PCR amplified DNA samples from 50 normal individuals were sequenced to demonstrate that the newly identified mutation was not polymorphism.

RESULTSThe patient was compound heterozygous for a previously reported nonsense mutation Q60X (178C > T) in exon 2, inherited from the mother, and a newly detected missense mutation D203N (607G > A) in exon 6 from the father. The newly identified mutation D203N was not found in PCR amplified products from 50 normal individuals, indicating that it was not polymorphism.

CONCLUSIONThe two identified mutations may be the cause resulting in patient's clinical phenotype.

Adolescent ; Base Sequence ; Codon, Nonsense ; DNA Mutational Analysis ; Exons ; genetics ; Female ; Humans ; Iduronidase ; genetics ; Male ; Mucopolysaccharidosis I ; genetics ; Mutation ; Mutation, Missense ; Pedigree ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Polymorphism, Genetic ; Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length

This paper studies the vein extraction technique based on the susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI) and introduced an improved self-adaptive threshold method based on the vessel enhancing diffusion. The approach employs the combination indicator of the local gray character, the global gray character and the tubular information of the vein. It first applies the vessel enhancing diffusion filter to enhance the continuity of the vein, increases the detection rate of tiny vein and suppresses the nucleus areas. And then it uses the improved self-adaptive threshold method to extract the vein. The results demonstrate that this approach can solve the problem above and extract the vein from the SWI image accurately.
Cerebral Veins ; anatomy & histology ; pathology ; Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; methods ; Humans ; Image Enhancement ; methods ; Imaging, Three-Dimensional

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the clinical outcomes after laparoscopic surgery for rectal cancer.

METHODSA systematic literature search (Medline, Embase, Cochrane Library) as of March 2010 was performed to identify all eligible studies. Two reviewers independently screened and extracted the data. Differences in short-term and long-term clinical outcomes after laparoscopic resection (LR) and open resection (OR) were analyzed using RevMan 5.

RESULTSA total of 1042 abstracts were retrieved and 16 clinical controlled studies finally included. The total number of patients was 2850. There were 1145 patients received LR and 1705 received OR. The analyses showed that LR had longer operative time (WMD=42.50, 95%CI: 29.27 to 55.74, P<0.05), less harvested lymph nodes (WMD=-0.94, 95%CI: -1.47 to -0.41, P<0.05), and less blood loss (WMD=-158.46, 95%CI: -221.08 to -95.84, P<0.05) as compared to OR. LR was superior to OR in terms of surgical mortality (OR=0.40, 95%CI: 0.18 to 0.92, P=0.03), postoperative complications (OR=0.73, 95%CI: 0.61 to 0.87, P<0.05), and 5-year overall survival rate (OR=1.56, 95%CI: 1.21 to 2.02, P<0.05). There was no significant difference in positive rate of circumferential resection margin between the two groups (OR=1.00, 95%CI: 0.45 to 2.20, P=1.00).

CONCLUSIONCompared to open surgery, short-term and long-term clinical outcomes after laparoscopic surgery are favorable.

Controlled Clinical Trials as Topic ; Humans ; Laparoscopy ; Rectal Neoplasms ; surgery ; Treatment Outcome

OBJECTIVETo explore the molecular mechanism of APL cell resistance to ATRA.

METHODSThe ATRA sensitive and resistant APL cell lines, NB4 and NB4-R1, were used as in vitro models. The effects of specific inhibitors and activators of adenylate cyclase (AC) and phosphodiesterase (PDE) on ATRA-induced differentiation was evaluated by cell morphology, cell surface antigen expression and nitroblue-tetrazolium (NBT) reduction assays.

RESULTSSQ22536, a specific antagonist of AC, could dramatically block ATRA-induced NB4 cell differentiation. When ATRA + SQ22536 group compared with ATRA group, the positivity of CD11b decreased from (95.9 +/- 2.5)% to (60.3 +/- 7.1)%, while the A(540) in NBT reduction assay decreased from 0.585 +/- 0.092 to 0.170 +/- 0.028 (P < 0.05). Forskolin, an agonist of AC, could overcome the resistance of NB4-R1 cells to ATRA. When ATRA + forskolin group compared with ATRA group, the positivity of CD11b increased from (34.3 +/- 5.3)% to (94.6 +/- 2.4)%, while the A(540) in NBT reduction assay increased from 0.110 +/- 0.028 to 0.395 +/- 0.049 (P < 0.05). In contrast, the specific antagonist and agonist of PDE, 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine (IBMX) and calmodulin, exerted little impact on ATRA treatment.

CONCLUSIONSThe defaults in the initiation of AC activation may contribute to the resistance to ATRA in some APL cells.

Adenine ; analogs & derivatives ; pharmacology ; Adenylyl Cyclase Inhibitors ; Adenylyl Cyclases ; metabolism ; Antineoplastic Agents ; pharmacology ; CD11b Antigen ; metabolism ; Cell Differentiation ; drug effects ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Drug Resistance, Neoplasm ; drug effects ; Enzyme Activation ; drug effects ; Enzyme Inhibitors ; pharmacology ; Humans ; Leukemia, Promyelocytic, Acute ; metabolism ; pathology ; Phosphoric Diester Hydrolases ; metabolism ; Tretinoin ; pharmacology