Objective To evaluate the semen quality and sperm morphology in the patients with different grades of varicocele. Methods Semen from 121 patients with varicocele which were divided into three groups, gradel, grade Ⅱ and grade Ⅲ, were studied and those of 23 normal male were taken as the control. Semen analysis was performed with the methods described in the WHO manual and sperm morphology was evaluated by WHO cri-teria. Results A significant reduction of semen quality and sperm morphology and an increase of small oval head, tapering head and amorphous head sperm were found in patients with different grades of varicocele compa-ring with those of the control. There was no difference in routine analysis between different groups. A reducetion of normal morphology percentage in grade Ⅲ were found comparing with grade Ⅱ (P<0.01). An increase of a-morphous head sperm in grade Ⅲ was found comparing with that of sperm in grade Ⅱ (P <0.01). Canclusions The routine semen analysis can not distinguish seminal damage between different grades of varicocele, but the sperm morphology can reflect the sperm state. Therefore, the patients with varicocele should not only get routine semen analysis but also check the sperm morphology.

Objective To investigate the expression of miR-6768-5p in lung cancer tissue and its effect on the proliferation and invasion of lung cancer cells through targeted regulation of carboxypeptidase A4(CPA4).Methods The expression of miR-6768-5p in lung cancer tissues and adjacent tissues was analyzed u-sing the TCGA database.Quantitative real-time PCR(qPCR)was used to detect the expression of miR-6768-5p in human lung cancer cell lines(HCC1588,H1650,H1299,A549,HCC827)and normal alveolar epithelial cells(HPAEpiC cells).Lung cancer cells were transfected with NC mimics and miR-6768-5p mimics,respec-tively,and divided into NC group and miR-6768-5p group.The MTS assay and Matrigel invasion assay were used to detect the cell proliferation and invasion ability of each group,respectively.The putative binding sites of miR-6768-5p and CPA4 were verified using RNAhybrid software and dual-luciferase reporter gene experi-ment.The expression of CPA4 mRNA in each group of cells was detected by qPCR.The expression of AKT/c-MYC signaling pathway proteins in the cells of each group was analyzed by Western blot.Results Com-pared with the adjacent tissues,the relative expression level of miR-6768-5p in lung cancer tissues was signifi-cantly decreased,and the difference was statistically significant(P＜0.05).Compared with HPAEpiC cells,the relative expression level of miR-6768-5p was significantly decreased in lung cancer cell lines,and the differ-ence was statistically significant(P＜0.05).Compared with the NC group,the cell proliferation rate of miR-6768-5p group was significantly decreased(P＜0.05).The number of invasive cells in NC group and miR-6768-5p group was(131.30±12.55)and(37.45±7.77),respectively,and the number of invasive cells in miR-6768-5p group was significantly lower than that in NC group(P＜0.05).The relative expression level of CPA4 mRNA in H1299 cells of miR-6768-5p group was significantly lower than that in NC group(t=4.93,P＜0.05).Compared with the NC group,the expressions of AKT/c-myC signaling pathway proteins p-AKT,p-mTORC1,XIAP,MDM2 and C-myC proteins in miR-6768-5p group were significantly decreased.Conclusion The expression of miR-6768-5p is decreased in lung cancer tissues,and miR-6768-5p may inhibit the activation of AKT/c-MYC signaling pathway by targeting CPA4,and reduce the proliferation and invasion ability of lung cancer H1299 cells.

Objective:To investigate the effect of lncRNA AC132217.4 on the proliferation and invasion of liver cancer MHCC97-H cells and its molecular mechanism.Methods:The TCGA database was used to analyze the differential expression of AC132217.4 in liver cancer tissue and adjacent tissue, and to analyze the relationship between the expression level of AC132217.4 and the overall survival of liver cancer patients. Transfection of pcDNA-AC132217.4 plasmid into MHCC97-H cells was defined as AC132217.4 group, transfection of pcDNA plasmid into MHCC97-H cells was defined as negative control (NC) group, respectively. The proliferation and invasion ability of MHCC97-H cells were detected by MTT method and Matrigel invasion assay. The binding site between AC132217.4 and miR-18a-5p was analyzed by starBase v2.0 software and dual luciferase reporter gene assay. Real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) detected the differential expression of miR-18a-5p in the two groups of MHCC97-H cells. The expression of epithelial-mesenchymal transition protein was detected by Western-blotting. Measurement data with normal distribution were expressed as mean±standard deviation ( ± s), and t-test was used for comparison between the two groups. Results:Compared with adjacent tissues, the expression of AC132217.4 was down-regulated in liver cancer tissues ( P<0.01). Compared with liver cancer patients with low expression of AC132217.4, the overall survival of liver cancer patients with high AC132217.4 expression was longer ( P<0.05). The pcDNA-AC132217.4 plasmid significantly inhibited the proliferation of MHCC97-H cells ( P<0.05). The number of invasive cells in the NC group and AC132217.4 group were (131.30±12.55) and (37.45±7.77), respectively. The pcDNA-AC132217.4 plasmid significantly inhibited the invasive ability of MHCC97-H cells ( t=6.36, P<0.01). AC132217.4 directly complemented miR-18a-5p ( P<0.01). The expression of miR-18a-5p in MHCC97-H cells in AC132217.4 group (1.04±0.30) was significantly lower than that in NC group (6.13±0.75) ( t=6.27, P<0.01). Compared with the NC group, the expressions of epithelial phenotype proteins Cytokeratin and Claudin-1 in MHCC97-H cells in AC132217.4 group were up-regulated, while the expressions of mesenchymal phenotype proteins Vimentin, Slug and Snail were down-regulated. Conclusions:The expression of AC132217.4 is low in liver cancer tissue, and it is related to the overall survival of liver cancer patients. AC132217.4 might inhibit the proliferation and invasion of liver cancer MHCC97-H cells by sponge miR-18a-5p.

OBJECTIVETo investigate the physicochemical constants such as equilibrium solubility and apparent partition coefficients (Papp), and study the effects of temperature, pH value and antioxidants on the stability of breviscapine solution.

METHODThe equilibrium solubility of breviscapine in various medium and the Papp of breviscapine under different pH conditions were determinated by RP-HPLC, and the effects of temperature, pH value and antioxidants on the stability of solution were investigated by taking change rates of drug content in 10 h as detection index.

RESULTThe equilibrium solubility of breviscapine in saline, distilled water, pH 7.0 PBS, pH 7.5 PBS, Ringer's fluid, methanol and ethanol were (20.68 +/- 1.12), (79.35 +/- 0.68), (7954.62 +/- 34.90), (18,708.17 +/- 253.05), (3670.40 +/- 27.64), (210.71 +/- 0.74), (184.34 +/- 1.47) mg x L(-1) respectively; while in pH value 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 6.5, 7.0 solution, the Papp were 5.362, 0.542, 0.371, 0.328 and 0.143 respectively. The stability of breviscapine in the Ringer's fluid was the worst and the stability was significantly decreased with the increase of temperature and pH value and it could be improved by EDTA-2Na.

CONCLUSIONThe established HPLC assay was accurate and convenient. The Papp of breviscapine is decreased by increased the pH value, while in the aqueous solution the equilibrium solubility of breviscapine increase with the pH in crese. EDTA-2Na can be used as an antioxidant of breviscapine solution.

Antioxidants ; chemistry ; Chemical Phenomena ; Drug Stability ; Edetic Acid ; chemistry ; Flavonoids ; chemistry ; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration ; Solutions ; Solvents ; chemistry ; Temperature

Objective To explore the predictive value of the expression of CD44v6 and EGFR on the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) in stageⅡ-Ⅲ cervical cancer. Methods A total of 53 patients with stageⅡ-Ⅲ cervical cancer diagnosed by pathology were selected. All patients received two cycles of paclitaxel+platinum NACT. The pathological tissue samples of cervical tumors before NACT treatment were collected. The expression of CD44v6 and EGFR were detected by the immunohistochemical SP method, and we analyzed their predictive value of NACT in stageⅡ-Ⅲ cervical cancer. Results Among the 53 patients, 38 were in the NACT effective group (CR+PR), and 15 were in the NACT ineffective group (SD+PD). The expression of CD44v6 in the ineffective group was significantly higher than that in the effective group (P < 0.05). The expression of CD44v6 was significantly different in patients with CR, PR, and SD (P < 0.05). The AUC of CD44v6 to NACT effect on stage Ⅱ-Ⅲ cervical cancer was 0.74 (P < 0.05). The patients in the high expression group of CD44v6 had worse efficacy in NACT than those in the low expression group of CD44v6 (P < 0.05). Pearson test showed that CD44v6 and EGFR expression were correlated (R=0.34, P < 0.05). Conclusion High expression of CD44v6 may reduce the efficacy of NACT in stageⅡ-Ⅲ cervical cancer, suggesting that the expression of CD44v6 has a certain predictive value and clinical significance in the efficacy of paclitaxel+platinum NACT on cervical cancer. Moreover, CD44v6 is positively correlated with EGFR expression.

Objective To study the infection status of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) and sensitivity to commonly used antibiotics in Taizhou district,Zhejiang province. Methods 39 099 cases aged between 5 and 95 years old(mean as 48.42 years)were involved during January 2010 to December,2013 for this study. Sex ratio was 1 ∶ 0.95. Yearly distribution of the number of cases were 5 031,6 709,11 902 and 15 457 in 2010,2011,2012 and 2013,respectively. Gastric mucosal specimens were collected and H. pylori strains were isolated and cultured in the same platform in Zhiyuan Medical Inspection Institute of Hangzhou. Resistance tests of all the H. pylori isolates were performed to 6 commonly used antibiotics:metronidazole,clarithromycin,amoxicillin,gentamicin, levofloxacin and furazolidone with the agar dilution method. The antibiotic resistance rates of H. pylori strains isolated during year 2010-2013 and the changing trends were analyzed. Results Resistance rates to levofloxacin and clarithromycin kept at higher level and the highest was in 2011 and then decreased in both 2012 and 2013 (P<0.01). The resistance rates to both levofloxacin and clarithromycin reached the highest in 2011(P<0.01),and decreased thereafter,with no significant change in 2013 to 2012(P>0.05). Conclusion Antibiotic resistance rate against metronidazole for HP isolate was highest. Resistance rate against amoxicillin and furazolidone,gentamicin was low. Clinical treatment should choose amoxicillin and furazolidone,gentamicin. The resistance rates to levofloxacin and clarithromycin had been seen at a significantly downwarding trend since 2011. However,the combined resistance rates to levofloxacin and clarithromycin did not seem to reduce since 2012.

Objective To observe the effect of microRNA-613 (miR-613) on the biological behavior of human renal cell carcinoma cells and explore its molecular mechanism.Methods The synthesized miR-613 mimics and miR-NC were respectively transferred into 786-0 cells by Lipofectamine 3000 and divided into experimental group and control group.Real time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) was used to detect the expression of miR-613 in cells of two groups to verify the transfection success.The proliferation of 786-0 cells was detected by methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) assay and the migration of 786-0 cells was detected by Transwell migration assay.Bioinformatics predicts the target gene of miR-613.Dual luciferase reporter assay validates the targeted relationship between miR-613 and target genes,and their binding sites.qPCR and Western blot were used to detect the expression of target genes.Results qPCR test results showed that the expression of miR-613 in the experimental group (16.22 ± 1.08) was significantly higher than that in the control group (1.06 ± 0.20),with statistically significant difference (P ＜ 0.01).The results of MTT showed that the cells in the experimental group showed a decrease in absorbance value at the d-th point after transfection (P ＜ 0.05).Transwell cell migration test results showed that the cells in the control group and experimental group migrated from the upper chamber of Transwell to the lower chamber of the cells were respectively (95.55 ± 17.88) and (199.10 ± 22.74),with statistically significant difference (P ＜ 0.05).Bioinformatics predicts that the target gene of miR-613 is Cortactin (CTTN).Dual luciferase reporter assay confirmed that miR-613 can target CTTN gene (P ＜ 0.05).miR-613 can significantly inhibit the CTTN gene expression in renal cell carcinoma cells (P ＜ 0.01).Conclusions Upregulation of miR-613 expression can inhibit the proliferation and migration of renal cell carcinoma cells,and its possible molecular mechanism is that miR-613 inhibits the expression of CTTN gene.

Aiming at the problems of missing important features, inconspicuous details and unclear textures in the fusion of multimodal medical images, this paper proposes a method of computed tomography (CT) image and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) image fusion using generative adversarial network (GAN) and convolutional neural network (CNN) under image enhancement. The generator aimed at high-frequency feature images and used double discriminators to target the fusion images after inverse transform; Then high-frequency feature images were fused by trained GAN model, and low-frequency feature images were fused by CNN pre-training model based on transfer learning. Experimental results showed that, compared with the current advanced fusion algorithm, the proposed method had more abundant texture details and clearer contour edge information in subjective representation. In the evaluation of objective indicators, Q ^AB/F, information entropy (IE), spatial frequency (SF), structural similarity (SSIM), mutual information (MI) and visual information fidelity for fusion (VIFF) were 2.0%, 6.3%, 7.0%, 5.5%, 9.0% and 3.3% higher than the best test results, respectively. The fused image can be effectively applied to medical diagnosis to further improve the diagnostic efficiency.
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted/methods* ; Neural Networks, Computer ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging/methods* ; Algorithms

OBJECTIVETo study the infection status of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) and sensitivity to commonly used antibiotics in Taizhou district,Zhejiang province.

METHODS39 099 cases aged between 5 and 95 years old (mean as 48.42 years) were involved during January 2010 to December, 2013 for this study. Sex ratio was 1 : 0.95. Yearly distribution of the number of cases were 5 031, 6 709, 11 902 and 15 457 in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013, respectively. Gastric mucosal specimens were collected and H. pylori strains were isolated and cultured in the same platform in Zhiyuan Medical Inspection Institute of Hangzhou. Resistance tests of all the H. pylori isolates were performed to 6 commonly used antibiotics:metronidazole, clarithromycin, amoxicillin, gentamicin, levofloxacin and furazolidone with the agar dilution method. The antibiotic resistance rates of H. pylori strains isolated during year 2010-2013 and the changing trends were analyzed.

RESULTSResistance rates to levofloxacin and clarithromycin kept at higher level and the highest was in 2011 and then decreased in both 2012 and 2013 (P < 0.01). The resistance rates to both levofloxacin and clarithromycin reached the highest in 2011 (P < 0.01), and decreased thereafter, with no significant change in 2013 to 2012 (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONAntibiotic resistance rate against metronidazole for HP isolate was highest. Resistance rate against amoxicillin and furazolidone, gentamicin was low. Clinical treatment should choose amoxicillin and furazolidone, gentamicin. The resistance rates to levofloxacin and clarithromycin had been seen at a significantly downward trend since 2011. However, the combined resistance rates to levofloxacin and clarithromycin did not seem to reduce since 2012.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; pharmacology ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial ; Helicobacter pylori ; drug effects ; isolation & purification ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Young Adult