BACKGROUND:Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cel s transplanted into rats exposed to silica dust can home to the injured lung, but the homing effects via different ways are stil unclear.
OBJECTIVE:To comparatively observe the distribution of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cel s transplanted via different ways into rats exposed to silica dust.
METHODS:Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cel s of donor rats were isolated through whole bone marrow adherent method and transfected by Lv-eGFP. Receptor rats were exposed to silica dust through windpipe injection and randomly divided into intravenous injection and intratracheal injection groups. Then, transfected bone marrow mesenchymal stem cel s were injected via the vein and trachea into acceptor rats. The acceptor rats were kil ed at weeks 1, 2, 3, 4 after transplantation to take the lung, heart, liver, spleen, kidney, and brain tissue that were made into frozen sections and observed under fluorescence microscopy. The intensity of green fluorescence (absorbance value) was analyzed using image analysis software.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Strong, wide and lasting green fluorescence was both observed in the lung tissue of intravenous injection and intratracheal injection groups, which was especial y remarkable around the bronchus and blood vessels. The fluorescence intensities of both two groups were slightly decreased with time, but there was no difference between the two groups (P>0.05). The fluorescence in the other organs of both two groups was also observed at early stage. It was stronger and wider in the liver, spleen and heart, while fainter and less in the kidney and brain, and reduced with time in al the organs. Fluorescence could be observed few and faint only in the liver and spleen at late stage, and could hardly be seen in the brain. The fluorescence intensities of the liver, spleen, heart, kidney and brain had no significant difference between the two groups at the same time (P>0.05), but the fluorescence intensity in the brain at the 1st week showed significant difference between the two groups (P<0.05). These findings indicate that the intravenous injection and intratracheal injection of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cel s have similar homing effects in rats exposed to silica dust.

BACKGROUND:Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cels transplantationvia the trachea can relieve the lung injury of rats exposed to silica dust, but their distribution and migrationin vivois stil unclear. OBJECTIVE:To investigate the distribution and homing of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cels transplanted via the trachea into rats exposed to silica dust. METHODS: Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cels from Sprague-Dawley rats were isolated through bone marrow adherent method and transfected with lentivirus carrying enhanced green fluorescent protein gene (Lv-eGFP). Trypan blue staining and cel counting kit-8 were applied to assay the viability and proliferation of the transfected and untransfected cels. Sprague-Dawley rats, SPF level, were randomized into control group and silica dust exposure group. Rats in the two groups were respectively injectedvia the trachea with 1 mL of sterile silica dust suspensions (40 g/L) and 1 mL of normal saline. At 2 days after modeling, 2.2×106 transfected bone marrow mesenchymal stem cels were injected via the trachea into the rats of control group and silica dust exposure group. Rats were kiled at weeks 1, 2, 3, 4 after transplantation, and the distribution and intensity of green fluorescence in the lung, heart, liver, spleen, kidney, and brain tissue were observed under the fluorescence microscopy by frozen sections and analyzed using imaging analysis software. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: When the multiplicity of infection was 50, there were no significant differences between the viability and proliferation activity of the transfected and untransfected cels (P > 0.05). After transplantation of transfected bone marrow mesenchymal stem cels, strong green fluorescence was observed widely in the lung, especialy around the bronchus and blood vessels, and stil obvious at the 4th week. The fluorescence of other organs also could be observed at the 1st week. It was strong and wide in the liver, spleen and heart, while faint and less in the kidney and brain, and al reduced with time. It shows bone marrow mesenchymal stem cels transplantedvia the trachea into rats exposed to silica dust can be homing to the injured lung of rats.

Objective To study the protective effects of human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ucMSCs)against severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) in rats.Methods A total of 135 Sprague-Dawley male rats were randomly divided into Sham group,SAP group and SAP+ucMSCs group (45 each).SAP+ucMSCs group:Severe acute pancreatitis was induced by injecting 5％ sodium taurocholate (0.1ml/100g) into the common bilio-pancreatic duct and then CM-DiI-labeled ucMSCs at 1 × 107cells/kg were injected via the tail vein.All the rats were sacrificed 12,24 and 72 hours after SAP.The 72h death rate was counted.Pathological changes in the pancrease were detected by HE staining and pathological score was graded,ucMSCs colonization was observed by fluorescence microscopy.The serum levels of amylase,lipase,TNF-α,IL-1β,IL-4 and IL-10 were determined by ELISA.Results ucMSCs colonize the injured area of pancreatic tissue,the 72h death rate was reduced,and the serum amylase and lipase were also reduced significantly.Moreover,ucMSCs significantly reduced the pathological score of the pancrea and the level of proinflammatory cytokines (TNF-α and IL-1β),but the levels of anti-inflammatory cytokines were increased (IL-4 and IL-10).Conclusion Transplantation of ucMSCs can reduce the severity of pancreatic injury and inflammation in SAP rats.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the clinical significance of preoperative recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy (RLNP) for thyroid nodules with regard to the incidence of malignancy,recurrent laryngeal nerve involvement and histopathological character.METHODS Eighty patients with preoperative RLNP treated in Zhejiang Cancer Hospital between Jan 2007 to Dec 2014 were enrolled,their clinicopathological data were recorded and retrospectively analyzed.RESULTS Of 80 patients,16 patients had benign thyroid disease,while the other 64 had malignancies (80.0％).The preoperative RLNP incidence of benign and malignant lesions was 0.3％ and 0.9％ respectively.Poorly differentiated and anaplastic thyroid cancer had the higher incidence of preoperative RLNP comparing with other pathology types (25.93％,P＜0.05).The RLN did not preserved intraoperatively in 2 patients with benign lesions (2/16,12.5％) and in 42 patients with malignancy lesions (42/48,87.50％).All nerves were sacrificed in poorly differentiated and anaplastic thyroid cancer patients.The RLN could be isolated from 14 benign lesions and 6 malignancies,with or without adhesion,and the nerve function was recovered postoperatively.CONCLUSION The probability of preoperative RLNP is significantly higher in malignant lesions than benign lesions.Thyroid tumors with RLNP are strongly suggested of malignancy,with higher rate of intraoperative nerve sacrifice.The RLN should be preserved if it has not been invaded by the tumor,which offers a chance of functional recovery postoperatively.

Objective To investigate the clinical features and prognostic characteristics of head and neck cancer in patients with esophagus cancer and triple primary carcinoma(TPC).Methods A total of 30 patients with head and neck cancer with esophagus cancer TPC were collected in Zhejiang Cancer Hospital from January 2007 to December 2016.The distribution of cancer kinds and the incidence of synchronous and metachronous cancer were described.The clinical characteristics and prognosis were also compared in synchronous and metachronous cancer.The influence of number of hospitalization and different treatments on the survival time were analyzed.Results The TPC of "laryngeal pharynx + esophagus + lung" and "laryngeal pharynx + esophagus + oropharynx" had the highest incidence,that was 20.0％ in 30 patients (6/30).The second type was "laryngeal pharynx + esophagus + larynx".Fifteen cases were synchronous cancer and other 15 cases were metachronous cancer.The rate of surgery was 73.3％ (11/15),and the number of hospitalization who more or equal than 5 was 73.3％ (11/15) in the synchronous cancer.While the rate of surgery was 33.3％ (5/15),and the number of hospitalization who more or equal than 5 was 33.3％ (5/15) in the metachronous cancer.There were significant differences between synchronous and metachronous cancer (x2 =4.661,4.661,all P ＜ 0.05).The 1-year,3-year and 5-year survival rates were 39.9％,19.9％ and 0.0％ in patients with synchronous cancer.The mean survival time was (18.4 ± 6.2)months.In contrast,the survival rates were 78.7％,77.8％ and 59.1％ in metachronous cancer.The mean survival time was (122.2 ± 17.2) months.There were significant differences between the two groups (survival rate:x2 =10.934,P =0.001;mean survival time:t =3.201,P =0.003).The survival rate of the number of hospitalization more than or equal to 5 times had significant difference compared with those less than 5 times (x2 =10.574,P =0.001).There was no statistically significant difference in the improvement of OS between single operation,chemotherapy and target treatment (P ＞ 0.05).Conclusion Head and neck cancer in patients with esophagus cancer TPC can still has a high survival rate through active combined modality therapies,especially in metachronous carcinoma.

Objective: To investigate the effect of Ethephon on the testis pathological structure and apoptosis of spermatogenic cell in offspring male rats. Methods: Twenty-four healthy female SD rats of 45 days old were randomly divided into control group, low-dose Ethephon group, medium-dose Ethephon group and high-dose Ethephon group according to body weight.The male rats of the same age were selected to mate with female rats.The rats were fed with Ethephon solution of different concentrations or 9 g/L saline every day, and they were continued to be fed with Ethephon during pregnancy and lactation.At the age of 7 days and 14 days, 10 offspring male rats were randomly selec-ted from each group and were put to death.The testicular tissue was stained with HE, and the morphological changes in the testis were observed with light microscope; the apoptotic cells were labeled with terminal deoxynucleotidyl transfe-rase dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL method) and the apoptosis index(AI) of testis spermatogenic cells was detected with fluorescence microscope. Results: At the age of 7 days, the testis internal structure of the control group developed well, and the spermatic tubules were neatly and compactly arranged.In the low-dose Ethephon group, the seminiferous tubules of the testis were slightly smaller and the spermatogenic cells were loosely arranged compared with the control group.In the medium-dose Ethephon group, the testis seminiferous tubules were slightly disordered and the cell gap increased.In the high-dose Ethephon group, the testis development was poor, the diameter of seminiferous tubules decreased significantly, and the spermatogenic cells arrangement was in disorder.There was no statistically significant difference in spermatogenic cell AI between the low-dose group [(0.54±0.10)%] and the control group[(0.53±0.09)%] (P>0.05), while the spermatogenic cell AI in the medium-dose Ethephon group [(0.63±0.11)%] and the high-dose Ethephon group [(0.81±0.06)%] were higher than that in the control group, thus there exists a statistically significant difference (all P<0.01). The spermatogenic cell AI in the low-dose Ethephon group [(0.54±0.10)%] was lower than that in the medium-dose Ethephon group [(0.63±0.11)%], and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). The spermatogenic cell AI in the medium-dose Ethephon group was higher than that in the high-dose Ethephon group, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.01). At the age of 14 days, the spermatogenic cells AI in control group, low-dose Ethephon group, medium-dose Ethephon group and high-dose Ethephon group were (0.54±0.08)%, (0.65±0.11)%, (0.77±0.11)%, and (0.88±0.10)% respectively, and the spermatogenic cells AI in all groups increased gradually, in which the differences were statistically significant (all P<0.01). Conclusions Excessive dose of Ethephon can induce pathological changes in testicular tissue and increase the apoptosis of spermatogenic cells, resulting in low fertility of offspring rats.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the therapeutic effect of electroacupuncture on peripheral nerve damage induced by 1-bromopropane( 1-BP) exposure.METHODS: A total of 25 specific pathogen free healthy adult male Wistar rats were randomly divided into blank control group( n = 5),model control group( n = 10),and electroacupuncture treatment( EA) group( n = 10).Rats in the blank control group were not exposed to 1-BP and treated with electroacupuncture.The rats in model control group and EA group were placed in a dynamic inhalation exposure cabinet with 1-BP at concentration of 5 000 mg/m~3.The rats were continuously exposed to 1-BP 8 hours per day,5 days a week,for 4 weeks.At the 3 rd day after the end of the exposure,the EA group was treated with electroacupuncture on“Zu sanli”and“Huantiao”points for 4 courses.Each course included 20 minutes each time,once per day for 7 consecutive days.The body weight,the motor nerve conduction velocity( MCV) and sense nerve conduction velocity( SCV) of sciatic nerves on both posterior limbs of the rats were measured.RESULTS: During the course of 1-BP exposure,the rats in the EA and model control group showed reduction of eating,drinking and activities,limited autonomic activities and their hind limbs dragged.The MCV and SCV of posterior limb sciatic nerve of rats in the model control group were slower than that of the control group at the 4 th,6th and 8th week and the 0 week of the same group( P < 0.05).The MCV and SCV of posterior limb sciatic nerve of rats in the EA group improved with the increase of treatment time( P < 0.05),and those at the 6th and 8th weeks of the experiment( corresponding to the 2nd and 4th week after treatment) were faster than that of the model control group at the same time( P < 0.05).The SCV of the posterior limb sciatic nerve in the EA group recovered to normal level 4 weeks after treatment compared with the blank control group( P < 0.05).CONCLUSION: Electroacupuncture treatment can promote the recovery of peripheral nerve damage in rats with 1-BP poisoning.

OBJECTIVEThe aim of this study was to analyze the clinical characteristics and prognostic factors in patients with cancer of unknown primary site (CUP).

METHODSThe clinical and follow-up data of 68 CUP patients (46 adenocarcinoma patients, 22 squamous cell carcinoma patients), were retrospectively analyzed. Univariate and multivariate analysis were conducted to determine the correlation of survival with clinical features, tumor markers, blood test, liver function and so on.

RESULTSThe median survival time of the 68 CUP patients was 123 days. The results from univariate Cox regression analysis showed that the prognostic factors were related to a performance status, presence or absence of liver metastases, the number of metastatic sites, carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), hypoalbuminemia, hypohemoglobinemia and lymphocyte count. Multivariate Cox regression analysis of the clinical factors identified that a performance status (PS) ≥ 2, liver metastasis, elevated serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels, hypoalbuminemia (< 35 g/L) and lymphopenia (≤ 0.7 × 10(9)/L) were significant independent unfavorable predictive factors. Based on the number of the unfavorable predictive factors, we divided all the patients into three subgroups: subgroup involving 0-1 unfavorable factor, subgroup involving 2 - 3 unfavorable factors and subgroup involving 4 - 6 unfavorable factors. The median survival time was 390 days, 138 days and 77 days, respectively, in the 3 subgroups. Compared with the other two groups, the survival of the subgroup involving 0 - 1 unfavorable factor was significantly longer (P < 0.05), the survival between the subgroup involving 2 - 3 unfavorable factors and subgroup involving 4 - 6 unfavorable factors was not significantly different (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONSA performance status ≥ 2, liver metastasis, elevated serum carcinoembryonic antigen and lactate dehydrogenase levels, hypoalbuminemia and lymphopenia are independent unfavorable prognostic factors in patients with cancer of unknown primary site. The patients who had more than 2 unfavorable prognostic factors have a worse prognosis.

Adenocarcinoma ; blood ; pathology ; secondary ; therapy ; Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Carcinoembryonic Antigen ; blood ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; blood ; pathology ; secondary ; therapy ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; L-Lactate Dehydrogenase ; blood ; Leukocyte Count ; Liver Neoplasms ; secondary ; Lung Neoplasms ; secondary ; Lymphatic Metastasis ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasms, Unknown Primary ; blood ; pathology ; therapy ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Serum Albumin ; metabolism ; Survival Analysis ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo explore the effect and possible mechanism of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) on survival and quality of life (QOL) in patients with esophageal carcinoma after esophagectomy.

METHODSAdopting prospective controlled method of study, the authors had 128 post-esophagectomy patients, hospitalized from February 2001 to February 2002, randomly divided into 3 groups: the TCM group, treated with TCM drugs alone; the chemotherapy group, with chemotherapy alone applied; and the synthetic group, treated with chemotherapy combined with Chinese medicine. Their survival rate and QOL were compared.

RESULTSIn the TCM group, the chemotherapy group and the synthetic group, the respective 3-year relapse and remote metastasis rate were 71.4%, 76.7%, 53.4%, respectively (chi(2) = 6.53, P < 0.05); the 1-year survival rate 42.9%, 46.5%, 72.1%; 2-year survival rate 28.6%, 27.9%, 55.8%, and 3-year survival rate 26.2%, 23.1%, 37.2%, respectively. And the QOL improving rate was 69.0%, 37.2%, 58.1%, respectively, all showing significant difference among them (chi(2) = 6.10, all P < 0.05). Moreover, immune function was increased in the TCM and the synthetic groups.

CONCLUSIONIntegrative Chinese and Western medicinal treatment was the beneficial choice for post-operational patients with esophageal carcinoma. However, long time use of simple Chinese medicine was also advisable, especially for those in poverty.

Adult ; Aged ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; administration & dosage ; adverse effects ; Esophageal Neoplasms ; drug therapy ; mortality ; surgery ; Esophagectomy ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Immune System ; drug effects ; Immunoglobulins ; blood ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Recurrence, Local ; mortality ; Prospective Studies ; Quality of Life ; Survival Rate ; T-Lymphocyte Subsets

OBJECTIVETo study the effect of down-regulation of histone deacetylase 2 (HDAC2) expression on cell proliferation and cell cycle in cervical carcinoma cell lines HeLa.

METHODSHDAC2 siRNA and control siRNA were transfected to HeLa cells. CCK-8 and flow cytometry were used to analyze the changes of cell proliferation and cell cycle, respectively. Western blot was employed to detect the changes of cell proliferation and cell cycle-related proteins.

RESULTSHDAC2 siRNA significantly down-regulated the expression of HDAC2 protein in HeLa cells, resulting in marked inhibition of cell proliferation. In addition, the percentage of cells in G(0)/G(1) phase in HDAC2 siRNA group (63.3% ± 2.0%) was significantly higher than that in untreated group (29.3% ± 1.7%) or control siRNA group (29.4% ± 1.7%), F = 354.181, P = 0.000. Furthermore, Western blot demonstrated that down-regulation of HDAC2 expression decreased the expression of cyclin D1, cyclin E and CDK2 proteins but increased the expression of p21 protein.

CONCLUSIONSDown-regulation of HDAC2 expression mediates proliferation inhibition and cell cycle arrest. It is associated with decrease in cyclin D1, cyclin E and CDK2 protein expression and increase in p21 protein expression.

Cell Cycle ; Cell Proliferation ; Cyclin D1 ; metabolism ; Cyclin E ; metabolism ; Cyclin-Dependent Kinase 2 ; metabolism ; Down-Regulation ; HeLa Cells ; Histone Deacetylase 2 ; genetics ; metabolism ; Humans ; Oncogene Proteins ; metabolism ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins p21(ras) ; metabolism ; RNA, Small Interfering ; genetics ; Transfection