BACKGROUND: In recent years, myocardial tissue engineering has developed rapidly. By using exogenous biomaterials to simulate extracellular matrix, damaged myocardial cells can be effectively repaired or reconstructed, which has great potential value in the treatment of ischemic heart diseases such as myocardial infarction. OBJECTIVE: To review the research progress of myocardial scaffolds in the treatment of myocardial infarction. METHODS: NCBI and WanFang databases were retrieved for relevant articles published from 2008 to 2018, with the key words of "myocardial scaffold materials, myocardial infarction" in English and Chinese, respectively. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: At present, the commonly used myocardial scaffolds are mainly natural biomaterials (including collagen/Matrigel, fibrin, chitosan, hyaluronic acid, and algae hydrochloric acid) , synthetic materials (polyester synthetic materials and nanomaterials) and composite scaffolds. Due to the complexity of cardiac environment and heart function, the selection of scaffold materials should fully take account of biocompatibility, immunogenicity, conductivity, degradation rate and susceptibility to ischemia and hypoxia. Although many scaffold designs have begun to meet many requirements, there are still many kinds of stent materials for clinical application. It is believed that with the further development of researchers and application tools, people can expect to create myocardial scaffolds close to the physiological function of the original tissue, so that the heart function can be better restored.

OBJECTIVE: To study the value of the pepsin in the sputum for diagnosing and evaluating the effectiveness of treatment of laryngopharyngeal reflux. METHOD: Thirty-six patients with the symptoms of dry pharynx, globus pharyngeus, excessive throat clearing, chronic cough and so on were divided into laryngopharyngeal reflux group and chronic laryngitis group by the results of therapeutic trial taking proton pump inhibitors for 3 months. The estimation of the reflux symptom index (RSI), the reflux finding score (RFS) and the detection of pepsin in the sputum were done before and after the treatment. The difference between two groups and the value of the pepsin were analyzed. RESULT: There were significant decreasing in RSI, RFS and pepsin level (P < 0.01) after the treatment in all patients. There were statistical differences between the laryngopharyngeal reflux group and the chronic laryngitis group in the changes of RSI and pepsin level (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION Pepsin level in the sputum might be used as a objective, effective method for diagnosing and evaluating the effectiveness in laryngopharyngeal reflux.
Adult ; Female ; Humans ; Laryngopharyngeal Reflux ; diagnosis ; therapy ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Pepsin A ; analysis ; Sputum ; chemistry ; Treatment Outcome ; Young Adult

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a slowly progressing hematopoietic cell disorder. Sphingosine kinase 1 (SPHK1) plays established roles in tumor initiation, progression, and chemotherapy resistance in a wide range of cancers, including leukemia.However, small-molecule inhibitors targeting SPHK1 in CML still need to be developed. This study revealed the role of SPHK1 in CML and investigated the potential anti-leukemic activity of hirsuteine (HST), an indole alkaloid obtained from the oriental plant Uncaria rhynchophylla, in CML cells. These results suggest that SPHK1 is highly expressed in CML cells and that overexpression of SPHK1 represents poor clinical outcomes in CML patients. HST exposure led to G2/M phase arrest, cellular apoptosis, and downregulation of Cyclin B1 and CDC2 and cleavage of Caspase 3 and PARP in CML cells. HST shifted sphingolipid rheostat from sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) towards the ceramide coupled with a marked inhibition of SPHK1. Mechanistically, HST significantly blocked SPHK1/S1P/S1PR1 and BCR-ABL/PI3K/Akt pathways. In addition, HST can be docked with residues of SPHK1 and shifts the SPHK1 melting curve, indicating the potential protein-ligand interactions between SPHK1 and HST in both CML cells. SPHK1 overexpression impaired apoptosis and proliferation of CML cells induced by HST alone. These results suggest that HST, which may serve as a novel and specific SPHK1 inhibitor, exerts anti-leukemic activity by inhibiting the SPHK1/S1P/ S1PR1 and BCR-ABL/PI3K/Akt pathways in CML cells, thus conferring HST as a promising anti-leukemic drug for CML therapy in the future.