Phthalate esters have been used as the plasticizers for about 80 years. As a kind of environmental hormone and universal pollutants, they are found widely in air dust, industrial waste water, river, soil and solid waste, moreover, they have been detected in food, drinking water and body fluid. In this paper, the new progresses of the effects of phthalate esters on the rodents and human, including reproductive toxicity and liver toxicity, were summarized and the short-term, quick and accumulative actions of phthalates mono-esters, metabolite of phthalate esters, on the rodents and human body were also reviewed.

Phthalate esters are commonly used as plasticizers in many products.They have become widely spread in the environment.Several animal studies have showed that phthalate esters possess endocrine disrupting effects.Phthalate esters have been found in body fluid such as urine,blood and semen.As the base of internal exposure assessment,metabolism of phthalate esters was reviewed in the paper.The main metabolism pathways for phthalate esters and their metabolites in urine were summarized and the levels of metabolites of phthalate esters in different people were compared.

Phthalate esters widely exist in the environment. It has been demonstrated that they are harmful to human bodies. Phthalate mono-esters are the first metabolite of phthalate esters. In general,biotransformation or metabolism of xenobiotics most frequently result in detoxification of the chemical and facilitates excretion from the body. However,this may not be the case for phthalates. In the present paper,metabolism of phthalate esters and the toxicity of the phthalate mono-esters were reviewed,not only the effect of their mutagenesis,teratogenesis and carcinogenesis,but also their toxicity on reproduction,development,hormones,nuclear receptor,inflammation and obesity were included.

Background and purpose: At present, the treatment of elderly patients with ovarian cancer, espe-cially advanced ovarian cancer, tends to be conservative, and elderly patients often can not receive standard treatment. There are few treatment experiences and research data. This study aimed to investigate the treatment outcome, survival and prognostic factors of elderly patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer. Methods: This study retrospectively analyzed the clinical data for women older than 65 years diagnosed with stage Ⅲ and Ⅳ epithelial ovarian cancer between Apr. 2008 to Dec. 2012 in Chongqing Cancer Hospital. Results: Of the 181 women who met study criteria, 8.8％ received no treatment, 12.7％ underwent surgery alone, 15.5％ received chemotherapy alone, 33.2％ underwent non-standard treatment, 29.8％ underwent standard treatment. Baseline comparison of different treatment methods showed that the proportion of patients with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases was lower in the standard treatment group. After Correcting the effect of cardio-cerebrovascular diseases, the median survival time of standard treatment (48 months) and the median survival time of non-standard treatment (47 months) were significantly longer than that of the other treatment groups (P<0.001). The median survival time of chemotherapy alone (26 months) was significantly longer than that of the surgery alone and untreated group (P<0.001), while the median survival time of surgery alone was similar to untreated group (9 months vs 8 months, P=0.269). Multivariate analysis using Cox model showed that treatment, residual lesion size, cardio-cerebrovascular diseases significantly impacted on survival time. Conclusion: Standard treatment was still the key factor for the best survival of elderly women with advanced ovarian cancer. When this is not offered or possible, chemother-apy alone offers better survival than surgery alone. However, surgery alone does not improve prognosis.

Ophthalmology belongs to microsurgical subject and anatomy is intricate. In clinical practice, students are required to skillfully use eye examination equipment. The foreign students from Medical School of Vienna University are eager to learn and know theoretical knowledge very well. Department of ophthalmology has developed specific and individualized teaching plans according to the characteristics and needs of foreign students. Through the configuration of high quality teachers, the practice teaching is ensured. Chinese and foreign students are encouraged to share their knowledge and form a study group. Opportunities for hands-on practice of ophthalmology are increased by using Wetlab condition. Problem-based heuristic teaching is used to stimulate students' learning initiative. Through these teaching measures, the students' quality of clinical practice has been enhanced, the teaching level of clinical ophthalmology has been improved and sustainable development has also been achieved.

Objective To study the effect and mechanisms of TW-37 on cell proliferation,apoptosis,invasion and angiogenesis in pancreatic cancer cells in vitro and further explore the potential mechanism.Methods BxPC3 and HPAC cells were pretreated with TW-37 using untransfected or transfected with NF-κB p65 cDNA(p65 cDNA)or NF-κB p65 siRNA(siRNA-p65)cells as controls.Cell viability was determined by MrTT assay.Cell apoptosis was assessed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).Cell invasion and angiogenesis was detected by Transwell and endothelial tube formation assay of HUVECs.ELISA assay was used to measure the activity of NF-κB,and its target proteins of MMP-9 and VEGF were detected by western blot.Results TW-37 suppressed cell growth and induced apoptosis (A405:1.29 ± 0.21 vs 0.09 ± 0.01,1.07 s0.18 vs 0.08 ± 0.01),inhibited NF-κB activity and protein expression of NF-κB p65,VEGF and MMP-9(all P ＜0.05)in a dose-and time-dependent manner.The number of cells that invaded across the matrigel in the transwell chamber was (46.7 ±5.24) and (10.3 ± 1.26)/×200 in BxPC3 control and 0.75 μmol/L TW-37 group (P=0.001).The number of tube formation was (39.4 ±4.36) and (7.84 ± 1.25)/×200,(P =0.001).NF-κB activity was increased by p65 cDNA transfection,and decreased by TW-37 treatment in both of the two cell lines (P ＜0.05).However,NF-κB activity was decreased by p65 siRNA transfection,and greatly decreased by TW-37 treatment in both two cell lines (P ＜0.05 or P ＜0.01).Transfection of p65 cDNA did not significantly affect cell apoptosis.Transfection of p65 siRNA increased cell apoptosis,and greatly increased by TW-37 treatment in both two cell lines (all P ＜ 0.01).Conclusions TW-37 could inhibit the proliferation,invasion and angiogenesis in pancreatic cancer cells by regulating NF-κB signal pathway.

The compressive strength of the original bone tissue was tested, based on the raw human thigh bone, bovine bone, pig bone and goat bone. The four different bone-like apatites were prepared by calcining the raw bones at 800 degrees C for 8 hours to remove organic components. The comparison of composition and structure of bone-like apatite from different bone sources was carried out with a composition and structure test. The results indicated that the compressive strength of goat bone was similar to that of human thigh bone, reached (135.00 +/- 7.84) MPa; Infrared spectrum (IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis results showed that the bone-like apatite from goat bone was much closer to the structure and phase composition of bone-like apatite of human bones. Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) test results showed that the content of trace elements of bone-like apatite from goat bone was closer to that of apatite of human bone. Energy Dispersive Spectrometer (EDS) results showed that the Ca/P value of bone-like apatite from goat bone was also close to that of human bone, ranged to 1.73 +/- 0.033. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) patterns indicated that the macrographs of the apatite from human bone and that of goat bone were much similar to each other. Considering all the results above, it could be concluded that the goat bone-like apatite is much similar to that of human bone. It can be used as a potential natural bioceramic material in terms of material properties.
Animals ; Apatites ; chemistry ; Biomechanical Phenomena ; Bone Substitutes ; chemistry ; Bone and Bones ; physiology ; Cattle ; Compressive Strength ; Goats ; Humans ; Microscopy, Electron, Scanning ; Swine ; X-Ray Diffraction

Objective To study the changes of resting-state brain activity in knee osteoarthritis(KOA)patients with chronic pain.Methods The data of 21 KOA patients (KOA group) and 21 healthy controls (HC group) who underwent standard resting-state fMRI scan were analyzed with regional homogeneity (ReHo) method to observe the changes in the patients in contrast to the controls.Results Compared to HC group,patients of the KOA group showed ReHo changes in bilateral frontal lobe,bilateral parietal lobe,bilateral temporal lobe,bilateral cerebellum,limbic system and default-mode network.Conclusion Patients with chronic pain demonstrate abnormal neuron activities in the brain regions, and control loops not only related with pain but also related with emotive function disorder and cognitive impairment.

Objective: To observe the clinical efficacy of electroacupuncture (EA) in controlling myopia in children and its effect on retinal blood flow. Methods: Sixty-eight myopic children were randomly divided into an observation group and a control group, with 34 cases in each group. The control group was given auricular acupressure treatment alone, and the observation group was treated with EA once a week in addition to the treatment used in the control group. The spherical equivalent refraction (SER) and axial length (AL) were measured at baseline, and after 3 months and 6 months of treatment. Optical coherence tomography angiography was used to measure the vessel density (VD) and perfusion density (PD) in the surface layer of the retina. Results: After 3 months and 6 months of treatment, the changes in SER between the two groups were not statistically significant (P>0.05). After 3 months of treatment, the changes in AL between the two groups were not statistically significant (P>0.05); after 6 months of treatment, the change amount of AL in the observation group was smaller than that in the control group (P<0.05); after 3 months and 6 months of treatment, the changes in VD and PD in the surface layer of the retina in the observation group were significantly greater than those in the control group (P<0.01). Conclusion: EA treatment once a week for 6 months can delay the increase of AL and improve the retinal surface blood flow in myopic children.

Objective To investigate the serum levels of homocysteine(HCY)and cystatin C(Cys-C)in patients with antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody(ANCA)-associated vasculitis(AAV)associated renal injury,and to explore the diagnostic value of combined detection of HCY and Cys-C in ANCA-associated renal injury.Methods We selected 70 ANCA-positive patients with renal injury admitted to the Department of Nephrology in our hospital from January 2016 to January 2019.Another 48 patients with ANCA-positive but not complicated with renal injury were in simple ANCA positive group while 50 patients with physical examination who came to the hospital during the same period were in control group.Healthy patients served as the control group.By comparing the differences in the test results of different groups,the area under the curve(AUC)of each test index for ANCA-positive renal injury was determined,and the correlation and diagnostic value of combined detection of HCY and Cys-C for ANCA-related renal injury were calculated.Results The levels of HCY and Cys-C in the ANCA positive combined with renal injury group,the pure ANCA positive group,and the control group differed significantly(P＜0.05).The positive rates of HCY and Cys-C in the two groups were significantly different(P＜0.05).The sensitivity and specificity of HCY and Cys-C in combination for the diagnosis of ANCA-positive related renal injury were significantly higher than those of the above indicators alone(P＜0.05).ROC curve results showed that HCY combined with Cys-C had a better diagnosis for patients with positive ANCA and associated renal injury and a higher correlation.Conclusion HCY combined with Cys-C is closely correlated to ANCA-related renal injury,and the combined detection has a positive effect on the diagnosis of patients with ANCA-positive related renal injury,and has guiding value for the treatment of patients.