Breast Neoplasms ; diagnosis ; genetics ; pathology ; Clinical Laboratory Techniques ; adverse effects ; trends ; Diagnostic Errors ; Female ; Genes, BRCA2 ; physiology ; Humans

BACKGROUND: As indicated by clinical research, if cerebral infarction could be effectively treated at early stage, especially normal specific therapy provided within 6 hours or even earlier after attack, the prognosis would be significantly better than delayed therapy. However, it is still unclear that whether the changes of cellular apoptosis-inducing or -inhibiting indicators could be used as criteria in the judgment of prognosis.OBJECTIVE: To test the content of cell apoptotic factor and to investigate the prognosis in hospitalized patients with cerebral infarction who received treatment at different time for further verification of the therapeutic timing for the disease.DESIGN: A same term randomized controlled study based on patients.SETTING: Department of neurology of a general hospital of a military area command of Chinese PLA.PARTICIPANTS: Totally 144 male patients admitted in the Second Department of Neurology, General Hospital of Jinan Military Area Command of Chinese PLA between 2000 and 2002 were divided into four groups including 6 hours, 24 hours, 72 hours and 96 hours group according to different time of therapy provided.METHODS: Oral administration of 400 mg Lumbrokinase, 2 tablets of heparin sodium, 60 mg of nimodipine, and 100 mg of vitamin E, three times a day. 150 mL of normal saline(NS) containing 52.5 mg of Ginkgo biloba L extractive(Jin Na Duo) and 150 mL of NS containing 10 mL of Cerebroprotein Hydeolysate were used through intravenous drop once a day. Ten days were set as one therapeutic course and 2 courses were given. 200 g/L of mannite was given to dehydrate for patients with large area infarction(＞ 7 cm2) . Platelet membrane Fas, Apo2.7 and Bcl-2 percentage and prognostic assessment were tested in patients of four groups before and after therapy.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Peripheral platelet membrane Fas,Apo2.7 and Bcl-2 percentage in patients of different group and prognosis evaluation.RESULTS: Percentage of platelet membrane Fas, Apo2.7 and Bcl-2 of 6 hours group was significantly higher or lower after therapy than before therapy ( P ＜ 0.05 ), and moreover, the difference with other groups was significant( P ＜ 0.05), As revealed in the analysis of prognosis, the effectiveness of patients who received therapy within 6 hours was significantly better than that of 96 hours group and the mortality reduced significantly.CONCLUSION: Normal hospitalizing therapy provided within 6 hours after attack could surely improve the prognosis and reduce the disability rate, and the abnormity and extent in Fas, Apo2.7 and Bcl-2 are closely correlated with prognosis.

Animals ; Diabetic Nephropathies ; drug therapy ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; Humans ; Hypoglycemic Agents ; pharmacology ; Phytotherapy

Objective To investigate the distribution of ompA gnne in 15 Chinese reference standard strains belonging to 15 serogroups of Leptospira interrogate, and to express recombinant OmpA ( rOmpA ) and to identify immunogenicity and immunoprotection of rOmpA. Methods Genomic DNAs from different leptospiral strains were extracted by phenol-chloroform method. Entire ompA gene fragments from the strains were amplified by PCR and then sequenced after T-A cloning. A prokaryotic expression system of ompA gene from L. interrogans strain 56601 was constructed, and the expression and yield of rOmpA were determined by SOS-PAGE plus Bio-Rad Agarose Image Analyser. Rabbits were immunized with rOmpA for obtaining antiserum, and immunodiffusion test was used to measure the antiserum's titer. Western blot assay was performed to determine the immunoreaetivity of rOmpA with the antiserum against rOmpA and antiserum against whole cell of L. interrogans strain 56601, while mi-croscopic agglutination test (MAT) was applied to detect the cross agglutination to the 15 L. interrogans strains. A leptospire adhering cell model and a leptospire infecting guinea pigs model were used to determine the adhesion-bloc-king effect of rOmpA antiserum and immunoprotection of rOmpA. Results All the 15 L. interrogans strains, but not L. biflexa strain Patoe Ⅰ , had sequence conserved ompA genes. The yield of rOmpA was approximate 20% of the total bacterial proteins, rOmpA could induce rabbits to produce antibody and immunodiffusion titer of the anti-serum was 1:4. Both antisera against rOmpA and against whole cell of L. interrogans strain 56601 were able to pro-duce positive Western blot signs to rOmpA, and the former offered 1 : 20-1 : 320 MAT titers to the 15 L. interrogans strains. 1: 10-1:160 dilutions of rOmpA antiserum could efficiently block L. interrogans strain 56601 adhering to J774A. 1 cells, and 100 μg and 200 μg rOmpA displayed 50.0% and 75.0% immunoprotective rates in the infee-ted guinea pigs. Conclusion ompA gene only exists in genomes of different pathogenic L. interrogans serogroups. rOmpA has relatively stronger antigenicity, cross immunoreactivity and certain immunoprotection, implying that this recombinant protein may be used as a candidate antigen for developing universal genetic engineering vaccine of L. interrogans.

In order to increase the production of insecticidal crystal proteins Cry1 and Cry2, firstly, Plack-ett-Burman design was applied to evaluate the effectiveness of the related nutrition factors; it was found that the soybean powder and MnSO4?H2O were significant factors for Cry1 production, but the yield of Cry2 wasn’t effected remarkably in such medium. Then the steepest ascent experiment was adopted to approach the optimal region of the medium composition. Lastly, the optimal concentration of the soybean powder and MnSO4?H2O was 11.5 and 0.02 g/L, obtained by response surface methodology (RSM). The final yields of Cry1 and Cry2 was 0.32 mg/mL and 0.11 mg/mL, increasing twice more than that in the medium optimized before. The median lethal concentration (LC50) of optimal medium was 1.09 ?L/mL. The toxicity to Heli-coverpa armigera was significantly enhanced than the old one.

Objective:To evaluate the clinical efficacy of SKy bone expander system in percutaneous kyphoplasty for treat- ment of osteoporotie verterbral compression fracture.Methods:Twenty-two patients(aged 62-90 years,32 vertebrae)under- went percutaneous kyphoplasty using SKy bone expander system.The bone cement was injected into the collapsed vertebrae. The vasual analogue scale(VAS)and complications were recorded during follow up.Results:The operations were successful in all patients via unilateral or bilateral approach.The operation time ranged from 30 to 120 min.The mean volume of cement in- jected into each vertebra body was(4.8?1.1)ml,ranged from 3.1 to 6.8 ml.Extravertebral leakage of bone cement was ob- served in two vertebrae with no symptoms.All patients had their pain relieved;the VAS was 7.6?0.8 before operation,3.5?0.5 one day after operation,2.8?0.6 one week after operation,and 2.4?0.6 one month after operation,with significant difference found between preoperation and postoperation(P

Objective:To analyze the change rules of quantitative parameters of magnetic resonance-perfusion weighted imaging (MR-PWI) in cynomolgus monkeys with different degrees of liver fibrosis, and to explore the best parameter of MR-PWI in evaluating the severity of liver fibrosis.Methods:Liver fibrosis models of twenty-two cynomolgus monkeys were successfully established by subcutaneous injection of carbon tetrachloride and feeding with high-fat food. Among them, 15 cynomolgus monkeys developed into early liver cirrhosis (stage S4 of liver fibrosis). Compatibility group design was adopted, the comparative study on MR-PWI of exchange double blood supply model of liver was carried out in these 15 cynomolgus monkeys with a complete development process of liver fibrosis. The quantitative parameters of MR-PWI included endothelial transfer constant ( ktrans), reflux rate constant ( kep), extravascular extracellular space fractional volume ( ve), fractional plasma volume ( vp) and hepatic artery perfusion index (HPI). The change rules of the above parameters and their correlation with the severity of hepatic fibrosis were analyzed. The best parameter of MR-PWI was explored. Compatibility group design (randomized block design), analysis of variance, SNK- q test, Spearman rank correlation analysis and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis were used for statistical analysis. Results:ktrans and kep of MR-PWI of cynomolgus monkeys decreased along with the progress of hepatic fibrosis, and the differences were statistically significant ( F=685.228, 99.718, both P<0.01). There were statistically significant differences between each stage of hepatic fibrosis (S1 to S4) and normal liver tissue (S0) ((0.527±0.038), (0.479±0.035), (0.432±0.032) and (0.387±0.031) mL/min vs.(0.584±0.044) mL/min, all P<0.01; (2.193±0.307), (1.997±0.301), (1.624±0.174) and (1.532±0.130) mL/min vs. (2.565±0.482) mL/min, all P<0.01). There were statistically significant in ktrans and kep between stage S3, S4 severe liver fibrosis and stage S1 mild liver fibrosis, stage S2 moderate liver fibrosis (all P<0.01), however there were no statistically significant differences between stage S3 and stage S4 liver fibrosis, between stage S1 and stage S2 liver fibrosis (all P>0.05). Along with the development of the severity of liver fibrosis, HPIs increased gradually, and the differences were statistically significant ( F=839.883, P<0.01). The HPIs of stage S0 to S4 were 0.244±0.022, 0.317±0.035, 0.421±0.046, 0.546±0.043 and 0.651±0.058, respectively, and there were statistically significant differences between groups (all P<0.01). Along with the progression of the severity of liver fibrosis, vp decreased while ve increased gradually, but there were no statistically significant differences among groups (all P>0.05). The results of Spearman rank correlation analysis indicated that ktrans and kep were negatively correlated with the severity of liver fibrosis ( rs=-0.875 and -0.797, both P<0.01), however HPI was positively correlated with the severity of liver fibrosis ( rs=0.959, P<0.01). The results of ROC curve analysis showed that area under curves (AUCs) of ktrans, kep and HPI in the diagnosis of early cirrhosis were 0.852 (95% CI 0.767 to 0.937), 0.799 (95% CI 0.700 to 0.897) and 0.967 (95% CI 0.932 to 1.002), respectively. The best cut-off values were 0.395 mL/min, 1.561 mL/min and 0.590, respectively. The sensitivity was 86.7%, 79.6% and 97.4%, respectively and the specificity was 77.4%, 71.9% and 93.1%, respectively. The thresholds of HPI in the diagnosis of liver fibrosis at stage S1, stage S2, stage S3 and stage S4 were 0.291, 0.376, 0.503 and 0.590, respectively; the sensitivity was 95.7%, 93.8% and 94.4% and 97.4%, respectively and the specificity was 89.5%, 84.7%, 91.3% and 92.7%, respectively. Conclusions:The parameters of MR-PWI change regularly with the development of liver fibrosis in the cynomolgus monkey model, among which HPI is the best parameter for quantitative evaluation of the severity of liver fibrosis.

This study examined the promoter methylation of APO-1/CD95 (Fas) gene in bladder urothelial carcinoma and analyzed the relationship between the Fas promoter methylation and the biological behavior of bladder cancer. Promoter methylation of Fas gene was detected by methylation-specific PCR (MSP) in 4 bladder cancer cell lines, 50 human bladder urothelial carcinoma samples and l0 normal bladder tissue samples. Correlation of the aberrant methylation of Fas promoter with the clinicopathological parameters was statistically analyzed. The results showed that Fas was down-regulated at both mRNA and protein level in bladder cancer cell lines and tissue samples of bladder urothelial carcinoma. The positive rate of Fas protein expression in bladder urothelial carcinoma was 34.0% (17/50), significantly lower than that in normal bladder tissues (70.0%, 7/10) (P<0.01). Fas promoter methylation was detected, and the positive rate of Fas promoter methylation in bladder urothelial carcinoma was 42.0% (21/50), which was obviously higher than that in normal bladder tissues (0.0%, 0/10) (P<0.01). The aberrant methylation of Fas promoter was reversely correlated with Fas protein expression (P<0.05). Furthermore, the positive rates of Fas promoter methylation in high-grade and low-grade bladder urothelial carcinoma were 73.3% (11/15) and 34.2% (12/35), respectively, with significant difference shown (P<0.05). No statistical significance was found in the Fas promoter methylation among different clinical stages of bladder cancer. It was concluded that Fas promoter hypermethylation plays an important role in the pathogenesis of bladder urothelial carcinoma and may serve as a prognostic indicator of bladder urothelial carcinoma.

BACKGROUND:Chitosan biological materials can induce bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells to differentiate toward neurons. As a derivative of chitosan, carboxymethyl chitosan has a series of excelent properties. However, whether carboxymethyl chitosan can induce the neuronal differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells remains unclear.OBJECTIVE:To investigate the effect of carboxymethyl chitosan thermosensitive hydrogel on the differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells into neurons and the possible mechanism.METHODS:Passage 3 bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells from rats were selected and cultured in carboxymethyl chitosan thermosensitive hydrogel extracts in different concentrations (0, 50, 100, 150, 200, 500 g/L). Control cells were cultured in culture medium with no addition of carboxymethyl chitosan thermosensitive hydrogel extracts. MTT assay was performed to investigate the effects of different concentrations of carboxymethyl chitosan thermosensitive hydrogel extracts on bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell proliferation. Western blot assay was used to explore the effect of 150 g/L carboxymethyl chitosan thermosensitive hydrogel extracts on the expression of neuron-specific enolase, Nestin, Vimentin, NF-M, microtubule associated protein 2, glial fibrillary acidic protein, β3-tubulin, Notch1 and Jag1 protein.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:MTT assay showed that carboxymethyl chitosan thermosensitive hydrogel promoted the cell proliferation, and the proliferation rate reached the peak at the concentration of 150 g/L. Western blot assay showed that the cells induced by 150 g/L carboxymethyl chitosan thermosensitive hydrogel extract had significant increases in neuron-specific enolase, Nestin, Vimentin, NF-M, microtubule associated protein 2, glial fibrillary acidic protein, and β3-tubulin protein expression, and obvious decreases in Notch1 and Jag1 protein expression in comparison with the control group. These results indicate that the carboxymethyl chitosan thermosensitive hydrogel induces rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells to differentiate toward neurons, and suppresses the activity of Notch signal pathway in the process of differentiation.

Objective: To explore the effects of cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) in patients with dispersion of re-polarization and ventricular arrhythmia.
Methods: A total of 86 consecutive patents with CRT implantation were enrolled. According to weather absolute value of LVEF increased≥10% from baseline at 6 months after CRT implantation, the patients were divided into 2 groups: Response group and Non-response group,n=43 in each group. Dispersion of re-polarization indexes as QRS duration, QTc interval, TpTe interval and the events of ventricular arrhythmia were compared between 2 groups at different time points after CRT.
Results:①In Response group, compared with pre-operation, QRS duration and TpTe interval were shorter at 1 year and within 24h after CRT implantation, allP<0.05, while the above indexes were similar in Non-response group, allP>0.05.②During 1 year after CRT implantation, the incidences of PVCs and PVC runs in Response group were much less than those in Non-response group, for lgPVCs: (1.78 ± 0.77) vs (2.73 ± 0.61), for lgPVC runs: (0.64 ± 0.48) vs (1.98 ± 0.72),P<0.05.③Multi liner regression analysis demonstrated that TpTe interval within 24h after CRT implantation was an independent predictor for both lgPVCs: (B=0.143, OR=1.154,P=0.001) and lgPVC runs: (B=0.122, OR=1.047,P=0.001).
Conclusion: CRT ventricular reverse remodeling may reduce dispersion of re-polarization and the risk of ventricular arrhythmia, therefore improve the prognosis in relevant patients; TpTe interval within 24h after CRT had the predictive value for ventricular arrhythmia.