OBJECTIVETo investigate the effect and safety of extracorporeal shock wave (ESW) in the treatment of pain symptom of type III B prostatitis.

METHODSWe treated 50 cases of type III B prostatitis by ESW once a week for 4 weeks. Then we evaluated the clinical effect and safety of the therapy based on the NIH-CPSI scores, visual analogue scale (VAS) scores, IIEF-5 scores, prostate volume and morphous, state of urination, color of urine, results of routine semen analysis, and changes of cytokines (IL-6, TNF-α and IL-1β) in expressed prostatic secretion (EPS).

RESULTSAll the patients successfully accomplished the treatment. Compared with the baseline, decreases were observed after 4 weeks of cytokine treatment in the pain scores (14. 61 ± 1. 82 vs 9. 36 ± 1. 47, P <0. 01), urination symptom scores (4. 59 ± 1. 01 vs.4. 66 ± 0. 89, P >0. 05) , quality of life scores (6. 51 ± 1. 03 vs 4. 56 ± 1. 02, P <0. 01), NIH-CPSI (25. 43 ± 1. 72 vs 18. 28 ± 2. 32, P <0. 01 ), and VAS (6. 59 ± 1. 10 vs 3. 02 ± 1. 07, P < 0. 01). The concentration of IL-6 in the EPS was significantly increased ([55.82 ± 6. 28] vs [86.59 ± 4. 55] ng/ml, P <0. 01) , while the level of TNF-α ([3.89 ± 0. 12] vs [3. 19 ± 0.22] ng/ml, P<0.01) and that of IL-1β ([3.21 ± 1.01] vs [1.48 ± 0.95] ng/ml, P< 0. 01) remarkably reduced after treatment. However, there were no statistically significant differences in IIEF-5 scores (18. 58 ± 2. 03 vs 18. 51 1. 89, P >0. 05) or various sperm parameters before and after treatment (P >0. 05). And no significant changes were observed in the prostate volume, morphous or internal echoes.

CONCLUSIONThe ESW therapy is effective and safe for the pain symptom of type III B prostatitis.

Adult ; Body Fluids ; Humans ; Interleukin-1beta ; metabolism ; Interleukin-6 ; metabolism ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Pain ; etiology ; metabolism ; Pain Management ; methods ; Prostatitis ; complications ; metabolism ; therapy ; Quality of Life ; Spermatozoa ; physiology ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha ; metabolism ; Ultrasonic Therapy ; methods ; Urine

OBJECTIVETo investigate the efficiency of blockage of constitutively activated STAT3 signaling by small interfering RNA (siRNA), and to explore the inhibitory effects on the proliferation of human esophageal squamous carcinoma cells (EC9706 and Eca109).

METHODSEC9706 and Eca109 were transfected with chemical synthesized STAT3 siRNA (100 nmol/L). RT-PCR and Western blot were used to detect STAT3 mRNA and protein expression, including phosphorylated-STAT3 (p-STAT3) before and after the transfection respectively. The changes of DNA-binding activity and cell proliferation were evaluated by electrophoretic mobility gel shift assay and MTT, respectively. Stages of cell cycle were determined by flow cytometry.

RESULTSExpression levels of STAT3 mRNA and STAT3, p-STAT3 proteins were progressively inhibited by STAT3 siRNA at various time points after transfection. STAT3-DNA-binding activity was suppressed after transfection evidenced by electrophoretic mobility gel shift assay. The cell cycle was arrested at G(0)/G(1) phase along with a significant inhibition of cell proliferation after STAT3 siRNA treatment.

CONCLUSIONSTAT3 siRNA specifically and efficiently blocks the constitutively activated STAT3 signaling pathway in human esophageal squamous carcinoma cells, resulting in cell cycle arrest and proliferation inhibition.

Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; metabolism ; pathology ; Cell Cycle ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Cell Proliferation ; Esophageal Neoplasms ; metabolism ; pathology ; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic ; Humans ; Phosphorylation ; RNA Interference ; RNA, Messenger ; metabolism ; RNA, Small Interfering ; genetics ; STAT3 Transcription Factor ; genetics ; metabolism ; Signal Transduction ; Transfection

OBJECTIVETo explore methods and clinical outcomes of microsurgical technique in treating patients with severed palm.

METHODSFrom January 2009 to December 2012,45 patients with severed palm were treated by replantation through microsurgical technique, included 37 males and 8 females, aged from 13 to 45 years old with an average of 25. Postoperative survival rate and evaluation standard of upper limb replantation function posposed by Chinese Medical Association were applied for evaluate clinical outcomes after operation.

RESULTSForty-five patients with severed plam were treated by replantation. Thirty-nine patients (121 fingers) were survived,and survival rate was 87%. All patients were followed up 3 to 15.5 months with an average of 11.5 months. According to evaluation standard of upper limb replantation function posposed by Chinese Medical Association, the total score was 80.27 +/- 1.93, and 27 cases got excellent results, 8 good and 4 poor.

CONCLUSIONThe success of replantation of severed palm depends on grasping operation indication strictly, knowing complexity and local anatomic relationship, debridement completely during operation, making full use of remaining organization, arteriovenostomy through microsurgical technique as early as possible, constructing circulation and repairing injuried nerve rationally.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Female ; Hand Injuries ; physiopathology ; surgery ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Reconstructive Surgical Procedures ; Replantation ; Young Adult

Objective To explore the gray matter loss of Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients by processing the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with computer. Method A voxel-based morphometry (VBM) method was applied in this study. Result Bilateral loss of gray matter in AD patients was found in the entorhinal/ hippocampal/parahippocampal cortex areas, amygdala, the head of the caudate nucleus, middle temporal gyrus, cingulate gyrus, inferior parietal lobule, insula and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Furthermore, area of right pulvinar, cortex of superior temporal gyrus and superior parietal lobule reduced significantly. On the other hand, somatosensory/motor cortex, cerebellum and occipital lobe were relatively intact. Conclusion VBM overcomes the shortcomings of region of interesting(ROI), such as time-consuming, dependence on observer, and poorly reproducible, and can analyze the gray matter loss objectively and automatically and have a good perspective for clinical applications.

OBJECTIVETo observe effects of treatment from the lung and treatment from the intestine on the level of vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) in the lung and intestine of ulcerative colitis (UC) rats.

METHODSThe UC rat model was established in 52 rats by using rabbit intestine mucosa tissue allergen combined TNBS-ethanol model (with the model successful rate of 78.0%). Eight rats randomly selected from 40 successfully modeled rats and 8 of 16 rats from the normal group were recruited as the model group and the normal control group before intervention (at week 0). The rest 32 successfully modeled rats were randomly divided into the model group, the Western medicine treatment group (salazosulfapyridine), the treatment from lung group (Huangqi Jiegeng Decoction), and the treatment from intestine group (Huangqi Huanglian Decoction), 8 in each group. Rats in each treatment group were administered with corresponding medication 8 times the dose of a 60 kg adult human. Another 8 normal rats were recruited as the normal group. Equal volume of pure water was given to rats in the model group and the normal group by gastrog avage, once per day. Contents of VIP in the lung tissue and the intestinal tissue were detected at week 0 and 4 after 4-week consecutive intervention. Pathomorphological changes of the lung tissue and the colon tissue were observed under light microscope.

RESULTSCompared with the normal control group at week 0, evenly distributed diffuse inflammation could be seen in the pulmonary interstitial tissue; the bronchial wall was thickened; a huge amount of infiltration surrounded bronchi and blood vessels; a large area of necrosis of intestinal mucosa and inflammatory cell infiltration could also be seen in the model group. Pathological injuries of the lung and the colon were more alleviated in each treatment group than in the model group at the same time point. Compared with the normal control group at the same time point, VIP contents in the lung tissue significantly decreased in the model group at the end of week 4 (P<0.05); VIP contents in the colon tissue significantly increased in the model group at the end of week 0 and 4 (P <0.05). Compared with the model group, VIP contents in the lung tissue significantly increased in the Western medicine treatment group and the treatment from lung group at the end of week 4 (P<0.01); VIP contents in the colon tissue significantly decreased in the treatment from lung group and the treatment from intestine group (P<0.05, P<0.01).

CONCLUSIONTreatment from the lung and treatment from the intestine showed predominant advantage in improving local inflammation of the lung and the intestinal tract, alleviating pathological injuries, promoting repair of injuries through regulating VIP contents in the lung tissue and the colon tissue.

Animals ; Colitis, Ulcerative ; drug therapy ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; therapeutic use ; Intestinal Mucosa ; metabolism ; Intestines ; Lung ; Male ; Rabbits ; Rats ; Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide

The study aims to develop a rapid, sensitive and specified method of liquid chromatography with heated electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (LC-HESI/MS/MS) for simultaneous determination of amlodipine, benazepril and benazeprilat in human plasma using amlodipine-d4 and ubenimex as internal standards (ISs). Selected reaction monitoring (SRM) with heated electrospray ionization (HESI) was used in the positive mode for mass spectrometric detection. Analytes and ISs were extracted from plasma by simple protein precipitation. The reconstituted samples were chromatographed on a C18 (100 mm x 4.6 mm, 5 microm) column with mixture of methanol-acetonitrile-5 mmol.L- ammonium acetate-formic acid (30 : 30 : 40 : 0.1) as mobile phase at a flow rate of 0.6 mL.min-1. The standard curves were demonstrated to be linear in the range of 0.02 to 6.00 ng.mL-1 for amlodipine, 0.2 to 1,500 ng.mL-1 for benazepril and benazeprilat with r2>0.99 for each analyte. The lower limit of quantitation was identifiable and reproducible at 0.02, 0.2 and 0.2 ng mL-1 for amlodipine, benazepril and benazeprilat, respectively. The intra-day and inter-day precision and accuracy results were within the acceptable limit across all concentrations. The plasma samples were stable after four freeze-thaw cycles and being stored for 93 days at -20 degrees C. The method was applied to a pharmacokinetic study of a fixed-dose combination of amlodipine and benazepril on Chinese healthy volunteers.
Administration, Oral ; Amlodipine ; administration & dosage ; blood ; Benzazepines ; administration & dosage ; blood ; Chromatography, Liquid ; Humans ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization ; Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Objective To evaluate the effect of combined treatment with gonadotropin-releasing hormone analog(GnRHa)and recombinant human growth hormone(rhGH)on predicted adult height(PAH)in girls with central precocious puberty(CPP).Methods Fifteen girls with CPP,whose growth velocity during GnRHa treatment had been less than 4 cm/year,were given additional rhGH treatment at a dose of 1 U?kg~(-1)?w~(-1),sc, for 4-13 months.Comparisons of growth velocity,height SDS for bone age(HtSDS_(BA))and PAH were performed before and after the combined treatment.Results During rhGH combined with GnRHa therapy,growth velocity increased significantly[(7.4?1.7)cm/year vs (3.2?0.7)cm/year baseline,P＜0.01].In 7 girls treated with rhGH and GnRHa for more than 9 months,growth velocity in the second 6 months[(6.5?1.0)cm/year]was slightly lower than that in the first 6 months[(8.8?1.1)cm/year],being both faster than that of baseline [(3.2?0.8)cm/year].There was a significant increase in rhGH-duration corrected change of HtSDS_(BA) [(0.35?0.15)/6 month vs (0.12?0.18 )/6 month baseline,P＜0.01]and PAH[(3.2_+1.4)cm/ 6 month vs (1.4?1.1)cm/6 month baseline,P＜0.01].Conclusion In girls with CPP showing a marked decrease in growth velocity during GnRHa treatment,the combined rhGH and GnRHa treatment remarkably improves growth velocity and PAH.

To investigate the induction of apoptosis of mouse colonic adenocarcinoma CT26 cells by recombinant Clostridium difficile toxin B (rTcdB), CT26 cells were exposed to different concentrations of rTcd B. Inhibition of cell proliferation was measured by MTT assay. The activation of Caspase 3 was measured by colorimetric method. Cell morphological analysis and flow cytometry were performed to confirm cell apoptosis. rTcd B inhibited the proliferation of CT26 cells in a timeand dose-dependent manner. Caspase 3 activity in CT26 cells was elevated remarkably after rTcd B exposure for 6 h, 12 h, 18 h or 24 h, as compared with the control group. Morphological changes were observed by fluorescence microscopy. The exposure of rTcd B to CT26 cells induced a timeand dose-dependent apoptotic cell death as determined by flow cytometry analysis. The results showed that recombinant Clostridium difficile toxin B induced apoptosis of CT26 cells.

Objective To study the effect of a novel injectable scaffold material chitosan- beta-TCP combining bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and platelet-rich plasma (PRP) on repairing bone defect of goat. Methods The model of the studies was 12ram diameter circular hole tibia bone defect of goat. 30 Chinese goats were raudomly divided into 5 groups: blank group: nothing was embeded in bone defect; simple material group: the material embeded in bone defect was chitosan-beta-TCP; PRP group: the material was chitesan-beta-TCP combining PRP; MSCs group: the material was chitosan-beta-TCP combining MSCs; PRP/MSCs group:the material was chitosan-beta-TCP combining MSCs and PRP. At 4,8 weeks after operation, the samples were observed, histological and image analysis were used to evaluate the effect of bone regeneration. Results At 8 weeks, the surface of bone defect zone of PRP/MSCs group were coverd by continuous new bones, like normal bone. Histological slice showed the esteoid at boundary of normal bone of MSCs/PRP group obviously increased compare to other groups at the 4th or 8th week after operation respectively. The new bone tissues of bone defect were punctiform or lamellar new bone tissues, in which the proportion of big lamellar new bone tissue obviously increased. Image analysis showed that the areas of balnk group, simple material group, PRP group, MSCs group, PRP/MSCs group were 8.79±3.63,14.49± 3.72,24.18 ± 5.38,24.42 ± 5.10,31.10 ± 3.49 at 4 weeks and 15.41 ± 4.21,25.36 ± 5.37,30.71 ± 4.39, 33.97 ± 4.45,48.60 ± 5.97 at 8 weeks respectively. The effect of bone regeneration of PRP/MSCs group was better than other groups (P < 0.05). Conclusion The injectable tissue-engineering bone constructed with chitosan-beta-TCP, MSCs and PRP possesses good ability on repairing bone defect.

AlM: To measure ocular biometric values with the degree of axial myopia and determine the relationship between the differences using the Lenstar 900.
METHODS:Totally 413 myopes (826 eyes) were enrolled in this study and were divided into 3 groups: low myopia (myopia <3. 00 diopters, 104 eyes), moderate myopia ( myopia =3. 00-6. 00 diopters, 500 eyes) and high myopia ( myopia > 6. 00 diopters, 222 eyes ). Central corneal thickness ( CCT ) , aqueous depth ( AD ) , lens thickness (LT), axial length (AL) were measured by Lenstar 900. The parameters were tested using analysis of variance and the relations among SE, AL, LT were analyzed.
RESULTS: There were significant difference both in AL (F=206.16, P<0.01) and AD (F=4.764, P<0.05) and no significant difference both in CCT and LT between these myopia groups. With analysis of Person, the Spherical equivalent ( SE) shows a significantly positive correlation with AL (r=0. 662, P<0. 01) and AD (r=0. 095, P<0. 05), no correlation with CCT and LT. AL shows a significantly positive correlation with AD (r=0. 347, P<0. 01) and CCT (r=0.126, P<0.01), negative correlation with LT (r=-0.265, P<0. 01). LT shows a significantly negative correlation with AD (r=-0. 496, P<0. 01).
CONCLUSlON: Along with the diopters increasing in myopia, the axial length and aqueous depth continue to increase. Spherical equivalent ( SE) shows a significantly positive correlation with AD. AL shows positive correlation with SE, AD and CCT and negative correlation with LT. LT shows a significantly negative correlation with AD.