AIM: To explore the serum levels of certain adhesion mole cules and its significance in acute coronary syndrome(ACS). METHODS: The subjects included 40 patients with acute myocardial infarction(AMI) and 40 patients with unstable angina pectoris (UAP). Among the 80 patients, 60 patients accepted a follow- up 4 months. At the same time we selected 40 controls from people who atte nded a routine health check in the university. Serum levels of E-selectin,sICAM -1,sVCAM-1 were measured by ELISA. RESULTS: Serum level s of E-selectin ,sICAM-1,sVCAM-1 were significantly higher in the ACS group(AMI or UAP) than in the control group. Four months later, the levels of E-selectin,sICAM-1 bec ame sig nificantly lower in the follow-up group than in the ACS group, while sVCAM- 1 showed no significant difference. CONCLUSION: Serum levels of E-se lectin ,sICAM-1 may have certain diagnostic value for ACS, and can be a useful marker reflecting th e stability of the disease.

Objective To explore the effects of HMGCoA agents and ACE inhibitor on serum inflammatory markers in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Methods The 60 patients with ACS were randomly divided into two groups, one treated with lipid lowered by HMGCoA agents and the other treated with HMGCoA agents added with ACE inhibitor. After 4 months, serum levels of some inflammatory markers were measured by means of ELISA. Results Serum levels of certain inflammatory markers were significantly higher in the ACS group than in the control group and became significantly lower 4 months later in the follow-up group. There were no differences in all the inflammatory markers between the two groups receiving different therapies 4 months later. Conclusion Serum levels of some inflammatory markers may have certain diagnostic value for ACS and may reflect the stability of the disease. HMGCoA agents seem to have no effect on inflammatory responses in a short period.

Objective To investigate the expression level of immunoglobulin G (IgG)4 cells in patients previously diagnosed as unexplained liver injuries,and to analyze whether these patients could be diagnosed as immunoglobulin G4-related disease (IgG4-RD).The clinical characteristics of patients with IgG4 positive cells infiltration in liver tissues who did not met IgG4-RD diagnosis criteria were also analyzed.Methods From August 2010 to July 2016,33 patients with unexplained liver injuries even after liver biopsy were enrolled.Immunostaining of IgG and IgG4 in liver tissue slices was performed.Whether the patients met the IgG4-RD diagnosis criteria was analyzed.Also,the relation between IgG4 positive cell infiltration in liver tissues and serum parameters (alanine aminotransferase (ALT),aspartate transaminase (AST),alkaline phosphatase (ALP),γ-glutamyl transpeptadase (GGT),IgG),the classification of liver inflammation and stage of liver fibrosis were analyzed.Chi-square,Fisher exact probability method,t test and Wilcoxon rank and inspection were used for statistical analysis.Results Among 33 patients with unexplained liver injuries,average age of onset of the disease was (50.48 ± 14.52) years old.Ten patients (30.3 ％) presented with different degree of IgG4 positive cells infiltration in liver.In one patient,the IgG4 positive cell number in liver tissue was over 10/high-powered field (HPF),IgG4+ / IgG+ ratio was over 40％,the serum IgG4 increased and low density nodules in the left hepatic lobe level,which met the diagnostic criteria of IgG4-RD.Serum parameters of liver function of this patient were as follows:ALT 948 U/L,AST 658 U/L,ALP 176 U/L,GGT 197 U/L,TBil 21.5 μmol/L,DBil 10.0 μmol/L.According to whether there were IgG4 positive cells infiltration in liver tissues,33 patients were divided into IgG4 positive cells infiltration group (IgG4 positive group,10 cases) and no IgG4 positive cells infiltration group (IgG4 negative group,23 cases).The medium levels of ALT,AST,ALP and GGT in the IgG4 positive group and the IgG4 negative group were 26.0 U/L vs 31.0 U/L,28.5 U/L vs 32.0 U/L,114.0 U/L vs 77.0 U/L,65.0 U/L vs 36.0 U/L,respectively and there were no statistically significant differences (Z=-0.098,-0.216,-0.862,-0.705;all P＞0.05).The serum IgG level of the IgG4 positive group was higher than that of the IgG4 negative group (17.15 g/L vs 13.65 g/L),and the difference was statistically significant (Z=-1.776,P =0.035).Conclusions IgG4-RD may be the reason of liver injury.There are no significant differences in clinical charateristics,serum parameters and inflammation degree in liver tissue between patients with or without IgG4 positive cells infiltration.

Objective Analyzing the impact of teachers' background characteristics on the Students' evaluation to improve the quality of teaching from the angle of the teachers professional development. Methods Based on the data of students' evaluation of teaching of Shanghai medical college of Fudan University from 2008 to 2011, the article analyzed the teachers' gender, age, job title, diploma, and other relevant background characteristics. Excell2007 was used to build dataset and the data was analyzed statistically by software of SPSS 11.0 and expressed with x±s. The statis-tical method of one-way analysis of variance was used to compare the teachers with different genders, education backgrounds, ages and professional titles, showing statistically significant difference (P<0.05). Results comparative analysis showed that no statistically significant differences existed in fac-ulty teaching evaluation scores among the teachers of different genders or different education back-grounds(P=0.613 9、0.891 0). There were however significant differences in teaching evaluation of teachers of diverse ages and professional ranks(P=0.017 3 and P=0.032 5). Conclusions According to the analysis results of faculty teaching evaluations, associate professors' teaching evaluation scores were lower than intermediate grade teachers', and the score of the teachers between the age of 41 to 45 was lower than that of the teachers between the age of 36 to 40. Therefore individual variations and various social backgrounds of teaching faculties should be taken into consideration and the corre-sponding countermeasures for the professional development of teachers should been put forward. In addition, the cultivation of new teachers, young and middle-aged teachers should be strengthened, and the proportion of teaching evaluation in the Performance Appraisal should be increased.

Ascites ; Humans ; Language ; Quality of Life ; Reproducibility of Results ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Translations

Objective:To screen the common low-frequency mutation sites in primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) by whole exome sequencing (WES), in order to find PBC-related new susceptibility genes.Methods:From January 2000 to December 2017, the clinical data of seven patients with PBC of three PBC families diagnosed at General Hospital of Tianjin Medical University and two healthy controls were collected. The DNA blood samples were extracted and analyzed by WES. SAMtools 1.3 software was used to detect gene single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and indel sites, and gene mutation sites were screened from known databases of 1000 Genome, ExAC, ESP6500 and Novo-Zhonghua gene database. Pymol V2.3.2 software was performed to simulate the three-dimensional structure of major histocompatibility complex-Ⅱ (MHC-Ⅱ), and the amino acid position corresponding to the common mutation sites among families were observed.Results:The age of first diagnosis of seven PBC patients was (61.2±10.2) years. The results of serum test of seven patients indicated that alkaline phosphatase (ALP) level was (306.9±242.5) U/L, γ-glutamyltranspeptidase (GGT) level was (121.7±85.9) U/L, alanine aminotransferase (ALT) level was (47.6±33.1) U/L, aspartate aminotransferase (AST) level was (55.7±34.1) U/L and immunoglobulin G level was (14.9±3.1) g/L. The antinuclear antibody were all cytoplasmic granule types and anti-mitochondrial antibody were all positive. Five PBC patients developed intra-abdominal lymphadenopathy; two patients had extrahepatic autoimmune diseases and the pathological results of liver biopsy of two patients both showed interface hepatitis and small bile duct lesions. Eighteen SNPs were common in three PBC families, which were located in the gene of OTOA, OBSCN and human leucocyte antigen- DRB1( HLA- DRB1). rs200988634 located in OTOA gene was a common polymorphic locus among the three families. rs746424683, rs545316651, rs553144914, rs533059830 and rs56087721 located in OBSCN caused the changes of nine amino acids of different location. There were 12 SNP variations located in HLA- DRB1 gene, which leaded to the changes of 12 amino acids of different location, among them rs16822698, rs112796209 and rs11554463 mutation induced G154A, Y152C and Y107X amino acid variation of MHC-Ⅱ beta chain, and Y107X amino acid was located in the groove region of MHC-Ⅱ binding with peptide. Conclusions:WES in PBC families is a good strategy to elucidate the candidate deleterious mutation genes OBSCN and OTOA. HLA- DRB1 which is a susceptible gene of PBC may affect MHC-Ⅱ mediated antigen presentation process by the changing amino acid sequence.

Aim To explore the lipid-lowering mecha-nisms of curcumin from the molecular levels and pro-vide scientific basis for clinical development of lipid-lowering drugs.Methods Using oil red O staining and enzymic to determinate the levels of cholesterol in HepG2 cells.Moreover,uptaking of DiI-LDL was also measured.The expressions of mRNA and protein were detected by RT-Q-PCR and Western blot.Results The red lipid droplets and the levels of TC and FC sig-nificantly increased in HepG2 cells after treated with curcumin.The orange red fluorescence was higher than that of control.Curcumin could promote the expression levels of mRNA and protein of SREBP2 and LDLR, what′s more,curcumin could reduce the expression of the mature PCSK9 level and IDOL protein.Conclu-sion Curcumin accelerates LDL-C uptake probably via downregulating the expression of PCSK9 and IDOL in HepG2 cells.

Aim To explore the effects of niacin on LDL-C uptake and metabolism in HepG2 cells,and to clarify the functions of niacin in lipid-lowering and slo-wing the atherosclerosis process,thus to provide a sci-entific basis for niacin as a lipid-lowering drug in clini-cal development.Methods Oil red O staining was used to observe HepG2 cells after lipid uptake.Enzy-matic method was used to determine the content of in-tracellular free cholesterol (FC)and total cholesterol (TC).The LDLR levels on the surface of cell mem-brane were detected by immunofluorescence flow cy-tometer.The mRNA and protein expressions of LDLR, SREBP2 and PCSK9 were analyzed by qPCR and Western blot.Results The results of oil red O staining showed that the rate of oil red O-positive cells and the number of red lipid droplets were significantly in-creased in niacin group than control group.Niacin sig-nificantly increased the levels of TC and FC in HepG2 cells(P <0.05 ).What’s more,niacin significantly upregulated the expression of LDLR and significantly downregulated the protein expression of PCSK9,while it had no effect on the expression of SREBP2.Conclu-sion Niacin accelerates LDL-C uptake probably via downregulating the expression of PCSK9 and reducing the degradation of LDLR protein in HepG2 cells.

The differentiation between autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) and drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is a difficult task in clinical practice. Some AIH patients had a medication history before disease onset, and some DILI patients may have positive serum antibody. In addition, these two groups of patients have similar clinical symptoms, serological examination results, and liver histopathology, which lead to the difficulties in differentiation. However, correct differential diagnosis is of great significance in making clinical treatment decisions and preventing liver cirrhosis. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the association between immunological and drug-induced liver injury from the perspectives of pathogenesis, similarities and differences in clinical features, serological examination results, and histological changes, prospects of new biomarkers in differentiation, and the significance of hormone therapy and clinical follow-up in differential diagnosis and treatment, in order to provide a reference for clinical decision-making and research in future.

Objective: To observe and analyze the role of intestinal barrier in the pathognesis of autoimmune hepatitis (AIH), to explain the pathogenesis of AIH and to explore the intestinal based new treatment strategies. Methods: A total of 14 AIH patients from January to December 2017 at Tianjin Medical University General Hospital (six patients without liver cirrhosis, and eight patients with liver cirrhosis) and 10 healthy controls were enrolled. The serum levels of D-lactic acid (D-Lac) and diamine oxidase (DAO) were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Real time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction was used to detect the relative expression levels of connexin (zonula occluden-1 (ZO-1), occludin), cytokines (interleukin(IL)-2, interferon(IFN)-γ, IL-4, IL-10) and Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) in terminal ileal tissues of each group. The relative expression of secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA) in the terminal ileum was determined by Western blotting. Thirty BALB/c mice were selected and divided into blank control group, dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) group, concanavalin A (ConA) group, DSS+ ConA group, and DSS+ bacterium+ ConA group, with six mice in each group. The relative expression levels of ZO-1, occludin in mouse colonic tissues, serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels, and inflammatory activity degree of liver tissues (Knodell score) of each group were measured. T-test and one-way analysis of variance were performed for statistical analysis. Results: The serum D-Lac and DAO levels of AIH with liver cirrhosis group and AIH without liver cirrhosis group were both higher than those of healthy control group ((1 768.2±147.1) μg/L, (436.2±197.0) μg/L vs. (100.2±10.9) μg/L, and (11.5±2.5) U/L, (5.4±0.9) U/mL vs. (3.5±0.9) U/mL), and the levels of D-Lac and DAO of AIH with liver cirrhosis group were the highest; and the differences were statistically significant (t=5.512, 36.010, 4.088 and 9.443, F=396.958 and 46.640, all P<0.01). The relative expression levels of ZO-1 and occludin in the terminal ileal mucosa of AIH with liver cirrhosis group were lower than those of healthy control group (0.20±0.14 vs. 1.67±0.51, 0.12±0.09 vs. 0.90±0.21), and the relative expression of ZO-1 in AIH without liver cirrhosis group was lower than that in healthy control group (0.99±0.37 vs. 1.67±0.51); and the differences were statistically significant (t=8.641, 7.407 and 2.295, all P<0.05). The relative expression levels of IL-2 and IFN-γ in terminal ileal tissues of AIH with liver cirrhosis group were higher than those of healthy control group (1.11±0.43 vs. 0.24 ±0.16, and 3.50 ± 1.90 vs. 0.32±0.30), however the relative expression of sIgA in terminal ileal tissues was lower than that of healthy control group (0.506±0.024 vs. 1.081±0.102); and the differences were statistically significant (t=4.679, 3.981 and 5.493, all P<0.05). While the relative expression levels of IL-10 in AIH with liver cirrhosis group and AIH without liver cirrhosis group were lower than that in healthy control group (0.30±0.20, 0.42±0.24 vs. 0.84± 0.23), and the relative expression levels of TLR4 in ileum mucosa of the both groups were higher than that of healthy control group (8.74 ±5.13, 6.74 ±3.65 vs. 0.89 ± 0.70); and the differences were statistically significant (t=3.095, 4.816, 3.856 and 3.685, all P<0.05). The relative expression levels of ZO-1 and occludin of DSS+ ConA group were lower than those of ConA group (0.14±0.08 vs. 0.98±0.13, and 0.09±0.02 vs. 0.98±0.16), however serum ALT, AST levels and the Knodell score were all higher than those of ConA group ((5 496.67±618.83) U/L vs. (3 325.00±1 030.06) U/L, (8 825.00±1 165.35) U/L vs. (5 433.33±1 691.14) U/L, and 18.00±2.00 vs. 9.33±3.01); and the differences were statistically significant (t=13.480, 13.520, 4.227, 4.045 and -2.892, all P<0.05). The relative expression levels of ZO-1 and occludin in DSS+ bacterium+ ConA group were higher than those in DSS+ ConA group (0.46±0.08 vs. 0.14±0.08, and 0.53±0.15 vs. 0.09±0.02), while serum ALT and AST levels were lower than those of DSS+ ConA group ((4 343.33±252.16) U/L vs. (5 496.67±618.83) U/L, and (6 123.33±1 086.60) U/L vs. (8 825.00±1 165.35) U/L); and the differences were statistically significant (t=6.928, 7.122, 4.228 and 4.153, all P<0.01). Conclusions AIH patients have increased intestinal permeability and impaired intestinal barrier which is more serious in patients with liver cirrhosis than in patients without cirrhosis. The intestinal barrier injury can aggravate ConA-induced immune-mediated liver injury. While the protection and repair of intestinal barrier can alleviate immune-mediated liver injury induced by ConA.