Objective To explore the gender differences of brain activation between patients with depression in recognition of dynamically sad expression with magnetoencephalography (MEG) technology and the paradigm of expressional experiment,and further to examine its neurological basis. Methods Brain activities were detected using MEG during the recognition of dynamic facial video with 12 female depressed patients, 11 male depressed patients, and their corresponding normal controls matched by age and education. Results Compared with male depression,female depression showed increased activation during different time periods were in turn as follows: bilateral inferior frontal gyrus ( x, y, z = 58/- 60,12/22,20/20, T = 2.17,1.88 ), left anterior cingulate gyrus ( x, y, z = 64,12,4, T = 2.37 ), bilateral superior frontal gyrus ( x, y, z= 30/-24,64/- 4,0/50, T = 2.86,2.36 ),the left brainstem( x, y,z = - 12, - 16, - 18 ,T = 1.96) ,right middle frontal gyrus( x,y,z =40,60,4,T = 2.22 ),bilateral precentral gyrus(x,y,z = -62/56, 16/10, 10/8. T = 1.99,2.65 ) ,left hippocampus ( x,y,z = - 26,- 14, -20,T = 1.77) ,left parahippocampal gyrus(x,y,z = - 16, - 12, -20,T = 1.72) ,right middle occipital gyrus( x ,y ,z = 50, -76, -14 ,T = 1. 75 ),while the decreased brain activation were in turn in right superior temporal gyrus ( x, y, z = 68, - 18,2, T = 1.85 ), right parahippocampal gyrus ( x, y, z = 20, - 36, - 14, T = 1.92 ), left cuneus( x,y,z = -6, -98,14,T =2.46) ,bilateral temporal middle gyrus( x,y,z =52/-34, - 80/-62,20/28,T = 1.95,2.57 ), left pre-cuneus ( x, y, z = - 40, - 74,38, T = 2.58 ), right hippocampus( x, y, z = 24, - 32, - 18,T = 2.05 ) in recognition of dynamically sad expression. ( p ＜ 0. 05, corrected). Conclusion The data suggest that there may be significant gender differences of functional network in depressed patients during recognizing dynamical sad facial expression.

Objective To explore the features of functional networks about recognizing dynamically positive expression with using magnetoencephalography (MEG) technology and the paradigm of expressional experiment, and further to examine its neurological basis. Methods Twelve depressed patients and twelve age,education-matched healthy controls participated to recognize the dynamically positive expression in the MEG scans. Results In comparison with the healthy,the abnormally activities regions in depressed patients during different time periods were separately as follow;decreased activation in the right inferior parietal lobule(t = 3.94),the right su-pramarginal gyms(t = 3.59),the bilateral posterior cingulated(t = 5. 04, t = 4. 85) ,the bilateral precuneus(t = 3.84) ,the left cuneus(t = 3.58) and increased activation in the bilateral hippocampus(t = 2. 13, t = 2.56) ,the left amygdale(t = 2.41), the bilateral uncus gyrus(t = 2.33, t = 2.44) , the right anterior cingulated (t = 2. 15) , the left fusiform gyms (t = 3. 33) (P < 0. 05, unconnected). Conclusion The results indicate, compared with healthy controls,abnormal brain activities as the weakened function of the medial temporal cortex,parietal lobe and the enhanced function of limbic system were distributed extensively in depressed patients during recognizing dynamically positive expression. These abnormalities may prompt the dynamic characteristics of the magnetic source imaging about recognizing dynamically positive expression,and further reveals the mechanisms of emotional symptoms in depression.

ObjectiveTo investigate the variation of executive function of fronto-cingulate cortex in spatio-temporal sequence in recurrent depressed patients.MethodsEighteen recurrent depressed patients and twenty-one age-,gender- and education- matched healthy controls were involved in the Stroop word-color interference test to detect the executive function of anterior cingulate and prefrontal regions by magnetoencephaloraphy scanning.Results 1.Compared to healthy controls,the increased activation of brain regions in depressed patients during different time periods were separately shown as follows( t represents activation strength):( 1 ) 100 ～ 200 ms:the right anterior cingulate gyrus ( t =1.81,T value means activation strength),the bilateral medial frontal gyrus ( t =1.91,t =1.86),the left superior frontal gyms( t =1.79 ),the right middle frontal gyrus( t =1.82 ),the right inferior frontal gyrus ( t =1.82 ).( 2 ) 200 ～ 300 ms:the left anterior cingulate gyrus ( t =1.82 ).( 3 ) 250 ～ 350 ms:the left anterior cingulate gyrus ( t =2.67 ),the left medial frontal gyrus ( t =2.43 ),the left inferior frontal gyrus ( t=1.91 ).(4)300 ～400ms:the left anterior frontal gyrus(t=2.26),the bilateral inferior gyrus( t=1.97,t=2.66),the left medial frontal gyrus(t=2.35).(5)350 ～450ms:the left anterior cingulate gyrus(t=2.02),the left medial frontal gyrus ( t =2.00),the bilateral inferior frontal gyrus ( t =1.74,t =1.78 ).( 6 ) 400 ～ 500 ms:the left anterior cingulate gyrus( t=2.01 ),the left medial frontal gyrus( t =1.97).2.Compared to healthy controls,patients showed decreased activation in the left middle frontal gyms ( t =1.79) and the left superior gyrus(t =1.76) in 200 ～ 300 ms.ConclusionExecutive dysfunction is reflected in depressed patients with the activation inefficiency in anterior cingulate and prefrontal regions in spatio-temporal sequence.

Objective To investigate the variation of brain inhibitory function of depressed patients during the processes of the Stroop color-word interference task with the Magnetic source imaging ( MSI) technology. Methods Twenty-three depressed patients and twenty age-,gender- and education- matched healthy controls were involved in the Stroop word-color interference test to detect the variation of brain inhibitory function by magnetoen-cephaloraphy scanning. Results Compared with the healthy controls,the abnormal activities in depressed patients during different time periods were separately as follows: increased activation in the bilateral thalamus( t = 2.46, t = 2.92 ) ,the right temple fusiform gyrus ( t = 1. 81) , the right middle temporal gyrus ( t = 1. 76) , the right inferior frontal gyrus( t = 2.28) , the left anterior cingulate( t = 2.00) , the left caudate head( t=1.81) ,the precentral gy-rus( t = 2.17) ,the right parahippocampal gyrus( t = 2.04) ,the left superior temporal gyrus(t = 2.47) ; decreased activation in the right superior temporal gyrus( t=1.76) ,the bilateral middle frontal gyrus(t=1.95, t = 2.09), the right cuneus( t=1.97) ,the cingulate gyrus( t=1.70, t = 2.08) ,the postcentral gyrus( t = 2.57, t = 2.65) , the left supramarginal gyrus( t = 2. 16) ,the left lentiform nucleus putamen( t = 2.39) ,the bilateral middle temporal gyrus (t = 2.22, t= 1.90) ,the left insula( t= 1. 81) ,the left superior temporal gyrus( t= 1.90) ,the right parietal lobe( t= 3.26). Conclusion The abnormal activation inefficiency in the brain regions related with inhibition function is reflected in depressed patients,and the ability against interference information declines.

Objective To explore the difference in the intensity of brain activation during the recognition of sad facial expression and changes in neuropsychology cognition in patients with a first depressive episode and with recurrent depression.Methods 11 patients with a first major depressive episode,11 patients with recurrent major depression and 11 healthy controls matched in all aspects were scanned to compare the intensity of brain activation in the process of sad and neural facial expression recognition Results Compared with the healthy,first-episode depressed patients showed increased activation in right cuneus(BA18),right fusiform gyrus(BA20),left medial frontal gyrus(BA6),left middle temporal gyrus(BA39),left parahippocampal gyrus(BA30)and decreased activation in right temporal gyrus(BA22),right parahippocampal gyrus(BA27);recurrent depressed patients showed increased activation in right medial frontal gyrus(BA6),right superior temporal gyrus(BA38)but no activation increased.In comparation with the first-episode depressed,the recurrent,showed decreased activation in right middle frontal gyrus(BA6),fight thalamus,right superior temporal gyrus(BA22),right precentral gyras(BA44),right claustrum and increased activation in right parahippocampal gyrus(BA28),right claustrum,right insula(BA13). Conclusion The neural correlates of patients with depression,especially the first-episode depressed for recognition of sad facial expression is different from the healthy with more brain regions involved in the process.There are also differences in the neural basis for recognition of sad facial expression between patients with a first depressive episode and patients with recurrent depression.Performances of brain regions related with emotional recognition de-clined more in the recurrent depressed.

Objective To perform a preclinical test of a delineation software based on atlas-based auto-segmentation (ABAS),to evaluate its accuracy in the delineation of organs at risk (OARs) in radiotherapy planning for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC),and to provide a basis for its clinical application.Methods Using OARs manually contoured by physicians on planning-CT images of 22 patients with NPC as the standard,the automatic delineation using two different algorithms (general and head/neck) of the ABAS software were applied to the following tests:(1) to evaluate the restoration of the atlas by the software,automatic delineation was performed on copied images from each patient using the contours of OARs manually delineated on the original images as atlases;(2) to evaluate the accuracy of automatic delineation on images from various patients using a single atlas,the contours manually delineated on images from one patients were used as atlases for automatic delineation of OARs on images from other patients.Dice similarity coefficient (DSC),volume difference (Vdiff),correlation between the DSC and the volume of OARs,and efficiency difference between manual delineation and automatic delineation plus manual modification were used as indices for evaluation.Wilcoxon signed rank test and Spearman correlation analysis were used.Results The head/neck algorithm had superior restoration of the atlas over the general algorithm.The DSC was positively correlated with the volume of OARs and was higher than 0.8 for OARs larger than 1 cc in volume in the restoration test.For automatic delineation with the head/neck algorithm using a single atlas,the mean DSC and Vdiff were 0.81-0.90 and 2.73％-16.02％,respectively,for the brain stem,temporal lobes,parotids,and mandible,while the mean DSC was 0.45-0.49 for the temporomandibular joint and optic chiasm.Compared with manual delineation,automatic delineation plus manual modification saved 68％ of the time.Conclusions A preclinical test is able to determine the accuracy and conditions of the ABAS software in specific clinical application.The tested software can help to improve the efficiency of OAR delineation in radiotherapy planning for NPC.However,it is not suitable for delineation of OAR with a relatively small volume.

Objective To investigate the interconnection of the executive control network in major depressive disorder when they recognized the sad facial stimuli,and to discuss the aberrant mechanism of emotion processing.Methods Twenty major depressive patients and 20 well-matched healthy volunteers participated in the experiment.The brain actions of all subjects were recorded by the magnetoencephalography (MEG) when they were required to distinguish the emotion face.Based on prior knowledge,the interested brain area consisted of the primary visual cortex (V1),the orbitofrontal cortex(OFC),the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC),the anterior cingulated cortex (ACC).Then constructing three competing models to select an optimal model by the method of dynamic causal model(DCM),finally the differences of the effective connections of the optimal model between the depressed patients and healthy controls were analyzed.Results According to the results of Bayesian model selection (BMS),model 1 had the most exceedance probability of 0.80 with the features that there were bidirectional modulatory connections between the OFC,ACC and DLPFC.Given the best model,the parameters of effective connectivity of the optimal model were extracted,and then two-sample t-test over the model 1 was adopted.The modulatory effective connectivity from the OFC to the DLPFC in both hemisphere(t=-2.73,P=0.0096;t=-3.01,P=0.0046) and the OFC to the ACC (t=-2.93,P=0.0057) in the left hemisphere were significantly reduced in MDD.Conclusion There exists abnormal function of executive control network in depressed patients,the decreased effective connections between the OFC and the DLPFC,as well as the OFC and the ACC,may have correlation with the negative

AIM: To explore the relationship between caspase activation and the evasion of Legionella from macrophage elimination through a Legionella-infected macrophage model. METHODS: After infected by Legionella, the activity of caspase 3 in macrophages was analyzed by confocal microscopy as well as fluorescence reader. Growth and replication of Legionella in macrophage was assayed. Replication of Legionella was analyzed again to see the effect of caspase 3 inhibition on the growth of Legionella after use of caspase 3 inhibitor. RESULTS: Both confocal microscopy and caspase 3 fluorescent substrate analysis showed that Legionella virulent strain had powerful capability of activating caspase 3 while the mutant non-virulent strain did not have this capability. The virulent strain highly replicated in macrophages and the replication was significantly inhibited by caspase 3 inhibitor. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that the intracellular caspase 3 is activated shortly after infection by Legionella virulent strain. The evasion of Legionella from the elimination of macrophages may be mediated by caspase 3 activation to a great degree.

AIM: To explore the effect of TNF-related apoptosis inducing ligand (TRAIL), a new apoptotic inducing molecule on the biological activity of hepatocarcinoma cell line. METHODS: The expression of membrane binding TRAIL on HepG2 cells was detected by immuno-cytochemistry. Quantity of secretory TRAIL was assayed by ELISA method. The cytotoxicity and apoptosis induced by TRAIL was detected by MTT and TUNEL method, respectively. The telomerase activity of HepG2 cells was detected by TRAP-PCR assay kit. The expression of hTERT, the catalytic subunit of telomerase, was detected by FCM. RESULTS: TRAIL was constitutively expressed on the membrane of HepG2 cell line. Soluble TRAIL was also expressed to a certain degree. Cytotoxicity assay showed that TRAIL significantly inhibited the growth of hepatocarcinoma cells. TUNEL assay indicated that TRAIL induced apoptosis in hepatocarcinoma cells. Detection of telomerase activity showed that TRAIL inhibited telomerase activity and the expression of telomerase catalytic subunit. CONCLUSION: TRAIL is an effective molecule to inhibit the growth of hepatocarcinoma through multiple pathways, such as inducing apoptosis and inhibiting the activity of telomerase.

Purpose: This study was aimed to investigate long-term survivals and toxicities of early-stage nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) in endemic area, evaluating the role of chemotherapy in stage II patients. Materials and Methods: Totally 187 patients with newly diagnosed NPC and restaged American Joint Committee on Cancer/ International Union Against Cancer 8th T1-2N0-1M0 were retrospectively recruited. All received intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT)±chemotherapy (CT) from 2001 to 2010. Results: With 15.7-year median follow-up, 10-year locoregional recurrence-free survival, distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS), disease-specific survival (DSS), and overall survival (OS) were 93.3%, 93.5%, 92.9% and 88.2%, respectively. Multivariable analyses showed cervical lymph nodes positive and pre-treatment prognostic nutritional index ≥ 52.0 could independently predict DMFS (p=0.036 and p=0.011), DSS (p=0.014 and p=0.026), and OS (p=0.002 and p < 0.001); Charlson comorbidity index < 3 points could predict DSS (p=0.011); age > 45 years (p=0.002) and pre-treatment lactate dehydrogenase ≥ 240 U/L (p < 0.001) predicted OS. No grade 4 late toxicity happened; grade 3 late toxicities included subcutaneous fibrosis (4.3%), deafness or otitis (4.8%), skin dystrophy (2.1%), and xerostomia (1.1%). No differences on survivals were shown between IMRT+CT vs. IMRT alone in stage II patients, even in T2N1M0 (p > 0.05). Unsurprising, patients in IMRT+CT had more acute gastrointestinal reaction, myelosuppression, mucositis, late ear toxicity, and cranial nerve injury (all p < 0.05) than IMRT alone group. Conclusion Superior tumor control and satisfying long-term outcomes could be achieved with IMRT in early-stage NPC with mild late toxicities. As CT would bring more toxicities, it should be carefully performed to stage II patients.