Objective To enhance the understanding of hemophagocytic syndrome(HPS)by analyzing the clinical manifestations, diagnosis and therapy. Methods The clinical data of 12 patients with HPS were retrospectively collected in the People's Hospital of Jiangsu Province from 2000 to 2007. The relevant literature were reviewed. Results Twelve patients were diagnosed as secondary hemophagocytic syndrome most secondary to virus and bacteria infection. Some patients condition was associated with systemic lupus erythematosus or histiocytic necrotizing lympheadenitis. All of the 12 patients had high fever, abnormal liver function and showed a decrease in the number of blood cells in a short time. After antivirus and antibiotic treatment, 11 patients'condition were improved and 1 patient died. Conclusion Hemophagocytic syndrome is not a common clinical condition but with poor prognosis. When patient presents with fever without apparent reasons and pancytopenia, bone marrow examination should be done and sometimes repeated bone marrow examinations are needed. The diagnosis of secondary haemophagocytic syndrome needs multidisciplineary cooperation. Aggressive diagnostic procedures are needed to clarify the diagnosis and prompt treatments are warranted to improve prognosis.

OBJECTIVE To know the real condition of the prevalence of nosocomial infection(NI) in our hospital,in order to enhance the consciousness of nosocomial infection control in whole staff,so that this work will be done well.METHODS We got the data through bed-side examination and medical records and made a statistic analysis.RESULTS Among 926 investigated patients,59 patients(6.37%) had 60 cases(6.48%) NI.Departments with high risk were for hematology,neurosurgery,and Chinese-Western combination surgery.The common NI sites were the lower respiratory tract,urinary tract and surgical sites;Pseudomonas aeruginosa was a main pathogen for the lower respiratory tract.The antibiotic use rate was 40.39%.The high risk factors were patients with unconsciousness,undergoing tracheotomy or urethral catheterization and so on.The postoperative use appeared to be higher than usual.The antibiotics used included 42 kinds.CONCLUSIONS It is recommended that specific surveillance be conducted in Departments with high risk for nosocomial infection,the wide-spectrum antibiotics should be stressed in order to reduce drug resistance and nosocomial infection.

An extremely thermoacidophilic isolate K4-1 was obtained from an acidic hot spring in Teng- chong Rehai, Yunnan province. Morphology, growth characteristics, utilization of carbon compounds, en- ergy sources and 16S rRNA gene sequence of K4-1 were studied. Cells of K4-1 are irregular cocci with monotrichous flagella. The strain grew aerobically in either a lithotrophic or a heterotrophic mode. Growth on elemental sulfur occurred through oxidation of sulfur. It grew optimally at 75?C and pH 3.5. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, strain K4-1 was shown to belong to genus Sulfolobus, being related to the type strains of genus Sulfolobus (86.6%~94.3% similarity), and being most closely related to strain Sulfolobus tengchongensis RT8-4 (98.9% similarity). The GenBank accession number of strain K4-1 16S rRNA gene sequence is EU729124.

Adjuvants, Immunologic ; therapeutic use ; Adult ; Aged ; Female ; Humans ; Liver Cirrhosis ; therapy ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Peritonitis ; therapy ; Thymosin ; analogs & derivatives ; therapeutic use

OBJECTIVETo sum up the experience of performing ascending aorta replacement combined triple-branched stent graft implantation for acute Stanford type A aortic dissection.

METHODSFrom January 2010 to December 2010, 14 patients with acute Stanford type A aortic dissection underwent the procedure of performing ascending aorta replacement combined triple-branched stent graft implantation. Right axillary artery cannulation was used for cardiopulmonary bypass and selected cerebral perfusion. When the body temperature drops below 18°C, the ascending aorta was transected near the base of the innominate artery. From the incision, the triple-branched stent graft was implanted into the true lumen of the arch, descending aorta and the aorta bifurcation vessel. The transected stump of the ascending aorta was anastomosis to the proximal of the branched blood vessel prosthesis.

RESULTSCardiopulmonary bypass time was (186 ± 38) min, cross clamp time was (101 ± 27) min, and average selective cerebral perfusion and lower body arrest time was (39 ± 11) min. The in-hospital mortality was zero. One patient of transient postoperative neurologic dysfunction, one of acute renal failure, one of transient limbs disturbance, one of secondary thoracotomy operation, one of gastrointestinal hemorrhage and one of postoperative chylothorax were observed. CT angiography rechecked showed the position of the vascular stent were satisfactory and the blood flow of arterial branches stents were lucid. The false lumen of the aortic arch and descending aorta closed with thrombus or shrinked.

CONCLUSIONSThe patients required aortic arch to be reconstructed which had no main tearing of intima in the arch may be best candidates for this technique. Open triple-branched stent graft placement combined ascending aorta replacement is an effective means for aortic arch reconstruction in acute Stanford type A aortic dissection.

Adult ; Aged ; Aneurysm, Dissecting ; surgery ; Aorta, Thoracic ; surgery ; Blood Vessel Prosthesis ; Blood Vessel Prosthesis Implantation ; methods ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Treatment Outcome ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVESTo construct a recombinant adeno-associated virus vector pSNAV expressing CTLA-4Ig and to demonstrate its expression in transplanted liver allografts and to see if a long term inhibitive effect of CTLA-4Ig could be obtained though its use.

METHODSAfter AAVCTLA-4Ig and PUC18 were cut with BamHI, CTLA-4Ig cDNA was inserted into the plasmid PUC18 by T4DNA ligase and PUC18-CTLA-4Ig was constructed. The obtained PUC18-CTLA-4Ig and pSNAV cut with Kpn I and EcoR I, CTLA-4Ig cDNA was inserted into plasmid pSNAV to construct the recombinant vector pSNAV-CTLA-4Ig, which was transfected into BHK-21 packaging cells by lipofectine-mediated transfection. Then the BHK-21 cell line was infected with HSV1-rc to produce a large amount of pSNAV- CTLA-4Ig. The specificity of the expressed product was identified by digestion with BamHI, PCR and sequence determination. The titer of the virus was detected. The product was infused into rats liver allografts via portal vein and its expression in the transplanted livers was detected immunohistochemically.

RESULTSRecombinant adeno-associated virus vector pSNAV-CTLA-4Ig was generated and purified into 8.5 x 10(11)/ml. Agarose gel analysis of PCR products verified the presence of CTLA-4Ig. Digestion with BamHI and sequence determination confirmed that pSNAV-CTLA-4Ig was constructed. Expression of CTLA-4Ig in the transplanted livers was detected successfully.

CONCLUSIONPrepared pSNAV-CTLA-4Ig was constructed correctly and can express CTLA-4Ig effectively. Besides this, it can express CTLA-4Ig in rat liver allografts. It may be used in the study of transplant tolerance.

Abatacept ; Animals ; Dependovirus ; genetics ; metabolism ; Genetic Vectors ; Immunoconjugates ; genetics ; metabolism ; Liver Transplantation ; Random Allocation ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Rats, Wistar ; Transplantation, Homologous

The study established a UPLC-MS/MS method that is used for simultaneous determination nine major bioactive compounds of Dachengqi Tang in rat plasma. Using Aglient C18 column (2.1 mm x 50 mm,1.7 microm) was chromatographed, using methanol-5 mmol x L(-1) ammonium formate mobile phase gradient, elution 0.3 mL x min(-1). In the plasma pre-treatment process, not only the method of methanol and acetonitrile protein precipitation was investigated, and different factors extraction solvent, the type of the scroll time, the number and the type of extraction solvent, the extraction volume of the extraction solution of liquid-liquid extraction is investigated. Finally, with ibuprofen as an internal standard, using ethyl acetate liquid-liquid extraction method pretreatment blood, N2 dry reconstituted supernatant after centrifugation UPLC-MS/MS analysis, in electrospray ionization (ESI) negative mode, using multiple reaction monitoring mode for testing. The linear range of emodin, rhein, aloe-emodin, chrysophanol, magnolol, honokiol, hesperidin and hesperitin is 0.33-660, 0.40-792, 0.41-827, 0.34-680, 0.45-907, 0.46-927, 0.43-867, 0.34-683, 0.39-787 microg x L(-1) respectively, good linear relationship; and extraction recovery were greater than 69.39%, days after the day of the RSD is less than 15%. This method can be used to study the rat gastric large bearing gas after Dachengqi Tang, the simultaneous determination of nine components in plasma for its pharmacokinetics and efficacy material base to provide a theoretical basis.
Animals ; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; methods ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; administration & dosage ; chemistry ; Female ; Male ; Plasma ; chemistry ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Tandem Mass Spectrometry ; methods

Liver organoids are three-dimensional cellular tissue models in which cells interact to form unique structures in culture. During the past 10 years, liver organoids with various cellular compositions, structural features, and functional properties have been described. Methods to create these advanced human cell models range from simple tissue culture techniques to complex bioengineering approaches. Liver organoid culture platforms have been used in various research fields, from modeling liver diseases to regenerative therapy. This review discusses how liver organoids are used to model disease, including hereditary liver diseases, primary liver cancer, viral hepatitis, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Specifically, we focus on studies that used either of two widely adopted approaches: differentiation from pluripotent stem cells or epithelial organoids cultured from patient tissues. These approaches have enabled the generation of advanced human liver models and, more importantly, the establishment of patient-tailored models for evaluating disease phenotypes and therapeutic responses at the individual level.

Objective :To explore changes of serum levels of galectin-3 and pentraxin-3 (PTX-3) in patients with chro-nic heart failure (CHF) and their correlation with prognosis .Methods : A total of 150 CHF patients (CHF group) treated in our hospital and 150 healthy volunteers undergoing physical examination simultaneously (healthy group ) from Jan 2015 to Dec 2015 were enrolled .Serum levels of galectin-3 ,PTX-3 and N-terminal pro brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) ,left atrial diameter (LAD) ,left ventricular end-diastolic dimension (LVEDd) and left ven-tricular mass index (LVMI) were compared between two groups at enrollment .According to one-year follow-up out-come ,CHF group (12 cases lost ,another 138 cases) was divided into poor prognosis group (n＝36) and good prog-nosis group (n＝102).Spearman linear correlation analysis was used to analyze correlation among serum galectin-3 , PTX-3 levels and poor prognosis of CHF patients .Results :Compared with healthy group ,there were significant rise in serum levels of galectin-3 [ (2-23 ± 0-25) ng／ml vs .(16-61 ± 1-48) ng／ml] ,PTX-3 [ (1-28 ± 0-54) μg／L vs. (3-58 ± 0-52) μg／L] ,NT-proBNP [(223-23 ± 76-28) pg／ml vs.(952-75 ± 85-43) pg／ml] ,LAD ,LVEDd and LV-MI in CHF group , P＝0-001 all.Compared with good prognosis group at enrollment ,there were significant rise in serum levels of galectin-3 [ (18-52 ± 1-91) ng／ml vs.(24-63 ± 2-26) ng／ml] and PTX-3 [ (2-65 ± 0-74) μg／L vs. (3-95 ± 1-05) μg／L] in poor prognosis group , P＝0-001 both .Spearman linear correlation analysis indicated that serum galectin-3 and PTX-3 levels were significant positively correlated with major adverse cardiovascular events in CHF patients ( r＝0-608 ,0-558 , P＝0-001 both).Conclusion :Serum levels of galectin-3 ,PTX-3 and NT-proBNP levels are significant rise and closely related to prognosis of CHF patients ,can be used as auxiliary indexes predicting prognosis and may provide the basis for formulation of target therapy .

BACKGROUNDTransplantation of adult bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) has been proposed as a strategy for cardiac repair following myocardial damage. However cell transplantation strategies to replace lost myocardium are limited by the inability to deliver large numbers of cells that resist peritransplantation graft cell death. Accordingly, we set out to isolate and expand adult swine bone marrow-derived MSCs, and to engineer these cells to overexpress AKT1 (protein kinase B), to test the hypothesis that AKT1-engineered MSCs are more resistant to apoptosis and can enhance cardiac repair after transplantation into the ischemic swine heart.

METHODSThe CDS (regulation domain of AKT1) AKT1-cDNA fragment was amplified, and MSCs were transfected following synthesis with a pCDH1-AKT1 shuttling plasmid. Western blotting analysis and real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was performed. Myocardial infarction (MI) models were constructed in Meishan pigs, and cardiac function was evaluated by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measurements and echocardiography 4 weeks later. All pigs were assigned to four groups: control (A), DMEM (B), MSC (C), and AKT-transfected (D). MSCs were transfected with the AKT1 gene, and autologous BrdU-labeled stem cells (1 x 10(7)/5 ml) were injected into left anterior descending coronary atery (LAD) of the infarct heart in groups C and D. In group B, DMEM was injected using the same approach. In group A, there was no injection following LAD occlusion. After 4 weeks, cardiac function and regional perfusion measurements were repeated by MRI and echocardiography, and histological characteristics of the hearts were assessed. Connecxin-43 (CX-43), BrdU, and von Willebrand factor (VWF) immunoreactivity was tested using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1) were analyzed at the same time.

RESULTSAKT1-cDNA was cloned into pCDH1-MCS1-EF1-copGFP and the sequence was confirmed. AKT mRNA expression was detected at 24 hours after transfection. AKT1 expression in MSCs remained strong after 2 weeks, according to real-time RT-PCR and Western blotting. Prior to cell implantation, end-diastolic left ventricular dimension (EDLVd) increased and stroke volume (SV) decreased in the MI hearts. MRI scans revealed significantly improved cardiac function following implantation, and implanted MSCs prevented thinning and expanding in the infarct region, as well as improved contraction and increased perfusion in all groups compared to control hearts. The left ventricular chamber size was smaller in cell-transplanted hearts than in control hearts. Moreover, group D exhibited significant improvement. The expression of CX-43, BrdU, and VWF could be found in the immunohistochemical pathological sections of group C and group D. The level of VEGF reached a high level 1 week after implanting the MSCs, but the level of TGF-beta1 decreased gradually.

CONCLUSIONSThe AKT1-expressing lentiviral vector resulted in stable over-expression of AKT1 in MSCs. MSC engraftment in host myocardium improved cardiac function by attenuating contractile dysfunction and pathological thinning of the infracted left ventricular wall, which likely resulted from myocardial regeneration and angiogenesis.

Animals ; Blotting, Western ; Disease Models, Animal ; Electrophoresis ; Genetic Vectors ; genetics ; Lentivirus ; genetics ; Mesenchymal Stem Cell Transplantation ; Mesenchymal Stromal Cells ; metabolism ; Myocardial Infarction ; metabolism ; therapy ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt ; genetics ; metabolism ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Swine ; Ventricular Remodeling ; physiology