Vascular endothelial growth factor-D (VEGF-D) and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2, -3 (VEGFR-2, -3) with their corresponding signaling pathway play significant roles in the development of the embryonic vascular system and pathological lymphangiogenesis. The study was aimed to express and purify the GST-VEGF-D fusion protein, and to explore the angiogenesis effect of VEGF-D. The total RNA was extracted from human fetal lung tissue, and the mature form of VEGF-D was expanded by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), then the plasmid pGEX-5X-1/VEGF-D was reconstructed and the GST-VEGF-D fusion protein expressed in transformed E.coli BL21-DE3. The results showed that the molecular mass of this fusion protein was 38 kD and compassed more than 15% of the total bacteria proteins. The fusion protein was recognized by anti-GST and anti-VEGF-D antibodies. The soluble GST-VEGF-D fusion protein could interact with VEGFR-3/Fc and was able to stimulate the proliferation of human erythroleukemia cell line (HEL) cells. The data of chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) experiments indicated that GST-VEGF-D could induce the CAM angiogenesis. It is concluded that the GST-VEGF-D fusion protein with biological activity was successfully expressed, and which may provide an experimental model for the investigation of the VEGF-D-induced angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis.
Animals ; Chick Embryo ; Chorioallantoic Membrane ; blood supply ; Humans ; Neovascularization, Physiologic ; drug effects ; Recombinant Proteins ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; pharmacology ; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor D ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; pharmacology

Metabolic characteristics of 39 human brain tumor tissues, including 15 astrocytomas, 13 fibroblastic meningiomas and 11 transitional meningiomas from 39 individual patients, have been studied using high resolution magic-angle spinning (HRMAS) 1H NMR spectroscopy in conjunction with principal component analysis (PCA). With rich metabolite information, 1H NMR spectra showed that the tumor-tissuc metabonome was dominated by lipids, lactate, myo-inositol, ereatine, choline metabolites such as choline, phosphocholine and glycerophosphocholine, amino acids such as alanine, glutamate, glutamine, taurine, N-acetyl-aspartate and glutathione. PCA of the tumor NMR spectra clearly showed metabonomic differences between low-grade astrocytomas and meningiomas whereas such differences were more moderate between fibroblastic and transitional meningiomas. Compared with meningiomas, the low-grade astrocytomas had higher levels of glycerophosphocholine, phosphocholine, myo-inositol and creatine but lower levels of alanine, glutamate, glutamine, glutathione and taurine. The N-acetyl-aspartate level was low but detectable in low-grade astrocytomas whereas it was not detectable in meningiomas. It is concluded that tissue metabonomics technology consisting of HRMAS 1H NMR spectroscopy and multivariate data analysis (MVDA) offers a useful tool (1) for distinguishing different types of brain tumors, (2) for providing the metabolic information for human brain tumors, which are potentially useful for understanding biochemistry of tumor progression.

OBJECTIVETo explore the correlation of serum hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) level and hepatic tissue pathological staging in the chronic hepatitis B infected persons.

METHODSCollect the clinical data of 272 cases who are HBsAg-positive more than 6 months and accepted hepatic biopsy in our hospital. Detect serum HBsAg quantification, ALT, HBV DNA, complete blood count, hepatic tissue pathological staging, grouping the cases according to the stage of inflammation and the fibrosis degree respectively. Observe serum HBsAg quantification, HBV DNA and the stage of inflammation and the fibrosis degree. Analyse the correlation between HBsAg quantification and HBV DNA.

RESULTSThe correlation of serum HBsAg level and HBV DNA is notable. Serum HBsAg level is a variable affecting hepatic tissue pathological stage significantly.

CONCLUSIONSSerum HBsAg level is a marker having higher specificity and sensitivity to diagnose the hepatic fibrosis.

Adolescent ; Adult ; DNA, Viral ; blood ; Female ; Hepatitis B Surface Antigens ; analysis ; blood ; immunology ; Hepatitis B virus ; immunology ; Hepatitis B, Chronic ; blood ; immunology ; pathology ; virology ; Humans ; Liver ; chemistry ; immunology ; pathology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Young Adult

Objective To observe the effect of iodine excess(HI),polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid[Poly(I:C),Poly]and thyroglobulin(TG)on the thyroid of mice by the expression of Toll-like receptor 3(TLR3)to reveal the functional role of TLR3 in autoimmune thyroiditis.Methods Forty-two non-obese diabetic mice,body weight (20±3)g,were divided into six groups:control group,HI group,Poly group,TG group,HI+TG group,HI+Poly group. Fed with deionized water and injected intraperitoneally with physiological saline 0.1 ml each day for a week, the mice in control group were injected with physiological saline every other day at the same dose for 1 week before they were sacrificed; HI group drank 0.05% NaI water and were injected intraperitoneally with physiological saline same as control group; Poly group drank deionized water and were injected intraperitoneally with poly 0.1 ml (1 g/L)each day of the week, then the mice were injected with Poly every other day at the same dose for 1 week before they were sacrificed; TG group drank deionized water and were injected intraperitoneally with physiological saline same as control group, immunized with 0.1 mg TG by subcutaneously injecting and the immunization was enhanced after they were fed half dose for 4 and 8 weeks separately. In HI + Poly group, the treatment was the same as HI group and Poly group; HI + TG group: the treatment was the same as HI group and TG group. Eight weeks later, mice were sacrificed and thyroids were taken to make frozen sections, Hematoxylin-Eosin (HE) staining was employed to observe the morphological change of the thyroids. The expression of TLR3 of thyroids was observed under fluorescence microscope after Immumofluorescence using TLR3 antibody and TR3-positive cells were analyzed in the thyroid density. Results HE staining showed thyroids of Poly group had no inflammation under microscope.There were different degrees of inflammatory cell infiltration in HI group and TG group. The inflammatory cell infiltration and the damage of follicular thyroid of HI + TG group and HI + Poly group were serious, and the degrees of inflammation were higher over "++". Thyroid follicular epithelial cell with TLR3 expression could be seen in Poly group and HI group, meanwhile, there were TLR3 strong positive inflammatory cells in HI group under fluorescent microscope. Using stereological analysis of TLR3-positive cell density in the thyroid, the difference between groups was statistically significant(F=7.870, P<0.01 ). TLR3-positive cell density in the thyroid of HI + Poly group was higher[ (9.287 ± 0.522)mm2] than control group[ (0.062 ± 0.025)mm2, P < 0.01] significantly, meanwhile, the density in HI + Poly group was higher than HI group [ (2.574 ± 0.257 )mm2] and Poly group[ (1.361 ± 0.148 )mm2, all P < 0.01]. The density in HI + TG group[ (4.843±0.405)mm2] was higher than HI group and TG group[(1.601 ±0.268)mm2, all P < 0.01 )]. Conclusions Excessive iodine and thyroglobulin can induce thyroiditis, and stimulate the expression of TLR3 in the thyroid follicular epithelial, Poly aggravated thyroiditis induced by iodine excess in NOD mice; TLR3 positive inflammatory cells also appeared in inflammatory region, suggesting that TLR3 is involved in the pathogenesis of autoimmune thyroiditis

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the prognostic value of the model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) and deltaMELD in liver failure patients infected with hepatitis B virus.

METHODSBased on prospective study design, 98 hospitalized cases were studied and followed up for 24 weeks. The clinical data were recorded. We calculated the score of MELD and deltaMELD, and also compare the score between the survival group and death group. Using ROC curve plotting obtained the better decisive threshold. The case fatality rate were compared at different time points which the patients were classified by the best critical value of MELD and deltaMELD. We draw the Kaplan-Meier survival curve of different group and analyse the change of survival rate by log-rank analysis.

RESULTS52 of 97 patients died and 46 survive during 24 weeks of followup. There was significant difference between the two groups for MELD and deltaMELD (P < 0.01). The case fatality rate in group which MELD > or = 23 was obviously higher than in that MELD < 23. The rate in group which deltaMELD > 4.5 was obviously higher than in that deltaMELD < 4.5 (P < 0.001). The area under curve (AUC) for the twelfth and 24th week's prognosis judgment of deltaMELD (0.823, 0.815) was larger than that of MELD (0.680, 0.684) (P < 0.05). Survival analyses (Kaplan-Meier) indicated that there were significant differences in cumulative survival rates among the groups which were grouped by optimization critical value ( P = 0. 000).

CONCLUSIONSThe scoring system of MELD also applied to the forecasting of prognosis for severe hepatitis B patients in China. The accuracy of deltaMELD to predict the prognosis was higher than that of MELD. The combination of MELD and deltaMELD showed good clinical practical value.

End Stage Liver Disease ; diagnosis ; Hepatitis B ; complications ; Humans ; Kaplan-Meier Estimate ; Liver Failure ; etiology ; mortality ; Models, Biological ; Prognosis ; ROC Curve ; Severity of Illness Index

BACKGROUNDPeople have more and more concerned about allitridum as studies have shown that taking more raw garlic associated with a lower risk for cancers of the alimentary system. In the present study, we tried to examine whether a large dose of allitridum and a microdose of selenium prevent gastric cancer.

METHODSA double-blind intervention study was performed on the participants aged (35 - 74) years, who had matched at least one of the following criteria: (1) a medical history of stomach disorder, (2) a family history of tumour, or (3) smoking and/or alcohol consumption. A total of 2,526 and 2,507 persons were randomly enrolled into intervention group and control group respectively from 288 natural villages of seven communities in Qixia County, Shandong Province, China. Each person of the intervention group orally took 200 mg synthetic allitridum every day and 100 microg selenium every other day for one month of each year during November 1989 to December 1991. At the same time, people in control group were given 2 placebo capsules containing corn oid with the identical appearance to that in the intervention group.

RESULTSFor all subjects the large dose of allitridum was accepted and no harmful side effects were found during the study. In the first follow-up five years (1992 - 1997) after stopping the intervention, the morbidity rates of malignant tumours in the intervention group declined by 22%, in contrast to the control group, declined by 47.3%. After adjusting for age, gender, and other potential confounders, relative risks (RRs) for all tumours and gastric cancer of the whole population were 0.67 (95% CL: 0.43 - 1.03) and 0.48 (95% CL: 0.21 - 1.06), respectively, and for male group they were 0.51 (95% CL: 0.30 - 0.85) and 0.36 (95% CL: 0.14 - 0.92), respectively. No signigicantly protective effect was found for the female subgroup.

CONCLUSIONThe present study proves that large doses of allitridum and microdorse of selenium may effectively prevent gastric cancer, especially in men.

Adult ; Aged ; Allyl Compounds ; administration & dosage ; Double-Blind Method ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Multivariate Analysis ; Selenium ; administration & dosage ; Stomach Neoplasms ; prevention & control ; Sulfides ; administration & dosage

OBJECTIVETo observe the prevalence and distribution of ideal cardiovascular health behavior.

METHODSHealth examination data between 2008 to 2009 from the employees of Kailuan Group were analyzed.

RESULTSA total of 101 333 subjects took part in the health examination, subjects with previous myocardial infarction (n = 871), stroke (n = 2255), myocardial infarction and stroke (n = 162) and subjects with incomplete examination data (n = 9311) were excluded and 88 534 subjects were included for final analysis [mean age (50.6 ± 12.3) years, male 69 916]. (1) Body mass index (BMI), systolic and diastolic pressure, cholesterol (TC) and triglyceride were significantly higher in males than in females (all P < 0.05), women's income and the education lever were significantly higher than men (P < 0.05). (2) The distribution of ideal cardiovascular health behavior (smoking, BMI, physical exercise, salt intake) was 55.8%, 41.4%, 18.9% and 14.0% respectively among the population; the ideal cardiovascular factors (fasting blood glucose, TC, blood pressure) was 80.9%, 61.8% and 18.5%, respectively. (3) The subjects with distribution of seven, six, five, four ideal cardiovascular health behavior and factors was 0.1%, 1.9%, 9.1%, 20.3%, respectively. (4) Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that female, age < 55 and high education level were associated with the ideal cardiovascular health status with a RR value (95%CI) of 4.52 (4.32 - 4.72), 1.46 (1.39 - 1.53) and 2.23 (2.10 - 2.37), respectively.

CONCLUSIONThe prevalence of ideal cardiovascular health is extremely low in the study population, most persons were not in the ideal cardiovascular health behavior and factors and female, age < 55 and high education level are linked with ideal cardiovascular health status.

Adult ; Age Factors ; Body Mass Index ; Cardiovascular Diseases ; epidemiology ; prevention & control ; China ; epidemiology ; Female ; Health Behavior ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Obesity ; epidemiology ; Risk Factors ; Sex Factors ; Smoking ; epidemiology

OBJECTIVETo explore the relationship of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and cirrhosis with liver metastasis in colorectal cancer.

METHODSClinical date of 1176 colorectal cancer patients undergone surgical treatment in the Peking University School of Oncology between January 1999 and August 2004 were analyzed retrospectively to investigate the impact of HBV infection and cirrhosis on the occurrence of liver metastasis and prognosis of patients.

RESULTSThe incidence of liver metastasis was 8.8% (10/114) in the HBV infection group and 23.9% (254/1062) in the non-infection group (P<0.01). The 5-year survival rates of these two groups were 54.2% and 60.7% ( P>0.05). The incidence of liver metastasis was 3.8% (1/26) in the cirrhotic group and 22.9% (263/1150) in the non-cirrhotic group (P<0.05). The 5-year survival rates of these two groups were 60.9% and 59.9% ( P>0.05).

CONCLUSIONBoth hepatitis B virus infection and cirrhosis are associated with less liver metastasis in colorectal cancer, but have no impact on the survival.

Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Colorectal Neoplasms ; pathology ; virology ; Female ; Hepatitis B ; complications ; Hepatitis B virus ; Humans ; Liver Cirrhosis ; complications ; Liver Neoplasms ; secondary ; virology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Retrospective Studies ; Survival Rate ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo review the epidemiologic and clinical characteristics of 96 cases with novel H1N1 influenza A, and improve the diagnosis and treatment level of novel H1N1 influenza A.

METHODS96 cases of novel H1N1 influenza A admitted to the isolation wards from Oct 20 to Sep 23, 2009 were studied. Their epidemiologic, clinical, laboratory, and radiologic characteristics were analyzed.

RESULTSThe median age of the 96 patients was 26.52 +/- 10.62 years (range, 5 to 60 years). Sixty-four of the 96 patients had a close contact with novel H1N1 influenza A patients. The main symptoms included fever 100%, cough 86.4% , sore throat 66.6% and myalgia 32.3%.

CONCLUSIONThe clinical presentation of novel H1N1 infection is largely indistinguishable from that of seasonal influenza. Combines both a symptom complex with the epidemiological investigation and laboratory characteristics can improve the accuracy of diagnosis of novel H1N1 influenza A.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Child ; Cough ; etiology ; Disease Outbreaks ; Female ; Fever ; etiology ; Humans ; Influenza A Virus, H1N1 Subtype ; genetics ; isolation & purification ; Influenza A virus ; immunology ; Influenza Vaccines ; immunology ; Influenza, Human ; epidemiology ; physiopathology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Pharyngitis ; etiology ; Research Design ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo investigate the relation of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) level with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and liver inflammation and fibrosis.

METHODSA total of 301 patients who diagnosed CHB and underwent liver biopsy were enrolled into the study. Meantimes, the biochemical markers, ferritin (FERR), serum HBsAg and HBV DNA quantitation were detected. The relation between HBsAg level and liver pathology were determined by spearman rank correlation analysis. The receiver operating characteristic curve was used to evaluate the accuracy of HBsAg level for liver inflammation and fibrosis.

RESULTSThe body mass index (BMI), age, gender, genotype and family history had no effective on liver inflammation and fibrosis (P < 0.05). With the progressing of inflammation and fibrosis, the serum AST and ALT raise obviously (chi2 = 71.193, 96.344, 47.847, 63.981; P = 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000). When fibrosis reached to S4, the level of HBV DNA decreased obviously (chi2 = 33. 322; P = 0.000). With the aggravation of inflammation and fibrosis, the serum HBsAg gradually descended (chi2 = 68.173,15.719; P = 0.000, 0.000). The areas under operating characteristics curves of HBsAg predicted < or = G3 and < or = S3 were 0.732 and 0.793, and the specificity were 0.778, 0.891, and sensitivity were 0.685, and 0.633, respectively.

CONCLUSIONThe level of HBsAg of Chinese CHB patients descended gradually with the aggravation of liver inflammation and fibrosis. The serum HBsAg had a higher specificity to predict < or = G3 and < or = S3 of CHB patients. But there had superiority of predicting fibrosis than inflammation.

Adult ; Female ; Hepatitis B Surface Antigens ; blood ; Hepatitis B, Chronic ; blood ; complications ; pathology ; Humans ; Inflammation ; etiology ; Liver Cirrhosis ; etiology ; Male