Objective To study the expression of LIVIN and PTEN in human gastric cancer and evaluate their clinical significance. Methods The expressions of LIVIN and PTEN were detected by immunohistochemical method in the tissues of 65 primary gastric cancer and 15 normal gastric mucosae. Results The positive expression rate of LIVIN in gastric cancer tissues was significantly higher than that in normal tissues [73.85%(48165) vs 26.67%(4/15)], and the positive expression rate of PTEN was obviously lower than that in normal tissues [30.77%(20/65) vs 66.67%(10/15)](P < 0.05). The positive expressions of LIVIN and PTEN were closely correlated with tumor depth of gastric cancer, histological differentiation grade, lymph node metastasis and TNM stage. The expressions of LIVIN and PTEN had a significant positive correlation (r = -0.362,P =0.003). Conclusion LIVIN and PTEN may play important roles in carcinogenesis of gastric cancer, which may be considered as reliable markers in clinical diagnosis and the prognosis of gastric cancer.

Atomic layer deposition has been employed for postsynthesis treatment of octadecyl bonded silica (ODS) as a typical reversed-phase stationary phase for high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) ,in an effort to alleviate peak tailing for basic compounds. With hexamethyldisilazane( HMDS) as an endcapping agent,the ODS packing materials were heated to 250℃,and maintained at that temperature for 6 h,affording packing materials which are highly inert to basic compounds. Chromatographic performance in terms of retention factor and tailing factor of the resulting phases was evaluated using phenol/pyridine and naphthalene/ami-triptyline pairs as probes. The results were compared with those for the same packing treated by liquid phase method and for the commercial products including Zorbax SB-C_(18) and Kromasil C_(18). The separation characteristics of the ODS phase obtained by atomic layer deposition appear to be superior to that by liquid phase method and,comparable with or even better than the commercial products studied. Being solvent-free process amenable to mass production,the described method provides an economical and eco-friendly approach to manufacturing HPLC packing materials on industrial scale.

Objective To investigate the clinical features of myasthenia gravis (MG) in elderly people. Methods Elderly patients among all MG patients observed from February 1977 to February 2003 were respectively reviewed. Results Of 3010 MG patients,232(7.7%) were identified with the onset of the disease after or at the age of 60,and males were more than females with the ratio of 1.3∶1. The first and most commonly seen symptom in the elderly people after MG onset were ocular manifestation,occurring in 79.3%. Bulbar symptoms(12.9%) such as dysarthria and swallowing difficulties were the following symptoms. The systemic form (62.9%) were significantly more than ocular form (37.1%). There were less MG patients with autoimmunity diseases such as thyroid diseases associated with MG than that with the other senile diseases,and the myasthenia crisis were even less in the elderly patients with MG. However,it was found that more MG patients with thymoma than with other thymus abnormality. Conclusions The elderly MG patients had its distinctive clinical features. It is beneficial for diagnosing and treating the MG patients in the elderly people by understanding these clinical features.

Objective: To determine the relationships between apoptosis induced by transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-β1) and Smad in human hepatoma cell lines. Methods: Three human hepatic carcinoma cell lines, involving different status of the p53 gene respectively, were used in this study.TGF-β1-induced apoptosis in hepatic carcinoma cell lines was quantitated using the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) assay. For identification of the mechanism of apoptosis induced by TGF-β1, these cell lines were transfected with a TGF-β1-inducible luciferase reporter plasmid containing Smad binding elements (SBE) and luciferase gene using LF2000, then were treated with TGF-β1. Relative luciferase activity was assayed respectively. Results: Among three cell lines studied with TUNEL assay, addition of TGF-β1 induced apoptosis only in HepG2 cells (wild type p53). In contrast, Huh-7 ( mutant p53) and Hep3B ( deleted p53) cell lines lacked apoptosis. The detection of luciferase activity indicated that HepG2 cells dramatically increased the response to TGF-β1 induction, Huh-7 and Hep3B cell lines significantly lowered luciferase expression. Conclusion: HepG2cells were highly susceptible to TGF-β1-induced apoptosis compared with Hep3B and Huh-7 cell lines.Smad4 may be a central mediator of the TGF-β1 signaling transdution pathway.

Objective To evaluate the long-term outcomes of immunosuppressive agents used for myasthenia gravis(MG) patients with disease onset after or at 60. Methods Long-term outcome was evaluated in 99 cases with following-up longer than 1 year. Remission, pharmacological remission, and marked improvement were considered as good results or good long-term outcome. Results All good results were recorded in 79 MG patients (79.8%) receiving immunosuppressive treatments. 48 patients had been treated with glucocorticoids (GC) alone, of them, 35(72.9%) achieved good results. 8 of them having a complete remission for 18 to 67 months (averaging (54.8?19.8) months). 16 patients got pharmacological remission for 7 to 37 months (averaging (15.7?8.0) months). MG patients in different gender had different responses to GC. The good long-term outcome was found in 83.3% (25/30) males and only 55.6% (10/18) in females with GC therapy. There was a rate statistically higher in male than in female patients (P

Objective To investigate the apoptosis induced by TGF-?1 in human hepatic carcinoma cell lines and its relationship with p53 gene and Smad. Methods Three human hepatic carcinoma cell lines which involving in various status of the p53 gene were used in this study. TGF-?1-induced apoptosis in hepatic carcinoma cell lines was measured by the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) assay. To study the mechanism of TGF-?1-induced apoptosis, these cell lines were transfected with a TGF-?1-inducible luciferase reporter plasmid containing Smad 4 binding elements (SBE) and luciferase gene using Lipofectamine 2000, then treated with TGF-?1, relative luciferase activity was assayed. Results Of three cell lines studied with TUNEL assay, TGF-?1 induced apoptosis was observed in HepG2 cells (wild type p53). Huh-7 (mutant p53) and Hep3B (deleted p53) cell lines showed less apoptosis. Luciferase activity assay indicated that the response to TGF-?1 induction in HepG2 cells was increased dramatically but was not significant in Huh-7 and Hep3B cell lines. Conclusion HepG2 cells seem to be highly susceptible to TGF-?1-induced apoptosis compared with Hep3B and Huh-7 cell lines. Smad 4 is a central mediator of the TGF-?1 signal transduction pathway.

Objective To investigate the correlation between plasma NT-proBNP and the severity of coronary artery disease. Methods One hundred and eighty five subjects were divided into three groups:83 patients in acute coronary syndromes group, 62 patients in stable angina pectoris group and 40 healthy subjects in normal group. The plasma NT-proBNP concentrations were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) . The plasma NT-proBNP levels of acute coronary syndrome patients and stable angina patients were analyzed. Furthermore, the coronary syndrome patients were divided into three groups according to the result of angiography:single vessel group, dual-vessel group and multiple-vessel group. The relationship of plasma NT-proBNP levels with the severity of coronary artery disease was analyzed. Results (1) In the group of acute coronary syndromes, the plasma NT-proBNP concentrations were obviously higher than the stable angina pectoris group and normal group (P<0.01) . (2) In the groups of coronary heart disease, the plasma NT-proBNP concentrations of the multiple-vesel group were obviously higher than the single vessel group and the dual-vessel group (P<0.01) . The plasma NT-proBNP concentrations of dual-vessel group were obviously higher than the single vessel group (P<0.01) . (3) The plasma NT-proBNP levels and the severity of coronary lesions were positively correlated (rs=-0.796, P<0.01) . Conclusion The plasma NT-proBNP levels is closely related to the severity of coronary artery disease.

Objective T o explore the application value of postm ortem com puted tom ography (C T ) an-giography on diagnosis of coronary atherosclerotic stenosis degree. Methods B ased on the previous ex-perim ental results, the postm ortem C T angiography device of hum an isolated heart w as im proved. D iffer-ent coronary atherosclerotic stenosis degree of sudden death cases w as selected. B efore the cardiac anatom y, hearts w ere rem oved out com pletely and C T angiography w as perform ed im m ediately. T he C T angiography results w ere com pared w ith histopathological findings. M eanw hile, the advantages and disad-vantages of the angiography device before and after im provem ent w ere com pared. Results T he im proved angiography device of isolated heart could get better im aging results. T he postm ortem C T angiography results had high consistency w ith the histopathological findings on diagnosis of coronary atherosclerotic stenosis degree. A nd the coronary artery lesions could be revealed m ore objectively and vividly by 3D reconstruction technology. H ow ever, C T angiography could only be used to exam ine the pathological changes of blood vessels, w hich m ight have som e lim itations on the diagnosis of cause of death. Con-clusion Postm ortem C T angiography can be used as an additional m ethod for the conventional autopsy in the cases of coronary atherosclerosis.

Objective To explore the application value of postm ortem m ulti-slice spiral com puted tom o-graphy (MSCT) by observing and analyzing the injury features in the traffic accident victim s. Methods Ten traffic accident victim s w ere scanned w ith w hole body MSCT. The system ic autopsy w as subse-quently perform ed to com pare w ith the results of MSCT. The advantages and disadvantages of autopsy and MSCTfor obtaining the inform ation of traffic accident injuries w ere then analyzed. Results MSCTcould reveal 3D shape of fractures clearly and detect air accum ulation in different positions of the body, w hich show ed the obvious advantages com pared w ith autopsy. H ow ever, the resolution of MSCTw as lim ited com pared to the detection of organ and soft tissue injuries. Conclusion A com bination of MSCTand autopsy is the best w ay for determ ining the m anner and the cause of death in traffic fatality victim s.