Objective To study the effects of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor benazepri1 on apoptosis and the expression of Fas and FasL in the kidney of rats with adriamycin-indued nephritic glomeruosclerosis.Methods After uninephrectomy and the injection of adriamycin induced rats model with glomerulosclerosis, benazapril(6 mg/kg) was delivered daily by gavage to the rats in therapeutic groups for 12 weeks.Apoptosis was examined by means of terminal-deoxynucleotidyl trans ferase mediated d-UTP nick end label ling(TUNEL) and immunohistochemistry was utlized to detect the expression of Fas and FasL.Software of pathological analysis quantitated the level of Fas and FasL.Results Compared with those of the control group, the kidney of model group had moresevere glomerulosclerosis, much more apoptotic cells and higher level of exprssion of Fas and FasL. The degree of glomeruloscleroais, the nuxner of apoptotic cells and the level of expression of Fas and FasL were ameliofated by benazepril treatment.Conclusion Benazepril may suppress the excessive apoptosis of kidney cell by lowering the expression of the protin correlatng apoptosis Fas and FasL,so as to postpone the process of glomeruosclerosis.

The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) is a ligand-activated transcription factor that regulates gene expression in a range of cells, including immune and epithelial cells. AhR signaling plays important roles in the immune system in both health and disease states. Tapinarof is a first-in-class small-molecule topical therapeutic AhR modulating agent launched for the treatment of psoriasis. To improve the activity and chemical stability of Tapinarof, a series of 2-phenylchromen-4-one derivatives were designed, synthesized and evaluated as novel AhR agonists. Compounds 5a, 5c, 5e and 5f potently activated AhR with an EC₅₀ value of 7, 9, 6 and 6 nmol·L^-1, respectively, which are 10-14 fold more potent than Tapinarof. Compounds 5a and 5e exhibit comparable inhibitory effects on IFN-γ production as Tapinarof. Furthermore, compounds 5a-5f exhibited favorable photochemical stability compared to Tapinarof. The compounds may eventually serve as lead compounds for the development of new AhR agonists.

This study was aimed to investigate the function defect of partial homing receptor on cord blood hematopoietic stem cells (CBHSC) and explore efficacy and feasibility of intervention in vitro. The expression and activity of active groups in P, E-selectin ligands on CD34+ cells from cord blood, bone marrow and peripheral blood were detected by flow cytometry; meanwhile the expression of active groups in selectin ligands on CD34+ cells treated by fucosyl transferase in vitro was determined by flow cytometry. The results indicated that the expression levels of CD26 on the surface of stem/progenitor cells (CD34+) from cord blood, bone marrow and peripheral blood were (7.62+/-0.63)%, (6.35+/-0.89)% and (6.18+/-0.91)% (p>0.05) respectively. And the activities of CD26 of the three sources of stem cells were 67.15 U/1000 cells (1 U=1 pmol/min), 26.85 U/1000 cells and 20.95 U/1000 cells respectively, in which the activity of CD26 on surface of CD34+ from cord blood was significantly higher than that from other both sources (p<0.01). The expression levels of P-selectin ligand on the stem/progenitor cells three kinds were (83.46+/-6.33)%, (15.65+/-0.89)% and (80.17+/-6.85)%, and the expression levels of E-selectin ligand on stem/progenitor cells of three kinds were (25.31+/-1.03)%, (26.34+/-0.89)% and (29.79+/-1.78)% respectively. The expression of E-selectin ligand on the surface of cord blood stem/progenitor cell CD34+ increased from (25.31+/-1.03)% to (63.23+/-1.08)% after glycosylation engineering. It is concluded that there is no significant difference of the expression of CD26 between the three sources of stem/progenitor cells, but the activity of CD26 in cord blood was obviously higher than that in bone marrow and peripheral blood. The expression of P-selectin ligand on bone marrow stem/progenitor cell was lower than that on stem cells of cord blood and peripheral blood. Glycosylation engineering can promote and elevate the expression of E-selectin ligand on the surface of CD34+ cells from cord blood.
Antigens, CD34 ; metabolism ; Bone Marrow Cells ; cytology ; metabolism ; Cells, Cultured ; Dipeptidyl Peptidase 4 ; metabolism ; Fetal Blood ; cytology ; Hematopoietic Stem Cells ; cytology ; metabolism ; Humans ; Receptors, Fibroblast Growth Factor ; metabolism ; Sialoglycoproteins ; metabolism ; Stem Cells ; cytology ; metabolism

OBJECTIVETo study the incidence of injuries among residents living in the communities in Zhejiang.

METHODSA household questionnaire survey was conducted to 16 899 residents in four communities.

RESULTSThe incidence of injuries was 16.11% in total, higher in urban area than in rural area and higher in men than in women. The leading causes of injuries were falls (4.80%), knife-cutting or by sharp articles (3.86%), traffic accident (2.07%), collision (1.99%), scalds (1.13%) and animal bites (1.06%). Peak incidence of age group was different in different injuries, such as traffic accident was high in 45 - 60 age group and falls was high in 5 and 60 age group. Direct economic loss for each case with injury would cost 324.21 RMB yuan.

CONCLUSIONInjury was common and frequently occurred among residents at the community level which seriously on danger their health and families.

Accidental Falls ; statistics & numerical data ; Accidents, Traffic ; statistics & numerical data ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Animals ; Bites and Stings ; epidemiology ; Burns ; epidemiology ; Child ; China ; epidemiology ; Community Health Services ; Dogs ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Prevalence ; Wounds and Injuries ; epidemiology ; mortality

AIMTo observe the change of potassium current on cultured neurons differentiated from hippocampus neural stem cells of the newborn rat.

METHODSNeural stem cells from newborn rat hippocampus were cultured in vitro and passaged continuously. Differentiation of the cell was induced by serum and removing mitogens. After differentiation cells were plated on plastic dishes and cultured for 1 d, 7 d, 14 d and 21 d. Whole-cell voltage patch clamp recording was used respectively to detect voltage-dependent K+ current.

RESULTSAfter 1 d culture, no current was detected, and on the 7th d, 14th d, 21st d after differentiation, the amplitude of K+ currents was (18.077 +/- 2.789)pA/pF, (13.099 +/- 2.742)pA/pF, (34.045 +/- 8.067)pA/pF at +50 mV. The recorded K+ current included two components that could be blocked by TEA and 4-AP separately, assumed the slowly inactivating delayed rectifier K+ current (IK) and the fast inactivating transient outward K+ current (IA).

CONCLUSIONThe function of potassium channels on the hippocampus neural stem cells of the newborn rat approaches mature gradually when the time of differentiation becomes longer in vitro.

Animals ; Animals, Newborn ; Cells, Cultured ; Delayed Rectifier Potassium Channels ; physiology ; Hippocampus ; cytology ; Neural Stem Cells ; cytology ; metabolism ; physiology ; Patch-Clamp Techniques ; Potassium Channels ; physiology ; Potassium Channels, Inwardly Rectifying ; physiology ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley

This study was purposed to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of G/(1, 3-β-D glucan)/GM (galactomannan) combined detection for early diagnosis of invasive fungal disease (IFD), determine the GM positive cut-off value, and investigate the change of diagnostic level before and after G/GM test and the relation of GM value with therapeutic effect. The ELISA with double antibody sandwich was used to detect the serum levels of G and G/M. The results showed that according to determined GM positive cut-off value, the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value of G/GM combined detection were 100%, 65.7%, 67.6% and 100%, respectively. The case number of the clinical diagnosis of IFD increased from 1 to 24 cases, the diagnosis of 12 non-infective patients was changed as suspected IFD with the help of G/GM combined detection; the GM cut-off value decreased in patients whose GM cut-off value was higher before therapy and antifungal therapy was effective, while the GM cut-off value increased in patients no-responded to therapy. It is concluded that G/GM combined detection can increased the sensitivity of the diagnosis and reduce false negative rate in the early diagnosis of IFD. The dynamically monitoring G/GM cut-off value can be used as evaluation indicator of therapeutic efficacy.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Antigens, Fungal ; analysis ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Early Diagnosis ; Female ; Hematologic Neoplasms ; complications ; microbiology ; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Mycoses ; diagnosis ; etiology ; immunology ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVE Metastasis-associated in colon cancer-1 (MACC1) is an oncogene that has been newly identified. It promotes tumor proliferation and invasion via the MET pathway. Our study investigated the effects of Saikosaponin-b(SS-b) on the proliferation and apoptosis of HepG2 cells and its regulation on MACC1/c-Met/Akt signaling pathway. METHODS HepG2 cells were treated with SS-b (10-800 g·L-1) for 48 h in vitro. The CCK-8 assay was used to assess cell proliferation, and cell apoptosis was determined by Hoechst33258 staining, AnnexinⅤ/PI staining and caspase 3 assay. RT-PCR was used to examine the expression of MACC1, c- MET and hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) mRNA. MACC1 protein was detected by Western blot and immunohistochemistry. The protein expressions of p-c-MET, c-MET, p-AKT, AKT, p-BAD, BAD were measured by Western blot. RESULTS SS-b inhibited the growth of HepG2 cells in dose-dependent way and induced cell apoptosis significantly. HepG2 cells showed karyopyknosis, fragmentation and fluorescence highlight in SS-b treatment group. FCM results showed that apoptosis rate of HepG2 cells increased with SS- b concentration. The immunofluores?cence results showed that the MACC1 expression decreased significantly in HepG2 cells treated with SS-b. The expression levels of MACC1, c-MET and HGF mRNA in HepG2 cells were significantly inhibited by SS-b. SS-b also significantly decreased the protein expressions of MACC1, p-c-MET and p-AKT while increased the expression of p-BAD and caspase 3 in HepG2 cells(P<0.05). CONCLUSION SS-b inhibited the proliferation and induced the apoptosis of HepG2 cells by targeting the MACC1/c-Met/Akt signaling pathway.

OBJECTIVE Angiogenesis therapy has attracted interest as a potential treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In this study, we investigated the anti-proliferative activities and anti-angiogenesis effects of saikosaponins (SS)-b on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and its regulation on VEGF/ERK/HIF-1α signal pathway. METHODS H22 hepatoma-bearing mice model and HepG-2 cells were used to study the anti-tumor and anti-angiogenesis effects of SS-b in vivo and in vitro. Pathological change of tumor tissue was observed by HE staining, the microvascular changes were detected by immunohistochemical method. The effects of SS-b on angiogenesis were examined by using the chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) model. The effects of SS- b on proliferation, migration and invasion were investigated by MTT assay, scratch wound healing assay and transwell assay inhuman umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC) and HepG2 cells in vitro. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), matrix metalloproteinase-2/9(MMP-2/9), hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) expression and the phosphorylation of extracellular regulated kinase(ERK) were analyzed using RT-PCR and Western-blot. RESULTS SS-b effectively inhibited the tumor growth of H22 mice in vivo. The inhibitory rate of tumor was 49.1%, 50.7%, 66.1% in SS-b 5, 10 and 20 mg·kg-1 group respectively. HE staining results showed that SS-b induced tumor necrosis and nuclear dissolution in H22 mice. Moreover, SS-b also reduced the number of microvessels of tumor tissue in H22 mice significantly and suppressed the angiogenesis of CAM induced by b-FGF. SS-b had an obvious inhibitory effect on cell proliferation, migration and invasion of HUVEC cells and HepG-2 cells. These effects were associated with down-regulation of the expression of MMP2/9 and suppression of VEGF/ERK/HIF-1α signaling in H22 mice and Hep-G2 cells. CONCLUSION Our findings showed that SS-b exerts anti-tumor effects by inhibit?ing tumor angiogenesis via regulating VEGF/ERK/HIF-1α signal pathway in vivo and in vitro.

BACKGROUNDThe aim of this study was to assess the performance of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) measurement obtained with diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) to distinguish renal cell carcinomas (RCCs) from small benign solid renal tumors (≤ 4 cm).

METHODSIn this cross-sectional study, 49 consecutive patients with histopathologically confirmed small solid renal tumors, and seven healthy volunteers were imaged using nonenhanced MRI and DW-MRI. The ADC map was calculated using the b values of 0, 50, 400, and 600 s/mm 2 and values compared via the Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests. The utility of ADC for differentiating RCCs and benign lesions was assessed using a receiver operating characteristic curve. Multiple nonenhanced MRI features were analyzed by Logistic regression.

RESULTSThe tumors consisted of 33 cases of clear-cell RCCs (ccRCCs) and 16 cases of benign tumors, including 14 cases of minimal fat angiomyolipomas and 2 cases of oncocytomas. The ADCs showed significant differences among benign tumors ([0.90 ± 0.52] × 10-3 mm 2 /s), ccRCCs ([1.53 ± 0.31] × 10-3 mm 2 /s) and the normal renal parenchyma ([2.22 ± 0.12] × 10-3 mm 2 /s) (P < 0.001). Moreover, there was statistically significant difference between high and low-grade ccRCCs (P = 0.004). Using a cut-off ADC of 1.36 × 10-3 mm 2 /s, DW-MRI resulted in an area under the curve (AUC), sensitivity, and specificity equal to 0.839, 75.8%, and 87.5%, respectively. Nonenhanced MRI alone and the combination of imaging methods led to an AUC, sensitivity and specificity equal to 0.919, 93.9%, and 81.2%, 0.998, 97%, and 100%, respectively. The Logistic regression showed that the location of the center of the tumor (inside the contour of the kidney) and appearance of stiff blood vessel were significantly helpful for diagnosing ccRCCs.

CONCLUSIONSDW-MRI has potential in distinguishing ccRCCs from benign lesions in human small solid renal tumors (≤ 4 cm), and in increasing the accuracy for diagnosing ccRCCs when combined with nonenhanced MRI.

Adult ; Aged ; Carcinoma, Renal Cell ; diagnosis ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; methods ; Female ; Humans ; Kidney Neoplasms ; diagnosis ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo study the methylation status of fragile histidine triad (FHIT) gene promoter in patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and its clinical relevance.

METHODSMethylation-specific PCR (MSP) was used to detect FHIT promoter methylation in bone marrow samples from 54 MDS cases.

RESULTSHypermethylation of FHIT promoter was detected in 26 cases (48.1%). Association was not found between FHIT gene hypermethylation and sex, hematologic parameters and chromosomal abnormalities of MDS patients, but found between FHIT gene hypermethylation and age of the MDS cases. Although significant difference was not observed in the frequencies of FHIT gene hypermethylation among patients with refractory anemia/refractory anemia with ringed sideroblasts (RA/RAS) (1/6, 16.7%), refractory anemia/refractory anemia with ringed sideroblasts (RCMD) and refractory cytopenia with multilineage dysplasia with ringed blasts (RCMD-RS) (6/19, 31.6%), refractory anemia with excess blasts-1 (RAEB-1) (7/11, 63.6%), refractory anemia with excess blasts-2 (RAEB-2) (4/7, 57.1%) and refractory anemia with excess blasts in transformation/acute myeloid leukemia (RAEBt/AML) (8/11, 72.7%)(chi-square=8.417, P=0.077), it was observed in patients in early stages (RA/RAS and RCMD) (7/25, 28.0%), advanced stages (RAEB-1 and RAEB-2)(11/18, 61.1%) and RAEBt/AML (8/11, 72.7%) (chi-square=7.938, P=0.019). Furthermore, there was a positive correlation between the frequency of FHIT gene hypermethylation and different IPSS groups (chi-square=10.110, P=0.018).

CONCLUSIONFHIT gene hypermethylation might be one of the molecular events involved in the disease progression of MDS.

Acid Anhydride Hydrolases ; genetics ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Age Factors ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Base Sequence ; DNA Methylation ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Myelodysplastic Syndromes ; classification ; genetics ; pathology ; Neoplasm Proteins ; genetics ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Promoter Regions, Genetic ; genetics