OBJECTIVE: Antiretroviral drugs covered by medical insurance have been gradually used by people living with human immunodeficiency virus (PLWH) in recent years in China. This study aimed to analyze their willingness to pay (WTP) for antiretroviral drugs. METHODS: A mixed-methods study design involving a cross-sectional survey and in-depth interviews was conducted. A cross-sectional survey was performed to collect data on the general characteristics, economic status, antiretroviral therapy (ART) status, and WTP of PLWH in 18 Chinese cities from August 2022 to February 2023. Multivariate logistic regression was used to analyze the factors associated with WTP. Representatives of PLWH were interviewed via in-depth interviews, and the data were thematically analyzed. RESULTS: Among the 941 PLWH, 271 (28.80%) were willing to pay for antiretroviral drugs covered by medical insurance. For basic medical insurance for urban and rural residents, PLWH with the following characteristics were more willing to pay: an educational level of senior high school or technical secondary school, having an undergraduate degree or higher, frequently working away from their hometowns, and homosexual transmission. Off-farm workers and recipients of government medical aid were more unwilling to pay. For basic medical insurance for urban employees, PLWH with the following characteristics were more willing to pay: frequently working away from their hometowns; homosexual transmission; personal annual income ≥ 100,000 CNY; and adverse events of antiretroviral drugs. The main reasons for PLWH's WTP for antiretroviral drugs covered by medical insurance were that the drugs had fewer adverse events and were easier to administer. The main reasons for PLWH's unwillingness to pay were financial difficulties and privacy concerns. CONCLUSION Nearly one-third of PLWH are willing to pay for antiretroviral drugs covered by medical insurance. In the future, PLWH with a high WTP can be guided to use these drugs.
Humans ; HIV Infections/economics* ; China ; Male ; Female ; Adult ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Middle Aged ; Anti-Retroviral Agents/economics* ; Cities ; Insurance, Health/economics* ; Young Adult

Autoimmune diseases of the nervous and muscle systems constitute a major disease category in neurology, characterized by high disability and heterogeneity. However, incidences for this group of disorders are still unknown in China at the national level. The emergence of the national Hospital Quality Monitoring System (HQMS) provides comprehensive data for epidemiological studies of rare diseases, and the systematism, accuracy and consistency during data collection of HQMS information provide a unique advantage for the investigation of the incidence of rare diseases. Currently, the incidence of major neurological autoimmune diseases based on HQMS has been accomplished and published. In conjunction with clinical practice and research progress of this field, the incidence studies of multiple sclerosis, neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder, acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, Guillain-Barré syndrome, and myasthenia gravis are summarized. The completion of survey of disease incidence is instrumental to investigate the prevalence of this group of diseases. Ultimately, the outcome would benefit neurologists as well as health care policy makers.

Objective:To investigate the clinical value of split domino donor auxiliary liver transplantation.Methods:The retrospective and descriptive study was conducted. The clinco-pathological data of 3 liver transplantation recipients who were admitted to Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital affiliated to Nanjing University Medical School and 1 liver transplantation recipient who was admitted to external hospital in September 2018 were collected. The first case was male, aged 22 years, who was diagnosed as type II citrullinemia (CTLN2). The second case undergoing liver transplantation in external hospital was male, aged 59 years, who was diagnosed as decompensated alcoholic cirrhosis. The third case was female, aged 52 years, who was diagnosed as hepatocellular carcinoma of right lobe of liver. The fourth case was female, aged 51 years, who was diagnosed as hepatocellular carcinoma of right lobe of liver. The donor liver from a brain and cardiac death donor was split in vitro into the left liver and the right liver, in which the right liver without middle hepatic vein, and the modified piggyback liver transplantation using the left liver and the classical orthotropic liver transplantation using the right liver was conducted on the first and the second case, respectively. The original liver of the first case was split in vivo into the left liver and the right liver, and the piggyback auxiliary liver transplantation using the left liver and the piggyback auxiliary liver transplantation using the right liver was conducted on the third and the fourth case who underwent extended right hemihepatectomy, respectively. Observation indicators: (1) intraoperative situations; (2) follow-up. Follow-up was conducted using outpatient examination and telephone interview to detect liver function, liver imaging, complication and survival of recipients up to October 2021.Results:(1) Intraoperative situations. Liver transplantation was conducted successfully on the first, third and fourth case, with the operation time, the volume of intraoperative blood loss, the donor liver cold ischemia time, the graft-to-recipient weight ratio were 400 minutes, 370 minutes, 390 minutes, 600 mL, 1 300 mL, 1 600 mL, 230 minutes, 152 minutes, 135 minutes, 1.2%, 0.8%, 1.1%. (2) Follow-up. B-ultrasound examination of the first, third and fourth case after liver transplantation showed that the blood flow was normal, and all the 3 cases discharged and were followed up at postoperative 1, 6 and 12 month. The liver function, the level of blood ammonia and citrulline were normal of the first, third and fourth case at postoperative 1 week. Imaging examina-tion showed normal liver morphology of the first and third case, and a transplanted liver atrophy caused by portal vein steal of the fourth case. ① The level of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), total bilirubin (TBil), direct bilirubin (DBil) of the first case before liver transplantation, at postoperative 1 day, 2 day, 3 day, 7 day, 10 day, 6 month and 1 year were 22.8 U/L, 404.1 U/L, 355.5 U/L, 289.6 U/L, 31.0 U/L, 23.1 U/L, 42.1 U/L and 25.8 U/L, 31.5 U/L, 517.7 U/L, 327.6 U/L, 172.9 U/L, 15.9 U/L, 21.4 U/L, 47.5 U/L and 29.7 U/L, 3.8 μmol/L, 92.1 μmol/L, 87.4 μmol/L, 79.7 μmol/L, 90.1 μmol/L, 130.6 μmol/L, 33.8 μmol/L and 25.4 μmol/L, 2.3 μmol/L, 47.0 μmol/L, 44.1 μmol/L, 47.1 μmol/L, 57.4 μmol/L, 70.9 μmol/L, 24.7 μmol/L and 9.7 μmol/L, respectively. The level of citrulline and blood ammonia of the first case before and after liver transplantation were 999.0 μmol/L, 196.0 μmol/L and 14.6 μmol/L, 9.0 μmol/L, respectively. The first case was followed up for 3 years and survived without any liver transplantation related complication. ② The level of ALT, AST, TBil, DBil of the third case before liver transplantation, at postoperative 1 day, 2 day, 3 day, 7 day, 10 day, 6 month and 1 year were 21.3 U/L, 143.9 U/L, 182.0 U/L, 132.0 U/L, 17.2 U/L, 10.1 U/L, 17.6 U/L and 16.8 U/L,20.0 U/L, 291.0 U/L, 227.5 U/L, 106.4 U/L, 15.8 U/L, 10.8 U/L, 17.1 U/L and 19.4 U/L, 6.8 μmol/L, 50.9 μmol/L, 45.0 μmol/L, 34.0 μmol/L, 32.4 μmol/L, 22.3 μmol/L, 12.8 μmol/L and 14.9 μmol/L, 2.5 μmol/L, 18.4 μmol/L, 17.2 μmol/L, 14.9 μmol/L, 14.8 μmol/L, 12.1 μmol/L, 3.6 μmol/L and 4.4 μmol/L. The level of citrulline and blood ammonia of the third case after liver transplantation were 24.9 μmol/L and 16.0 μmol/L. The third case was followed up for 3 years and survived without any liver transplantation related complication. ③ The level of ALT, AST, TBil, DBil of the fourth case before liver transplantation, at postoperative 1 day, 2 day, 3 day, 7 day, 10 day, 6 month and 1 year were 35.0 U/L, 268.7 U/L, 682.0 U/L, 425.8 U/L, 57.5 U/L, 34.0 U/L, 29.4 U/L and 18.1 U/L, 37.0 U/L, 419.1 U/L, 436.2 U/L, 139.5 U/L, 35.2 U/L, 32.4 U/L, 54.7 U/L and 32.8 U/L, 7.1 μmol/L, 64.2 μmol/L, 41.4 μmol/L, 17.6 μmol/L, 34.2 μmol/L, 48.7 μmol/L, 14.1 μmol/L and 21.8 μmol/L, 2.8 μmol/L, 18.9 μmol/L, 16.1 μmol/L, 6.0 μmol/L, 14.6 μmol/L, 26.7 μmol/L, 3.9 μmol/L, 11.8 μmol/L. The level of citrulline and blood ammonia of the fourth case after liver transplantation were 8.4 μmol/L and 47.0 μmol/L. One week after surgery, the transplanted right liver of the fourth case occurred atrophy due to blood stealing from the right branch of the portal vein. B-ultrasound examination showed that the reflux of the hepatic artery and hepatic vein was unobstructed. Immunosuppressants were discontinued 3 months after operation on the fourth case and there was no complication such as rejection, bile leakage, biliary stricture, thrombosis and vascular stricture during follow-up. The fourth case died of lung metastasis 19 months after operation.Conclusion:Split domino donor auxiliary liver transplantation can be used for the treatment of metabolic liver disease and advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.

Objective: To investigate the risk factors of perineal incision complications after abdominoperineal resection (APR) for rectal cancer, and to establish a nomogram model to predict the complications of perineal incision. Methods: A case-control study was conducted to retrospectively collect the medical records of 213 patients with colorectal cancer who underwent APR at the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University from January 2010 to December 2016. The complications of perineal incision after APR were classified according to the modified Clavien-Dindo classification of surgical complications (Version 2019), and the complications of grade II and above were defined as "clinically significant complications" .Twenty-two factors related to complication of perineal incision, such as gender, age, surgical procedure, surgical approach, perineal repair, placement of drainage tube, skin position of drainage tube, operation time, intraoperative blood loss, preoperative radiotherapy and chemotherapy, intraoperative local perfusion chemotherapy, tumor classification, pathological grade, tumor T stage, tumor TNM stage and so on, were analyzed by chi-square test for univariate risk factor of complication in all variables, and variables with P<0.2 in univariate analysis were further included in multivariate analysis. Logistic regression analysis was used to screen out independent risk factors. R software (R 3.3.2) was introduced. The rms software package was used to construct a nomogram prediction model. The C-index was calculated (higher meaning better consistency with actual risk) to evaluate the discriminant degree of the model. The Bootstrap method was used to repeat the sampling for internal verification. A total of 42 patients with colorectal cancer who underwent APR from January 2017 to December 2017 at the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University were externally validated, and the corrected C-index was calculated. The model conformity was determined by comparing the C-index calibration difference between the predicted and actual risks. Results: Of the 213 patients with colorectal cancer, 131 were male and 82 were female, with mean age of (59.6±11.6) years. The incidence of postoperative perineal incision complications was 20.2% (43/213), including 27 cases of Clavien-Dindo II and above complications. Univariate analysis showed that the Eastern Cancer Cooperative Group (ECOG) score, preoperative albumin, skin position of drainage tube, intraoperative blood loss, preoperative radiotherapy and chemotherapy were associated with complications of postoperative perineal incision (All P<0.05) . Multivariate analysis showed that preoperative albumin levels ≤38 g/L (OR=105.261, 95% CI: 7.781 to 1423.998, P<0.001), perinead drainage (OR=11.493, 95% CI: 1.379 to 95.767, P=0.024), intraoperative blood loss >110 ml (OR=6.476, 95% CI: 1.505 to 27.863, P=0.012) and preoperative radiotherapy and chemotherapy (OR=7.479, 95% CI: 1.887 to 29.640, P=0.004) were postoperative clinically significant independent risk factors for perineal incision complications. The nomogram model was established. Preoperative albumin level <38 g/L was for 100 points, the preoperative chemoradiotherapy was for 52.5 points, the intraoperative blood loss >110 ml was for 28.5 points, and the perineal drainage was for 17.5 points. Adding all the points was the total score, and the complication rate corresponding to the total score was the predicted rate of the model. The model had a C-index of 0.863. After internal verification, the C-index dropped by 0.005. External verification showed a C-index of 0.841. Conclusions Preoperative nutritional status, skin position of drainage tube, intraoperative blood loss and preoperative radiotherapy and chemotherapy may affect the occurrence of perineal wound complications after APR for rectal cancer. The nomogram model constructed in this study is helpful for predicting the probability of clinically significant complications after APR.

Objective To investigate the risk factors of perineal incision complications after abdominoperineal resection (APR) for rectal cancer, and to establish a nomogram model to predict the complications of perineal incision. Methods A case?control study was conducted to retrospectively collect the medical records of 213 patients with colorectal cancer who underwent APR at the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University from January 2010 to December 2016. The complications of perineal incision after APR were classified according to the modified Clavien?Dindo classification of surgical complications (Version 2019), and the complications of grade II and above were defined as"clinically significant complications".Twenty?two factors related to complication of perineal incision, such as gender, age, surgical procedure, surgical approach, perineal repair, placement of drainage tube, skin position of drainage tube, operation time, intraoperative blood loss, preoperative radiotherapy and chemotherapy, intraoperative local perfusion chemotherapy, tumor classification, pathological grade, tumor T stage, tumor TNM stage and so on, were analyzed by chi?square test for univariate risk factor of complication in all variables, and variables with P<0.2 in univariate analysis were further included in multivariate analysis. Logistic regression analysis was used to screen out independent risk factors. R software (R 3.3.2) was introduced. The rms software package was used to construct a nomogram prediction model. The C?index was calculated (higher meaning better consistency with actual risk) to evaluate the discriminant degree of the model. The Bootstrap method was used to repeat the sampling for internal verification. A total of 42 patients with colorectal cancer who underwent APR from January 2017 to December 2017 at the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University were externally validated, and the corrected C?index was calculated. The model conformity was determined by comparing the C?index calibration difference between the predicted and actual risks. Results Of the 213 patients with colorectal cancer, 131 were male and 82 were female, with mean age of (59.6 ± 11.6) years. The incidence of postoperative perineal incision complications was 20.2% (43/213), including 27 cases of Clavien?Dindo II and above complications. Univariate analysis showed that the Eastern Cancer Cooperative Group (ECOG) score, preoperative albumin, skin position of drainage tube, intraoperative blood loss, preoperative radiotherapy and chemotherapy were associated with complications of postoperative perineal incision (All P<0.05). Multivariate analysis showed that preoperative albumin levels ≤38 g/L (OR=105.261, 95% CI: 7.781 to 1423.998, P<0.001), perinead drainage (OR=11.493, 95% CI: 1.379 to 95.767, P=0.024), intraoperative blood loss>110 ml (OR=6.476, 95% CI: 1.505 to 27.863, P=0.012) and preoperative radiotherapy and chemotherapy (OR=7.479, 95% CI: 1.887 to 29.640, P=0.004) were postoperative clinically significant independent risk factors for perineal incision complications. The nomogram model was established. Preoperative albumin level <38 g/L was for 100 points, the preoperative chemoradiotherapy was for 52.5 points, the intraoperative blood loss>110 ml was for 28.5 points, and the perineal drainage was for 17.5 points. Adding all the points was the total score, and the complication rate corresponding to the total score was the predicted rate of the model. The model had a C?index of 0.863. After internal verification, the C?index dropped by 0.005. External verification showed a C?index of 0.841. Conclusions Preoperative nutritional status, skin position of drainage tube, intraoperative blood loss and preoperative radiotherapy and chemotherapy may affect the occurrence of perineal wound complications after APR for rectal cancer. The nomogram model constructed in this study is helpful for predicting the probability of clinically significant complications after APR.

Objective To investigate the risk factors of perineal incision complications after abdominoperineal resection (APR) for rectal cancer, and to establish a nomogram model to predict the complications of perineal incision. Methods A case?control study was conducted to retrospectively collect the medical records of 213 patients with colorectal cancer who underwent APR at the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University from January 2010 to December 2016. The complications of perineal incision after APR were classified according to the modified Clavien?Dindo classification of surgical complications (Version 2019), and the complications of grade II and above were defined as"clinically significant complications".Twenty?two factors related to complication of perineal incision, such as gender, age, surgical procedure, surgical approach, perineal repair, placement of drainage tube, skin position of drainage tube, operation time, intraoperative blood loss, preoperative radiotherapy and chemotherapy, intraoperative local perfusion chemotherapy, tumor classification, pathological grade, tumor T stage, tumor TNM stage and so on, were analyzed by chi?square test for univariate risk factor of complication in all variables, and variables with P<0.2 in univariate analysis were further included in multivariate analysis. Logistic regression analysis was used to screen out independent risk factors. R software (R 3.3.2) was introduced. The rms software package was used to construct a nomogram prediction model. The C?index was calculated (higher meaning better consistency with actual risk) to evaluate the discriminant degree of the model. The Bootstrap method was used to repeat the sampling for internal verification. A total of 42 patients with colorectal cancer who underwent APR from January 2017 to December 2017 at the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University were externally validated, and the corrected C?index was calculated. The model conformity was determined by comparing the C?index calibration difference between the predicted and actual risks. Results Of the 213 patients with colorectal cancer, 131 were male and 82 were female, with mean age of (59.6 ± 11.6) years. The incidence of postoperative perineal incision complications was 20.2% (43/213), including 27 cases of Clavien?Dindo II and above complications. Univariate analysis showed that the Eastern Cancer Cooperative Group (ECOG) score, preoperative albumin, skin position of drainage tube, intraoperative blood loss, preoperative radiotherapy and chemotherapy were associated with complications of postoperative perineal incision (All P<0.05). Multivariate analysis showed that preoperative albumin levels ≤38 g/L (OR=105.261, 95% CI: 7.781 to 1423.998, P<0.001), perinead drainage (OR=11.493, 95% CI: 1.379 to 95.767, P=0.024), intraoperative blood loss>110 ml (OR=6.476, 95% CI: 1.505 to 27.863, P=0.012) and preoperative radiotherapy and chemotherapy (OR=7.479, 95% CI: 1.887 to 29.640, P=0.004) were postoperative clinically significant independent risk factors for perineal incision complications. The nomogram model was established. Preoperative albumin level <38 g/L was for 100 points, the preoperative chemoradiotherapy was for 52.5 points, the intraoperative blood loss>110 ml was for 28.5 points, and the perineal drainage was for 17.5 points. Adding all the points was the total score, and the complication rate corresponding to the total score was the predicted rate of the model. The model had a C?index of 0.863. After internal verification, the C?index dropped by 0.005. External verification showed a C?index of 0.841. Conclusions Preoperative nutritional status, skin position of drainage tube, intraoperative blood loss and preoperative radiotherapy and chemotherapy may affect the occurrence of perineal wound complications after APR for rectal cancer. The nomogram model constructed in this study is helpful for predicting the probability of clinically significant complications after APR.

OBJECTIVETo investigate the risk factors of postoperative perineal wound complications after abdominoperineal resection for rectal cancer.

METHODSThe databases of Medline, Embase, Web of Science, Ovid, Cochrane Library, CBM, CNKI, VIP and WANFANG were searched for the studies of abdominoperineal resection up to October 2016. The quality of the included studies was assessed by using "Cochrane collaboration's tool for assessing risk of bias" and "the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale". The meta-analyses were performed with Review Manager 4.3 software.

RESULTSEight randomized controlled trials and 33 non-randomized controlled trials with 15 287 patients were enrolled. Meta-analyses showed that neoadjuvant radiotherapy (OR=2.55, 95%CI: 1.66 to 3.93, P<0.01) and obesity (OR=2.12, 95%CI: 1.05 to 4.26, P=0.04) significantly increased the morbidity of perineal wound complication after abdominoperineal resection for rectal cancer; omentoplasty(OR=0.30, 95%CI: 0.14 to 0.67, P=0.003), presacral space clysis (OR=0.11, 95%CI: 0.01 to 0.94, P=0.04), abdominal drainage (OR=0.36, 95%CI: 0.21 to 0.63, P<0.01), perineal skin drainage(OR=41.72, 95%CI: 2.39 to 727.90, P=0.01) and local application of antibiotics (OR=0.17,95%CI: 0.07 to 0.40, P<0.01) significantly decreased the morbidity of perineal wound complication; however, extralevator abdominoperineal excision (OR=0.88, 95%CI: 0.57 to 1.35, P=0.56), laparoscopic procedure (OR=1.02, 95%CI: 0.47 to 2.21, P=0.96), biologic mesh reconstruction (OR=1.81, 95%CI: 0.95 to 3.46, P=0.07), myocutaneous flap reconstruction (OR=1.32, 95%CI: 0.18 to 9.91, P=0.79) and negative pressure drainage(OR=0.69, 95%CI: 0.35 to 1.34, P=0.27) had no influence on the healing of perineal wound.

CONCLUSIONSNumerous factors can affect the occurrence of perineal wound complication after abdominoperineal resection for rectal cancer. Due to the limitations of enrolled studies, multicenter large scale and high-quality randomized controlled trials are required to validate the current results.

OBJECTIVE:To study the effect of Xuchangqing-ermiaosan-santeng formula on the contents of tumor necrosis fac-tor α(TNF-α)and ossification-related factor DKK-1 in serum of model mice with arthritis,and reveal its mechanism in the treat-ment of arthritis. METHODS:60 BALB/c mice were randomly divided into normal group,model group,sulfasalazine group(posi-tive control,9 mg/kg) and Xuchangqing-ermiaosan-santeng formula low-dose,medium-dose,high-dose groups (calculated by crude drug as 11.25,22.5,45 g/kg),10 in each group. Except for normal group,other 50 mice were intraperitoneallly injected complete Freund's adjuvant + proteoglycans to induce model with arthritis. After modeling,mice in each administration group were intragastrically administrated relevant medicines,mice in normal group and model group were intragastrically administrated equal volume of normal saline,once a day,for 20 d. After administration,enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to detect the contents of TNF-αand DKK-1 in serum of mice in each group,and ultrastructural changes of sacroiliac joint synovial cells were ob-served by transmission electron microscopy. RESULTS:Compared with normal group,TNF-α content in serum in model group was obviously increased,DKK-1 content was obviously decreased (P<0.05);sacroiliac joint synovial cells showed hyperplasia, organellar deformation,mitochondrial swelling and other pathologic damage. Compared with model group,TNF-α contents in se-rum in each administration group were obviously decreased(P<0.05 or P<0.01);except for sulfasalazine group,the DKK-1 con-tent of mice in other administration groups were obviously increased (P<0.05). Pathologic damages of sacroiliac joint synovial cells in each administration group were reduced to varying degrees,and improvement degree in Xuchangqing-ermiaosan-santeng for-mula groups was higher than sulfasalazine group. CONCLUSIONS:Xuchangqing-ermiaosan-santeng formula may inhibit the sacroil-iac arthritis and pathological ossification of model mice with arthritis by decreasing TNF-α content and increasing DKK-1 content in serum.

Objective To track the migration and incorporation of intravenously injected, magneti?cally labeled endothelial progenitor cells ( EPCs) from mouse bone marrow into the blood vessels in a rapid?ly growing HCC model by microMR (7.0 T). Methods This study was approved by the Institutional Com?mittee on Animal Research. H22 hepatic ascitic cancer cells was directly injected into the left liver lobe of BALB/c nude mice ( n=15) . EPCs derived from bone marrow of C57BL/6 mice were isolated and cultured. The third passage EPCs were collected and labeled with 25 μg/ml superparamagnetic iron oxide ( SPIO) and poly?l?lysine (PLL) complex (SPIO?PLL). MTT assay and flow cytometry were used to evaluate the difference of growth curve and apoptosis between labeled and unlabeled EPCs. EPCs labeled with SPIO?PLL were injected into mice via tail vein in experiment group (on the 3rd day after establishing HCC model) (n=15) and control group (n=6). The signal changes of tumor (the 1st, 3rd and 7th day after transplantation) were observed by microMR. Prussian blue staining and immunohistochemistry staining of CD31 were per?formed. MRI findings were confirmed by histomorphology. Two?sample t test was used to analyze the data. Results Single tumor was showed in the liver of all mice 3 d after establishing models. Labeling with SPIO?PLL at a concentration of 25μg/ml did not alter cell growth curve ( measured by MTT assay;t=0.281, P>0.05) and cell apoptosis (analyzed by flow cytometry). The apoptosis rates of SPIO?PLL labeled and un?labled EPCs were (12.31±1.43)% and (11.57±1.24)% in early stage, and (0.55±0.07)% and (0.49± 0?05)% in late stage. No significant differences were observed between them (t=0.967, 1.060; both P>0?05) . Migration and incorporation of transplanted and labeled cells into tumor were documented with in vivo microMR as low signal intensity at the tumor periphery as early as the 3rd day after EPCs administration in preformed tumors (4/5). Prussian blue staining showed iron?positive cells at the sites corresponding to low signal intensity on MRI. The positive cells expressing CD31 existed in intratumoral and peritumoral vessels. There was no signal change in control group at all time points. Conclusions MRI can demonstrate the in?corporation of magnetic labeled mouse EPCs into the implanted hepatoma. It may be helpful for early diagno?sis and therapy of liver tumor.

OBJECTIVE To examine the reversal effect of desipramine (DMI) on resistance to temozolomide(TMZ) in U251/TR cells and explore its mechanism. METHODS U251/TR cells were exposed to DMI (20-80μmol · L-1) or TMZ (0.5-10 mmol · L-1) for 24 h, cell viability was determined by cell counting kit-8 assay with IC50 calculated. The cytotoxicity of U251/TR cells treated with TMZ (1 or 2 mmol·L-1) in combination with DMI (20, 30 or 40 μmol · L-1) for 24 h was detected using CCK-8 assay. Synergism between DMI and TMZ was analyzed by the JIN Zheng-jun method. Apoptosis of U251/TR cells induced by TMZ 1 mmol · L-1, DMI 30 μmol · L-1,or their combination was examined by Hoechst33258 stains and caspase 3 activity was detected by luminescence analysis. Expression of C/EBP homologous protein (CHOP) was measured using quantitative real-time PCR and Western blotting. The survival rate of U251/TR cells treated with TMZ 1 mmol·L-1 and/or DMI 30μmol·L-1 was also assessed after silencing CHOP expression by small interference RNA (siRNA). RESULTS DMI or TMZ alone inhibited the growth of U251/TR cells significantly in a concentration-dependent manner (r 2=0.983,0.982,P<0.05), with the IC50 (33.6 ± 0.5)μmol · L-1 and (2.5 ± 0.6)mmol · L-1, respectively. The cell viability inhibitory rate of U251/TR cells by TMZ (1 or 2 mmol · L-1) combined with DMI (20, 30, or 40μmol · L-1) was greater than that by TMZ or DMI alone (P<0.05). The JIN Zheng-jun analysis revealed that combination of DMI and TMZ produced synergistic cytotoxicity (Q>1.15), ie, compared with TMZ alone, TMZ (1 mmol·L-1) com?bined with DMI (30 μmol · L-1) produced significant nuclear fragmentation and condensation (P< 0.05). In addition, DMI and TMZ in combination activated caspase 3 activity in U251/TR cells (P<0.05). Knock?down of CHOP by specific siRNA attenuated the synergistic effect of DMI in the presence of TMZ, the survival rate of the combined drug group raised from 51.8%to 62.2%(P<0.05). CONCLUSION The results suggest that DMI reverse resistance of U251/TR cells to TMZ through activation of the CHOP-depend?ently apoptosis pathway.