Telomere length and telomerase mutations in peripheral blood leukocytes of children with chronic aplastic anemia / 中国当代儿科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the change in telomere length and TERC and TERT mutations in peripheral blood leukocytes of children with chronic aplastic anemia (CAA).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Sixty-nine children with CAA were divided into untreated group (n=24) who did not receive immunosuppressive therapy (IST), response group (n=36) who showed response to IST, and non-response group (n=9) who showed no response to IST; another 35 healthy children matched for age and sex were selected as the control group. The telomere-to-single copy gene (T/S) ratio in peripheral blood leukocytes was measured by real-time PCR in all groups. PCR was performed to detect TERC and TERT mutations in all children with CAA.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The untreated and non-response groups had significantly lower T/S ratios than the control and response groups (P<0.01), whereas there was no significant difference in T/S ratio between the response and control groups (P>0.05). TERC and TERT mutations were not found in all children with CAA.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The change in telomere length in children with CAA may be related to the development and progression of disease. Telomere length measurement may be used as a prognostic indicator in children with CAA.</p>

Expression of telomerase activity and its related genes in the marrow hemopoietic stem cells of children with aplastic anemia / 中国当代儿科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the relationship of telomerase RNA component (hTERC) and the telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) with telomerase activity in the marrow hemopoietic stem cells of children with aplastic anemia (AA).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Fifty-two children with chronic AA, 13 children with acute AA and 21 normal controls were enrolled in the study. Telomerase activity and the expression of mRNA of hTERT and hTERC were detected by Telomeric Repeat Amplification Protocol (TRAP) with silver staining and real-time Q-PCR respectively.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Levels of telomerase activity in both the chronic and acute AA groups were higher than in the control group (P<0.01). The AA groups had significantly higher expression of hTERT mRNA than the control group (P<0.01). The chronic AA group had higher expression of hTERT mRNA and telomerase activity than the acute AA group (P<0.05). There was no significant difference in the expression of hTERC mRNA among the three groups (P=0.812). There was a significant correlation between the expression of hTERT mRNA and telomerase activity (r=0.660, P<0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Expression of telomerase activity may be involved in the pathophysiology and development of AA, and hTERT plays a crucial role in expression of telomerase activity.</p>

Correlation between Chlamydia pneumoniae infection and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease / 中华流行病学杂志

Objective To investigate the correlation between Chlamydia pneumonia (Cpn)infection and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).Methods 82 patients with acute exacerbation COPD (AE-COPD) or stabilized COPD patients at outpatient visits,in the People' s Hospital of Jiangyin city from Aug.2010 to May 2012,together with 46 cases having stationary phase COPD and 38 healthy volunteers as control group,were involved in this study.Patients were bled 2 ml,on the next day of hospitalization while patients at emergency room were bled 2 ml immediately,but bled again on the 15th day.Serum was separated through cryopreservation and the Cpn antibodies (IgG,IgM and IgA antibodies) were detected,under micro-immunofluorescence.Results In terms of IgG in the three groups,the positive rates did not show significant differences (P＞0.05) but the GMT of the IgG in the AE-COPD group was significantly higher (P＜0.01) than that in the control group.IgA positive rate among the three groups; AE-COPD appeared the highest.There was no significant difference between the AE-COPD group and stationary phase COPD group (P＞0.05),however,there were significant differences between the AE-COPD group,the stationary phase COPD group and the control group (P＜0.01).In terms of GMT of IgA in the three groups,there was significant difference between the AE-COPD group and stationary phase COPD group (P＞0.05),but with significant difference between the AE-COPD group and the control group (P＞0.01).There was significant difference between stationary phase COPD group and the control group (P＞0.05).When comparing both the rates of acute infection and chronic infection on the AE-COPD groups with the control group,there appeared significant differences (P＜0.05,P＜0.01).When comparing the acute and chronic infection between the stationary phase COPD group and the control group,the rate of acute infection did not show significant difference (P＞0.05) while the chronic infection rate appear to have had significant difference (P＜0.01).Conclusion Cpn infection seemed to be closely related to the development of COPD.