Epidemiological investigation of 605 patients with chemical burns in northeastern China / 中华烧伤杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the pathogenic and clinical characteristics of chemical burns in recent years, so as to provide reference for its prevention and treatment.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Medical records of patients with chemical burns out of 6299 burn patients admitted to our unit from January 1992 to December 2011 were screened and retrospectively analyzed, including gender, age, onset time of the injury, pre-hospital management, injury cause, injury-causing chemicals, body site of wound, burn area and depth, complications, treatment and follow-up results. The data of age distribution and incidence of complications were processed with chi-square test.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Investigation showed that 605 out of 6299 burn patients (accounting for 9.60%) were chemically injured. (1) Among the patients with chemical burns, the ratio of male to female was 5.11:1.00, with the mean age of 37.6 years, and the highest incidence occurred in patients aged from 20 to 29 years (29.42%, 178/605). The difference in the numbers of patients among different age groups was statistically significant (χ(2) = 207.298, P < 0.01). (2) Chemical burns mainly occurred in summer (28.43%, 172/605) and autumn (38.35%, 232/605). About 72.07% (436/605) of patients received irrigation before admission. (3) In 453 (74.88%) patients, injury occurred during industrial production. The main injury-causing chemicals were acid (46.61%, 282/605) and alkali (20.66%, 125/605), and among them the sulfuric acid accounted for the highest ratio (18.18%, 110/605). (4) The main wound positions of chemical burns were the limbs (289 patients) and the head, face, and neck region (263 patients). The mean burn area was 5.98% TBSA. The depth ranged from superficial partial-thickness to full-thickness. (5) Three hundred and forty-eight patients with chemical burns suffered common complications, including inhalation injury (154, 44.25%), ocular burns (113, 32.47%), and poisoning (81, 23.28%). There was statistically significant difference in the incidence of the three complications (χ(2) = 23.086, P < 0.01). (6) Five hundred and twenty-one patients were cured, with the cure rate of 86.12%, and 76.20% out of them healed with scars (397/521). Three patients died of poisoning, with a mortality of 0.50%.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The patients with chemical burns accounted for a high proportion of the burn patients admitted to our unit in the same period. The chemical burns mainly involved young males with the relatively close time of onset, and acid and alkali were the main causative factors in the process of industrial production. Most patients had the clinical features of deep wound, high incidence of complications, and liability of scar formation after wound healing.</p>

Efficacy of microencapsulated HepG2 cells transplantation in rats with hepatolenticular degeneration / 中国当代儿科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the efficacy of intraperitoneal transplantation of microencapsulated HepG2 cells in rats with hepatolenticular degeneration (HLD).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>HLD was induced by copper-overloaded diet with forage containing 1 g/kg copper sulfate and water with 0.185% copper sulfate for 12 weeks in rats. One hundred and twenty three-month-old male Wistar rats were randomly intraperitoneal injected with normal saline (NS), microencapsulated HepG2 cells or non-microencapsulated HepG2 cells 9 weeks after copper-overloaded diet. Blood or liver samples were obtained at five time points: 3, 7, 14, 21 and 28 days after transplantation (n=8). The other 8 rats receiving normal diet were used as the control group. Serum levels of ALT, AST, albumin and Cu and liver Cu contents were measured.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Serum ALT, AST and Cu levels and liver Cu contents in the NS-treated HLD, microencapsulated HepG2 cells and non-microencapsulated HepG2 cells transplantation groups increased significantly at all time points, in contrast, serum albumin levels decreased significantly in the NS-treated HLD and non-microencapsulated HepG2 cells transplantation groups compared with those in the control group at all time points (P<0.05), but serum albumin levels in the microencapsulated HepG2 cells transplantation restored to the level of the control group 28 days after transplantation. Serum ALT, AST and Cu levels and liver Cu contents in the microencapsulated HepG2 cells and non-microencapsulated HepG2 cells transplantation groups were significantly lower, in contrast, albumin levels were higher than those in the NS-treated HLD group on almost time points (P<0.05). Serum levels of ALT, AST and Cu and liver Cu contents in the microencapsulated HepG2 cells transplantation group decreased 7 or 14 days after transplantation, while serum albumin levels increased significantly 14 days after transplantation compared with those in the non-microencapsulated HepG2 cells transplantation group (P<0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Intraperitoneal transplantation of microencapsulated HepG2 cells can relieve hepatic damage, reduce serum and liver Cu levels, and improve copper metabolism, therefore it is promising for the treatment of HLD.</p>

Clone the Alcohol Dehydrogenase and L-lactate Dehydrogenase of Bio-hydrogen Producing Bacteria Ethanoligenens harbinense B49 and Its Sequence Analysis / 微生物学通报

Designed the degenerate primers of alcohol dehydeogenase and L-lactate dehydrogenase to aug- ment Ethanoligenens harbinense B49 genomic DNA, and obtained about 780 bp and 610 bp PCR product respectively. Augmented flank sequences of the two PCR fragments with the Cassette PCR method. Similar- ity alignment showed that the products of the cloned DNA were very high similar to those of alcohol dehy- drogenase genes and L-lactate dehydrogenase genes respectively. One of the two sequences was 1902 bp long, and the ORF of adh was 1101 bp long and encoded 366 amino acids. Its putative molecular weight was about 39.71 kD, its calculational isoionic point was pH 5.93. The maximal identity and positive was 51% and 73% with Clostridium thermocellum ATCC 27405 adh. The other one was 2490 bp long, and the ORF of adh was 951 bp long and encoded 316 amino acids. Its putative molecular weight was 34.23 kD, its calcula-tional isoionic point was pH 6.09. The maximal identity and positive was 55% and 74% with Bacillus megaterium L-ldh. Successfully cloning these two genes would not only enrich the gene resources of L-lactate dehydrogenase and alcohol dehydrogenase genes, but also give the scientific warrant for the meta- bolic engineering research and the construction of the gene-engineering bacteria.