Contrast Researches of Liver Biopsy and Ultrasound in the Diagnosis of Fatty Liver / 昆明医科大学学报

Objective To evaluate the significance of liver biopsy and B ultrasonograpgy in the diagnosis of fatty liver. Methods The results of 62 patients with liver steatosis diagnosed by liver puncture biopsy but not by B-ultrasonograpgy were contrastively analyzed and combined with liver function, blood lipids, blood glucose, and body mass index. Results The 62 cases which were not diagnosed as fatty liver by B-ultrasonograpgy were proved to be 5％-33％liver steatosis after liver puncture biopsy. Among the 62 cases, 23 cases were indicated by the B-ultrasonograpgy that the liver parenchyma echo did not see abnormalities, 18 cases showed the liver parenchyma echo slightly was enlarged, 17 cases showed the liver parenchyma echo density was a bit enhanced and 4 cases were diffuse liver damage,which respectively were 37.01％、29.03％、27.42％and 6.45％. Pathologically it indicated that 45 cases were 5％≤liver steatosis≤19％. Among the 45 cases, 18 cases were indicated by the B-ultrasonograpgy that the liver parenchyma echo was not seen abnormalities, 8 cases showed the liver parenchyma echo slightly was enlarged, 17 cases showed the liver parenchyma echo density was a bit enhanced, and 2 cases were diffuse liver damage, and the change of ultrasound was mainly showed by the liver parenchyma echo not seen abnormalities and the enhanced liver parenchyma echo density. Pathologically it indicated that 17 cases were 20％≤liver steatosis≤33％, 6 cases were indicated by the B-ultrasonograpgy that the liver parenchyma echo did not see abnormalities, 5 cases showed the liver parenchyma echo slightly was enlarged, 5 cases showed the liver parenchyma echo density was a bit enhanced, and 1 case was diffuse liver damage, and the change of ultrasound was mainly showed by the liver parenchyma echo not seen abnormalities, the slightly enlarged liver parenchyma echo and the enhanced liver parenchyma echo density. By analyzing the influence to the ultrasound changes by patients' liver function, body mass index, blood fat and blood sugar, and with logistic regression analysis through a disorderly classification, it was found that the larger value of the glutamine transferase, alkaline phosphatase, body mass index, triglyceride and low density lipoprotein cholesterol, the higher possibility of diffuse liver damage, and the higher level of fatty degeneration, the higher possibility of diffuse liver damage. Conclusion In the diagnosis of fatty liver, when the fatty degeneration is below 1/3, B-ultrasonic examination can't show characteristic changes of fatty liver. It should be closely observed or take liver puncture biopsy to make a definite diagnosis of fatty liver.

Proteomic Analysis of the Hippocampus in Mouse Models of Trigeminal Neuralgia and Inescapable Shock-Induced Depression / 神经科学通报·英文版

To investigate the behavioral and biomolecular similarity between neuralgia and depression, a trigeminal neuralgia (TN) mouse model was established by constriction of the infraorbital nerve (CION) to mimic clinical trigeminal neuropathic pain. A mouse learned helplessness (LH) model was developed to investigate inescapable foot-shock-induced psychiatric disorders like depression in humans. Mass spectrometry was used to assess changes in the biomolecules and signaling pathways in the hippocampus from TN or LH mice. TN mice developed not only significant mechanical allodynia but also depressive-like behaviors (mainly behavioral despair) at 2 weeks after CION, similar to LH mice. MS analysis demonstrated common and distinctive protein changes in the hippocampus between groups. Many protein function families (such as cell-to-cell signaling and interaction, and cell assembly and organization,) and signaling pathways (e.g., the Huntington's disease pathway) were involved in chronic neuralgia and depression. Together, these results demonstrated that the LH and TN models both develop depressive-like behaviors, and revealed the involvement of many psychiatric disorder-related biomolecules/pathways in the pathogenesis of TN and LH.

HeteroMeth: A Database of Cell-to-cell Heterogeneity in DNA Methylation / 基因组蛋白质组与生物信息学报·英文版

DNA methylation is an important epigenetic mark that plays a vital role in gene expression and cell differentiation. The average DNA methylation level among a group of cells has been extensively documented. However, the cell-to-cell heterogeneity in DNA methylation, which reflects the differentiation of epigenetic status among cells, remains less investigated. Here we established a gold standard of the cell-to-cell heterogeneity in DNA methylation based on single-cell bisulfite sequencing (BS-seq) data. With that, we optimized a computational pipeline for estimating the heterogeneity in DNA methylation from bulk BS-seq data. We further built HeteroMeth, a database for searching, browsing, visualizing, and downloading the data for heterogeneity in DNA methylation for a total of 141 samples in humans, mice, Arabidopsis, and rice. Three genes are used as examples to illustrate the power of HeteroMeth in the identification of unique features in DNA methylation. The optimization of the computational strategy and the construction of the database in this study complement the recent experimental attempts on single-cell DNA methylomes and will facilitate the understanding of epigenetic mechanisms underlying cell differentiation and embryonic development. HeteroMeth is publicly available at http://qianlab.genetics.ac.cn/HeteroMeth.

Analysis on the Characteristics of Insomnia Groups Based on Web Data Mining / 医学信息学杂志

The paper introduces some common methods (including web crawler technology,Chinese words segmentation and keyword extraction algorithm) of Web data mining,acquires the data related to insomnia in the online medical website through the web crawler technology,classifies and processes the data,carries out words segmentation and keywords extraction of the text data based on the rules,and analyzes the gender and age distribution situations,symptoms,causes of disease and other characteristics of patients with insomnia.

Synergistic anti-tumor effect of obatoclax and MG-132 in esophageal cancer cell line CaES-17 / 南方医科大学学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore whether MG-132 could enhance the anti-tumor activity of obatoclax against esophageal cancer cell line CaES-17.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>MTT assay was used to determine the cytotoxicity of obatoclax and MG-132 in CaES-17 cells. The IC(50) of obatoclax and MG-132 were used to determine the molar ratio (1:2.4) of the two drugs for combined treatment of the cells. The concentrations of obatoclax and MG-132 ranged from 1/8 IC(50) to 4 IC(50) after serial dilution, and their combination index (CI) was calculated using CompuSyn software. The expression of ubiquitin and the cleavage of PARP, caspase-9, phospho-histone H3 and phospho-aurora A/B/C in the exposed cells were examined with Western blotting; the cell apoptosis was measured by flow cytometry with Annexin V staining, and the percentage of cells in each cell cycle phase was also determined by flow cytometry.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The CI of obatoclax and MG-132 was 0.296 for a 50% inhibition of Caes-17 cells and was 0.104 for a 95% inhibition. The cells treated with obatoclax or MG-132 alone showed increased expression of ubiquitin and cleavage of PARP and caspase-9. Compared with the cells treated with obatoclax or MG-132 alone, the cells with a combined treatment exhibited significantly increased expression of ubiquitin, cleavage of PARP and caspase-9, and expression of phospho-Histone H3 (P<0.05). The combined treatment of the cells also resulted in significantly increased expression of phospho-Aurora A/B/C compared with obatoclax treatment alone. The cells with the combined treatment showed significantly higher percentages of apoptotic cells and cells in sub-G(1) and G(2)/M phases compared with the cells treated with either of the drugs (P<0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Obatoclax combined with MG-132 shows a significant synergistic anti-tumor effect against esophageal cancer CaES-17 cells by inducing apoptosis and cell cycle arrest.</p>

Expression and Immunoreactivity of a Human Group A Rotavirus Vp4 / 中国病毒学

Rotavirus capsid protein Vp4 plays an important role in the virus adhering and entering the cells. In this study, a Vp4 gene cloned from a rotavirus strain TB-Chen was highly expressed in E.coli BL21 (DE3). The results of the Western blot showed that the protein possesses specific immuno-reactivities and can be specifically recognized by guinea pig antibodies against rotavirus strain SA11 or Wa. Some Vp4 dimers were formed during renaturation. These data obtained from this study provide a strong basis for further study on the structure and function of the Vp4.

Cloning of Full Genome and Genotyping of a Group A Human Rotavirus / 中国生物工程杂志

By means of genetic cloning and recombinant techniques, full genome cDNA sequences of rotavirus strain TB-Chen were isolated from an infantile hospitalized with acute gastroenteritis. Nucleotide sequences analyses showed that the full genome of strain TB-Chen contains 18613 nucleotides, encoding 5791 amino acids. Genotyping results showed that the strain TB-Chen belongs to genotype G2P[4]/NSp4[A]. This is the first report on a full genome of Group A rotavirus in China, and has important significance for deep understanding structure and functions of rotaviruses and developing rotavirus vaccines.

Value of Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography Thyroid Imaging for Diagnosis of Congenital Hypothyroidism / 实用儿科临床杂志

Objective To explore the causes of congenital hypothyroidism by single photon emission computed tomography(SPECT) thyroid imaging.Methods Nineteen cases with congenital hypothyroidism were collected,and SPECT thyroid imaging was performed 15 minutes late after injected 99m TcO_ 4- 18.5-37.0 MBq.Results Five cases were found with normal glands,1 case with enlarged thyroid, 2 cases with enlarged thyroid and increased radiation,4 cases with ectopic thyroid,4 with a hypogenetic thyroid,and the last 3 cases showed no thyroid imaging.Conclusions The causes of congenital hypothyroidism can be found by SPECT thyroid imaging,which is important to the diagnosis of congenital hypothyroidism combined with detection of T_3,T_4,TSH.