Alteration of gene expression during nasopharyngeal carcinogenesis revealed by oligonucleotide microarray after microdissection of tumor tissue and normal epithelia from nasopharynx / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>Microarray and microdissection techniques were being used for many applications to study the carcinogenesis of some human tumors. But seldom studies had hitherto combined these two techniques to study carcinogenesis mechanism of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). To identify a set of genes involved in the carcinogenesis and development of NPC, we used the microdissected homogeneous NPC tissue cells and the pure normal epithelium pillar cells to construct the whole human genome expression profiles.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>We preserved the tissue samples from nasopharynx of 18 patients (including 13 samples of NPC and 5 samples of normal or inflammatory mucous tissue samples from nasopharynx) in RNAlater Stabilization Reagent. The tissue samples were microdissected to harvest the homogeneous tissue cells, then total RNA was isolated from them. The sufficient antisense RNA (aRNA) was amplified from these total RNA. HG-U133.Plus.2.0 GeneChip was used to construct the human whole genome expression profiling of each sample. Differential patterns of expression of genes correlated with the carcinogenesis, classification and progression of NPC were identified with comparing the expression profiling data respectively in leave one out cross-validation analysis. Correlation between aRNA expression measured by the microarrays and semi-quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (sqRT-PCR) were also ascertained, and found that hybridization results were validated in all of the 18 patients.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Differential patterns of expression of 127 genes correlated with the carcinogenesis (A P value less than 0.001 with the 2-fold differentiated expression between case group and control group) of the NPC were filtered. The top most up-regulated and down-regulated 8 genes by the way of permutation test were also selected and listed in the paper. Expression of genes E2F6 and TSPAN-1 was identified using aRNA by sqRT-PCR and showed that there was significant difference between the average value of case groups and that of control group respectively (t = 2.170, df = 16, P = 0.045 and t = -2.946, df = 16, P = 0.009).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>We had identified some genes which could be the molecular marker during the carcinogenesis and the development of the NPC. The genes which selected from the different subgroups seemed to be implicated for the diagnosis,classification, and progression of NPC, and provided important insights into their underlying biology.</p>

Clinical evaluation of target controlled infusion system for sufentanil administration / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>Sufentanil target controlled infusion (TCI) provides stable analgesia, better hemodynamic control than a bolus injection of intravenous anesthetics, anticipated recovery and improved quality of anesthesia during perioperative period. This study evaluated the accuracy and feasibility of TCI system for sufentanil at high concentrations in Chinese surgical patients.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Twelve low risk adult patients undergoing elective surgery under general anesthesia were included in this study. Sufentanil was administered with a specific TCI system incorporating the population pharmacokinetic data of sufentanil previously reported, using a target effect-site concentration of sufentanil 4 or 6 ng/ml. Sufentanil TCI duration was 30 minutes. Frequent arterial blood samples were taken during and up to 24 hours after sufentanil TCI for determination of plasma sufentanil concentrations by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry. The changes of circulatory system function during the procedure, recovery profile and adverse effects were recorded. Measured plasma sufentanil concentrations were compared with the values predicted by the TCI system. The bias (median performance error, MDPE), precision (median absolute performance error, MDAPE) and wobble (variability of performance error) of the sufentanil TCI system were determined.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>All patients had stable cardiovascular variables during induction and maintenance of anesthesia. Time to eye opening and extubation were (5.6 + or - 1.7) minutes when TCI set to 4 ng/ml and (7.2 + or - 2.3) minutes when set to 6 ng/ml. There was no episode of agitation, muscle rigidity or intraoperative awareness. The bias (MDPE), precision (MDAPE) and wobble of the sufentanil TCI system were -3.7%, 18.9% and 19.6% respectively during TCI, and the MDPE, MDAPE and wobble were -29.1%, 31.7% and 15.0% respectively after TCI (up to 8 hours).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The TCI system programmed for sufentanil at 4 or 6 ng/ml was considered acceptable for clinical use in low risk Chinese surgical patients. But the relatively larger MDPE and MDAPE after TCI suggest improvements of the pharmacokinetic model are needed.</p>

Expression of NASG gene and its role in human nasopharyngeal homogenous tissue cells / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>The NASG gene has been confirmed as a tumor-suppressor gene candidate related to nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) by previous studies. We further investigated the expression and the role of NASG in the homogeneous tissue cells by microdissecting the samples of tissue from human NPC, and introduced a new way to study the expression of specific genes in tumor tissue.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The RNAlater reagent was used to preserve the samples of tissue from the nasopharynx of NPC patients. The samples were microdissected to harvest the homogeneous tissue cells and then total RNA was isolated from them. The antisense RNA (aRNA) was amplified from the total RNA by "in vitro transcription (IVT)". We investigated NASG expression in the homogeneous tumor cells of NPC (22 samples) and compared it with that in the pure epithelial pillar cells of normal nasopharyngeal (10 samples) by semi-quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (sqRT-PCR).</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The high quality total RNA could be harvested from the microdissected homogeneous tissue cells of the nasopharynx, then sufficient aRNA was derived from it. NASG gene expression was identified using aRNA by sqRT-PCR and showed that there was significant difference between the average value of case groups and that of control group (t = -5.275, df = 30, P < 0.001). The NASG gene in the subgroups WHOII tended to express lower levels than those in the subgroup WHOIII although this difference was not statistically significant (t = -1.584, df = 20, P = 0.129 > 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Microdissection was an effective method to obtain the homogeneous tissue cells of nasopharyngeal tissue (including the samples of NPC and non-NPC) in our study. Sufficient aRNA from amplifying total RNA could be used in sqRT-PCR to analyse the expression of NASG in the pure tissue cells. NASG should be a tumor-suppression gene candidate regarding to NPC.</p>