Factors in first-time adrenocorticotropic hormone therapy and their influence on spasm control time in infantile spasms: a Cox proportional-hazards regression model analysis / 中国当代儿科杂志

OBJECTIVE@#To investigate the factors in first-time adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) therapy and their influence on spasm control time in infants with infantile spasms.@*METHODS@#A total of 72 infants with infantile spasms who were admitted from January 2008 to October 2013 were enrolled. Their clinical data were collected, and the exposure factors for infantile spasms were selected. A Cox proportional-hazards regression model analysis was performed for these factors to analyze their influence on spasm control time.@*RESULTS@#Clarification of the etiology (known or unexplained etiology), frequency of spasms before treatment, and presence or absence of combination therapy (ACTH used alone or in combination with magnesium sulfate) had a significant influence on spasm control time in infants with infantile spasms. The infants with a known etiology had a significantly shorter spasm control time than those with unexplained etiology, and the infants with a low frequency of spasms before treatment and receiving ACTH combined with magnesium sulfate early had a significantly longer spasm control time than their counterparts (P<0.05).@*CONCLUSIONS@#For infants with infantile spasms at initial diagnosis, etiology should be clarified, which may helpful for evaluating prognosis. A combination of ACTH and magnesium sulfate should be given as soon as possible, which may improve their prognosis.

Human umbilical cord blood mononuclear cell transplantation promotes long-term neurobehavioral functional development of newborn SD rats with hypoxic ischemic brain injury / 中华儿科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the effect of human umbilical cord blood mononuclear cells (UCBMC) promoting nerve behavior function and brain tissue recovery of neonatal SD rat with hypoxic ischemic brain injury (HIBI).</p><p><b>METHOD</b>A modified newborn rat model that had a combined hypoxic and ischemic brain injury as described by Rice-Vannucci was used, early nervous reflex, the Morris water maze and walking track analysis were used to evaluate nervous behavioral function, and brain MRI, HE staining to evaluate brain damage recovery.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>Newborn rat Rice-Vannucci model showed significant brain atrophy, obvious hemiplegia of contralateral limbs,e.g right step length [(7.67 ± 0.46) cm vs. (8.22 ± 0.50) cm, F = 1.494] and toe distance [(0.93 ± 0.06) cm vs. (1.12 ± 0.55) cm, F = 0.186] were significantly reduced compared with left side, learning and memory ability was significantly impaired compared with normal control group (P < 0.01); Cliff aversion [(8.44 ± 2.38) s vs.(14.22 ± 5.07) s, t = 4.618] and negative geotaxis reflex time [(7.26 ± 2.00) s vs. (11.76 ± 3.73) s, t = 4.755] on postnatal 14 days of HIBI+ transplantation group were significantly reduced compared with HIBI+NaCl group (P < 0.01) ; the Morris water maze experiment showed escape latency [ (23.11 ± 6.64) s vs. (34.04 ± 12.95) s, t = 3.356] and swimming distance [ (9.12 ± 1.21) cm vs.(12.70 ± 1.53) cm, t = 17.095] of HIBI+transplantation group were significantly reduced compared with those of HIBI+NaCl group (P < 0.01) ; the residual brain volume on postnatal 10 d [ (75.37 ± 4.53)% vs. (67.17 ± 4.08)%, t = -6.017] and 67 d [ (69.05 ± 3.58)% vs.(60.83 ± 3.69)%, t = -7.148]of HIBI+ transplantation group were significantly larger than those of HIBI+NaCl group (P < 0.01); After human UCBMC transplantation, left cortical edema significantly reduced and nerve cell necrosis of HIBI+ transplantation group is not obvious compared with HIBI+NaCl group.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Human UCBMC intraperitoneal transplantation significantly promoted recovery of injured brain cells and neurobehavioral function development.</p>

Expression of estrogen receptor α in hepatitis B-related hepatocellular carcinoma and its clinical significance / 中华外科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the expression and its clinical significance of estrogen receptor (ERα) and phosphorylated estrogen receptor (p-ERα) in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. The associations between ERα, p-ERα and IL-6 were also analyzed.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression of ERα, p-ERα and IL-6 in tumor tissues from 77 cases with hepatocellular carcinoma. The relations between ERα and the clinical pathological parameters and prognosis were also analyzed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The positive rates of ERα, p-ERα and IL-6 in hepatocellular carcinoma were 39.0% (30/77), 45.4% (35/77) and 72.7% (56/77), respectively. The expression of ERα and p-ERα were negatively correlated with the expression of IL-6 (r=-0.468, P<0.01; r=-0.370, P<0.01, respectively). The positive rate of ERα in patients with tumor size≤5 cm, serum level of alpha-fetoprotein<400 µg/L, with complete encapsulation and non-microvascular invasion was significantly higher than those with tumor size>5 cm, serum level of alpha-fetoprotein≥400 µg/L, non-complete encapsulation and with microvascular invasion (all P<0.05). The overall survival rates of ERα-positive and ERα-negative patients were 66.7% and 23.4% (P<0.05). And the disease-free survival rates of ERα-positive and ERα-negative patients were 83.3% and 57.4% (P<0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The tumor biological features of ERα-positive patients are better than that of ERα-negative patients. The role of ERα in hepatocellular carcinoma may be related to IL-6 level.</p>

Small interfering RNA inhibits the expression of connexin43 in the human corpus cavernosum penis smooth muscle cells / 中华男科学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To inhibit the expression of connexin43 (Cx43) in the human corpus cavernosum penis smooth muscle cells by small interfering RNA (siRNA) and detect the gap junction intercellular communication (GJIC), and to investigate the application of siRNA technology in the gap junction of corpus cavernosum penis smooth muscle cells and its role in the penile erection process.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>With the help of the software of Ambion Corporation, the specific recombinant plasmids with siRNA targeting human Cx43 gene were constructed. The recombinant plasmids having been stably transferred into human corpus cavernosum penis smooth muscle cells for 48 hours, semi-quantitive reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blotting techniques were used to examine the inhibitory effects of siRNA on the expressions of the Cx43 gene and protein, in comparison with the siRNA negative control and the blank control group, respectively. The GJIC was detected by scrape-loading and fluorescence dye transfer experiments through the fluorescence microscope.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The results of enzyme digestion analysis and DNA sequencing showed that the recombinant plasmid pSilencer 1.0-U6-siRNA-Cx43 was successfully constructed. The relative levels of Cx43 mRNA and protein expression in the smooth muscle cells were (0.45 +/- 0.08)% and (0.56 +/- 0.06)% after successful transfer of the recombinant plasmid. However, the expression levels of mRNA and protein were (0.72 +/- 0.04)% and (0.80 +/- 0.08)% in the negative siRNA transfer group, and (0.74 +/- 0.09)% and (0.77 +/- 0.11)% in the blank control, respectively, with a significant difference (P < 0.05). The GJIC also decreased significantly.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>siRNA can significantly inhibit the expression of Cx43 and block the GJIC in the human corpus cavernosum penis smooth muscle cells. siRNA technology plays an important role in penile erection and flaccidity.</p>

Development of salivary gland tumors in pleomorphic adenoma gene 1 transgenic mice / 中华医学遗传学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>Activation and overexpression of pleomorphic adenoma (PLAG1) gene due to t(3;8)(p21;q12) translocation are associated with the development of human pleomorphic adenomas of the salivary glands. This study was conducted to generate ubiquitously-expressed or tissue-specific expressed PLAG1 transgenic mice and to elucidate the role of PLAG1 gene in tumorigenesis in vivo.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Human PLAG1 cDNA was cloned from salivary gland tumor or placenta tissues by RT-PCR. Ubiquitous expression vector pCMV-EGFP/PLAG1 driven by CMV promoter and tissue-specific expression vector pMMTV-PLAG1 driven by MMTV LTR were constructed. NIH3T3 cells transiently transfected with pCMV-EGFP/PLAG1 showed high expression of PLAG1 in nucleus. Transgenes were microinjected into pronucleus of zygotes to generate transgenic mice.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>It was found that the human PLAG1 cDNA cloned from several salivary gland tumor and normal placenta tissues consistently showed a variation of a single nucleotide at the same position when compared with the human PLAG1 cDNA sequence in Genbank (Accession No. U65002), which led to T458P at protein level. It might be a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)locus. Fused EGFP/PLAG1 protein was found to be localized in the nucleus of NIH3T3 cells transiently transfected with pCMV-EGFP/ PLAG1. Several pCMV-EGFP/PLAG1 and pMMTV-PLAG1 transgenic mouse lines were obtained respectively. As might be expected, pMMTV-PLAG1 transgenic mice spontaneously developed salivary gland tumors in three independent lines, among which, line 42 showed tumorigenic phenotype in 100% of transgenic mice within three months after birth.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Overexpression of PLAG1 gene plays a crucial role in tumorigenesis of salivary gland tumors.</p>