The acute toxic effects of microcystin LR in SD rats / 中华预防医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To assess Microcystin LR (MCLR)-induced acute toxic effects in male Sprague-Dawley rats.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The rats were injected with MCLR intraperitoneally in different doses for different days. The organs and serum with rats were collected at 1 and 7 days after injection, and 7 days after the final injection (total 14 days). Pathological and enzymatic changes were observed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The rats injected with 122 microg/kg MCLR showed myocardial cells damage including pyknosis, plasma dissolve and myofibrilla (pls check with dictionary) necrosis in the heart muscles after 24 hours. At the same time, the activities of serum glutamate-oxaloacetate transaminase (GOT), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and creatine phosphonase (CPK) were higher than these in the other groups (P < 0.01). The kidney was also damaged, kidney cell degeneration, and the increase of blood creatine (BCr) and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) were also seen. In liver pathological study, liver cell hemorrhage, degeneration and/or necrosis was observed. In serum the activities of glutamate-pyruvate transaminase (GPT), alkaline phosphatase (LDH) and GOT were higher than these in the other groups (P < 0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>These results suggested that MCLR can injure the heart, kidney and the liver in SD rats, and there is a dose-response relationship between MCLR and the toxic effect.</p>

Angiogenesis in colorectal cancer and its relationship with apoptosis and proliferation / 中华消化杂志

Objective To study the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF), microvessel density (MVD) and the relationship among angiogenesis,proliferation,and apoptosis in colorectal cancer (CRC). Methods Expression of VEGF mRNA was evaluated by semi quantitative RT PCR in 52 CRC samples and 48 adjacent normal colorectal tissue samples. The PCR product was sequenced to verify the desired results. Expressions of VEGF protein, MVD, proliferating index (PI), and apoptotic index (AI) were detected by immunohistochemical methods in 52 human CRC. Results Expression of VEGF mRNA was detected in a significantly greater proportion of colorectal carcinoma samples than that adjacent normal colorectal tissues (76.9% vs. 52.1%; P 0.05). The expression of VEGF protein was positively correlated with PI ( r =0.409, P 0.05). Conclusions VEGF may play an important role in the angiogenesis of colorectal carcinoma and cell proliferation, but may not directly correlate with cell apoptosis.