Isoprenaline Induces Periostin Expression in Gastric Cancer

PURPOSE: Periostin mediates critical steps in gastric cancer and is involved in various signaling pathways. However, the roles of periostin in promoting gastric cancer metastasis are not clear. The aim of this study was to investigate the relevance between periostin expression and gastric cancer progression and the role of stress-related hormones in the regulation of cancer development and progression. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Normal, cancerous and metastatic gastric tissues were collected from patients diagnosed with advanced gastric cancer. The in vivo expression of periostin was evaluated by in situ hybridization and immunofluorescent staining. Meanwhile, human gastric adenocarcinoma cell lines MKN-45 and BGC-803 were used to detect the in vitro expression of periostin by using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and western blotting. RESULTS: Periostin is expressed in the stroma of the primary gastric tumors and metastases, but not in normal gastric tissue. In addition, we observed that periostin is located mainly in pericryptal fibroblasts, but not in the tumor cells, and strongly correlated to the expression of α-smooth muscle actin (SMA). Furthermore, the distribution patterns of periostin were broader as the clinical staging of tumors progressed. We also identified a role of stress-related signaling in promoting cancer development and progression, and found that isoprenaline upregulated expression levels of periostin in gastric cancer cells. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that the distribution pattern of periostin was broader as the clinical staging of the tumor progressed and found that isoprenaline upregulated expression levels of periostin in gastric cancer cells.

Comparison of the histological morphology between normal skin and scar tissue / 华中科技大学学报（医学）（英德文版）

Skin wound healing is a complex event, and interrupted wound healing process could lead to scar formation. The aim of this study was to examine the morphological changes of scar tissue. Pathological staining (HE staining, Masson's trichrome staining, methenamine silver staining) was used to evaluate the morphological changes of regenerating epidermis in normal skin and scar tissue, and immunofluorescence staining to detect the expression of collagen IV, a component of basement membrane (BM), and the expression of integrinβ4, a receptor for BM laminins. Additionally, the expression of CK14, CK5, and CK10 was measured to evaluate the proliferation and differentiation of keratinocytes in normal skin and scar tissue. The results showed that the structure of the skin was histologically changed in scar tissue. Collagen IV, expressed under the epidermis of normal skin, was reduced distinctly in scar tissue. Integrinβ4, expressed in the basal layer of normal skin, was found absent in the basal layer of scar tissue. Additionally, it was found that keratinocytes in scarring epidermis were more proliferative than in normal skin. These results indicate that during the skin wound healing, altered formation of BM may affect the proliferation of keratinocytes, reepithelial and tissue remodeling, and then result in scar formation. Thus, remodeling BM structure during wound repair may be beneficial for improving healing in cutaneous wounds during clinical practice.

Comparison of the histological morphology between normal skin and scar tissue / 华中科技大学学报（医学）（英德文版）

Skin wound healing is a complex event, and interrupted wound healing process could lead to scar formation. The aim of this study was to examine the morphological changes of scar tissue. Pathological staining (HE staining, Masson's trichrome staining, methenamine silver staining) was used to evaluate the morphological changes of regenerating epidermis in normal skin and scar tissue, and immunofluorescence staining to detect the expression of collagen IV, a component of basement membrane (BM), and the expression of integrinβ4, a receptor for BM laminins. Additionally, the expression of CK14, CK5, and CK10 was measured to evaluate the proliferation and differentiation of keratinocytes in normal skin and scar tissue. The results showed that the structure of the skin was histologically changed in scar tissue. Collagen IV, expressed under the epidermis of normal skin, was reduced distinctly in scar tissue. Integrinβ4, expressed in the basal layer of normal skin, was found absent in the basal layer of scar tissue. Additionally, it was found that keratinocytes in scarring epidermis were more proliferative than in normal skin. These results indicate that during the skin wound healing, altered formation of BM may affect the proliferation of keratinocytes, reepithelial and tissue remodeling, and then result in scar formation. Thus, remodeling BM structure during wound repair may be beneficial for improving healing in cutaneous wounds during clinical practice.

Measuring health care efficiency with a tripartite configuration under the "National" Health Insurance system / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>The "National" Health Insurance (NHI) in Taiwan, China is a single-payer system that was introduced in 1995 to provide universal health care. It is worth noting that three stakeholders are involved in Taiwan's NHI, which can be seen as a triangular governance regime between the Bureau of "National" Health Insurance (BNHI), the insured and providers. Accordingly, this study intended to assess the efficiency of various different production processes that occur among these stakeholders in Taiwan's NHI system.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A two-stage relational Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model is adopted to investigate the sub-process efficiencies of the health care resources held by 23 cities and counties through stages I or II, where the outputs of the first stage serve the inputs of the second. The dataset was collected from the annual reports published by the Department of Health, Taiwan, China.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Under the proposed framework, the efficiency of the whole process can be obtained from the product of productivity and allocative efficiency. Ten DMUs are efficient either in stages I or II, with only two DMUs being efficient with regard to both sub-processes.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The relational DEA model not only demonstrates the physical relationship between the whole process and the sub-process components, but also produces reliable outcomes in efficiency measurement among different stakeholders in Taiwan's NHI system.</p>

Efficiency of resource allocation in the hospital sector after global budgeting under National Health Insurance / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>Taiwan has implemented a National Health Insurance (NHI) program to provide uniform comprehensive coverage since 1995. Forced by the severe financial deficit, global budgeting is introduced to replace the original payment system in Taiwan's NHI. Under global budgeting system, the total budget is distributed to six geographical regions in Taiwan. There is no pre-determined budget for each hospital. In order to investigate the longitudinal trend of how global budgeting influences health care resource, it is essential to estimate the efficiency of resource allocation in Taiwan's NHI.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Malmquist index (MI) are used to investigate the 8-year panel data of 23 cities and counties which was collected from the annual report from the Department of Health, Taiwan, China. A value of MI greater than 1 indicates that total factor productivity progress has occurred, while a value of MI less than 1 indicates productivity loss.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>As a result, 37 of the 184 DMUs in the analysis were found to be relatively efficient during the period, in which 14 of 23 DMUs are efficient in 2002 right after adopting globe budgeting. A trend of MI declines between 2002 and 2009 implies the volume of health care services decrease after adopting global budgeting system. Production efficiency has been improved after global budgeting implies that behaviors of health providers control cost and avoid wasting resource at macro level.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The regressive MI indicates the hospitals redistribute health care resource to eliminate unnecessary treatment and to control the growth of service volume under global budgeting system. Hence, a trend of declining MI focuses on health care resource redistribution rather than efficiency improvement in this study.</p>

Separation of rod- and cone-driven oscillatory potential from retinal cone degeneration rat and congenital stationary night blindness rat / 中华实验眼科杂志

BackgroundOscillatory potentials (OPs) has been used extensively in experimental research and clinical diagnosis,but it is well known that OPs are the summating potentials originated from retinal rod and cone.To separate the rod and cone OPs is helpful for us to diagnose some retinal diseases.ObjectiveThis study was to analyze the characteristics of cone-and rod-driven OPs. Methods The retinal cone degeneration ( RCD ) and congenital stationary night blindness(CSNB) rats were used in this study and SD rats served as control,and 6 rats for each kinds of animals.Scotopic and photopic OPs were recorded in each rat under the dark adaptation for 12 hours and light adaptation for 10 minutes at the stimulate light intensities of -35,-25,-15,-5,0,5 db respectively with RETIscan Visual Electrophysical System.The scotopic and photopic OPs were extracted from flash electroretinogram (FERG) with Maflab7.0 Butterworth filtering waves,and the frequency spectrum of the OPs was analyzed by fast Fourier transform.The characteristics of OPs from RCD rats and CSNB rats were assessed and compared.Results The a wave and b wave of ERG were showed under the dark adaptation condition in both SD and RCD rats,but the b wave was absent in CSNB rat.Under the light adaptation condition,b wave was seen in both SD and CSNB rats,but a wave and b wave of RCD rat were absent.Two peaks were exhibited in both SD and RCD rats under the darkadaptation condition and high intensity of stimulate light at the lower frequency( domain frequency) of 75-110 Hz,90-120 Hz and high frequency ( minor frequency) 90- 120 Hz,110- 135 Hz respectively.In various intensities of stimulate light,CSNB rats appeared a peak at 70-100 Hz.But in light-adaptation and various intensities of stimulate light,the frequency peaks were seen at 75-95 Hz and 70-85 Hz from both SD and CSNB rats respectively.However,under the light adaptation condition,only one peak was seen in SD and CSNB rats at the 75-95 Hz and 70-85 Hz respectively.Compared with SD rats,the mean implied time of b wave was delayed and the amplitude was lowed under the light adaptation (P＜0.05 ),however,no significant differences were found in the implied time and amplitude of b wave of scotopic ERG between SD rats and RCD rats( P＞0.05 ).The scotopic OPs showed the prolong implied time and depressed amplitudes in RCD rats and CSNB rats compared with SD rats( P＜0.05 ),and the photopic OPs presented the prolong implied time and lowed amplitude in CSNB rat in comparison with SD rats (P ＜ O.05 ).ConclusionsCone- and rod-driven OPs appear very different characteristics.The results of this study imply that rod pathway gives more contribution to OPs than cone pathway.Analysis of these results will be helpful for the exploration of the origin of OPs and the diagnosis of the related disease.