Cognitive changes are associated with increased blood-brain barrier leakage in non-brain metastases lung cancer patients.

To explore the relationship between cognitive function and blood-brain barrier leakage in non-brain metastasis lung cancer and healthy controls. 75 lung cancers without brain metastasis and 29 healthy controls matched with age, sex, and education were evaluated by cognitive assessment, and the Patlak pharmacokinetic model was used to calculate the average leakage in each brain region according to the automated anatomical labeling atlas. After that, the relationships between cognitive and blood-brain barrier leakage were evaluated. Compared with healthy controls, the leakage of bilateral temporal gyrus and whole brain gyrus were higher in patients with lung cancers (P < 0.05), mainly in patients with advanced lung cancer (P < 0.05), but not in patients with early lung cancer (P > 0.05). The cognitive impairment of advanced lung cancers was mainly reflected in the damage of visuospatial/executive, and delayed recall. The left temporal gyrus with increased blood-brain barrier leakage showed negative correlations with delayed recall (r = -0.201, P = 0.042). An increase in blood-brain barrier leakage was found in non-brain metastases advanced lung cancers that corresponded to decreased delayed recall. With progression in lung cancer staging, blood-brain barrier shows higher leakage and may lead to brain metastases and lower cognitive development.

Microscopic study on skin and soft tissue after repeated expansion / 中华整形外科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>The study was to evaluate the microscopic changes on skin and soft tissue after repeated expansion for clinical work.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Six little pigs were divideded as: conventional expansion group, repeated expansion group, and blank control group. Histologic, ultrastructure and bFGF of the skin were observed and measured in each group after samples had been made.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The skin and soft tissue after repeated expansion were healthy on the whole. Compared with the conventional expansion group, there was more microscopic change in the repeated expansion group. Collagen fibers were injured evidently. Cells were injured slightly and proliferated much more, and moreover, they were more activated. The content of bFGF was more higher.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The skin and soft tissue after repeated expansion are healthy on the whole by more growth and more repair though repeated expansion may result in more injuries. So repeated expansion is safe and feasible.</p>

Artesunate reduces chicken chorioallantoic membrane neovascularisation and exhibits antiangiogenic and apoptotic activity on human microvascular dermal endothelial cell.

Artesunate (ART), a semi-synthetic derivative of artemisinin extracted from the Chinese herb Artemisia annua, is a safe and effective antimalarial drug. ART has now been analyzed for its anti-angiogenic activity in vivo and in vitro. The anti-angiogenic effect in vivo was evaluated on chicken chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) neovascularisation model. ART started to significantly inhibit CAM angiogenesis at a low concentration of 10 nm/100 microl/egg, and completely inhibited the angiogenesis at 80 nm/100 microl/egg. The inhibitory effect of in vitro angiogenesis was tested on the models of proliferation and differentiation of human microvascular dermal endothelial cell line, an important representive of endothelial cells, as well as immunocytochemistry assay for two major VEGF receptors (Flt-1 and KDR/flk-1) expressions. The results showed that ART could remarkably inhibit proliferation and differentiation of endothelial cells in a dose-dependent form in a range of 12.5-100 microM. ART also could reduce Flt-1 and KDR/flk-1 expressions in a range of 0.1-0.5 microM. Furthermore, we examined the apoptosis of human microvascular dermal endothelial cell line induced by ART. The apoptosis was detected by morphological assay of ethidium bromide (EB)/acridine orange (AO) dual staining as well as DNA fragmentation assay of TUNEL labeling and quantified by flowcytometric PI assay. Our results suggest that the antiangiogenic effect induced by ART might occur by the induction of cellular apoptosis. These findings and the known low toxicity indicated ART might be a promising candidate for angiogenesis inhibitors.