Microbial presence on kitchen dishcloths in Chinese households.

To study the microbiological contamination of kitchen dishcloths in Chinese housholds, 1010 'in-use' kitchen dishcloths were collected from residential premises in Beijing and Shanghai, and they were sent to the laboratory for microbiological quality analysis. The aerobic plate counts for dishcloths were 10-109 cfu/cm2 in the range of 150 cfu/cm2 to 1.776×109 cfu/cm2 (Beijing) and 62.5 cfu/cm2 to 8.75×108 cfu/cm2 (Shanghai). Nineteen species of bacteria were detected in the dishcloths, most of which were conditional pathogenic bacteria. This study found a significant difference in the aerobic plate counts of dishcloths with regard to type, number of the days used, activities used for, and some family factors. The findings of the study highlight the potential for contamination of kitchen dishcloths within homes.

[Treatment of calcaneal avulsion fractures with twinfix suture anchors fixation].

OBJECTIVE: For the calcaneal avulsion fracture, the current method is more commonly used screws or Kirschner wire to fix fracture fragment. This article intended to explore the feasibility and clinical efficacy for the treatment of avulsion fractures with TwinFix suture anchors. METHODS: From July 2007 to November 2010, 21 patients were reviewed, including 15 males and 6 females, ranging in age from 49 to 65 years,with a mean of 58.7 years. Twelve patients had nodules in the right heel and 9 patients had nodules in the left heel. All the patients had closed fractures. The typical preoperative symptoms of the patients included pain in the upper heel and weak in heel lift. Body examination results: palpable sense of bone rubbing in the back of the heel, and swelling in the heel. Surgery treatment with TwinFix suture anchors performed as follows : to fix TwinFix suture anchors into the calcaneal body, then to drill the fracture block, to make the double strand suture through the fracture holes, to knot the suture eachother to fix the block, and to use stitch to fix the remaining suture in the Achilles tendon in order to improve the block fixation. The criteria of the AOFAS Foot and Ankle Surgery by the United States Association of ankle-rear foot functional recovery was used to evaluate the Achilles tendon. RESULTS: Total average score was (95.5 +/- 3.12) points, including pain items of(38.5 +/- 2.18) points,the average score of functional items of (49.5 +/- 3.09) points,and power lines of 10 points in all patients. Twenty-one patients got an excellent result, 16 good and 5 poor. CONCLUSION: The methods of treatment for the calcaneal avulsion fractures with TwinFix suture anchors is a simple operation, and have excellent clinical effect, which is worthy of promotion.

Inhibiting gastric cancer-associated angiogenesis by CIAPIN1 siRNA.

Angiogenesis plays an essential role in tumor growth and metastasis and is a promising target for cancer therapy. We characterized the effects of selective CIAPIN1 inhibition on the angiogenesis gastric cancer cell line SGC7901 by stable transfection of CIAPIN1 siRNA. Our study has been shown that CIAPIN1 play the determined role in tumor growth and multidrug resistance. The conditioned media obtained from SGC7901 treated with CIAPIN1 siRNA suppressed in vitro the proliferation, migration and tube formation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells compared with untransfected cells or cells transfected with control vector alone. Furthermore, the stable transfection of CIAPIN1 siRNA inhibited in vivo tumorigenicity and angiogenesis. Our findings support that selective inhibition of CIAPIN1 alone plays an instrumental role on gastric cancer associated angiogenesis.

Clinical effects of acupuncture after surgical operation in patients with prolapse of the lumbar intervertebral disc.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the clinical effects of acupuncture after surgical operation in patients with prolapse of the lumbar intervertebral disc (PLID). METHODS: Sixty-nine patients in this series, who had undergone the removal of nucleus pulposus and the intervertebral fusion as well, were randomly divided into a treatment group of 35 cases and a control group of 34 cases. The former was treated by acupuncture and conventional rehabilitation therapy, and the latter only by the rehabilitation therapy. The therapeutic effects were evaluated according to the scoring system stipulated by Japanese Orthopedics Association (JOA). RESULTS: In the treatment group, the average functional recovery rates in 3-month, 6-month and one-year periods were respectively 49.93%, 90.31% and 95.08%; while the rates were repesctively 26.24%, 63.42% and 71.36% in the control group, showing statistically significant difference between the two groups (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Acupuncture can confirmatively promote the functional recovery for'patients with prolapse of the lumbar intervertebral disc after surgical removal of nucleus pulposus and with intervertebral fusion.

[The study for the immuno-protection of E. coli O157:H7 outer membrane protein].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the protective efficacy against a lethal dose of E. coli O157:H7 after intranasal, oral and subcutaneous immunization with the outer membrane protein (OMP) extracted from the whole cell of E. coli O157:H7. METHODS: Female BALB/C mice were immunized three times (on days 0, 7 and 14) with OMP and CT or Complete Frund adjuvant. On the 21st day after the last immunization, serum, fecal extracts and vaginal washes were collected for the detection of antigen-specific antibody responses by ELISA before the oral challenge with E. coli O157:H7 933. And the antigens that induced the specific antibody responses were analysed by Western-blotting. Then, the mice were orally challenged with 0.3 ml 4.25 x 10(10)/ml live E. coli O157:H7, and the mortality was recorded. On the 7th day after the challenge, the mice were sacrificed and the heart, liver, lung, kidney, small intestine and colon were collected. Then the histology lesions were observed by light microscopy. RESULTS: In ELISA, both intranasal and oral immunization, with CT as a mucosal adjuvant, induced strong anti-OMP IgA responses in serum, fecal extract and vaginal washes, and anti-OMP IgG responses in serum. However, the intranasal immunization was much more effective to induce specific IgA and IgG responses than the oral immunization. In contrast to mucosal immunization, subcutaneous immunization only induced high levels of specific IgG antibodies in serum, and did not effectively promote IgA immune response. The results of the protective efficacy after challenge showed that both intranasal and oral immunizations with OMP provided significant protection (86.7% to 40%, P < 0.01 and 73.3% to 40%, P < 0.05) against a lethal dose of E. coli O157:H7 challenge, and intranasal immunization possessed a better protective ability (86.7% to 73.3%, P < 0.05). In contrast, the mice immunized subcutaneously were not protected. They were died more early after oral challenge. Furthermore, the histopathological features of the kidney, colon and other organs also appeared to be well correlated with immunization route. In comparison with the mice immunized subcutaneously and those in control group, the severity of the histopathological lesions in the tissues of the mice immunized intranasally was minimal. CONCLUSION: These results suggested that the intranasal immunization should be the best choice of vaccine development against E. coli O157:H7.