Purification and characterization of rabbit factor IX and its existence as a two-chain factor IX alpha in circulating plasma.

The long term objective of this study is to immunodeplete rabbits of factor IX as a means of developing a rabbit model for hemophilia B for use in studies of tissue factor-dependent blood coagulation. As a first step, we have purified rabbit factor IX by basically two different methods: (1) conventional chromatography utilizing DEAE-Sephadex and heparin-agarose column chromatography (2) immunoaffinity chromatography on monoclonal anti-rabbit factor IX IgG column. Purified rabbit factor IX migrated as a single band with an apparent molecular mass of 76 kD on nonreduced SDS-PAGE. On reduced SDS-PAGE the majority of factor IX migrated as a two-chain molecule (molecular masses 51 and 28 kD) and a faint band corresponding to 78 kD. We have shown that the purification of rabbit factor IX as a two-chain molecule is not due to the partial proteolysis of factor IX during its purification from commercially obtained rabbit plasma. Analysis of 3H-labelled rabbit factor IXa on SDS-PAGE revealed that, in contrast to human factor IXa, carbohydrate was found associated with the heavy chain of activated factor IX (H beta) after release of the activation peptide. Further understanding of the molecular properties of rabbit factor IX and the generation of neutralizing monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies will facilitate the development of a rabbit model for hemophilia B.     

Risk Factors for Animal-related Injury Among lowa Large-livestock Farmers: A Case-control Study Nested in the Agricultural Health Study

CONTEXT: Although farmers are at risk for injuries from contact with large livestock, few previous studies have examined risk factors for animal-related injuries. PURPOSE: This case-control study, nested in the Agricultural Health Study, aimed to assess risk factors for animal-related injury among Iowa large-livestock farmers. METHODS: A screener questionnaire sent to 6999 farmers identified 116 farmers with large livestock who had an animal-related injury requiring medical advice/treatment in the previous year. Several possible risk factors for injury were assessed by comparing these farmers with 342 farmers who had livestock but were not injured in the previous year. FINDINGS: A multiple logistic regression analysis showed significant associations between animal-related injury and the use of a hearing aid (odds ratio [OR] = 5.4 [95% CI, 1.6 to 18.0]), doctor-diagnosed arthritis or rheumatism (OR = 3.0 [95% CI, 1.7 to 5.2]), education beyond high school (OR = 1.8 [95% CI, 1.1 to 2.8]), and a younger age. Farmers engaged in off-farm work were less likely to sustain animal-related injuries (OR = 0.4 [95% CI, 0.2 to 0.8]). CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to show associations between animal-related injury and a younger age, hearing difficulties, and doctor-diagnosed arthritis. Hearing loss and arthritis, which are more common among farmers than among other workers, may be particularly important risk factors to address in future preventive studies.     

Pyrogenic reactions in hemodialysis patients, Hanoi, Vietnam.

Of 33,111 patients admitted to a large hospital in Vietnam from November 2000 through July 2001, a total of 303 were undergoing hemodialysis and had pyrogenic reactions (ie, fever and/or rigors). Ten case patients (3.3%) had documented bacteremia; pathogens were largely waterborne microorganisms. Pyrogenic reactions in case patients might have occurred because of suboptimal water quality or inadequate dialyzer reprocessing procedures.     

Cyclic AMP and the potassium-induced vasodilation

The cAMP concentration of bovine facial arteries (helical strips) increased from 0.84 +/- 0.14 to 1.51 +/- 0.24 nmole/g wet weight, when the strips were relaxed by exposure to a physiological salt solution containing 10 instead of 2.7 mM KCl. A similar result (increase from 1.13 +/- 0.15 to 2.07 +/- 0.29 nmole cAMP/g wet weight) was obtained in strips pretreated with 10(-7) g/ml beta-methyldigoxin. These strips reacted to 10 mM KCl with a constriction. Addition of the phosphodiesterase activator N-methyl-imidazole (3 - 10(-3)M) did not affect the mechanical response to 10 mM KCl. It is concluded that for the potassium-induced vasodilation cAMP does not have a mediating function comparable to that in beta-adrenergic relaxation of vascular smooth muscle.     

Removal of T cells from bone marrow for transplantation: a monoclonal antilymphocyte antibody that fixes human complement

Graft-versus-host disease is one of the major problems in clinical bone marrow transplantation. Many experiments in animals have shown that it could be greatly reduced if mature T lymphocytes were removed from the donor marrow. Here we describe a new rat monoclonal antibody, CAMPATH 1, which is suitable for depleting lymphocytes from human marrow grafts. CAMPATH 1 is an IgM that fixes human complement. It binds to both T and B lymphocytes and some monocytes but not to other hemopoietic cells. When peripheral blood mononuclear cells were treated with CAMPATH 1 and complement, more than 99% of lymphocytes were killed and viable T cells could no longer be detected. Under these conditions, in vitro multipotential erythroid and myeloid colony-forming cells were unaffected. As well as being used for in vitro treatment of bone marrow to remove T cells, CAMPATH 1 could potentially be applied to other experimental and clinical situations where depletion of lymphoid cells is required, including serotherapy to achieve immunosuppression for organ transplants or to treat lymphocytic leukemias.     

The use of dragonfly nymphs in the control of Aedes aegypti

The predatory rates of the dragonfly nymphs on Aedes aegypti were studied in the laboratory and under field conditons. Labellulid nymphs were found to predate on Ae. aegypti larvae and pupae readily. The rate of consumption was found to be 133 +/- 21 all stages of larvae per medium size nymph per 24 hours. In container habitats complete elimination of all larvae and pupae were achieved between day 4 and 9 depending on density of aquatic stages. The dragonfly nymphs as predators could be used in biological control of Aedes mosquitoes.     

Decision Making Based on Fuzzy Aggregation Operators for Medical Diagnosis from Dental X-ray images

Medical diagnosis is considered as an important step in dentistry treatment which assists clinicians to give their decision about diseases of a patient. It has been affirmed that the accuracy of medical diagnosis, which is much influenced by the clinicians’ experience and knowledge, plays an important role to effective treatment therapies. In this paper, we propose a novel decision making method based on fuzzy aggregation operators for medical diagnosis from dental X-Ray images. It firstly divides a dental X-Ray image into some segments and identified equivalent diseases by a classification method called Affinity Propagation Clustering (APC+). Lastly, the most potential disease is found using fuzzy aggregation operators. The experimental validation on real dental datasets of Hanoi Medical University Hospital, Vietnam showed the superiority of the proposed method against the relevant ones in terms of accuracy.     

基于IMRT时代的第八版AJCC/UICC鼻咽癌临床分期建议

本文首次发表在Cancer,2016,122(4):546-558.

目的 准确的分期系统对癌症的治疗至关重要。随着癌症分期和治疗方法的演变,需要不断评价分期的适用性和改进性。方法 基于第7版AJCC/UICC分期回顾性分析香港和中国大陆2个肿瘤中心收治的 1609例接受调强放射治疗的首诊无转移鼻咽癌患者临床资料,所有患者治疗前均行核磁共振分期评估。结果 无其他T₃、T₄期解剖结构受侵患者中,伴有咀嚼肌间隙(翼内肌和/或翼外肌)侵犯、椎前肌侵犯及咽旁间隙侵犯的三组患者之间OS相近。伴广泛软组织(上述侵犯结构以外的软组织)受侵患者OS与伴有颅内侵犯或颅神经侵犯相似。仅2%患者锁骨上窝以上淋巴结转移者直径>6 cm,其OS率与下颈淋巴结转移者类似。用下颈(环状软骨尾侧缘水平以下)代替锁骨上窝并不影响N分期之间的风险差异性。采用推荐的T、N分期,T₄N_0-2、T_1-4N₃期OS相近。结论 经AJCC/UICC分期筹备委员会审阅后,建议第8版分期应将翼内肌/翼外肌从T₄降到T₂期,增加椎前肌为T₂期,用下颈取代锁骨上窝,将淋巴结最大直径>6 cm合并归为N₃期,将T₄、N₃期统一归为Ⅳ_A期。这些改变不仅使得相邻分期间风险差异性更好,而且使得临床实践性与全球适用性之间达到最佳平衡。     

Amelogenin is a cell adhesion protein

Amelogenin, the major protein component of tooth enamel, is shown to be a cell adhesion protein. Since it had been shown that an amelogenin-containing preparation, Emdogain, possessed cell-adhesive activity, we tested the hypothesis that amelogenin was responsible for cell-adhesive activity. Recombinant amelogenin was found to promote adhesion at less than 15 micro g/60-mm plate and requires divalent cations for activity. While we found that amelogenin does not bind to collagen or heparin under physiological conditions, it was demonstrated previously that amelogenin does bind to hydroxyapatite. The cell-adhesive activity of amelogenin may play a role in development and may provide a partial explanation for the therapeutic effects of Emdogain in periodontal regeneration.