Spider Angiomas in Patients with Liver Cirrhosis: Role of Alcoholism and Impaired Liver Function

A study was undertaken to compare two new methods of capillary blood flow measurement, namely fluorescein flowmetry (FF) and laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF). The blood flow was measured in a pelvic pouch during its construction and in the completed ileoanal anastomosis in 12 patients. There was a high correlation between the two methods (correlation coefficient, 0.78) (p <0.01) when the blood flow was measured in the pelvic pouch. The correlation coefficient between the two methods for the difference between the blood flow in the pelvic pouch at the site of the planned anastomosis when the pouch resided in the abdomen and that in the completed ileoanal anastomosis was r = 0.99 (n = 12, p< 0.001); the reduction amounted to 25% as measured by FF and 27% as measured by LDF (n = 12, p < 0.01). All ileoanal anastomoses healed perfectly, the lowest FF and LDF values being 0.004 density units/sec and 0.3 V, respectively. The results indicate that either method can be considered for measuring capillary blood flow.     

Deformability study of breast cancer cells using microfluidics

Cell deformability is an important biomarker which can be used to distinguish between healthy and diseased cells. In this study, microfluidics is used to probe the biorheological behaviour of breast cancer cells in an attempt to develop a method to distinguish between non-malignant and malignant cells. A microfabricated fluidic channel design consisting of a straight channel and two reservoirs was used to study the biorheological behaviour of benign breast epithelial cells (MCF-10A) and non-metastatic tumor breast cells (MCF-7). Quantitative parameters such as entry time (time taken for the cell to squeeze into the microchannel) and transit velocity (speed of the cell flowing through the microchannel) were defined and measured from these studies. Our results demonstrated that a simple microfluidic device can be used to distinguish the difference in stiffness between benign and cancerous breast cells. This work lays the foundation for the development of potential microfluidic devices which can subsequently be used in the detection of cancer cells. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) proteins of different bat species confer variable susceptibility to SARS-CoV entry

The discovery of SARS-like coronavirus in bats suggests that bats could be the natural reservoir of SARS-CoV. However, previous studies indicated the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) protein, a known SARS-CoV receptor, from a horseshoe bat was unable to act as a functional receptor for SARS-CoV. Here, we extended our previous study to ACE2 molecules from seven additional bat species and tested their interactions with human SARS-CoV spike protein using both HIV-based pseudotype and live SARS-CoV infection assays. The results show that ACE2s of Myotis daubentoni and Rhinolophus sinicus support viral entry mediated by the SARS-CoV S protein, albeit with different efficiency in comparison to that of the human ACE2. Further, the alteration of several key residues either decreased or enhanced bat ACE2 receptor efficiency, as predicted from a structural modeling study of the different bat ACE2 molecules. These data suggest that M. daubentoni and R. sinicus are likely to be susceptible to SARS-CoV and may be candidates as the natural host of the SARS-CoV progenitor viruses. Furthermore, our current study also demonstrates that the genetic diversity of ACE2 among bats is greater than that observed among known SARS-CoV susceptible mammals, highlighting the possibility that there are many more uncharacterized bat species that can act as a reservoir of SARS-CoV or its progenitor viruses. This calls for continuation and expansion of field surveillance studies among different bat populations to eventually identify the true natural reservoir of SARS-CoV.     

服务礼仪在健康体检中的应用体会

随着我国人民生活水平的提高和社会主义精神文明建设的发展,健康成为人们追求的目标,全社会的健康意识不断增强。定期健康体检已成为很多人的共识,然而健康体检服务与常规医疗服务有很大区别,其服务礼仪的规范性也不同。实施良好的礼仪服务是新世纪医疗人员应该具备的良好素质，     

Expression and self-assembly of virus-like particles of infectious hypodermal and hematopoietic necrosis virus in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Escherichia coli</Emphasis>

Infectious hypodermal and hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHHNV) is one of the highly pathogenic shrimp viruses. In this study, IHHNV capsid protein (CP) was recombinantly expressed in Escherichia coli and found to self-assemble into virus-like particles (VLPs) with homogeneous size and shape similar to native IHHNV particles. Furthermore, we found that IHHNV-VLPs encapsidate RNA and DNA with a predominant size of 0.5 kb. Stability experiments revealed that the VLP could not be disassembled by EDTA, but its structure was completely disrupted by dithiothreitol (DTT). Non-reducing SDS/PAGE showed that no intermolecular disulfide bonds were formed between the CP molecules, suggesting that intra-CP disulfide bonds are essential for maintaining the structural integrity of the capsid. In addition, indirect immunofluorescence microscopy analysis showed that the VLPs could efficiently enter primary hemocytes of the shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei, which implied that IHHNV-VLPs may be promising vehicles for the delivery of antiviral agents. Luhong Hou and Hao Wu contributed equally to this paper.     

High-dose dexamethasone regulates interleukin-18 and interleukin-18 binding protein in idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura

To evaluate the effects of high-dose dexamethasone (HD-DXM) on the balance of interleukin-18 (IL-18) and its endogenous antagonist IL-18 binding protein (IL-18BP) in ITP patients, IL-18, IL-18BP as well as IFN-γ, IL-4 plasma levels and platelet counts were determined in 17 ITP patients receiving DXM 40 mg/day for four consecutive days and in 24 healthy subjects. Using RT-PCR, the mRNA expression of IL-18, IL-18BP, IFN-γ, IL-4, T-box (T-bet) and GATA-binding protein 3(GATA-3) were studied in all subjects. The in vitro effects of DXM on IL-18BP and IL-18 of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were studied by ELISA. HD-DXM administration increased IL-18BP and reduced IL-18 expression significantly (p<0.05), which resulted in a downregulation of IL-18/IL-18BP ratio p<0.05). In vitro, DXM had a significant effect on secretion of IL-18BP while diminishing IL-18 release from cultures of PBMCs. These results suggest that downregulation of IL-18/IL-18BP might account for its clinical efficacy of HD-DXM in active ITP.     

The effect of proteoglycans inhibited on the neurotropic growth of salivary adenoid cystic carcinoma

J Oral Pathol Med (2010) 40 : 476–482 Objective: To evaluate the relationship between inhibition of proteoglycans which secreted by salivary adenoid cystic carcinoma cell line (SACC‐83) and the neurotropic ability of the tumor cells. Methods: The expression vector of short hairpin RNA (shRNA‐WJ4) targeting xylosyltransferase‐I gene was constructed and transfected into SACC‐83 cells (group SACC83‐WJ4), shRNA‐HK used as negative control was transfected into SACC‐83 cells (group SACC‐83‐HK), SACC‐83 cells without transfection was used as black control (group SACC‐83). The xylosyltransferase‐I gene expression was measured by real‐time PCR. The content of proteoglycans was detected by Blyscan Assay Kit. The effect of down‐regulated proteoglycans on the perineural invasion of nude mice was observed. All data were analyzed by the software spss 13.0. Results: The results showed that the transfected efficiency of shRNA was 43.3%. The expression of xylosyltransferase‐I was inhibited by 43.0% 48 h after transfection of shRNA‐WJ4. The content of proteoglycans was down‐regulated by 30.25% 48 h after transfection. In the neurotropic experiment in vivo of nude mice, the rate of perineural invasion of group SACC‐83‐WJ4 was 33.33%, significantly lower than that of the negative control (100%) and the black control (100%) (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Xylosyltransferase‐I gene of SACC cells was silenced by RNA interference technology, proteoglycans secretion was reduced and neurotropic invasion behavior of SACC was inhibited obviously.