Image features of two rare mediastinal tumors: schwannoma of intrathoracic phrenic nerve and clear cell chondrosarcoma of the rib

The current report focuses on two patients of the same age who presented similar appearances on initial anteroposterior chest images. Follow-up images showed superoanterior and superoposterior mediastinal lesions. The first patient with noninvasive cystic thymoma was suspected before surgery, while the pathologic diagnosis was intrathoracic phrenic nerve schwannoma. The second patient was with an asymmetric, dumbbell-shaped paravertebral tumor over T3 and T4 on the left side. The preoperative…     

阿尔茨海默病与死亡率:一项15年的流行病学研究

背景:阿尔茨海默病(AD)被认为是导致死亡的重要原因,但目前尚无基于美国人队列的AD与死亡率关系的随访研究。目的:在控制其他危险因素的前提下,对一个老年社团为基础的队列进行研究,分析其死亡率、生存时间、死亡原因以及AD在患者死亡风险中的作用。设计:15年的前瞻性流行病学研究。计算1000人·年的死亡率以及人口相关死亡风险。校正相关协变量,用Cox风险比例模型来评估由AD导致的相对死亡风险。死亡证明中详细列出死亡原因。机构:宾夕法尼亚州西南部的一个大型蓝领乡村社团。受试者:基于社团的1670例年龄≥65岁的老年受试者队列纳入本…     

Effect of shenmai Injection on SIL-2R NK and LAK cells of patients with advanced carcinoma

Serum interleukin-2 receptor (sIL-2R) level, activities of natural killer cell (NK) and lymphokine activated killer (LAK) cells were determined in 60 patients with advanced carcinoma (AC) before and after treatment with Shenmai Injection (SMI), forty healthy persons were taken as non-carcinoma control (NC). The results showed that: Serum sIL-2R level in AC were much higher than those in NC (P<0.05) and activities of NK and LAK cells in AC were much lower than those in NC (P<0.05) before treatment. There was no significant difference among gastric, colonic and lung cancer (P>0.05). After treatment with SMI, it was found that the level of sIL-2R in all patients were obviously lowered (P<0.05) while the activities of NK and LAK cells were signifficantly higher than that prior the treatment (P<0.05). Relevancy was not found between sIL-2R and NK, LAK cells. These data suggested that the immune function was compromised in AC, and SMI has a wide effect of immuno-regulation.     

A study on various symptoms of chronic hepatitis treated with radix astragali and its regulative effect to levels of serum hormone

Sixty-seven cases of chronic hepatitis were treated with Radix Astragali. After treatment (2-month course), the clinical improvement rate in 38 cases of the Stagnation of the Liver-Qi and Deficiency of the Spleen type was 92.1%, and in 26 cases of the Deficiency of Liver Yin and Kidney Yin type was 88.5%, more effective than in the control group (P<0.05). The regulative effect to the levels of serum hormone was observed in the patients of the Stagnation of the Liver-Qi and Deficiency of the Spleen type treated with this medicine. The results showed that the levels of serum triiodothyronine, estradiol (female) and testosterone (male) were increased after treatment (1.40±1.38 ng/dl, 129.30±1.23 pg/ml and 496.24±1.47 ng/dl). Pre-treatment levels were 1.22±1.49 ng/dl, 104.60±1.45 pg/ml and 398. 17±1.55 ng/dl respectively (P<0.05); however, the level of serum prolactin (2.75±4.46 ng/ml) was lower after treatment than before treatment (3.20±3.82 ng/ml,P<0.05). No obvious changes were observed in the levels of serum follicle stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone, thyroid stimulating hormone, thyroxine, triiodothyronine uptake ratio and cortisol after treatment.     

老年心血管疾病的预防策略

老年心血管疾病的预防策略一种策略是防止危险因素，或称初级预防。另一种是次级预防或三级预防，减少复发、致残和死亡，在此只着重于生活方式和危险因素的医学管理。人口策略和高危策略对老龄心血管疾病（ＣＶＤ）的预防都是适宜的，并且应彼此互补。人口策略（Ｐｏｐｕ...     

GALC transduction leads to morphological improvement of the twitcher oligodendrocytes in vivo

Globoid cell leukodystrophy (GLD, Krabbe disease) is a severe demyelinating disease caused by a genetic defect of beta-galactocerebrosidase (GALC). To date treatment to GLD is limited to hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Experimental approaches by means of gene therapy in twitcher mouse, an authentic murine model of human GLD, showed significant but only marginal improvements of the disease. To clarify whether the introduction of GALC could provide beneficial effects on the oligodendrocytes in GLD, we transduced twitcher oligodendrocytes by stereotactically injecting recombinant retrovirus encoding GALC-myc-tag fusion gene into the forebrain subventricular zone of neonatal twitcher mouse. In vivo effects of exogenous GALC on twitcher oligodendrocytes were studied histologically by combined immunostaining for the myc-epitope and the oligodendroglial specific marker, pi form of glutathione-S-transferase, at around 40 days of age. We show here that GALC transduction led to dramatic morphological improvement of the twitcher oligodendrocytes comparing with those in untreated twitcher controls. This study provided direct in vivo evidence that GALC transduction could prevent or correct aberrant morphology of oligodendrocytes in GLD which may be closely related to the dysfunction and/or degeneration of oligodendrocytes and the demyelination in this disease.     

Identification and characterization of clonal NK-like cells from channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus)

TcR alpha, beta, and gamma chain negative cytotoxic NK-like cells were cloned from alloantigen-stimulated PBL obtained from nai;ve channel catfish. Stimulation with allogeneic cells and growth promoting factors are required for their continued in vitro proliferation and cytotoxic activity. These granular cells kill not only the stimulating allogeneic cells, but also unrelated allogeneic targets by a perforin/granzyme-mediated apoptosis pathway. In addition, they are negative for markers that define neutrophils, monocytes/macrophages, and non-specific cytotoxic cells. Although these NK-like clones kill a number of different allogeneic targets, they display interclonal variation in cytotoxicity toward a panel of allogeneic targets, i.e. some clones have no apparent target specificity, while others display a target preference. In addition, flow cytometric analyses revealed that expression of a putative FcmuR, an LFA-1-like molecule, and a putative thymocyte/T cell antigen varies among the different clones, with no clear correlation between surface antigen expression and cytotoxic activity. Although not all clones express a putative FcmuR, it was noted that they all expressed an ITAM containing FcepsilonR gamma chain homolog. This finding suggests that the catfish FcepsilonR gamma chain may potentially be used as an accessory molecule for not only FcmuRs, but also for other unknown activation receptors. These results support the hypothesis that catfish NK-like cells are heterogeneous in terms of target specificities and cell surface phenotype.     

Macrophage activation and Fcgamma receptor-mediated signaling do not require expression of the SLP-76 and SLP-65 adaptors

The Src-homology 2 domain-containing, leukocyte-specific phosphoprotein of 76 kDa (SLP-76) is a hematopoietic adaptor that plays a central role during immunoreceptor-mediated activation of T lymphocytes and mast cells and collagen receptor-induced activation of platelets. Despite similar levels of expression in macrophages, SLP-76 is not required for Fc receptor for immunoglobulin G (IgG; FcgammaR)-mediated activation. We hypothesized that the related adaptor SLP-65, which is also expressed in macrophages, may compensate for the loss of SLP-76 during FcgammaR-mediated signaling and functional events. To address this hypothesis, we examined bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMM) from wild-type (WT) mice or mice lacking both of these adaptors. Contrary to our expectations, SLP-76(-/-) SLP-65(-/-) BMM demonstrated normal FcgammaR-mediated activation, including internalization of Ig-coated sheep red blood cells and production of reactive oxygen intermediates. FcgammaR-induced biochemical events were normal in SLP-76(-/-) SLP-65(-/-) BMM, including phosphorylation of phospholipase C and the extracellular signaling-regulated kinases 1 and 2. To determine whether macrophages functioned normally in vivo, we infected WT and SLP-76(-/-) SLP-65(-/-) mice with sublethal doses of Listeria monocytogenes (LM), a bacterium against which the initial host defense is provided by activated macrophages. WT and SLP-76(-/-) SLP-65(-/-) mice survived acute, low-dose infection and showed no difference in the number of liver or spleen LM colony-forming units, a measure of the total body burden of this organism. Taken together, these data suggest that neither SLP-76 nor SLP-65 is required during FcgammaR-dependent signaling and functional events in macrophages.