[Regional distribution of liver cancer and its relation to selenium levels in Qidong County, China]

The selenium (Se) level in barley and maize from 43 communes of Qidong county, a high risk area of liver cancer in China, were assayed. An inverse correlation between the Se level and the liver cancer incidence was observed. An inverse correlation was also observed between the blood Se level and liver cancer incidence of the local residents. When selenite solution was sprayed on the crops during their preflowering, the content of Se in barley and maize was increased by 6 fold over the control. It is suggested that the increase of blood Se level of the residents who live in the low-Se areas by this method be useful in the prevention of liver cancer.

Impairment of hypoxic pulmonary artery remodeling by heparin in mice

Chronic hypoxia produces pulmonary artery hypertension and remodeling of pulmonary arteries with hypertrophy of smooth muscle in the media and extension of smooth muscle into more distal small precapillary arteries. The present study investigated the influence of heparin, an inhibitor of platelet-derived growth factor, and of the clotting cascade on this remodeling. Mice maintained in room air or 10% O2 for 26 days were treated with low-dose heparin at 75 units/kg or high dose heparin at 300 units/kg. Pulmonary hypertension and right ventricular hypertrophy developed in the hypoxic mice compared with the room air mice as evidenced by the greater (p less than 0.05) right ventricular systolic pressure (36 +/- 4 SEM versus 21 +/- 1 mmHg) and the increase (p less than 0.05) in right heart weight/left ventricular plus septal weight (35 +/- 1.6 SEM versus 25.2 +/- 1.3). Hypoxia also induced smooth muscle hypertrophy in small pulmonary arteries, with an increase (p less than 0.05) in the percent media thickness/vascular diameter from 5.7 +/- 1 SEM to 13.3 +/- 3 and an apparent decrease (p less than 0.05) in distal small pulmonary arteries from 4.4 +/- 0.2 SEM to 2.05 +/- 0.1 per 100 alveoli. High-dose heparin partially but significantly (p less than 0.05) prevented the pulmonary artery hypertension (right ventricular systolic pressure of 28 +/- 2 mmHg), the right ventricular hypertrophy (right ventricular weight/left ventricular plus septal weight of 30.1 +/- 1) and remodeling of distal small pulmonary arteries (media thickness/vascular diameter of 8.4 +/- 1%, small pulmonary artery/100 alveoli of 3.63 +/- 0.1).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)