Intensity-Modulated Radiotherapy (IMRT) for the Treatment of Cushing's Disease

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE(S)

Aim to investigate the efficacy and toxicity of IMRT in treating Cushing's Disease (CD).

MATERIALS/METHODS

A total of 78 of 115 patients with CD treated with IMRT at our institute from April 2012 to August 2021 were included in the study. The radiation doses were usually 45-50 Gy in 25 fractions. After IMRT, endocrine evaluations were performed every 6 months and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) annually. Endocrine remission was defined as suppression of 1 mg dexamethasone test (DST) or normal 24-hour urinary free cortisol level (24hUFC). Endocrine recurrence was considered when patients who have reached hormonal remission showed no suppression of 1 mg DST and relapse of clinical features. The outcome of endocrine remission, tumor control and complications were retrieved from medical record.

RESULTS

At a median follow-up time of 36.8 months, the endocrine remission rate at 1, 2, 3 and 5 years were 28.5%, 50.2%, 62.5% and 74.0%, respectively. The median time to remission was 24 months (95% CI: 14.0-34.0). Endocrine recurrence was found in 5 patients (13.5%) till the last follow-up. The recurrence-free rate at 1, 2, 3 and 5 years after endocrine remission was 98.2%, 93.9%, 88.7% and 88.7%, respectively. The tumor control rate was 98%. The overall incidence of new onset hypopituitarism was 23.1%, with hypothyroidism serving as the most common individual axis deficiency. Univariate analysis indicated that only higher Ki-67 index (P = 0.044) was significant favorable factors for endocrine remission. But no prognostic factors for endocrine remission were found in the multivariate analysis.

CONCLUSION

IMRT was a highly effective second-line therapy with low side effect profile for CD patients. Endocrine remission, tumor control and recurrence rates were comparable to previous reports on FRT and SRS.

Maintenance effects of a gamification intervention on motivation and physical activity in patients with coronary heart disease: intermediate results of a randomized controlled trial

Background

Despite the benefits of cardiac rehabilitation and secondary prevention, patients with coronary heart disease frequently fail to meet their daily physical activity goals. When one is stuck in a cycle of bad habits, changing one's behavior can be very challenging. One of the difficulties to maintaining a healthy lifestyle may be a lack of motivation. The use of game design elements (such as points, leaderboards, progress bars, and badges) in non-game contexts to promote motivation and engagement is known as gamification. It could be a powerful tool for encouraging patients to engage in physical activity. However, solid ideas that utilize the fundamental experience and psychological impacts of gaming mechanics must be built upon.

Purpose

The aim of this study is to look into the impact of a smartphone-based gamification intervention on physical activity engagement and other related psychological outcomes in patients with coronary heart disease, as well as the 24-week maintenance of effects beyond the 12-week intervention.

Methods

Participants with coronary heart disease were randomly assigned to three groups (control group, individual group and team group). The individual and team groups received gamified behavior intervention based on behavioral economic principles. Based on the Individual group, the team earned social incentives (collaboration). The intervention lasted 12 weeks, with another 12 weeks of follow-up. The primary outcomes included the change in daily steps and the proportion of patient-days that step goals achieved. The secondary outcomes included competence, autonomous, relatedness and autonomous motivation.

Results

The follow-up period has now been completed by 65 participants (mean age 52.8+10.3, 18.2% female) completed the follow-up period. Compared with the control group (n=17), participants in the individual group (n=25) had a significantly greater increase in mean daily steps from baseline during the intervention group (difference 956; 95% CI, 243–1623; P<0.01), and had a significantly greater proportion of patient-days that step goals achieved (difference 0.35; 95% CI, 0.03–0.12; P<0.001), competence (difference 0.5, 95% CI, 0.3–0.7; P<0.001), autonomous motivation (difference 3.2; 95% CI, 2.0–4.0; P<0.001). However, no significant difference of change in step counts was found between team group (n=23) and control group. During the follow-up period, mean daily steps and autonomous motivation in the individual declined but remained significantly greater than that in the control arm compared with baseline (steps: difference 452; 95% CI, 138–818; P<0.05) (motivation: difference 1.2; 95% CI, 0.3–1.8; P<0.05).

Conclusions

A smartphone-based gamification intervention was found to be an effective strategy to enhance motivation and physical activity engagement, as well as having a great maintenance effect.

Funding Acknowledgement

Type of funding sources: Public grant(s) – National budget only. Main funding source(s): This work is financially supported by a Construction Programme of Independent Innovation Ability of Community Health Nursing Engineering Laboratory in Jilin Province (Study code: 2020C038-8) awarded to FL.

Male urethral diverticulum squamous cell carcinoma containing a calculus: a rare entity

Male urethral diverticula with calculi have a low incidence. It is extremely rare when the diverticulum accompanied with carcinoma. We report a case of diverticulum of the male urethra containing giant calculi which developed into squamous cell carcinoma. The patient initially presented with lower urinary tract symptoms and a hard, painless perineal mass. We believe that the process of diagnosis and treatment is of great significance in clinical practice.

Transfer learning via multi-scale convolutional neural layers for human-virus protein-protein interaction prediction

Motivation

To complement experimental efforts, machine learning-based computational methods are playing an increasingly important role to predict human–virus protein–protein interactions (PPIs). Furthermore, transfer learning can effectively apply prior knowledge obtained from a large source dataset/task to a small target dataset/task, improving prediction performance.

Results

To predict interactions between human and viral proteins, we combine evolutionary sequence profile features with a Siamese convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture and a multi-layer perceptron. Our architecture outperforms various feature encodings-based machine learning and state-of-the-art prediction methods. As our main contribution, we introduce two transfer learning methods (i.e. ‘frozen’ type and ‘fine-tuning’ type) that reliably predict interactions in a target human–virus domain based on training in a source human–virus domain, by retraining CNN layers. Finally, we utilize the ‘frozen’ type transfer learning approach to predict human–SARS-CoV-2 PPIs, indicating that our predictions are topologically and functionally similar to experimentally known interactions.

Availability and implementation: The source codes and datasets are available at https://github.com/XiaodiYangCAU/TransPPI/.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Association between type 1 diabetes mellitus and reduced bone mineral density in children: a meta-analysis

In this meta-analysis, we analyzed 9 cross-sectional studies for an association between type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) and bone mineral density (BMD) in children. We found that BMD Z-scores were significantly reduced in children with T1DM.

INTRODUCTION

Recent cross-sectional studies have examined how T1DM influences bone health in children and adolescents, but the relationship between T1DM and BMD remains unclear due to conflicting reports.

METHODS

In this meta-analysis, we systematically searched PubMed, Cochrane library, and Web of Science databases (for publications through March 12, 2020), and calculated weight mean difference (WMD) along with 95% confidence intervals (CI) using a random-effects model. Heterogeneity was evaluated using the I² method. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used to assess the quality of the included studies.

RESULTS

Data were analyzed from 9 eligible studies, including a total of 1522 children and adolescents. These data were tested for an association between T1DM and BMD. This analysis found a significant decrease in BMD Z-score in the whole body (pooled WMD, - 0.47, 95% CI, - 0.92 to - 0.02, I² = 80.2%) and lumbar spine (pooled WMD, - 0.41, 95% CI, - 0.69 to - 0.12, I² = 80.3%) in children and adolescents with T1DM, which was consistent in published studies from Asia and South America, but inconsistent in the North America and Europe. Importantly, the differences in BMD Z-scores were independent of age, level of glucose control (HbA1c), and prepubertal stage. Sensitivity analyses did not modify these findings. Funnel plot and the Egger test did not reveal significant publication bias.

CONCLUSION

This meta-analysis suggests that T1DM may play a role in decreasing BMD Z-scores in the whole body and lumbar spine in children.

Current status and future perspectives of computational studies on human-virus protein-protein interactions

The protein-protein interactions (PPIs) between human and viruses mediate viral infection and host immunity processes. Therefore, the study of human-virus PPIs can help us understand the principles of human-virus relationships and can thus guide the development of highly effective drugs to break the transmission of viral infectious diseases. Recent years have witnessed the rapid accumulation of experimentally identified human-virus PPI data, which provides an unprecedented opportunity for bioinformatics studies revolving around human-virus PPIs. In this article, we provide a comprehensive overview of computational studies on human-virus PPIs, especially focusing on the method development for human-virus PPI predictions. We briefly introduce the experimental detection methods and existing database resources of human-virus PPIs, and then discuss the research progress in the development of computational prediction methods. In particular, we elaborate the machine learning-based prediction methods and highlight the need to embrace state-of-the-art deep-learning algorithms and new feature engineering techniques (e.g. the protein embedding technique derived from natural language processing). To further advance the understanding in this research topic, we also outline the practical applications of the human-virus interactome in fundamental biological discovery and new antiviral therapy development.

HVIDB: a comprehensive database for human-virus protein-protein interactions

While leading to millions of people's deaths every year the treatment of viral infectious diseases remains a huge public health challenge.Therefore, an in-depth understanding of human-virus protein-protein interactions (PPIs) as the molecular interface between a virus and its host cell is of paramount importance to obtain new insights into the pathogenesis of viral infections and development of antiviral therapeutic treatments. However, current human-virus PPI database resources are incomplete, lack annotation and usually do not provide the opportunity to computationally predict human-virus PPIs. Here, we present the Human-Virus Interaction DataBase (HVIDB, http://zzdlab.com/hvidb/) that provides comprehensively annotated human-virus PPI data as well as seamlessly integrates online PPI prediction tools. Currently, HVIDB highlights 48 643 experimentally verified human-virus PPIs covering 35 virus families, 6633 virally targeted host complexes, 3572 host dependency/restriction factors as well as 911 experimentally verified/predicted 3D complex structures of human-virus PPIs. Furthermore, our database resource provides tissue-specific expression profiles of 6790 human genes that are targeted by viruses and 129 Gene Expression Omnibus series of differentially expressed genes post-viral infections. Based on these multifaceted and annotated data, our database allows the users to easily obtain reliable information about PPIs of various human viruses and conduct an in-depth analysis of their inherent biological significance. In particular, HVIDB also integrates well-performing machine learning models to predict interactions between the human host and viral proteins that are based on (i) sequence embedding techniques, (ii) interolog mapping and (iii) domain-domain interaction inference. We anticipate that HVIDB will serve as a one-stop knowledge base to further guide hypothesis-driven experimental efforts to investigate human-virus relationships.

[The relationship between HPV integration and prognosis of cervical cancer]

Objective: To investigate the relationship between human papillomavirus (HPV) integration and prognosis of cervical cancer patients. Methods: The data of 82 patients with cervical cancer treated in the Radiotherapy Department of Peking Union Medical College Hospital from October 2004 to June 2012 were retrospectively analyzed.The patients were divided into poor prognosis group (recurrence or metastasis after surgery and adjuvant radiotherapy) and good prognosis group based on a propensity score matching strategy.The HPV integration of the two groups were detected by whole exome sequencing to determine whether the integration sites were located in the common fragile sites (CFSs). HPV integration and integration into CFSs were compared between the two groups. Results: Among the enrolled 82 patients, 37 were divided in poor survival group and 45 in good survival group. A total of 90 integration breakpoints were identified, 30 of them occurred in poor prognosis group and 60 occurred in good prognosis group. In the poor prognosis group, HPV integration occurred in 20 patients, 13 of them were inserted in CFSs of 11 patients, and the numbers in good prognosis group were 26, 17, 11, respectively. There were no significantly statistical differences in the number of HPV integration events (P=0.289), HPV integration patients (P=0.735), CFSs integration events (P=0.427), and CFSs integration patients (P=0.591) between the two groups. In poor prognosis group, more CFSs integration events occurred in patients with metastasis than those in patients with only local recurrence (9 vs 2, P=0.003). Conclusions: No significant differences are observed in HPV integration and HPV integration into CFSs between cervical cancer patients with different prognoses. HPV integration into CFSs may be associated with distant metastasis.

Epidemiologic and clinical characteristics of 91 hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in Zhejiang, China: a retrospective, multi-centre case series

BACKGROUND

Recent studies have focused on initial clinical and epidemiological characteristics of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is the mainly revealing situation in Wuhan, Hubei.

AIM

This study aims to reveal more data on the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 patients outside of Wuhan, Zhejiang, China.

DESIGN

This study was a retrospective case series.

METHODS

Eighty-eight cases of laboratory-confirmed and three cases of clinically confirmed COVID-19 were admitted to five hospitals in Zhejiang province, China. Data were collected from 20 January 2020 to 11 February 2020.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Of all 91 patients, 88 (96.70%) were laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 with throat swab samples that tested positive for SARS-Cov-2, three (3.30%) cases were clinically diagnosed. The median age of the patients was 50 (36.5-57) years, and female accounted for 59.34%. In this sample, 40 (43.96%) patients had contracted the disease from local cases, 31 (34.07%) patients had been to Wuhan/Hubei, eight (8.79%) patients had contacted with people from Wuhan, and 11 (12.09%) patients were diagnosed after having flown together in the same flight with no passenger that could later be identified as the source of infection. In particular within the city of Ningbo, 60.52% cases can be traced back to an event held in a temple. The most common symptoms were fever (71.43%), cough (60.44%) and fatigue (43.96%). The median of incubation period was 6 (interquartile range 3-8) days and the median time from the first visit to a doctor to the confirmed diagnosis was 1 (1-2) days. According to the chest computed tomography scans, 67.03% cases had bilateral pneumonia.

CONCLUSIONS

Social activity cluster, family cluster and flying alongside with persons already infected with COVID-19 were how people got infected with COVID-19 in Zhejiang.

Cytological mechanism of astragaloside IV in promoting repair of bone defects

To explore the possible cytological mechanism underlying the role of Astragaloside IV in promoting the repair of bone defects, osteoblasts were cultured in vitro and identified using inverted phase contrast microscopy, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) staining and alizarin red staining.

Scale-invariant magnetoresistance in a cuprate superconductor

The anomalous metallic state in the high-temperature superconducting cuprates is masked by superconductivity near a quantum critical point. Applying high magnetic fields to suppress superconductivity has enabled detailed studies of the normal state, yet the direct effect of strong magnetic fields on the metallic state is poorly understood. We report the high-field magnetoresistance of thin-film La_2-x Sr _x CuO₄ cuprate in the vicinity of the critical doping, 0.161 ≤ p ≤ 0.190. We find that the metallic state exposed by suppressing superconductivity is characterized by magnetoresistance that is linear in magnetic fields up to 80 tesla. The magnitude of the linear-in-field resistivity mirrors the magnitude and doping evolution of the well-known linear-in-temperature resistivity that has been associated with quantum criticality in high-temperature superconductors.

[Survival and prognostic factors analysis of primitive neuroectodermal tumor]

Objective: To investigate the clinical features and prognosis of primitive neuroectodermal tumor (PNET). Methods: The clinical data of 99 patients with PNET from February 1, 1998 to February 1, 2017 were retrospectively analyzed. Univariate analysis was performed using Kaplan-Meier and Log rank test. Multiviate Cox regression was applied to analyzed independent prognostic factor for patient survival. Results: Among the 99 patients, 81 were peripheral PNET(pPNET) and 18 were central PNET (cPNET) . Biopsy was performed exclusively in 16 cases, with R0 resection in 61 cases, with R1 resection in 4 cases, and with R2 resection in 18 cases. Twelve patients underwent surgery only, nine had chemotherapy only, and one received radiotherapy only. There were 72 patients who had combined treatment including chemotherapy, and 48 patients had combined therapy including radiotherapy. The one-year, three-year and five-year overall survival(OS) rates of the 99 PNET patients were 79.2%, 63.9% and 56.1% respectively, and median OS time was 14.0 months. The one-year, three-year and five-year progression free survival (PFS) rates of these patients were 42.7%, 25.7% and 19.8% respectively, and median PFS time was 8.0 months. The univariate analysis revealed that lymph node metastasis, surgical resection, numbers of cycles of chemotherapy and radiotherapy dose were the main factors affecting the OS (all P<0.05). Gender, age, lymph node metastasis, staging, and chemotherapy cycles were related to PFS in PNET patients (P<0.05). Multivariate analysis showed that the degree of surgical resection, chemotherapy cycle, and radiotherapy dosage were independent influencing factors of OS in PNET patients (risk ratio=1.856, 0.398, and 0.408, respectively, all P<0.05), and gender was an independent factor influencing PFS in PNET patients (risk ratio=0.494, P<0.05). Conclusions: Comprehensive therapy is the main therapy for PNET patients. The surgical resection, cycles of chemotherapy and radiotherapy dosage are independent prognostic factors for patient's OS.

Bulk Fermi Surfaces of the Dirac Type-II Semimetallic Candidates MAl_{3} (Where M=V, Nb, and Ta)

We report a de Haas-van Alphen (dHvA) effect study on the Dirac type-II semimetallic candidates MAl_{3} (where, M=V, Nb and Ta). The angular dependence of their Fermi surface (FS) cross-sectional areas reveals a remarkably good agreement with our first-principles calculations. Therefore, dHvA supports the existence of tilted Dirac cones with Dirac type-II nodes located at 100, 230 and 250 meV above the Fermi level ϵ_{F} for VAl_{3}, NbAl_{3} and TaAl_{3} respectively, in agreement with the prediction of broken Lorentz invariance in these compounds. However, for all three compounds we find that the cyclotron orbits on their FSs, including an orbit nearly enclosing the Dirac type-II node, yield trivial Berry phases. We explain this via an analysis of the Berry phase where the position of this orbit, relative to the Dirac node, is adjusted within the error implied by the small disagreement between our calculations and the experiments. We suggest that a very small amount of doping could displace ϵ_{F} to produce topologically nontrivial orbits encircling their Dirac node(s).

Comparison of clinicopathological features and prognosis of gastric cancer located in the lesser and greater curve

PURPOSE

Little is known about the features of gastric cancer located in the lesser and greater curve. This study aims to investigate the clinicopathological features and prognosis of gastric cancer located in the lesser and greater curve.

PATIENTS

From September 2008 to March 2015, 780 gastric cancer patients were enrolled in the present study. The associations between locations and features of patients were analyzed.

RESULTS

There were 571 male (73.2 %) and 209 female (26.8 %) patients. The median age was 56 years (ranged 21-86). There were 684 tumors located in the lesser curve (87.7 %) and 96 located in the greater curve (12.3 %). The incidence of melena was significantly lower in patients with tumors located in the lesser curve than that in the greater curve (8.5 vs 15.6 %, P = 0.024). The median size of tumors in the lesser curve was significantly larger than that in the greater curve (5.0 (0.3-15) vs 4.0 cm (0.5-15), P = 0.001). The remaining clinicopathological features were comparable between the two groups (all P > 0.05). Tumor location was not a risk factor for the prognosis of gastric cancer by univariate and multivariate analysis (both P > 0.05). The postoperative complications (all P > 0.05) and prognoses (P = 0.279) were comparable between tumors located in the lesser and greater curve.

CONCLUSIONS

The ratio of gastric cancer located in the lesser to greater curve was 7.1:1. Compared with tumors located in the greater curve, the incidence of melena was significantly lower and the tumor size was significantly larger in tumors located in the lesser curve. The prognoses were comparable between tumors located in the lesser and greater curve.

Expression of microRNA-106b and its clinical significance in cutaneous melanoma

MicroRNA-106b (miR-106b) is overexpressed in various types of cancers and is associated with the regulation of carcinogenic processes. However, its clinical significance in cutaneous melanoma has not been reported. qRT-PCR was performed to examine the expression of miR-106b in 15 cases of dysplastic nevi, 17 cases of melanoma metastases, and 97 cases of primary cutaneous melanoma tissue samples. Survival rate was determined with Kaplan-Meier and statistically analyzed with the log-rank method between groups. Survival data were evaluated through multivariate Cox regression analysis. Significant differences in miR-106b expression were shown between dysplastic nevi and primary cutaneous melanomas (P < 0.01), between primary melanomas and metastatic cutaneous melanomas (P < 0.01), and between primary cutaneous melanomas and metastatic cutaneous melanomas (P < 0.001). We found that high miR-106b expression was correlated with Breslow thickness (P = 0.002), tumor ulceration (P = 0.002), and advanced clinical stage (P < 0.001). The patients with high miR-106b expression showed shorter 5-year overall survival than those with low miR-106b expression (P = 0.02; log-rank test). Multivariate regression analysis showed that the status of miR-106b expression was an independent prognostic factor for overall survival (HR = 2.09, 95%CI: 1.11-10.26, P = 0.02). This study showed that miR-106b may contribute to the progression of cutaneous melanoma and its up-regulation may be independently associated with poor prognosis of cutaneous melanoma. This suggests that miR-106b might serve as a promising biological marker for further risk stratification in the management of cutaneous melanoma.

Full-term pregnant women have higher lumbar epidural pressure than non-pregnant women: a preliminary report

The objective of this study was to compare the lumbar epidural pressure of full-term pregnant women with that of non-pregnant women. The epidural pressure of 20 full-term pregnant women and 15 non-pregnant women was measured during epidural needle insertion in the lateral position (T0), and at 30-s intervals following insertion (T1-T3), after the patient was turned supine (T4-T6), and after local anaesthetic injection (T7-T9). Results showed that the average epidural pressures following epidural insertion in the lateral position (average of T1-T3), in the supine position (average of T4-T6), and after local anaesthetic injection (average of T7-T9) were all significantly higher in the pregnant women compared with those who were not pregnant (p= 0.0293, 0.0109 and 0.0309, respectively). Epidural pressures increased significantly after women were turned supine (p < 0.001). Average epidural pressures were positive for all time points, T0-T9. It was concluded that the epidural pressure in the pregnant women was higher than in those who were not pregnant, both in the lateral and the supine position.

Indoor wet cells harbour melanized agents of cutaneous infection

The biota of black fungi in humid indoor environments was established using a protocol that consisted of non-selective and selective isolation procedures. In total, 113 samples were taken from bathrooms of residences in The Netherlands, Germany and Austria. Samples were processed either (i) directly by culturing on agar media, or (ii) by pre-incubating samples for enrichment in mineral solutions with perlite granules under constant toluene atmosphere for three months. Dilutions from the latter were then cultured and incubated as were those directly plated to agar media. Black colonies were selected and identified by sequencing the rDNA Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) region. Twenty-eight strains of black fungi were found in 26 positive samples without enrichment, and 42 strains were isolated from 38 positive samples after enrichment in toluene. The great majority of black fungal species were members of the order Chaetothyriales, which is the main order of melanized human opportunistic pathogens. Cladosporium species (Capnodiales) were the most frequent isolates when no enrichment was applied, as opposed to Exophiala species (Chaetothyriales) with enrichment. The enrichment method provides insight into a fungal biota commonly occurring in homes which has previously been overlooked. Several species have been previously known only from cutaneous infections and could suggest that bathrooms are a likely reservoir of these fungi.

Gene delivery by the hSP-B promoter to lung alveolar type II epithelial cells in LAL-knockout mice through bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells

Tissue damage and inflammation promote bone marrow stem cells (BMSCs) to differentiate into a variety of cell types in residing tissues. BMSCs can stably maintain their plasticity and are an ideal cell population for delivery of therapeutic genes to non-hematopoietic tissues. Using lacZ as a reporter gene, we demonstrated that the lung-specific human surfactant protein B (hSP-B) 1.5-kb promoter is able to deliver the lacZ gene into the lung of lysosomal acid lipase (LAL) gene-knockout (lal-/-) mice by beta-galactosidase staining, flow cytometry and double immunofluorescence staining. Around 10-18% alveolar type II epithelial cells (AT II cells) exhibited positive lacZ gene expression after 8 weeks of BMSC injection in recipient lal-/- mice. The wild-type mice exhibited no expression after the same treatment. BMSCs from hSP-B 1.5-kb lacZ transgenic mice entered and repopulated in lal-/- bone marrow. The study supports a concept that pulmonary inflammation caused by LAL deficiency can trigger BMSC residing in lal-/- bone marrow, migrating into the lung and converting into residential AT II cells. The hSP-B 1.5 kb promoter is an ideal tool to deliver therapeutic genes into AT II cells through BMSCs to cure pulmonary inflammation-triggered diseases.

NO-1886 decreases ectopic lipid deposition and protects pancreatic beta cells in diet-induced diabetic swine

The synthetic compound NO-1886 (ibrolipim) is a lipoprotein lipase activator that has been proven to be highly effective in lowering plasma triglycerides. Recently, we found that NO-1886 also reduced plasma free fatty acids and glucose in high-fat/high-sucrose diet-induced diabetic rabbits. In the current study, we investigated the effects of NO-1886 treatment on ectopic lipid deposition and the islet pathology in miniature swine fed a high-fat/high-sucrose diet. Our results showed that feeding this diet to miniature swine caused insulin resistance, increased lipid deposition in non-adipose tissue, such as in the heart, skeletal muscle, liver and pancreas, and also caused pancreatic beta cell damage. However, supplementing 1% NO-1886 (200 mg/kg per day) into the high-fat/high-sucrose diet decreased ectopic lipid deposition, improved insulin resistance, and alleviated the beta cell damage. These results suggest that improvement of lipid disorder, non-adipose tissue steatosis and insulin resistance may be very important for the protection of beta cell damage. Therefore, NO-1886 is potentially beneficial for the treatment of insulin-resistance syndrome.

[Effect of ginsenoside Rb1 on repeated stress-induced sexual deficiencies in male mice]

The effect of ginsenoside Rb1 has been studied on sexual deficiencies induced by repeated hanging stress. Male mice were stressed by hanging once daily(9:00 am-2:00 pm) for 10 days(1-3 day hung for 2 h, 4-6 day hung for 3 h, 7-9 day hung for 4 h, 10-11 day hung for 5 h). On day 10, they were exposed to female mice treated with estradiol and progesterone and their sexual behaviors (licking, mounting, mating) were assessed at 7:00-9:00 pm. The repeated hanging stress was found to reduce sexual behaviors and decrease plasma testosterone level in mice. Treatments with ginsenoside Rb1(2.5, 5, 10 mg.kg-1, i.p.) 30 min before each stress prevented the repeated stress-induced sexual deficiencies and raised plasma testosterone level. The mechanism of the protective action of ginsenoside Rb1 may be attributed to its action in maintaining normal plasma testosterone level.

[Dual sieve-mesh collimator]

In this paper is advanced a new type of collimator-dual sieve-mesh collimator. Its principle is to use scanned electronic beam to attack 400 matrix-arranged wolfram targets of the square holes on the upper side of the main collimator and created 400 small X-ray fields sized by 10 mm x 10 mm. These X-ray fields will leave on its center 400 smaller X-ray fields sized by 5 mm x 5 mm after being further collimated by a sub-collimator. What's more, 16 different groups of such X-ray fields can be left on the center of the same field by controlling the all-round movement of the main collimator and sub-collimator in proper order and by scanning it round by round and mesh by mesh with electronic beams. It is these ting fields groups that make up various treatment fields with different energy (Dosage). This type of collimator can replace and simplify all other present collimators on accelerators and conformal-intensity modulation radiotherapy equipment. It has advantage of reducing the costs of radio-therapy equipment and making conformal and intensity modulation radiotherapy easier to perform.

[Dual copy-supplement collimator]

Dual Copy-Supplement Collimator consists of two lead conic sections centered on one common radioactive source and having a lot of small square holes on them. When scanning electron beams strike X-Ray target and create some X-Ray fields while passing through the primary section, they penetrate the secondary section and generate even smaller field units(FU). Using these FUs would compose various treatment fields with different energy (dosage). It is able not only to replace many existing collimators such as MLC, but also to make the conformal radiotherapy easier.

[A clinical study on coincidence with hyperthyroidism and thyroid carcinoma]

OBJECTIVE

A retrospective study has been carried out to evaluate the prevalence of coincidence with hyperthyroidism and thyroid carcinoma.

METHODS

394 patients underwent surgery for hyperthyroidism and 245 patients suffered from thyroid cancer were chosen for the study in our hospital from January 1983 to June 1998.

RESULTS

Thyroid cancer and hyperthyroidism coincided in 12 patients. The incidence of thyroid cancer was 3.0% (12/394) in hyperthyroidism, and the incidence of hyperthyroidism was 4.9% in thyroid cancer. There were 7 female and 5 male, with a diffuse goiter (n = 3), a diffuse goiter with a cold nodule (n = 3), multinodular goiter (n = 6). Among the 12 patients, 7 patients had an occult thyroid cancer with a diameter of 1 cm or less, most of them with papillary carcinoma, less frequently had metastases, 4 patients had thyroid cancer with a diameter of 3 cm or more, and 3 patients had metastases.

CONCLUSIONS

The prevalence of coincidence with thyroid cancer and hyperthyroidism is more than that of thyroid cancer in population. Diagnostics for exclusion of thyroid cancer is required carefully even in the presence of hyperthyroidism.

[Experiment study on fit of anterior osseointegrated implant frameworks related to the number of fixture abutments]

Good fitness of osseointegrated frameworks was a key factor to protect implant for function. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the fitness of anterior implant fixed bridge in one-piece casting made of Ni-Cr alloy in different numbers of fixture abutments. The specimens were measured by the three-dimensional measurement system (German Opton uMM550). The results demonstrated that there were statistically significant differences in dimensional changes among one, two or three fixture numbers, the space of retention was 50-150 microns, and the flow of retention was 100-250 microns.

[Detection of remnants after removal of medullary thyroid carcinoma]

OBJECTIVE

To assess whether calcium stimulation test or somatostain-receptor (SS-R) imaging could early detect remnants after removal of medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC).

METHODS

Calcitonin stimulation (calcium element 3 mg/kg weight, i.v. 10 min), carcino-embryonic antigen (CEA), gastrin (GST) and vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) were tested in 14 patients with postoperative MTC. SS-R imaging was used to localize the remnants after removal of MTC in patients with elevated calcitonin.

RESULTS

Calcitonin stimulation test showed that the peak value of serum calcitonin was elevated in all patients, of whom 7 had the elevated vatue of basic calcitonin and peak calcitonin. In the 7 patients, SS-R imaging showed normal CEA, GST and VIP.

CONCLUSIONS

It is necessary for patients after removal of MTC to perform calcitonin stimulation test for detecting remnants early. SS-R imaging may be useful for localizing remnants and metastatic foci. CEA, GST and VIP are not significant in monitoring MTC after operation.

[Studies on the infrared and fluorescence spectra of europium lanthanum-benzoate complexes]

A series of mixed rare earth complexes of benzoic acid with europium and lanthanum were synthesized by the reaction of trivalent rare earth chlorides with ammonium benzoate in aqueous solution. Their composition is expressed with the general formula (Eu(1-chi)La(chi)) L3, where L = C6H5COO(-1), chi = 0.0-1.0. Their infrared and fluorescence spectra were investigated. The characteristic asymmetric (v(as)) and symmetric (v(s)) stretching vibrations of carboxyl group for rare earth complexes shift to lower frequency in comparison with sodium benzoate, and both the absorption bands show splitting. In addition, the difference between v(as) and v(s), deltav (120-125) cm(-1), is lees than that of sodium benzoate (deltav =137 cm(-1)). These situations show that the coordinating pattern of the carboxyl groups in the complexes is the form of chelation-bridging, therefore, it may be suggested that the rare earth (Eu, La) benzoates are a heteronuclear polymers. The dependence of the relative fluorescence intensity of the mixed rare earth complexes upon the content for La3+ ions was discussed. The results show that the emission intensity for Eu3+ ions can be greatly enhanced if a part of Eu3+ ions in europium benzoate were substituted by La3+ inos. When chi = 0.4, 0.5 or 0.7, the fluorescence intensity of the rare earth complexes can rise above 40%.

[Effects of low concentration ozone on the respiratory system of mice]

Effects of low concentration of O3 on the respiratory system in mice were studied in the present study. Mice were exposed to 0.1, 0.25 and 1.0 mg/m3 of O3, respectively for 8 h per day for 3 days. Cilia in brochia, Lipid peroxide (LPO) in lung tissue and phagocytic function of macrophage in mice were examined. The results showed that there were cilia damage in the 1.0 mg/m3 group and swelling of mitochondrias as well as endoplasmic reticulums in the 0.25 mg/m3 group. But no damage was found in the group of 0.1 mg/m3. Furthermore, phagocytic rates in the 0.25 and 1.0 mg/m3 groups were significantly lower than that of control group (P < 0.01). No differences in LPO leads were found.

[A study of DNA damage induced by asbestos fibers in vitro]

The results of our in vitro study showed that Rhodesia chrysotile, X. K. chrysotile, UICC chrysotile, crocidolite and amosite could cause damage to calf thymus DNA by inducing the production of 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OH-dG). After adding H2O2 and/or FeSO4, the production of 8-OH-dG, induced by asbestos fibers was significantly increased. The fiber of UICC crocidolite has the most untoward effect, that of UICC amosite comes next, and the three chrysotile fibers are the weakest ones. The effect of asbestos fibers on the production of 8-OH-dG has some relationship with hydroxy free radical and the type of asbestos. It is suggested that asbestos fibers could induce DNA point mutation through A.T and G.C transversion by the production of 8-OH-dG, which is related with the carcinogenesis of asbestos.

Effect of hydroxyl radical on Na(+)-K(+)-ATPase activity of the brain microsomal membranes

Sphingomyelin liposomes and brain microsomes were oxidized by exposure to hydrogen peroxide and ferrous ion. Lipid peroxidation were measured by the formation of thiobarbituric acid- reactive substances (TBAR). Hydroxyl radical was detected using the spin- trapping technique. Incubation of sphingomyelin liposomes with H2O2-Fe2+ resulted in an increase in the formation of TBAR. Na(+)-K(+)-ATPase activity was markedly inhibited and the SH group content decreased during incubation of microsomes in the presence of H2O2-Fe2+. Sodium ferulate effectively inhibited TBAR formation, protected Na(+)-K(+)-ATPase activity and prevented the oxidative modification of SH groups. Spin-trapping experiments showed that sodium ferulate effectively scavenged the hydroxyl radicals.