First-in-man implantation of the retrievable and repositionable VenusA-Plus valve.

Background: No retrievable and repositionable second generation transcatheter aortic valve is available in China. Here, we report the first-in-man implantation of the retrievable and repositionable VenusA-Plus valve.

Methods: A 76-year-old patient with symptomatic severe aortic stenosis and high surgical risk (STS 13.

Pharmacological Regulation of In Situ Tissue Stem Cells Differentiation for Soft Tissue Calcification Treatment.

Calcification of soft tissues, such as heart valves and tendons, is a common clinical problem with limited therapeutics. Tissue specific stem/progenitor cells proliferate to repopulate injured tissues. But some of them become divergent to the direction of ossification in the local pathological microenvironment, thereby representing a cellular target for pharmacological approach.

Protective function of tocilizumab in human cardiac myocytes ischemia reperfusion injury.

Objective: To investigate the protective function of tocilizumab in human cardiac myocytes ischemia-reperfusion injury.

Methods: The human cardiac myocytes were treated by tocilizumab with different concentrations(1.0 mg/mL, 3.

Anterolateral minithoracotomy versus median sternotomy for mitral valve disease: a meta-analysis.

Objective: Mitral valve disease tends to be treated with anterolateral minithoracotomy (ALMT) rather than median sternotomy (MS), as ALMT uses progressively smaller incisions to promote better cosmetic outcomes. This meta-analysis quantifies the effects of ALMT on surgical parameters and post-operative outcomes compared with MS.

Methods: One randomized controlled study and four case-control studies, published in English from January 1996 to January 2013, were identified and evaluated.

[One-stop hybrid cardiac surgery for adults with complex heart disease].

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and security of one-stop hybrid cardiac surgery for the treatment of adult patients with complex heart disease.

Methods: From November 2011 to March 2012, a total of 5 patients [4 male, mean age: (58.8 ± 14.

[Magnetic liposome mediated shRNA specifically suppresses the growth of non-small cell lung cancer in vitro and in vivo].

Objective: To evaluate the inhibition of shRNA mediated by magnetic liposome in the growth of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) under the interference of magnetic field in vitro and in vivo and explore the effects of magnetic field on the efficiency of magnetofection.

Methods: The plasmid of pGFPshIGF-1R was constructed for expressing GFP and shRNA against IGF-1R. CombiMAG as superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) and Lipofectamine2000 as cationic liposome comprised the magnetic liposome.

[Biological behaviors and chemosensitivity of NSCLC A549 cells after IGF-IR gene silencing by targeting RNAi in vitro].

Objective: To investigate the biological behaviors and chemosensitivity of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell line A549 after IGF-IR gene silencing by RNA interference (RNAi) in vitro.

Methods: Two plasmids siRNA 1 and 2 expressing IGF-IR siRNA with human U6 promoter were constructed,and an unrelated siRNA was used as negative control. NSCLC A549 cells were transfected with sequence-specific siRNA or unrelated siRNA as control.

[shRNA-mediated insulin-like growth factor I receptor gene silencing inhibits cell proliferation, induces cell apoptosis, and suppresses tumor growth in non-small cell lung cancer: in vitro and in vivo experiments].

Objective: To study the effects of RNA interference (RNAi)-mediated insulin-like growth factor I receptor (IGF-IR) gene silencing on human lung cancer cells.

Methods: Plasmids expressing IGF-IR shRNA1 and IGF-IR shRNA2 were constructed. Human non-small cell lung cancer cells of the line A549 were cultured and transfected with sequence-specific shRNA.

Down-regulation of IGF-IR using small, interfering, hairpin RNA (siRNA) inhibits growth of human lung cancer cell line A549 in vitro and in nude mice.

Type I insulin-like growth factor receptor (IGF-IR), which is frequently overexpressed in a variety of human cancers including lung cancer, mediates cancer cell proliferation and tumor growth. In this study, we used a human U6 promoter-driven DNA-template approach to induce hairpin RNA (hpRNA)-triggered RNAi to silence IGF-IR gene expression in the human lung cancer cell line A549, and then evaluate its effects on apoptosis, apoptosis-related gene expression, and the growth of tumor cells in vitro and in nude mice. IGF-IR expression levels were found to markedly decrease in cells transfected with a plasmid expressing hairpin siRNA for IGF-IR (by more than 78.