Antinucleosome antibodies as a potential biomarker for the evaluation of renal pathological activity in patients with proliferative lupus nephritis.

The objective of this study is to evaluate the correlation between antinucleosome antibodies and renal pathological activity in patients with proliferative lupus nephritis (LN). We evaluated 36 patients with proliferative LN, 14 non-renal lupus patients and 10 healthy volunteers. Lupus activity was assessed using the British Isles Lupus Assessment Group 2004 (BILAG 2004) index, serum anti-double stranded DNA (anti-dsDNA) levels, serum complement levels and daily urinary protein levels.

Synthesis of brushite particles in reverse microemulsions of the biosurfactant surfactin.

In this study the "green chemistry" use of the biosurfactant surfactin for the synthesis of calcium phosphate using the reverse microemulsion technique was demonstrated. Calcium phosphates are bioactive materials that are a major constituent of human teeth and bone tissue. A reverse microemulsion technique with surfactin was used to produce nanocrystalline brushite particles.

Optimal designs of staggered dean vortex micromixers.

A novel parallel laminar micromixer with a two-dimensional staggered Dean Vortex micromixer is optimized and fabricated in our study. Dean vortices induced by centrifugal forces in curved rectangular channels cause fluids to produce secondary flows. The split-and-recombination (SAR) structures of the flow channels and the impinging effects result in the reduction of the diffusion distance of two fluids.

Pharmacological characterization of [³H]CHIBA-3007 binding to glycine transporter 1 in the rat brain.

Glycine transporter-1 (GlyT-1) in glial cells regulates extracellular levels of glycine, which acts as an obligatory co-agonist at the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors in the brain. In the present study, we developed a novel radioligand, [³H]3-chloro-N-((S)-((R)-1-methylpiperidin-2-yl)(thiophen- 3-yl)methyl)-4- (trifluoromethyl)picolinamide ([³H]CHIBA-3007), for studying GlyT-1 in the brain. The presence of a single saturable high-affinity binding component for [³H]CHIBA-3007 binding to the rat brain membranes was detected.

Endothelial NOS activity and myocardial oxygen metabolism define the salvageable ischemic time window for ischemic postconditioning.

Ischemic postconditioning (IPOC) could be ineffective or even detrimental if the index ischemic duration is either too short or too long. The present study is to demonstrate that oxygen supply and metabolism defines a salvageable ischemic time window of IPOC in mice. C57BL/6 mice underwent coronary artery occlusion followed by reperfusion (I/R), with or without IPOC by three cycles of 10 s/10 s R/I.

A small-molecule macrophage migration inhibitory factor antagonist protects against glomerulonephritis in lupus-prone NZB/NZW F1 and MRL/lpr mice.

Autoimmunity leads to the activation of innate effector pathways, proinflammatory cytokine production, and end-organ injury. Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) is an upstream activator of the innate response that mediates the recruitment and retention of monocytes via CD74 and associated chemokine receptors, and it has a role in the maintenance of B lymphocytes. High-expression MIF alleles also are associated with end-organ damage in different autoimmune diseases.

Nonmotor symptoms are independently associated with impaired health-related quality of life in Chinese patients with Parkinson's disease.

We performed a cross-sectional study of 82 Chinese patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) enrolled during an 18-month period using a clinical interview to assess the prevalence of nonmotor symptoms (NMS), the association with disease severity and motor status, and the impact on patients' health-related quality of life (Hr-QoL). The patients' NMS, Hr-QoL, disease severity, and motor status were assessed by the Nonmotor Symptoms Scale (NMSS), the 39-item Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-39), the modified Hoehn and Yahr staging scale (H&Y) and the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale part III (UPDRS III), respectively. We found that 100% of patients with PD presented with NMS.

Macrophage migration inhibitory factor regulates interleukin-6 production by facilitating nuclear factor-kappa B activation during Vibrio vulnificus infection.

Background: Patients infected with Vibrio vulnificus (V. vulnificus) show severe inflammatory responses characterised by the upregulation of proinflammatory cytokines. Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF), an upstream proinflammatory regulator, increases the inflammation caused by sepsis.

Number and location of positive nodes, postoperative radiotherapy, and survival after esophagectomy with three-field lymph node dissection for thoracic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Purpose: To analyze influences of the number and location of positive lymph nodes and postoperative radiotherapy on survival for patients with thoracic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (TE-SCC) treated with radical esophagectomy with three-field lymphadenectomy.

Methods And Materials: A total of 945 patients underwent radical esophagectomy plus three-field lymph node dissection for node-positive TE-SCC at Fujian Provincial Tumor Hospital between January 1993 and March 2007. Five hundred ninety patients received surgery only (S group), and 355 patients received surgery, followed 3 to 4 weeks later by postoperative radiotherapy (S+R group) to a median total dose of 50 Gy in 25 fractions.

Effect of vascular endothelial growth factor on remodeling of C6 glioma tissue in vivo.

Pathological characteristics and biological behaviors of tumor are considered to result from pathological tissue remodeling regulated by the interaction of factors in the tumor microecosystem (TMES). Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is one of the factors that probably play an important role in the process of tissue remodeling. This study was a comprehensive investigation of the effects of VEGF on remodeling of glioma tissue in vivo.

Sensitive lactate determination based on acclimated mixed bacteria and palygorskite co-modified oxygen electrode.

A sensitive bacteria biosensor was prepared for the detection of trace lactate. The sensitive bioelement, Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus mixed culture, and palygorskite, a perfect matrix for bacteria, was co-immobilized on the surface of oxygen electrode. The biosensor possesses fine selective specificity, good sensitivity and longer operational life time, which were due to the mutual help relationship of symbiotic bacteria and 240 days acclimation with lactate as the carbon source.

Interobserver variability among measurements of the maximum and mean standardized uptake values on (18)F-FDG PET/CT and measurements of tumor size on diagnostic CT in patients with pulmonary tumors.

Background: (18)F-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose positron emission tomography ((18)F-FDG PET) imaging has been shown to be an accurate method for diagnosing pulmonary lesions, and the standardized uptake value (SUV) has been shown to be useful in differentiating benign from malignant lesions.

Purpose: To survey the interobserver variability of SUV(max) and SUV(mean) measurements on (18)F-FDG PET/CT scans and compare them with tumor size measurements on diagnostic CT scans in the same group of patients with focal pulmonary lesions.

Material And Methods: Forty-three pulmonary nodules were measured on both (18)F-FDG PET/CT and diagnostic chest CT examinations.

Evolvability and single-genotype fluctuation in phenotypic properties: a simple heteropolymer model.

Experiment showed that the response of a genotype to mutation, i.e., the magnitude of mutational change in a phenotypic property, can be correlated with the extent of phenotypic fluctuation among genetic clones.

ISO-1, a macrophage migration inhibitory factor antagonist, inhibits airway remodeling in a murine model of chronic asthma.

Airway remodeling is the process of airway structural change that occurs in patients with asthma in response to persistent inflammation and leads to increasing disease severity. Drugs that decrease this persistent inflammation play a crucial role in managing asthma episodes. Mice sensitized (by intraperitoneal administration) and then challenged (by inhalation) with ovalbumin (OVA) develop an extensive eosinophilic inflammatory response, goblet cell hyperplasia, collagen deposition, airway smooth muscle thickening, and airway wall area increase, similar to pathologies observed in human asthma.

The H-Wave((R)) Device Induces NODependent Augmented Microcirculation and Angiogenesis, Providing Both Analgesia and Tissue Healing in Sports Injuries.

Unlabelled: The hypothesis that the H-Wave(R) device (Electronic Waveform Lab, Inc., Huntington Beach, CA), a small-diameter fiber stimulator, is a paradigm shift of electrotherapeutic treatment of pain associated with human neuropathies and sports injuries is based on a number of its properties. The primary effect of H-Wave(R) device stimulation (HWDS) is the stimulation of "red-slow-twitch" skeletal muscle fibers.

Intracellular glutathione plays important roles in pyrrolizidine alkaloids-induced growth inhibition on hepatocytes.

Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) are well-known natural hepatotoxins distributed widely in thousands of plants in the world. Adonifoline (Adon), senecionine (Sene) and monocrotaline (Mono) are retronecine-type PAs, and the present study is designed to observe the effects of intracellular glutathione on toxicity of these three PAs in human normal liver L-02 cells. The ratio of cellular reduced glutathione (GSH) and oxidized glutathione (GSSG) was assayed after L-02 cells were incubated with these three PAs for various times.

Intracellular glutathione regulates Andrographolide-induced cytotoxicity on hepatoma Hep3B cells.

Andrographolide (ANDRO), a diterpenoid lactone isolated from the traditional herbal plant Andrographis paniculata, was reported to induce apoptosis in hepatoma Hep3B cells in our previous study (Ji LL, Liu TY, Liu J, Chen Y, Wang ZT. Andrographolide inhibits human hepatoma-derived Hep3B cells growth through the activation of c-Jun N-terminal kinase. Planta Med 2007; 73: 1397-1401).

Methylation of PTCH1a gene in a subset of gastric cancers.

Aim: To establish if PTCH1a transcriptional regulation region (TRR) is methylated in gastric cancer and its influence in gastric tumorigenesis.

Methods: The CpG islands in PTCH1a TRR were analyzed by Methyl Primer Express v1.0 software.

Sequential effects in the Simon task: conflict adaptation or feature integration?

Sequential effects--reduced behavioral interference after incongruent trials-provide a unique opportunity to examine the influence of previous experience on current attentional processing. We conducted a theoretical analysis of performance in the Simon paradigm to distinguish an attention account (conflict adaptation) from a working memory account (feature integration). Results supported the memory account.

Common variants in LSP1, 2q35 and 8q24 and breast cancer risk for BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers.

Genome-wide association studies of breast cancer have identified multiple single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that are associated with increased breast cancer risks in the general population. In a previous study, we demonstrated that the minor alleles at three of these SNPs, in FGFR2, TNRC9 and MAP3K1, also confer increased risks of breast cancer for BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation carriers. Three additional SNPs rs3817198 at LSP1, rs13387042 at 2q35 and rs13281615 at 8q24 have since been reported to be associated with breast cancer in the general population, and in this study we evaluated their association with breast cancer risk in 9442 BRCA1 and 5665 BRCA2 mutation carriers from 33 study centres.

Levels of the potential biomarker p11 in peripheral blood cells distinguish patients with PTSD from those with other major psychiatric disorders.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a severely debilitating anxiety disorder. Over 80% of patients with PTSD also exhibit other psychiatric condition, such as bipolar disorder (BP) or major depression (MDD). Previously, it has been found that p11 mRNA expression was significantly changed in post mortem cortex of patients with PTSD and depression.

A CMOS-Compatible, Low-Noise ISFET Based on High Efficiency Ion-Modulated Lateral-Bipolar Conduction.

Ion-sensitive, field-effect transistors (ISFET) have been useful biosensors in many applications. However, the signal-to-noise ratio of the ISFET is limited by its intrinsic, low-frequency noise. This paper presents an ISFET capable of utilizing lateral-bipolar conduction to reduce low-frequency noise.

[Ecological benefit evaluation of urban forests in Shenyang City based on QuickBird image and CITYgreen model].

Based on the urban forest coverage data interpreted from QuickBird image (2006) and the CITYgreen model, the benefits of Shenyang urban forest types with different canopy closure in carbon fixation and pollutant removal were investigated by means of sampling strategy. The results showed that the total amount of carbon storage, annual carbon sequestration, annual air pollutant removal, and their corresponding values were 0.51 Tg, 6858.

Automatic segmentation of magnetic resonance images using a decision tree with spatial information.

Here we proposed an automatic segmentation method based on a decision tree to classify the brain tissues in magnetic resonance (MR) images. Two types of data - phantom MR images obtained from IBSR (http://www.cma.

[Application of catastrophe progression method in assessing urban ecological security of Xiamen City, China].

Aiming at the potential catastrophic characteristics of coastal city under rapid urbanization, and based on the P-S-R (pressure-state-response) framework and catastrophe progression method (CPM), this paper developed a catastrophe model for the assessment of urban eco-security, and assessed the ecological security status (ESS) of Xiamen City from 1996 to 2006. The results showed that from 1996 to 1998, the ESS had an improving trend, revealing that the rapid urbanization in this period had less effect on the regional eco-security. From 1998 to 2001, owing to the large-scale and profound ecological disturbances from sea reclamation and rapid population increase that far overstepped the ecological remediation ability of Xiamen City's ecosystem itself, the ESS declined rapidly.