The efficacy and safety of Bazi Bushen Capsule in treating premature aging: A randomized, double blind, multicenter, placebo-controlled clinical trial.

Purpose: It is unclear whether traditional Chinese patent medicines can resist premature aging. This prospective study investigated the effects of Bazi Bushen Capsule (BZBS) which is a traditional Chinese patent medicine for tonifying the kidney essence on premature senility symptoms and quality of life, telomerase activity and telomere length.

Study Design And Methods: It was a parallel, multicenter, double-blind, randomized, and placebo-controlled trial.

Altered Fecal Microbiota Composition in Older Adults With Frailty.

Objective: Frailty is a common geriatric syndrome that is diagnosed and staged based mainly on symptoms. We aimed to evaluate frailty-related alterations of the intestinal permeability and profile fecal microbiota of healthy and frail older adults to identify microbial biomarkers of this syndrome.

Methods: We collected serum and fecal samples from 94 community-dwelling older adults, along with anthropometric, medical, mental health, and lifestyle data.

A milbemycin compound isolated from Streptomyces Sp. FJS31-2 with cytotoxicity and reversal of cisplatin resistance activity in A549/DDP cells.

Streptomyces Sp FJS31-2 is a strain isolated from special habitat soils in the early stage of our laboratory for producing a new type of halogenated type II polyketide antibiotic with good anti-MRSA activity. In this experiment, a variety of chromatographic and spectroscopic methods was used to isolate and identify a milbemycin compound VM48130 from the ethyl acetate extract of the fermentation products. To investigate its bioactivity, Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay was used to test the cytotoxic activity of the compound against a variety of cancer cells (human liver cancer cell line MHCC97H and SK-Hep1, human nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell line CNE1, mouse melanoma cell line B16, human colon cancer cell line LOVO, human lung adenocarcinoma cell line A549) and normal cells (human bronchial epithelial cell line 16HBE, human normal liver cell line L02, human nasopharyngeal epithelial cell line NP69).

Transfer of CD11c+ lamina propria mononuclear phagocytes from post-infectious irritable bowel syndrome causes mucosal barrier dysfunction and visceral hypersensitivity in recipient mice.

The role of low-grade inflammation in the development of post‑infectious irritable bowel syndrome (PI‑IBS) has attracted increasing attention. Abnormal CD11c+ mononuclear phagocytes, such as dendritic cells (DCs), macrophages, and monocytes, are involved in the disruption of immune tolerance in organisms, which can lead to the development of chronic inflammatory diseases. The present study tested the hypothesis that CD11c+ lamina propria mononuclear phagocytes (CD11c+ LPMPs) contribute to increased mucosal permeability and visceral hypersensitivity in a PI‑IBS mouse model.

Expression of β-catenin protein in hepatocellular carcinoma and its relationship with alpha-fetoprotein.

This study aimed to investigate the expression of β-catenin in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissues and its relationship with α-fetoprotein (AFP) in HCC. Immunohistochemistry was used to determine the expression of β-catenin in normal liver tissues (n=10), liver cirrhosis tissues (n=20), and primary HCC tissues (n=60). The relationship between β-catenin expression and clinical parameters of HCC was investigated.

[Overexpression of eIF4E gene in acute myeloid leukemia and its relation with disease progression].

The aim of this study was to detect the expression level of eIF4E gene in patients with non-treated, remission and non-remission/relapse acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and other non-malignant haematologic diseases so as to analyze and reveal the relationship of eIF4E gene expression with AML progression. SYBR Green I RT-PCR was used to assay the expression level of eIF4E mRNA extracted from bone marrow mononuclear cells in 30 patients with AML (6 in M2, 5 in M3, 8 in M4, 10 in M5, 1 in M6) and 20 patients with non-malignant hematologic diseases. The β2-microglubin(β2M) was used as internal reference and the formula 2(-ΔCt)×100% was applied to calculate the expression level of eIF4E gene.

[Analysis of TCR gene rearrangement for identification of T cell leukemia clone by using fine-tiling aCGH].

Aim: To establish a new method which analyzes T cell receptor (TCR) gene rearrangement for identification of T cells acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) clone, it will provide the basis for the study of T-ALL including the chromosome translocation involving TCR loci.

Methods: Total DNA was isolated from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of one case with T-ALL. Using the fine-tiling array comparative genomic hybridization (fine-tiling aCGH) to analyze the genomic DNA differences of the case and control group, we could find the breakpoints and their position in the chromosomes.

[Change of expression pattern of CD3 genes in peripheral blood T-cells from CML patients].

Our previous finding showed that down-regulation of CD3ζ gene was detected in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). In order to further elucidate the feature of T cell immune status in the signal transduction in CML patients, the expression patterns of all 4 CD3 genes were characterized in peripheral blood of patients, the expression levels of CD3γ, δ, ε and ζ chain genes were detected by real time qPCR with SYBR Green I staining in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMNCs) from 17 cases of de novo CML patients in chronic phase and 17 cases of healthy individuals, the ß₂-microglobulin gene was used as an internal reference, and the mRNA expression level of each CD3 gene was evaluated by the 2(-ΔCt) x 100% method. The results showed that the median expression levels of CD3γ, δ and ε genes (2.

Incidence, risks, and outcome of idiopathic pneumonia syndrome early after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

We retrospectively analyzed 23 cases with early-onset idiopathic pneumonia syndrome (IPS) of 192 patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) from April 1997 to October 2007. Risk factors for IPS development were evaluated using Cox proportional hazards model, including age, gender, underlying disease, disease status at transplant, transplant type, conditioning regimens, donor type, acute graft-vs.-host disease (GVHD), severity of acute GVHD (aGVHD), human leukocyte antigen (HLA) disparity, and organ involvement of aGVHD.

[Detection of TCR Vbeta subfamily sjTRECs in normal peripheral blood and cord blood].

Aim: To detect the existence of sjTRECs in TCR 23 Vbeta subfamilies in normal peripheral blood and cord blood, and to evaluate the recent thymic emigrants of naive T cells of different TCRbeta subfamilies.

Methods: Different amounts of DNA from samples (4 cases of thymocytes, 10 cases of cord blood and 10 cases of normal PBMCs) were amplified to estimate the frequency of 23 TCR Vbeta-Dbeta sjTRECs by using semi-nest PCR.

Results: At the same cellular concentration, the most frequency of Vbeta-Dbeta1 sjTRECs was found in thymocytes, the second was in cord blood, and the lowest was in peripheral blood.

Management of star fruit-induced neurotoxicity and seizures in a patient with chronic renal failure.

An 84-year-old Asian woman with hypertension and chronic renal failure was evaluated for incoherent speech, followed by intermittent interruptions of consciousness, and then status epilepticus after ingesting one star fruit (Averrhoa carambola) each day for 3 days. Conventional first-line anticonvulsants and hemodialysis were administered without significant control of the patient's seizures. Treatment was started with propofol, an intravenous agent that induces anesthesia with rapid onset and elimination from the central nervous system; this resulted in complete control of the seizures.

[The feature of TCR V alpha40 with Jdelta1, Ddelta3 or psiJalpha gene rearrrangements in T cells].

The rearrangement segments of TCR Valpha40 gene with Jdelta1, Ddelta3 or psi Jalpha were amplified in genomic DNA from peripheral blood mononuclear cells of 10 normal subjects, sorted CD3(+) cells from peripheral blood of 4 cases and thymocytes from 7 cases, by using nested PCR. Different amounts of DNA from all samples were amplified to estimate the frequency of Valpha40 gene rearrangements. The results indicated that the rearrangements of TCR Valpha40 gene with Jdelta1, Ddelta3 or psi Jalpha could be found respectively in the most samples of peripheral blood T cells or thymocytes.

[Analysis of selected usage and clonal expansion of TCR Vbeta repertoire of peripheral blood T cells in patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma].

To investigate the distribution and clonal expansion of TCR Vbeta subfamily T cells in patients with B-NHL and T-NHL, the CDR3 of TCR Vbeta 24 subfamily genes was amplified in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 4 cases with B-NHL and 2 cases with T-NHL using RT-PCR, and to observe the usage of TCR Vbeta repertoire, the PCR products were further labeled with fluorescence and analyzed by genescan technique for the CDR3 size, to evaluating clonality of the detectable TCR Vbeta T cells. The results indicated that only selected expression of 6-12 Vbeta subfamily T cells could be identified in the 6 cases with NHL, and Vbeta1, Vbeta8, Vbeta13 and Vbeta19 were expressed in all samples, Vbeta2 and Vbeta16 could be found in 5 samples, whereas Vbeta4-6, Vbeta10-12, Vbeta15, Vbeta17-18, Vbeta20 and Vbeta22-23 were absent in all samples. Genescan analysis showed that clonal expansion of T cells could be found in 1-3 Vbeta subfamilies from 2 cases with B-NHL and 1 case with T-NHL.