The effect of postoperative TACE on prognosis of HCC with microscopic venous invasion.

Background/aims: The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical efficacy of postoperative adjuvant transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with microscopic venous invasion.

Methodology: Data from 76 patients with HCC who underwent hepatectomy with or without postoperative adjuvant TACE between July 2005 and August 2010 were retrospectively reviewed. Kaplan-Meier method was used to compare survival between the groups and prognostic factors were evaluated by Cox proportional hazard model.

Estimation of standard liver volume in Chinese adult living donors.

Aim: To determine a formula predicting the standard liver volume based on body surface area (BSA) or body weight in Chinese adults.

Materials And Methods: A total of 115 consecutive right-lobe living donors not including the middle hepatic vein underwent right hemi-hepatectomy. No organs were used from prisoners, and no subjects were prisoners.

Roles of calcium and IP3 in impaired colon contractility of rats following multiple organ dysfunction syndrome.

The purpose of the present study was to explore changes in rat colon motility, and determine the roles of calcium and inositol (1,4,5)-triphosphate (IP3) in colon dysmotility induced by multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) caused by bacteria peritonitis. The number of stools, the contractility of the muscle strips and the length of smooth muscle cells (SMC) in the colon, the concentration of calcium and IP3 in SMC, and serum nitric oxide were measured. Number of stools, fecal weight, IP3 concentration in SMC and serum nitric oxide concentration were 0.

The early changes of colon motility in the rats after liver transplantation.

The purpose of this study was to explore the early changes of colon motility in rats after liver transplantation. Thirty Wistar rats were divided into a sham operation group (n = 10) and a liver transplantation group (n = 10 pairs). The number of stools, the contractility of muscle strips, the length of smooth muscle cells, the levels of plasma endotoxin, the morphological changes, and the expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) in the colon of the rats were observed in the two groups.

Early changes of small intestine function in rats after liver transplantation.

Objective: The aims of this study were to explore the concomitant changes of the barrier function, bacterial translocation, absorption, and small intestinal motility in rats after liver transplantation and to correlate these changes with levels of plasma endotoxin.

Methods: Thirty Wistar rats were divided randomly between a sham operation group (n=10) and a liver transplantation group (n=10 pairs). The intestinal transit function, intestinal permeability, bacterial translocation, absorption function, levels of plasma endotoxin, and nitrogen monoxide (NO) changes in plasma and small intestinal mucosa were monitored in the two groups.

Effects of emodin on Ca2+ signal transduction of smooth muscle cells in multiple organ dysfunction syndrome.

We have made several reports on the signal transduction mechanism that emodin enhance the calcium concentrations of smooth muscle cells (SMCs) in the physiological condition by inositol [1, 4, 5]-friphosphate (IP3). The observation that IP3 concentrations in SMCs were decreased in multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) prompted us to ask whether emodin can activate SMCs to contract by way of elevating [Ca2+] and thus modulating the critical Ca2+ signal transduction pathways involved in the contraction of the SMCs in the pathological setting of MODS. To test this hypothesis, we used the rat model of MODS to explore the potential roles of emodin in Ca2+ signal transduction in the SMCs of colon in rats.