华支睾吸虫膜抗原/排泄分泌抗原酸性磷酸酶的克隆、表达、生物学特征分析及组织定位

 目的:对华支睾吸虫(Clonorchis sinensis, Cs)成虫酸性磷酸酶 (acid phosphatase, AP)进行克隆、表达、生物学特征分析、组织定位及膜抗原/排泄分泌抗原鉴定。方法:对CsAP进行生物信息学、分子生物学、免疫组化及明胶酶谱分析。结果:从Cs cDNA文库中筛选出编码AP新基因,全长1 410 bp,重组并由大肠杆菌表达、纯化,得到分子量为55 kD的重组蛋白CsAP。Western blotting分析表明,CsAP既是膜抗原又是分泌排泄抗原;免疫组化显示,CsAP荧光显示于成虫的表皮层和肠支,在囊蚴也有显示,在雷蚴和尾蚴未显示荧光;ELISA分析表明CsAP识别华支睾吸虫病人和日本血吸虫病人存在吸虫间的交叉免疫反应,CsAP及粗抗原识别轻、中、重度感染程度华支睾吸虫病人的差别不明显。重组蛋白免疫大鼠后,总IgG抗体滴度于3周达较高峰,抗体效价大于1∶25 600。明胶降解实验表明：CsAP具降解胶原能力。结论: 上述结果表明,CsAP在大肠杆菌中高效表达,具有较好的免疫原性,但血清诊断价值不理想;CsAP可能既是膜抗原,又是排泄分泌抗原。     

Segmental and suprasegmental features in speech perception in Cantonese‐speaking second graders: An ERP study

Using a multiple‐deviant oddball paradigm, this study examined second graders' brain responses to Cantonese speech. We aimed to address the question of whether a change in a consonant or lexical tone could be automatically detected by children. We measured auditory mismatch responses to place of articulation and voice onset time (VOT), reflecting segmental perception, as well as Cantonese lexical tones including level tone and contour tone, reflecting suprasegmental perception. The data showed that robust mismatch negativities (MMNs) were elicited by all deviants in the time window of 300–500 ms in second graders. Moreover, relative to the standard stimuli, the VOT deviant elicited a robust positive mismatch response, and the level tone deviant elicited a significant MMN in the time window of 150–300 ms. The findings suggest that Hong Kong second graders were sensitive to neural discriminations of speech sounds both at the segmental and suprasegmental levels.     

Does the Glass Transition of Polymers Change Upon 3D Confinement?

The calorimetric trace of polymer spheres shows an increase of the glass‐transition temperature (T_g), with respect to its bulk value. This increase is evaluated by means of an entropy model, where the 3D confinement leads to a limiting number of repeating polymer units in the sphere, and thus to a reduction of the possible configuration states of the polymer chains. This is ultimately related to variations in the bulk value of the T_g. Also, the way the polymer nature affects how confinement takes place and how restrictions imposed affect the way a polymer forms cooperative rearranging regions at T_g are presented.

     

Intracranial injection of recombinant stromal-derived factor-1 alpha (SDF-1α) attenuates traumatic brain injury in rats

Objective

This study was conducted to investigate the role of stromal-derived factor-1 alpha (SDF-1α) in a secondary brain injury after traumatic brain injury (TBI) in rats, and to further elucidate its underlying regulatory mechanisms.

Materials and methods

Male Sprague–Dawley rats underwent TBI for 30 min, and then received intracranial injections of recombinant SDF-1α, SDF-1α antibody, or saline as a vehicle control. At 24 h after TBI, brain tissues from the experimental animals were subjected to histology, immunohistochemistry, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and western blot analyses.

Results

TBI-induced brain edema and blood–brain barrier disruption were ameliorated by post-injury injections of SDF-1α. TBI-induced neuronal degradation and apoptosis, accompanied by increased cleaved caspase-3, cleaved PARP and Bax, and decreased Bcl-2 were found to be attenuated by SDF-1α injection. Nitric oxide (NO) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) levels decreased in SDF-1α treated animals after TBI. SDF-1α repressed inflammatory responses by inhibiting the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6. However, neutralizing the effect of SDF-1α with its antibody abolished these therapeutic alterations in TBI animals. Importantly, SDF-1α attenuated the brain lesion by affecting the ERK and NF-κB signaling pathways after mechanical head trauma in rats.

Conclusions

SDF-1α ameliorates mechanical trauma-induced pathological changes via its anti-apoptotic and anti-inflammatory action in the brain.     

Exomic analysis of myxoid liposarcomas,synovial sarcomas,and osteosarcomas

Bone and soft tissue sarcomas are a group of histologically heterogeneous and relatively uncommon tumors. To explore their genetic origins, we sequenced the exomes of 13 osteosarcomas, eight myxoid liposarcomas (MLPS), and seven synovial sarcomas (SYN). These tumors had few genetic alterations (median of 10.8). Nevertheless, clear examples of driver gene mutations were observed, including canonical mutations in TP53, PIK3CA, SETD2, AKT1, and subclonal mutation in FBXW7. Of particular interest were mutations in H3F3A, encoding the variant histone H3.3. Mutations in this gene have only been previously observed in gliomas. Loss of heterozygosity of exomic regions was extensive in osteosarcomas but rare in SYN and MLPS. These results provide intriguing nucleotide‐level information on these relatively uncommon neoplasms and highlight pathways that help explain their pathogenesis. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

外周血中性粒细胞/淋巴细胞比值与透析患者冠状动脉钙化的关系

目的 通过透析患者资料分析该人群冠状动脉钙化(CAC)的危险因素,探讨中性粒细胞/淋巴细胞比值(NLR)对CAC的预测价值。方法 采用横断面调查方法,对163例透析患者(包括血液透析102例,腹膜透析61例)进行回顾性研究,根据多层螺旋CT评估结果,采用Agatston冠状动脉钙化积分(CACS)进行冠状动脉钙化程度的评估,将透析患者分成无钙化组59例(CACS 0～10分)和钙化组104例(CACS≥11分)。对两组患者的NLR、年龄、透析龄、高敏C反应蛋白(hs-CRP)、血钙、血磷、全段甲状旁腺激素(iPTH)、白蛋白(Alb)、血红蛋白、血清肌酐等指标进行统计学比较。应用Spearman相关性分析得出与CAC相关的因素,二元Logistic回归分析CAC发生的危险因素,受试者工作特征(ROC)曲线探讨NLR对CAC的预测价值。结果 163例透析患者中CAC总检出率为63.8%。钙化组NLR显著高于无钙化组(P＜0.001)。将钙化组分为轻度钙化组(CACS 11~400分)和重度钙化组(CACS＞400分),两亚组间NLR差异无统计学意义。Spearman相关性分析显示NLR与CAC显著相关(r＝0.403,P＜0.001)。二元Logistic回归分析结果显示年龄(OR=1.069,P＜0.001)、透析龄(OR=1.024,P＜0.001)、糖尿病(OR=15.871,P＝0.012)、NLR(OR=1.720,P＝0.001)是CAC的危险因素。ROC曲线分析结果显示,NLR与年龄的联合指标预测透析患者发生CAC时,曲线下面积为0.810(95%CI 0.739~0.880,P＜0.001),显著高于NLR(0.742,95%CI 0.666~0.818,P＜0.001)和年龄(0.754,95%CI 0.674~0.834,P＜0.001)单独分析时的曲线下面积。结论 高龄、透析龄和高水平NLR的透析患者发生CAC的风险较高,且NLR与年龄的联合指标对CAC的发生有着较好的预测价值。     

Nomograms predicting long-term survival in patients with invasive intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms of the pancreas: A population-based study

BACKGROUND There are few effective tools to predict survival in patients with invasive intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms of the pancreas.AIM To develop comprehensive nomograms to individually estimate the survival outcome of patients with invasive intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms of the pancreas.METHODS Data of 1219 patients with invasive intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms after resection were extracted from the Surveillance,Epidemiology,and End Results database,and randomly divided into the training(n=853)and the validation(n=366)cohorts.Based on the Cox regression model,nomograms were constructed to predict overall survival and cancer-specific survival for an individual patient.The performance of the nomograms was measured according to discrimination,calibration,and clinical utility.Moreover,we compared the predictive accuracy of the nomograms with that of the traditional staging system.RESULTS In the training cohort,age,marital status,histological type,T stage,N stage,M stage,and chemotherapy were selected to construct nomograms.Compared with the American Joint Committee on Cancer 7th staging system,the nomograms were generally more discriminative.The nomograms passed the calibration steps by showing high consistency between actual probability and nomogram prediction.Categorial net classification improvements and integrated discrimination improvements suggested that the predictive accuracy of the nomograms exceeded that of the American Joint Committee on Cancer staging system.With respect to decision curve analyses,the nomograms exhibited more preferable net benefit gains than the staging system across a wide range of threshold probabilities.CONCLUSION The nomograms show improved predictive accuracy,discrimination capability,and clinical utility,which can be used as reliable tools for risk classification and treatment recommendations.