Clinicopathological and Prognostic Roles of STAT3 and Its Phosphorylation in Glioma.

Glioma is defined as a common brain tumor which causes severe disability or death. As many genes are reported to relate with glioma's occurrence and development, their prognostic and therapeutic value still remains uncertain. This study aimed at investigating the association between STAT3/p-STAT3 and glioma prognosis. Nine studies (12 trials) scored ≥5 on the Newcastle-Ottawa scale were meta-analysed from the Medline, Embase, and Web of Science databases. We found that STAT3/p-STAT3 overexpression in glioma patients was associated with worse overall survival (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.40, 95%confidence interval (CI) = 1.05 ~ 1.86, P = 0.020), progression-free survival (HR = 2.05, 95%CI = 1.63 ~ 2.58, P < 0.001), and better recurrence-free survival (HR = 0.37, 95%CI = 0.15 ~ 0.95, P < 0.039). Subgroup analysis implied that STAT3/p-STAT3 overexpression was associated with worse OS in standard treatment (HR = 1.80, 95%CI = 1.06 ~ 3.04, P = 0.030), and in China (HR = 2.18, 95%CI = 1.77 ~ 2.70, P < 0.001), and metaregression analysis indicated countries (P = 0.001) may be the source of heterogeneity in our study. In conclusion, we suggested STAT3/p-STAT3 was associated with poor prognosis in patients with glioma, which indicated that STAT3/p-STAT3 might be a valuable prognostic biomarker and a promising therapeutic target for glioma.

Diurnal variations in solar ultraviolet radiation at typical anatomical sites.

OBJECTIVE: Solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation is an important environmental factor that affects human health. The understanding of diurnal variations of UV radiation at anatomical sites may be helpful in developing ways to protect humans from the harmful effects of UV radiation. METHODS: In order to characterize the diurnal variations, the UV exposure values were measured at 30 min intervals by using Solar-UV Sensors and a rotating manikin in Shenyang city of China (41 degrees 51'N, 123 degrees 27'E). Measurement data for four representative days (in each of the four seasons respectively) were analyzed. RESULTS: The diurnal variations in solar UV radiation at the shoulder, the forehead and the chest were similar to those associated with a horizontal control measurement. However, the diurnal variations at the eye and the cheek exhibited bimodal distributions with two peaks in spring, summer and autumn, and a unimodal distribution in winter. The UV exposure peaks at the eye and the cheek were measured at solar elevation angles (SEA) of about 30 degrees and 40 degrees , respectively. CONCLUSION: The protection of some anatomical sites such as the eye from high UV exposure should not be focused solely on the periods before and after noon, especially in the places and seasons with high SEA.

[Study on water processing conditions of Realgar].

OBJECTIVE: To optimize the water processing (shui-fei) condition of Realgar. METHODS: The processing conditions were optimized by L9 (3)4 orthogonal design with three factors as water dose, process times and dryness temperature. The content of dissolved arsenic As(III) in Realgar was tested by High Performance Liquid Chromatography-hydride generation on-line coupled with atomic fluorescence spectrometry (HPLC-HG-AFS). RESULTS: The optimized conditions were 15 times quantity of water, 8 times for processing and dryness temperature of 40 degrees C. CONCLUSION: The method is accurate and effective,which can be used to evaluate the quality of processed products of Realgar.

Occurrence of fumonisin B(1) in corn from the main corn-producing areas of China.

Fumonisin B(1) (FB(1)) is the most abundant of the fumonisin mycotoxins, mainly produced in maize by F. verticillioides and F. proliferatum. A total of 282 corn samples harvested in 2005 from six provinces, the main corn-producing areas of China, were analyzed for FB(1) using high-performance liquid chromatography. All samples except one were (99.6%) positive for FB(1) at levels varying from 3 to 71,121 ng/g with mean and median levels for all samples of 6,662 and 1,569 ng/g, respectively. During an analysis of the distribution pattern for FB(1), it became apparent that 43.6% of tested samples had FB(1) concentrations below 1,000 ng/g, while 25.2% contained in excess of 5,000 ng/g. The average exposure to FB(1) (1.1 microg/kg body weight/day) is within the provisional maximum tolerable daily intake of 2 microg/kg body weight/day set by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives.

[Development of monoclonal antibody against fumonisin B1 and ELISA-kit of quantitative analysis for fumonisin B1].

OBJECTIVE: To detect the contamination level of fumonisin B1 in grain, and to develop rapid detection kit that possess patent of China. METHODS: Hybridoma cell line excreting monoclonal antibody against fumonisin B, was produced using B cell hybridoma technique and develop a rapid, sensitive, quantitative ELISA-kit for detection fumonisin B1. RESULTS: The monoclonal antibody used in the ELISA-kit were tested for subtype as IgG1 and its affinity constant was 8.3 x 10(-8) mol/L. The monoclonal antibody obtained in the present study was highly specific to fumonisin B1 , because no cross reactions between the monoclonal antibodies against fumonisin B1 with the analogues of fumonisin B, were found. The limited concentration of the ELISA-kit was 5 ng/ml, linear range was 50-500 ng/ml, the linear equation was Y = -0.582 x +1.793( = 0.99, P < 0.05). The recovery rate of maize on the level of 50n g/ml, 200 ng/ml and 500 ng/ml was among 71.89%-112.95%. The kit can be stored at normal tempertature in ten months at least. The coefficient of variant winthin-laboratory and between-laboratory was less than 20%.