Effect of an Airbag-selective Portal Vein Blood Arrester on the Liver after Hepatectomy: A New Technique for Selective Clamping of the Portal Vein.

OBJECTIVE: A novel technique was explored using an airbag-selective portal vein blood arrester that circumvents the need for an intraoperative assessment of anatomical variations in patients with complex intrahepatic space-occupying lesions. METHODS: Rabbits undergoing hepatectomy were randomly assigned to 4 groups: intermittent portal triad clamping (PTC), intermittent portal vein clamping (PVC), intermittent portal vein blocker with an airbag-selective portal vein blood arrester (APC), and without portal blood occlusion (control). Hepatic ischemia and reperfusion injury were assessed by measuring the 7-day survival rate, blood loss, liver function, hepatic pathology, hepatic inflammatory cytokine infiltration, hepatic malondialdehyde levels, and proliferating cell nuclear antigen levels. RESULTS: Liver damage was substantially reduced in the APC and PVC groups. The APC animals exhibited transaminase levels similar to or less oxidative stress damage and inflammatory hepatocellular injury compared to those exhibited by the PVC animals. Bleeding was significantly higher in the control group than in the other groups. The APC group had less bleeding than the PVC group because of the avoidance of portal vein skeletonization during hepatectomy. Thus, more operative time was saved in the APC group than in the PVC group. Moreover, the total 7-day survival rate in the APC group was higher than that in the PTC group. CONCLUSION: Airbag-selective portal vein blood arresters may help protect against hepatic ischemia and reperfusion injury in rabbits undergoing partial hepatectomy. This technique may also help prevent liver damage in patients requiring hepatectomy.

Clinical Features and Outcomes of Spinal Tuberculosis in Central China.

Purpose: The appropriate management of spinal tuberculosis (TB) is challenging for clinicians and the key to treat spinal TB. Surgery and long course anti-TB chemotherapy may not be necessary to all situations. This study aimed to characterize the clinical features and factors affecting treatment outcomes. Patients and Methods: A retrospective study of patients with spinal TB over a 5-year period at a teaching hospital in central China was conducted. Features of patients with spinal TB who received different treatment modalities and factors associated with patient outcomes at the end of chemotherapy were analyzed. Results: Forty-five patients (21 men and 24 women) with spinal TB were available for analysis. The mean age was 55.39 ± 14.94 years. The most common vertebral area involved was the lumbar (42.2%). The mean number of vertebrae involved was 2.20 ± 0.59. 27 patients (60.0%) received surgical treatment, of which 21 (77.8%) received radical surgical treatment. Thirty-five patients (77.8%) had achieved a favorable status. Statistically, there was no significant correlation between favorable status and surgery, but among 27 surgical patients with spinal tuberculosis, patients receiving radical surgery tended to achieve good prognosis (P = 0.010; odds ratio = 0.053; 95% confidence interval 0.006-0.493). Moreover, there was no significant difference between long course and short course of anti-TB chemotherapy in prognosis in different treatment modalities. Conclusion: Although the patients with spinal TB who needed surgical treatment often got a better prognosis when they had radical surgery, surgery was not actually a factor for the favorable outcomes of patients with spinal TB. In different treatment modalities, there was no additional benefit in longer anti-TB chemotherapy periods.

The potential mechanisms of neuroblastoma in children based on bioinformatics big data.

Background: In recent years, miRNAs have become a research hotspot, which is related to the occurrence and development of a variety of malignant tumors, but there are few studies in neuroblastoma. In this study, the differentially expressed microRNAs (miRNAs) in neuroblastoma were identified and analyzed using bioinformatics, and their biological functions and related signaling pathways were examined. Methods: The neuroblastoma miRNA chip GSE121513 was obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database and the data of 95 neuroblastoma samples and normal fetal adrenal neuroblastoma samples were analyzed to screen the differential miRNAs. The target genes of the differentially expressed miRNAs were predicted using |log fold change (FC)| ≥4. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and Gene Ontology (GO) analyses were performed to construct a protein-protein interaction network and identify the core target genes. Results: A total of 91 differentially expressed miRNAs were identified (P<0.05, |logFC| ≥1), including 52 upregulated and 39 downregulated miRNAs. The target genes of the differential miRNAs (P<0.05, |logFC| ≥4) were pretested, and 602 target genes were obtained. Functional analysis showed that these genes were mainly located in the extracellular matrix region of proteins, and were involved in the negative regulation of cytoplasmic translation, mRNA 3'-untranslated region (UTR) binding, and binding to nucleic acid to inhibit the activity of translation factors. They were also involved in RNA degradation, adhesion pathways, and the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K)-Akt signaling pathway. Ten key target genes were identified via protein interaction network screening. Conclusions: The differential miRNAs may be related to the occurrence of neuroblastoma were screened.

In-situ loading synthesis of graphene supported PtCu nanocube and its high activity and stability for methanol oxidation reaction.

A perfect PtCu nanocube with partial hollow structure was prepared by hydrothermal reaction and its electrocatalytic methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) was studied. The appropriate concentration of shape-control additives KI and triblock pluronic copolymers, poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(propylene oxide)-poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO19-PPO69-PEO19) (P123) play crucial roles in the final product morphology. The PtCu nanocubes can be perfectly in situ immobilizedonto graphene under the action of P123 while the structure and cubic morphologyremain unchanged. The electrochemical tests suggest that the obtained PtCu nanocube (PtCu-NCb) exhibits better MOR activity and stability than PtCu hexagon nanosheet (PtCu-NSt), PtCu nanoellipsoid (PtCu-NEs) and commercial Pt/C in alkaline medium. When in situ immobilized onto graphene, the MOR catalytic activity and stability of PtCu cubes are further improved. The markedly enhanced electrocatalytic activity and durability maybe attributed to the special cubic morphology with partial hollow structure enclosed by highly efficient facet and the probably the synergistic effect of PtCu and intermediate state CuI decorated on the surface and graphene.

[Role of programmed death-1 in viral infectious diseases].

The research on the immunoregulatory effect of programmed death-1 (PD-1) in infectious diseases mainly focuses on chronic viral infection, but there are few studies on acute viral infection. In chronic viral infection, PD-1 is highly expressed on the surface of CD8+ T cells, which is a sign of CD8+ T cell depletion. Recent studies have shown that in chronic viral infection, PD-1 is also highly expressed on the surface of regulatory T cells and binds to programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) on the surface of exhausted CD8+ T cells, resulting in a stronger inhibitory effect on CD8+ T cell immunity. Blocking the PD-1/PD-L1 signaling pathway between exhausted CD8+ T cells and regulatory T cells can significantly reverse the depletion of CD8+ T cells and greatly improve the antiviral effect of CD8+ T cells. However, the role of the PD-1/PD-L1 signaling pathway in acute viral infection remains unknown. This article summarizes the latest research on PD-1 in infectious diseases and discusses its role in acute and chronic viral infection.

Inducible expression of human angiostatin by AOXI promoter in P. pastoris using high-density cell culture.

A high-density cell culture method was successfully established in P. pastoris with the alcohol oxidase I (AOXI) promoter in order to produce large quantities of recombinant human angiostatin (AS) which has been reported to have antiangiogenic activity. A preliminary study on fermentation conditions in shaking flasks indicated that adequacy of biomass is beneficial to obtain more products. The fermentation was carried out in a 10 l bioreactor with 5 l modified growth medium recommended by Invitrogen at 30 degrees C. The cells were first grown in glycerol-PTM4 trace salts for 24 h. When the cell density reached A(600) = 125, methanol-PTM4 trace salts was added to induce the expression of AS. During the fermentation, dissolved oxygen level was maintained at 20-30%, pH was controlled at 5 by the addition of 7 M NH(4)OH and the biomass was maintained at about A(600) = 200. After 60 h of induction, the secreted AS was 153 mg/l. The recombinant AS inhibited the angiogenesis on CAM and suppressed the growth of B16 melanoma in C57BL/6J mice (P \0.01).

Recent advances on the GAP promoter derived expression system of Pichia pastoris.

Pichia pastoris is an efficient host for the expression and secretion of heterologous proteins and the most important feature of P. pastoris is the existence of a strong and tightly regulated promoter from the alcohol oxidase I (AOX1) gene. The AOX1 promoter (pAOX1) has been used to express foreign genes and to produce a variety of recombinant proteins in P. pastoris. However, some efforts have been made to develop new alternative promoters to pAOX1 to avoid the use of methanol. The glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase promoter (pGAP) has been used for constitutive expression of many heterologous proteins. The pGAP-based expression system is more suitable for large-scale production because the hazard and cost associated with the storage and delivery of large volume of methanol are eliminated. Some important developments and features of this expression system will be summarized in this review.

[Constitutive expression of human angiostatin in Pichia pastoris using glycerol as only carbon source].

Carbon source plays an important role in the constitutive expression of foreign proteins in Pichia pastoris. In present study, glucose , glycerol , methanol and oil acid, was used respectively as the only carbon source to constitutively express hAS in Pichia pastoris GS115 (pGAP9K-AS)in shaking flask. The result shows that oleic acid is the best (163 mg/L) compared with glycerol (83mg/L), glucose (76 mg/L)and methanol (57 mg/L). Since oleic acid is insoluble in water, glycerol was used as the carbon source in the high-density cell culture of GS115 (pGAP9K-AS) in a 30 liter bioreactor and 169 mg/L of angiostatin was obtained after 48h of culture. The expressed angiostatin is immunologically active as shown by Western blotting. The recombinant hAS inhibits bFGF induced CAM angiogenesis and suppresses the growth of B16 melanoma in C57BL/6J mice. The tumor inhibition rate is 90% after 12 days of treatment. Statistics analysis revealed that the tumor volume difference of mice between the hAS group and PBS group is prominent (P < 0.01).