Association of exposure to PM2.5-bound metals with maternal thyroid function in early pregnancy.

Epidemiological evidence linking metals bound to ambient particulate matters with aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 µm (PM2.5) and maternal thyroid function is limited. In this study, we investigated the association of PM2.5-bound metals with maternal thyroid hormones (TH) during the first trimester. We retrospectively reviewed data for 2528 pregnant women attending prenatal care in Jinhua Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital, Jinhua, China, from January to December 2018. Information including thyroid hormone levels and demographics was retrieved from existing medical records. We analyzed the concentration of 10 metals for collected particulate samples, and estimated their exposure levels during the first trimester for each woman. We employed multivariate linear regression models to estimate the association of exposure to individual PM2.5-bound metals with serum levels of maternal TH, and weighted quantile sum (WQS) to estimate the overall association of exposure to PM2.5-bound metals within a mixture. Higher exposures to most of the PM2.5-bound metals were associated with lower levels of maternal free thyroxine (FT4) and free triiodothyronine (FT3). The thyroid peroxidase antibody (TPOAb) or thyroglobulin antibody (TgAb) status had no effect modification on the observed associations. WQS analyses further suggested that Be, Ni, Tl and Ba contributed the most to the associations. These findings highlight the associations of exposure to PM2.5-bound metals with maternal thyroid function, and emphasize the public health significance of commitments to improve air quality.

[Diagnostic Value of the Dual Source CT Dual Energy Pulmonary Perfusion Imaging for Pulmonary Embolism].

Objective To assess the diagnostic value of dual energy pulmonary perfusion imaging(DEPI)for pulmonary embolism.Methods The clinical data of 87 patients with suspected pulmonary embolism who had received DEPI between August 2017 and July 2018 in Jiaxing Second Hospital were retrospectively analyzed.With the findings of CT pulmonary angiography(CTPA)as the reference standard and with patients and pulmonary lobes as evaluation units,respectively,a diagnostic test was performed to calculate the diagnostic coincidence rate,sensitivity,specificity,positive predictive value,negative predictive value,Youden index,positive likelihood ratio,negative likelihood ratio,and Kappa coefficient value for the diagnosis of DEPI and CTPA.Results The coincidence rate,sensitivity,specificity,positive predictive value,negative predictive value,Youden index,positive likelihood ratio,and negative likelihood ratio were 85.06%,88.41%,72.22%,92.42%,61.90%,0.61,3.18,and 0.16,respectively,when applying the patients as evaluation units.When the pulmonary lobes were invoked as evaluation units,the above-mentioned indexes were 89.57%,76.80%,96.82%,93.20%,88.02%,0.74,24.15,and 0.24,respectively.The diagnostic results of DEPI and CTPA had a good and excellent consistency,respectively(Kappa value=0.571,0.765).Conclusions DEPI has high accuracy,sensitivity,and specificity in the detection of pulmonary embolism.The combination of DEPI with CTPA can simultaneously obtain the anatomical structure and functional information images,greatly improving the diagnostic accuracy for pulmonary embolism.Thus,it can be used as the preferred examination for patients with clinically suspected pulmonary embolism.

Evaluation of the immunogenicity of a single chain chimeric peptide composed of hCGß and oLHα for inhibition of the growth of hCGß-expressing cancer cells.

Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) is a membrane-associated protein highly expressed in several types of human cancer cells. The expression in the cancer cells indicates that hCG may be a potential target molecule for cancer immunotherapy. The objective of this study was to develop a novel immunogenic molecule, which can efficiently induce the neutralizing antibody against hCG and which is also suitable for mass production. The immunogenicity of the recombinant single chain chimeric protein of hCGß-oLHα expressed by yeast was examined. Additionally, the inhibitory effects of the anti-hCGß-oLHα antibody on the growth of hCG-positive cancer cells were determined. It was found that hCGß-oLHα yielded high titers of anti-hCG rabbit antibody that could effectively neutralize the bioactivity of hCG. The rabbit anti-hCGß-oLHα IgG inhibited the proliferation of hCG-expressing human colorectal cancer cells (LS-174, HCT-116, HCT-15 and KM-12) in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, an intact anti-tumor vaccine was prepared by conjugating hCGß-oLHα with tetanus toxoid (TT) and this was used to immunize Balb/c mice bearing hCG-expressing SP2/0 tumor cells. The progression of tumors in these immunized mice was remarkably inhibited. These results suggest that hCGß-oLHα is a new promising immunogenic molecule for the development of an anti-hCG-based cancer vaccine.

Cloning, Expression and Antibody Production of the Disintegrin Domain of Human Fertilin beta.

A cDNA for the disintegrin domain (hf279) was isolated by PCR from human testis cDNAs. DNA sequencing indicated that hf279 cDNA encoded 93 amino acid residues, and it was identical with the reported sequence of fertilin beta. An expression plasmid, pGEX hf279, was constructed by inserting hf279 cDNA into plasmid pGEX-4T-2 containing gst gene. The expression plasmid was introduced into E.coli BL21(DE3) cells and a substantial amount of soluble fused protein GST-HF93 was obtained by the expression strain HF93/BL21 induced with IPTG. SDS-PAGE analysis revealed that the GST-HF93 fusion protein had an apparent molecular weight of 38 kD and accumulated up to 50% of bacterial soluble proteins. The fusion protein was purified by glutathione S-transferase (GST) Sepharose 4B column (purity 90%) and digested by thrombin to obtain the purified HF93 peptide (purity 80%). Polyclonal antibodies were obtained from the serum of miceimmunized with purified HF93 which was isolated by GST Sepharose 4B column and SDS-PAGE. ELISA and Western blot analysis showed its specificity to HF93. Therefore this antibody can be used in further studies on the function of HF93.