Genetic background of Escherichia coli isolates from peritoneal dialysis patients with peritonitis and uninfected control subjects.

Escherichia coli is the most common cause of Gram-negative peritonitis resulting in peritoneal function deterioration as well as poor clinical outcome in continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients. In this study, we analyzed the phylogenetic background and genetic profile of the E. coli isolates and sought to determine the characteristics of specific bacteria associated with peritonitis. E. coli isolates from 56 episodes of peritonitis in 46 PD patient cases and rectal isolates from 57 matched PD control patient cases were compared for both phylogenetic groups and the presence of virulence factors (VFs). There were no significant differences in terms of demographic data between the peritonitis and control groups. Peritonitis isolates exhibited a significantly greater prevalence of 8 VFs. In multivariate logistic regression analysis, kpsMT II (group 2 capsule synthesis) was the strongest VF predictor of peritonitis (OR = 8.02; 95%CI = 3.18-20.25; P < 0.001), followed by traT (serum-resistance-associated outer membrane protein) (OR = 3.83; 95%CI = 1.33-11.03; P = 0.013). The pathogenic groups of E. coli contained a higher concentration of individual VFs compared to the commensal groups. The prevalence of pathogenic E. coli was much higher in peritoneal isolates than rectal isolates (64.3 vs 31.6%, P = 0.001). Our results indicate that the E. coli peritonitis and rectal isolates are different in PD patients. The specific VFs associated with peritonitis isolates may directly contribute to the pathogenesis of peritonitis.

LncRNA MEG3 inhibits the growth, invasion and migration of Wilms' tumor via Wnt/ß-catenin pathway.

OBJECTIVE: Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) maternally expressed 3 (MEG3) has been identified to participate in the progression of malignant tumors. However, the role and function of MEG3 in Wilms' tumor (WT) remain unknown. Therefore, the aim of this study was to detect the role of MEG3 in the development of Wilms' tumor, and to explore the underlying mechanism. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Expression of MEG3 in WT tissues and blood samples were detected using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The relationship between MEG3 level and clinicopathological character and histogenesis was analyzed. WT-CLS1 and WiT49 cells were cultured in vitro, and the influence of ectopic MEG3 expression was determined. Colony formation assay and Edu assay were employed to measure cell proliferation, while transwell assay and Matrigel assay were adopted to detect cell metastasis. Furthermore, Western blot was applied to explore the mechanism of MEG3 in WT. RESULTS: MEG3 was lowly expressed in WT tissues and blood samples (p<0.05). Over-expression of MEG3 significantly reduced the proliferation, invasion and migration of CLS1cells than control cells (p<0.05). However, inhibition of MEG3 in WiT49 cells significantly promoted cell growth and metastasis compared with cells in negative control group (p<0.05). In addition, MEG3 influenced the protein expression of ß-catenin by regulating the Wnt/ß-catenin pathway. CONCLUSIONS: MEG3 was low-expressed in WT tissues and blood samples. Meanwhile, it could inhibit the proliferation and metastasis of WT cells via wt/ß-catenin pathways. All our findings indicated that MEG3 served as a potential target for the diagnosis, treatment and prognosis prediction of WT.

The transformation of aluminium species in the processes of coagulation, sedimentation and filtration.

The aluminium toxicity is closely related to aluminium species. In this work aluminium was fractionated into seven forms: Al(T), Al(Sus), Al(C + S), Al(S), Al(C), Al(O) and Al(I). Four Al-based coagulants and simulated raw water were used in the laboratory to investigate the aluminium transformation in coagulation, sedimentation and filtration processes. It is the use of Al-based coagulants that contributes more to the increase of the residual aluminium for the low-turbidity raw water, while the Al-based coagulants, especially the polymeric aluminium coagulants, work to remove the aluminium from the high-turbidity raw water. In the case of traditional coagulants, the increase of the turbidity or the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration in the raw water results in a high concentration of Al(C + S). The removal rate of aluminium species in the filtration process is not only related to its size: RAl(Sus) > RAl(C+S), RAl(C) > RAl(S), but also to the physicochemical properties of aluminium species and filter. For the kaolin-polyaluminium chloride system, a lower removal rate of aluminium species results is due to the complexation of humic acid and aluminium species.

The etiology of indirect inguinal hernia in adults: congenital or acquired?

PURPOSE: During hernioplasty focal thickened tissue containing smooth muscle is found at the neck of the hernia sac in most patients with indirect inguinal hernia. These thickenings may be related to the processus vaginalis and reveal the etiology of indirect inguinal hernia. METHODS: The study included 50 male adults with indirect inguinal hernia and 50 male adults with direct inguinal hernia, all of them were initial cases. Hernioplasty and excision of the hernia sac were performed, meanwhile anatomical features of the hernia sac and the spermatic cord were recorded, then followed by histological investigation of the hernia sacs. RESULTS: Focal thickenings were observed at the neck of the hernia sac in 88 % of adults with indirect inguinal hernia. Dense adhesion between the hernia sac and the spermatic cord was found where the thickening located. Histological examination identified smooth muscle cells in 57 % of the thickened tissues. No similar findings were observed in patients with direct inguinal hernia. CONCLUSIONS: The focal thickening which contains smooth muscle tissue may be remnant of the processus vaginalis after its obliteration. In other word, the presence of the thickening means that fusion of the processus vaginalis has previously taken place. Thus, most indirect inguinal hernias in adults may represent acquired diseases.

Release of endogenous amino acids, including homocysteic acid and cysteine sulphinic acid, from rat hippocampal slices evoked by electrical stimulation of Schaffer collateral-commissural fibres.

This study examined the release of endogenous amino acids from acute hippocampal slices, upon stimulation of the Schaffer collateral-commissural fibres. One-minute samples of superfusate were collected via a cannula placed over the CA1 stratum radiatum, and were analysed by reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography. Evoked potentials were recorded to ascertain stimulation efficacy. Four minutes of continuous 50 Hz stimulation produced a tetrodotoxin-sensitive release of aspartate and glycine in the second minute of stimulation, as well as a tetrodotoxin-sensitive release of cysteine sulphinic acid, during stimulation and of homocysteic acid, following stimulation. Such 50 Hz stimulation also produced a tetrodotoxin-insensitive decrease in methionine levels, but no significant changes in any of the other 15 amino acids measured. Four minutes of continuous 1 Hz stimulation produced no changes in the levels of any of the amino acids measured, but four 600-ms trains of 100 Hz stimulation, which, unlike the 1 Hz stimulation, produced long-term potentiation, resulted in significant increases in levels of cysteine sulphinic acid and homocysteic acid, but not of any of the other amino acids measured. These results suggest that aspartate, glycine, homocysteic acid, and cysteine sulphinic acid play a role in synaptic transmission in the Schaffer collateral-commissural fibres, and that cysteine sulphinic acid and homocysteic acid may be released specifically by high-frequency stimulation.

Stable neural controller design for unknown nonlinear systems using backstepping.

Despite the vast development of neural controllers in the literature, their stability properties are usually addressed inadequately. With most neural control schemes, the choices of neural-network structure, initial weights, and training speed are often nonsystematic, due to the lack of understanding of the stability behavior of the closed-loop system. In this paper, we propose, from an adaptive control perspective, a neural controller for a class of unknown, minimum phase, feedback linearizable nonlinear system with known relative degree. The control scheme is based on the backstepping design technique in conjunction with a linearly parameterized neural-network structure. The resulting controller, however, moves the complex mechanics involved in a typical backstepping design from offline to online. With appropriate choice of the network size and neural basis functions, the same controller can be trained online to control different nonlinear plants with the same relative degree, with semiglobal stability as shown by simple Lyapunov analysis. Meanwhile, the controller also preserves some of the performance properties of the standard backstepping controllers. Simulation results are shown to demonstrate these properties and to compare the neural controller with a standard backstepping controller.

Induction treatment of proliferative lupus nephritis with leflunomide combined with prednisone: a prospective multi-centre observational study.

To evaluate the efficacy and safety of leflunomide in the treatment of proliferative lupus nephritis, a prospective multi-centre observational study was conducted. Patients with biopsy proven proliferative lupus nephritis were assigned to receive either leflunomide or cyclophosphamide with concomitant prednisone. Leflunomide was given orally with a loading dose of 1 mg/kg/day for 3 days followed by 30 mg/day. Intravenous cyclophosphamide was administered monthly at a dose of 0.5 g/m2 of body-surface area. A total of 110 patients were enrolled, 70 in the leflunomide group and 40 in the cyclophosphamide group. The complete remission rate in the leflunomide group was 21% and partial remission rate 52%, as compared with 18% and 55%, respectively, in the cyclophosphamide group. Renal parameters and systemic lupus erythematosus disease activity index improved significantly and similarly in both groups. Serum creatinine decreased or stabilized in both treatment groups. No significant difference was noted with respect to clinical outcome between groups. Repeat biopsy also showed a significant reduction of active lesions in kidney pathology after 6 months of leflunomide treatment. Major adverse events, similar in both treatment groups, included infection, alopecia and hypertension. Leflunomide, compared with cyclophosphamide, in combination with prednisone was effective in the induction therapy of proliferative lupus nephritis and was generally well-tolerated.

Signal transduction by bFGF, but not TGF beta 1, involves arachidonic acid metabolism in endothelial cells.

We investigated the stimulation of early cellular events resulting from the interaction of the growth factor basic FGF (bFGF) and of the growth inhibitor transforming growth factor beta-type 1 (TGF beta 1), with their specific receptors on bovine endothelial cells. At mitogenic concentrations, bFGF stimulated the rapid release of arachidonic acid and its metabolites from (3H)-arachidonic acid labeled cells. When arachidonic acid metabolism was stimulated by addition of the calcium ionophore A23187, the effect of bFGF was amplified. Nordihydroguaïaretic acid, an inhibitor of the lipoxygenase pathway of arachidonic acid metabolism, decreased the mitogenic effect of bFGF, whereas indomethacin, an inhibitor of the cyclooxygenase pathway, was ineffective. These findings suggest that metabolism of arachidonic acid to lipoxygenase products may be necessary for the mitogenic effect of bFGF. Basic FGF did not stimulate the production of inositol phosphates from cells labelled with myo-(2-3H)-inositol nor did it induce calcium mobilization, as measured by fura-2 fluorescence, indicating that bFGF does not activate phosphoinositide-specific phospholipase C in endothelial cells, but rather, that bFGF-induced arachidonic acid metabolism is mediated by another phospholipase. TGF beta 1, which inhibits basal and bFGF-induced endothelial cell growth, had no effect on arachidonic acid metabolism and inositol phosphate formation and did not prevent bFGF-induced arachidonic acid metabolism. These results suggest that the inhibitory action of TGF beta 1 on endothelial cell growth occurs through different mechanisms.

Acidic fibroblast growth factor is present in nonneural tissue: isolation and chemical characterization from bovine kidney.

Endothelial cell growth factor activity purified from bovine kidney by heparin-Sepharose affinity chromatography was previously identified as basic fibroblast growth factor [Baird, A., Esch, F., Böhlen, P., Ling, N., & Gospodarowicz, D. (1985) Regul. Pept. 12, 202-213]. We now show that a major mitogenic fraction, isolated from heparin-Sepharose-purified material by Mono-S cation-exchange chromatography and reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography, is related to acidic fibroblast growth factor (aFGF). Sequence analysis showed the amino-terminal sequence to be Tyr-Lys-Lys-Pro-Lys-Leu-Leu-Tyr-X-Ser-Asn-Gly-Gly-Tyr-Phe-Leu-Arg-Ile-Le u-Pro- Asp-Gly-Thr-Val-Asp-. The molecular mass of the protein, as determined by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, was 15.5 kDa. In combination, those data strongly suggest that this mitogen is amino terminally truncated acidic fibroblast growth factor. So far, aFGF has only been found in neural tissues, i.e., in the brain and retina. Our results strongly suggest that this mitogen also occurs in extraneural tissue.

Wavelet filter: pure-intensity spatial filters that implement wavelet transforms.

Saloma [Opt. Lett. 20, 1943 (1995)] proposed the concept of mirrors with point-spread functions that exhibit wavelet-related characteristics. We propose novel filters with wavelet point-spread functions. The mirrors are suggested to reform not only the phases of optical waves, but also the filters for amplitude. The transmittance functions of the filters, which are real and positive under some conditions, are given. Optical wavelet transforms can easily be made with these filters, and computer simulations for edge and corner extractions are given.