Option for different surgeries in treating small gastrointestinal stromal tumors / 中南大学学报(医学版)

To explore the differences in biological characteristics for the small gastrointestinal stromal tumors and the incidence of complications and recurrence between the traditional surgical treatment and endoscopic treatment.
 Methods: We collected the relevant clinical and pathological data from patients who were diagnosed as gastrointestinal stromal tumors with the diameter less than 2 cm by the Department of Pathology of Xiangya Hospital from January 2009 to December 2015. The complications and recurrence after the surgical treatment were analyzed.
 Results: In patients with small gastrointestinal stromal tumors, the proportion of female was higher than that of male (male:female=1:1.69). The median age for patient with this disease was 49 years old and it was more common in middle-aged and elderly. Most lesions were found in the stomach, followed by the esophagus and the small intestine. The small gastrointestinal stromal tumors occurred in the colon and rectum were rare. There was 60.3% (47/78) patients with abdominal pain, 7.7% (6/78) patients with hematochezia or melena, and 98.7% (78/79) with small gastrointestinal stromal tumors' mitotic count ≤5/50 HPF. The positive rates for CD, CD34, DOG-1, actin-smooth, and S-100 were 98.7%, 86.1%, 82.3%, 31.6%, and 24.1%, respectively. Three patients occurred surgical complications, 2 suffered recurrence during the follow-up. There was no significant difference in the incidence of complications and recurrence between the traditional surgical treatment and endoscopic treatment (P>0.05).
 Conclusion: Small gastrointestinal stromal tumors' malignant potential is low, and the recurrence and metastasis rate is low. Its biological behavior tends to be benign. The traditional surgical treatment and endoscopic treatment are both safe and effective for small gastrointestinal stromal tumor. Endoscopic treatment has the advantages in lower cost, shorter hospitalization time, and small trauma. Therefore, endoscopic treatment could be the first choice for small GIST resection under the condition of mature endoscopic technology.

Treatment of acute liver injury by intrasplenic transplantation of hepatic stem cells combined with heparin in rats / 中南大学学报(医学版)

OBJECTIVE@#To determine the treatment effects of transplanted hepatic progenitor cells (WB-F344 cells) combined with heparin on the acute liver injury in SD rats.@*METHODS@#A total of 2*10(7) hepatic stem cells (WB-F344) infected with GFP lentivirus and 8 μL heparin were transplanted through the spleen in SD rats with acute liver injury, which was induced by an intraperitoneal injection of CCl4. The liver and spleen tissues underwent fluorescence examination 1 day after the transplantation. The liver functions were tested, and the liver tissues were histopathologically examined on the 3rd, 7th, 14th, and 28th day of the cell transplantation.@*RESULTS@#The transfected WB-F344 cells expressed GFP 3 days after the lentivirus infection and were found in the rat liver 1 day after the WB-F344 transplantation. The liver function and histopathological recovery of the liver tissues in the group of WB-F344 transplantation were better than those of the control group (P<0.05).@*CONCLUSION@#Transplantation of hepatic stem cells combined with heparin can promote the liver recovery in rats with acute liver injury induced by CCl4.

Effect of bone morphogenetic protein-4 on the proliferation and differentiation of rat hepatic precursor cells / 中南大学学报(医学版)

OBJECTIVE@#To determine the regulation effect of bone morphogenetic protein-4 (BMP-4) on the proliferation and differentiation of rat hepatic precursor cells.@*METHODS@#We used Noggin (200 ng/mL) as the function blocking control of BMP-4, and the hepatic precursor cells of WB-F344 were treated with recombinant BMP-4 at 50 ng/mL at different time points. The proliferation of WB-F344 cells were tested by methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) colorimetric assay. The ultrastructural characters of differentiated WB-F344 cells regulated by BMP-4 were observed under a transmission electron microscope. RT-PCR was used to examine mRNA expression of specific molecular markers for different cellular phenotypes potentially differentiated from the WB-F344 cells.@*RESULTS@#At different time points, the absorbance values in the BMP-4 treatment groups were higher than those in the control groups of Noggin and blank treatment (P<0.01). The WB-F344 cells treated with BMP-4 exhibited typical ultrastructural characters of well-differentiated epithelial cells. The hepatocyte mRNA markers were more significantly promoted in the differentiated WB-F344 cells in the BMP-4 treatment group than those in the other 2 control groups.@*CONCLUSION@#BMP-4 can promote the proliferation and directional differentiation towards hepatocytes of rat hepatic precursor cells of WB-F344.

Construction of eukaryotic expression vector of fusion protein pEGFP/hVEGF165 and its expression in vascular endothelial cells / 中南大学学报(医学版)

OBJECTIVE@#To construct the plasmid of human vascular endothelial cell growth factor165 and green fluorescence protein report gene eukaryotic expression vector of fusion protein pEGFP /hVEGF165, and to detect its expression in vascular endothelial cells.@*METHODS@#We amplified full-length of gene VEGF165 by PCR, cloned in direction in multiple clone sites of pEGFP-N1, constructed recombinant plasmid of pEGFP/hVEGF165. Through enzyme digestion, PCR, and sequencing analysis, we also performed liposome-mediated transfection of vascular endothelial cells of in vitro cultivation, and detected the expression of fusion protein pEGFP/hVEGF165 using fluorescence microscope, RT-PCR, and Western blot.@*RESULTS@#Both gene VEGF165 and multiple clone site of pEGFP-N1 confirmed by PCR, enzyme digestion, and sequence analysis. EGFP/VEGF protein was expressed in vascular endothelial cells after pEGFP/VEGF165 recombinant plasmid transfected vascular endothelial cells.@*CONCLUSION@#Fusion protein eukaryotic plasmid of report gene EGFP and VEGF165 is successfully constructed, and EGFP/VEGF can be expressed in vascular endothelial cells, which lays a foundation for the application of VEGF gene in treating ischemia vascular diseases.

The role of cortical microtubules in moss protonemal cells during dehydration/rehydration cycle / 生物工程学报

Plant cells response to water deficit through a variety of physiological processes. In this work, we studied the function of microtubule cytoskeleton during dehydration/rehydration cycle in moss (Atrichum undulatum) protonemal cells as a model system. The morphological and cytological change of protonemal cells during dehydration and rehydration cycle were first investigated. Under normal conditions, protonemal cells showed bright green colour and appeared wet and fresh. Numerous chloroplasts distributed regularly throughout the cytoplasm in each cell. After dehydration treatment, protonemal cells lost most of their chlorophylls and turned to look yellow and dry. In addition, dehydration caused plasmolysis in these cells. Upon rehydration, the cells could recover completely from the dehydrated state. These results indicated that moss had a remarkable intrinsic ability to survive from the extreme drought stress. Microtubule, an important component of cytoskeleton, is considered to play crucial roles in the responses to some environmental stresses such as cold and light. To see if it is also involved in the drought tolerance, dynamic organization of microtubules in protonemal cells of Atrichum undulatum subjected to drought and rehydration were examined by indirect immunofluorescence combined with confocal lasersharp scanning microscopy. The cortical microtubules were arranged into a fine structure with a predominant orientation parallel to the long axis of the cells in the control cells. After dehydration, the microtubule organization was remarkablly altered and the fine microtubule structure disappeared whereas some thicker cables formed. When the cells were grown under rehydration conditions, the fine microtubule arrays reappeared. These results provided a piece of evidence that microtubules play a role in the cellular responses to drought stress in moss. Furthermore, we analyzed the effects of the microtubule-disrupting agent colchicine on the morphology recovery of the protonemal cells during rehydration process. The cells were incubated with colchicine, followed by drought stress treatment and rehydration in the presence of colchicine to prevent recovery of microtubule organization. Results from immunofluorescence showed that microtubule arrays were broken down into smaller fragments. Compared to the cells treated with drought stress alone, the cells treated with drought stress in the presence of colchicine could not recover after rehydration treatment. The morphology resembled those of the drought treated cells, with obvious plasmolysis phenomena and loss of chlorophyll content. These results support the notion that microtubules were involved in the deccication tolerance mechanism in Atrichum undulatum.