Epidemiology and antimicrobial resistance of clinical isolates about hospital infection from patients with hematological diseases / 中华血液学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the epidemiology and antibiotic resistance of isolates from hospitalized patients with hematological disease from 2005 to 2011.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A total of 1453 bacterial strains were isolated from patients with hematological disease from January 2005 to December 2011. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed by micro-dilution method.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>(1) The majority of the bacterial strains were respiratory passage examples (57.5%). The portage of blood examples in our division (13.60%) was higher than of whole hospital (6.26%), with lower positive rate of bacterial culture (52.37%) than of whole hospital (60.24%). Chemotherapy-induced agranulocytosis was the main reason for hospital infection. 578 (39.8%) bacterial strains were gram positive, and 875 (60.2%) gram negative bacillus. Staphylococcus epidermidis strains and glucose nonfermenters had a tendency of ascensus. (2) Methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) accounted for 72.8% antibiotic resistance. Detection rates of ESBLs in Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae were 18.9% and 10.4%, respectively. (3) No obvious changes of antimicrobial resistances of Staphylococcus and Enterococcus were observed during these years. The Enterobacteriaceae strains showed lowest resistance rates to Carbapenems, next to Cefoperazone/sulbactam and Piperacillin/tazobactam. But the resistance rates of Escherichia coli to Cefepime and Ceftazidime were gradually increasing during the past years. Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii of glucose nonfermenters showed lowest resistance rates to Cefoperazone/sulbactam, but the resistance rate of Pseudomonas aeruginosa to Carbapenems increased.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Escherichia coli was the highest in quantity of gram negative bacillus and glucose nonfermenters had a tendency of ascensus. The resistance rates of Escherichia coli to Cefepime and Ceftazidime, Pseudomonas aeruginosa to Carbapenems were gradually increasing in the past years.</p>

Role of connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) in proliferation and migration of pancreatic cancer cells / 中华肿瘤杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the expression of connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) in pancreatic cancer and its influence on the proliferation and migration of cancer cells.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The expression of CTGF in pancreatic cell line PANC-1 cells was analyzed by real-time PCR and in pancreatic carcinoma (50 cases) tissues by immunohistochemistry. The ability of proliferation and migration in vitro of PANC-1 cells was tested by MTT assay, scratch test and Boyden chamber test after the CTGF gene was overexpressed by Ad5-CTGF or silenced with Ad5-siCTGF transfection.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>CTGF was overexpressed in both pancreatic cancer cells and tissues. Overxpression of CTGF leads to increased proliferation and migration of PANC-1 cells. The CTGF-transfected PANC-1 cells showed apparent stronger proliferation ability and scratch-repair ability than that of empty vector controls. The results of Boyden chamber test showed that there were 34 cells/field (200× magnificantion) of the CTGF-transfected overexpressing cells, much more than the 11 cells/field of the empty vector control cells; and 6 cells/microscopic field of the Ad5-siCTGF-transfected silenced cells, much less than the 15 cells/field of the control cells.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>CTGF is overexpressed in both pancreatic cancer cells in vitro and in vivo, indicating that it may play an important role in the cell proliferation and migration in pancreatic cancer.</p>

Effects of interleukin 21 on anti-leukemia activity of cytotoxic T lymphocytes induced by dendritic cells / 中国实验血液学杂志

This study was aimed to explore the effects of interleukin 21 (IL-21) on the anti-leukemia activity of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) induced by dendritic cells (DCs) in vitro. The peripheral mononuclear cells from leukemia patients in complete remission were cultured with the specific cytokines to induce the production of DCs. The DCs loaded with RNA from autologous leukemic cells as antigen, and co-cultured with autologous T lymphocytes to get leukemia specific CTL. The cytotoxic activity of CTL against autologous leukemic cells was measured by LDH release method. The concentration of IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha in the culture supernatant was measured by enzyme immunoassay. The effects of IL-21 on the mature DCs were also studied by the measurement of the phenotype of DC and the allogenic mixed lymphocytic reactions induced by DCs. Experiments were divided into 2 groups: test group in which IL-21 (200 ng/ml) was added in coculture of DC/CTL and control group in which no IL-21 (200 ng/ml) was added. The results showed that when cultured with IL-21, the quantity of CTL increased from (56.73 +/- 10.21)% (control group) to (73.43 +/- 18.01)% (p < 0.01); The concentration of IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha in the culture supernatant increased from (154.91 +/- 67.20) ng/L (control group) to (310.62 +/- 141.15) ng/L (p < 0.01) and from (8.77 +/- 5.09) microg/L (control group) to (15.25 +/- 6.56) microg/L (p < 0.01) respectively. At the effector: target ratio of 20:1, the cytotoxic activity against autologous leukemic cells by CTL increased from (50.22 +/- 5.07)% (control group) to (75.38 +/- 9.47)% (p < 0.01). IL-21 had neither effect on the phenotype (CD1a, CD83, CD86, CD80 and HLA-DR) of mature DCs nor the allogeneic mixed lymphocytic reactions induced by DCs. It is concluded that IL-21 can strengthen the proliferation of CTL, and improve the production of IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha, thus enhance the anti-leukemia activity of CTL. Nevertheless, there is no effect of IL-21 on the function of mature DCs. These data indicate that IL-21 has a potential clinical value in the enhancement of anti-leukemia immunotherapy.