Transient cerebral ischemia/reperfusion-induced acute lung injury in rats associated with protein kinase C alpha expression.

OBJECTIVE: The pathogenesis and development timing of acute lung injury (ALI) following cerebral ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) are not fully understood. In this study, the development timing of ALI induced by transient global cerebral I/R as well as the underlying mechanisms of action were investigated. METHODS: A cerebral I/R-induced ALI model in Wistar rats was established by electrocoagulation of bilateral vertebral arteries combined with ligation of the transient bilateral common carotid arteries. Rats were randomly divided into control and cerebral I/R groups. The latter was subdivided into 3 h, 24 h, 48 h and 72 h post reperfusion. Lung injury was assessed by histological examination. The mRNA and protein expression of protein kinase C alpha (PKCα) were determined using qRT-PCR and immunofluorescence analysis, respectively. RESULTS: Lung histological injury could be detected as early as 3 h after global cerebral I/R, and was significant between groups at 48 h and 72 h. Compared with the control group, mRNA expression of PKCα in the lung was enhanced in rats in the cerebral I/R groups (P<0.001), and the highest expression was observed at 48 h (P<0.001). The intensity of PKCα reactivity gradually increased starting at 3 h, and peaked at 72 h after cerebral I/R (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The lung is very susceptible to transient global cerebral I/R injury in vivo. Lung histological injury occurred within hours of cerebral I/R induction and aggregated in a very short period after cerebral I/R. Moreover, PKCα expression was implicated in the pathogenesis of cerebral I/R-induced ALI.

A meta-analysis of the relationship between environmental tobacco smoke and lung cancer risk of nonsmoker in China.

BACKGROUND: To investigate the association between exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (EVT) and the incidence of lung cancer (LC) in nonsmoking adults. METHOD: PubMed, Cochrane, Embase, Wanfang, CNKI, and VIP database were searched by the index words to identify the qualified case-control studies, and relevant literature sources were also searched. The latest research was done in June 2017. Odds radio (OR) along with 95% confidence interval (95% CI) were used to analyze the main outcomes. RESULT: Twenty RCTs were involved in the meta-analysis with 13,004 adults in the case group and 11,199 adults in the control group. The results indicated that compared with the nonexposure population, the risk of LC incidence was significantly higher in EVT exposure (OR: 1.64, 95% CI: 1.34-2.01), EVT male exposure (OR: 1.62, 95% CI: 1.16-2.28), EVT female exposure (OR: 1.57, 95% CI: 1.43-1.72), EVT exposure at workplace (OR: 1.78, 95% CI: 1.29-2.44), EVT exposure at home (OR: 1.53, 95% CI: 1.01-2.33), and EVT female exposure at home (OR: 1.55, 95% CI: 1.34-1.79). However, there is still no significant difference among the risk of LC incidence in EVT male exposure at workplace (OR: 1.51, 95% CI: 0.74-3.06), EVT female exposure at workplace (OR: 1.23, 95% CI: 0.99-1.53), and EVT male exposure at home (OR: 1.24, 95% CI: 0.68-2.26). CONCLUSION: EVT exposure is prospectively associated with a significantly increased risk of LC incidence. More high quality studies are required to address the association between EVT exposure and LC incidence.

[The clinical significance of inspiratory capacity measurement in patients with stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease].

OBJECTIVE: To study the clinical significance of inspiratory capacity (IC) in the evaluation of airflow obstruction and chronic dyspnea in patients with stable chronic obstruction pulmonary disease (COPD). METHODS: Sixty-one moderate COPD patients underwent pulmonary function test. Borg Scales (BS) was used for the degree of exertional dyspnea. Measurements of pulmonary function and BS were also performed after salbutamol inhalation (400 microg) in 61 COPD patients and after 6-minute walk test (6MWT) in 36 COPD patients. RESULTS: After salbutamol administration, the patients showed a significant increase in IC [(1.6+/-0.5) L vs (1.4+/-0.5) L] and in FEV1 [(1.3+/-0.4) L vs (1.1+/-0.4) L]. The reversibility in IC was significantly higher than that in FEV1 [(20+/-16)% vs (11+/-4)%]. A reversibility greater or equal to 10% in IC was found in 75.4% (46/61) of the patients, but in FEV1 was found in 39.3% (24/61); the difference was significant (chi2=16.190, P<0.01). BS was significantly decreased after salbutamol administration (3.0+/-0.7 vs 3.9+/-0.8, P<0.01). After 6MWT, the 36 COPD patients showed a significant decrease in IC [(1.1+/-0.4) L vs (1.4+/-0.5) L] and in FEV1 [(1.0+/-0.4) L vs (1.1+/-0.4) L]. The decrease in IC was significantly greater than that in FEV1 [(26+/-8)% vs (14+/-6)%]. A decrease greater or equal to 10% in IC was found in 100% (36/36) of the patients and in FEV1 was found in 72.2% (26/36); the difference was significant (chi2=11.613, P<0.01). BS was significantly higher after 6MWT (5.6+/-1.0 vs 3.9+/-0.9, P<0.01). In the multiple regression analysis, the change of IC after and before therapy (DeltaICthe) with the change of BS after and before therapy (DeltaBSthe), and the change of IC after and before exercise (DeltaICexe) with the change of BS after and before exercise (DeltaBSexe), were significantly correlated (regression coefficient was 0.314 and 0.329, respectively, all P<0.05). In Pearson correlation analysis, IC with functional residual capacity (FRC), DeltaICthe with DeltaFRCthe and DeltaIC with DeltaFRC were negatively correlated (r=-0.416 and -0.826 and -0.778, respectively, all P<0.05 or P<0.01). CONCLUSION: IC may be more sensitive than FEV1 in evaluation of change of airflow obstruction and dyspnea in stable COPD patients.

Diffuse cystic lung adenocarcinoma: a case report and literature review.

Lung adenocarcinoma can exhibit a variety of radiological manifestations. However, the presence of diffuse cystic lesions in both lungs is extremely rare. Here, we report a case of a middle-aged woman with a primary lung adenocarcinoma that manifested as diffuse cystic lesions in bilateral lungs. Histopathological examination ultimately confirmed the lung adenocarcinoma. The patient was treated with the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitor Gefitinib and remained stable during 18 months of follow-up. Knowledge of uncommon radiological performances of lung adenocarcinoma characterized by diffuse cystic imaging is important in suggesting the diagnosis and preventing misinterpretation.

Increased osteopontin protein expression may be correlated with poor prognosis in non-small-cell lung cancer: A meta analysis.

AIM: The present meta-nalysis investigates the prognostic value of osteopontin. (OPN) expression in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer. (NSCLC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The Web of Science (1945 ~ 2013), the Cochrane Library Database (Issue 12, 2013), PubMed (1966 ~ 2013), EMBASE (1980 ~ 2013), CINAHL (1982 ~ 2013), and the Chinese Biomedical Database (CBM) (1982 ~ 2013) were searched, without language restrictions, to retrieve studies related to OPN and NSCLC. We compiled carefully selected data and a meta-analysis was conducted using STATA software (Version 12.0, Stata Corporation, and College Station, Texas USA). Hazard ratios (HR) with corresponding 95% confidence interval (95%CI) were calculated. RESULTS: Ten clinical cohort studies were selected for statistical analysis, representing a total of 1,133 NSCLC patients. The main findings of our meta-analysis are that patients who were OPN-positive had significantly shorter overall survival than OPN-negative patients. (HR = 1.47, 95%CI = 1.15. ~ 1.79,P< 0.001). Ethnicity.stratified analysis revealed a significant correlation between expression levels of OPN and poor prognosis of NSCLC patients among both Caucasians and Asians. (Asians: HR = 1.53, 95%CI = 0.95. ~ 2.11, P < 0.001; Caucasians: HR = 1.56, 95%CI = 1.08. ~ 2.03, P < 0.001; respectively). CONCLUSIONS: The present meta-analysis is consistent with the hypothesis that increased expression of OPN protein may be significantly associated with poor prognosis in patients with NSCLC.

Association between serum interleukin-35 levels and severity of acute pancreatitis.

Inflammatory cytokines have been reported to be associated with pathogenesis of acute pancreatitis. The aim of this study was to measure the serum IL-35 levels in patients with acute pancreatitis and analyze the relationship between IL-35 levels and the disease severity. Thirty-two patients with acute pancreatitis and 32 healthy control subjects were included into the study. The serum levels of IL-35 were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay upon admission and the following seven days. The relationships with severity and etiology during the clinical course were analyzed. Serum IL-35 levels in patients with acute pancreatitis at the time of admission (5.25±0.37 ng/mL) were significantly higher than those in healthy controls (1.93±0.16 ng/mL, P<0.001). Moreover, serum IL-35 levels in patients with severe attacks (7.15±0.48 ng/mL) were significantly higher than those with moderately severe attacks (5.14±0.49 ng/mL, P=0.01) and mild attacks (3.69±0.53 ng/mL, P<0.001). However, there was no significant difference of serum IL-35 levels among patients with acute pancreatitis due of alcohol, gallstone and idiopathy. In addition, the peak serum concentrations of IL-35 were on day 1 after admission. Our results demonstrate that increased serum IL-35 levels may be related to the inflammatory response in patients with acute pancreatitis, suggesting that IL-35 may be used for a potential biomarker of acute pancreatitis.