[Cytopathological characterization of ascites for the diagnosis of serous ovarian carcinoma].

Objective: To investigate the cytomorphological and immunocytochemical features of tumor cells in the ascites of ovarian plasmacytoma (SOC). Methods: Specimens of serous cavity effusions were collected from 61 tumor patients admitted to the Affiliated Wuxi People's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University from January 2015 to July 2021, including ascites from 32 SOC, 10 gastrointestinal adenocarcinomas, 5 pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas, 6 lung adenocarcinomas, 4 benign mesothelial hyperplasia and 1 malignant mesothelioma patients, pleural effusions from 2 malignant mesothelioma patients and pericardial effusion from 1 malignant mesothelioma. Serous cavity effusion samples of all patients were collected, conventional smears were made through centrifugation, and cell paraffin blocks were made through centrifugation of remaining effusion samples. Conventional HE staining and immunocytochemical staining were applied to observe and summarize cytomorphological characteristics and immunocytochemical characteristics. The levels of serum tumor markers carbohydrate antigen 125 (CA125), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) were detected. Results: Of the 32 SOC patients, 5 had low-grade serous ovarian carcinoma (LGSOC) and 27 had high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSOC). 29 (90.6%) SOC patients had elevated serum CA125, but the difference was not statistically significant between them and patients with non-ovarian primary lesions included in the study (P>0.05); The serum CEA was positive in 9 patients with gastrointestinal adenocarcinoma and 5 patients with lung adenocarcinoma, and the positive rate was higher than that in SOC patients (P<0.001); The serum CA19-9 was positive in 5 patients with gastrointestinal adenocarcinoma and 5 patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, and the positive rate was higher than that in SOC patients (P<0.05). The serum CA125, CEA and CA19-9 were within the normal range in 4 patients with benign mesothelial hyperplasia. LGSOC tumor cells were less heterogeneous and aggregated into small clusters or papillary pattern, and psammoma bodies could be observed in some LGSOC cases. The background cells were fewer and lymphocytes were predominant; the papillary structure was more obvious after making cell wax blocks. HGSOC tumor cells were highly heterogeneous, with significantly enlarged nuclei and varying sizes, which could be more than 3-fold different, and nucleoli and nuclear schizophrenia could be observed in some cases; tumor cells were mostly clustered into nested clusters, papillae and prune shapes; there were more background cells, mainly histiocytes. Immunocytochemical staining showed that AE1/AE3, CK7, PAX-8, CA125, and WT1 were diffusely positively expressed in 32 SOC cases. P53 was focally positive in all 5 LGSOCs, diffusely positive in 23 HGSOCs, and negative in the other 4 HGSOCs. Most of adenocarcinomas of the gastrointestinal tract and lung had a history of surgery, and tumor cells of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma tend to form small cell nests. Immunocytochemistry can assist in the differential diagnosis of mesothelial-derived lesions with characteristic "open window" phenomenon. Conclusion: Combining the clinical manifestations of the patient, the morphological characteristics of the cells in the smear and cell block of the ascites can provide important clues for the diagnosis of SOC, and the immunocytochemical tests can further improve the accuracy of the diagnosis.

[Epstein-Barr virus infection-related post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorders in transplanted lung: a clinicopathological analysis].

Objective: To investigate the clinicpathological characteristics of post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorders (PTLD) in transplanted lung, and to improve its diagnosis and treatment. Methods: The clinicopathological characteristics of PTLD in three transplanted lungs were evaluated at Wuxi People's Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University from 2014 to 2019. HE, immunohistochemical staining and in situ hybridization were performed. The relevant literature of PTLD was reviewed. Results: All three patients had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) before lung transplantation. After receiving both lung transplants, they were all treated with anti-rejection drugs tacrolimus or mycophenolate mofetil, and combined with antiviral and/or rituximab. The time from transplantation to diagnosis of PTLD was four years, seven months, and five months, respectively. Two patients died one month and five months after initial diagnosis, and one patient was alive with no disease after one year. Histologically, all cases were monomorphic B-cell PTLD (diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, unspecified), and the tumor cells were positive for Epstein-Barr virus by in situ hybridization; one of the late-onset patients had herpes simplex virus infection. Conclusions: PTLD in the post-transplant lung tissue shows unique morphology and clinical characteristics, and is closely related to Epstein-Barr virus infection. Patients who receive lung transplantation due to COPD are more susceptible to develop PTLD, while late-onset ones occur more commonly in the hilum of lungs, and the prognosis is relatively poor.

[Myxoid lipoblastoma:a clinicopathological study of four cases].

Objective: To study clinicopathological features,diagnosis and differential diagnosis of myxoid lipoblastoma. Methods: Four cases of myxoid lipoblastoma, from 2010 to 2017 at Wuxi People's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, the Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University and Binhai People's Hospital, were studied by clinicopathological analysis, immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization along with a literature review. Results: The age of the patients ranged from 1 to 6 years. Histologically, all tumors had thin fibrous capsule and irregular lobules separated by fibrous septa. The individual lobules consisted of myxoid stroma,prominent plexiform capillary network and stellate or spindle mesenchymal cells. Lipoblasts (S-100 positive) and mature adipocytes varies among different lobules. FISH revealed PLAG1 disruption in all 4 cases. MDM2 or CHOP alterations were not detected. None of the patients had tumor recurrence upon follow up from 12 to 80 months. Conclusions: Myxoid lipoblastoma is a very rare tumor, usually in the first 5 years of life. The clinical features of myxoid lipoblastoma and lipoblastoma are similar, while myxoid lipoblastoma has prominent myxoid change, a plexiform vascular pattern and rare mature fat cells. The patient age,S-100 positive lipoblasts and cytogenetic alteration are the key diagnostic features.

Factors associated with fatal outcome of children with enterovirus A71 infection: a case series.

Enterovirus A-71 (EV-A71) may be fatal, but the natural history, symptoms, and signs are poorly understood. This study aimed to examine the natural history of fatal EV-A71 infection and to identify the symptoms and signs of early warning of deterioration. This was a clinical observational study of fatal cases of EV-A71 infection treated at five Chinese hospitals between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2012. We recorded and analysed 91 manifestations of EV-A71 infection in order to identify early prognosis indicators. There were 54 fatal cases. Median age was 21.5 months (Q1-Q3: 12-36). The median duration from onset to death was 78.5 h (range, 6 to 432). The multilayer perceptron analysis showed that ataxia respiratory, ultrahyperpyrexia, excessive tachycardia, refractory shock, absent pharyngeal reflex, irregular respiratory rhythm, hyperventilation, deep coma, pulmonary oedema and/or haemorrhage, excessive hypertension, tachycardia, somnolence, CRT extension, fatigue or sleepiness and age were associated with death. Autopsy findings (n = 2) showed neuronal necrosis, softening, perivascular cuffing, colloid and neuronophagia phenomenon in the brainstem. The fatal cases of enterovirus A71 had neurologic involvement, even at the early stage. Direct virus invasion through the neural pathway and subsequent brainstem damage might explain the rapid progression to death.

Electro-optically spectrum narrowed, multiline intracavity optical parametric oscillators.

We report on the first building of an active spectral narrowing mechanism in a pulsed, multiline optical parametric oscillator (OPO) based on a novel aperiodically poled lithium niobate (APPLN) device constructed using the aperiodic optical superlattice technique. The APPLN device functions simultaneously in the system as a multi-channel optical parametric down converter (OPDC) and an electro-optic (EO) gain spectral filter working on the corresponding (multiple) signal bands. When the APPLN OPO was installed in a diode pumped Nd:YVO4 laser system, highly narrowed dual-wavelength signal lines (at 1540 and 1550 nm) were observed at the output of the system through EO control of the APPLN. Correspondingly, an enhancement of the power spectral density of the source by a factor of ~7.8 with respect to the system operated in passive mode was found.

Laparoscopic versus robotic TAPP/TEP inguinal hernia repair: a multicenter, propensity score weighted study.

PURPOSE: The objective of this retrospective study was to assess safety and comparative clinical effectiveness of laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair (LIHR) and robot-assisted inguinal hernia repair (RIHR) from multi-institutional experience in Taiwan. METHODS: Medical records from a total of eight hospitals were retrospectively collected and analyzed. Patients primarily diagnosed of inguinal hernia, recurrent inguinal hernia or incarceration groin hernia patients who either underwent laparoscopic or robot-assisted inguinal hernia repair between January 2018 and December 2022 were included in the study. Baseline characteristics, intra-operative and post-operative results were analyzed. To compare two cohorts, overlap weighting was employed to balance the significant inter-group differences. We also conducted subgroup analyses by state of a hernia (primary or recurrent/incarceration) and laterality (unilateral or bilateral) that indicated complexity of surgery. RESULTS: A total of 1,080 patients who underwent minimally invasive inguinal hernia repair from 8 hospitals across Taiwan were collected. Following the application of inclusion criteria, there were 279 patients received RIHR and 763 patients received LIHR. In the baseline analysis, RIHR was more often performed in recurrent/incarceration (RIHR 18.6% vs LIHR 10.3%, p = 0.001) and bilateral cases (RIHR 81.4 vs LIHR 58.3, p < 0.001). Suturing was dominant mesh fixation method in RIHR (RIHR 81% vs LIHR 35.8%, p < 0.001). More overweight patients were treated with RIHR (RIHR 58.8% vs LIHR 48.9%, p = 0.006). After overlap weighting, there were no significant difference in intraoperative and post-operative complications between RIHR and LIHR. Reoperation and prescription rates of pain medication (opioid) were significantly lower in RIHR than LIHR in overall group comparison (reoperation: RIHR 0% vs. LIHR 2.9%, p = 0.016) (Opioid prescription: RIHR 3.34 mg vs LIHR 10.82 mg, p = 0.001) while operation time was significantly longer in RIHR (OR time: RIHR 155.27 min vs LIHR 95.30 min, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This real-world experience suggested that RIHR is a safe, and feasible option with comparable intra-operative and post-operative outcomes to LHIR. In our study, RIHR showed technical advantages in more complicated hernia cases with yielding to lower reoperation rates, and less opioid use.

Analysis of flicker noise for improved data retention characteristics in silicon-oxide-high-k-oxide-silicon flash memory using N2 implantation.

In this paper, we fabricate planar-type Silicon-Oxide-High-k-Oxide-Silicon (SOHOS) and the planar-type SOHOS devices with N2 implantation of 3 x 10(15) dose in a tunneling oxide to determine the impact of N2 implantation in the tunneling oxide of a memory device. The N2 implantation device has better retention characteristics than the device with no implantation. In order establish the correlation between N2 implantation and retention characteristic improvement, the low frequency noise (1/f noise) characteristic is investigated. The normalized drain current noise (S(ID)/I(D)2) level of the N2 implantation device is higher than that of the device with no implantation, which means that N2 implantation causes more trap formation near the interface. Considering that N2 implantation does not affect the DC transfer characteristics, such as mobility and sub-threshold slope, this finding indicates that the increase in the 1/f noise level is due to oxide traps rather than to interface traps. Therefore, the retention characteristic improvement in the N2 implantation device can be explained by the generation of higher number of oxide traps and an increase in the potential barrier blocking the leakage path in the tunneling oxide.

[Application of pathological feature clustering in oral pathology teaching].

To propose a new student-guided teaching method, in which students carried out the clustering of different diseases with the same pathological characteristics, and differentiated diagnosis of these diseases. This method was named pathological feature clustering (PFC). Seventy-seven undergraduates of School of Stomatology, Wuhan University were enrolled. Stratified random sampling method was adopted to divide the students into 4 groups with 18-20 students in each group. Each group of students selected a disease from the following four topics as the theme and summarize the histological characteristics of the disease: ①oral mucosal disease;②odontogenic tumors and tumor-like lesions, oral and maxillofacial cysts; ③salivary gland diseases;④epithelial-derived tumors and tumor-like lesions (referred to as topics 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively). When discussing a specific type of disease, the group which select the topic was the summary group (SG), and the other groups were the non-summary group (NSG). After summarizing, students shared the summary results through PPTs, and teachers made comments and supplements. The teaching effect was evaluated by comparing the results of the pre-class test and the final examination. Students' acceptance of PFC teaching method was evaluated through a questionnaire, which included 8 objective questions and 1 subjective question. Likert-scale was used to design the questionnaire, with 1 to 5 points for each question. Students rated each question according to their own situation. Differences among groups were compared by Mann-Whitney U nonparametric test. The pre-class test results showed that the scores of students in SG group in subjects 1, 2, 3 [(5.6±0.8), 5.0(1.0) and (2.9±1.0) points for subjects 1, 2 and 3, respectively] were higher than those in NSG group [(5.1±1.0), 4.0(2.5) and 1.5(2.5) points] (U=402.50, P=0.047; U=392.00, P=0.026; U=295.00, P=0.003). The final examination results showed that there was no significant difference between the scores of the SG group and the NSG group in subjects 1, 2, 3 and 4 (P>0.05). These results showed that the differences between SG and NSG groups were reduced after the summarizing and share between groups, further demonstrating the effectiveness of the PFC teaching method. The results of questionnaire showed that 81.8%(63/77) students were completely satisfied with PFC teaching method, 13.0%(10/77) students were satisfied and 5.2%(4/77) students were basically satisfied. According to the feedback of Likert scale objective evaluation questionnaire, the mean score of each question ranged from 4.19 to 4.77, indicating that students believed that PFC teaching method had a positive impact on the learning of oral pathology. The PFC teaching method proposed in this study could improve the ability of pathological differential diagnosis of undergraduates.

Electrical characteristic analysis using low-frequency noise in low-temperature polysilicon thin film transistors.

This study carried out an electrical characteristic analysis using low-frequency noise (LFN) in top gate p-type low-temperature polysilicon thin film transistors (LTPS TFTs) with different active layer thicknesses between 40 nm and 80 nm. The transfer characteristic curves show that the 40-nm device has better electrical characteristics compared with the 80-nm device. The carrier number fluctuation, with and without correlated mobility fluctuation model in both devices, has modeled well the measured noise. On the other hand, the trap density and coulomb scattering in the 40-nm device are smaller compared with the 80-nm device. To confirm the effectiveness of the LFN noise analysis, the trap densities at a grain boundary are extracted using in both devices the similar methods of Proano et al. and Levinson et al. That is, coulomb scattering, caused by the trapped charges at or near the interface, has a greater effect on the device with inferior electrical properties. Based on the LFN and the quantitative analysis of the trap density at a grain boundary, the interface traps between the active layer and the gate insulator can explain the devices' electrical degradation.

Dysfunction of insulin mediator protein kinase FA in lymphocytes of patients with NIDDM.

Patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) had an impaired capability to activate exogenous ATP.Mg-dependent protein phosphatase in lymphocytes compared with nondiabetic subjects. More importantly, the impaired protein phosphatase activation in the lymphocytes of patients with NIDDM could be consistently and completely restored to normal by exogenous pure protein kinase FA (the activating factor of ATP.Mg-dependent protein phosphatase), indicating that the molecular mechanism for the impaired protein phosphatase activation in patients with NIDDM is due to a functional loss of kinase FA. By contrast, both NIDDM patients and nondiabetic subjects had similar levels of total cell proteins and spontaneously active protein phosphatase activity in their lymphocytes, indicating that the dysfunction of kinase FA in patients with NIDDM is very specific. Statistical analysis further revealed that the lymphocytes isolated from 21 nondiabetic subjects contained high levels of FA activity (148 +/- 22 mU/mg cell protein), whereas, the lymphocytes of 21 patients with NIDDM contained low levels of FA activity (50 +/- 22 mU/mg), indicating statistically significant differences in FA activity between diabetic patients and nondiabetic subjects. This is the first report providing initial evidence that patients with NIDDM may statistically have a common impairment in the protein phosphatase activation in their lymphocytes and that the molecular mechanism for this defect is due to a biochemical dysfunction of protein kinase FA, a biological mediator for both insulin and epidermal growth factor.

Antisense suppression of proline-directed protein kinase FA enhances chemosensitivity in human prostate cancer cells.

Initial clinic studies revealed that proline-directed protein kinase FA (PDPK FA) is overexpressed manyfold in various human cancerous tissues relative to the normal control. However, the role of overexpressed PDPK FA in cancers remains unknown and needs to be established. To determine whether PDPK FA is associated with drug sensitivity, we investigated the effects of partial inhibition of this kinase on the human prostate carcinoma cell line (PC-3). PDPK FA antisense expression vector and its specific antibody were successfully developed. Two stable transfected antisense clones (PA7 and PA3) of human prostate carcinoma cell were subcloned, and they expressed approximately 75% and approximately 35% of the total PDPK FA existing in the control-transfected clone as determined by both immunoprecipitate activity assay and immunoblot analysis. In sharp contrast, the PDPK FA antisense clones expressed no significant suppression of any other related proline-directed protein kinase member expression, demonstrating the specificity of these two antisense clones. When compared with parental or control-transfected cells, the low-PDPK FA-expressing antisense clones displayed an enhanced sensitivity to carboplatin, 5-fluorouracil, paclitaxel, and hydroxyurea. Estimation of the IC50 index further revealed that the antisense clones displayed up to > 100-fold drug sensitivity, and there was a correlation between suppressed levels of PDPK FA and drug sensitivity. Taken together, the results demonstrate that specific antisense suppression of overexpressed PDPK FA in human prostate cancer cells is sufficient to enhance various drug sensitivity, indicating that PDPK FA is an important regulator in controlling multiple drug resistance of human prostate cancer cells.

Differential expression of novel genes by bone marrow-derived macrophage populations.

In the present study, we have constructed a subtraction cDNA library to identify novel genes induced by IFN-gamma in GM-CSF-derived bone marrow macrophage (m phi). M theta were treated with 50 U/ml IFN-gamma for 40, 70 and 140 min to induce expression of early genes regulated by IFN-gamma, and the M phi were pooled. Poly(A)+RNA was prepared from both unactivated and IFN-gamma-stimulated m theta, and cDNA libraries were constructed in lambda ZAP. Genes expressed in common by both m theta populations were removed by subtraction using biotin-avidin precipitation of hybrid complexes. Further selection was performed by differential screening using cDNA prepared from mRNA of unactivated m phi as a probe, followed by colony hybridization to remove sister clones. Of 17 clones from which sequence information was obtained, two appeared to be identical with the murine genes, C10 (clone GM2B1) and Mac-2 (clone GM2C4) and an additional two clones had high similarity to human cDNAs encoding proteins of unknown function. cDNAs containing sequences which did not match published sequences were used to probe Northern blots prepared from both unstimulated and IFN-gamma-activated GM-CSF- and CSF-1-derived m phi. Five clones (GM1A2, GM1B4, GM1F2, GM2A12 and GM2B8) showed enhanced transcript levels following IFN-gamma treatment of GM-CSF-derived m phi, but demonstrated high constitutive transcript levels in CSF-l-derived m phi. In addition, C10 transcripts were constitutively expressed by GM-CSF-derived m phi, but not by CSF-1-derived m phi, even after activation by IFN-gamma. These data suggest that much of the functional heterogeneity of GM-CSF- and CSF-1-derived m phi resides in the differential expression of early genes specifically induced by IFN-gamma.

Endothelin-1 and Insulin Induce Cellular Inactivation of Protein Kinase F(A)/Glycogen Synthase Kinase-3alpha in a Common Signaling Pathway.

In this study, we investigate the effects of endothelin-1 (ET-1) and insulin on the cellular activity of protein kinase F(A)/glycogen synthase kinase-3alpha (kinase F(A)/GSK-3alpha) in rat adipocytes. The cellular activity of kinase F(A)/GSK-3alpha is inhibited to approximately 50% of control within 30 min when cells are treated with 1 nM ET-1 at 37 degrees C; in addition, significant inhibition to approximately 60% of control is observed at as low as 1 pM ET-1. Conversely, ET-1 at concentrations up to 1 nM has no direct effect on purified kinase F(A)/GSK-3alpha in vitro. Immunoblotting analysis further reveals that the protein level of this kinase is not significantly changed when treated with 1 nM ET-1 for 30 min. Similar to ET-1, insulin as low as 10 nM can also induce inactivation of kinase F(A)/GSK-3alpha to approximately 50% of control in adipocytes when processed under identical conditions. Most importantly, when treated with both insulin and ET-1, the activity of kinase F(A)/GSK-3alpha can be decreased only to approximately 50% of control. Taken together, the results provide initial evidence that ET-1 and insulin may regulate this important multisubstrate/multifunctional protein kinase in a common signaling pathway in cells. Copyright 1996 S. Karger AG, Basel

Lead treatment in vitro at early developmental stage of bone marrow-derived macrophages enhances NO production through IL-1beta and IL-6 but not TNF-alpha.

Lead (Pb(2+)) is known to decrease or block nitric oxide (NO) production by mature macrophages (mphi). Bone marrow cells were treated with various doses of lead in vitro and the morphological and functional changes were observed. Bone marrow cells were treated with various doses of lead (1, 10, 20 and 50 microM) at the start of culture with mphi growth factor (CSF-1), and after 6-7 days of culture, the resultant mphi (bone marrow-derived mphi, BMDM) showed decreased NO production. Unexpectedly, BMDM from the lowest does of lead treatment (1.0 microM) showed increased NO production. The increased NO production was due to increased expression of the iNOS gene and concurrent enhanced transcript levels of proinflammatory cytokines such as IL-1beta and IL-6, but not TNF-alpha. Lead treatment on mature BMDM showed decreased NO production in a dose-dependent manner. These results suggest that a low dose of lead affects developmental characteristics of BMDM through different proinflammatory cytokines, and the lead effects on precursor cells of mphi and mature mphi are different.

Bioflavonoids commonly and potently induce tyrosine dephosphorylation/inactivation of oncogenic proline-directed protein kinase FA in human prostate carcinoma cells.

In this study, we investigate the effect of bioflavonoids on the activity and phosphotyrosine content of oncogenic proline-directed protein kinase FA (PDPK FA) in human prostate carcinoma cells. Chronic treatment of human prostate carcinoma cells with low concentrations of quercetin, apigenin, and kaempferol commonly and potently induced tyrosine dephosphorylation and concurrent inactivated oncogenic PDPK FA in a concentration-dependent manner. This is demonstrated by a specific assay of this kinase's activity in the immunoprecipitates from the cell extracts followed by immunoblotting and phosphotyrosine analysis. The results indicate that bioflavonoids may function as common tyrosine kinase inhibitors to inhibit PDPK FA-specific tyrosine kinase and thereby to induce tyrosine dephosphorylation/inactivation of this oncogenic kinase in human carcinoma cells. Under this condition, quercetin, apigenin, and kaempferol can also inhibit cell growth in a similar concentration-dependent manner. The results further indicate that inhibition of tyrosine phosphorylation/activation of this oncogenic PDPK represents a new mode of action mechanism for bioflavonoids during the antiproliferation process in human carcinoma cells.

Mono(ADP-ribosyl)transferase genes and diabetes in NOD mice. Is there a relationship?

The answer to the question posed by the title (is there a relationship between aberrant Art gene expression and IDDM pathogenesis in NOD mice?) remains elusive. Conclusions are currently based almost entirely upon analysis of mRNA transcript levels rather than on T-cell-specific mono-ADP ribosylation activities. Our unpublished data, as well as data published in abstract form by Dr. L. Chatenoud and colleagues (48) indicate that gene transcription is not impaired in splenic leukocytes of older NOD mice, including those with spontaneous IDDM development. Based upon the limited data showing that there may be reduced expression of Art gene products in the earliest T cell immigrants from the NOD thymus, one would have to surmise that If there is a regulatory defect, it may be in allowing single positive thymic T cells to emigrate before they are fully mature. Therefore, development of anti-Art monoclonal antibody together with further studies regarding functions of mono(ADP-ribosyl)transferase in immunoregulation of different subpopulation of T-cells, may finally resolve the role that altered mono(ADP-ribosyl)transferase activities play in the pathogenesis of IDDM in NOD mice.

Hyperglycemia induced activation of type-1 protein phosphatase activator (kinase FA) in perfused human placenta.

We report the identification of type-1 protein phosphatase activating factor (kinase FA), a unique biologic mediator for both insulin and epidermal growth factors in the human placenta. The activity of kinase F, was found to be extremely labile in the unperfused placenta. Fresh term placentas lost more than 50% of the total kinase FA activity within 6 hours when exposed to air of incubated in medium but not perfused. In contrast, the activity of kinase FA was stable when the human term placenta was dually perfused. This indicates that placental dual perfusion is a useful method for studying protein phosphorylation-dephosphorylation involved in signal transduction. When fresh placentas were perfused with media containing glucose at 141 +/- 10, 242 +/- 12 and 436 +/- 20 mg/dL, kinase FA activity was stimulated several-fold in a glucose concentration-dependent manner when compared with control levels at delivery. The results suggest that hyperglycemia-mediated activation may represent a previously unknown control mechanisms for the regulation of protein kinase FA. The results also suggest that human placental perfusion is a good in vitro system for studying signal transduction mechanisms involved in hormonal actions and metabolic regulation.

F-H to AB plane angle (FABA) for assessment of anteroposterior jaw relationships.

The horizontal relationship of the jaws has been defined as the angles or distances between the reference planes of the craniofacial complex and points A and B, which are representative of the anterior limits of the denture bases. The aims of this study were (1) to examine statistically and geometrically the different cephalometric measurements which are used to indicate the A-P jaw relationship, and (2) to provide a more reliable parameter by means of comparative cephalometric analyses with various clinical examples. The APDI and Wits appraisal are parameters for evaluating the anteroposterior relationship of the dentition rather than the jaws. FH to AB plane angle (FABA) may provide not only a reliable cephalometric measurement of the anteroposterior relationship of the jaws but also a clue to the facial profile.

[Impact of AFP promoter on the expressions of GFP in tumor cells].

OBJECTIVE: To study the impact of AFP 5'flanking promoter (enhancer) on the expression of GFP in hepatocarcinoma cell. METHODS: Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) reporter gene expression plasmid pcDNA3-GFP-AFP-w under the direction of AFP 5' flanking promoter (enhancer) was constructed by recombinant DNA technology and confirmed by restriction analyses. pcDNA3-GFP-AFP-w, pcDNA3-GFP and pcDNA3 were transfected into Hela and Bel7402 cells by lipofectin and selected by G418 respectively, after amplification of the positive cell clones, expression of GFP was detected by Western blotting and quantitatively analysed by GEL Doc 2000 digital image systems. RESULTS: The expression of GFP was lower in Bel-GFP-AFP-w than in Bel-GFP but was significantly higher than in Hela-GFP-AFP-w. CONCLUSION: GFP reporter gene plasmid pcDNA3-GFP-AFP-w under the direction of the 3.1 kb AFP 5'flanking promoter (enhancer) can be expressed in HCC Bel7402 cell definitely and specifically.