Serum ceramide concentrations are associated with depression in patients after ischemic stroke-A two-center case-controlled study.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The present study aims to correlate the severity of post-stroke depression (PSD) and serum ceramide concentration. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this two-center case-control study, we prospectively collected clinical and demographical information from age and gender-matched 51 PSD patients, 56 non-post-stroke depression (Non-PSD) patients, and 39 patients with major depression (MD) to perform the suitable biochemical analysis to bring a correlation in causing depression in patients soon after the stroke. The ROC curve method was used to evaluate ceramide's diagnostic efficacy in all three groups of patients. A follow-up analysis was also conducted based on PSD severity to associate serum ceramide levels and neuropsychiatric symptoms. The severity of the patient's depressive symptoms was assessed by using the self-rating depression scale (SDS). RESULTS: In comparison between PSD and MD patients, three serum ceramide species were found to be significantly different. Compared with Non-PSD patients, PSD patients had significantly higher levels of all the four serum ceramides, and increasing levels ofC16:0, C18:0(VS MD) and C16: 0(VS Non-PSD) serve as a diagnostic tool and an independent risk factor in all three categories of patients. Moreover, the follow-up analysis results showed that, as the treatment progressed, the differences in the 3 serum ceramide species were statistically significant. CONCLUSION: There was a stage-specific association between serum ceramides and PSD, and the potential pathophysiological mechanism has to be investigated in future research.

Diagnostic value of 18 FDG-PET/CT for poorly differentiated gastric adenocarcinoma / 医学研究生学报

Objective The sensitivity and specificity of 18 FDG PET/CT are poor in the diagnosis of gastric cancer .Gastric signet ring cell carcinoma and Mucinous gastric carcinoma is known to have low fluorodeoxyglucose (18FDG) uptake,but not known for poorly differentiated gastric adenocarcinoma .This study was to investigate the value of 18 FDG PET/CT in the diagnosis of poorly differ-entiated gastric adenocarcinoma . Methods We retrospectively analyzed the results of 18 FDG PET/CT of 34 cases of histologically confirmed poorly differentiated gastric adenocarcinoma .We recorded the volume , location , and gastric wall invasion depth , and maxi-mum standardized uptake value ( SUVmax) of the tumors and analyzed the relationship of 18 FDG uptake with the clinicopathologic pa-rameters. Results By 18 FDG-PET/CT, poorly differentiated gastric adenocarcinoma was diagnosed in only 67.6% of the patients (23/34).SUVmax was found to be significantly correlated with age , gastric wall invasion, and tumor size (P0 .05 ) .Logistic regression a-nalysis showed the tumor size to be the sole factor influencing the 18 FDG uptake of poorly differentiated gastric adenocarcinoma ( OR=0.37, 95%CI 0.154-0.920, P=0.03). Conclusion The di-agnostic value of 18 FDG-PET/CT is but limited for poorly differentia-ted gastric adenocarcinoma , and attention should be paid to its false-negative results .

Study on anti ovarian cancer efficacy elicited by CD34~+ umbilical cord blood hematopoietic stem cells transfected with IL-21 in nude mouse model / 中华微生物学和免疫学杂志

Objective To investigate the CD34~+ umbilical cord blood hematopoietic stem cells (CD34~+ UBSC) transfected with interleukin 21 (IL-21) against the ovarian cancer effect in tumor-bearing nude mice. Methods CD34~+ UBSC were obtained from the UBSC by a magnetically activated cell sorting technique and then transfected with recombinant plasmid plRES2-IL-21-EGFP after the CD34~+ UBSC were proliferated in vitro. The therapeutic effect was evaluated by the size of the tumor and the life span in nude mice treated with the CD34~+ UBSC-IL-21. The expression of IL-21 and its bioactivity in CD34~+ UBSC-IL-21 and in local neoplasitc tissues were respectively detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), immune fluorescence technique, ELISA, Western blot, immunohistochemistry and splenocyte proliferative activity. The NK cell cytotoxicity and the numbers of NK cells, serum level of IFN-γ and TNF-αwere simultaneouly detected by FCM and ELISA, respectively. Results CD34~+ UBSC were cultured and transfected with pIRES2-IL-21-EGFP successfully. CD34~+ UBSC-IL-21 could inhibit the tumor growth and extended nude mice life span compared with other groups (P < 0.01). The expression of IL-21 in the neo-plastic tissue, serum level of IFN-γ and TNF-α , NK cell activity and the numbers of NK cells of mice origin and of human origin in splenocytes were increased significantly in the nude mice treated with CD34~+ UBSC-IL-21 compared with other groups(P <0.01). Conclusion The CD34~+ UBSC transfected with IL-21 have competent against ovarian cancer in tumor-bearing nude mice. The findings may establish a foundation for gene therapy of the ovarian cancer by CD34~+ UBSC-IL-21 in clinic application.