Development and performance test of the environment scale of unintentional injury in the home for children aged 0-6 years old in urban area of China / 中华预防医学杂志

To develop the environment scale of unintentional injury in the home for children aged 0-6 years living in urban area of China, and test its validity and reliability. The content of the environment scale was established through the literature review, expert consultation and pilot study. A total of 1 104 children aged 0-6 years in urban area of Changsha were enrolled in this study by using a multi-stage stratified cluster random sampling method. The questionnaire was used to collect the basic information of children, the incidence of unintentional injury and the status of home environment. The reliability of the scale was tested by using Cronbach's α coefficient and split-half reliability coefficient. The content validity and construct validity were tested by using Pearson correlation analysis and factor analysis. All children were divided into two groups according to the incidence of unintentional injury in the home and the discrimination validity of the scale was tested by using -test. The scale had 54 items in 6 dimensions. The number of eligible questionnaires was 1 074, including 554 (51.6%) from boys and 519 (48.3%) from children under 3 years old. The incidence rate of unintentional injury and in-home injury was 18.34% (197 children) and 10.71% (115 children). The internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's α) coefficient for the scale was 0.87 and the split-efficacy reliability coefficient was 0.82, both meeting the standard of reliability above 0.70. The Pearson correlation coefficient between each dimension and the whole scale ranged from 0.53 to 0.84 (all values <0.001). The common factor cumulative variance contribution rate of the scale was 58.34%. There were 54 items with factor loadings greater than 0.30. The root mean square error of approximation, comparative fit index and goodness-of-fit index were 0.07, 0.61 and 0.71, respectively. The score of scale in children with injury was significantly higher than that in children without injury (0.022). The validity and reliability of the environment scale for unintentional injury in the home for children aged 0-6 years old in the urban area of China are good.

Role of CXC chemokine receptor type 7 in carcinogenesis and lymph node metastasis of colon cancer.

Upregulated expression of the CXC chemokine receptor type 7 (CXCR7) promotes breast, lung and prostate cancer progression and metastasis. However, the role of CXCR7 in colon cancer has not been determined. We hypothesized that increased CXCR7 expression may contribute to human colon cancer occurrence and progression. Reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blot analysis were performed on 34 malignant and 18 normal colon tissue specimens. The specimens were obtained from 19 male and 15 female patients, with a mean age of 52 years (range, 34-79 years). Of the 34 patients, 20 had lymph node metastases. None of the patients had received adjuvant radiotherapy or chemotherapy prior to surgery. This study demonstrated that CXCR7 levels were significantly higher in colon tumors compared with those in normal colon tissue (P﹤0.01). In addition, lymph node metastatic colon tumors exhibited significantly higher CXCR7 expression compared with non-metastatic tumors (P﹤0.01); however, there were no differences in CXCR7 expression among distinct histopathological types (well-differentiated vs. moderately-to-poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma, P﹥0.01). Therefore, the evidence obtained from the present study supports involvement of the upregulated CXCR7 expression in colon tumorigenesis and lymph node metastasis.

Metformin inhibits proliferation and promotes apoptosis of HER2 positive breast cancer cells by downregulating HSP90.

PURPOSE: To investigate the effects and the possible molecular mechanisms of metformin on HER2 positive breast cancer cells. METHODS: SK-BR-3 HER2 positive breast cancer cells were treated with different concentrations of metformin. The growth inhibitory rate of the cells was calculated by MTT assay, apoptosis was detected by flow cytometry, and the expression level of heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) was performed by Western blot analysis. A control group consisted of cells treated with PBS. RESULTS: With increased concentrations of metformin, cell growth inhibitory rates increased. The growth inhibitory rates with 0.5 mM, 2mM or 8mM metformin were significantly higher compared with the control group (p<0.05). Apoptosis in the metformin treated cells was also significantly higher compared with the control group (p=0.003). The expression level of HSP90 in the metformin group was significantly lower than that in the control group. CONCLUSION: Metformin can inhibit the proliferation and promote apoptosis of HER2 positive breast cancer cells,which is maybe related to inhibition of HSP90.

[Selective cytotoxic effect of lentivirus-mediated double suicide gene transfer on human gastric adneocarcinoma cells].

OBJECTIVE: To study the selective cytotoxic effect of lentivirus-mediated double suicide gene (CD/TK) against human gastric carcinoma cells SGC-7901 in vitro. METHODS: SGC-7901 cells were infected with FGW-KDRP-CD/TK vector and the infection efficiency was observed under a fluorescence microscope. The morphological changes of the infected cells were observed by Giemsa staining. Flow cytometry (FCM) was employed for cell cycle analysis, and the expression of CD/TK was detected by RT-PCR. The infected cells were then treated with the prodrugs ganciclovir (GCV) and/or 5-fluorocytosine (5-FC) at different concentrations, and the cytotoxic effects were evaluated using MTT method. RESULTS: The infection efficiency of the lentiviral vector in SGC-7901 cells increased with the titer of the virus, which produced no significant effect on the cancer cell morphology in vitro or on the percentages of G0-G1, G2-M and S phase cells (P>0.05). RT-PCR demonstrated the expression of CD/TK gene in SGC-7901 cells infected by FGW-KDRP-CD/TK. The infected cells were highly sensitive to the prodrugs with a dose-dependent cytotoxic effect within a specific concentration range of the drugs, whereas the non-infected cells were not sensitive to the prodrugs. Combined use of the two prodrugs produced an obviously stronger inhibitory effect than either of the them (P<0.05). When combined, GCV and 5-FC at the concentration of 0.1+40, 1+80, 10+160, and 100+320 mg/L demonstrated a synergetic effect with a CDI<1. CONCLUSION: Lentivirus-mediated CD/TK fusion gene system can selectively kill gastric cancer cells, and the two prodrugs show a synergistic cytotoxic effect.