Spatiotemporal variation of drought in the Western Sichuan Plateau based on standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index.

Drought is a destructive natural disaster in the Western Sichuan Plateau. Understanding its spatiotemporal variations has important practical significance for drought prevention, ensuring agricultural production safety, and maintaining ecosystem health in the region. Based on the daily meteorological data from 48 meteorological stations in the Western Sichuan Plateau from 1980 to 2020, we used the Penman-Monteith model to calculate potential evapotranspiration and standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI). The temporal and spatial variations of drought in the Western Sichuan Plateau were analyzed using linear trend analysis and drought characteristics analysis methods. The results showed that the annual and spring SPEI of the Western Sichuan Plateau showed a weak wetting trend from 1980 to 2020, while summer, autumn, and winter showed a drought trend. The southwest mountains and northeast grasslands in the study region were prone to drought. The range of interannual drought impact in the study area was weakly increasing, with a decreasing trend in spring and an increasing trend in summer, autumn, and winter. The overall drought frequency in the whole region was relatively high. The areas drought of low-frequency were mainly located in parts of west and northeast of the Western Sichuan Plateau, while the rest were high frequency areas.

A Novel Minimum Spanning Tree Clustering Algorithm Based on Density Core.

Clustering analysis is an unsupervised learning method, which has applications across many fields such as pattern recognition, machine learning, information security, and image segmentation. The density-based method, as one of the various clustering algorithms, has achieved good performance. However, it works poor in dealing with multidensity and complex-shaped datasets. Moreover, the result of this method depends heavily on the parameters we input. Thus, we propose a novel clustering algorithm (called the MST-DC) in this paper, which is based on the density core. Firstly, we employ the reverse nearest neighbors to extract core objects. Secondly, we use the minimum spanning tree algorithm to cluster the core objects. Finally, the remaining objects are assigned to the cluster to which their nearest core object belongs. The experimental results on several synthetic and real-world datasets show the superiority of the MST-DC to Kmeans, DBSCAN, DPC, DCore, SNNDPC, and LDP-MST.

[GIS-based risk assessment of agrometeorological disasters of summer maize in northern mountainous area of Sichuan Basin: A case study of Wangcang County, Sichuan Province, China]. / 基于GIS的四川盆周北部山区夏玉米农业气象灾害风险评估­­ä»¥æ—ºè‹åŽ¿ä¸ºä¾‹.

Meteorological disaster is one of the main factors restricting agriculture development in China. It is important to clarify the risk of summer maize agrometeorological disaster for disaster prevention and mitigation. Based on the natural disaster risk theory, we collected meteorological data and maize yield data from 1981 to 2018 in a typical area in the northern mountainous area of Sichuan Basin (Wangcang County). The main disaster-causing factors affecting summer maize production were determined. A comprehensive agro-meteorological disaster risk assessment model for summer maize was constructed in combination with the sensitivity of pregnant environment and vulnerability of disaster bearing to evaluate the agrometeorological disasters risk of summer maize production in the northern mountainous area of Sichuan Basin. The results showed that during the study period, high temperature in mature period, rainstorm in flowering period, rainstorm in mature period, continuous rain in filling period and drought in booting stage were the main agrometeorological disasters affecting the growth and development of summer maize. The agrometeorological disaster risk of maize generally distributed in a southwest-northeast pattern, with the distribution areas of high-risk and higher-risk areas accounting for half of the total area of Wangcang County. The high-risk areas were mainly located in the southwest of the county, which was basically consistent with the high-value areas of hazard-pregnant environment sensitivity. The low-risk areas were mostly concentrated in the western part of county territory, which were also low-risk areas of high temperature in mature period, rainstorm in mature period, and rainstorm in flowering period disasters.

Significance of serum glucagon-like peptide-1 and matrix Gla protein levels in patients with diabetes and osteoporosis.

BACKGROUND: Osteoporosis is a systemic bone disease characterized by decreased bone mass, impaired bone mass, and reduced bone strength that leads to increased bone fragility and fracture. Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) complicated with osteoporosis is a common systemic metabolic bone disease, and reduced bone mass and bone strength are considered the main clinical features; however, the pathogenesis of this disease has not been fully clarified. Its occurrence is considered related to sex, age, and genetic factors. There are many risk factors for diabetes complicated with osteoporosis. Therefore, exploring these risk factors will help prevent it. AIM: To investigate the relationships among serum glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) levels, matrix Gla protein (MGP) levels, and diabetes with osteoporosis. METHODS: Sixty patients with T2DM complicated with osteoporosis confirmed by the endocrinology department of our hospital were selected as the case group. Sixty T2DM patients with bone loss were selected as the control group. Sixty healthy participants were selected as the healthy group. The general data, bone mineral density index, and bone metabolic markers of the three groups were compared. The relationships among GLP-1 levels, MGP levels, and the bone mineral density index of the case group were analyzed using linear correlation analysis and a logistic regression model. RESULTS: Differences in sex, smoking, and drinking among the case group, control group, and healthy group were not statistically significant (P > 0.05). The mean age of the case group was older than those of the control and healthy groups (P < 0.05). The body mass index, fasting plasma glucose level, HbA1c level, hypertension rate, and coronary heart disease rate of the case and control groups were higher than those of the healthy group (P < 0.05). The serum GLP-1 and MGP levels of the case group were lower than those of the control and healthy groups; these differences were statistically significant (P < 0.05). The serum GLP-1 and MGP levels of the control group were lower than those of the healthy group; these differences were statistically significant (P < 0.05). The serum GLP-1 and MGP levels of the case group were significantly positively correlated with the bone mineral density values of the hip and lumbar spine (P < 0.05). The results of the logistic regression model showed that age and duration of diabetes were independent risk factors for osteoporosis in diabetic patients (P < 0.05) and that increased GLP-1 and MGP values were protective factors against osteoporosis in diabetic patients (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Serum GLP-1 and MGP levels of diabetic patients with osteoporosis were significantly decreased and positively correlated with bone mineral density and were independent risk factors for osteoporosis in diabetic patients.

Amantadine-assembled nanostimulator enhances dimeric RBD antigen-elicited cross-neutralization against SARS-CoV-2 strains.

There is an urgent need to develop new vaccination strategies to elevate the cross-neutralization against different SARS-CoV-2 strains. In this study, we construct the spherical amantadine-assembled nanostimulator (AAS). Amantadine as immunostimulating molecules are displayed on the outermost layer of AAS. Molecular mechanism analysis reveals that AAS can activate RIG-I-like receptor (RLR) signaling pathway to increase the expression of type I interferons in vivo. AAS-mediated activation of RLR signaling pathway further promotes the maturation and proliferation of dendritic cells (DCs) and T helper cells (Ths), finally activating B cells to produce potent antibody responses. In performance evaluation experiments, the mixture of AAS and dimeric RBD significantly enhances RBD-specific humoral responses (4-fold IgG, 3.5-fold IgG2a, 3.3-fold IgG2b, 3.8-fold IgG3 and 1.3-fold IgM), in comparison to aluminum adjuvant-assistant dimeric RBD. Importantly, AAS dramatically elevates dimeric RBD-elicited cross-neutralization against different SARS-CoV-2 strains such as Wuhan-Hu-1 (9-fold), B.1.1.7 (UK variant, 15-fold), B.1.351 (South African variant, 4-fold) and B.1.617.2 (India variant, 7-fold). Our study verifies the mechanism of AAS in activating RLR signaling pathway in host immune system and highlights the power of AAS in improving antigen-elicited cross-neutralization against different SARS-CoV-2 strains.

CXCL14 facilitates the growth and metastasis of ovarian carcinoma cells via activation of the Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway.

BACKGROUND: There is an urgent need to identify potential targets in anticancer therapy to improve the survival and prognosis of patients with ovarian cancer (OC). Herein, we investigated the functional significance of chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 14 (CXCL14) in OC cell growth and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). METHODS: qRT PCR and western blotting was used to detect CXCL14 mRNA level and protein expression, respectively. The functional mechanism of CXCL14 in OC was investigated by CCK-8, colony formation and transwell assays. The migration ability of OC cell was determined using wound healing. The protein expressions of CXCL14 and ß-catenin in OC tissues were determined by immumohistochemical staining. RESULTS: We demonstrated that high levels of CXCL14 were associated with a worse prognosis in patients with OC. CXCL14 knockdown considerably restrained the growth, migration and invasion of OC cell in vitro. In contrast, ectopic CXCL14 overexpression yielded the opposite results. Investigations to determine the underlying molecular mechanisms revealed that the Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway is involved in CXCL14-facilitated OC cell invasiveness. CONCLUSION: These data collectively demonstrate that CXCL14 contributes to OC cell growth and metastatic potential by regulating the Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway.

GPR52 Antagonist Reduces Huntingtin Levels and Ameliorates Huntington's Disease-Related Phenotypes.

GPR52 is an orphan G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) that has been recently implicated as a potential drug target of Huntington's disease (HD), an incurable monogenic neurodegenerative disorder. In this research, we found that striatal knockdown of GPR52 reduces mHTT levels in adult HdhQ140 mice, validating GPR52 as an HD target. In addition, we discovered a highly potent and specific GPR52 antagonist Comp-43 with an IC50 value of 0.63 µM by a structure-activity relationship (SAR) study. Further studies showed that Comp-43 reduces mHTT levels by targeting GPR52 and promotes survival of mouse primary striatal neurons. Moreover, in vivo study showed that Comp-43 not only reduces mHTT levels but also rescues HD-related phenotypes in HdhQ140 mice. Taken together, our study confirms that inhibition of GPR52 is a promising strategy for HD therapy, and the GPR52 antagonist Comp-43 might serve as a lead compound for further investigation.

[Characteristics of agricultural climate resource changes during the growth stages of tobacco during 1961-2017 in Panxi Region, China]. / 1961­2017年攀西烤烟生育期农业气候资源变化特征.

It is of great significance for the sustainable development of regional agriculture to understand the changes of agricultural climate resources during the growth period of local main crops. Based on data from 15 meteorological stations in tobacco planting area of Panxi region, Sichuan, from 1961 to 2017, the average temperature, diurnal temperature range, water deficit, and radiation were used to analyze the temporal and spatial distribution of agricultural climate resources such as light, temperature, and water in the whole growth period and each growth stages respectively. From 1961 to 2017, the average temperature of tobacco during the whole growth period gradually decreased from south to north in Panxi, while temperature showed an increasing trend in most areas. The area with significantly increased temperature accounted for 54.5% of the total planting area. The diurnal temperature range in most area of the eastern Panxi and some of the central Panxi showed an upward trend, and these areas accounted for 76.4% of the whole Panxi region. Water deficit gradually decreased from south to north, with an increasing trend in the whole region. The radiation during the growth stage of tobacco was high in the southwest and low in the northeast, and the climatic tendency was positive values in the southwest. During the study period, average temperature was the highest in the period from vigorous growth to the beginning of maturity, with an overall upward trend. The diurnal temperature rage and water deficit were the highest in transplanting squatting seedling stage. Radiation was the highest at the beginning of maturity, which increased slightly at the beginning of seedling growth.

NaH Promoted One-Pot Tandem Reactions of 3-(1-Alkynyl) Chromones to Form 2-Nitrogen-Substituted Xanthones.

A silver-catalyzed dimerization of ethyl isocyanoacetates could trigger the tandem reaction of 3-(1-alkynyl) chromones under the basic condition in a one-pot reaction to afford xanthone skeletons with 2-imidazolyl substitution in an efficient manner. With the control experiment in hand, a mechanism including dimerization of isocyanoacetate/deprotonation/Michael addition/ring-opening/cyclization 1,2-elimination was deduced. Further investigation for the base was carried out, resulting in NaH as an optimal base to avoid the dimerization of 3-(1-alkynyl) chromones. The scope of this methodology was extended on the different substituents of 3-(1-alkynyl)-chromones and the potential of other N-heterocycle glycine ester anions to give the novel functional 2-nitrogen-derived xanthones.

Base-Promoted Cascade Reactions of 3-(1-Alkynyl)chromones with Pyridinium Ylides to Chromeno[2,3- d]azepine Derivatives.

A base-promoted cascade reaction of 3-(1-alkynyl)chromones with pyridinium ylides has been developed to afford a novel chromeno[2,3- d]azepine scaffold in an efficient and economic manner. This tandem process involves multiple reactions including a Michael addition/deprotonation/alkyne-allene isomerization/cyclization and the subsequent 1,2-addition under mild conditions without a transition metal catalyst.

SPVec: A Word2vec-Inspired Feature Representation Method for Drug-Target Interaction Prediction.

Drug discovery is an academical and commercial process of global importance. Accurate identification of drug-target interactions (DTIs) can significantly facilitate the drug discovery process. Compared to the costly, labor-intensive and time-consuming experimental methods, machine learning (ML) plays an ever-increasingly important role in effective, efficient and high-throughput identification of DTIs. However, upstream feature extraction methods require tremendous human resources and expert insights, which limits the application of ML approaches. Inspired by the unsupervised representation learning methods like Word2vec, we here proposed SPVec, a novel way to automatically represent raw data such as SMILES strings and protein sequences into continuous, information-rich and lower-dimensional vectors, so as to avoid the sparseness and bit collisions from the cumbersomely manually extracted features. Visualization of SPVec nicely illustrated that the similar compounds or proteins occupy similar vector space, which indicated that SPVec not only encodes compound substructures or protein sequences efficiently, but also implicitly reveals some important biophysical and biochemical patterns. Compared with manually-designed features like MACCS fingerprints and amino acid composition (AAC), SPVec showed better performance with several state-of-art machine learning classifiers such as Gradient Boosting Decision Tree, Random Forest and Deep Neural Network on BindingDB. The performance and robustness of SPVec were also confirmed on independent test sets obtained from DrugBank database. Also, based on the whole DrugBank dataset, we predicted the possibilities of all unlabeled DTIs, where two of the top five predicted novel DTIs were supported by external evidences. These results indicated that SPVec can provide an effective and efficient way to discover reliable DTIs, which would be beneficial for drug reprofiling.

Ligand-Controlled Rhodium-Catalyzed Site-Selective Asymmetric Addition of Arylboronic Acids to α,ß-Unsaturated Cyclic N-Sulfonyl Ketimines.

A site-selective rhodium-catalyzed asymmetric 1,4-/1,2-addition of arylboronic acids to challenging α,ß-unsaturated cyclic ketimines was realized through a ligand-controlled strategy. By employing different chiral olefin ligands, a ligand-controlled switch in the reaction regioselectivity was attained for the first time. The reactions allow the synthesis of highly valuable α,α-disubstituted chiral allylic amines and enantioenriched 1,4-adducts. Further product transformation provided easy access to various quaternary carbon-containing chiral amines and amino acid derivatives bearing multifunctional groups.

[Meta-analysis on indirect comparison of Erigeron breviscapus injection and Breviscapus injection in treatment of acute ischemic stroke].

Erigeron breviscapus injection(DZXI) and Breviscapus injection(DZSI) are two popular injections in treatment of acute ischemic stroke in China. Both of them are manufactured from a same herbal medicine, E. breviscapus, but DZXI is an herbal extract(mixture) preparation and DZSI is a pure compound injection. This article was aimed to systemically evaluate and compare their efficacy and safety in treatment of acute ischemic stroke. The randomized controlled trials(RCTs) were collected for comparing DZXI and DZSI with Salvia miltiorrhiza injection(FDI) as the medium, and they were compared with indirect Meta-analysis(ITC). Thirty-nine RCTs with 4 180 patients were included. Meta-analysis results showed that both DZXI and DZSI had better efficacy than FDI in acute ischemic stroke. In the indirect comparison, DZSI had a higher total efficacy than DZXI, with significantly statistical differences[OR=0.634, 95%CI = (0.432,0.928), P<0.000 01], but there was no significant difference in improvement of neurological deficit [MD=-1.19, 95%CI=(－3.57,1.19), P=0.953]. On the safety aspect, adverse reaction rate of DZXI was 1.14%, mainly including head swelling, fever and chills while DZSI had no significant adverse reactions. The limited evidences in this study showed that Breviscapine injection had higher total efficiency and safety than E. breviscapine injection, but due to the low quality of the included RCTs, these two medicines should be comprehensively compared in further high-quality clinical trials.

Construction of Cyclic Sulfamidates Bearing Two gem-Diaryl Stereocenters through a Rhodium-Catalyzed Stepwise Asymmetric Arylation Protocol.

A rhodium-catalyzed stepwise asymmetric 1,4- and 1,2-addition of arylboronic acids to α,ß-unsaturated cyclic N-sulfonyl ketimines has been developed, providing a wide range of gem-diaryl-substituted chiral benzosulfamidates with high optical purities. C1-Symmetric chiral diene and branched chiral sulfur-olefin ligands were sequentially utilized in this double-arylation process for high stereocontrol. Further synthetic utility offers new opportunities for the facile construction of otherwise difficult to access polycyclic heterocycles.

[Risk assessment and regionalization of maize drought disasters in Sichuan Basin, Southeast China].

Based on the information of maize yield, phonological period, and related weather data, four models (those of climatic drought risk, crop drought risk, yield loss risk, and drought resistant capability) applicable for the assessment of maize drought risk in Sichuan Basin and the corresponding index systems were established, and a comprehensive model for assessing the maize drought disasters in the Basin was constructed, with the comprehensive index for the risk regionalization of the maize drought disasters determined. The values of the indices for assessing the maize drought risk in the Basin differed obviously with different regions, but showed similarity in some areas. The Sichuan Basin was divided into three regions, with high, medium and low maize drought risk, respectively. The region with high risk was mainly in the most areas of northwest basin, the middle basin, and parts of the south basin of Sichuan, the region with medium risk was in the north basin and some parts of the south basin, and the region with low risk was in the northeast and southwest basin, and parts of the southeast basin.

Detection of nuclear matrix protein 22 and survivin baseline level in patients after radical cystectomy.

We investigated the baseline levels of urine nuclear matrix protein 22 (U-NMP22) and survivin in urine after radical cystectomy for primary invasive bladder cancer. We measured U-NMP22 and survivin values in 72 patients with four types of urinary diversion (Indiana bladder, Bricker bladder, Mainz bladder and orthotopic bladder) after radical cystectomy and 25 healthy volunteers. We also analyzed the relation between the U-NMP22 and survivin level and other variables among patients with continent urinary diversion and incontinent urinary diversion as well as healthy controls, and found that the U-NMP22 and survivin values were not associated with postoperative interval or gender. The U-NMP22 values (mean ± standard error) for continent urinary diversion, incontinent urinary diversion and healthy controls were 12.08 ± 0.10, 16.62 ± 0.15 and 0.01 ± 0.00 U/ml, respectively. The survivin values (mean ± standard error) for continent urinary diversion, incontinent urinary diversion and healthy controls were 0.47 ± 0.06, 0.69 ± 0.16 and 0.02 ± 0.03 U/ml, respectively. The U-NMP22 and survivin values in the Bricker bladder group were significantly higher than the values in the other three groups. We noted that increased levels of U-NMP22 and survivin after radical cystectomy varied according to different predictors, which may be useful for designing strategies to follow these cases.

[Killing activity of co-cultured cytokine-induced killer cells and dendritic cells against multi-drug resistant tumor cell lines].

OBJECTIVE: A lot of studies have suggested that a certain amount of T cells may be involved among cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells. The aim of the present study was to prove whether an antigen-specific killing effect on tumor cells is involved during the CIKs-induced killing process. METHODS: Bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMMNCs) derived from healthy subjects were separately cultured to generate dendritic cells (DC) and CIKs. A human mammary cancer cell line MCF-7/ADR, expressing P-gp antigen, was frozen-thawed and the lysate including P-gp antigen was obtained. The DC pulsed with or without tumor antigen lysate was co-cultured with CIK (pulsed-DC + CIK and DC + CIK), and CIK cultured alone was used as control. The cell phenotype of DC and CIK was analyzed by flow cytometry. The secretion of IL-12 and IFN-gamma was assayed by ELSA. The antitumor effect of the three CIK groups targeted at MCF-7/ADR cells expressing P-gp antigen and MCF-7 cells was detected by MTT. RESULTS: Pulsed-DC + CIK group and DC + CIK group showed a higher expression level of DC mature phenotypes than those before co-culture with CIK, with a significant difference (P = 0.003, P = 0.001, respectively). The phenotypes (CD3, CD8, CD56) of CIK in pulsed-DC + CIK group and DC + CIK group was higher than those in CIK group (P = 0.003, P = 0.011, respectively). Among the three CIK groups, pulsed-DC + CIK group had the highest phenotypes on CD3+ CD56 (pulsed-DC + CIK vs. DC + CIK, P = 0.001; pulsed-DC + CIK vs. CIK, P < 0.001) and CD3 CD8 (P = 0.002, P = 0.002, respectively). Among the three groups, the pulsed-DC + CIK group showed the lowest CD45RA phenotype (pulsed-DC + CIK vs. DC + CIK, P < 0.001; pulsed-DC + CIK vs. CIK, P = 0.004). Among the three groups the secretion of IL-12 and IFN-gamma had the highest level in pulsed-DC + CIK group, with a value of 254 +/- 14.5 pg/ml and 3100 +/- 286 pg/ml, respectively. The antitumor killing effect on MCF-7/ADR cells had a significant difference between any two groups (pulsed-DC + CIK VS. DC + CIK, P = 0.039; pulsed-DC + CIK VS. CIK, P = 0.002; DC + CIK vs. CIK, P = 0.049). The highest was in pulsed-DC + CIK group and the lowest was in CIK group. The CIK group showed a significantly lower antitumor effect on MCF-7 cells than the other two groups (pulsed-DC + CIK vs. CIK, P = 0.007; DC + CIK vs. CIK, P = 0.048), but no significant difference between the pulsed-DC + CIK and DC + CIK groups. CONCLUSION: In the present study, DC and CIK cells have been successfully obtained and cultured from bone marrow mononuclear cells. After their co-culture, not only both their specific phenotypes were increased, but also the associated cytokines were secreted. An improved antitumor killing effect and some possible specific immunocytotoxicity were observed. Our findings provided a basis for experimental and clinical research on bio-immunotherapy targeted at multi-drug resistant tumor cells.

[Ghrelin expression in the tissues of different thyroid diseases].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether ghrelin, a novel endogenous ligand of growth hormone secretagogue receptor (GHS-R), was expressed in the thyroid tissues of different thyroid diseases, and its implication. METHODS: The paraffin-embedded specimens of thyroid tissues from 2000 to 2004 were obtained from 57 patients with different thyroid diseases, including 5 subacute thyroiditis, 8 Hashimoto's thyroiditis, 7 hyperthyroidism (Graves disease), 8 nodular goiter, 5 thyroid adenoma, 3 thyroid lymphoma, 8 papillary carcinoma, 3 follicular carcinoma, 5 medullary carcinoma and 5 undifferentiated carcinoma cases. The specimens of normal peri-adenoma thyroid tissues served as controls. Immunohistochemical staining was used to detect ghrelin expression. RESULTS: (1) ghrelin expression was undetectable in the thyroid tissues of normal control, subacute thyroiditis, Hashimoto's thyroiditis and Graves disease. (2) ghrelin expression was also undetected in the tissues of nodular goiter, thyroid adenoma and thyroid lymphoma. (3) ghrelin-positive staining was found in the tumor cells of different types of thyroid carcinoma. Five cases were positive within 8 cases in papillary carcinoma, 2 cases were positive within 3 cases in follicular carcinoma, 3 cases were positive within 5 cases in medullary carcinoma, 3 cases were positive within 5 cases in undifferentiated carcinoma. CONCLUSION: Ghrelin is expressed in malignant epithelial thyroid neoplasms, but not in autoimmune or inflammatory thyroid diseases and benign nodular thyroid diseases. The results indicate that ghrelin expression may play an important role in the occurrence and development of thyroid carcinoma.

[In vitro cytokines-induced differentiation in mononuclear cell derived dendritic cells from chronic myeloid leukemia].

The purpose of this study was to investigate the mechanism of effects of interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) on chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). Bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMMNC) were obtained from heparinized blood of CML patients by Ficoll-Paque density gradient centrifugation. The expressions of CD1a, CD83, CD86, HLA-ABC, HLA-DR and CD54 on DC induced by IFN-alpha + GM-CSF, IFN-alpha + GM-CSF+IL-4 and IL-4 + GM-CSF for 7 days in vitro were assayed by flow cytometry. The morphologic features were observed by transmission and optical microscopy. The mixed lymphocyte reactions (MLR) with DC were evaluated by MTT assay. The results showed that the DC cultured in different cytokine combinations expressed significantly higher levels of CD1a, HLA-ABC, HLA-DR, CD86, CD54, and CD83 than those in the precultured. The DC growing with IFN-alpha + GM-CSF expressed significantly higher levels of HLA-ABC, HLA-DR than those in GM-CSF + IL-4. The CD86 expression and MLR levels in IFN-alpha + GM-CSF + IL-4 increased significantly. The expression rate of DC antigens and MLR in the IFN resistant group significantly lower than those in the newly diagnosed and the effectively treated groups after at least 6 months of IFN-alpha treatment (P < 0.05). The DC from the IFN resistant group did not express significantly CD86 and MLR in IFN-alpha + GM-CSF + IL-4 groups compared to those in the newly diagnosed and IFN effective treated groups. It is concluded that the BMMNC from CML cultured in combination with IFN-alpha and other cytokines can be induced into DC with typical morphologic and immunophenotypic characteristics. Addition of IFN-alpha + GM-CSF + IL-4 to DC cultures can significantly up-regulate the expression of major histocompatibility complex molecules, co-stimulatory molecules and various adhesion molecules. The deficiency of DC differentiation and function may play a role in the development of clinical resistance to IFN-alpha.