Development and validation of the patient-reported outcome for older people living with HIV/AIDS in China (PROHIV-OLD).

BACKGROUND: The involvement of quality of life as the UNAIDS fourth 90 target to monitor the global HIV response highlighted the development of patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures to help address the holistic needs of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) beyond viral suppression. This study developed and tested preliminary measurement properties of a new patient-reported outcome (PROHIV-OLD) measure designed specifically to capture influences of HIV on patients aged 50 and older in China. METHODS: Ninety-three older people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) were interviewed to solicit items and two rounds of patient cognitive interviews were conducted to modify the content and wording of the initial items. A validation study was then conducted to refine the initial instrument and evaluate measurement properties. Patients were recruited between February 2021 and November 2021, and followed six months later after the first investigation. Classical test theory (CTT) and item response theory (IRT) were used to select items using the baseline data. The follow-up data were used to evaluate the measurement properties of the final instrument. RESULTS: A total of 600 patients were recruited at the baseline. Of the 485 patients who completed the follow-up investigation, 483 were included in the validation sample. The final scale of PROHIV-OLD contained 25 items describing five dimensions (physical symptoms, mental status, illness perception, family relationship, and treatment). All the PROHIV-OLD dimensions had satisfactory reliability with Cronbach's alpha coefficient, McDonald's ω, and composite reliability of each dimension being all higher than 0.85. Most dimensions met the test-retest reliability standard except for the physical symptoms dimension (ICC = 0.64). Confirmatory factor analysis supported the structural validity of the final scale, and the model fit index satisfied the criterion. The correlations between dimensions of PROHIV-OLD and MOS-HIV met hypotheses in general. Significant differences on scores of the PROHIV-OLD were found between demographic and clinical subgroups, supporting known-groups validity. CONCLUSIONS: The PROHIV-OLD was found to have good feasibility, reliability and validity for evaluating health outcome of Chinese older PLWHA. Other measurement properties such as responsiveness and interpretability will be further examined.

Four sulfur-containing compounds with anti-colon cancer effect from marine-derived fungus Aspergillus terreus.

Sulfur-containing natural products possess a variety of biological functions including antitumor, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and antiviral activities. In this study, four previously undescribed sulfur-containing compounds asperteretals L and M, terreins A and B, together with 17 known compounds were obtained from a culture of marine fungus A. terreus supplemented with inorganic sulfur source Na2SO4. Their planar structures and absolute configurations were elucidated by NMR, HRESIMS, and ECD experiments. The in vitro cytotoxicities of compounds 1-21 against HCT-116 and Caco-2 were evaluated by SRB assay. Asperteretal M (2) exhibited activity against HCT-116 with the IC50 value at 30µM. The antiproliferative effect of asperteretal M was confirmed by colony formation assay and cell death staining. Furthermore, the preliminary study on the anti-colon cancer mechanism of asperteretal M was performed by RNA-seq analysis. Western blotting validated that asperteretal M significantly decreased the expression of cell-cycle regulatory proteins CDK1, CDK4, and PCNA in a concentration-dependent manner.

Avoiding unnecessary sentinel lymph node biopsy with the use of superparamagnetic iron oxide mapping agents (Magtrace®) in breast surgery.

BACKGROUND: Superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) (Magtrace®) is a non-radioactive liquid tracer that can stay in the sentinel lymph nodes for 30 days. Injection of SPIO at time of primary breast surgery where upfront sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is not immediately indicated allows for a return to theatre if pathology then identifies invasive disease. SLNB is associated with paraesthesia, pain, seroma formation and lymphoedema risk. Hence, our study aims to assess the use of SPIO to avoid upfront SLNB in breast surgery for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) and prophylaxis. METHODS: Retrospective single-centre study of consecutive patients who underwent injection of SPIO tracer at time of primary breast surgery to avoid upfront SLNB at Chris O'Brien Lifehouse, Sydney, NSW, Australia over a 10-month period. RESULTS: SPIO was injected 38 times, with 34 at time of mastectomy and four cases at time of wide local excision. The indication for surgery was DCIS in 18 cases, risk reduction in 17 cases and other indications in three patients. Six cases (15.8%) required delayed SLNB (D-SLNB) due to the finding of invasive disease on post-operative histopathology. All patients who underwent D-SLNB had nodes successfully localized with SPIO. CONCLUSION: In our cohort, 84.2% of cases were able to avoid upfront SLNB, and hence avoid the associated complications of SLNB. SPIO injection was successful in localizing the SLN in all cases at time of surgery for D-SLNB. This technique was safe with few associated complications.

Outcomes of adrenalectomy performed in regional New South Wales, Australia.

BACKGROUND: Centralization of subspeciality procedures in Australia is difficult due to a vast geographical span and in the appropriate patient group, surgery in regional centres should be considered. Our study reviews the safety of adrenalectomy performed at a low-volume regional centre in regards to length of hospital admission, operative time, complication rate and conversion to open rate. METHOD: A retrospective cross-sectional study was performed of consecutive patients undergoing laparoscopic or open adrenalectomy over a nine-year period (2012-2021) at Dubbo Base Hospital, a regional hospital in Western New South Wales, Australia. These operations were all performed by a single Urologist. RESULTS: Thirteen patients underwent adrenalectomy at our institution over the nine-year period. The mean age was 51.7 years (SD10.1). There were seven women (53.8%) and six men (46.2%). Seven patients were considered low risk, four patients were medium risk and two patients were high risk as per the Charlson Comorbidity Index. All of our patients were overweight, with mean body mass index of 34.6 (SD 6.9). Mean operating time was 133.5 min (SD 36.3) and mean length of stay was 3.8 days (SD 2.2). There was one conversion to open (8.3%). Three patients (23.1%) had complications, of these complications, one was Clavien-Dindo grade II, and one was Clavien-Dindo grade IIIb. There were no mortalities. CONCLUSION: Our outcomes demonstrate that adrenalectomy in our low volume regional centre is safe with comparable outcomes of operative time, length of hospital stay and complication rate with other centres.

[Data-driven study of complex socio-economic-natural ecosystems: Scales, processes and decision linkages]. / 数据驱动的社会-经济-è‡ªç„¶å¤åˆç”Ÿæ€ç³»ç»Ÿç ”ç©¶:å°ºåº¦ã€è¿‡ç¨‹åŠå ¶å†³ç­–å ³è”.

The social-economic-natural system is a complex system for human survival and development, and the data-driven system research provides a new value-added orientation to enhance the cognition of the ecosystem. Under the new data context, the social-economic-natural complex system shows new features. The research object is gradually changing from a single element to a multi-factor coupling direction, which makes the data system more diversified, data sources more extensive, data expression more visualized. The research scale shows the characteristics of gradually expanding, and the research object would be more detailed. In the process of data identification, expression and visualization, it is therefore necessary to strengthen the coupling of time, space, structure, quantity and order, as well as to focus on the integration with decision making and local services. The future research of complex ecosystems in the new era should be carried out in terms of key scientific issues and supporting technologies, the role of scale and multi-factor coupling, as well as scientific and technological support for local and global governance. Under the continuous innovation of data, strengthening the cognition of multi-source data, long-term monitoring and time series still needs to be studied in depth. Carrying out data-driven analysis of complex ecosystems not only provides technical support for ecosystem services and sustainable development and enhances the long-term data sharing mechanism, but also provides more value support for realizing decision making and information dissemination.

Cognition and thinking after the outbreak of COVID-19 / 医学研究生学报

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a serious global public threat. With the progress of research, we have more comprehensive understanding of the COVID-19. Current advances on the etiology, transmission, clinical features, diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19, as well as the experience in the management of COVID-19 will be introduced in this article.

Risk factors for surgical-site infections after radical gastrectomy for gastric cancer: a study in China / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

BACKGROUND@#About 10% of patients get a surgical-site infection (SSI) after radical gastrectomy for gastric cancer, but SSI remains controversial among surgeons. The aim of this study was to explore the risk factors for SSIs after radical gastrectomy in patients with gastric cancer to guide clinical therapies and reduce the incidence of SSI.@*METHODS@#The study was a retrospective cohort study in patients who underwent radical gastrectomy for gastric cancer. SSI was defined in accordance with the National Nosocomial Infection Surveillance System. We evaluated patient-related and peri-operative variables that could be risk factors for SSIs. The Chi-squared test and logistic regression analysis were used to assess the association between these risk factors and SSI.@*RESULTS@#Among the 590 patients, 386 were men and 204 were women. The mean age was 56.6 (28-82) years and 14.2% (84/590) of these patients had an SSI. Among them, incisional SSI was observed in 23 patients (3.9%) and organ/space SSI in 61 patients (10.3%). Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified sex (odds ratios [ORs] = 2.548, and 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.268-5.122, P = 0.009), total gastrectomy (OR = 2.327, 95% CI: 1.352-4.004, P = 0.002), albumin level (day 3 after surgery) <30 g/L (OR = 1.868, 95% CI: 1.066-3.274, P = 0.029), and post-operative total parenteral nutrition (OR = 2.318, 95% CI: 1.026-5.237, P = 0.043) as independent risk factors for SSI.@*CONCLUSIONS@#SSI was common among patients after radical gastrectomy for gastric cancer. The method supporting post-operative nutrition and the duration of prophylactic antibiotics may be important modifiable influencing factors for SSI.

Correlation analysis of the severity of alcoholic fatty liver disease,fat area in the abdominal cavity and serum inflammatory factors / 中国综合临床

Objective To investigate the correlation between the severity of alcoholic fatty liver disease and the amount of fat in the abdominal cavity and the serum inflammatory factor IL-18 and IL-8. Methods From October 2016 to October 2017,one hundred and twenty patients with AFLD in the First Hospital of Hebei Medical University were divided into light,medium,heavy groups according to the severity of fatty lesions by color Doppler Ultrasound. There were 40 mild patients,50 moderate patients and 30 severe patients. Forty healthy subjects were selected as controls. All the participants underwent CT scanning. The intra-abdominal fat area (VAT),abdominal subcutaneous fat area (SAT) and total abdominal fat area (TA) were measured. The liver function was measured by biochemical analyzer and enzyme-linked immunoassay (ELISA). (ELSIA) IL-18 was detected and IL-8 was detected by radioimmunoassay. Results The VAT of the healthy control group and the mild,medium and severe AFLD group were (70. 28±10. 19),(114. 38 ± 9. 97),(146. 73±10. 19),(163. 38±12. 69) cm2. The TA of the healthy control group and the mild, medium and severe AFLD group were ( 256. 72± 34. 56),( 332. 19 ± 33. 28),( 387. 49± 32. 28),( 478. 19 ±31. 02) cm2. The SAT of the healthy control group and the light,medium and severe AFLD group were (156. 23±28. 19),(203. 43±27. 12),(246. 19±26. 89),(271. 19 ±27. 94) cm2,respectively. Aspartate aminotransferase (AST) of the healthy control group and the mild,medium and severe AFLD group were (18. 50±1. 12),(23. 50±1. 21),(25. 50±1. 24),(29. 50± 1. 43) U/L. Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) of the healthy control group and the light, medium and severe AFLD group were ( 18. 50 ± 2. 14), ( 26. 50 ±2. 22),(35. 50±2. 34),(38. 50±2. 11) U/L. γ-glutamyltransferaseof the healthy control group and the light,medium and severe AFLD group were ( 16. 50 ± 2. 11), ( 32. 50 ± 2. 23), ( 47. 50 ± 2. 31), ( 48. 00 ±2. 43) U/L,respectively. Compared with the healthy control group,VAT,TA,SAT,AST,ALT andγ-GT in the light,medium and heavy AFLD group showed statistically significant differences ( P＜0. 05) . Compared with the mild AFLD group, VAT, TA, SAT, AST, ALT and γ-GT in the medium and heavy AFLD group showed statistically significant differences ( P＜0. 05) . Compared with the moderate AFLD group,the VAT, TA,SAT, AST, ALT, and γ-GT of the severe AFLD group showed statistically significant differences ( P＜0. 05). The data of the three AFLD groups showed that the concentration of all indicators were increasing as the severity of fat deepened. IL-18 of the healthy control group and the light,medium and severe AFLD group were (45. 67±4. 51),(52. 18±5. 09),(59. 87±4. 98),(64. 18±5. 12) ng/L; IL-8 of the healthy control group and the light, medium and severe AFLD group were ( 78. 92 ± 5. 07), ( 115. 62 ± 4. 89), ( 223. 76 ± 6. 78),(286. 42±7. 02) g/L. Compared with every group,IL-18 and IL-8 of light,medium and severe AFLD group showed statistically significant differences (F＝1035. 67,2. 93×105,P＜0. 001); compared with mild AFLD group,IL-18 and IL-8 of medium and heavy group showed statistically significant differences;compared with moderate AFLD group,IL-18 and IL-8 of severe group AFLD showed statistically significant differences ( P＜0. 001) . The levels of inflammatory factors IL-18 and IL-8 increased with the severity of steatosis. The severity of AFLD was significantly positively correlated with VAT,TA,SAT,IL-18 and IL-8 ( r 0. 415(P＜0. 001), 0. 435 ( P＜0. 001), 0. 512 ( P＜0. 001), 0. 274 ( P＜0. 001 ), 0. 689 ( P ＜0. 001). Conclusion Fat control is an important measure to prevent AFLD. IL-18 and IL-8 can reflect the severity of liver injury in AFLD and have important significance in judging prognosis.

Complications Arising From Perioperative Anticoagulant/Antiplatelet Therapy in Major Colorectal and Abdominal Wall Surgery.

BACKGROUND: Postoperative hemorrhage and thromboembolism are recognized complications following colorectal and abdominal wall surgery, but accurate documentation of their incidence, trends, and outcomes is scant. This is relevant given the increasing number of surgical patients with cardiovascular comorbidity on anticoagulant/antiplatelet therapy. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to characterize trends in the use of anticoagulant/antiplatelet therapy among patients undergoing major colorectal and abdominal wall surgery within the past decade, and to assess rates of, outcomes following, and risk factors for hemorrhagic and thromboembolic complications. DESIGN AND SETTING: This is a retrospective cross-sectional study conducted at a single quaternary referral center. PATIENTS: Patients who underwent major colorectal and abdominal wall surgery during three 12-month intervals (2005, 2010, and 2015) were included. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcomes measured was the rate of complications relating to postoperative hemorrhage or thromboembolism. RESULTS: One thousand one hundred twenty-six patients underwent major colorectal and abdominal wall surgery (mean age, 61.4 years (SD 16.3); 575 (51.1%) male). Overall, 229 (21.7%) patients were on anticoagulant/antiplatelet agents; there was an increase in the proportion of patients on clopidogrel, dual antiplatelet therapy, and novel oral anticoagulants over the decade. One hundred seven (9.5%) cases were complicated by hemorrhage/thromboembolism. Aspirin (OR, 2.22; 95% CI, 1.38-3.57), warfarin/enoxaparin (OR, 3.10; 95% CI, 1.67-5.77), and dual antiplatelet therapy (OR, 2.99; 95% CI, 1.37-6.53) were most implicated with complications on univariate analysis. Patients with atrial fibrillation (adjusted OR 2.67; 95% CI, 1.47-4.85), ischemic heart disease (adjusted OR, 2.14; 95% CI, 1.04-4.40), and mechanical valves (adjusted OR, 7.40; 95% CI 1.11-49.29) were at increased risk of complications on multivariate analysis. The severity of these events was mainly limited to Clavien-Dindo 1 (n = 37) and 2 (n = 46) complications. LIMITATIONS: This is a retrospective study with incomplete documentation of blood loss and operative time in the early study period. CONCLUSIONS: One in ten patients incurs hemorrhagic/thromboembolic complications following colorectal and abdominal wall surgery. "High-risk" patients are identifiable, and individualized management of these patients concerning multidisciplinary discussion and critical-care monitoring may help improve outcomes. Prospective studies are required to formalize protocols in these "high-risk" patients. See Video Abstract at http://links.lww.com/DCR/A747.

Modification of carrot (Daucus carota Linn. var. Sativa Hoffm.) pomace insoluble dietary fiber with complex enzyme method, ultrafine comminution, and high hydrostatic pressure.

Insoluble dietary fiber (DF) extracted from carrot pomace was modified by complex enzyme method, ultrafine comminution and high hydrostatic pressure and their structural, physicochemical, and functional properties were evaluated. Results showed that complex enzyme method increased the content of soluble DF to 15.07%, and the cholesterol adsorption capacity peaked; ultrafine comminution greatly improved the total antioxidant activities, DPPH radical scavenging capacity and antioxidant abilities in linoleic acid system of DF; high hydrostatic pressure led to a significant increase in capacities of water retention (7.14 g/g, 600 MPa), water swelling (10.02 mL/g, 500 MPa), oil retention (2.35 g/g, 500 MPa), cation exchange (2.29 mmol/g, 600 MPa), and glucose adsorption (2.634 mmol/g, 400 MPa). Furthermore, SEM showed that surface structures of all modified DF were loose. Overall, three kinds of modification methods have shown their respective advantages. Modified DF from carrot pomace can be applied as a functional ingredient in diverse food products.

Stachyose Improves Inflammation through Modulating Gut Microbiota of High-Fat Diet/Streptozotocin-Induced Type 2 Diabetes in Rats.

SCOPE: The present study is undertaken to assess the effects of stachyose (STS) on type 2 diabetes in rats and changes in the gut microbiota compared to metformin (MET). METHODS AND RESULTS: The type 2 diabetic model is successfully established via a high-fat diet /streptozotocin in Wistar rats, and STS or MET is administered for 4 weeks. Blood is collected to analyze biochemical parameters, pancreas for mRNA expression of related gene, and contents of colon for gut microbiota. STS or MET decreases serum LPS, mRNA expression of IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α). In addition, STS and MET show a similar shifting of the structure of the gut microbiota and a selective enrichment of key species. At the genus level, STS shows selective enrichment of Phascolarctobacterium, Bilophila, Oscillospira, Turicibacter, and SMB5, but MET demonstrates a selective effect on Sutterella, Prevotella, 02d06, and rc4. The correlation analysis indicates that STS and MET decrease IL-6 and TNF-α and increase Akt/PI3K expression, which are relative to key species of gut microbiota. CONCLUSION: STS decreases pancreatic mRNA expression of IL-6 and TNF-α via key species of gut microbiota. The mechanism of this effect is similar to that of MET.

Therapeutic effect of human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells transplantation in the treatment of chronic liver failure / 中国组织工程研究

BACKGROUND:Umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells are plentifully and conveniently obtained with a high proliferative ability, and have opened up a new way to treat patients with liver failure as they can differentiate into hepatocyte-like cells.OBJECTIVE:To observe the safety and efficacy in the treatment of chronic liver failure by transplanting umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells.METHODS:Using parallel contrast method, 50 patients with chronic liver failure were divided into two groups, namely a stem cell group and a control group, containing 25 patients in each group. For the first group, transplantation of umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells, (1.4-2.3)×106/kg, 100 mL, was given on the basis of medical comprehensive treatment,while for the second group only simple medical comprehensive treatment was given. The injection was done every 15 days, totally three times. Liver functions, prothrombin activity, Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score, clinical symptoms, survival and side effects of the patients were observed before and 2, 4, 12 and 24 weeks after the treatment.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Compared with the control group, the albumin level and prothrombin activity were significantly increased in the stem cell group 12 and 24 weeks after treatment (P 0.05). Four weeks after treatment, clinical symptoms of the stem cell group improved significantly in comparison with the control group (P < 0.05).During the 24-week follow-up, the survival rate in the stem cell group was significantly higher than that in the control group (P < 0.05). Additionally, there were no adverse reactions and liver cancer associated with the stem cell therapy.Results show that it is safe and effective to treat patients with chronic liver failure through the transplantation of umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells, and the cell transplantation can significantly improve patients' survival rate.

Clinical study of the umbilical blood stem cells transplantation in the treatment of chronic liver failure / 实用医学杂志

Objective To observe the safety and clinic effect of umbilical blood stem cell transplantation for the patients with chronic liver failure (CLF).Methods 44 patients with CLF were included in the research and divided into two groups,22 in control group received internal medicine treatment,the other 22 in treatment group received umbilical blood stem cell transplantation in addition to internal medicine treatment.The biochemical index,MELD scores,clinical symptoms,survival situation and adverse reaction of the patients were observed within 2,4,12 and 24 weeks.Results Albumin and prothrombin activity of treatment group were higher than those of control group,the MELD scores of the treatment group was lower than that of control group,the survival rate was higher than the control group,and the difference is significant between the two groups (P ＜ 0.05).There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of alanine aminotransferase and total bilirubin (P ＞ 0.05).After 4 weeks treatment,fatigue,inappetite,abdominal distention and ascitic fluid of the treatment group were better than that of control group,the difference was statistically significant (P ＜ 0.05).Besides,the patients of the both groups did not have any adverse reaction or hepatocellular carcinoma.Conclusion Umbilical blood stem cell transplantation is safe and effective for the patients with CLF and can improve the survival rate of the patients.

Synergetic Protection for Zika Virus / 中国药师

The paper analyzed the structural characteristics, biological characteristics, infection symptoms, detection methods and corresponding protective measures of Zika virus, as well as analyzed coping strategies for high-risk groups (pregnant women and infants).Zika virus is nonsegmented, single-stranded,and positive-sense RNA genome with fast spreading.Fever and arthralgia are its common symptoms.Currently, it can be tested in serum, urine and saliva samples.The virus protection can be classified into overall control from government, total prevention from society and individual protection according to the guidelines.It is severe to prevent and control epidemic situation of Zika virus, and it needs to improve the whole nation's prevention and treatment ability, and it can improve other social problems through Zika virus prevention.

Dispirocyclopropyldehydrocostus lactone selectively inhibits acute myelogenous leukemia cells.

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a refractory disease, and the majority of AML patients died from relapse and multidrug resistance. More and more studies demonstrate that AML stem cells play key role in multidrug resistance of AML. Here, we report a derivative of dehydrocostus lactone, that is, dispirocyclopropyldehydrocostus lactone (DDL), showed preferable cytotoxicity against a series of leukemia cell lines and AML stem cells from clinical samples of AML patient. Meanwhile, DDL demonstrated no significant toxicity to normal hematopoietic cells. Therefore, the prodrug of DDL, DMADDL, was evaluated for its in vivo anti-AML activity. The result revealed that DMADDL could inhibit the tumor growth in SCID mice tumorigenicity assay. Further study suggested that DDL induced apoptosis mainly through the up-regulation of apoptosis related protein Bax, followed by the cleavage of caspase-3, caspase-9, and PARP.

The roles of sepsis-induced myeloid derived suppressor cells in mice corneal, skin and combined transplantation.

PURPOSE: To explore the effects of adoptive transferring sepsis induced myeloid-derived suppressor cells (iMDSCs) in mice corneal, skin, and combined corneal-skin survival. METHODS: Allogeneic full-thickness corneal transplantation, fully mismatched skin transplantation, and corneal-skin combined transplantation (donor C57BL/6 to recipient Balb/c mice) were performed. Sepsis-induced infectious-MDSCs (iMDSCs), were purified from bone marrow of cecal ligated and punctured (CLP) Balb/c mice. Recipient-derived iMDSCs were adoptively transferred into different recipient groups by retro-orbital injection after surgeries. Corneal and skin grafts were examined and photographed routinely for a period of 45days. Histopathology was performed to evaluate corneal-graft inflammation. Bone marrow and/or corneal grafts in each group were harvested from executed recipients on postoperative days 15, 25, 35. Corneal cells and bone marrow cells were stained with CD11b-PE and Gr1-FITC, analyzed by FACS. RESULTS: iMDSCs were able to significantly prolong allograft survival in both corneal and corneal-skin combined transplant groups. A substantial expansion of MDSCs was observed in recipients' bone marrow, particularly in combined groups at an early stage postoperatively, and accordingly the concentration of MDSCs in corneal grafts increased significantly in adoptive transferred groups. CONCLUSIONS: Sepsis-induced MDSCs may suggest a novel cellular therapeutic approach for preventing various types of allograft rejection.

Endometrial Mesenchymal Stem Cells Isolated from Menstrual Blood by Adherence.

Objective. To find a convenient and efficient way to isolate MSCs from human menstrual blood and to investigate their biological characteristics, proliferative capacity, and secretion levels. Methods. MSCs were isolated from menstrual blood of 3 healthy women using adherence. Cell immunological phenotype was examined by flow cytometry; the adipogenic, osteogenic, and chondrogenic differentiation of MSCs was examined by Oil-Red-O staining, ALP staining, and Alcian Blue staining, respectively; and the secretion of cytokines, including vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), was detected using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results. MB-MSCs were successfully isolated from human menstrual blood using adherence. They were positive for CD73, CD105, CD29, and CD44, but negative for CD31 and CD45. The differentiated MB-MSCs were positive for ALP staining, Oil-Red-O staining, and Alcian Blue staining. In addition, they could secrete antiapoptotic cytokines, such as VEGF, IGF-1, and HGF. Conclusion. It is feasible to isolate MSCs from human menstrual blood, thus avoiding invasive procedures and ethical controversies. Adherence could be a promising alternative to the density gradient centrifugation for the isolation of MSCs from menstrual blood.

bFGF and VEGF improve the quality of vitrified-thawed human ovarian tissues after xenotransplantation to SCID mice.

PURPOSE: The aim of this research is to study whether basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) alone or in combination with vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) could improve the quality of vitrified-thawed human ovarian tissue xenotransplanted to severe combined immune deficiency (SCID) mice. METHODS: After collection and cryopreservation, thawed human ovarian tissue were cultured in vitro for 2 days and then xenografted to severe combined immune deficiency (SCID) mice for 7 days. The in vitro culture medium was separated into six groups, including (A) the blank control group, (B) the human recombinant bFGF (150 ng/ml) group, (C) the bFGF (150 ng/ml)+human recombinant VEGF (25 ng/ml) group, (D) bFGF (150 ng/ml)+VEGF (50 ng/ml) group, (E) bFGF (150 ng/ml)+ VEGF (75 ng/ml) group and (F) bFGF (150 ng/ml) + VEGF (100 ng/ml) group. In addition, eight pieces of thawed ovarian tissue were transplanted without in vitro culture, which serve as the fresh control group. The effect of transplantation was assessed by histological analysis, immunohistochemical staining for CD34, Ki-67, and AC-3 expression, and microvessel density (MVD). RESULTS: There was no significant difference between the fresh and blank control group. Compared to the blank control group, the number of follicles, MVD, and rate of Ki-67-positive cells increased significantly in groups B, C, D, E, and F, while apoptosis decreased significantly. Compared to the bFGF treatment group, no significant difference appeared in group C, D, E, and F. CONCLUSIONS: The administration of bFGF alone or in combination with VEGF improved the quality of postgraft human ovarian tissue, though VEGF, regardless of different concentrations, did not influence effect of bFGF.