Surgical indication and strategy for liver hemangioma in the caudate lobe: a multi-institutional retrospective analysis with 137 patients.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the surgical indication and tactics for liver hemangioma in the caudate lobe METHODS: From January 1994 to July 2019, 137 patients, including 51 males and 86 females with the average age of 49.2 years old were diagnosed with liver hemangioma in caudate lobe and received treatment at five tertiary referral hospitals. Clinical features, correlations between tumor size and clinical manifestations, treatments, and prognosis were analyzed. RESULTS: Of the 137 patients identified, 40 (29.20%) patients were asymptomatic, whereas other 94 patients had clinical symptoms mainly presented as upper abdominal discomfort, epigastric distention, upper abdominal dull pain, nausea, and vomiting. Fifteen (93.75%), 18 (39.13%), and 7 (10.45%) patients presented no clinical symptoms among those tumor size was less than 3 cm (D ≤ 3 cm, n = 16), 3 cm < D ≤ 6 cm (n = 46), and 6 cm < D ≤ 9 cm (n = 67), respectively, while all 8 patients with tumor larger than 9 cm were symptomatic. Tumor diameter was obviously associated with the presence of clinical symptoms. In follow-up period, 7 patients in the conservative group (n = 39) received surgery because of tumor growth or symptom appearance. Totally 105 patients received operation including partial resection or isolated complete resection of caudate lobe and caudate lobe resection combined with liver segment resection, right liver resection, or left liver resection. All operations went smoothly, and no severe complications appeared. CONCLUSION: Tumor diameter was obviously associated with the presence of clinical symptoms in patients with hemangioma in caudate lobe. Surgical therapy is not recommended for asymptomatic patients and available for patient who has symptoms. Effective surgical strategies should be put into use to reduce operative bleeding.

Silk Nanofibril-Palygorskite Composite Membranes for Efficient Removal of Anionic Dyes.

To develop membrane materials with good performance for water purification that are green and low cost, this work reports an organic-inorganic composite membrane composed of silk nanofibrils (SNFs) and palygorskite (PGS). To improve the stability of the the composite membrane, genipin was used as a crosslinking agent to induce the conformational transition of SNF chains from random coils to ß-sheets, reducing the swelling and hydrolysis of the membrane. The separation performance can be adjusted by tailoring the component ratio of the nanomaterial. The results showed that these membranes can effectively remove anionic dyes from water, and they exhibit excellent water permeability. The SNF-based membrane had strong mechanical and separation properties, and the PGS could tune the structure of composite membranes to enhance their permeability, so this green composite membrane has good prospects in water treatment and purification applications.

Cordycepin induces apoptosis in human pancreatic cancer cells via the mitochondrial-mediated intrinsic pathway and suppresses tumor growth in vivo.

BACKGROUND: Cordycepin, the main active ingredient of a traditional Chinese herbal remedy - extracted from Cordyceps sinensis - has been demonstrated as a very effective anti-inflammatory and antitumor drug. The present study investigated its antitumor effect on pancreatic cancer, a highly aggressive cancer with extremely poor prognosis due to malignancy, and clarified its underlying mechanism both in vitro and in vivo. METHODS: The antitumor viability of cordycepin on human pancreatic cancer MIAPaCa-2 and Capan-1 cells was determined by colony formation assays. Annexin V/PI double staining and flow cytometry assay were used to investigate whether cordycepin induced apoptosis and cell cycle arrest. The mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm) was analyzed by Rhodamine 123 staining, and expression of related proteins evaluated by Western blot and immunohistochemistry, both on pancreatic cancer cells and tumor xenografts to reveal the potential mechanism for the effect of cordycepin. Furthermore, the in vivo efficacy was examined on nude mice bearing MIAPaCa-2 cell tumors treated by intraperitoneal injection of cordycepin (0, 15, and 50 mg/kg/d) for 28 days. RESULTS: Cordycepin inhibited cell viability, proliferation and colony formation ability and induced cell cycle arrest and early apoptosis of human pancreatic cancer cells (MIAPaCa-2 and Capan-1) in a dose- and time-dependent manner. The same effect was also observed in vivo. Decrease of ΔΨm and upregulation of Bax, cleaved caspase-3, cleaved caspase-9, and cleaved PARP as well as downregulation of Bcl-2 both in vitro and in vivo indicated that the mitochondria-mediated intrinsic pathway was involved in cordycepin's antitumor effect. CONCLUSION: Our data showed that cordycepin inhibited the activity of pancreatic cancer both in vitro and in vivo by regulating apoptosis-related protein expression through the mitochondrial pathway and suggest that cordycepin may be a promising therapeutic option for pancreatic cancer.

Congenital choledochal cysts in adults: twenty-five-year experience.

BACKGROUND: Choledochal cyst is rare in western countries. The relatively high incidence of coexistent hepatobiliary disease increases the difficulty of the surgical management of choledochal cyst. Here we analyze the diagnosis and treatment of congenital bile duct cyst in 122 Chinese adults. METHODS: The clinical data of 122 patients with congenital choledochal cysts admitted from 1981 to 2006 were analyzed. RESULTS: Clinical symptoms in most cases were nonspecific, resulting in delayed diagnosis. Sixty-one patients (50%) had coexistent pancreatobiliary disease. Among the 122 patients, 119 patients underwent ultrasonic examination; ERCP/MRCP was performed in 63 cases and CT in 102 cases. Abnormal pancreatobiliary duct junction was found in 48 patients. Sixteen patients had malignant lesions in the bile duct, arising in 11 of them from incomplete choledochal cyst that underwent various operations including cystenterostomy or cystojejunostomy. There was significant difference between the patients who underwent incomplete cyst resection and complete cyst resection in malignancy rate of bile duct (Chi square test, P = 0.000; odds ratio, 7.800; 95% confidence interval, 2.450 to 24.836). CONCLUSIONS: ERCP, CT and MRCP had proved their great values in the classification of the disease. Cyst excision with Roux-en-Y hepaticojejunostomy is recommended as the treatment of choice for patients with type I or type IV cysts. For type V cyst (Caroli's disease) with recurrent cholangitis, liver transplantation should be considered.

[Comparison of wound healing after pancreaticojejunostomy with three anastomotic methods in piglets].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate wound healing after pancreaticojejunostomy of three anastomotic methods. METHODS: Fifty-four domestic piglets were divided into three groups according to the types of anastomoses: group of end-to-end pancreaticojejunal invagination (EE group), group of binding pancreaticojejunostomy (BP group) and group of inkwell pancreaticojejunostomy (IP group). Bursting pressure, breaking strength and histopathological findings of anastomosis were assessed on operative day and on the 5th and 10th day after operation. RESULTS: Bursting pressure was (67+/-8) mm Hg, (96+/-11) mm Hg and (131+/-9) mm Hg in EE group on day 0, 5 and 10; and (140+/-8) mm Hg, (179+/-10) mm Hg and (269+/-13) mm Hg in BP group; and (102+/-10) mm Hg, (171+/-18) mm Hg and (254+/-24) mm Hg in IP group. Compare to EE group, bursting pressure of BP group and IP group were all increased with significant differences (P<0.05). Another significant difference was observed between BP group and IP group after anastomoses on operative day. Breaking strength was (4.6+/-0.6) N, (5.8+/-0.5) N and (7.1+/-0.6) N in EE group on 0 d, 5 d and 10 d; and (4.5+/-0.4) N, (6.6+/-0.4) N and (10.0+/-0.6) N in BP group; and (4.6+/-0.3) N, (6.5+/-0.4) N and (9.1+/-0.9) N in IP group. A similar value of anastomoses was shown in BP group and IP group on day 0, day 5 and day 10, but significant increase was demonstrated compared to EE group on day 5 and 10. Anastomotic site was well repaired by connective tissue and the cut surface of pancreatic stump was covered by mucosal epithelium in BP group and IP group on day 10, but the cut surface was incompletely repaired by granulation tissue and no regeneration of the epithelium was found in EE group. CONCLUSIONS: Wound healing of binding pancreaticojejunostomy and inkwell pancreaticojejunostomy is more rapid and better than end-to-end pancreaticojejunal invagination, but breaking strength of inkwell pancreaticojejunostomy is weaker than binding pancreaticojejunostomy.

[Preparation and properties of organobentonites].

The chemistry organobentonites were synthesized by means of the ionexchange reaction between single-octadecyl trimethyl ammonium chloride(SOAC), di-octadecyl dimethyl ammonium chloride (DOAC) , tri-octadecyl methylammonium chloride (TOAC) quaternary ammonium salts and sodium base bentonies, respectively. The authors used FTIR, X-ray diffraction diagram and DSC thermograms to characterate the structure of the modified bentonites, and discussed the effect of different quaternary ammonium salt on the properties of organobentonites. The results showed that ion of the surfactants had entered into the chip layer of the bentonites, and changed the hydrophilic environment of the chip layer into hydrophobic environment and increased the distance among the chip layer, all of these had laid a base for the preparation of the nanometer composite material of high polymer/bentonite.

[Research on the modification of Kevlar fiber by polypropylene glycol and cis-2-butene-1,4-diol].

The mechanism of the modification of Kevlar fiber by polypropylene glycol(PPG) and cis-2-butene-1, 4-diol was studied in the paper, the authors learned the esterification of toluene-2, 4-diisocyanate (TDI) onto Kevlar fiber by infrared spectrum. In the mean time, the infrared spectrograms of the productions which steadily disposed by PPG and butendiol were analysed respectively, the result showed that the intensity of the bands was reinforced at about 1700-1720 cm(-1) after the samples were steadily disposed, that is to say, the group of --NCO has been stabilized into --NHCO group, the effect of steady disposal was obvious; but the disposal effect of butendiol was apparently better than PPG's at the same condition. Finally, the authors compared the influence of different mol rates between TDI and butendiol on the productions. Based onthe consequence, excessive butendiol would prevent the Kevlar fiber from farther reaction, therefore, the mol rate between TDI and butendiol should approach 1:1.

[Structural characterization of rare-earth stearate and its thermal stability mechanism for PVC].

Structural characterization of rare-earth stearate was conducted by FTIR and XRD. The results show that the bonds between the stearate and rare-earth metal ions in rare-earth stearate are main ionic character and have the stratified crystalline structure with the crystal layer formed from a plane layer of rare-earth ions combined with two layers of fully extended zigzag chains of stearic acid radicals arranged parallell to each other on its both sides, and the rare-earth ions axes are inclined to the crystal layer planes in it. Congo red test showed that the stabilizing time increased when the stabilizers' concentration increased. The order of stability of this four rare-earth stearates is Last>Ndst>Yst>Dyst. Furthermore, the thermal stability mechanism of rare earth stearate for PVC has been presumed by FTIR. The results indicate that Last and Ndst can bate the chain reaction and exchange the labile functional groups in the backbone chains for other more stable substituents derived from the stabilizer and change the framework, while Yst and Dyst's effect is not clear.

[The research on the surfacial modification of organic high-performance Kevlar fiber].

In the paper the authors tried to use chemical disposal to bring the activity mass onto the surface of Kevlar fiber with the purpose of surface graft modification. In the paper the authors used the FTIR spectra to discuss the graft of toluene-2, 4-diisocyanate onto Kevlar fiber. The authors studied and analysed the effect of hydrolytic time on the content of -O-H group of the production, and the effect of hydrolyzation and hexyl-lactam steadily disposing on the graft reaction. The result showed that the content of -O-H group increased after hydrolyzation, it's helpful for the graft reaction, and hexyl-lactam steadily disposing made the graf product more stable. Through the research the authors came to the conclusion that by bringing some activity masses onto the fiber surface the authors can improve the interface of fiber/resin effectively.

The research on screening differentially expressed genes in Hirschsprung's disease by using Microarray.

OBJECTIVE: To study the differential expression of genes between Hirschsprung's disease (HSCR) and normal tissue by using microarray for exploring the mechanism of HSCR development and establishing the gene expression profiles of HSCR. METHODS: Colon tissues (aganglionic and normal segments) of 4 patients with HSCR were detected by the Agilent SurePrint G3 Human GE 8x60K Microarrays. RT-PCR was used to verify the results of Microarray test. Then, immunohistochemistry was used to demonstrate the expression of HAND2 in the myenteric plexus of the colon from 46 patients with HSCR to further explore the relationship between HAND2 and development of HSCR. RESULTS: A total of 12,125 meaningful expressed genes were screened out. 4 pairs of specimens had 622 differentially expressed genes, 584 (93.89%) of which were up-regulated while 38(6.11%) were down-regulated. 6 of the 622 genes were tested by RT-PCR, which were consistent with the results detected by Microarray. The average optical density of positive expression of HAND2 in myenteric plexus was compared between the aganglionic, transitional, dilated, normal segments and control group. The average optical density in the aganglionic segments was obviously reduced. Statistical analyzed data showed that it has significant deviation (P<0.01). CONCLUSION: 1. A set of differentially expressed genes between aganglionic and normal segments of HSCR was obtained. Our data may provide significant information to research the pathogenesis of HSCR. 2. Reduced protein expression of HAND2 in the myenteric plexus of the aganglionic would suggest that HAND2 was involved in the pathogenesis of HSCR.