[Role of the cell transportion from mother to baby in the mechanism of HBV intrauterine infection].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the route that the HBsAg positive pregnant women's cell entered fetal circulation, and to study the mechanism of HBV intrauterine transmission that the cell transported HBV to fetus and infected fetus. METHODS: 123 pregnant women and 123 newborns were collected from December, 2001 to October, 2003 in Taiyuan Infectious Hospital. The cell transportion from mother to baby were determined by allele-specific PCR (AS-PCR) and heminested PCR(hemi-nPCR). RESULTS: Regarding GSTM1, ACE as maternal specific alleles: 42 mother-baby pairs were recruited from hemocyte specimens as informative cases, then examining 26 (61.90%) newborns' blood cell out of 42 informative cases had maternal cell DNA. There was significantly association between the cell transportion and HBV intrauterine infection (chi2 = 8.58, P < 0.01). There was significantly association between the cell transportion and HBV DNA positive in the newborns' PBMC (chi2 = 10.10, P < 0.01) . CONCLUSION: One factor of HBV intrauterine infection is in the result of the cell transportion from mother to baby; PBMC carrying HBV probably passed through placent barrier into fetus and infected them.

Prospective controlled trial of safety of human umbilical cord derived-mesenchymal stem cell transplantation in patients with decompensated liver cirrhosis / 中华肝脏病杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the safety of human umbilical cord derived-mesenchymal stem cell (UC-MSC) transplantation therapy in patients with decompensated liver cirrhosis.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>UC-MSCs were transplanted intravenously into patients with decompensated liver cirrhosis. Serum levels of glucose (GLU), total cholesterol (TC), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), alpha fetoprotein (AFP), white blood cells (WBC), and prothrombin activity (PA) were detected at different time points after UC-MSCs transplantation.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Most UC-MSC transplanted patients experienced an improvement in quality of life, to varying degrees. With the exception of low-grade fever in a few patients, side effects and oncogenic events were rare (treatment group: 1/38 vs. control group: 1/16; P more than 0.05). The UC-MSCs transplantation showed no effect on GLU, TC, BUN, AFP, WBC, or PA.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>UC-MSCs transplantation in patients with decompensated liver cirrhosis is safe and may improve the patient's quality of life.</p>

[Study on the relationship between fetomaternal cellular traffic and hepatitis B virus intrauterine infection].

OBJECTIVE: To study the relationship between fetomaternal cellular traffic and hepatitis B virus (HBV) intrauterine infection. METHODS: Maternal DNA and fetal DNA were amplified by short tandem repeat (STR)-polymerase chain reaction (PCR), allele-specific PCR (As-PCR) and heminested PCR (hemi-nPCR). Cell transfer from mother-to-fetus or fetus-to-mother was determined by detecting the existence of TH01, GSTM1 and ACE. The relationship between cell transfer from mother-to-fetus and HBV intrauterine infection was analyzed by nested case-control study. RESULTS: 26 of the 42 informative mother-baby pairs indicated mother-to-fetus cell traffic, 32 of the 40 informative mother-baby pairs indicated fetus-to-mother cell traffic and two-way cell traffic occurred in 10 mother-baby pairs. Statistical analysis demonstrated that the mother-to-fetus instead of fetus-to-mother cell traffic presented the association with HBV intrauterine infection. There was no significant correlation between mother-to-fetus cell traffic or the fetus-to-mother cell traffic. Both mother-to-fetus cell traffic and PBMC HBV DNA positivity appeared in pregnant women were risk factors of HBV intrauterine infection but the two did not manifest the interaction. The positive risk factors of positivity PBMC HBV DNA in newborns would included mother-to-fetus cell traffic and PBMC HBV DNA in pregnant women, also did not display the interaction. CONCLUSION: The cell traffic from HBsAg positive mother to fetus had more contribution to HBV intrauterine infection, which was possibly one of the HBV routes of intrauterine infecting.