[Analysis of Three Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Solution Based on Two-Dimensional Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy].

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are listed as the priority pollutants. It is difficult to resolve effectively the peaks of PAHs by conventional one-dimensional fluorescence spectroscopy due to its low content and the overlapping fluorescence three mixed ystems and a total of 27 samples, are to be prepared with different concentrations of three PAHs. Concentrations of three PAHS are monotonically increasing or decreasing in each mixed system. Then the 2D fluorescence correlation spectrum of each mixed systems will be calculated under the perturbation of the concentration of anthracene, phenanthrene and pyrene in solution. There are seven strong autopeaks at 425, 402, 381, 373, 365, 393 and 347 nm in synchronous 2D correlation spectrum. The fluorescence peak of phenanthrene at 347 nm is uncovered in three mixed systems, so the band at 347 nm is to be used as clues for further assignment. According to positive or negative cross peaks at 347 nm in synchronous 2D correlation spectrum, we can know that the peaks at 402, 381, 425 and 452 nm are assigned to anthracene, the peaks at 373 and 393 nm are assigned to pyrene, and the peaks at 365, 356 and 347 nm are assigned to phenanthrene. The fluorescence peak of phenanthrene at 385 nm is shown in asynchronous 2D correlation spectrum; it means the spectral resolution of asynchronous spectrum is better than the synchronous spectrum. The results are that it is feasible to analyze serious overlapping multi-component PAHs using two-dimensional fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, which can be extended to the detection of other pollutants in the air.

Expression and clinical significance of syndecan-1 mRNA and HPA-1 mRNA in colorectal cancer detected with real-time fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Invasion and metastasis are the most common causes of mortality for patients with colorectal neoplasms, and blocking invasion and metastasis in a timely fashion has become a hot research focus. We investigated the expression of the messenger RNA of Syndecan-1 and HPA-1 in colorectal cancer, and their correlation with invasion and metastasis. METHODS: Real-time fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to detect the expression of Syndecan-1 and HPA-1 in specimens from 49 patients with colorectal cancer, 49 paired adjacent colorectal neoplasms (2 cm from the carcinoma), and 49 surgical margins of paired normal colorectal mucosa tissue (5 cm from the carcinoma), to analyze their correlation with clinicopathologic characteristics of colorectal neoplasm. RESULTS: The expression of HPA-1 mRNA was significantly higher in colorectal cancer (40.56 +/- 11.75) than that in the paired adjacent colorectal neoplasms (18.28 +/- 11.33) and normal colorectal mucosa tissue (10.80 +/- 10.20) (all P < 0.001). The expression of HPA-1 mRNA was significantly higher in paired adjacent colorectal neoplasms than that in normal colorectal mucosa (P < 0.05). The expression of Syndecan-1 mRNA was significantly higher in normal colorectal mucosa (61.21 +/- 12.96) than in the paired adjacent mucosa (14.35 +/- 11.06) or colorectal cancer (10.12 +/- 8.58) (all P < 0.001). The expression of Syndecan-1 mRNA was significantly higher in the paired adjacent mucosa than that in colorectal cancer (P < 0.05). The decreased expression of Syndecan-1 mRNA and the increased expression of HPA-1 were closely associated with the degree of differentiation, the depth of infiltration, lymph node metastasis, vessel metastasis, and TNM staging of colorectal cancer (all P < 0.05). Spearman rank correlation analysis demonstrated a significant correlation between Syndecan-1 and HPA-1(r = -0.405, P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The expression of Syndecan-1 mRNA was significantly highest in normal colorectal mucosa and the expression of HPA-1 mRNA was significantly highest in colorectal cancer. At the same time, the decreased expression of Syndecan-1 mRNA and the increased expression of HPA-1 mRNA can promote the invasion and metastasis of colorectal cancer. The determination of Syndecan-1 and HPA-1 may be of value in the treatment as well as in the prognosis of patients with colorectal cancer.

Prevalence of depression and anxiety in patients with chronic digestive system diseases: A multicenter epidemiological study.

AIM: To investigate the prevalence of depression and anxiety in patients with chronic digestive system diseases. METHODS: A total of 1736 patients with chronic digestive system diseases were included in this cross-sectional study, including 871 outpatients and 865 in-patients. A self-designed General Information for Patients of the Department of Gastroenterology of General Hospitals questionnaire was used to collect each patient's general information, which included demographic data (including age, sex, marital status, and education) and disease characteristics (including major diseases, disease duration, principal symptoms, chronic pain, sleep disorder, and limited daily activities). RESULTS: The overall detection rate was 31.11% (540/1736) for depression symptoms alone, 27.02% (469/1736) for anxiety symptoms alone, 20.68% (359/1736) for both depression and anxiety symptoms, and 37.44% (650/1736) for either depression or anxiety symptoms. Subjects aged 70 years or above had the highest detection rate of depression (44.06%) and anxiety symptoms (33.33%). χ2 trend test showed: the higher the body mass index (BMI), the lower the detection rate of depression and anxiety symptoms (χ2trend = 13.697, P < 0.001; χ2trend = 9.082, P = 0.003); the more severe the limited daily activities, the higher the detection rate of depression and anxiety symptoms (χ2trend = 130.455, P < 0.001, χ2trend = 108.528, P < 0.001); and the poorer the sleep quality, the higher the detection rate of depression and anxiety symptoms (χ2trend = 85.759, P < 0.001; χ2trend = 51.969, P < 0.001). Patients with digestive system tumors had the highest detection rate of depression (57.55%) and anxiety (55.19%), followed by patients with liver cirrhosis (41.35% and 48.08%). Depression and anxiety symptoms were also high in subjects with comorbid hypertension and coronary heart disease. CONCLUSION: Depression and anxiety occur in patients with tumors, liver cirrhosis, functional dyspepsia, and chronic viral hepatitis. Elderly, divorced/widowed, poor sleep quality, and lower BMI are associated with higher risk of depression and anxiety.

Expression of interleukin-17 and its clinical significance in gastric cancer patients.

To investigate the expression of interleukin 17 (IL-17) in serum and tumor tissues, and evaluate the correlation between IL-17 and clinical characteristics from patients with gastric cancer. From January 2009 to January 2010, total 50 patients with gastric cancer and 50 healthy controls were enrolled. The patients included 32 males and 18 females with average age of (62.05 ± 11.98) years. The concentration of serum IL-17 was detected by ELISA. Intratumoral IL-17 expression and microvessel density (MVD) were examined by immunohistochemical staining. Compared with healthy controls, patients with gastric cancer had higher levels of IL-17 in serum (p < 0.01) and cancer tissues. High expression of IL-17 was associated with high MVD (p < 0.01). IL-17 in cancer tissues was associated with the clinical stage of the tumors (p < 0.01) and lymph node metastasis (p < 0.05). No statistically significant correlation between the serum IL-17 and the clinical pathological features was found. Increased expression of IL-17 was seen in patient with gastric cancer. IL-17 may be involved in the progression of gastric cancer by promoting angiogenesis in tumor microenvironment.

[Responses of Pinus tabulaeformis forest ecosystem in North China to climate change and elevated CO2: a simulation based on BIOME-BGC model and tree-ring data].

Based on BIOME-BGC model and tree-ring data, a modeling study was conducted to estimate the dynamic changes of the net primary productivity (NPP) of Pinus tabulaeformis forest ecosystem in North China in 1952-2008, and explore the responses of the radial growth and NPP to regional climate warming as well as the dynamics of the NPP in the future climate change scenarios. The simulation results indicated the annual NPP of the P. tabulaeformis ecosystem in 1952-2008 fluctuated from 244.12 to 645.31 g C x m(-2) x a(-1), with a mean value of 418.6 g C x m(-2) x a(-1) The mean air temperature in May-June and the precipitation from previous August to current July were the main factors limiting the radial growth of P. tabulaeformis and the NPP of P. tabulaeformis ecosystem. In the study period, both the radial growth and the NPP presented a decreasing trend due to the regional warming and drying climate condition. In the future climate scenarios, the NPP would have positive responses to the increase of air temperature, precipitation, and their combination. The elevated CO2 would benefit the increase of the NPP, and the increment would be about 16.1% due to the CO2 fertilization. At both ecosystem and regional scales, the tree-ring data would be an ideal proxy to predict the ecosystem dynamic change, and could be used to validate and calibrate the process-based ecosystem models including BIOME-BGC.

[Dendrochronology of Chinese pine in Mulan-Weichang, Hebei Province: a primary study].

Dendroclimatic methods were used to investigate the relationships between the growth of Chinese pine (Pinus tabulaeformis Carr.) and the climatic parameters in Mulan-Weichang of Hebei Province. The results showed that Chinese pine presented high sensitivity to climatic changes, and its earlywood width showed the highest sensitivity. There was a significant negative correlation between the tree-ring width chronology of Chinese pine and the air temperature in May-June. The precipitation and relative humidity in June had strong positive effects on the growth of earlywood, the precipitation from September to next September had significant positive effects on Chinese pine growth, and the relative humidity in winter more strongly affected the growth of latewood than of earlywood. There was a definite correlation between the tree-ring width chronology of Chinese pine and the large scale climate fluctuation. From 1951 to 2006, the increase of air temperature in study area was significant, and the sensitivity of Chinese pine to the variations of local temperature and precipitation decreased, presenting an inverse transforming trend with increasing temperature. Greater differences were observed between the reconstructed and observed data of mean temperature in May - June in a century scale, suggesting that the tree-ring growth of Chinese pine in study area had a greater fluctuation of sensitivity to the variation of climatic factors.