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Objective: To explore the clinical and pathological features of primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) patients with negative anti-mitochondria antibody (AMA)., Methods: Two hundreds and eight PBC patients were enrolled. The clinical and histological data of the negative AMA cases were compared with the AMA/AMA-M2 positive cases., Results: 30 out of the 208 cases (14.4%) were AMA negative patients in our study. The general status, biochemical tests and histological findings between the two groups had no significant difference (P > 0.05). The Gamma-globulin, IgG, IgM and IgA levels of AMA/AMA-M2 positive PBC patients were higher than that of the AMA negative cases (P < 0.05). The abnormal rate of cholesterol in AMA negative PBC patients was 65.4% as compared to 50.4% in AMA/AMA-M2 positive cases, no significant difference existed between (P > 0.05). Anti-nuclear antibody (ANA) was observed in 29 (96.7%) AMA negative PBC patients, including 14 (48.3%) with granular pattern, 8 (27.6%) with nuclear membrane pattern, 6 (20.7%) with kinetochore pattern and 1 (3.4%) with homogeneous pattern. AMA negative PBC patients had elevated serum ALP, GGT, IgM and cholesterol levels, and decreased serum AST, IgG and IgA levels as compared with that of autoimmune hepatitis patients (P < 0.05, respectively)., Conclusion: In cholestatic patients with elevated IgM and cholesterol levels, ANA positive with non-homogeneous pattern, the diagnosis of PBC should be suspected, albeit AMA negative. The clinical, biochemical and histological features of the AMA negative PBC patients were similar to classic PBC patients, but quite different from autoimmune hepatitis.

Objective: To investigate the clinical features and outcomes of 18 patients with retroperitoneal fibrosis (RPF)., Method: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 18 RPF patients who received treatment in Peking Union Medical College Hospital from 1988 to 2004., Results: The initial symptoms included abdominal pain, notalgia, abdominal distension, and pyrexia. Elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate (35-120 mm/h), immunoglobumin, and gamma globulin levels were found in 12 patients (66.7%), 4 patients (22.2%), and 5 patients (27.8%), respectively. Mild positive antinuclear antibody (1:160-1:320) was found in 3 patients (16.7%). Urethral obstructions were found by ultrasonography and intravenous pyelography, and the existence of post-peritoneal soft tissue shadow was confirmed by computerized tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. The final diagnosis included 15 primary RPF cases and 3 secondary RPF cases. Eleven patients only received drug therapy and 6 patients underwent surgery. The conditions improved in most patients, except that one patient died of tumor., Conclusions: The initial symptoms of RPF are not specific. For patients with positive laboratory and radiological examination results, further imagings, surgeries, or interventional therapy may be considered.

Aim: To investigate the relation between the change of serum IL-21 level and other laboratory indexes by detecting serum IL-21 level from patients with primary Sjogren's syndrome (pSS) and explore the role of IL-21 in pSS., Methods: The level of serum IL-21 from 40 pSS patients diagnosed according to 2002 revised international classification criteria for pSS and 30 healthy persons were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA) respectively. Meanwhile, FT3, FT4, TSH, TgAb, TPOAb were detected by Immunochemiluminescent technique. Double diffusion method, Westergren and automatic gel method detected ant-SSA and ant-SSB antibody, ESR and serum protein electrophoresis respectively. The relationship between serum IL-21 level and other clinical symptom of the patients was analyzed., Results: The level of serum IL-21 in patients with pSS (1051+/-335) ng/L was obviously higher than that in healthy control (466+/-90 ng/L), (P<0.05). The levels of serum IL-21 in the self-antibody positive group, parotid gland swelling pain group, rash group and incorporating hypothyroidism group were higher than those in their negative control groups, and there were significant differences(P<0.05). In addition, The level of serum IL-21 level in pSS patients showed positive correlation with gamma-globulin (r=0.719, P<0.05) and ESR level(r=0.745, P<0.05)., Conclusion: The evident increase of serum IL-21 level in pSS patients has positive correlation with the levels of gamma-globulin and ESR, which suggests that IL-21 may play a critical role in the pathogenesis of pSS.

The interaction for silver (I) ion with gamma-globulin has been investigated by resonance spectroscopy. It is shown that 2 or 4 coordination species for amino acid residues of gamma-globulin with Ag (I) ion were formed and their resonance spectra appear to be different in amide bands region. It has been studied that effect of reaction time on resonance Raman(RR) spectra in heat condition. Results showed that the intensity of RR has maximum at about 15 min of reaction, and after the time, Ag (I) ion on species will reduced to elemental silver.

33 cases of chronic hepatitis B. patients treated with cultured Cordyceps sinensis mycelia have shown that the drug improves the liver function, promotes negative transfer HBsAg, and markedly helps to raise plasma albumin, resist high gamma globulin and to adjust body immunocompetence. It is therefore suggested that cultured Cordyceps sinensis mycelia may be used as a medicine for chronic hepatitis B. patients in adjusting protein metabolism and correcting inversion of albumin and globulin.