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This paper investigates the feasibility of integrating high-voltage blocking capability into a state-of-the-art submicron BiCMOS process using existing processing steps. High-voltage MOS devices fully compatible with an existing 5 V, 0.8 /spl mu/m BiCMOS process have been designed and studied through extensive two-dimensional (2-D) process and device simulations. The device layout parameters in proposed high-voltage NMOS (HV-NMOS) and high-voltage PMOS (HV-PMOS) devices are optimized to achieve highest performance possible in terms of breakdown voltage and specific on-resistance with the constraints of full process compatibility. The optimized HV-NMOS and HV-PMOS devices using minimized unit-cell pitches of 7.8 and 7.3 /spl mu/m achieved breakdown voltages of 129 V and specific on-resistances of 0.9 and 11.5 mn cm/sup 2/, respectively. Due to their full compatibility with the existing process the high-voltage MOS devices presented in this paper can be implemented without increasing manufacturing cost. The integration of the high-voltage blocking capability into the submicron BiCMOS process can expand its application field to include high-voltage input and output (I/O) functions on the same chip with high-speed analog and high-density digital signal processing circuitry.

Despite the advanced detection and sterilization techniques available today, the sensitive diagnosis and complete elimination of bacterial infections remain a significant challenge. A strategy is reported for efficient bacterial capture (ca. 90%) based on the synergistic effect of the nanotopography and surface chemistry of the substrate on bacterial attachment and adhesion. The outstanding bacterial-capture capability of the functionalized nanostructured substrate enables rapid and highly sensitive bacterial detection down to trace concentrations of pathogenic bacteria (10 colony-forming units mL(-1)). In addition, this synergistic biocapture substrate can be used for efficient bacterial elimination and shows great potential for clinical antibacterial applications.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the ultrastructural damage and the expression of heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) in the rat adenohypophysis following pulsed electromagnetic wave (PEMW) exposure. The rats were randomly divided into four groups: Sham PEMW exposure, 1 x 10(4) pulses of PEMW exposure, 1 x 10(5) pulses of PEMW exposure and 3 x 10(5) pulses of PEMW exposure. Whole body radiation of 1 x 10(4) pulses, 1 x 10(5) pulses and 3 x 10(5) pulses of PEMW were delivered with a field strength of 100 kV/m. The rats in each group (n=6 in each) were sacrificed 12, 24, 48 and 96 h after PEMW exposure. Transmission electron microscopy was then used to detect the ultrastructural changes and immunocytochemistry was used to examine the expression of HSP70. Cellular damage, including mitochondrial vacuolation occurred as early as 12 h after PEMW exposure.More severe cellular damages, including cell degeneration and necrosis, occurred 24 and 48 h after PEMW exposure. The PEMW-induced cellular damage increased as the number of PEMW pulses increased. In addition, the expression of HSP70 significantly increased following PEMW exposure and peaked after 12 h. These findings suggested that PEMW induced ultrastructural damages in the rat adenohypophysis and that HSP70 may have contributed to the PEMW-induced adenohypophyseal damage.

To investigate the prevalence and distribution of metabolic syndrome (MetS) and the impact of exercise, smoking, and educational level on the risk of MetS in a southern Chinese population.A cross-sectional study was conducted in Zhuhai City, China from June to August 2012. Data on exercise, smoking, and educational level, anthropometric parameters, blood pressure, lipid, and glucose levels were collected. The prevalence of MetS (as defined by the International Diabetes Federation) was determined. Data necessary to evaluate MetS, the socio-economic characteristics, and lifestyle were obtained for 4645 subjects aged 18-75 years old.A total of 19.8% of the participants had MetS. The adjusted odds of having MetS were lower among males (adjusted odds: 0.75; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.57-1.01) compared with females. Those participants who currently smoked had a higher risk of developing MetS compared with non-smokers (adjusted odds: 1.61; 95% CI: 1.13-2.50). Those who had no physical exercise had a higher risk of developing MetS compared with those who physically exercised more than 60 minutes/day (adjusted odds: 1.51; 95% CI: 1.12-2.23;). Compared with those with no education, every category of attained educational level had a lower risk of developing MetS (p0.001).The findings in this study revealed that current smokers had a greater risk of developing MetS compared with non-smokers. Increased physical activity and higher levels of education attained served as protective factors for the population.

In vitro amplified human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-haploidentical donor immune cell infusion (HDICI) is not commonly used in children. Therefore, our study sought to evaluate its safety for treating childhood malignancies. Between September 2011 and September 2012, 12 patients with childhood malignancies underwent HDICI in Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center. The median patient age was 5.1 years (range, 1.7-8.4 years). Of the 12 patients, 9 had high-risk neuroblastoma (NB) [7 showed complete response (CR), 1 showed partial response (PR), and 1 had progressive disease (PD) after multi-modal therapies], and 3 had Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-positive lymphoproliferative disease (EBV-LPD). The 12 patients underwent a total of 92 HDICIs at a mean dose of 1.6×10(8) immune cells/kg body weight: 71 infusions with natural killer (NK) cells, 8 with cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells, and 13 with cascade primed immune cells (CAPRIs); 83 infusions with immune cells from the mothers, whereas 9 with cells from the fathers. Twenty cases (21.7%) of fever, including 6 cases (6.5%) accompanied with chills and 1 (1.1%) with febrile convulsion, occurred during infusions and were alleviated after symptomatic treatments. Five cases (5.4%) of mild emotion changes were reported. No other adverse events occurred during and after the completion of HDIDIs. Neither acute nor chronic graft versus host disease (GVHD) was observed following HDICIs. After a median of 5.0 months (range, 1.0-11.5 months) of follow-up, the 2 NB patients with PR and PD developed PD during HDICIs. Of the other 7 NB patients in CR, 2 relapsed in the sixth month of HDICIs, and 5 maintained CR with disease-free survival (DFS) ranging from 4.5 to 11.5 months (median, 7.2 months). One EBV-LPD patient achieved PR, whereas 2 had stable disease (SD). Our results show that HDICI is a safe immunotherapy for childhood malignancies, thus warranting further studies.

The prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and prediabetes has increased in China, and at different rates in different locations. Therefore a community-based screening research was conducted in order to determine the prevalence of CKD and prediabetes, and to analyze associated risk factors of CKD and prediabetes in a city of Southern China.A total of 7801 community residents aged 18 year and older from 6 communities were screened by a stratified random cluster sampling method. An estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), albuminuria, fasting plasma glucose (FPG), and homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) were measured. Age-standardized prevalence was calculated by the direct method with the use of data on the population distribution in China in 2006. Multivariate logistic analysis was used to analyze the risk factors of CKD and prediabetes, and association of insulin resistance (IR) with CKD and prediabetes was analyzed.The age-standardized prevalence of CKD was 12.5%, eGFR60 ml×min(-1)×1.73 m(-2) was 2.7% and ACR (albumin to creatinine ratio)30 mg/g was 10.3%. The age-standardized prevalence of prediabetes was 12.1%. Logistic regression suggests that IR was a common independent risk factor of CKD and prediabetes. Further analysis show that HOMA-IR was increased with the aggravation of kidney injury and FPG.CKD and prediabetes have become a major public health problem in Zhuhai, Southern China; insulin resistance may be an important risk factor.

Chuankezhi (CKZ), a new Chinese medicine, plays an important role in immunoregulation. Cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells have been commonly used for immunotherapy in recent years. In this study, we aimed to investigate the immunoregulatory effect of CKZ on CIK cells. Peripheral blood monocytes were isolated from healthy donors, and CIK cells were generated by culturing monocytes with interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) and interleukin 2. Different concentrations of CKZ were added on day 2. After incubation for 14 days in culture, the antitumor effects of CIK cells were measured by cytotoxicity assay. Flow cytometry was used to explore the effect of CKZ on CIK cell immunophenotype, intracellular cytokine production, and apoptosis. The effect of CKZ on the antitumor activity of CIK cells in nude mice was also investigated. CKZ increased the percentage of CD3+CD56+ CIK cells but did not significantly change the percentage of CD4+, CD8+, or CD4+CD25+ CIK cells. CKZ-conditioned CIK cells showed a greater ability to kill tumor cells, as well as a higher frequency of IFN-γ and TNF-α production, compared with the CIK cells in the control group. CKZ also suppressed the apoptosis of CIK cells in vitro. Furthermore, CKZ combined with CIK cells had a stronger suppressive effect on tumor growth in vivo than the CIK, CKZ, or normal saline control groups. Our results indicate that CKZ enhances the antitumor activity of CIK cells and is a potential medicine for tumor immunotherapy.

The design and implementation of a resurfed high-voltage NMOS device in a low-voltage 0.8 μm BiCMOS technology is reported in this paper. Because of its full compatibility with existing technology, the high-voltage NMOS device can be fabricated with low-voltage circuitry on the same chip without requiring any additional processing steps. Two-dimensional process and device simulations were used to design the device. While shorter channel lengths are technologically feasible, 1.5 μm was found to be the minimum drawn channel length to prevent channel punchthrough. Depending on the drift region length (2.8–16 μm), breakdown voltages and specific on-resistances in the ranges of 70–124 V and 1.6–19 mΩ cm 2 , respectively, were obtained on experimental test devices with a channel length of 1.5 μm.

An E1B55K-attenuated adenovirus, dl1520, has been shown to replicate selectively in and lyse tumor cells. In this study, the antitumor activities of dl1520, alone or in combination with the chemotherapeutic agent cisplatin, were investigated in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) cells. The results demonstrated that dl1520 replicated in and destroyed NPC cells, and induced apoptosis in vitro. In a nude mouse xenograft model, dl1520 significantly inhibited the growth of NPC cell xenografts, and the viral replication was associated with tumor regression. Importantly, the antitumor activity of dl1520 was augmented by the addition of cisplatin both in vitro and in vivo, showing that dl1520 and cisplatin have a synergistic anti-NPC effect. These data suggest that dl1520 exerts an efficient anti-NPC activity through oncolysis and the induction of apoptosis, which is enhanced synergistically by cisplatin. These findings indicate that oncolytic viral therapeutics using the E1B55K-attenuated adenovirus dl1520 could be promising in the comprehensive treatment of NPC, especially in combination with platinum-based chemotherapy.

Background: The granisetron transdermal delivery system (GTDS) has been demonstrated effectiveness in the control of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) in previous studies. This is the first phase III study to evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of GTDS in patients receiving moderately emetogenic chemotherapy (MEC) or highly emetogenic chemotherapy (HEC) in China. Methods: A total of 313 patients were randomized into the GTDS group (one transdermal granisetron patch, 7 days) or the oral granisetron group (granisetron oral 2 mg/day, ≥2 days). The primary endpoint was the percentage of patients achieving complete control (CC) from chemotherapy initiation until 24 h after final administration (PEEP). Chi-square test and Fisher’s exact test were used for statistical analysis. Results: Two hundred eighty-one patients were included in the per protocol analysis. During PEEP, CC was achieved by 67 (47.52%) patients in the GTDS group and 83 (59.29%) patients in the oral granisetron group. There was no statistical significance between the groups (P=0.0559). However, the difference of the CC percentage mainly occurred on the first day of chemotherapy between the groups. The CC was 70.13% on day 1 in the GTDS group, which was significantly lower than that of 91.03% in the oral granisetron group in the full analysis set. In the following days of chemotherapy, the CC was similar between the groups. In terms of cisplatin-contained regimen and female, there was statistical significance between the groups. Both treatments were well tolerated and safe. The most common adverse event was constipation. Conclusions: GTDS provided effective and well-tolerated control of CINV in Chinese patients, especially to non-cisplatin-contained regimen.

The principles of spectral calibration in Lab for Hyper-spectral imager are briefly expounded. The methods of spectral calibration used at home and abroad are investigated, and their advantages and disadvantages are analyzed. The method of spectral calibration is given, and its advantage is introduced. The method for making choices of light sources and the coating of the integrating sphere are proposed. Finally, the influential factors of calibration uncertainty of this method are analyzed.

In this paper, a modified silicon heterojunction bipolar transistor is proposed and demonstrated. The structure uses a very thin n/sup +/ amorphous silicon layer as the emitter to enhance the emitter injection efficiency and reduce the emitter resistance as well as improve the frequency response of the device. >

In this paper, we prepared three types of transferrin-quantum dots conjugates (QDs-Tf) using three different methods (electrostatic interaction, 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC) coupling, denatured transferrin (dTf) coating). Fluorescence emission spectra, surface characteristics, zeta potentials of quantum dots (QDs) and QDs-Tf fluorescent probes were characterized by spectrophotometer, capillary electrophoresis, and dynamic light scattering. Fluorescent imaging of HeLa cells was also performed by QDs and QDs-Tf fluorescent probes. It was found that the fluorescence imaging performances of QDs-Tf probes prepared by electrostatic interaction and EDC coupling were better compared with the one prepared by dTf coating. Then a real-time single cell detection system was established to quantitatively evaluate cell labeling effects of QDs-Tf fluorescent probes. It was found that for cell labeling efficiency, the proportion of cells labeled by quantum dot probes to a group of cells, QDs-Tf probe prepared by EDC coupling showed the highest labeling efficiency (85.55±3.88%), followed by electrostatic interaction (78.86±9.57%), and dTf coating showed the lowest (40.09±10.2%). This efficiency order was confirmed by flow cytometry results. This study demonstrated the relationship between conjugation methods and the resultant QDs-Tf probes and provided a foundation for choosing appropriate QDs-Tf probes in cell labeling.

Tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand or Apo2 ligand is a member of the tumor necrosis factor superfamily of cytokines that induces apoptosis upon binding to its death domain-containing transmembrane receptors, death receptors 4 and 5 (DR4, DR5). However, DR5 is also expressed in the developing CNS where it appears to play a role unrelated to apoptosis, and instead may be involved in the regulation of neurogenesis. We report on the distribution of DR5 expression in mouse hippocampus, cerebellum, and rostral migratory stream (RMS) of olfactory bulb from embryonic (E) day 16 (E16) to postnatal (P) day (P180). At E16, DR5-positive cells were distributed widely in embryonic hippocampus with strong immunostaining in the developing dentate gyrus. In newborn hippocampus, DR5-positive cells were predominantly located in proliferative zones, such as dentate gyrus, subventricular zone, and RMS. After postnatal day 7 (P7), the number of DR5-positive cells decreased, and cells with intense fluorescence were primarily restricted to the subgranular layer (SGL), although the granular cell layer showed weak fluorescence. After P30, only few DR5-positive cells were found in SGL, and mature granule cells were negative for DR5 expression. To address whether DR5 expression is a restricted to progenitor cells and newborn neurons, we performed 5-bromo-deoxyuridine labeling. We report that proliferative cells in the SGL selectively express DR5, with lower levels of expression in cells positive for doublecortin, a marker of newborn neurons. In addition, the stem cells in intestine, cerebellum, and RMS were also demonstrated to be DR5-positive. In the meantime, in cerebellum, DR5-positive cells were also positive for glial fibrillary acidic protein, a marker of proliferative Bergmann cells. We conclude that DR5 is selectively expressed by neuroprogenitor cells and newborn neurons, suggesting that the DR5 death receptor is likely to play a key role in neuroproliferation and differentiation.

To improve the recognition of clinical manifestation of human immunodeficiency virus(HIV) infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in otorhinolaryngology head and neck surgery, and to emphasize the early diagnosis, correct treatment and effective protection.Fifty-five patients with HIV infection and AIDS encountered in the department of otorhinolaryngology head and neck surgery in Tanzania were included in this study. There were 23 males and 32 female with age ranged from 3 - 67 years, medium 31 year. The clinical manifestation and prognosis of the patients were analyzed and summed up.Parotid glands swelling was the most commonly seen clinical manifestation in the 55 cases. Among the cases reported here, 17 (30.9%) showed parotid glands swelling, 19 (34.5%) had Kaposi's sarcoma in nasal cavity or oral cavity or pharynx, 12(21.8%) were accompanied with chronic suppurative otitis media, 11 (20.0%) had masses in the neck, 7 (12.7%) had masses in the pharynx, 6 (10.9%) were seen to have ulcer in oral and pharyngeal mucosa, 2 (3.6%) showed infection due to candidaalbicans. The infection in most cases could be controlled and symptoms relieved, but recurrence could occur over time and got worse gradually.Many patients with HIV infection and AIDS first see a doctor in otorhinolaryngology head and neck surgery. Patients who had the above clinical manifestations in repeated poor results should be observed carefully, early diagnosis and treatment are important to prevent transmission, prolong life and maximize the quality of life of the patients.

This study is to investigate the cytoprotective role of NaNO2 preconditioning against ethanol induced damage in human hepatoma SMMC-7721 cells. The cells were preconditioned with NaNO2 (0.25 mmol x L(-1)) for 24 hours or 4 weeks, and then exposed to ethanol (200 mmol x L(-1)) for additional 12 h and untreated cells served as control. Both temporal and chronic NaNO2 preconditioning could prevent ethanol elicited cytotoxicity as evidenced by thiazolyl blue (MTT). NaNO2 preconditioning also could inhibit ethanol-induced apoptosis, which was confirmed by FITC-Annexin V/PI flow cytometer and Hoechst 33258 and PI staining. Further, simultaneous NaNO2 preconditioning treatment along with ethanol showed protection against ethanol mediated cellular damage as indicated by significantly decreased levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) and elevated activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT). Western blotting analysis revealed that in ethanol treated cells preconditioned with NaNO2, the HIF-1alpha and Bcl-2 increased obviously, while the expression of pro-apoptotic proteins, including Bax, Caspase-9, Caspase-3 decreased. The results showed that low doses of NaNO2 preconditioning resistant to ethanol-induced human hepatoma SMMC-7721 cells apoptosis, which mechanism may be related to increased expression of HIF-1alpha in the cells.

To detect central obesity and related adverse cardiovascular disease risk factors by waist-to-height ratio (WHR) among normal weight adults in Chongqing area.A total of 20 000 participants aged 18 - 59 from one hour economic cycle of Chongqing area were selected by group sampling method. We measured the height, waist circumference (WC), body weight, blood pressure, blood lipid and blood sugar. Body Mass Index (BMI) and WHR were computed. We analyzed the differences of the correlated indexes between non-central obesity group (WHR0.5) and central obesity group (WHR ≥ 0.5) of those had normal weight (18.5 ≤ BMI (kg/m(2))24). And we used logistic regression method to analyze the relation between central obesity and related adverse cardiovascular risk factors.Among 11 612 normal weight subjects, 1801 (15.51%) participants were normal weight central obesity. Of non-central obesity group and central obesity group, the levels of waist WC were (73.71 ± 5.91) and (84.47 ± 4.58) cm (F = 328.74, P0.01); diastolic blood pressure levels were (72.85 ± 10.30) and (78.22 ± 11.90) mm Hg (1 mm Hg = 0.133 kPa, F = 23.62, P0.01); triglyceride levels were (1.22 ± 0.95), (1.97 ± 1.91) mmol/L (F = 114.70, P0.01); total cholesterol levels were (4.66 ± 0.84) and (5.04 ± 0.92) mmol/L (F = 13.10, P0.01); high density lipoprotein levels were (1.41 ± 0.31), (1.25 ± 0.29) mmol/L (F = 29.44, P0.01); low density lipoprotein levels were (2.65 ± 0.74) and (3.03 ± 0.77) mmol/L (F = 9.98, P0.01); glycemia levels were (4.94 ± 0.82) and (5.25 ± 1.37) mmol/L (F = 47.21, P0.01). The results of the logistic regression analysis showed the central obesity normal weight group was 1.28 (1.02 - 1.60), 1.49 (1.20 - 1.84), 2.24 (1.92 - 2.60), 1.77 (1.53 - 2.05), 1.58 (1.15 - 2.16) and 1.31 (1.06 - 1.63) times more likely than the normal group to have significantly elevated levels of systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, triglyceride, high density lipoprotein, low density lipoprotein and blood glucose.WHR can effectively reflect the normal weight central obesity and the risk factors of cardiovascular disease;the adverse cardiovascular disease risk was high among normal weight central obesity adults.

To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of the combined therapy of doxazosin and tolterodine for BPH patients with dominant storage symptoms.From May 2009 to April 2010, 76 patients diagnosed as benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) by International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS), flowmetry, ultrasound for prostate volume, residual urine and other methods were included in the study, all of them fulfilled the study's inclusive/exclusive criteria. The principal exclusive criteria were prostate volume50 ml, maximum flow rate (Qmax)10 ml/s and residual urine100 ml. All 76 patients had bothering storage symptoms and divided randomly into two groups:doxazosin group (n = 36) in which patients were treated with doxazosin 2 mg once daily for 8 weeks, and combination group (n = 40) in which patients were treated with doxazosin 2 mg once daily and tolterodine 2 mg twice daily for 8 weeks.At baseline, there was no significant differences. The IPSS was significantly improved in the two groups after treatment, but the reduction of IPSS in combination group was significantly greater (18.7 ± 2.2 vs 12.7 ± 3.9) than that in doxazosin group (18.6 ± 3.0 vs 15.2 ± 3.8) (P0.05), and the decreased storage IPSS was the main contribution to the reduction of IPSS in combination group. There was no difference between the groups for Qmax and residual urine.Combined therapy with doxazosin plus tolterodine for BPH patients with dominant storage symptoms can improve the IPSS, especially the storage IPSS, without any negative effects on uroflow rate and residual urine.

In this study, we characterized the intratumoral expression of IL-17 and CD8(+) TILs in gastric adenocarcinoma patients after resection and determined the correlation between the survival probability of gastric adenocarcinoma patients and the expression of IL-17 in tumor. Expression of IL-17 and CD8 was assessed by immunohistochemistry, and the prognostic effects of intratumoral IL-17 expression and CD8(+) TILs were evaluated by Cox regression and Kaplan-Meier analysis. Immunohistochemical detection revealed the presence of IL-17 and CD8(+) cells in gastric adenocarcinoma tissue samples (90.6%, 174 out of 192 patients and 96.9%, 186 out of 192 patients, respectively). We have also found that intratumoral IL-17 expression was significantly correlated with age (p=0.004) and that the number of CD8(+)TILs was significantly correlated with UICC staging (p=0.012) and the depth of tumor invasion (p=0.022). The five-year overall survival probability among patients intratumorally expressing higher levels of IL-17 was significantly better than those expressing lower levels of IL-17 (p=0.036). Multivariate Cox proportional hazard analyses revealed that intratumoral IL-17 expression (HR: 0.521; 95% CI: 0.329-0.823; p=0.005) was an independent factor affecting the five-year overall survival probability. We conclude that low levels of intratumoral IL-17 expression may indicate poor prognosis in gastric adenocarcinoma patients.

Here a novel capillary electrophoresis (CE) for simultaneous detection of dual single-base mutations using quantum dot-molecular beacon (QD-MB) probe is described. Two QD-MB probes were designed using 585 and 650-nm emitting CdTe QDs which were covalently conjugated to MBs with different DNA oligonucleotide sequences by amide linkage and streptavidin-biotin binding, respectively. The hybridizations of QD-MB probes with different DNA targets were then monitored by CE, and results indicated that the two QD-MB probes specifically hybridized with their complementary DNA sequences, respectively. Target DNA identification was observed to have a high sensitivity of 16.2 pg in CE. Furthermore, the simultaneous detection of dual single-base mutations in a given DNA oligonucleotide was successfully achieved in CE using above two QD-MB probes. This novel CE-assisted QD-MB biosensor offers a promising approach for simultaneous detection of multiple single-base mutations, and exhibits potential capability in the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis and high-sensitivity DNA detection.

Background and objective Cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells and autologous dendritic cells-CIK (DC-CIK) cells co-cultured with autologous dendritic cells (DCs) and CIK cells are commonly used for immunotherapy recently. We compared the anti-tumor immune response of CIK cells, autologous DC-CIK cells, and semi-allogeneic DC-CIK cells to explore a more effective anti-tumor adoptive immunotherapy approach. Methods Peripheral monocytes were isolated from patients with renal carcinoma, lung cancer, or maxillary squamous cell carcinoma and their healthy adult children. Isolated cells were cultured and induced as DCs and CIK cells in vitro. CIK cells from patients were co-cultured with autologous DCs and DCs from their children respectively, generating DC-CIK cells and semi-allogeneic DC-CIK cells. The anti-tumor activities of autologous CIK cells, autologous DC-CIK cells, and semi-allogeneic DC-CIK cells were measured by LDH assay. Intracellular staining was used to test the secretion of cytokines. Flow cytometry was applied for detecting the phonotype changes of these three types of cells. Cell proliferation and cell apoptosis were detected by 5,6-carboxyfluorescein diacetate succinimidyl ester (CFSE) and Annexin V/PI respectively. Results Compared with autologous CIK cells and DC-CIK cells, semi-allogeneic DC-CIK cells significantly enhanced the anti-tumor activity and IFN-gamma secretion, reduced IL-4 secretion, increased the ratio of CD3(+)CD56(+) cells and CD3(+)CD8(+) cells, decreased the number of CD4(+)CD25(+) cells, promoted cell proliferation, and lessened cell apoptosis. Conclusions Semi-allogeneic DC-CIK cells had a stronger anti-tumor effect than did autologous CIK cells and DC-CIK cells. Our results provided experimental evidence for clinical application of DC-CIK cells.

Immunotherapy, especially using dendritic cells (DCs)-based vaccine, appears promising in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) following surgery. However, the therapeutic efficacy of current DC vaccines loaded with HCC antigen is limited in clinical practice. One important reason might be that the DC vaccines for the treatment of HCC were not aimed at targeting the hepatocellular carcinoma cancer stem cells (HCCCSCs). Therefore, establishing an immunotherapy to kill HCC stem cells could be a novel therapeutic strategy. In this study, we have developed an immunotherapy to target CD133(+) HCC cells in the treatment of HCC. This study had three main findings; (1) CD133(+)HCC cells RNA loaded DCs could induce special CD8(+) cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CD133(+)Huh7-CTLs) response against CD133(+) Huh7 cells in vitro. (2) Huh7 cells-induced tumor growth in vivo was effectively inhibited by CD133(+)Huh7-CTLs. (3) the great inhibition potential of CD133(+)Huh7-CTLs to Huh7-induced tumor growth might not be only associated with anti-tumor cytokines such as IFNγ, but also to CD133(+)Huh7-DCs induced specific CTLs. This study shows an experimental proof that CD133(+)HCC cells RNA loaded DC vaccine has potential in treating HCC and may provide a new therapy for clinical post operative adjuvant therapy in future.

To investigate whether the polymorphism of DNA repair genes XPC (Ala499Val and Lys939Gln) and XPG (His1104Asp) is associated with the susceptibility to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).A hospital-based case-control study was conducted in 500 cases with HCC and 507 controls. Genotypes of XPC and XPG were determined by real-time polymerase chain reaction with the TaqMan MGB probe.Compared to the CC genotype, the CT genotype and the TT genotype of XPC Ala499Val were not associated with the susceptibility to HCC (adjusted OR = 1.34, 95% CI: 0.85-2.12; adjusted OR = 1.30, 95% CI: 0.68-2.51, respectively). Compared to the AA genotype, the AC genotype and the CC genotype of Lys939Gln were not associated with the susceptibility to HCC (adjusted OR = 1.20, 95% CI: 0.78-1.85; adjusted OR = 1.81, 95% CI: 0.88-3.73, respectively). Compared to the CC genotype, the CG genotype and the GG genotype of XPG His1104Asp were not associated with the susceptibility to HCC (adjusted OR = 0.85, 95% CI: 0.56-1.27; adjusted OR = 1.12, 95% CI: 0.67-1.87, respectively) However, the stratified analysis revealed that the females with the AC+CC genotype of XPC Lys939Gln had increased risk of HCC compared to those with AA genotype (OR = 2.17, 95% CI: 1.01-4.64).Our results suggest that XPC and XPG polymorphisms do not independently affect on the susceptibility to HCC, but the joint effect of C allele of XPC Lys939Gln and female may modify the risk of HCC.

Quantum dots (QDs) are widely used in the life sciences because of their novel physicochemical properties. However, the cytotoxity of these nonoparticles have attracted great attention recently because this has not been well resolved. Four probes were synthesized by chemical coupling and protein denaturation with CdSe/ZnS, CdTe QDs, and transferrin. Sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and capillary electrophoresis were used to verify the conjugation of these luminescent probes. The cytotoxicity of these four luminescent probes and the original QDs were evaluated in HeLa cells. The results showed that over 92% of HeLa cells were still alive after being exposed to 3.2-µM CdSe/ZnS QDs capped with denatured transferrin for 72 h. Furthermore, while the probe preparation was very simple, the photoluminescence quantum yield of this probe was 7% higher than the original CdSe/ZnS QDs. This provides a new way for exploiting QD probes with low cytotoxicity, which will expand applications of nanocomposite assembly in biolabeling and imaging.

To investigate the effect of Chinese herbal medicine for benefiting qi and nourishing yin to promote the blood circulation (abbr. as CHM) in promoting ventricular wall motion and myocardial contraction in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients after revascularization.Subjects were 80 AMI patients after revascularization, of those, the 40 patients in the TCM group were treated with Xinyue Capsule and compound Tanshinon Tablet upon the basic conventional Western medical treatment and the other 40 in the control group were given conventional Western medicine alone, the course for them all was 3 months. Cardiac function indexes, including left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), wall motion indices, normal myocardial percentage (NMP), longitudinal systolic peak strain (LSPS) and rate (LSPSR), were observed by Doppler ultrasound under dobutamine stress at the 14 days after revascularization and the end of 3-month treatment.Except the 5 cases (3 in the TCM group and 2 in the control group) dropped out in the observation period, the trial was completed in 75 patients totally. LVEF, NMP, minus LSPS of left ventricular anterior apex and inferior basement, minus LSPSR of anterior apex, middle, basement, and minus LSPSR of inferior middle, basement were more significantly increased in Chinese medicinal treatment group than those in the control group at 14-day after revascularization (P0.01). The treatment group, minus LSPS and minus LSPSR of the left ventricular anterior apex and the inferior basement were at markedly higher levels compared with the controls at 3-month after revascularization (P0.05). Minus LSPSR of the left ventricular anterior apex and the inferior basement in the treatment group at 3-month was higher than that at 14-day after revascularization (P0.05).CHM combining with conventional Western medicine treatment could improve the left ventricular contractive function and wall motion in AMI patients after revascularization.

This paper describes a highly efficient method for size determination of water-soluble CdSe/ZnS core-shell quantum dots (QDs) by capillary electrophoresis (CE) using polymer additive as sieving medium. The influence of some factors, such as kinds and concentrations of the sieving medium, pH, concentrations of the background electrolyte (BGE) and applied voltage, on the separation of QDs was investigated. Under the optimal separation conditions, four different sized QDs were successfully separated, and the relative standard deviation (RSD) of the migration times for these QDs was below 1.013%. In addition, an equation was fit by taking into account the correlation existing between the electrophoretic mobilities and the sizes of a set of QDs. The feasibility of this equation to measure the sizes of other QDs was confirmed by comparison with the sizes obtained by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) experiment. This work offers a novel method for size determination of QDs, and provides an important reference on the study of QDs based on CE.

To observe the effects of Chinese drugs for supplementing qi, nourishing yin and activating blood circulation on the myocardial perfusion in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients after revascularization.Eighty patients with anterior or inferior ventricular wall AMI, who had received revascularization by intravenous thrombolysis or coronary bypass, were randomized into the treated group and the control group equally, both treated with conventional Western medical treatment, but combined, respectively, with Xinyue Capsule (, XYC) plus Composite Salvia Tablet (CST) and placebo for 3 months. Dobutamine stress echocardiography (DSE) was performed 14 days and 3 months after revascularization, respectively on every patient to observe blood perfusion extent (b value), myocardial perfusion velocity (k value) and local blood fl ow volume (k x b) in left ventricular infarction-related vascular segments under stressed state.With 5 cases dropping out in the observation period (3 in the treated group and 2 in the control group), the trial was completed in 75 patients in total. The 14-day DSE shows that the b value and k x b value of left anterior ventricular wall mid segment and apex segment, and the k value of apex segment in patients with anterior wall AMI, as well as the b value and k x b of basal segment in patients with inferior wall AMI in the treated group were significantly higher than those in the control group (P0.05 or P0.01). The 3-month DSE shows that the b value of apex segment, k x b value of basal segment, mid segment and apex segment of left anterior ventricular wall in patients with anterior wall AMI as well as the b value and k x b value of basal segment of left inferior ventricular wall in patients with inferior wall AMI were all higher in the treated group than those in the control group, respectively (P0.05). The comparison between 14-day DSE and 3-month DSE in the treated group showed that the b value of apex segment of left anterior ventricular wall in patients with anterior wall AMI and the k x b value of apex segment and mid segment of left inferior ventricular wall in patients with inferior wall AMI significantly increased along with the on-going treatment (P0.05).Therapy with Chinese drugs for supplementing qi, nourishing yin and activating blood circulation in combination with conventional Western medical treatment could obviously improve the blood perfusion at the myocardial tissue level in infarction-related vascular segments.

Suppressor of cytokine signaling 1 (SOCS1) plays a critical role in antitumor immunity. Down-regulating SOCS1 in antigen-presenting dendritic cells (DCs) could enhance antigen-specific antitumor immunity. This study was to investigate the antigen-specific antitumor effect and mechanism of DCs with siRNA-mediated inhibition of SOCS1, stimulated by OK-432 and pulsed with hepatocellular carcinoma cell line HepG2 antigens.The expression of SOCS1 in immature DCs was down-regulated by RNA interference (RNAi). DCs were pulsed with lysate of HepG2 cells and stimulated with OK-432. The morphology of DCs was observed under converted phase microscopy. Phenotypic changes in cells after stimulation were characterized by flow cytometry (FCM). The Alamar Blue assay was adopted to evaluate the activation and proliferation of autologous lymphocytes induced by mature DCs. The cytotoxicity of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) elicited by modified DCs to HepG2, EC109 and K562 cells was tested by the lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) assay.Cells displaying a typical morphology and phenotypic properties of mature DCs were obtained successfully. The expression of SOCS1 in DCs was down-regulated by SOCS1 RNAi. Mature DCs showed high expressions of CD80, CD83, CD86, and HLA-DR. Pulsing of DCs with lysate of HepG2 had no influence on the phenotypic properties of DCs. Down-regulating SOCS1 expression enhanced the maturation of DCs. The modified DC tumor vaccine stimulated the proliferation of autologous lymphocytes effectively, and the proliferation rate of T cells was (110.7+/-22.2)%. After being activated by modified DCs, TCLs exerted a specific and effective killing effect on HepG2 cells, but not on EC109 and K562 cells.Mature DCs could induce antigen-specific antitumor immunity against hepatocellular carcinoma after silencing of SOCS1 by siRNA, stimulation by OK-432 and pulsing of DCs with HepG2 cell antigens.

In the present study, a newly synthesized benzofuran lignan 4-formyl-2-(4-hydroxy-3methoxyphenyl)-5-(2-methoxycarbonyethyl)-7-methoxy-benzo [b] furan (ERJT-12) was tested for its antiproliferative activity on human tumor cells. The related mechanisms were also investigated. In vitro growth inhibitory effects of ERJT-12 on various cancer cell lines were determined by MTT assay. Cell cycle distribution and apoptosis were detected by flow cytometry. The integrity of DNA was assessed by agarose gel electrophoresis. Activation of Caspase-3/7 and Caspase-6 was measured by colorimetric assay. The expressions of cell cycle proteins cell divide cycle 25c (Cdc25c), cyclin dependent kinase 1 (CDK1), CyclinB1 and apoptosis-related proteins Bax and Bcl-2 were detected by Western blotting. MTT assay showed that ERJT-12 inhibited the proliferation of several cancer cell lines including multidrug resistant cells. MCF-7 cells were markedly arrested at gap2/mitosis (G2/M) phase after treatment with ERJT-12 and progressed into apoptosis. The increased activities of Caspase-3/7 and Caspase-6 in MCF-7 cells were observed. The expression of CyclinB1 was down-regulated. The activities of Cdc25c and CDK1 protein were suppressed and Bcl-2 protein was phosphorylated. ERJT-12 displays potent antiproliferative activity towards cancer cells through suppressing cell cycle proteins, arresting cell cycle at G2/M phase and inducing apoptosis. It might be a novel candidate for cancer therapy.

To improve the diagnostic and therapeutic ability on subclinical Cushing's syndrome.Retrospective analysis for the clinical data of 24 cases of subclinical Cushing's syndrome, the clinical and biological characters pre and post operation were compared.None of the 24 cases of subclinical Cushing's syndrome had the classic symptoms and signs of Cushing's syndrome. The common symptoms of these patients were hypertension in 17 cases, diabetes mellitus in 11 cases, hyperlipidemia in 9 cases, high plasma cortisol value in 13 cases and high 24 h UFC value in 9 cases. None of patients did respond to low dose dexamethasone suppression test, but 16 cases of them did not respond to high dose dexamethasone suppression test. All the cases were found adrenal tumors by CT scan, 10 cases in left adrenal and 14 cases in right adrenal. All the patients underwent retroperitoneal laparoscopic operation and were pathologic diagnosed to adrenal adenomas. During follow-up, the symptoms of 20 cases (83.3%) were cured after surgery, and hormone supplement was required in 8 cases.Subclinical Cushing's syndrome may be incidentally detected on clinical manifestations, laboratory findings and imaging examinations. CT scan, assays of plasma cortisol, urinary free cortisol and dexamethasone suppression test are most useful in the diagnosis. The potential benefit of surgery should be considered in those who have a definite diagnosis of subclinical Cushing's syndrome. Hormone supplement is required in some patients. It is safe and practical to perform retroperitoneal laparoscopic surgery on the patients with subclinical Cushing's syndrome.

This paper illustrates a scalable Spice modeling method for an integrated power LDMOS device based on a multi-cell array structure. Depending on the location in the array (corner, edge, inner), three different types of cells were identified to have distinct electrical characteristics. Each cell type was modeled independently and was treated as a building block for the final scalable model. The three building block models could be relatively accurately generated because they were required to fit only one cell with fixed channel length and width. By combining the three building blocks, a scalable Spice model was created.

The paper proposed a new routing protocol(IAODV) based on tower structure in the Ad Hoc network for the problem which Location Routing Protocol need hardware and Complex algorithm. By the simulation, The complexity of the new routing protocol is reduced without reducing the performance of the network.

A Qos Routing protocol based on AODV (QOSAODV) is proposed aiming at the problem of the traditional QoS routing protocol which can not be applied perfectly in VANET. The weakness of the AODV routing protocol mechanism and the protocol itself are represented. By the simulation, the effectiveness and feasibility were completely verified. QOSAODV shows the superior performances in effectively lowering the routing broke ratio as well as packet drop ratio significantly, meanwhile, increasing the network throughput and scale.

To investigate whether dendritic cells fused with tumor cells could elicit in vitro antitumor responses against renal cell carcinoma (RCC) cells.Renal carcinoma cells were purified from tumor tissue excised from patients with metastatic RCC through tumor cell purifying technique and cultured in RPMI-1640 medium containing 10% FCS. Monocyte-derived DCs generated from peripheral blood mononuclear cell of RCC patients were cultured in the presence of human recombinant granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor and interleukin-4. Tumor cells and DCs were cocultured in the presence of polyethylene glycol (PEG) to generate cell fusion. The phenotype of tumor cells, DCs and fusion cells were detected by flow cytometry. MTT was used to measure the ability of fusion cells to stimulate T cell proliferation. T cell-mediated antitumor responses were measured by lactate dehydrogenase release (LDH) assay for lysis of autologous tumor cells.The DCs expressed MHC class I, MHC class II and costimulatary molecules (CD80 and CD86), while the renal carcinoma cells expressed a high molecular glycoprotein MUC-1. The DC/tumor fusion cells coexpressed MUC-1 and the phenotype of DCs, and could stimulate T cell proliferation effectively. CTLs stimulated by the fusion vaccine showed distinct lytie activity in vitro to autologous tumor cells.Dendritic cells fused with tumor cells can elicit distinct antitumor responses in vitro against tumor cells from patients with metastatic RCC, providing a basis for further research on the clinical application of fusion vaccine in treatment for renal cancers.

The effectiveness and safety of the combined therapy of terazosin and tolterodine for LUT/BPH patients with dominant storage symptoms was evaluated.The present study included 69 patients diagnosed as LUT/BPH by IPSS, flowmetry, ultrasound for prostate volume, residual urine, serum PSA and other methods, all of them fulfilled the study's inclusive/exclusive criteria. The principal exclusive criteria were prostate volume50 ml, Qmax10 ml/s and residual urine50 ml. All 69 patients had bothering storage symptoms after initial treatment with terazosin 2 mg once daily for one week., they were divided randomly into two groups. Terazosin group in which patients were treated with terazosin 2 mg once daily for six weeks, and combination group in which patients were treated with terazosin 2 mg once daily and tolterodine 2 mg twice daily for 6 weeks.Sixty-nine patients with LUT/BPH were recruited with inclusive/exclusive criteria of our study, thirty-six patients were in terazosin group and 33 were in combination group. At baseline there were no significant differences between the groups, in mean age, body weight, prostate volume, IPSS, storage IPSS, voiding IPSS, Qmax and residual urine. The results showed that the IPSS was significantly improved in the two groups after treatment, but the reduction of IPSS in combination group was significantly greater than that in terazosin group (P0.001), and the decreased storage IPSS was the main contribution to the reduction of IPSS in combination group. There were no differences between the groups for Qmax and residual urine.Combined therapy with terazosin plus tolterodine for LUT/BPH patients with dominant storage symptoms can improve the IPSS, especially the storage IPSS, without any negative effects on uroflow rate and residual urine. Combining with inclusion/exclusion criteria of the study, we believe that combined therapy with alpha-blocker plus anticholinergics is an effective and safe treatment for LUT/BPH patients with relatively small prostate volume, moderate impaired Q(max) and dominant storage symptoms.

Natural killer (NK) cells are the main effector of antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC). The activation disorder of NK cells in cancer patients may affect the treatment effect of monoclonal antibody. Reversing the dysfunction of signal transduction of CD16zeta chain in NK cells and combining lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cells with rituximab may give rise to synergistic effect. This study was to find out whether the activation disorder of NK cells exist in B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (B-NHL) patients, whether interleukin-2 (IL-2) can reverse the activation disorder in vitro, and whether the combination of rituximab and LAK cells can produce synergistic antitumor effect.Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were isolated from 69 B-NHL patients and 30 healthy donors by density gradient centrifugation method, and cultured with IL-2 (1 000 U/ml) to prepare LAK cells. The positive rate and median fluorescence intensity (MFI) of CD16zeta chain in PBMCs and LAK cells were detected by flow cytometry (FCM). The expression of CD20 on Raji cells was also detected by FCM. The apoptosis of Raji cells after treatment of rituximab was detected by FCM with Annexin V/PI staining. The cytotoxicity was assessed by lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release experiment.The positive rate and MFI value of CD16zeta chain on CD56+ cells were significantly lower in B-NHL group than in control group [(63.3+/-16.4)% vs. (97.8+/-3.1)%, P0.001; 1.3+/-1.3 vs. 3.6+/-1.7, P0.001]. There was no significant difference in the positive rate and MFI value of CD16zeta on LAK cells between the 2 groups [(99.3+/-4.1)% vs. (99.7+/-3.9)%, P=0.145; 29.2+/-12.5 vs. 31.4+/-13.8, P=0.44]. At the concentration of 40 mug/ml, rituximab completely combined CD20 antigens on cell membrane. The obvious enhancive effect of rituximab on cell apoptosis appeared at 24 h after treatment. The killing rate of Raji cells was significantly higher in rituximab combined LAK group than in LAK group (P0.05). While the combination of LAK cells and Herceptin (40 mug/ml) didn't make a significant increase as compared with Herceptin alone (P0.05). There was no significant difference in killing rate of Jurket cells between rituximab combined LAK group and LAK group (P0.05).The down-regulation of CD16zeta chain expression widely exists in B-NHL patients, while high dose of IL-2 could enhance the expression of CD16zeta chain greatly in vitro. The combination of rituximab and LAK cells shows strong killing effect on Raji cells.

Mucin-1 (MUC1), a tumor-associated antigen, is an optional molecular target for antitumor immunotherapy protocols. This study was to establish a subcutaneous human esophageal cancer transplantation model with MUC1 high expression in nude mice that closely resembles the biological features of human esophageal cancer, and provide a in vivo model for MUC1-targeting immunotherapy of esophageal cancer.Human esophageal carcinoma cell line EC-109 with MUC1 high expression was cultured, and subcutaneously transplanted into BALB/c athymic nude mice (4-5 weeks old). The growth status of transplanted tumor was observed. These subcutaneous tumors were examined histologically. The expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) was detected by immunohistochemistry. Cell cycle and MUC1 expression of the transplanted tumor cells were analyzed by flow cytometry.Human esophageal carcinoma transplantation models with MUC1 high expression were successfully established in 6 of the 7 nude mice. The histological and biological characteristics of subcutaneous transplanted tumors were similar to those of human esophageal carcinoma. The mean PCNA label index of subcutaneous transplanted tumor cells was (63.5+/-3.6)%. The mean S-phase fraction of cell cycle was (37.6+/-3.7)%. The positive rate of MUC1 in subcutaneous transplanted tumor cells was 97.5%.Human esophageal carcinoma transplantation model with MUC1 high expression in nude mice is similar to human malignant tumors in biological characteristics, and can be used to investigate the biological characteristics of esophageal carcinoma, as well as provides an applicable animal model for research on MUC1-targeting immunotherapy of esophageal cancer.

CdTe quantum dots (QDs) were synthesized in aqueous solution with 3-mercaptopropionic acid (MPA) as the stabilizer. The photoluminescence (PL) of CdTe QDs (3.5nm) is found to be temperature-dependent: as the temperature arising from 278K to 323K, the PL intensity declines to 50.2% of its original and PL emission peak shows obvious red-shift ( approximately 7nm). After modification of the QDs surface with denatured ovalbumin, the PL is more temperature-insensitive than before. The PL intensity retains more than 70% of its original and the emission peak shows less red-shift ( approximately 2nm). Moreover, it is found that the PL intensity and wavelength of denatured ovalbumin coated CdTe QDs are reversible during heating (323K)-cooling (278K) cycles. All the studies provide an important theoretical basis for searching temperature-insensitive bioprobes.

There is no generally accepted adjuvant therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after curative resection. Autologous cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells therapy has been reported to improve outcomes of patients with HCC, but its role as an adjuvant therapy remains unclear. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of CIK as an adjuvant therapy for HCC after curative resection.This is a single center, phase 3, open label, randomized controlled trial (RCT). Two hundred patients who were initially diagnosed with HCC of Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) stage A or B, and underwent curative hepatectomy were randomly assigned to receive four cycles of CIK treatment (the CIK group, n = 100) or no treatment (the control group, n = 100). The primary outcome was time to recurrence. The secondary outcomes included disease-free survival (DFS), overall survival (OS) and adverse events.All patients in the CIK group finished the treatment by protocol. The median time to recurrence (TTR) was 13.6 (IQR 6.5-25.2) mo in the CIK group and 7.8 (IQR 2.7-17.0) mo in the control group (Four cycles of CIK therapy were safe and effective to prolong the median TTR in patients with HCC after curative resection, but the treatment did not improve the DFS and OS.

Recently, micro-invasive treatments showed well application prospective in treating primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), while tumor immunotherapy is a hot topic in tumor treatment. This study was to investigate the efficacy of cytokine-induced killer cells (CIK) combined micro-invasive treatments (transcatheter arterial chemoembolization and radiofrequency ablation) on the recurrence of HCC.A total of 85 HCC patients without active lesions and metastasis, which were displayed by imaging examination after transcatheter arterial chemoembolization and radiofrequency ablation therapy, were divided randomly into 2 groups: 45 in study group, and 40 in control group. The patients in study group were transfused with CIK cells through hepatic artery after micro-invasive treatments, while the patients in control group were not. The levels of T lymphocyte subsets and native killer (NK) cells in peripheral blood of HCC patients before and after CIK cell transfusion were detected by flow cytometry (FCM). Tumor condition was observed by CT scanning every 2-3 months.The percentages of CD3+, CD4+, and CD56+ effect cells and the proportion of CD4+/CD8+ were increased from (68.6+/-11.0)%, (31.0+/-9.0)%, (15.6+/-7.8)%, and 1.1+/-0.5 to (70.7+/-10.1)% (P0.05), (33.5+/-8.0)% (P0.05), (18.4+/-9.4)% (P0.05), and 1.3+/-0.6 (P0.05) after CIK cell transfusion; while the percentages of CD8+ and CD3+ CD56+ cells were decreased from (31.1+/-7.8)% and (6.4+/-3.5)% to (28.6+/-8.3)% (P0.05) and (5.2+/-3.3)% (P0.05). The 1- and 1.5-year recurrence rates were 8.89% and 15.56% in study group, and 30.00% and 40.00% in control group (Chi(2) = 4.87 and 6.41, P0.05).CIK cell transfusion after micro-invasive treatments may improve the immunologic function in HCC patients, and play an important role in reducing the recurrence rate of HCC.

To discuss the treatment of male adrenogenital syndrome.The clinical data of 17 patients with male adrenogenital syndrome, including 15 cases of congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) and 2 cases of adrenocortical tumors, were analyzed retrospectively. The patients with 21-hydroxylase deficiency (21-OHD) and 11beta-hydroxylase deficiency (11beta-OHD) were treated with adrenocortical hormone, those with 17-hydroxylase deficiency (17-OHD) received sexual glands excision and estrogen besides adrenocortical hormone, and those with adrenocortical tumors underwent surgical removal.Sexual precocity symptoms disappeared and abnormal laboratory results returned to normal in 5 of the 21-OHD patients, who adhered to hormone treatment, and height growth was improved in the other 2, who received the medicine at an early age. The testicular adrenal rest (TAR) tumor was reduced dramatically in 1 case of 21-OHD after treatment. A left TAR found in another 21-OHD patient who discontinued the hormone therapy became softened after the resumption. Sperm could be seen in the semen of 3 21-OHD patients, but in small quantity and of poor quality. One 11beta-OHD patient with sexual precocity symptoms and hypertension became normal after the hormone treatment, and six 17-OHD patients maintained their female sexuality after the hormone treatment and operation. No relapse was found after resection of the adrenocortical tumors.Adrenocortical hormone therapy helps improve the height growth and testicular function of CAH patients, and surgical removal is necessary for adrenocortical tumors.