AIM To investigate the effects of taxol on SMMC-7721 human hepatoma and its mechanisms. MLETHODS In vitro cell growth was assessed by trypan blue exclusion method. Experimental hepatoma model was established by seeding SMMC-7721 cells subcutaneously into Balb/c (nu/nu) nude mice. In vivo tumor growth was determined by measurement of tumor diameter with Vernier calipers. The syntheses of DNA,RNA and protein were analyzed by incorporation of 3H-thymidine, 3H-uridine and 3H-leucine respectively. Using light and electron microscopes to observe the morphological changes of cells including mitosis and apoptosis.RESULTS Taxol was effective against SMMC 7721 human hepetoma cell growth in the ranges of 2.5 nmol/L - 10 nmol/L with mitotic arrest and apoptosis in vitro. DNA, RNA and protein syntheses in cells were also obviously suppressed by in vitro treatment of taxol for 72 h. Taxol at 2.5 nmol/L reduced 3H-thymidine uptake to about 34% of the control value (P＜0.05). Increasing the dose of taxol to 20 nmol/L resulted in a greater decrease in 3Hthymidine incorporation to 60% of the control value (P＜0.01). At a concentration of 20 nmol/L, the 3H-uridine and 3H-leucine uptakes were reduced to 52% (P＜0.05) and 63%(P＜0.01), respectively. In vivo, taxol significantly inhibited SMMC-7721 tumor growth at 10 mg/kg, i.p., once daily for 10 d. A more than 90% decrease in tumor volume was observed by day 11 (P＜0.01) similarly with mitotic arrest and cell apoptosis.CONCLUSION Taxol has a marked anticancer activity in SMMC-7721 human hepatoma both in vitro and in nude mice. Its mechanisms might be associated with mitotic arrest, subsequently,apoptosis of the hepatoma cells. No obvious toxicity was observed with in vivo administration of taxol.

作者： 刊期： 2000年第02期

INTRODUCTIONVascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) which is also known as vascular permeability factor (VPF) is a heparin-binding, dimeric polypeptide growth factor and a potent mitogen for endothelial cells.VEGF can stimulate the endothelial cell growth and enhance the motility through its two known receptors flt-1 and KDR[1]. Acting through these receptors, VEGF may stimulate angiogenesis and promote tumor progression. VEGF12l, as one of the four VEGF protein isoforms containing the least number of amino acids, has all the biological function of VEGF and is the ideal isoforms for further studying VEGF at molecular levels[2]. In this study, we cloned

作者： 刊期： 2000年第02期

ALM In order to study the association between the null genotypes of GSTM1 and GSTT1 and the genetic susceptibility to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).METHODS The genotypes of GSTM1 and GSTT1 of 63 cases of HCC and 88 controls were detected with the multiple PCR technique.RESULTS The frequency of GSTM1 null genotype was 57.1% among the cases, and 42.0% among the controls, the difference being statistically significant (x2 = 3.35, P = 0.067),but X2 value approaching the significance level.The odds ratio was 1.84 (95% Cl=0.91 - 3.37).The frequency of GSTT1 non-null genotype was 87.3% among the cases and 62.5% among the controls, the difference being statistically significant (X2=11.42, P=0.0007274). The odds ratio was 4.13 (95% Cl = 1.64 - 10.70).According to the cross analysis, the GSTT1 nonnull genotype was more closely associated with HCC than GSTM1 null genotype, and these two factors play an approximate addlitive interaction in the occurrence of HCC.CONCLUSION The persons with GSTM1 nullgenotype and GSTT1 non-null genotype have the increased risk to HCC.

作者： 刊期： 2000年第02期

作者： 刊期： 2000年第02期

CHARACTERISTICS OF BILIARY CALCULOUS DISEASES IN CHINA: THE CHANGING SCOPE Diseases of the biliary tract in China is complicated with the prevalence of primary infection of the bile duct system. In the middle of the 20th century, biliary infection, biliary parasitic infestation, and biliary stones made up the three chief components of biliary diseases in China. As to the calculous diseases of the biliary tract, the relative incidence of primary bile duct stones accounted for 50% of the total cases. Therefore, calculous disease accounted for 60.1% among 228 surgical cases in the Chongqing Southwest Hospital, and 60 of the 80 common bile duct stones were primary bile duct origin ( including primary intrahepatic duct stones)[1,2].

作者： 刊期： 2000年第02期

INTRODUCTIONRadiology has been greatly advanced in China since its founding in 1949 and has been developed faster and further more since China adopted the policy of socioeconomic reform in 1978. It plays an increasingly important role in the medical health care and treatment in the country and has reached the world′s advanced level in certain fields. We now briefly review the history of China′s radiology so as to give a clear picture of its development.

作者： 刊期： 2000年第02期

INTRODUCTION Although liver transplantation for irreversible liver diseases is increasingly prevalent worldwide, patient die while waiting for donors because of organ shortages. One important problem commonly encountered is that fatty livers often affect the outcome of liver transplantation. It is reported that the incidence of abnormal fatty livers in autopsies after accidental death ranged from 15% to 24%.Since fatty livers may result in a primary nonfunction (PNF) liver graft, which contributes to an increased risk of mortality[1], they are usually out of consideration in liver transplantation.However, some fatty livers can be successfully transplanted. Therefore, how to choose fatty livers as donor organs correctly is the crux of success in liver transplantation.

作者： 刊期： 2000年第02期

INTRODUCTIONAlthough the long-term postoperative survival rate of gastric cancer (GC) patients has been improved significantly since the local dissection of lymph node was widely used in China, yet the low curative resection rate and the high recurrence rate from peritoneal and hepatic metastases hinder it from further improvement. To alter the current unsatisfactory status of GC treatment, a sequential triple therapeutic scheme (STTS), consisting of preoperative regional intra-arterial chemotherapy,curative resection of GC, and intra-operative or early postoperative intraperitoneal chemotherapy, was designed and adopted in this department since 1989. The follow-up data demonstrated that the therapeutic response of STTS is rather satisfactory.The results are reported as follows.

作者： 刊期： 2000年第02期

INTRODUCTIONThe recent studies have shown that rhubarb has not only the effect of removing stasis by purgation, but also intestinal barrier effects[1,2]. In order to further clarify the intestinal barrier mechanism of rhubarb, we studied the effects of rhubarb decoction and the active ingredients of rhubarb on the cytoplasmic free calcium in isolated intestinal mononuclear cells (INT-MNC)

作者： 刊期： 2000年第02期

INTRODUCTION It has now been almost 20 years since the initial descriptions of a heretofore unrecognized disorder afflicting homosexual men and manifesting as Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia and Kaposi′s sarcoma. With the identification of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) as the etiology of this syndrome, there has been exponential growth in our understanding of this devastating immune disorder. During the first decade of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), there was an explosion of cases in the United States and Africa.

作者： 刊期： 2000年第02期

作者： 刊期： 2000年第02期

AIM To examine whether age alone or comorbidity is a risk factor for death in older adults who developed Clostridium difficile (Cd)colitis during hospitalization.METHODS A retrospective, observational study design was performed in our Lady of Mercy Medical Center, a 650-bed, urban,community-based, university-affiliated teaching hospital. 121 patients with a positive diagnosis of Cd colitis (aged 23- 97 years) were studied, and data pertinent to demographic variables,medical history, co-morbidity, physical examination, and laboratory results were collected. Age was examined as a continuous variable and stratified into Age1 (＜80 vs 80 + );Age2 ( ＜ 60, 60 - 69, 70 - 79 and 80 + ); or Age3 (＜ 60, 60 - 69, 70 - 79, 80 - 89, 90 + ).RESULTS Cd colitis occurs more frequently with advancing age (55% of cases ＞80 years).However, age, per se, had no effect on mortality. A history of cardiac disease (P= 0.036), recurrent or refractory infection ＞4 weeks (P--0.007), Iow serum total protein (P=0.034), Iow serum albumin (P=0.001),antibiotic use ＞4 weeks (P＜0.010), use of over 4 antibiotics (P=0.026), and use of certain classes of antibiotics (P = 0.035 - 0.004) were predictive of death. Death was strongly predicted by the use of penicillin-like antibiotics plus clindamycin, in the presence of hypoalbuminemia, refractory sepsis, and cardiac disease ( P = 0.00005). CONCLUSION Cd colitis is common in the very old. However, unlike co-morbidity, age alone does not affect the clinical outcome (survival vs death).

作者： 刊期： 2000年第02期

INTRODUCTIONThe treatment of human epithelial malignancies is limited by drug resistance and toxic and side effects,which results in the failure in the treatment of majority of advanced cancer victims. To seek for a new, and specific antineoplastic therapy will provide hope for tumor treatment. Although disordered intermediary metabolism in cancer cells has been known for many years, much of the work focused on abnormal glucose catabolism. At the same time, little attention has been paid to fatty acid synthasis in tumor tissues, dispite of the significance of fatty acid synthase (FAS) in some clinical human ovarian[1], breast[2], colorectal[3],and prostatic cancers[4,5]. Tumor cells which express high levels of fatty acid synthesizing enzymes use endogeneously synthesized fatty acids for membrance biosynthesis and appear to export large amounts of lipid. In contrast, normal cells preferentially utilize diary lipid.

作者： 刊期： 2000年第02期

AIM To study the agglutination pattern of Helicobacter pylori coccoid and spiral forms.METHODS Assays of agglutination and agglutination inhibition were applied using fifteen commercial lectins. RESULTS Strong agglutination was observed with mannose-specific Concanavalin A (Con A ),fucose-specific Tetragonolobus purpureas ( Lotus A ) and N-acetyl glucosamine-specific Triticum vulgaris (WGA) lectins. Mannose and fucose specific lectins were reactive with all strains of H. pylori coccoids as compared to the spirals. Specific carbohydrates, glycoproteins and mucin were shown to inhibit H. pylori lectin-agglutination reactions. Pre-treatment of the bacterial cells with formalin and sulphuric acid did not alter the agglutination patterns with lectins. However, sodium periodate treatment of bacterial cells were shown to inhibit agglutination reaction with Con A, Lotus A and WGA lectins. On the contrary, enzymatic treatment of coccoids and spirals did not show marked inhibition of H. pylori-lectin agglutination. Interestingly, heating of H.pylori cells at 60℃ for 1 hour was shown to augment the agglutination with all of the lectins tested. CONCLUSION The considerable differences in lectin agglutination patterns seen among the two differentiated forms of H. pylori might be attributable to the structural changes during theevents of morphological transformation,resulting in exposing or masking some of the sugar residues on the cell surface. Possibility of various sugar residues on the cell wall of the coccoids may allow them to bind to different carbohydrate receptors on gastric mucus and epithelial cells. The coccoids with adherence characteristics like the spirals could aid in the pathogenic process of Helicobacter infection.This may probably lead to different clinical outcome of H. pylori associated gastroduodenal disease.

作者： 刊期： 2000年第02期

AIM To develop a safe and effective DNA vaccine for inducing humoral and cellular immunological responses against hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg).METHODS BALB/c mice were inoculated with NV-HB/s, a recombinant plasmid that had been inserted S gene of hepatitis B virus genome and could express HBsAg in eukaryotes. HBsAg expression was measured by ABC immunohistochemical assay, generation of anti-HBs by ELISA and cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL), by MTT method, existence of vaccine DNA by Southern blot hybridization and activation of oncogene C-myc by in situ hybridization.RESULTS With NV-HB/s vaccination by intramuscular injection, anti-HBs was initially positive 2 weeks after inoculation while all mice tested were HBsAg positive in the muscles. The titers and seroconversion rate of anti-HBs were steadily increasing as time went on and were dose-dependent. All the mice inoculated with 100 μg NV-HB/ s were anti-HBs positive one month after inoculation, the titer was 1:1024 or more. The humoral immune response was similar induced by either intramuscular or intradermal injection. CTL activities were much stronger (45.26%) in NV-HB/s DNA immunized mice as compared with those (only 6%) in plasmaderived HBsAg vaccine immunized mice. Two months after inoculation, all muscle samples were positive by Southern-blot hybridization for NV-HB/s DNA detection, but decreased to 25%and all were undetectable by in situ hybridization after 6 months. No oncogene Cmyc activation was found in the muscle of inoculation site.CONCLUSION NV-HB/s could generate humoral and cellular immunological responses against HBsAg that had been safely expressed in situ by NV-HB/s vaccination.

作者： 刊期： 2000年第02期

AIM To clone core gene cDNA of Chinese hepatitis C virus ( HCV ) into eukaryotic expression vector cosmid pTM3 and to express HCV core antigen in HepG2 cells.METHODS Core gene cDNA of HCV was introduced into eukaryotic expression vector cosmid pTM3. Using vaccinia virus/bacteriophage T7 hybrid expression system,HepG2 cells were transfected with the recombinant plasmid pTM3-Q534 by lipofectin.RESULTS From the transfected bacteria Top10F′, 2 pTM3-Q534 clones containing the recombinant plasmid were identified from randomly selected 10 ampicillin-resistant colonies. By reverse transcription PCR and indirect immunofluorescence technique, HCV RNA and core protein was identified in HepG2 cells transfected with the recombinant plasmid.CONCLUSION The construction of a recombinant plasmid and the expression of core gene cDNA of HCV in HepG2 was successful.

作者： 刊期： 2000年第02期

AIM To evaluale the potential role of P-selectin and anti-P-selectin monoclonal antibody (mAb) in apoptosis during hepatic/renal ischemiareperfusion injury.METHODS Plasma P-selectin level, hepatic/renal P-selectin expression and cell apoptosis were detected in rat model of hepatic/ renal ischemia-reperfusion injury. ELISA, immunohistochemistry and TUNEL were used. Some ischemia-reperfusion rats were treated with antiP-selectin mAb.RESULTS Hepatic/ renal function insufficiency, up-regulated expression of P-selectin in plasma and hepatic/renal tissue, hepatic/renal histopathological damages and cell apoptosis were found in rats with hepatic/renal ischemiareperfusion injury, while these changes became less conspicuous in animals treated with anti-Pselectin mAb.CONCLUSION P-selectin might mediate neutrophil infiltration and cell apoptosis and contribute to hepatic/renal ischemia-reperfusion injury, anti-P-selectin mAb might be an efficient approach for the prevention and treatment of hepatic/renal ischemia-reperfusion injury.

作者： 刊期： 2000年第02期

INTRODUCTION The antitumor activity of norcantharidin (NCTD),the demethylated analogue of cantharidin, was studied in the early 1980s in China. NCTD has no side effects on urinary organs which cantharidin has shown and is easier to synthesize, and it can inhibit the proliferation of several tumor cell lines as well as transplanted tumors. Clinical trials with NCTD as a monotherapeutic agent indicated that NCTD had beneficial effects in patients with different kinds of digestive tract cancers, such as primary hepatoma,carcinomas of esophagus and gastric cancer, but no depressive effect on bone marrow cells. NCTD can increase the white blood cell count by stimulating the bone marrow and has some antagonistic effect against leukopenia caused by other agents. The exact cellular and molecular mechanisms of NCTD on tumor cells have not yet been elucidated to date[1-3].

作者： 刊期： 2000年第02期

INTRODUCTIONThe liver is one of the organs, which have potential regenerative capability in mammalian animal[1].The study of the canine model indicated that the liver could regenerate to original size after 70% hepatectomy in only two weeks[2]. So it is a hot research topic for the cellular and molecular mechanism of liver regeneration. Accumulated results demonstrated that the hepatocyte growth factor (HGF)[3], insulin-like growth factor Ⅰ and Ⅱ (IGF-Ⅰ, Ⅱ )[4], epidermal growth factor (EGF), transforming growth factor alpha (TGF alpha)[5] and insulin[6] are among the most important growth factors for liver regenerative regulation. In recent years, a heat-stable protein in the serum of the patients with various liver diseases has been noted for its potential stimulation effects on the liver regeneration, and this growth factor is called hepatocyte-stimulatory substance (HSS).

作者： 刊期： 2000年第02期

AIM To evaluate the possibility of using cultured human hepatocytes as a bridge between bioartificial liver and liver transplantation.METHODS In this experiment, the efficacy of extracorporeal bioartificial liver support system (EBLSS) consisting of spheriodal human liver cells and cultured hepatocytes supernatant was assessed in vivo using galactosamine induced rabbit model of fulminant hepatic failure.RiESULTS There was no difference of survival between the two groups of rabbits, but in the supported rabbits serum alanine aminotransferase, total bilirubin and creatinine were significantly lower and hepatocyte necrosis was markedly milder than those in control animals. In addition, a good viability of human liver cells was noted after the experiment.CONCLUSION EBLSS plays a biologic role in maintaining and compensating the function of the liver.

作者： 刊期： 2000年第02期