Changes in macrophage infiltration and podocyte injury in lupus nephritis patients with repeated renal biopsy: Report of three cases

BACKGROUND In this study,we retrospectively analysed macrophage infiltration and podocyte injury in three patients with diffuse proliferative lupus nephritis(LN)who un-derwent repeated renal biopsy.CASE SUMMARY Clinical data of three diffuse proliferative LN patients with different pathological characteristics(case 1 was LN IV-G(A),case 2 was LN IV-G(A)+V,and case 3 was LN IV-G(A)+thrombotic microangiopathy)were reviewed.All patients underwent repeated renal biopsies 6 mo later,and renal biopsy specimens were studied.Macrophage infiltration was assessed by CD68 expression detected by immunohistochemical staining,and an immunofluorescence assay was used to detect podocin expression to assess podocyte damage.After treatment,Case 1 changed to LN III-(A),Case 2 remained as type V LN lesions,and Case 3,which changed to LN IV-S(A),had the worst prognosis.We observed reduced macro-phage infiltration after therapy.However,two of the patients with active lesions after treatment still showed macrophage infiltration in the renal interstitium.Before treatment,the three patients showed discontinuous expression of podocin.Notably,the integrity of podocin was restored after treatment in Case 1.CONCLUSION It may be possible to reverse podocyte damage and decrease the infiltrating ma-crophages in LN patients through effective treatment.

Effect of b value on monitoring therapeutic response by diffusion-weighted imaging

AIM： To explore the diffusion gradient b-factor that optimizes both apparent diffusion coefficient （ADC） measurement and contrast-to-noise （CNR） for assessing tumor response to transarterial chemoembolization （TACE） in a rabbit model. METHODS： Twelve New Zealand white rabbits bearing VX2 tumors in the liver were treated with TACE. Diffusion-weighted imaging （DWI） with various b values was performed using the same protocol before and 3 d after treatment with TACE. ADC values and CNR of each tumor pre- and post-treatment with different b factors were analyzed. Correlation between ADC values and extent of necrosis in histological specimens was analyzed by a Pearson＇s correlation test.RESULTS： The quality of diffusion-weighted images diminished as the b value increased. A substantial decrease in the mean lesion-to-liver CNR was observed on both pre- and post-treatment DW images, the largest difference in CNR pre- and post-treatment was manifested at a b value of 1000 s/mm^2 （P = 0.036 ）. The effect of therapy on diffusion early after treatment was shown by a significant increase in ADCs （P = 0.007）, especially with large b factors （≥ 600 s/mm^2）. The mean percentage of necrotic cells present within the tumor was 76.3%-97.5%. A significant positive correlation was found between ADC values and the extent of necrosis with all b values except for b200, a higher relative coefficient between ADC values and percentage of necrosis was found on DWI with bl000 and b2000 （P = 0.002 and 0.006, respectively）. CONCLUSION： An increasing b value of up to 600 s/mm^2 would increase ADC contrast pre- and post-treatment, but decrease image quality. Taking into account both CNR and ADC measurement, diffusion-weighted imaging obtained with a b value of 1000 s/mm^2 is recommended for monitoring early hepatic tumor response to TACE.

Recovery and separation of Fe and Mn from simulated chlorinated vanadium slag by molten salt electrolysis

Tailings from the vanadium extraction process are discarded each year as waste,which contain approximately 30 wt%of Fe.In our previous work,we extracted Fe and Mn from vanadium slag,and Fe and Mn existed in the form of FeCl_(2) and MnCl_(2) after chlorination by NH_(4) Cl to achieve effective and green usage of waste containing Fe and Mn.In this work,square wave voltammetry(SWV)and cyclic voltammetry(CV)were applied to investigate the electrochemical behaviors of Fe^(2+)and Mn^(2+)in Na Cl-KCl melt at 800℃.The reduction processes of Fe^(2+)and Mn^(2+)were found to involve one step.The diffusion coefficients of FeCl_(2) and Mn Cl_(2) in molten salt of eutectic mixtures Na Cl-KCl molten salt were measured.The electrodeposition of Fe and Mn were performed using two electrodes at a constant cell voltage.The Mn/Fe mass ratio of the electrodeposited product in Na Cl-KCl-2.13 wt%FeCl_(2)-1.07 wt%Mn Cl_(2) was 0.0625 at 2.3 V.After the electrolysis of NaCl-KCl-2.13 wt%Fe Cl_(2)-1.07 wt%MnCl_(2) melted at 2.3 V,the electrolysis was again started under 3.0 V and the Mn/Fe mass ratio of the electrodeposited product was 36.4.This process provides a novel method to effectively separate Fe and Mn from simulated chlorinated vanadium slag.

Diagnostic value of serum human epididymis protein 4 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

BACKGROUND Numerous studies have demonstrated that human epididymis protein 4(HE4)is overexpressed in various malignant tissues including ovarian,endometrial,lung,breast,pancreatic,and gastric cancers.However,no study has examined the diagnostic impact of HE4 in patient with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma(ESCC)until now.AIM To analyze the value of four serum tumor markers for the diagnosis of ESCC,and examine the associations of serum levels of HE4 with ESCC patients’clinicopathological characteristics.METHODS The case group consisted of 80 ESCC patients,which were compared to a control group of 56 patients with benign esophageal disease.Serum levels of HE4,carcinoma embryonic antigen(CEA),alpha fetal protein,and carbohydrate antigen 19-9(CA19-9)were detected by ELISA.The associations of serum HE4 levels with ESCC patients’clinicopathological characteristics such as gender,tumor location,and pathological stage were also examined after operation.RESULTS The result of ELISA showed that serum HE4 level was significantly higher in the patients with ESCC than in the controls,and the staining intensity was inversely correlated with the pathological T and N stages.Serum HE4 levels had a sensitivity of 66.2%and specificity of 78.6%when the cutoff value was set at 3.9 ng/mL.Moreover,the combined HE4 and CA19-9 increased the sensitivity to 83.33%,and interestingly,the combination of HE4 with CEA led to the most powerful sensitivity of 87.5%.Furthermore,A positive correlation was observed between HE4 serum levels and pathological T and N stages(P=0.0002 and 0.0017,respectively),but there was no correlation between HE4 serum levels and ESCC patient gender(P=0.4395)or tumor location(P=0.6777).CONCLUSION The results of this study suggest that detection of serum HE4 levels may be useful in auxiliary diagnosis and evaluation of the progression of ESCC.

高温反应合成莫来石实现钒渣氯化残渣的无毒高效利用

采用氯化法从钒渣中提取有价元素(Ti、Cr、Fe、Mn和V)后得到的浸出渣主要成分为Al_(2)O_(3)和SiO_(2),还含有少量有害元素Cr和V。为了减少Cr和V对环境的污染,提出一种浸出渣无毒和有效利用的新方法。以浸出渣为原料,加入适量SiO_(2),在1600℃下固相烧结5 h,合成抗压强度为133.345 MPa、密度为3.20 g/cm^(3)的纯莫来石。浸出渣中的微量元素Ti和有害元素V和Cr在高温反应过程中进入莫来石晶格形成固溶体,稳定在莫来石相中。合成的样品采用毒性特性浸出程序(TCLP)和GB5085.3—2007进行检测。结果表明,莫来石符合毒性浸出标准,是一种安全无毒产品。

PIK3CA gene mutations in Northwest Chinese esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

AIM To evaluate PIK3 CA gene mutational status in Northwest Chinese esophageal squamous cell carcinoma(ESCC) patients, and examine the associations of PIK3 CA gene mutations with clinicopathological characteristics and clinical outcome.METHODS A total of 210 patients with ESCC who underwent curative resection were enrolled in this study. Pyrosequencing was applied to investigate mutations in exons 9 and 20 of PIK3 CA gene in 210 Northwest Chinese ESCCs. The associations of PIK3 CA gene mutations with clinicopathological characteristics and clinical outcome were examined.RESULTS PIK3 CA gene mutations in exon 9 were detected in 48 cases(22.9%) of a non-biased database of 210 curatively resected Northwest Chinese ESCCs. PIK3 CA gene mutations were not associated with sex, tobacco use, alcohol use, tumor location, stage, or local recurrence. When compared with wild-type PIK3 CA gene cases, patients with PIK3 CA gene mutations in exons 9 experienced significantly better disease-free survival and overall survival rates.CONCLUSION The results of this study suggest that PIK3 CA gene mutations could act as a prognostic biomarker in Northwest Chinese ESCC patients.

CT whole lung radiomic nomogram:a potential biomarker for lung function evaluation and identification of COPD

Background:Computed tomography(CT)plays a great role in characterizing and quantifying changes in lung structure and function of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD).This study aimed to explore the performance of CT-based whole lung radiomic in discriminating COPD patients and non-COPD patients.Methods:This retrospective study was performed on 2785 patients who underwent pulmonary function examination in 5 hospitals and were divided into non-COPD group and COPD group.The radiomic features of the whole lung volume were extracted.Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator(LASSO)logistic regression was applied for feature selection and radiomic signature construction.A radiomic nomogram was established by combining the radiomic score and clinical factors.Receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve analysis and decision curve analysis(DCA)were used to evaluate the predictive performance of the radiomic nomogram in the training,internal validation,and independent external validation cohorts.Results:Eighteen radiomic features were collected from the whole lung volume to construct a radiomic model.The area under the curve(AUC)of the radiomic model in the training,internal,and independent external validation cohorts were 0.888[95%confidence interval(CI)0.869–0.906],0.874(95%CI 0.844–0.904),and 0.846(95%CI 0.822–0.870),respectively.All were higher than the clinical model(AUC were 0.732,0.714,and 0.777,respectively,P<0.001).DCA demonstrated that the nomogram constructed by combining radiomic score,age,sex,height,and smoking status was superior to the clinical factor model.Conclusions:The intuitive nomogram constructed by CT-based whole-lung radiomic has shown good performance and high accuracy in identifying COPD in this multicenter study.

A Facile and Environment-friendly Method for Fabrication of Polymer Brush

A novel environment-friendly system is proposed to fabricate polymer brush, which has the advantages including non-toxic and inexpensive initiator （eosin Y）, visible-light exposure （λ = 515 nm）, water medium and ambient environment. The experimental results from UV-Vis spectroscopy, AFM-based single molecule force spectroscopy （SMFS） and other measurements indicate that a polymer brush with a living nature is fabricated via free radical polymerization. This polymer brush may find applications in coatings, bio-interfaces and so forth.