Research Progress of Noninvasive Diagnostic Methods for Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis

Distinguishing between nonalcoholic steatohepatitis(NASH) and advanced liver fibrosis is the key for clinical diagnosis of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD). Liver biopsy, which is widely used for diagnosis of liver diseases at present, has many drawbacks, such as being invasive, expensive and unstable. This article compares and summarizes the commonly used non-invasive diagnostic methods, including their diagnostic parameters, advantages and disadvantages, in order to provide a useful reference for the diagnosis of NASH.

Elevated Plasma Tissue-type Plasminogen Activator (t-PA) and Soluble Throm-bomodulin in Patients Suffering From Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) as a Possible Index for Prognosis and Treatment Strategy

To detect the presence of endothelial injury in patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome （SARS） via enhanced levels of tissue-type plasminogen activator （t-PA） and soluble thrombomodulin （sTM）. Methods Case patients were from Xuanwu Hospital （Capital University of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China）, and all of them met clinical criteria for SARS. Healthy controls were some of the hospital employees. Endothelial injury bio-markers tPA and sTM were detected by commercial ELISA-methods. Results Classic plasma markers of endothelial injury, tPA and sTM significantly elevated in SARS patients in comparison to controls [t-PA： 1.48±0.16 nmol/L versus 0.25±0.03 nmol/L （P〈0.0001）, and sTM： 0.26±0.06 nmol/L versus 0.14±0.02 nmol/L （P〈0.05）]. The only patient who died had extremely high levels of these endothelial injury markers （t-PA： 2.77 nmol/L and sTM： 1.01 nmol/L）. The likelihood ratio analysis indicated the excellent discriminating power for SARS at the optimal cut-point of 0.49 nmol/L for tPA and 0.20 nmol/L for sTM, respectively. Significant numerical correlations were found among these endothelial injury markers in SARS patients. The numerical coefficient of correlation Pearson r between t-PA and sTM was 0.5867 （P〈0.05）. Conclusion Increased plasma concentrations of tPA and sTM in patients with SARS suggest the possibility of endothelial injury. SARS patients might need anticoagulant therapy or fibrinolytic therapy in order to reverse intraalveolar coagulation, microthrombi formation, alveolar and interstitial fibrin deposition. It may not only provide a useful treatment and prognostic index but also allow a further understanding of the pathological condition of the disease.

气相色谱-质谱/质谱检测原油中27、24、21-降胆甾烷

This paper introduced a GC-MS/MS analysis method and its application in bio-marker.By contrast,this method is specially good in inspecting a trace bio-marker determining the nature and fixing quantify.GC-MS/MS can inspect nor_cholestane(C27,24,21) which GC-MS can’t do.Very importantly,this new method provided new bio-marker parameter for an organic geochemistry study.

Tumor budding as a potential histopathological biomarker in colorectal cancer:Hype or hope?

Colorectal cancer （CRC）, the third most commonly di- agnosed type of cancer in men and women worldwide is recognized as a complex multi-pathway disease, an observation sustained by the fact that histologically identical tumors may have different outcome, including various response to therapy. Therefore, particularly in early and intermediate stage （stages Ⅱ and Ⅲ, respec- tively） CRC, there is a compelling need for biomarkers helpful of selecting patients with aggressive disease that might benefit from adjuvant and targeted therapy. Histopathological examination shows that likely other solid tumors the development and progression of hu- man CRC is not only determined by genetically abnor- mal cells, but also by intricate interactions between malignant cells and the surrounding microenvironment. This has led to reconsider the features of tumor mi- croenvironment as potential predictive and prognostic biomarkers. Among the histopathological biomarkers, tumor budding （i.e., the presence of individual cells and small clusters of tumor cells at the tumor invasive front）has received much recent attention, particularly in the setting of CRC. Although its acceptance as a reportable factor has been held back by a lack of uniformity with respect to qualitative and quantitative aspects, tumor budding is now considered as an independent adverse prognostic factor in CRC that may allow for stratifica- tion of patients into risk categories more meaningful than those defined by tumor-node-metastasis staging alone, and also potentially guide treatment decisions, especially in T2-T3 NO （stage Ⅱ） CRCs.

The study of endometriosis and adenomyosis related microbiota in female lower genital tract in Northern Chinese population

Background:Endometriosis is a chronic disease that affects women in reproductive age,and adenomyosis was known as“endometriosis in the uterus”.Endometriosis is an immune-dysfunction-related disease,contributing to the diversity of microbiota in the lower genital tract.Endometriosis is also an infection-related disease,the number of bacteria may contribute to some unknown mechanisms.Presently,the feature of microbiota between endometriosis patients and normal people is not fully understood.Methods:To identify the microbiota differences and features of endometriosis patients,298 samples from the cervical canal,posterior fornix of the vagina and uterine cavity were analyzed by 16s-rRNA sequencing.Raw data were filtered,analyzed,and visualized.We conducted diversity analysis,statistical data of microbiota abundance,biomarker identification,random forest,and environmental factors analysis.Results:Alpha diversity was not distinctive in endometriosis and adenomyosis patients.Posterior fornix near cervix was a better sampling location to analyze the dysmenorrhea-related microbiota feature;few dysmenorrhea-related bacteria were identified.Endometrial bacteria is controversial,and the result of 16s-rRNA sequencing was not good enough to conduct further analysis.Anaerococcus was a possible biomarker of adenomyosis-endometriosis patients.The identified bacteria were representative only in specific periods during the menstrual cycle.GnRH-a treatment impacted microbiota feature the most compared with other environmental factors.Conclusion:This study provided us with a new concept of endometriosis and bacteria;different microbiota features may relate to endometriosis.The bacterial involvement should be considered in the future study of endometriosis.New non-invasive diagnosis and therapeutic methods through bacterial medication are prospective.