Clinical features, survival and prognostic factors of primary testicular diffuse large B-cell lymphoma

Objective： To assess the clinical features, survival and prognostic factors of primary testicular diffuse large B-cell lymphoma （DLBCL）. Methods： A retrospective study of 37 patients with primary testicular DLBCL was carried out from November 2003 to May 2012. Their clinical features, survival and prognostic factors were analyzed. Results： During a median follow-up period of 39.8 months （5.4-93.0 months）, the median progression-free survival （PFS） was 26.2 months （95% CI：0-65 months） and the 3-year overall survival （OS） rate was 78.4%. Within the whole cohort, the factors significantly associated with a superior PFS were limited stage （stage Ⅰ/Ⅱ）, lactate dehydrogenase （LDH） ≤245 U/L, international prognostic index （IPI） ≤1, primary tumor diameter 〈7.5 cm, and patients who had complete response （CR） and received doxoruhicin-contained chemotherapy （P〈0.05）. There was a trend toward superior outcome for patients who received combined therapy （surgery/ chemotherapy/radiotherapy） （P=0.055）. Patients who had CR, primary tumor diameter 〈7.5 cm and IPI score ≤1 were significantly associated with longer PFS at multivariate analysis. Conclusions： Primary testicular DLBCL had poorer survival. CR, primary tumor diameter and IPI were independent prognostic factors. The combined therapy of orchectomy, doxorubicin-contained chemotherapy and contralateral testicular radiotherapy （RT） seemed to improve survival.

Aberrant methylation and downregulation of sall3 in human hepatocellular carcinoma

AIM: To investigated whether sall3 transcription was regulated by promoter CpG island hypermethylation in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). METHODS: The cell lines Huh7, HepG2, SK-HEP1, SM-MC7721, Bel7402, QGY7703 and a cohort of 38 HCC tissue specimens and corresponding nontumorous tissues were subjected to analysis for sall3 promoter CpG island methylation and mRNA transcription. sall3 promoter CpG island methylation levels were determined using the MassARRAY platform and mRNA transcription levels of the gene were detected by quantitative realtime polymerase chain reaction.RESULTS: The levels of sall3 mRNA were decreased by more than twofold in 33 of 38 tumor tissues compared to adjacent noncancerous tissues. Among these 33 tumor tissues with lower levels of sall3 mRNA, 24 showed higher levels of methylation. Based on these results, we hypothesized that the decrease in sall3 mRNA transcription level was likely due to promoter CpG island hypermethylation. Changes in sall3 mRNA transcription and promoter CpG island methylation were determined in the above six cell lines after treatment with 0, 0.1, 0.5 and 2.5 mmol 5-aza-2-deoxycytidine, a demethylating agent. Promoter CpG island methylation levels de- creased in a dose-dependent manner in all six cell lines, while the mRNA transcription level increased dose-dependently in Huh7, HepG2, SK-HEP1 and SMMC7721 cells and irregularly in Bel7402 and QGY7703 cells. CONCLUSION: These results indicated that promoter CpG island hypermethylation contributes to the downregulation of sall3 mRNA transcription in HCC.

Effect of dexamethasone,anisodamine and rhubarb therapy on rats with acute pancreatitis

Objective:To investigate the therapeutic effects of dexamethasone,anisodamine and rhubarb(DAR) on endotoxin,tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α),interleukin-6(IL-6),and pancreatic damage in rat models of acute pancreatitis(AP).Methods:The AP rat models were prepared and randomly assigned to AP group(n=10) and DAR group(n=10),while other healthy rats were assigned to the sham-operated group(n=10).The rats were euthanized at 6 h after operation,and then the serum levels of endotoxin,TNF-α,IL-6 and histology of pancreas were determined as the indexes of therapeutic effects.Results:At 6 h after operation,serum levels of endotoxin,TNF-α and IL-6,and pancreatic damage were significantly increased in AP group compared with those in sham-operated group(P<0.01).Compared with the AP group,DAR therapy remarkably attenuated the endotoxin,TNF-α,IL-6 levels and reduced pancreatic damage(P<0.05).Conclusion:The inhibition of pancreatic damage by DAR in rats with AP might contribute,in part at least,to the amelioration of pancreatic inflammation.The present study provides beneficial evidence that DAR may be useful in the treatment of AP model of rats.

Relationship between the number of endothelial progenitor cell and the severity of coronary artery disease

Background Previous studies have suggested that patients with low endothelial progenitor cell （EPC） counts and impaired endothelial colony forming acti patients with high EPC counts and favorable wty colo have a higher incidence for cardiovascular events compared to ny forming activity. The pathophysiological basis for this finding may be an insufficient endothelial cell repair by EPC. The objective of this study was to determine whether the number of EPCs in peripheral blood was associated with the presence and severity of angiographic stenosis in patients of the late phase after acute myocardial infarction （AMI）. Methods One hundred and one patients undergoing cardiac catheterization in our hospital were enrolled in the study. The number of circulating EPCs was measured by a fluorescent-activated cell sorter （FACS）. Patients with acute coronary syndromes were excluded. Results Compared with patients with normal coronary artery, the number of circulating EPCs was s reduced among patients in the late phase after AMI （P 〈 0.01） We also found that compared with ignificantly the control group, the number of EPCs of single-vessel stenosis group and multi-vessel stenosis group were significantly reduced （P = 0.005 ; P = 0.001 ）. Conclusions The number of EPCs in the peripheral blood is decreased in patients of the late phase after AMI. The EPCs number correlated with angiographic stenosis severity, which suggests that endothelial injury in the deficient circulating EPCs may affect the severity of the heart disorder and the clinical presentations.