Objective: To study if there is a relationship between cell adhesion molecule (ICAM), endothelial cell growth factor (EFGF), angiogenesis and gallbladder lesions. Methods: Surgical specimens of 10 cases of chronic cholangitis (CC), 13 of gallbladder dysplasia (GD) and 20 of adenocarcinoma of gallbladder (AG) were morphologically and immunohistochemically investigated for CD 34 , factor VIII, ICAM and EFGF. The microvascular density(MVD) was determined and calculated. Results: A progressively increase of MVD from CC to GD and to AG was noted which was statistic significant difference between CC and AG(P0 05). The expression of ICAM in the 3 groups was strongly parallel to that of EFGF. Both the expression of ICAM and EFGF was the same as MVD and demonstrated a highly statistic significant differences between CC and GD, CC and AG (P0 01). No association, however, occurred of MVD, also of ICAM and VEGF with stage, stadium and invasion of the tumor. Conclusions: Some mechanisms may exist between ICAM, VEGF and angiogenesis, which may play an important role in the oncogenesis of gallblladder lesions. The determination of ICAM, BEGF, and MVD may be a supplementary for differentiation diagnosis of CC, GD and AG.
Ovarian cancer is the most lethal cancer among all gynaecological malignancies. The combination theraputics of cisplatin and taxol is widely used in clinicals for ovarian cancer treatment. However, long-term use of cisplatin and taxol induces strong tolerance and hepatotoxicity. Since silibinin is a commonly used anti-hepatotoxic drug in Europe and Asia, the aim of this study was to determine whether silibinin could restore the sensitivity of combination use of cisplatin and taxol in drug-resistant human ovarian cancer cells and reduce drug-induced hepatotoxicity. Normal hepatocyte LO2 cells and A2780/DDP cells were treated with silibinin, cisplatin, taxol, cisplatin and taxol plus silibinin for 48 h. Cell viability was determined by MTT and long-term proliferation assay, while apoptosis and cell cycle progression were assessed by flow cytometric analysis. DNA damage was evluated by immunofluorescence assays. The metastatic activity of A2780/DDP was determined by cell adhesion assay. The addition of silibinin on cisplatin and/or toxal could sensitize the antitumor activity of cisplatin and toxal on A2780/DDP cells, supress cell-matrix adhesion of A2780/DDP, inhibit the cell proliferation, result in A2780/DDP cells apoptosis. In addition, silibinin could effectively reduce cisplatin and/or toxal-induced hepatotoxicity by protecting DNA from damage and restoring the potential of cell proliferation in cisplatin and/or toxal-treated LO2 cells. Our results suggest that silibinin could restore the sensitivity of cisplatin and taxol in drug-resistant human ovarian cancer cells and reduce durg-induced hepatotoxicity in cell level.
Lower respiratory tract infections are common in children. Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid has long been established as the best biological sample for detecting respiratory tract infections; however, it is not easily collected in children. Sputum may be used as an alternative yet its diagnostic accuracy remains controversial. Therefore, this study sought to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of sputum for detecting lower respiratory tract infections using metagenomic next-generation sequencing. Paired sputum and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid samples were obtained from 68 patients; pathogens were detected in 67 sputum samples and 64 bronchoalveolar lavage fluid samples by metagenomic next-generation sequencing, respectively. The combined pathogen-detection rates in the sputum and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid samples were 80.90% and 66.2%, respectively. For sputum, the positive predictive values (PPVs) and negative predictive values (NPVs) for detecting bacteria were 0.72 and 0.73, respectively, with poor Kappa agreement (0.30; 95% confidence interval: 0.218-0.578, P < 0.001). However, viral detection in sputum had good sensitivity (0.87), fair specificity (0.57), and moderate Kappa agreement (0.46; 95% confidence interval: 0.231-0.693, P < 0.001). The PPVs and NPVs for viral detection in sputum were 0.82 and 0.67, respectively. The consistency between the sputum and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid was poor for bacterial detection yet moderate for viral detection. Thus, clinicians should be cautious when interpreting the results of sputum in suspected cases of lower respiratory tract infections, particularly with regards to bacterial detection in sputum. Viral detection in sputum appears to be more reliable; however, clinicians must still use comprehensive clinical judgment.