[The epidemiological and clinical characteristics of liver hemangioma in health adults]

Objective: To report the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of liver hemangioma in health adults from a large sample of Health Examination Database. Methods: A retrospective study was performed to analyze the epidemiological and clinical Characteristics of liver hemangioma from people who underwent examination in China-Japan friendship hospital from 2014 to 2016. The analysis was also included the relationship between gender or age and the incidence and tumor size. Results: A total of 83 964 healthy adults (age≥18) were included in the study. The overall incidence of liver hemangioma was 2.95%. There was no significant difference of liver hemangiomas incidence between male which was 3.03%, and which was 2.88% in female. Liver hemangiomas incidence had shown obviously increased with patients' age, as the evidence indicating that the prevalence of liver hemangioma in <30 age group was only 1.87%, and the prevalence of liver hemangioma in 41-50 age group raised to 3.72%. While the size of liver hemangioma in different genders was also increasing with age, the tumor size of liver hemangioma in <30 age group was the smallest. Under 50 years old, the size of female patients' liver hemangioma was larger than that of male patients in each age group. The size of female patients' liver hemangioma had obviously decreased over 60 years old. Conclusion: The progress of liver hemangioma was highly influenced by age and gender.

De novo assembly and characterization of farmed blue fox (Alopex lagopus) global transcriptome using Illumina paired-end sequencing

The blue fox (Alopex lagopus), a coat-color variant of the Arctic fox, is a domesticated fur-bearing mammal. In the present study, transcriptome data generated from a pool of nine different tissues were obtained with Illumina HiSeq2500 paired-end sequencing technology. After filtering from raw reads, 32,358,290 clean reads were assembled into 161,269 transcripts and 97,252 unigenes by the Trinity fragment assembly software. Of the assembled unigenes, 37,967 were annotated in the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Non-Redundant (NR) protein database and 26,264 in the Swiss-Prot database. Among the annotated unigenes, 24,839 and 24,267 were assigned using the Gene Ontology (GO) and euKaryotic Orthologous Groups (KOG) databases, respectively. Altogether, 17,057 unigenes were mapped onto 227 pathways using the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes database. In addition, 6394 simple sequence repeats were identified by examining 12,965 unigenes (>1 kb), which could contribute to the development of molecular markers. This study generated transcriptome data for the blue fox that will promote further progress in expression profiling studies, and provide a good annotation basis for genomic studies.

Identification of cDNA sequences and alternative splicing patterns of canine AMEL genes (AMELX and AMELY)

Amelogenin is a major protein of the developing enamel matrix. There are two amelogenin genes (AMELX and AMELY) located on the X and Y chromosomes, respectively, in dogs. In the present study, we characterized full-length cDNAs and alternative splicing patterns of the AMEL genes in the tooth tissue of a dog by 5'- and 3'-rapid amplification of cDNA ends and AMEL-specific RT-PCR. Sequence analysis revealed that the coding regions of AMELX and AMELY were 579 and 576 bp (accession Nos. KP244310 and KP244311), respectively. The coding sequence of AMELX had 95.1% identity to that of AMELY. The AMEL genes on X and Y chromosomes were both expressed in developing tooth tissue. Eight different alternatively spliced transcripts were identified, five from AMELX and three from AMELY.

Cloning and identification of the ASIP gene in Chinese raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides procyonoides)

The quantity, quality, and distribution of eumelanin and pheomelanin determine a wide variety of coat colors in animals. Three coat color variants exist in farmed wild-type Chinese raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides procyonoides), which is an important fur-bearing animal species. The ASIP gene is an important candidate gene for coat color variation in some species. In this study, the complete cDNA sequences of ASIP were amplified from a wild-type Chinese raccoon dog. Sequence analysis revealed the coding region of ASIP in Chinese raccoon dog to be 396-bp in length and two transcripts (accession Nos. KT224450 and KT224451) were identified due to the alternative use of exon 1 (1A and 1C). However, the alternative splicing pattern and the coding sequence of ASIP in three types of coat color variants were the same as those identified in the wild-type individual. Based on the results obtained in this study, we can exclude a role for alternative splicing of exon 1 and the coding sequence of ASIP in coat color variation in Chinese raccoon dog.

Cloning and association analysis of KIT and EDNRB polymorphisms with dominant white coat color in the Chinese raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides procyonoides)

The Chinese raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides procyonoides) is one of the most important fur-bearing animal species. The dominant white individual, a coat color variant in farmed Chinese raccoon dog, shows a completely white phenotype over the entire body. The KIT and EDNRB genes have been reported to be associated with the dominant white coat color in some mammalian species. In the present study, the full-length coding sequences of KIT and EDNRB were amplified from a dominant white and a wild-type Chinese raccoon dog. Sequence analysis revealed that the coding region of KIT and EDNRB in Chinese raccoon dog was 2919 and 1332 base pairs in length (accession No. KM083121 and KM083122), respectively, and 2 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs; c.600C>T and c.967G>A) in KIT and 1 SNP (c.259A>C) in EDNRB was found only in the dominant white individual. An alternative splicing site at the boundary of 4 and 5 of the KIT gene was identified in both individuals. We further investigated the association between the 3 SNPs of KIT and EDNRB and dominant white coat color by genotyping 18 individuals. We found no association between these SNPs and dominant white coat color. Based on these results, we can exclude the coding regions of the KIT and EDNRB genes as determinants of the dominant white coat color in Chinese raccoon dog.

Evaluation of Gum of Moringa oleifera as a Binder and Release Retardant in Tablet Formulation

The present study was undertaken to find out the potential of gum from Moringa oleifera to act as a binder and release retardant in tablet formulations. The effect of calcium sulphate dihydrate (water insoluble) and lactose (water soluble) diluent on the release of propranolol hydrochloride was studied. The DSC thermograms of drug, gum and mixture of gum/drug indicated no chemical interaction. Tablets (F1, F2, F3, and F4) were prepared containing calcium sulphate dihydrate as diluent, propranolol hydrochloride as model drug using 10%, 8%, 6% and 4% w/v of gum solution as binder. Magnesium stearate was used as lubricant. Physical and technological properties of granules and tablets like flow rate, Carr index, Hausner ratio, angle of repose, hardness, friability and disintegration time were determined and found to be satisfactory. Tablets were prepared by wet granulation method containing calcium sulphate dihydrate as excipient, propranolol hydrochloride as model drug using 10%, 20% and 30% of gum as release retardant, magnesium stearate was used as lubricant. Similarly tablets were prepared replacing lactose with calcium sulphate dihydrate. Despite of the widely varying physico-chemical characteristics of the excipients, the drug release profiles were found to be similar. The drug release increased with increasing proportions of the excipient and decreased proportion of the gum irrespective of the solubility characteristics of the excipient. The values of release exponent 'n' are between 0.37 and 0.54. This implies that the release mechanism is Fickian. There is no evidence that the dissolution or erosion of the excipient has got any effect on the release of the drug. The t(50%) values for tablets containing calcium sulphate dihydrate were on an average 10%-15% longer than the tablets containing lactose as excipient. These relatively small differences in t(50%) values suggest that the nature of excipient used appeared to play a minor role in regulating the release, while the gum content was a major factor.

Gene therapy by membrane-expressed superantigen for α-fetoprotein-producing hepatocellular carcinoma

Staphylococcus enterotoxin A (SEA) is a powerful immunostimulant, which can stimulate T cells bearing certain T-cell receptor beta-chain variable regions, when bound to major histocompatibility complex II molecules. In vivo administration of intact superantigen in sufficient therapeutic amounts risks unwanted cytotoxicity against normal cells. In this study, we used SEA fused with CD80 transmembrane region (named as SEAtm) driven by alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) enhancer/promoter to reduce toxicity and to improve safety and efficiency in the application of SEA. We demonstrated that SEAtm by adenovirus from the AFP enhancer/promoter (AdAFPSEA) could be expressed on the surface of AFP-producing cell line Hepa1-6 instead of non-AFP-producing cell lines. Hepa1-6 infected by recombinant adenovirus stimulated proliferation of splenocytes and activated CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells in vitro. After AdAFPSEA was injected into the subcutaneously established hepatoma in vivo, the expression of SEA was detected in tumor tissues, which subsequently induced tumor-specific cytotoxic T cells in spleen. Moreover, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) xenografts were suppressed by treatment with AdAFPSEA and the survival time of treated mice was prolonged. These findings suggest that membrane-expressed SEA by adenovirus from AdAFPSEA can generate stronger local and systemic antitumor responses against HCC.

Study of erythrocyte sedimentation behavior by piezoelectric crystal impedance sensor

Based on the impedance characteristic of erythrocytes at high frequency, the response of piezoelectric crystal impedance (PCI) sensor in the erythrocyte suspension was derived and verified experimentally. A method of using PCI sensor to investigate erythrocyte aggregation-sedimentation phenomenon was proposed. From the frequency response of the PCI sensor, the erythrocyte aggregation time and sedimentation rate could be obtained during erythrocyte aggregation and sedimentation. With the present method, the effects of the erythrocyte deformability, the osmotic pressure and the coexisting macromolecules on the erythrocyte sedimentation rate were studied. The results show that the PCI sensor possesses some advantages, such as good sensitivity, simplicity of use and no thermal effect for the impedance study of erythrocyte aggregation and sedimentation.