Volume 108  ·   Issue 12  ·  1995

To elucidate the effects of highly selective vagotomy plus mucosal antrectomy (HSV-MA) antral functions, eighteen dogs were randomly divided into control, HSV and HSV-MA group for determining gastric emptying, antral myoelectric activity and antral pressure. The tests were performed 4 months after operation in the HSV-MA and HSV group. By roentgenoscopy, the gastric and duodenal shape were normal, and gastric peristalsis was clearly seen in all the dogs in the three groups. The beginning and ending time of gastric emptying in the HSV-MA group were 5.0±0.06 minutes and 4.0±0.4 hours respectively, which were similar to those in the control and HSV group (P>0.05). The frequency of antral myoelectric action potential in the HSV-MA group (3.11±0.65 cycles/minutes) was significantly lower than those in the control and HSV group (P<0.05). Intramuscular injection of pentagastrin significantly increased the frequency of antral myoelectric action potential (P<0.01) in all groups, and eliminated the difference among them before the injection. The antral pressure wave occurred immediately following the antral myoelectric action potential waves. The antral pressure values in the control and HSV-MA group were similar (P>0.05), and were significantly lower than that in the HSV group (P<0.05). Intramuscular injection of pentagastrin significantly increased the antral pressure (P<0.001) in all groups and eliminated the difference among them before the injection. These evidences suggest that the motor function of the reconstructed antrum following HSV-MA nearly reached normal level despite a lower antral myoelectric frequency. Combined with other reports, HSV-MA has a good clinical prospect as an operation for the treatment of chronic duodenal ulcer.

The aim of this study was to assess whether the angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors captopril and enalaprilat could change the tolerance of nitroglycerin in isolated rat aortae. In aortic rings precontracted with potassium chloride, captopril (1 μM) but not enalaprilat (0.1 μM) incubation potentiated the responses to nitroglycerin. It is suggested that captopril can reduce the tolerance of nitroglycerin because it is a sulfhydryl group donor.

TGF-β has been shown to be one of the most important regulators in chondrogenesis and osteogenesis. Daily subperiosteal injection of TGF-β, which was extracted and purified from bovine platelets, into adult mouse femur resulted in proliferation and differentiation of the mesenchymal cells, chondrogenesis, and endochondral osteogenesis. After cessation of the injection, the endochondral ossification occurred widely, resulting in replacement of the cartilage with new bone. These phenomena demonstrate that exogenous TGF-β stimulates mesenchymal proliferation and differentiation that occur in early fracture healing and suggest the possibility of clinical application of TGF-β for fracture repair and bone transplantation.

The 50 g oral glucose challenge test (50gGCT) was performed on 622 pregnant women, and 75 g oral glucose tolerance test (75gGTT) was further done on subjects with screening tests value of>or=7.78 mmol/L. The results showed that there were 16.56% (103/622) women with screening value of>or=7.78 mmol/L, among whom, 32 were identified as having gestational impaired glucose tolerance (GIGT) and 12, gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) by confirmatory test of 75gGTT. The sensitivity of 50gGCT was 42.72%(44/103). The incidences of edema-proteinuria-hypertension syndrome (EPH-syndrome), premature rupture of membranes, fetal macrosomia, operative deliveries and perinatal morbidity were higher in women with GIGT/GDM than in women without GIGT/GDM. It suggests that 50gGCT is an ideal method of screening for GDM and should be performed on all pregnant women.

The cholangiopancreatographic findings in 22 patients with pseudotumorous pancreatitis (PTP) were evaluated on the basis of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) and percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography (PTC). All patients were found with a focal mass in the pancreas based on the findings of ultrasound and/or CT. However, only one patient had been diagnosed correctly as suffering from chronic pancreatitis by ERCP. Normal pancreatic duct was found in 4 patients. There were five patients having abnormal pancreatic ducts, but findings of ERCP could not provide definite diagnosis. In the remaining 12 patients the abnormalities of pancreatic and/or bile ducts were strikingly similar to those found in pancreatic carcinoma. Double duct sign was also seen in one patient. All these 12 patients were incorrectly diagnosed as having pancreatic carcinoma. It is concluded that ERCP/PTC has little value in detecting PTP.

We analyzed the data from seroepidemiologic survey of anti-HTLV-I serum antibody (HTLV-1 Ab) and 16 adult cases of T-cell leukemia (ATL) in China (1984-1994). The results showed that the positive rate of HTLV-I Ab of the population of China was 0.54%, the birth or residence places of HTLV-I carriers and all the patients with ATL were mainly distributed in the coastal provinces and the northeast China, and a small endemic area of HTLV-I and ATl was found in Fujian Province (HTLV-I Ab positive rate, 2.1%). The HTLV-I in China may be transmitted from Japan or originated from China. The clinical characteristics of the cases included onset in adulthood; frequent skin lesions, lymphadenopathy and hepatosplenomegaly; no mediastinal mass; the ATL cells from peripheral blood with polymorphism nuclei and mature T cell immunophenotype HTLV-IAb positive in most of the cases tested (5/8); mostly acute type; with a median survival period of 3.5 months.

Since 1979 we have treated 149 patients with duodenal ulcer by extended parietal cell vagotomy (EPCV). Electron microscopy of parietal cells from gastric body mucosa and gastric acid secretory test were carried out in 22 randomly selected patients before and after EPCV. It was shown that before EPCV the ultrastructure of parietal cells presented the feature of vigorous section identical to the hyperfunctional secretion of gastric acid. The ultrastructure of parietal cells presented the feature of acute depression of secretory function, which was identical to a significant reduction of secretory function of gastric acid 0.5-6 months after EPCV. Two to 10 years after operation, however, especially over 10 years after EPCV, the ultrastructural changes of parietal cells gradually returned to normal, but gastric acid secretion remained at a low level, without preoperative secretory capacities. The results of this study provide a histological basis for the application of extended parietal cell vagotomy in the treatment of duodenal ulcer and its complications.

Three gena of mosquitoes were fed with human blood infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV) artificially. When blood in the stomach was completely digested, mosquitoes were used to bite monkeys Tupaia Belangeri. A month after biting, venous blood samples were taken from the monkeys to detect serum HBsAg, HBeAg, Anti-HBs and Anti-HBc. Among 29 test monkeys, 9 were HBV infective serum markers positive. In 4 of 16 test monkey liver biopsies, acute inflammatory changes were found with Hematoxylin-Eosine staining. In the hepatic cells, HBsAg and HBcAg were detected by immunohistochemical double-labeling assays, and HBV-DNA was also positive by in situ hybridization in monkey liver sections. These results provided an evidence for the possibility of transmission of HBV through mosquitoes and suggest its epidemiological significance in mosquito infested areas.

The study was proceeded on the mRNA expression of the GLUT-1 and GLUT-4 gene in the alloxan-induced diabetic rats by the method of dot-blot hybridization analysis. The results showed that the levels of the GLUT-4 mRNA expression were reduced in the muscle tissue of the diabetic rats while its levels in the same tissue of insulin treated diabetic rats increased. It was suggested that the reduced GLUT-4 mRNA expression which could affect its posttranslational products may be one of the causes of the insulin resistance.

Graft rejection is a baffling problem in organ transplantation which has so far no successful resolution. Present antirejection therapy is expensive, toxic, susceptible to infection, oncogenesis and atherosclerosis. With the use of 2 extremely histoincompatible strains of rats as model, it was found that when six donor splenocytes preconditioned by an extract from the culture medium of streptomyces caespitosus were injected into the host, after 2 weeks immune tolerance heterotopic transplanted donor hearts could survive normally more than 100 days without using any anti-rejection drug. Their mean survival time was 141.4±2.56 days, while that in the control group was only 11.7±3.48 days (P<0.005). Thus, the present research offers some bright prospects in the area of organ transplantation.