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High-dose cyclophosphamide (HD-Cy) (3 g/m2) plus granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) is a very effective regimen for peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) mobilization. Unfortunately, it is associated with an increased risk of neutropenic fever (NF). We analyzed the effect of NF on PBSC apheresis results and the efficacy of prophylactic antibiotics for the prevention of NF associated with HD-Cy plus G-CSF for PBSC mobilization in patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (MM). First, patients were divided into NF (+) and NF (−) groups according to whether they suffered from NF during mobilization. Second, we divided patients into an antibiotic prophylaxis group and a nonantibiotic prophylaxis group according to whether antibiotic prophylaxis was used during the mobilization period. Our study showed that NF(+) patients (n = 44) had lower CD34 + cell dose collection (median 2.60 versus 5.34 × 106/kg, P < 0.001) and slower neutrophil engraftment and platelet engraftment (median 11 versus 10 days, P = 0.002, and median 13 versus 11 days, P = 0.043, respectively) than NF(−) patients (n = 234). Of note, the nonantibiotic prophylaxis group patients (n = 30) had a 26.7% incidence of NF. In the patients receiving antibiotic prophylaxis (n = 227), the incidence was reduced to 9.3% (P = 0.01). The antibiotic prophylaxis patients had higher CD34 + cell collection (median 5.41 versus 2.27 × 106/kg, P < 0.001) and lower hospitalization cost of mobilization ($ median 3108.02 versus 3702.39, p = 0.012). Thus, our results demonstrate that NF is associated with lower CD34 + cell collection and that antibiotic prophylaxis can reduce the incidence of NF and improve stem cell mobilization and collection outcomes, which reduces the hospitalization cost of mobilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Molybdenum (or tungsten) borides are typical high-hardness and wear-resistant materials. In this paper, a novel method to prepare Mo (or W) borides was proposed by boriding metal Mo (or W) powder with h-BN at 1723 K. The experimental results showed that single-phase Mo2B, MoB and W2B could be easily obtained in both Ar atmosphere and vacuum. However, under the same temperature, pure WB could be prepared only in vacuum. At the same time, the elemental analysis showed that the residual O and N contents in the products were sufficiently low. Besides, the inheritance connection of granularity between boride products and metal powders was found by using Mo (or W) powder with different particle sizes as raw materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Purpose: To investigate the effect of spleen tyrosine kinase (Syk) inhibitor R406 on diabetic retinopathy (DR) in diabetic mellitus (DM) rats. Methods: Rats were randomized into Normal, DM, DM + 5 mg/kg R406 and DM + 10 mg/kg R406 groups. DM rats were established via injection of streptozotocin (STZ). One week after model establishment, rats in treatment groups received 5 mg/kg or 10 mg/kg R406 by gavage administration for 12 weeks consecutively, followed by the detection with hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining, Evans blue angiography, retinal trypsin digestion assay, Western blotting, immunohistochemistry, TUNEL assay, immunofluorescence assay and quantitative reverse transcriptase real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Results: The retina of DM rats presented different degree of edema, disordered and loose structure, swollen cells with enlarged intercellular space, and dilated and congested capillaries. Besides, the retinal vessels of DM rats showed high fluorescence leakage. However, R406 alleviated the above-mentioned conditions, which was much better with high concentration of R406 (10 mg/kg). R406 also reversed the down-regulations of occludin, claudin-5, ZO-1 and the up-regulation of and VEGF in retinal tissues of DM rats; inhibited retinal cell apoptosis; strengthened retinal cell proliferation; and reduced expressions of IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α and nuclear p65 NF-κB in retinal tissues. The improvement in all these indexes was much more significant in rats of DM + 10 mg/kg R406 group than in rats of DM + 5 mg/kg R406 group. Conclusion: Syk inhibitor R406 could attenuate retinal inflammation in DR rats via the repression of NF-κB activation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The p53 protein is closely involved in the carcinogenesis of many kinds of cancers. Though the prognostic role of p53 expression for the survival of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients has been preliminarily identified, the prognostic effect of p53 expression in patients with completely resected CRC is still unclear. Therefore, a retrospective cohort study was performed to assess the prognostic role of p53 expression for overall survival in patients with completely resected CRC. A total of 153 patients (mean age 50.9 years) with completely resected CRC was finally included in the retrospective cohort study. Kaplan-Meier product-limit methods and log-rank test were used to estimate overall survival distribution and test the difference. In addition, multivariable analysis by Cox regression model was also used to test the prognostic role of p53 expression on overall survival by adjusting for other confounding factors. Of those 153 CRC patients, 62 (40.5 %) were positive for p53 protein expression in the tumor tissues. The log-rank test showed that there was an obvious difference in the overall survival between the p53-positive group and the p53-negative group ( P < 0.001). Multivariable analysis by Cox regression model further showed that p53 protein expression was an independent predictor of shorter overall survival in patients with completely resected CRC (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.77; 95 % confidence interval [95 % CI] 1.15-2.71, P = 0.009). Therefore, p53 protein expression in the tumor tissue is an independent predictor of shorter overall survival in patients with completely resected CRC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to observe both the changes of soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1) and ghrelin in adolescents with family history of type 2 diabetes (FHD) and the relationship between sICAM-1 and ghrelin. This case-control study included 63 adolescents (boys/girls 29/34, age 14.1 ± 0.7 years) without FHD (FHD−) and 67 adolescents (boys/girls 33/34, age 14.0 ± 0.8 years) with FHD (FHD+). Anthropometric measurements, including height, weight, waist circumference (WC), and blood pressure, were obtained. Blood samples were collected, and fasting plasma glucose (FPG), serum lipids, true insulin, sICAM-1, and ghrelin were assayed. The results showed that the age and gender were similar in two groups ( P > 0.05). Body mass index (BMI), WC, FPG, fasting insulin, HOMA-IR, and sICAM-1 were all significantly higher in the FHD+ group than in the FHD− group ( P < 0.05). Ghrelin was significantly lower in the FHD+ group than in the FHD− group ( P < 0.05). sICAM-1 was positively correlated with WC ( r = 0.178, P = 0.043), fasting insulin ( r = 0.195, P = 0.026), HOMA-IR ( r = 0.197, P = 0.024), and ghrelin ( r = 0.290, P = 0.001). After multivariate analysis, the ghrelin ( β = 0.788, 95 % CI: 0.416-1.159, P = 0.000) and HOMA-IR ( β = 0.106, 95 % CI: 0.045-0.167, P = 0.001) maintained an independent association with sICAM-1. These findings led to the conclusion that endothelial dysfunction and decline of ghrelin were found in adolescents with family history of diabetes. The decline of ghrelin maybe a protection mechanism for endothelial function in adolescents with family history of diabetes and should be examined in future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]