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Background: There are many studies on submucosal injection materials, but their clinical use is restricted for various reasons. The objective of this study was to compare the feasibility and safety of injected EndoClot®SIS polysaccharide as a submucosal injection material (SFC) in ESD in the pig stomach to that of injected sigMAVisc™ or Eleview™.Methods: Four pig stomachs were used for the ex vivo study. Eighteen pigs were used for the in vivo study. In the ex vivo study, four injections were made in the gastric submucosa to induce submucosal uplift and extend its duration. Tissue change was observed. The in vivo study was performed in 2 steps. First, 3 injections were made in the esophageal mucosa to induce submucosal uplift and extend its duration. Histological change was observed. Second, ESD was performed in the stomach by injecting EndoClot®SIS polysaccharide, sigMAVisc™, or Eleview™ (each, n = 6) as an SFC. The effects of these agents on wound healing were examined. We evaluated the efficacy and safety of endoscopic surgery after EndoClot®SIS polysaccharide injection.Results: EndoClot®SIS polysaccharide produced a longer-lasting elevation with clearer margins than was achieved by sigMAVisc™, Eleview™, or 0.9% NaCl and thereby enabled precise ESD without complications, such as bleeding and perforation. No obvious histopathological damage was observed at the injection site on endoscopy and histology.Conclusion: Submucosally injected EndoClot®SIS polysaccharide increased the effective separation of the mucosa and submucosa and reduced surgical complications. Hence, EndoClot®SIS polysaccharide injection is a safe and effective submucosal injection material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY A generalized refined Arnoldi method based on the weighted inner product is presented for computing PageRank. The properties of the generalized refined Arnoldi method were studied. To speed up the convergence performance for computing PageRank, we propose to change the weights adaptively where the weights are calculated based on the current residual corresponding to the approximate PageRank vector. Numerical results show that the proposed Arnoldi method converges faster than existing methods, in particular when the damping factor is large. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two kinds of modules with spiral wound and single tubular silicone rubber membranes respectively and basic extractant NaOH solution, are combined into membrane extraction used for treatment of phenol aqueous solution. Mass transfer process of phenol through membranes is studied. Based on the resistance-in-series model, the overall mass transfer coefficient across membrane is calculated. The effects of phenol initial concentration, liquid flow status and system temperature on the surface of membrane on mass transfer coefficient are discussed, from which the mathematical model between flow status and temperature is obtained. The experimental results show that the obtained correlations is acceptable and effective, whose relative error is below 10%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Catalpol, an iridoid glucoside extracted from the traditional Chinese herbal medicine, Rehmannia glutinosa, is reported to exert neuroprotective, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor and anti-apoptotic effects. The main aim of the present study was to investigate whether catalpol ameliorates experimental acute pancreatitis (AP) induced by sodium taurocholate (STC). AP was induced in rats via retrograde injection of 4% STC (0.1 mL/100 g) into the biliopancreatic duct. Rats were pre-treated with saline or catalpol (50 mg/kg) 2 h before STC injection. At 12, 24 and 48 h after injection, the severity of AP was evaluated using biochemical and morphological analyses. Pretreatment with catalpol led to a significant reduction in serum amylase and lipase activities, pancreatic histological damage, myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity, interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α levels, and activation of nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB). Moreover, administration of catalpol increased the viability of pancreatic acinar cells and inhibited NF-κB expression in vitro. Our results collectively support the potential of catalpol as a highly effective therapeutic agent for treatment of AP.

Objective: To study the effect of the sphingosine kinase 1 (SphK1) inhibitor N,N-dimethylsphingosine (DMS) in combination with chemotherapeutic drugs (DDP, 5-Fu, MMC) on the proliferation of gastric cancer cells (SGC7901) in vitro, and to evaluate whether SphK1 inhibitors could be used as synergetic agents in chemotherapy., Methods: SGC7901 cells were incubated in vitro with DMS (1 micromol/L) and 5-Fu, DDP, MMC at different concentrations in combination or separately for 24 h. The effects on the growth and survival of SGC7901 cells were determined by MTT assay. The inhibition rates were assessed by response surface analysis and the interactive relationships between the combined drugs were evaluated on the basis of positive/negative values of the cross product coefficients in the response surface equation., Results: The growth inhibition rate of the gastric cancer cells by treatment with DMS (1 micromol/L) was (10.23 +/- 0.74)%. The growth inhibition rates of the gastric cancer cells treated with 5-Fu (1, 5 and 25 microg/ml) for 24 h were (9.95 +/- 3.24)%, (21.04 +/- 2.19)%, and (45.49 +/- 3.60)%, respectively. The growth inhibition rates of the gastric cancer cells treated with DDP (0.5, 2.5 and 12.5 microg/ml) for 24 h were (9.38 +/- 0.79)%, (19.61 +/- 0.90)%, and (29.83 +/- 0.54)%, respectively. The growth inhibition rates of the gastric cancer cells treated with MMC (0.1, 0.5 and 2.5 microg/ml) for 24 h were (15.35 +/- 0.77)%, (24.72 +/- 0.83)%, and (30.68 +/- 0.28)%, respectively. There were significant differences among the inhibition rates caused by different concentrations of the drugs (P < 0.05). When 1 micromol/L DMS was used in combination with 5-Fu (1, 5, and 25 microg/ml) for 24 h, the growth inhibition rates of the cancer cells were (16.76 +/- 0.41)%, (27.28 +/- 0.29)% and (52.56 +/- 3.60)%, respectively. When 1 micromol/L DMS was used in combination with DDP (0.5, 2.5, and 12.5 microg/ml) for 24 h, the growth inhibition rates of the cancer cells were (15.35 +/- 0.86)%, (25.57 +/- 0.27)%, (36.37 +/- 0.51)%, respectively. When 1 micromol/L DMS was used in combination with MMC (0.1, 0.5, and 2.5 microg/ml) for 24 h, the growth inhibition rates of the cancer cells were (21.02 +/- 0.28)%, (32.10 +/- 0.27)%, (36.36 +/- 0.28)%, respectively. There were also significant differences among the growth inhibition rates caused by different concentrations of the drugs alone and in combination groups (P < 0.05)., Conclusions: DMS can suppress the proliferation of SGC7901 cells in vitro, and there are evident synergetic effects when it is used in combination with chemotherapeutic drugs. The results of this study indicate that SphK1 inhibitors may become novel and promising chemotherapeutic sensitizers.