cy, including improvement in tumor imaging parameters, decrease in serum α-fetoprotein (AFP) levels, symptom relief (i.e. Karnofsky Performance Status and numerical rating scales) and response rates, and long term efficacy, including an increase in survival rates and improvement of quality of life (QOL), was monitored. Results: Tumor imaging parameters, serum AFP levels and symptom scores improved significantly in the HIFU group compared with the control group (all P < 0.05). In the HIFU group, a complete and a partial response were achieved in 28.5% (n = 43) and 60.3% (n = 91) of cases, respectively, while the rates were 0% and 16.7% (n = 5), respectively, in the control group. The overall response rate (88.8%) was significantly greater in the HIFU group (16.7%) than in the control group (P < 0.01). In addition, the 1- and 2-year survival rates were 50.0% and 30.9%, respectively, in the HIFU group, which were significantly greater than those (3.4% and 0%, respectively) in the control group (both P < 0.01). The QOLscore was 83.1 ± 8.0 at 3 months after HIFU, which was significantly greater than the pre-HIFU score (67.7 ± 5.9) and the score at 3 months after treatment (69.0 ± 8.5) in the control group (both P < 0.05). No severe complications occurred during and after HIFU. Conclusion: HIFU is an effective and safe ablation therapy with satisfactory short and long term efficacy for patients with advanced HCC.

The aims of this study were to investigate the relationship of the genetic polymorphisms of serotonin reuptake transporter (SERT) to the clinical subtypes of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and the influence of the genetic polymorphisms on the efficacy of tegaserod in the Chinese patients with constipation IBS (C-IBS). The genetic polymorphisms were analyzed in 87 IBS patients and 96 controls, then 41 C-IBS patients were received tegaserod for a 4 weeks treatment. Primary efficacy variable was the responder rate measured with Subject’s Global Assessment of Relief. Secondary efficacy assessed the changes of individual symptoms weekly. There was no significant difference of genotype frequencies between the whole IBS and control group. However the frequency of L/L genotype in the 5-HT transporter gene linked polymorphic region was significantly higher in the C-IBS subgroup than in control group (25.0% vs. 7.3%). The responder rates of tegaserod in S/S (85.0%) and L/S (70.0%) were significantly higher than in L/L genotype (36.4%). All secondary variables were also significantly improved in S/S and L/S group compared to L/L group. This small sample size study suggested a hypothesis that people with L/L genotype were vulnerable for development of C-IBS, and C-IBS patients with L/L genotype responded poorly to routine dosage of tegaserod treatment.

目的 观察靶向小鼠肿瘤坏死因子α(TNF-α)基因的小干扰RNA对体外小鼠巨噬细胞系RAW264.7表达TNF-α的抑制作用。方法: 采用化学法合成针对TNF-αmRNA不同位点设计的3条siRNA序列和一条带有荧光标记的BLOCK-ITTM Fluorescent Oligo（修饰的荧光标记的dsRNA）通过脂质体包裹后将其分别转染至小鼠巨噬细胞系RAW264.7，同时设立一个无任何靶基因的siRNA做为阴性对照（siRNA4）。荧光显微镜下观察siRNA的转染效率；用实时荧光定量 PCR和ELISA法分别检测siRNA对TNF-α的mRNA和蛋白表达的抑制作用。结果内毒素刺激后6 h ,巨噬细胞表达TNF-αmRNA 和合成分泌的TNF-α量均增加,于9 ～12 h 达 高峰。利用荧光标记的Oligo观察到siRNA转染效率达72%～80%。siRNA1-4转染巨噬细胞后，与未转染组（TNF-αmRNA 0.2935±0.1470，蛋白2104±32pg/ml）相比，siRNA2、3可见内毒素刺激的TNF-αmRNA（0.1576±0.0308、0.1140±0.0277）和TNF-α蛋白表达[(1355± 348)pg/ml、（817±138）pg/ml]均减少（均P< 0.05），其中siRNA3的抑制率非常显著，达61.2%(P< 0.01)。阴性对照siRNA4对细胞基因及蛋白表达无影响。结论内毒素可刺激小鼠巨噬细胞TNF-α的合成。化学合成siRNA转染小鼠巨噬细胞有较高的转染效率，能有效抑制 TNF-αmRNA及蛋白的表达。