Urology is an ancient academic discipline, and its rapid development is due to the combination between medicine and engineering. The development of urology in China is an example of the combination of industry-academia-research based on the progress of science and technology. This paper mainly summarizes the recent advances of interdisciplinary combination between medicine and engineering in urology.
Regulatory T cells (Treg) are critical for regulation of tolerance, control immune responses to self-antigens thereby preventing autoimmunity, and limiting responses to foreign antigens thereby minimizing T cell-mediated immunopathology. Recent data indicate that suppression of organ-specific autoimmunity is dependent on the antigen specificity of Treg. An emerging model of Treg action is that organ-specific Treg acquire suppressive activity through activation by dendritic cells expressing specific antigens. Thus, the efficacy of Treg-based therapy should be increased by using antigen-specific Treg rather than polyclonal Treg. It is necessary to identify relevant antigens and to expand antigen-specific Treg from polyclonal populations. Here, we discuss recent techniques for expansion of antigen-specific Treg, function and antigen specificity of Treg and the therapeutic potential of Treg in controlling autoimmune disease and inducing transplant tolerance.
ObjectiveTo summarize and analyze the clinical characteristics of patients with thyroiditis who would be misdiagnosed with thyroid tumor easily. MethodThe clinical data of 19 patients with thyroiditis who were misdiag-nosed with thyroid tumor in our department from 2009 to 2012 were analyzed retrospectively. ResultsAll of 19 patients underwent surgery, among which 8 cases were diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis after operation, 10 cases diagnosed with subacute thyroiditis, and 1 case diagnosed with suppurative thyroiditis.Different surgery program such as the biopsy or wedge resection was adopted to the subacute thyroiditis and the chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis respec-tively. ConclusionSometimes, it is very difficult to distinguish atypical thyroiditis from thyroid tumor so that we must pay attention to the patients who had nontumorous characteristics in order to decrease the misdiagnosis.
ObjectiveTo explore the nursing intervention effect on pre-hypertension. MethodsA total of 240 prehypertension patients in our community from July 2012 to January 2013 were randomly divided into observation group and control group with 120 patients in each group. No intervention was carried out for the control group. Blood pressure profile was established for the observation group and health education, exercise intervention, diet and body weight intervention measures were also given to the patients in this group. The improvement of life behavior and blood pressure control, and the awareness of hypertension health knowledge were compared between the two groups. ResultsAwareness of the disease knowledge, risk factors, complications, prevention and treatment in the observation group was significantly better than those in the control group (P<0.05). After intervention, the improvement scores of diet control, exercise increase, smoking quitting and alcohol drinking control in the observation group were significantly higher than those in the control group (P<0.05). The systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure and body mass index after intervention in the observation group were significantly lower than those in the control group (P<0.05). ConclusionCommunity nursing intervention can increase the health knowledge in pre-hypertensive patients, help patients establish a good way of life and control blood pressure effectively, and reduce the incidence of hypertension.
Objective To find the difference between the collagenase activity and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 (TIMP-1) expression level in normal urethral tissue and in urethral scar tissue, and to study the effect of collagenase activity and TIMP-1 expression level on the degradation of urethral scar. Methods The urethral tissues were derived from 10 human surgical specimens of urethral stricture scar and 10 human normal urethral specimens from patients with brain death. The collagenase activity was detected by ELISA assay, and the TIMP-1 mRNA level by RT-PCR. Results The collagenase activity of urethral scar tissue was (15.32±2.29) U and lower than that of normal urethral tissue (24.67±6.78) U, there was significant difference between them (P lt; 0.01). The TIMP-1 expression level of urethral scar tissue was higher than that of normal urethral tissue, there was significant difference between them (P lt; 0.05). Conclusion The high level of TIMP-1 expression and the low collagenase activity in urethral scar tissue may inhibit the degradation of urethral scar, and may be one of important causes of the scar tissue hyperplasia.
Three dimensional (3D) bioprinting is a new biological tissue engineering technology in recent years. The development of 3D bioprinting is conducive to solving the current problems of clinical tissue and organ repairing. This article provides a review about the clinical and research status of 3D bioprinting and urinary system reconstruction. Furthermore, the feasibility and clinical value of 3D bioprinting in urinary system reconstruction will be also discussed.
Objective To investigate the effects and mechanism of doxorubicin preconditioning in providing ischemic tolerance for rats abdomen island flaps. Methods Twenty-four healthy adult Sprague Dawley rats, 12 males and 12 females, were randomly divided into 3 groups (n=8): control group (group A), ischemic preconditioning group (group B), and doxorubicin preconditioning group (group C). After the abdomen island flap (6 cm × 3 cm in size) based on the superficial inferior epigastric neurovascular bundle was prepared, group A had no further treatment; group B was given a 10-minute ischemia followed by a 10-minute reperfusion for 4 times; and group C was given pretreatment with doxorubicin (1 mg/kg) by injection of the inferior epigastric vein. After 24 hours, the inferior epigastric vessels were blocked by vascular clamp for 4 hours, followed by reperfusion 2 hours to prepare ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury model. The rat survival was observed after operation; at 0, 8, 12, 24, and 30 hours after I/R injury, the malonyldiadehyde (MDA) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) levels were measured. At 7 days after I/R injury, the survival rate of flap were calculated and the flaps were harvested for histological observation. Results During experiment, 5 rats died (1 rat in groups A and B respectively, 3 rats in group C) and were added. The survival rates of the flap in group A (10.10% ± 0.43%) was lower than those in group B (91.63% ± 1.76%) and in group C (92.75% ± 1.48%) at 7 days after I/R injury, showing significant differences (P lt; 0.05), and there was no significant difference between groups B and C (t=0.29, P=0.77). Significant difference was found in MDA level and SOD level between group A and groups B, C after 8 hours (P lt; 0.05), and there was no significant difference between groups B and C (P gt; 0.05). Histological observation showed that inflammatory cells infiltration was more obvious and hyperplasia of fibers was weaker in group A than in groups B and C. Conclusion Doxorubicin preconditioning can provide ischemic tolerance for rats abdomen island flaps and protect flaps from the I/R injury. The possible mechanism may be related to that doxorubicin can induce endogenous protections.