Wu Junzhu

Diagnosis of Hepatocellular Carcinoma by Using Methylation Specific-PCR

To find a more sensitive and earlier diagnostic marker for hepatocellular carcinoma, methylation-profils of CpG islands in the promoter of eleven genes in hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC) carcinoma and pericarcinoma tissues from ten patients were examined by using methylation-specific PCR (MSP) method. MSP was used to detect the methylation of p16, p53, Secreted frizzled-related protein 1 (SFRP1) and SFRP2 promoters. Meanwhile, plasma alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) levels in 53 patients were also determined. The results showed that HCC was closely correlated to methylation in promoter of tumor-suppressing gene p16, p53, SFRP1 and SFRP2. The results suggest that methylation of SFRP2 promoter is possible a better marker for diagnosis of HCC than plasma Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) levels. The false negative of SFRP1 and SFRP2 are perfectly complementary. If SFRP1 and SFRP2 were both considered as a complementary positive marker at the same time, the accurate rate for diagnosis of HCC is 100%.

EC, ASMC and macrophage oxidize human low density lipoprotein

To investigate the mechanism of LDL oxidationin vivo. LDL was incubated with endothelium cell (EC), artery smooth muscle cell (ASMC) and macrophage, and then the change of myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity in cell and medium and the oxidation of LDL by those three cells were assessed. The result showed that LDL promoted the activity of cellular and secretive myeloperoxidase which was concentration-dependent on LDL; with elevation of MPO activity, oxidation of LDL intensified, which was expressed by the formation of conjugated dienes and the elevation of thiobarbituric acid teactive substance (TBARS). Macrophage’s MPO activity went up with the increase of LDL at both low and high concentration; EC’s MPO activity went up with the increase of LDL only at high concentration and ASMC’s MPO activity wasn’t sensitive to LDL concentration change. The results suggest that Macrophage might be crucial to the oxidation of LDLin vivo, in which MPO might play an important role.