Xiwei Chen

A stable panel comprising 18 urinary proteins in the human healthy population

Just as biomarkers specific for diseases, biomarkers indicative of healthy conditions are valuable for the early diagnosis, monitoring, and prognosis of diseases. Our study focused on discovering via proteomics a stable panel of urinary proteins in the human healthy population. Urine samples were collected three times during 4 months from 100 male and 100 female healthy donors and analyzed through four different fractionation techniques (i.e. in‐gel, 2D‐LC, OFFGEL, and mRP) coupled with HPLC‐Chip‐MS/MS. Thus, 1641 urinary proteins were identified with a high confidence, among which 70 exhibiting an intergender/day variation <0.25 were selected and matched with the previously published five largest urinary proteomes to get 56 candidate proteins. Next, a panel comprising 18 intact urinary proteins was constructed by comparing the urinary proteomes via SDS‐PAGE and 2DE. Finally, such 18 urinary proteins were validated via enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay in eight healthy individuals. Most of these proteins had been related to multiple rather than to single diseases. Therefore, we surmise that this protein set could be used as a biomarker to assess the human health status. Further determinations of the normal fluctuations of the single urinary proteins in this series using samples from large numbers of healthy individuals are required prior to any application in clinical settings.

Antibacterial effect of dressings containing multivalent silver ion carried by zirconium phosphate on experimental rat burn wounds

To evaluate the antibacterial effect of multivalent silver ion carried by zirconium phosphate (ZP‐Ag) both in vitro and in an experimental rat burn wound compared with that of sulfadiazine silver (SD‐Ag). Firstly, the minimal inhibition concentration and the minimal bactericidal concentration of ZP‐Ag to three different strains of bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Escherichia coli) were compared with those of SD‐Ag in vitro. Following this dressings containing the same mass of ZP‐Ag or SD‐Ag were applied to wounds in a rat burn model and their antimicrobial activity assayed. The inflammatory response of the wounds managed with the two kinds of dressings was compared. Both the minimal inhibition concentration and minimal bactericidal concentration of ZP‐Ag to S. aureus, P. aeruginosa, and E. coli were two to four times lower than those of SD‐Ag. In vivo ZP‐Ag had a more effective antibacterial action inhibiting the growth of the above three bacterial strains under burn scar, compared with dressings made from the same mass of SD‐Ag. Moreover, the antibacterial effect was unchanged after the ZP‐Ag dressings were washed 20 times, while it dramatically decreased after the dressings with SD‐Ag were washed 20 times. When covered by either regular or washed ZP‐Ag dressings, the wounds showed integrity with no visible inflammatory reaction. However, various extents of inflammatory reactions on or around the wounds covered with regular SD‐Ag dressing were observed. This study showed that dressings with ZP‐Ag had a prominent and relative long‐term antibacterial effect. ZP‐Ag dressings could be an effective, low‐cost management option for burn wounds.