A Comparative Study of Survival, Metabolism, Immune Indicators, and Proteomics, in Five Batches of Japanese Scallop Mizuhopecten yessoensis under Short-Term High Temperature Stress

Five batches of the Japanese scallop Mizuhopecten pyessoensis were tested for survival rate, oxygen consumption, catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities, total antioxidant capacities (T-AOC) contents, and proteomics under short-term high temperature conditions. The five batches, (W1, W2, W3, W4, W5) selected from the established 21 ‘ivory white’ M. yessoensis batches, had higher survival rates than the other batches after one year of culture. Initial rearing water temperature of 15°C was increased by 1°C per day with a cooling and heating system. The temperature was raised until over 50% of the scallops from 3 batches died. This occurred at 30°C. The higher than normal culture temperature conditions showed significant or highly significant differences in the responses of some of the batches. Some showed significantly higher survival rates and significantly different rates of oxygen consumption. CAT activity, SOD activity and T-AOC content was similar in the five batches, and all three indices were significantly lower in W3 and W5 than in the other batches (P<0.01). Expression patterns of MDA content were opposite to those of CAT activity, SOD activity and T-AOC content. Protein profiles of all five batches were similar; the sizes of the predominant bands ranged from 20-110 kDa. We identified twenty-eight proteins with high scores in the database. These included heat shock proteins (HSPs), glucose-regulated protein 94, and arginine kinase

Household Catastrophic Medical Expenses in Eastern China: Determinants and Policy Implications

Background: Much of research on household catastrophic medical expenses in China has focused on less developed areas and little is known about this problem in more developed areas. This study aimed to analyse the incidence and determinants of catastrophic medical expenses in eastern China. Methods: Data were obtained from a health care utilization and expense survey of 11,577 households conducted in eastern China in 2008. The incidence of household catastrophic medical expenses was calculated using the method introduced by the World Health Organization. A multi-level logistic regression model was used to identify the determinants. Results: The incidence of household catastrophic medical expenses in eastern China ranged from 9.24% to 24.79%. Incidence of household catastrophic medical expenses was lower if the head of household had a higher level of education, labor insurance coverage, while the incidence was higher if they lived in rural areas, had a family member with chronic diseases, had a child younger than 5 years old, had a person at home who was at least 65 years old, and had a household member who was hospitalized. Moreover, the impact of the economic level on catastrophic medical expenses was non-linear. The poorest group had a lower incidence than that of the second lowest income group and the group with the highest income had a higher incidence than that of the second highest income group. In addition, region was a significant determinant. Conclusions: Reducing the incidence of household catastrophic medical expenses should be one of the priorities of health policy. It can be achieved by improving residents’ health status to reduce avoidable health services such as hospitalization. It is also important to design more targeted health insurance in order to increase financial support for such vulnerable groups as the poor, chronically ill, children, and senior populations

Differential impact of two doses of antithymocyte globulin conditioning on lymphocyte recovery upon haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

Background: In vivo depletion of host T cells with antithymocyte globulin (ATG) is a common strategy for preventing graft-versus-host disease in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). The total dose of ATG in conditioning regimens appears to be an important factor that influences the outcome in recipients of transplants. However, the optimal ATG dosage has not been established to date. It remains unclear whether, in the setting of haploidentical HSCT (haploHSCT), different doses of ATG might exert differential influences on the recovery of lymphocyte subpopulations. Methods: This retrospective study analyzed lymphocyte recovery and its correlation to viral infection in two groups of patients that received different doses of ATG before haploHSCT. We performed flowcytometry to determine immunophenotypes of CD19(+) B cells and CD3(+), CD4(+), CD8(+), CD4(+) CD45RA(+), CD4(+) CD45RO(+), CD4(+) CD28(+), CD8(+) CD28(+), and CD4(-)CD8(-)T cells. Results: We found that, compared to 6 mg/kg, 10 mg/kg ATG significantly hampered the recoveries of CD4+, CD4(+) CD45RA(+), and CD4(+) CD45RO(+) T cells in the first 2 months following haploHSCT. Similarly, compared to 6 mg/kg, the 10 mg/kg dose of ATG negatively influenced the recoveries of CD4(-)CD8(-) and CD8(+) CD28(+) T cells; recovery was delayed for 6 and 12 months after transplantation, respectively. Moreover, we showed that an increase in Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infections, associated with the higher dose of ATG, was correlated with the delayed recovery of CD4(-)CD8(-)double negative T cells. Conclusions: The present study revealed a differential impact of different ATG conditioning doses on the recoveries of T cell subpopulations post-haploHSCT. This study was the first to connect the recovery of CD4-CD8-T cells to the risk of EBV infection after HSCT. These findings will facilitate optimization of the ATG conditioning dosage and improve the outcome of patients with leukemia that receive haploHSCT.Key Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China [81230013]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [81370666]SCI(E)[email protected]