Abstract Purpose Patients with diabetes are vulnerable to myocardial I/R (ischaemia/reperfusion) injury, but are not responsive to IPO (ischaemic post-conditioning). We hypothesized that decreased cardiac Adiponectin (APN) is responsible for the loss of diabetic heart sensitivity to IPO cardioprotecton. Methods Diabetic rats were subjected to I/R injury (30 min of LAD occlusion followed by 120 min of reperfusion). Myocardial infarct area was determined by TTC staining. Cardiac function was monitored by a microcatheter. ANP, 15-F2t-isoprostane, nitrotyrosine and MDA were measured by assay kits. Levels of p-Akt, total-Akt and GAPDH were determined by Western Blot. Results Diabetic rats subjected to myocardial IR exhibited severe myocardial infarction and oxidative stress injury, lower APN in the plasma and cardiac p-Akt expression ( P <0.05). IPO significantly attenuated myocardial injury and up-regulated plasma APN content and cardiac p-Akt expression in non-diabetic rats but not in diabetic rats. Linear correlation analysis showed that the expression of adiponectin was positively correlated with p-Akt and negatively correlated with myocardial infarction area ( P <0.01). Conclusion Protective effect of IPO was tightly correlated with the expression of adiponectin, exacerbation of I/R injury and ineffectiveness of IPO was partially due to the decline of adiponectin and inactivation of Akt in diabetes mellitus.

Cobalt blue pigments were prepared by self-propagating combustion followed by sol-gel method using aluminum nitrate and cobalt nitrate as the raw material. X ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), fiber optic spectrometer and colorimetric analysis were used to investigate the effect of reaction temperature, metal ion concentration and dispersant upon the gel formation. The results show that the formation of gel network could be promoted by increasing the concentration of metal ion (0.01~0.2 mol/L) and sol-gel reaction temperature (80~90°C), and the disper-sibility and stability of the pigment powder could be improved with dispersing agent. The dried gel precursor was calcined at 1250 °C to form 200~500 nm cobalt aluminum with spinel structure with highly negative value of b*.

ABSTRACT Objectives: To evaluate the prognosis of non-metastatic T3a renal cell carcinoma (RCC) with partial nephrectomy (PN). Patients and Methods: We retrospectively evaluated 125 patients with non-metastatic T3a RCC. Patients undergoing PN and radical nephrectomy (RN) were strictly matched by clinic-pathologic characteristics. Log-rank test and Cox regression model were used for univariate and multivariate analysis. Results: 18 pair patients were matched and the median follow-up was 35.5 (10-86) months. PN patients had a higher postoperative eGFR than RN patients (P=0.034). Cancer-specific survival (CSS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) did not differ between two groups (P=0.305 and P=0.524). On multivariate analysis, CSS decreased with positive surgical margin and anemia (both P <0.01) and RFS decreased with Furhman grade, positive surgical margin, and anemia (all P<0.01). Conclusions: For patients with non-metastatic pT3a RCC, PN may be a possible option for similar oncology outcomes and better renal function.