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Purpose: Laparoscopic liver resection (LLR) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains controversial, especially for tumors larger than 5 cm. We compared the short- and long-term outcomes of laparoscopic and open liver resection (OLR) for large HCC. Methods: Patients with large HCC after curative hepatectomy were enrolled. To compare the short-term outcomes, propensity score matching (PSM) and inverse probability treatment weighting (IPTW) were performed to reduce the effect of confounding factors, respectively. Subsequently, Cox-regression analyses were conducted to identify the independent risk factors associated with decreased recurrence-free survival (RFS) and poor overall survival (OS). Result: There were 265 patients enrolled in the final analysis: 146 who underwent OLR and 119 who underwent LLR. There was no significant difference between the OLR and LLR groups according to PSM and IPTW analysis (all P > 0.05). Multivariable analysis revealed that LLR was not independently associated with poorer OS (HR 1.15, 95% CI 0.80–1.67, P = 0.448) or RFS (HR 1.22, 95% CI 0.88–1.70, P = 0.238). Conclusion: There were no significant differences in perioperative complications or long-term prognosis between LLR and OLR for large HCC, which provides evidence for standard laparoscopic surgical practice with adequate surgeon experience and careful patient selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, an environmental simulation platform (ETS-02) was constructed for high-precision geodesic instruments (e.g., absolute/relative gravimeters and inclinometers), to test the disturbances caused by environmental fluctuations. The outer layer of the platform was constructed with two sets of rectangular electromagnetic coils, which generated the required magnetic field when current was applied. The inner layer was a closed cabin in which radiators were distributed such that the temperature of the experimental space inside the cabin could be controlled, by energy exchange between the radiators and a thermal controller through the flowing liquid. A high-precision hexapod was used to simulate the tilt-related effect. The platform was capable of adjusting temperatures within a dynamic range of 0°C–70°C at a resolution of 0.01°C. The noise of the power-spectrum density when the cabin was set to room temperature was measured as 0.03°C/Hz1/2 at 1 mHz. The magnetic field simulation had a dynamic range of ±300 μT and stability of 20 nT. The resolution of the ground-tilt simulation was 1 arc s. The inner space of the platform had a volume of approximately 5 m3, which is sufficient for most types of instruments to be tested for a general environmental coupling effect. To illustrate the application of the platform, a dual-axis inclinometer was built and tested carefully with the platform, and the accuracy of the calibration factors was found to be significantly improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/srep08087 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accumulating evidences indicate that microRNAs play a vital role in regulating tumor progression. However, the roles of miR-148b in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are still largely unknown. In this study, our data showed that miR-148b was significantly downregulated in 40 pairs of human HCC tissues. Further, the deregulated miR-148b was significantly correlated with larger tumor size, more tumor number, metastasis and worse prognosis in HCC. Overexpression of miR-148b inhibited HCC HepG2 cells proliferation and tumorigenicity. Further, miR-148b induced cells apoptosis by activating caspase- 3 and caspase-9, and induced S phase arrest by regulating cyclinD1 and p21, and also inhibited cell invasion. Data from the dual-luciferase reporter gene assay showed that WNT1 was a direct target of miR-148b, and overexpressed WNT1 inversely correlated with miR-148b levels in HCC tissues. Silencing of WNT1 inhibited the growth of HCC cells, and also induced cells apoptosis and inhibited invasion, which is consistent with the effects of miR-148b overexpression. MiR-148b downregulated expression of WNT1, β-catenin and C-myc, while upregulated E-cadherin expression. We conclude that the frequently downregulated miR-148b can regulate WNT1/β-catenin signalling pathway and function as a tumor suppressor in HCC. These findings suggest that miR-148b may serve as a novel therapeutic target for HCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]