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Patients with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) require chemotherapy due to late detection, rapid disease progression, and low surgical resection rate. Tumor cell lines are extremely important in cancer research for drug discovery and development. Here, we established and characterized a new intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma cell line, ICC-X1. STR testing confirmed the absence of cross-contamination and high similarity to the original tissue. ICC-X1 exhibited typical epithelial morphology and formed tumor spheres in the suspension culture. The population doubling time was approximately 48 h. The cell line had a complex hypotriploid karyotype. The cell line exhibited a strong migration ability in vitro and cell inoculation into BALB/c nude mice led to the formation of xenografts. Additionally, ICC-X1 cells were sensitive to gemcitabine and paclitaxel but resistant to 5-fluorouracil and oxaliplatin. RNA sequencing revealed that the upregulated cancer-related genes were mainly enriched in several signaling pathways, including the TNF signaling pathway, NOD-like receptor signaling pathway, and NF-κB signaling pathway. The downregulated cancer-related genes were mainly enriched in the Rap1 signaling pathway and Hippo signaling pathway among other pathways. In conclusion, we have created a new ICC cell line derived from Chinese patients. This cell line can be used as a preclinical model to study ICC, specifically tumor metastasis and drug resistance mechanisms.

A kind of smart calcium alginate fiber having pH indicating properties was proposed to monitor wound healing. The smart calcium alginate fiber was prepared by dyeing the hydroxypropyl trimethyl ammonium chloride chitosan (HACC) modified calcium alginate fiber with alizarin dye and anthocyanin dye, respectively. It was worth noting that modification of calcium alginate fibers with HACC enhanced the dyeing and antibacterial properties, simultaneously. When the concentration of HACC was 10 g/L, the modified calcium alginate fiber had the best dyeing performance. At the same time, the dyeing process had no significant influence on the mechanical properties of the fibers with the strength loss only around 0.2 cN/dtex. The smart calcium alginate fibers exhibited a rapid and significant color change and reversible color response at pH 2–11. Moreover, the color change could be easily observed by naked eye. Therefore, the prepared calcium alginate fibers could be a good candidate for intelligent wound dressings for visual monitoring of wound healing.

The electrospinning of poly(L-lactic acid)/poly(D-lactic acid) (PLLA/PDLA) microfiber membranes were carried out with dichloromethane (DCM), DCM/ethanol, DCM/acetone, DCM/hexane as the spinning solvent. Scanning electron microscope observation showed that the electrospun fiber obtained using DCM/ethanol (L/D-DE) mixed solvent was homogeneous without visible bead, which was better than any others. Moreover, plenty of pores could be found on the surface of the fibers obtained using the mixed solvents. The porous structure of fibers was significantly influenced by the ethanol (non-solvent) content. When the DCM/ethanol was 50:10 (v/v), the fibers were uniform and had isolated pores. XRD and DSC results indicated that the exclusive stereocomplex poly(lactide acid) (sc-PLA) crystallites without any homocrystallites poly(lactide acid) (hc-PLA) did form in all types of fibers. The crystallinity of sc-PLA in the L/D-DE fiber was higher than other samples due to the slowest evaporation rate. TGA test further indicated that the thermal stabilities of PLLA/PDLA electrospun fibers were slightly better than the PLLA. Furthermore, L/D-DE had the excellent mechanical properties and underwent the course of ductile fracture. Possible mechanisms accounting for the morphologies and tensile properties were also proposed in this study.

Background Accumulating evidence demonstrates that tRFs (tRNA-derived small RNA fragments) and tiRNAs (tRNA-derived stress-induced RNA), an emerging category of regulatory RNA molecules derived from transfer RNAs (tRNAs), are dysregulated in in various human cancer types and play crucial roles. However, their roles and mechanisms in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and liver cancer stem cells (LCSCs) are still unknown. Methods The expression of glycine tRNA-derived fragment (Gly-tRF) was measured by qRT-PCR. Flow cytometric analysis and sphere formation assays were used to determine the properties of LCSCs. Transwell assays and scratch wound assays were performed to detect HCC cell migration. Western blotting was conducted to evaluate the abundance change of Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-related proteins. Dual luciferase reporter assays and signalling pathway analysis were performed to explore the underlying mechanism of Gly-tRF functions. Results Gly-tRF was highly expressed in HCC cell lines and tumour tissues. Gly-tRF mimic increased the LCSC subpopulation proportion and LCSC-like cell properties. Gly-tRF mimic promoted HCC cell migration and EMT. Loss of Gly-tRF inhibited HCC cell migration and EMT. Mechanistically, Gly-tRF decreased the level of NDFIP2 mRNA by binding to the NDFIP2 mRNA 3′ UTR. Importantly, overexpression of NDFIP2 weakened the promotive effects of Gly-tRF on LCSC-like cell sphere formation and HCC cell migration. Signalling pathway analysis showed that Gly-tRF increased the abundance of phosphorylated AKT. Conclusions Gly-tRF enhances LCSC-like cell properties and promotes EMT by targeting NDFIP2 and activating the AKT signalling pathway. Gly-tRF plays tumor-promoting role in HCC and may lead to a potential therapeutic target for HCC.

A possible association between multiple drug resistance 1 gene (MDR1) polymorphisms and the risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is currently under debate, and evidence from various epidemiological studies has yielded controversial results. To derive a more precise estimation of the association between MDR1 polymorphisms and HCC risk, the present meta-analysis was performed. A total of 8 studies containing 11 cohorts with 4407 cases and 4436 controls were included by systematic literature search of EMBASE, PubMed, Web of Science, and CNKI. All polymorphisms were classified as mutant/wild-type alleles. In particular, the variation type, functional impact, and protein domain location of the polymorphisms were assessed and used as stratified indicators. The pooled odds ratio (OR) with 95 % confidence interval (CI) was calculated to evaluate the association. Overall, our results suggested that the mutant alleles of the MDR1 gene were associated with a significantly increased risk for HCC under all genetic models (allelic model: OR = 1.28, 95 % CI = 1.20–1.36, P