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Despite significant advances in transplantation, acute cellular rejection (AR) remains a major obstacle that is most prevalent in the first months post heart transplantation (HT). Current treatments require high doses of immunosuppressive drugs followed by maintenance therapies that have systemic side effects including early infection. In this study, we attempted to prevent AR with a myocardial-targeted galectin-7-siRNA delivery method using cationic microbubbles (CMBs) combined with ultrasound targeted microbubble destruction (UTMD) to create local immunosuppression in a rat abdominal heterotopic heart transplantation acute rejection model.Galectin-7-siRNA (siGal-7) bound to CMBs were synthesized and effective ultrasound-targeted delivery of siGal-7 into target cells confirmed in vitro. Based on these observations, three transplant rat models were tested：①isograft (ISO); ② Allograft (ALLO) +UTMD; and ③ALLO + PBS. UTMD treatments were administered at 1, 3, 5, 7 days after HT. Galectin 7 expression was reduced by 50% compared to ALLO + PBS (p 0.005), and this was associated with significant reductions in both galectin 7 and Interleukin-2 protein levels (p 0.001). The ALLO + UTMD group had Grade II or less inflammatory infiltration and myocyte damage in 11/12 rats using International Society For Heart and Lung Transplantation grading, compared to 0/12 rats with this grading in the ALLO + PBS group at 10 days post HT (p 0.001).Ultrasound-targeted galectin-7-siRNA knockdown with UTMD can prevent acute cellular rejection in the early period after allograft heart transplantation without the need for systemic immunosuppression.Microbubble, Acute Rejection, Heart Transplantation, Galectin-7, RNA.

Adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) and bone marrow-derived stem cells (BMSCs) are considered to be prospective sources of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs), that can be used in cell therapy for atherosclerosis. The present study investigated whether ADSCs co-cultured with M1 foam macrophages via treatment with oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) would lead to similar or improved anti-inflammatory effects compared with BMSCs. ADSCs, peripheral blood monocytes, BMSCs and ox-LDL were isolated from ten coronary heart disease (CHD) patients. After three passages, the supernatants of the ADSCs and BMSCs were collected and systematically analysed by liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight-mass spectrometry (6530; Agilent Technologies, Inc., Santa Clara, CA, USA). Cis-9, trans-11 was deemed to be responsible for the potential differences in the metabolic characteristics of ADSCs and BMSCs. These peripheral blood monocytes were characterized using flow cytometry. Following peripheral blood monocytes differentiation into M1 macrophages, the formation of M1 foam macrophages was achieved through treatment with ox-LDL. Overall, 2×106 ADSCs, BMSCs or BMSCs+cis-9, trans-11 were co-cultured with M1 foam macrophages. Anti-inflammatory capability, phagocytic activity, anti-apoptotic capability and cell viability assays were compared among these groups. It was demonstrated that the accumulation of lipid droplets decreased following ADSCs, BMSCs or BMSCs+cis-9, trans-11 treatment in M1 macrophages derived from foam cells. Consistently, ADSCs exhibited great advantageous anti-inflammatory capabilities, phagocytic activity, anti-apoptotic capability activity and cell viability over BMSCs or BMSCs+cis-9, trans-11. Additionally, BMSCs+cis-9, trans-11 also demonstrated marked improvement in anti-inflammatory capability, phagocytic activity, anti-apoptotic capability activity and cell viability in comparison with BMSCs. The present results indicated that ADSCs would be more appropriate for transplantation to treat atherosclerosis than BMSCs alone or BMSCs+cis-9, trans-11. This may be an important mechanism to regulate macrophage immune function.

Recently, elastography has become very popular in clinical investigation for thyroid cancer detection and diagnosis. In elastogram, the stress results of the thyroid are displayed using pseudo colors. Due to variation of the rendering results in different frames, it is difficult for radiologists to manually select the qualified frame image quickly and efficiently. The purpose of this study is to find the qualified rendering result in the thyroid elastogram. This paper employs an efficient thyroid ultrasound image segmentation algorithm based on neutrosophic graph cut to find the qualified rendering images. Firstly, a thyroid ultrasound image is mapped into neutrosophic set, and an indeterminacy filter is constructed to reduce the indeterminacy of the spatial and intensity information in the image. A graph is defined on the image and the weight for each pixel is represented using the value after indeterminacy filtering. The segmentation results are obtained using a maximum-flow algorithm on the graph. Then the anatomic structure is identified in thyroid ultrasound image. Finally the rendering colors on these anatomic regions are extracted and validated to find the frames which satisfy the selection criteria. To test the performance of the proposed method, a thyroid elastogram dataset is built and totally 33 cases were collected. An experienced radiologist manually evaluates the selection results of the proposed method. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method finds the qualified rendering frame with 100% accuracy. The proposed scheme assists the radiologists to diagnose the thyroid diseases using the qualified rendering images.

Purpose: The aim of the study was to evaluate the correlation of ultrasound features with breast cancer molecular status. Materials and Methods: A retrospective review was performed of ultrasound findings in 263 patients diagnosed with breast invasive ductal carcinoma for comparison with immunohistochemistric results were obtained from each lesion. Relationships between ultrasound findings and molecular status were investigated by using multiple regression analysis by means of stepwise logistic regression. Differences in ultrasound criteria were assessed among women with different molecular status. Results: ER positivity was associated with small size, lobulate, angular or spiculated margin contours, absence of calcification, posterior tumor shadowing and low elasticity score; PR positivity was associated with small size, lobulate or angular or spiculated margin contours and absence of calcification; HER2 positivity was associated with presence of calcification and absence of any echogenic halo. The calculated models of predicted molecular status were accurate and discriminating with AUCs of 0.78, 0.74, and 0.74, respectively. Conclusions: Breast cnacer ultrasound features show some correlation with the molecular status. These models may help to expand the scope of ultrasound in predicting tumor biology.

Purpose The aim of this study was to identify the ultrasound features and clinicopathological characteristics of basal-like subtype of triple negative breast cancers (TNBCs). Materials and Methods This study was approved by the ethical board of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University. The patients’ clinicopathological information was available. The ultrasound features of 62 tumors from 62 TNBC patients were interpreted. The immunohistochemical results of cytokertain5/6 (CK5/6) and Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) were used to classify the tumor into basal-like and normal-like groups. The association of the ultrasound features interpreted by experienced ultrasound doctors with the immunohistochemical classification was studied. Results Of the 62 TNBC cases, 42 (67.7%) exhibited the basal-like phenotype and 20 (32.3%) exhibited the normal-like phenotype based on the immunohistochemical CK5/6 and EGFR markers. Of all the tumors, 90.3% were invasive carcinomas. The basal-like tumors were significantly associated with a maximum diameter on ultrasound of more than 20 mm (36, 85.7%) (P = 0.0014). The normal-like tumors usually exhibited lateral shadows (15, 75%) (P = 0.0115) as well as microlobulated margins (12, 60%) (P = 0.0204) compared to the basal-like subtype. Other ultrasound features showed no significant differences between the two groups. Conclusions Although ultrasound cannot yet be used to differentiate between the basal-like subtype and normal-like subtype of TNBC, ultrasound can be used to provide some useful information to the clinicians.