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Background: Tumor initiating cells (TICs) were confirmed to drive the therapeutic resistance of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but the mechanism by which tumor microenvironment maintains the HCC stemness is not fully understood. This study aims to investigate the effect of regulatory T cells (Tregs) on the TICs characteristics of HCC. Methods: Immunocytochemistry, flow cytometry, real-time PCR, western blot, in vitro sphere-formation, and in vivo tumorigenesis assay were used to detect HCC TIC characteristics. Additionally, the association between FoxP3 expression, Wnt/β-catenin pathway activation, and HCC stemness were analyzed by forced expression or inhibition of FoxP3. Results: It was showed Tregs enhanced the stemness of HCC cells by upregulation of TIC-related markers CD133, Oct3/4, Sox2, c-Myc, Klf4, Nanog, CD13, EpCAM, and induction of epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT), increase of TICs ratio, as well as promotion of tumorigenic ability. Moreover, β-catenin and c-Myc were upregulated in HCC cells when co-cultured with Tregs. After Wnt/β-catenin pathway inhibition, HCC stemness was also inhibited. In addition, Tregs-derived exosomes played the same role as Tregs in enhancing HCC TIC properties, and exosome inhibition led to decreased TIC ratio as well as TIC markers expression. Furthermore, Tregs-derived exosomes down-regulate FoxP3 and GSK3β of HCC cells. Forced expression of FoxP3 resulted in increased GSK3β, decreased β-catenin and TIC ratio of HCC. In contrast, FoxP3 interference reduced GSK3β, increased β-catenin and TIC ratio. Conclusions: This study, for the first time, demonstrated Tregs enhanced HCC stemness through Wnt//β-catenin pathway by down-regulating FoxP3.

[Retraction]AIM: To explore the topographic distribution features of choroidal thickness (CT) and retinal nerve fiber layer thickness (RNFLT), and determine the relationship between CT and ocular parameters in school-aged children. METHODS: The healthy school-aged children with low myopia or emmetropia in Wenzhou were recruited for this cross-sectional study. With high-density optical coherence tomography (HD-OCT) combined with MATLAB software, the CT and RNFLT values in the macular area were measured at different locations and compared. Statistical analyses were performed to evaluate the correlation between CT and ophthalmic parameters, such as spherical equivalent (SE) and the axial length (AL). RESULTS: A total of 279 school-aged children with 8.00±1.35 years of mean age (range, 6-10y) were included. The mean AL was 23.66±0.86 mm. The mean CT in CT-C (264.31±48.93 µm) was thicker than that in CT-N1 (249.54±50.52 µm), and the average CT in the parafoveal region was also thicker than that in CT-N2 (235.65±50.63 µm). The subfoveal CT also varied substantially across refractive errors (P

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is the most common type of chronic lung disease in infancy, for which no effective therapy is currently available. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of treatment with bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) in combination with recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO) on BPD‑induced mouse lung injury, and discuss the underlying mechanism. The BPD model was established by the exposure of neonatal mice to continuous high oxygen exposure for 14 days, following which 1x106 BMSCs and 5,000 U/kg rHuEPO were injected into the mice 1 h prior to and 7 days following exposure to hyperoxia. The animals received four treatments in total (n=10 in each group). After 14 days, the body weights, airway structure, and levels of matrix metalloproteinase‑9 (MMP‑9) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) were detected using histological and immunohistochemical analyses. The effect on cell differentiation was observed by examining the presence of platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule (PECAM) and VEGF using immunofluorescence. Compared with the administration of BMSCs alone, the body weight, airway structure, and the levels of MMP‑9 and VEGF were significantly improved in the BMSCs/rHuEPO group. The results of the present study demonstrated that the intravenous injection of BMSCs significantly improved lung damage in the hyperoxia‑exposed neonatal mouse model. Furthermore, the injection of BMSCs in combination with intraperitoneal injection of rHuEPO had a more marked effect, compared with BMSCs alone, and the mechanism may be mediated by the promoting effects of BMSCs and EPO. The results of the present study provided information, which may assist in future clinical trials.

Doctors use electronic diagnostics to analyze cancer cells. However, The shape and size of cancer cells are small, and doctors can't accurately analyze cancer cells, leading to misdiagnosis of doctors. In order to solve this problem, we can use multi-scale morphological algorithm to extract tumor cells accurately. In this paper, Top-hat operator is used to enhance the image edge extraction. The edge image is obtained with high degree of closure, you can accurately calculate the cell parameters. This experiments show that the operator not only can filter out the noise, but also maintain the details of the image. This algorithm can highlight edge contours and extract image detail information, which is more effective than traditional morphology

Cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells have been used as adoptive immunotherapy in cancer. The present study evaluated the effect of CIK cells on immune function in patients with lung cancer. Patients were divided into three groups, according to the treatment received prior to CIK cell treatment: CIK group (no prior treatment), Che-Sur group (prior chemotherapy and surgery) and Che-Rad group (prior chemotherapy and radiotherapy). Following treatment, the average percentage of cluster of differentiation (CD)3+CD4+, CD3+, natural killer (NK) and NKT cells in peripheral blood was significantly higher than that prior to CIK treatment in the Che-Sur and CIK groups, and the levels of interferon-γ in serum were significantly higher than those prior to CIK treatment in the Che-Sur and CIK groups. On the contrary, the levels of interleukin-10 had decreased in these groups following CIK treatment. Subsequently, patients were divided into three groups according to the percentage of CD3+CD56+ CIK cells that were administered to the patients. The number of NK and NKT cells increased with increasing number of CD3+CD56+ cells. The patients in the CIK and Che-Sur groups were the most benefited ones following CIK treatment, contrarily to those in the Che-Rad group, since the increase in the number of CD3+CD56+ CIK cells in the aforementioned patients enhanced the number of NK cells, which exhibit antitumor activity.