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Problem: Cholestasis can cause translocation of gut bacteria, and endotoxemia, and systemic inflammation. Now, little is known about the effects of cholestasis on the testicular inflammation and autophagy., Methods: A rat biliary cholestasis model caused by common bile duct ligation (CBDL), together with biliary decompression (choledochoduodenostomy), was used., Results: The magnitude of MCP-1 expression and CD68(+) macrophage infiltration within testes was progressively up-regulated in rats along with increasing duration of CBDL and was maintained at relatively high level in rats with biliary decompression. The large up-regulation of testicular ATG-12, LC3II, and autophagic vacuoles was found with the extending duration of CBDL and kept at 5 weeks following biliary decompression. The autophagic contents were a large accumulation of mitophagy in testes in rats with CBDL, and cytosol components in rats with biliary decompression., Conclusion: Secondary biliary cholestasis can promote inflammatory reaction and the activation of mitophagy and autophagy in testes., (© 2014 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

The aims of this study are to analyze the association of microRNA-141 (miR-141) with the clinicopathological parameters of bladder cancer and evaluate the value of miR-141 in predicting the prognosis of bladder cancer. In this study, 114 patients with bladder cancer were enrolled in the study, and tissue specimens were obtained from the tumor zone and from adjacent normal area. miR-141 expression was determined using SYRB Green quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction assay and was further correlated with patients' clinicopathological parameters and the follow-up data. The results indicated that miR-141 was upregulated in malignant bladder specimens compared with normal ones (P < 0.001). miR-141 expression was significantly associated with tumor stage (P < 0.001), tumor grade (P < 0.001), and muscle invasion status (P < 0.001). Log-rank test showed that the higher miR-141 expression was associated with longer disease-specific survival of the patients with bladder cancer (P < 0.001), which was also proven by univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis (P < 0.001 and P = 0.039, respectively). Focusing on patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer, univariate analysis using log-rank test and Cox regression analysis found that patients with high miR-141 expression experienced longer disease-free survival (P = 0.031 and P = 0.040, respectively) and disease-specific survival (P = 0.028 and P = 0.038, respectively), which was confirmed by multivariate Cox regression analysis (P = 0.036 and P = 0.042, respectively). In conclusion, this study showed that miR-141 may contribute to the progression of bladder cancer and its upregulation may be independently associated with favorable prognosis of bladder cancer, suggesting that miR-141 might serve as a promising biological marker for further risk stratification in the management of bladder cancer.

Background: The prognostic prediction of liver transplantation (LT) guides the donor organ allocation. However, there is currently no satisfactory model to predict the recipients' outcome, especially for the patients with HBV cirrhosis-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The present study was to develop a quantitative assessment model for predicting the post-LT survival in HBV-related HCC patients., Methods: Two hundred and thirty-eight LT recipients at the Liver Transplant Center, First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine between 2008 and 2013 were included in this study. Their post-LT prognosis was recorded and multiple risk factors were analyzed using univariate and multivariate analyses in Cox regression., Results: The score model was as follows: 0.114X(Child-Pugh score)-0.002X(positive HBV DNA detection time)+0.647X(number of tumor nodules)+0.055X(max diameter of tumor nodules)+0.231XlnAFP+0.437X(tumor differentiation grade). The receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that the area under the curve of the scoring model for predicting the post-LT survival was 0.887. The cut-off value was 1.27, which was associated with a sensitivity of 72.5% and a specificity of 90.7%, respectively., Conclusion: The quantitative score model for predicting post-LT survival proved to be sensitive and specific.

Background: Malignant serous effusions (MSE) are one complication in patients with advanced cancer. Endostar is a new anti-tumor drug targeting vessels which exerts potent inhibition of neovascularization. This study aimed to systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of intraperitoneal perfusion therapy of Endostar combined with platinum chemotherapy for malignant serous effusions (MSE)., Materials and Methods: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on intraperitoneal perfusion therapy of Endostar combined with platinum chemotherapy for malignant serous effusions were searched in the electronic data of PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, CNKI, VIP, CBM and WanFang. The quality of RCTs was evaluated by two independent researchers and a meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.3 software., Results: The total of 25 RCTs included in the meta-analysis covered 1,253 patients, and all literature quality was evaluated as "B" grade. The meta-analysis showed that Endostar combined with platinum had an advantage over platinum alone in terms of response rate of effusions (76% vs 48%, RR=1.63, 95%CI: 1.50-1.78, P<0.00001) and improvement rate in quality of life (69% vs 44%, RR=1.57, 95%CI: 1.42-1.74, P<0.00001). As for safety, there was no significant difference between the two groups in the incidences of nausea and vomiting (35% vs 34%, RR=1.01, 95%CI: 0.87-1.18, P=0.88), leucopenia (38% vs 38%, RR=1, 95%CI: 0.87-1.15, P=0.99), and renal impairment (18% vs 20%, RR=0.86, 95%CI: 0.43-1.74, P=0.68)., Conclusions: Endostar combined with platinum by intraperitoneal perfusion is effective for malignant serous effusions, and patient quality of life is significantly improved without the incidence of adverse reactions being obviously increased.

Painful diabetic polyneuropathy (PDN) at the early phrase of diabetes frequently exhibits increased responsiveness to nociception. In diabetic patients and animal models, alterations in the transmission of orofacial sensory information have been demonstrated in trigeminal system. Herein, we examined the changes of protein kinase Cγ subunit (PKCγ) in trigeminal spinal nucleus (Sp5C) and observed the development of orofacial thermal sensitivity in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced type 1 diabetic mice. With hyperglycemia and body weight loss, STZ mice exhibited orofacial thermal hyperalgesia, along with increased PKCγ expression in Sp5C. Insulin treatment at the early stage of diabetes could alleviate the orofacial thermal hyperalgesia and impaired increased PKCγ in Sp5C in diabetic mice. In summary, our results demonstrate that PKCγ might be involved in orofacial thermal hyperalgesia of diabetes, and early insulin treatment might be effective way to treat orofacial PDN., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Mucormycosis is a rare but potentially lethal complication of liver transplantation. Most reported cases have involved rhinocerebral, pulmonary, gastrointestinal, or disseminated forms. We present herein the case of a 61-year-old male patient with hepatocellular carcinoma who developed isolated penile mucormycosis after orthotopic liver transplantation. Such a case has not been reported in the literature to date. Early diagnosis and timely surgical intervention combined with comprehensive treatment are the key factors for improving the survival rate in patients with mucormycosis., (Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

A simple, fast and sensitive capillary electrophoresis (CE) strategy combined with chemiluminescence (CL) detection for analysis of ofloxacin (OF) enantiomers was established in the present work. Sulfonated β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) was used as the chiral additive being added into the running buffer of luminol-diperiodatocuprate (III) (K 5 [Cu(HIO 6 ) 2 ], DPC) chemiluminescence system. Under the optimum conditions, the proposed method was successfully applied to separation and analysis of OF enantiomers with the detection limits ( S / N =3) of 8.0 nM and 7.0 nM for levofloxacin and dextrofloxacin, respectively. The linear ranges were both 0.010-100 μM. The method was utilized for analyzing OF in urine; the results obtained were satisfactory and recoveries were 89.5-110.8%, which demonstrated the reliability of this method. This approach can also be further extended to analyze different commercial OF medicines.

CD133 is a cellular surface glycoprotein that has been reported as a marker for the enrichment of cancer stem cells (CSCs). However, the regulatory mechanism of CD133 remains unknown. CSCs have been proposed to contribute to radioresistance and multi-drug resistance. The elucidation of key regulators of CD133 and CSCs is critical for the development of CSC-targeted therapy. In this study, we showed that Ikarosinhibited the expression of CD133 via direct binding to the CD133 P1 promoter and repressed the tumorigenic and self-renewal capacity of CD133(+) cancer stem-like cells in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We found that Ikaros interacted with CtBP as a transcription repressor complex, which inhibited CD133 expression in HCC. We also demonstrated that Ikaros expression was up-regulated by ETS1 which activity was regulated by MAPKs pathway. Furthermore, decreased expression of Ikaroswas significantly associated with poor survival in HCC patients. Overall, our study identifies that Ikaros plays a role as a transcription repressor in HCC and is a new reactivated therapeutic target for the treatment of HCC. Meanwhile, our findings provide evidence that Ikaros could be an attractive inhibitor of the target gene CD133, which reactivates anticancer mechanisms in targeted CSC therapy.

Aim: To evaluate the effect of reducing the use of antibiotics in the treatment of infant bacterial dacryocystitis after probing of the lacrimal duct., Methods: A total of 542 cases of children under one year old and accepting nasolacrimal duct probing treatment were divided into two groups, which were treated with topical and oral antibiotics, respectively. Conjunctival sac secretions were used as a control index of bacterial infection, whereas the disappearance of epiphora symptoms and lacrimal passage patency were used as cure indexes. The χ (2) test was used to compare enumeration and measurement data, and a statistical significance was set at P<0.05. The therapeutic effect on the two groups of postoperative patients was investigated., Results: In the two study groups, no significant differences in gender, age and postoperative control of lacrimal sac infection were observed. The cure rates after three probing operations also showed no significant difference., Conclusion: After probing of the lacrimal passage, results of this study confirmed that postoperative medication without oral antibiotics but an ophthalmic dosage of antibiotics was a simple and effective treatment method.

Dual graft liver transplantation has been demonstrated to be feasible as well as effective in increasing the donor pool and in preventing the potential for small-for-size syndrome. However, little is known about the pathophysiological and immune processes following dual graft liver transplantation due to the lack of appropriate animal models. The aim of this study, therefore, was to establish an improved rat model of dual graft liver transplantation, with long-term survival. Male inbred rats were used as both donors and recipients. One middle lobe together with another right middle lobe from the livers of two different donors were used as the dual grafts. The "basin-shaped anastomosis" technique was used to connect the suprahepatic inferior vena cava; "Y-shaped bridge" and "three-cuff" techniques were adopted for the anastomosis of the portal veins; and the "two-stent" technique was used for the anastomosis of the bile ducts. Six of the ten recipients survived for more than 100 days after dual graft liver transplantation. There was no difference in graft survival between dual and whole liver transplantation. The long-term survivors with dual grafts from two different donors had unobstructed portal vein flow, unobstructed biliary tract dilatation, normal graft function, and well-preserved hepatic structure. Therefore, this improved model will be potentially useful for evaluating the pathophysiological processes, immune responses between dual grafts and recipient, and mechanisms underlying the liver regeneration in dual grafts after dual graft liver transplantation.

Although the involvement of insulin-like signaling in cancer has been well documented in various types of cancers, the association between the genetic variants in the insulin-like signaling and the development of hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains unclear. In this study, a total of 498 individuals including 173 HBV related cirrhosis patients, 171 HBV-related HCC patients, and 154 healthy controls were enrolled. Sixteen single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in IGF1, IGF2, IGF1R and IGF2R have been genotyped by employing SNaPshot assays. We found A/A genotype at rs3743251 of IGF1R was negatively associated with HBV related HCC [odds ratio (OR) = 0.38, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.20-0.72, P = 0.037]; A/G genotype decreased the risk of portal vein thrombosis (OR = 0.38, 95%CI = 0.18-0.82, P = 0.01). These results indicate that rs3743251 polymorphism in IGF1R is associated with the susceptibility of HBV-related HCC., (© 2014 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

The aim of this study was to analyze the risk factors and prognosis for patients with esophageal perforation occurring during or after radiotherapy for esophageal carcinoma. We retrospectively analyzed 322 patients with esophageal carcinoma. These patients received radiotherapy for unresectable esophageal tumors, residual tumors after operation, or local recurrence. Of these, 12 had radiotherapy to the esophagus before being admitted, 68 patients had concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CRT), and 18 patients had esophageal perforation after RT (5.8%). Covered self-expandable metallic stents were placed in 11 patients. Two patients continued RT after stenting and control of infection; one of these suffered a new perforation, and the other had a massive hemorrhage. The median overall survival was 2 months (0-3 months) compared with 17 months in the non-perforation group. In univariate analysis, the Karnofsky performance status (KPS) being ≤ 70, age younger than 60, T4 stage, a second course of radiotherapy to the esophagus, extracapsular lymph nodes (LN) involving the esophagus, a total dose >100 Gy (biologically effective dose-10), and CRT were risk factors for perforation. In multivariate analysis, age younger than 60, extracapsular LN involving the esophagus, T4 stage, and a second course of radiotherapy to the esophagus were risk factors. In conclusion, patients with T4 stage, extracapsular LN involving the esophagus, and those receiving a second course of RT should be given particular care to avoid perforation. The prognosis after perforation was poor., (© The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Japan Radiation Research Society and Japanese Society for Radiation Oncology.)

Understanding and unravelling the invasion mechanisms of virus infection is of high importance for preventing and treating viral diseases. Single-virion tracking is a powerful way for exploring the mechanisms of viral infection. For successful tracking, the virus and cellular structures of interest must be fluorescently labeled; the microscope imaging technology must be sufficiently powerful for real-time single virion or viral component tracking. All fields of scientists have made great efforts and improvements. Here we will review the recent advances in virus labeling and the emerging fluorescence imaging technologies used in the imaging and tracking of viruses.

Pelvic vasculature is complex and inconsistent while pelvic bones impede access to pelvic organs. These anatomical characteristics render pelvic surgery inherently difficult, and some of these procedures are frequently associated with blood loss that necessitates blood transfusion. The aim of this study was to review the literature on the use of lysine analogs to prevent bleeding and blood transfusion during pelvic surgery. The objective of this study was to assess the safety and efficacy of lysine analogs during pelvic surgery. A systematic literature search was performed using Medline, Cochrane Register of Clinical Trials, Embase, and the reference lists of relevant articles. Randomized controlled trials or observational cohort studies comparing a lysine analog to placebo or standard care were included. Outcomes collected were blood transfusion, blood loss, thromboembolic adverse events (myocardial infarction, stroke, deep vein thrombosis, and pulmonary embolism), nonthromboembolic adverse events, and death. There were no language limitations. Fifty-six articles reported on 68 comparisons between a lysine analog and an inactive comparator, involving a total of 7244 patients published between 1961 and 2013. Thirty-nine studies evaluated urologic procedures, and 21 evaluated gynecologic procedures. Thirty-six studies (60%) were published before 1980. Of the 43 randomized comparisons, only 30 (44%) had a score of 3 or higher on Jadad's 5-point scale of methodological quality. Among randomized trials, lysine analogs reduced the risk of blood transfusion (pooled odds ratio [OR], 0.47; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.35-0.64) and blood loss (pooled OR, 0.22; 95% CI, 0.18-0.27). There was a small statistically insignificant increased risk of thromboembolic events (pooled OR, 1.07; 95% CI, 0.72-1.59) and no-thrombotic serious adverse events (pooled OR, 1.11; 95% CI, 0.67-1.83). In the 17 randomized trials published since the year 2000, only 6 thrombotic events were reported, 4 of which occurred in the placebo arm. Lysine analogs did not increase risk of death (pooled OR, 0.91; 95% CI, 0.34-2.48). These results are significant as they indicate that lysine analogs significantly reduce blood loss and blood transfusion during pelvic surgery. Although there does not appear to be a large increase in the risk of thromboembolic and nonthrombotic adverse events, more data are required to definitively assess these outcomes. Based on this review, lysine analogs during pelvic surgery seem to reduce bleeding and blood transfusion requirements. Although there does not seem to be a significant risk of adverse effects, larger studies would help clarify risks, if any, associated with lysine analog use., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Bead-based assay is widely used in many bioanalytical applications involving the attachment of proteins and other biomolecules to the surface. For further understanding of the formation of a sphere-biomolecule complex and easily optimizing the use of spheres in targeted biological applications, it is necessary to know the kinetics of the binding reaction at sphere/solution interface. In our presented work, a simple fluorescence analysis method was employed to measure the kinetics for the binding of biotin to sphere surface-bound FITC-SA, based on the fact that the fluorescence intensity of FITC was proportionally enhanced by increasing the binding amount of biotin. By monitoring the time-dependent changes of FITC fluorescence, it was found that the binding rate constant of biotin to sphere surface-immobilized FITC-SA was much smaller than that of biotin to freely diffusing FITC-SA. This can be attributed to the decreased encounter frequency of the reaction pair, restricted motion of the attached biomolecule, and the weakened steric accessibility of the binding site. These factors would become more obvious when increasing the size of the sphere upon which the FITC-SA was immobilized. Additionally, the effect of nanoparticles on the diffusion-controlled bimolecular binding reaction was more evident than that on the chemical recognition-controlled binding reaction., (Copyright © 2014 Biophysical Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Due to the high importance of detecting DNA with both fast speed and high sensitivity, we proposed a new dsDNA detection method relying on a novel single-color fluorescence "off-on" switch system. Water-soluble glutathione capped CdTe QDs (emission at 605 nm) was prepared for taking advantage of the readily tunable emission property of QDs. Initially, QDs was completely quenched by the Ru(phen)2(dppz)(2+), as the spontaneous formation of QDs-Ru assembling dyads. Then, in the case of the addition of dsDNA, the Ru(phen)2(dppz)(2+) was removed away from the CdTe QDs, producing free CdTe QDs and the Ru-dsDNA complex. Both of them could be excited at the same wavelength and emit overlaid fluorescence. This single-color fluorescence "off-on" signal was sensitive to the concentration of dsDNA. Native dsDNA with the concentration of 10 pg/mL could be detected when 0.5 nM CdTe QDs was used, and ssDNA, RNA or BSA had no interference on it. With this system, the dsDNA samples of hepatitis B virus (HBV) patients were tested. The results were in good agreement with those detected by fluorescence quantitative PCR (P>0.05), and for those samples with very low DNA concentrations, this system could provide more accurate results, demonstrating the possible clinical applicability of this "off-on" switch system. For this system, chemical conjugation or labeling of probes is not required, and unmodified native DNA targets could be detected in less than half an hour. Therefore, a simple, fast, sensitive, low cost, highly selective and practically applicable detection system for dsDNA has been described., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) has been widely accepted over the past decade, and hepatic dysfunction often occurs in the donor in the early stage after liver donation. The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of intra-operative cholangiography (IOC) and parenchymal resection on liver function of donors in LDLT, and to assess the role of IOC in influencing the biliary complications and improving the overall outcome., Methods: Data from 40 patients who had donated their right lobes for LDLT were analyzed. Total bilirubin (TB), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) at different time points were compared, and the follow-up data and the biliary complications were also analyzed., Results: The ALT and AST values were significantly increased after IOC (P<0.001) and parenchymal resection (P<0.001). However, the median values of TB, ALP and GGT were not significantly influenced by IOC (P>0.05) or parenchymal resection (P>0.05). The biochemical changes caused by IOC or parenchymal resection were not correlated with the degree of post-operative liver injury or the recovery of liver function. The liver functions of the donors after operation were stable, and none of the donors suffered from biliary stenosis or leakage during the follow-up., Conclusions: IOC and parenchymal resection may induce a transient increase in liver enzymes of donors in LDLT, but do not affect the recovery of liver function after operation. Moreover, the routine IOC is helpful to clarify the division line of the hepatic duct, thus reducing the biliary complication rate.

Herein, a simple assembly was designed via a capillary and a funnel-like cap to achieve liquid-gas compound pendant drop (CPD) microextraction with great convenience. Due to the increased contact area and adhesion force between the capillary tip and the drop, the proposed method provides considerable flexibility in producing CPDs with different air bubble sizes. Four pesticides were chosen as model analytes to evaluate the proposed method. By using a 1 μL chlorobenzene droplet containing a 1 μL air bubble at a stirring rate of 700 rpm, a 70 to 135-fold enrichment of pesticides was obtained within 3.4 minutes. As compared with a typical SDME, the proposed method showed a 2-fold increase of enrichment factors and a 4-fold decrease of extraction time. Improvement of the extraction efficiency could be ascribed to the increased surface area of the droplet, and the thin film phenomena further improved the extraction kinetics through effective agitation. The results indicate that CPD microextraction could serve as a promising sample pretreatment method for automated high-throughput analyses in a wide variety of research areas.

Background: This study is aimed to evaluate the clinical significance of heart rate turbulence (HRT) parameters in predicting the prognosis in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF)., Methods: From June 2011 to December 2012, a total of 104 CHF patients and 30 healthy controls were enrolled in this study. We obtained a 24-hour Holter ECG recording to assess the HRT parameters, included turbulence onset (TO), turbulence slope (TS), standard deviation of N-N intervals (SDNN), and resting heart rate (RHR). The relationships between HRT parameters and the prognosis of CHF patients were determined., Results: The assessment follow-up period lasted until January 31, 2013. The overall mortality of CHF patients was 9.6% (10/104). Our results revealed that CHF patients had higher levels of TO than those of healthy subjects, but the TS levels of CHF patients were lower than that of the control group. CHF patients with NYHA grade IV had higher HRT1/2 rate than those with NYHA grade II/III. There were statistical differences in TS, LVEF, SDNN and RHR between the non-deteriorating group and the non-survivor group. Significant differences in TS among the three groups were also found. Furthermore, CHF patients in the non-survivor group had lower levels of TS than those in the deteriorating group. Correlation analyses indicated that TO negatively correlate with SDNN, while TS positively correlated with SDNN and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). We also observed negative correlations between TS and left ventricular end-diastolic cavity dimension (LVEDD), RHR, homocysteine (Hcy) and C-reactive protein (CRP). Multivariate Cox regression analysis further confirmed that LVEF (≤30%), HRT2, SDNN and RHR were independent risk factors which can indicate poor prognosis in CHF patients., Conclusions: Our findings indicate that HRT may have good clinical predictive value in patients with CHF. Thus, quantifying HRT parameters could be a useful tool for predicting mortality in CHF patients.

The sialic acid (SA)-phenylboronic acid (PBA) recognition system is of particular interest in the bioconjugation field, because it is simple, fast, efficient, and biocompatible. In this paper, we report a novel method for reversibly labeling living virus with quantum dots (QDs) by taking advantage of this SA-PBA recognition system. The QDs were initially modified with PBA (QDs-PBA) to target them to the surface of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), which has abundant with SA on its envelope. The QDs-PBA was of good monodispersity and strong fluorescence, and could be conjugated with VSV by simply incubating with native VSV for 10 min at 37 °C, producing QDs-VSV that was capable of being imaged at the single virion level. The labeling efficiency attained 83 ± 4.3 % (mean ± SD); meanwhile, the activity and recognition ability of the labeled virus were minimally affected. This method was simple, rapid, and reversible. This work promotes the virus labeling development to a new step. That is, native viruses can be reversibly labeled without any modification.

Chemosensory proteins (CSPs) are a group of small soluble proteins found so far exclusively in arthropod species. These proteins act in chemical communication and perception. In this study, a gene encoding the Type 1 CSP (BtabCSP1) from the agricultural pest Bemisia tabaci (whitefly) was analyzed to understand sequence variation and expression specificity in different biotypes. Sequence analysis of BtabCSP1 showed significant differences between the two genetically characterized biotypes, B and Q. The B-biotype had a larger number of BtabCSP1 mutations than the Q-biotype. Similar to most other CSPs, BtabCSP1 was more expressed in the head than in the rest of the body. One-step RT-PCR and qPCR analysis on total messenger RNA showed that biotype-Q had higher BtabCSP1 expression levels than biotype-B. Females from a mixed field-population had high levels of BtabCSP1 expression. The interaction of BtabCSP1 with the insecticide thiamethoxam was investigated by analyzing the BtabCSP1 expression levels following exposure to the neonicotinoid, thiamethoxam, in a time/dose-response study. Insecticide exposure increased BtabCSP1 expression (up to tenfold) at 4 and 24 h following 50 or 100 g/ml treatments., (© 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Background and Purpose: Recently, evidence that Zinc transporter ZRT/IRT-like protein 4 (ZIP4) is involved in invasiveness and apoptosis has emerged in pancreatic cancer and prostate cancer. Our aim was to assess the role of ZIP4 in invasiveness, migration and apoptosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The prognostic value of ZIP4 in HCC after liver transplantation was evaluated., Methods: The role of ZIP4 in HCC was investigated by overexpressing ZIP4 in BEL7402 and HepG2 cells and inhibiting ZIP4 in HuH-7 and HepG2 cells, using overexpression and shRNA plasmids in vitro studies. Immunohistochemical analysis was used to evaluate ZIP4 expression in HCC tissues from 60 patients undergoing liver transplantation, 36 cirrhotic tissue samples, and 6 normal tissue samples. Prognostic significance was assessed using the Kaplan-Meier method and the log-rank test., Results: Specific suppression of ZIP4 reduced cell migration and invasiveness, whereas ZIP4 overexpression caused increases in cell migration and invasiveness. Furthermore, overexpression of ZIP4 resulted in increased expression of pro-metastatic genes (MMP-2, MMP-9) and decreased expression of pro-apoptotic genes (caspase-3, caspase-9, Bax). In contrast, suppression of ZIP4 resulted in an opposite effect. ZIP4 was more highly expressed in tumor tissues than non-tumor tissues (P < 0.0001). ZIP4 expression was significantly associated with tumor recurrence (P = 0.002), tumor node metastasis stage (P = 0.044), Child-Turcotte-Pugh score (P = 0.042), and tumor size (P = 0.022). Univariate analysis showed that ZIP4 expression was significantly associated with overall survival (P = 0.020) and tumor-free survival (P = 0.049). Multivariate analysis revealed that ZIP4 was an independent predictor of overall survival (P = 0.037) after liver transplantation., Conclusions: ZIP4 could promote migration, invasiveness, and suppress apoptosis in hepatocellular carcinoma, and represent a novel predictor of poor prognosis and therapeutic target for patients with HCC who undergo liver transplantation.

Background: Metastasis-associated in colon cancer-1 (MACC1) acts as a promoter of tumor metastasis; however, the predictive value of MACC1 for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after liver transplantation (LT) remains unclear., Methods: We examined the expression of MACC1 and its target genes MET and FAK by quantitative PCR in 160 patients with HCC that was undergone LT., Results: The patients with MACC1(high) or FAK(high) in HCCs showed a significantly shorter overall survival and higher cumulative recurrence rates after liver transplantation (LT), compared with MACC1(low) or FAK(low) group. Multivariate analysis indicated that MACC1 alone or combination of MACC1/FAK was an independent prognostic factor for overall survival and cumulative recurrence., Conclusions: MACC1 or combination of MACC1/FAK could serve as a novel biomarker in predicting the prognosis of HCC after LT.

Aims: Angiogenesis is important in malignant pleural effusion (MPE) formation and it is regulated by a number of pro- and anti-angiogenic cytokines. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prognostic value of angiogenic factor vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and angiogenesis inhibitor endostatin in lung cancer patients with MPE, and investigate the relationship between these two kinds of agent., Methods: Using enzyme-linked immunoadsorbent assay, the concentrations of VEGF and endostatin were measured in pleural effusions (PE) and serum from a total of 70 lung cancer patients with MPE and 20 patients with tuberculosis., Results: Compared to patients with tuberculosis, the levels of VEGF and endostatin in both PE and serum were significantly higher in patients with lung cancer. There were statistically significant correlations between VEGF levels in PE and serum (r=0.696, <0.001), endostatin levels in PE and serum (r=0.310, p=0.022), and VEGF and endostatin levels in PE (r=0.287, p=0.019). Cox multivariate analysis revealed that elevated pleural VEGF and endostatin levels and serum endostatin level were independent predictors of shorter overall survival., Conclusion: Both pro- and anti-angiogenic factors are likely contributors to PE formation. Our results suggest that the levels of VEGF and endostatin in PE, together with endostatin in serum, may be potential prognostic parameters for lung cancer patients with MPE.

Purpose: To compare the quality of computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in target delineation of hepatocellular carcinoma., Patients and Methods: Thirty-one patients with hepatocellular carcinoma received CT and MRI (including diffusion-weighted imaging [DWI]) before surgery. The maximal measurement on axial imaging and pathologic examination were extracted for statistical analysis., Results: CT, MRI, DWI-based tumour size correlated well with pathologic sizes, r=0.974, 0.969, 0.964 respectively. But Wilcoxon signed-ranked test showed that differences did exist. CT overestimated the tumour size by 2.9mm compared to pathology (95% CI: -13.2 to 7.4mm). The agreement of MRI-pathology seemed to be worse than CT, with a mean difference of 3.6mm (95% CI: -14.7 to 7.7mm). The worst agreement was in DWI-pathology, with a mean difference of 5mm (95% CI: -17.9 to 7.9mm). But significant difference was found neither between CT and MRI (P=0.477) nor between MRI and DWI (P=0.079)., Conclusions: CT and MRI-based tumour size correlated well with pathologic size, but differences did exist. Most of the lesions were overestimated by CT and MRI. CT and MRI were similar in the guidance of target delineation, and DWI had added little value to MRI. A margin of 10mm around the gross tumour volume to become the clinical target volume is likely not sufficient., (Copyright © 2013 Société française de radiothérapie oncologique (SFRO). Published by Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.)

Background: In many parts of the world, including in China, extreme heat events or heat waves are likely to increase in intensity, frequency, and duration in light of climate change in the next decades. Risk perception and adaptation behaviors are two important components in reducing the health impacts of heat waves, but little is known about their relationships in China. This study aimed to examine the associations between risk perception to heat waves, adaptation behaviors, and heatstroke among the public in Guangdong province, China., Methods: A total of 2,183 adult participants were selected using a four-stage sampling method in Guangdong province. From September to November of 2010 each subject was interviewed at home by a well-trained investigator using a structured questionnaire. The information collected included socio-demographic characteristics, risk perception and spontaneous adaptation behaviors during heat wave periods, and heatstroke experience in the last year. Chi-square tests and unconditional logistic regression models were employed to analyze the data., Results: This study found that 14.8%, 65.3% and 19.9% of participants perceived heat waves as a low, moderate or high health risk, respectively. About 99.1% participants employed at least one spontaneous adaptation behavior, and 26.2%, 51.2% and 22.6% respondents employed <4, 4-7, and >7 adaptation behaviors during heat waves, respectively. Individuals with moderate (OR=2.93, 95% CI: 1.38-6.22) or high (OR=10.58, 95% CI: 4.74-23.63) risk perception experienced more heatstroke in the past year than others. Drinking more water and wearing light clothes in urban areas, while decreasing activity as well as wearing light clothes in rural areas were negatively associated with heatstroke. Individuals with high risk perception and employing <4 adaptation behaviors during heat waves had the highest risks of heatstroke (OR=47.46, 95% CI: 12.82-175.73)., Conclusions: There is a large room for improving health risk perception and adaptation capacity to heat waves among the public of Guangdong province. People with higher risk perception and fewer adaptation behaviors during heat waves may be more vulnerable to heat waves.

Purpose: To analyze the effectiveness and toxicities in the re-irradiation of locally recurrent nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) using intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT)., Methods: This is a retrospective analysis of 54 NPC patients with local recurrence re-irradiated with IMRT. The re-staging for rT1, rT2, rT3, rT4 were 3 (5.6%), 8 (14.8%), 9 (16.7%), 34 (63%) respectively. The average dose to GTV was 69.95 Gy (49.8-76.58 Gy), the average BED(3Gy) was 116.8 Gy (83.5-127.9 Gy). V₉₅ was 96%, and D₉₅ was 65.75 Gy. 33.3% of them received concurrent chemoradiotherapy., Results: Median overall survival (OS) was 21 months (1-93 mon). The 1-, 2-year local progression free survival (LPFS) rate was 84.5%, 64% and OS rate was 71.7%, 44.3%. Severe late adverse events (SLAE) occurred in 48.1% of patients, including 31.5% with ulcer or necrosis of the nasopharyngeal mucosa, 20.4% with difficulty in feeding, 18.5% with temporal lobe necrosis, 11.1% with massive hemorrhage. 15.4% died of local regional progression, 5.8% died of distant metastasis, 25% died of SLAE, 9.6% died of both local regional progression and SLAE that could not be differentiated, 5.8% died of other medical complications. Concurrent chemoradiotherapy was the independent negative prognostic factors for LPFS; PTV>100 ml was a predictive factor of poor OS; patients with invasion of post-styloid space were at higher risk of SLAE., Conclusions: The present study demonstrated that IMRT with 70Gy was efficient for local tumor control. However, we observed a high frequency of serious late complications. More optimized combination treatment and patient selection are required to achieve excellent local control without significant late morbidities in locally recurrent NPC.

Background: Epithelial ovarian cancer accounts for about 90% of all cases of ovarian cancer. Debulking surgery and six courses of platinum-based chemotherapy results in complete clinical remission (CCR) in up to 75% of cases. However, 75% of the responders will relapse within a median time of 18 to 28 months and only 20% to 40% of women will survive beyond five years. It has been suggested that maintenance chemotherapy could assist in prolonging remission. To date, there has not been a systematic review on the impact of maintenance chemotherapy for epithelial ovarian cancer., Objectives: To assess the effectiveness and toxicity of maintenance chemotherapy for epithelial ovarian cancer and to evaluate the impact on quality of life (QoL)., Search Methods: In the original review we searched the Cochrane Gynaecological Cancer Review Group Specialised Register, The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trails (CENTRAL, The Cochrane Library 2009, Issue 1), MEDLINE, EMBASE, PubMed, CBMdisc, CNKI and VIP (to May 2009). We collected information from ongoing trials, checked reference lists of published articles and consulted experts in the field. For this update, the searches were extended to October 2012., Selection Criteria: Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) comparing maintenance chemotherapy with no further intervention, maintenance radiotherapy or other maintenance therapy., Data Collection and Analysis: Two review authors independently assessed trials for eligibility and quality and extracted data. We analysed overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) rates as dichotomous variables. Toxicity and QoL data were extracted where present. All analyses were based on intention-to-treat (ITT) on the endpoint of survival. We also analysed data by subgroups of drugs., Main Results: We included eight trials (1644 women). When all chemotherapy regimens were combined, meta-analysis indicated no significant difference in three-, five- and 10-year OS or PFS. For five-year OS, the combined risk ratio (RR) was 1.03 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.96 to 1.10) and for the five-year PFS, the combined RR was 1.06 (95% CI 0.97 to 1.17). Results were very similar when trials of different regimens were analysed. Comparing chemotherapy with radiotherapy, only the RR for 10-year PFS in pathological complete remission (PCR) was in favour of whole abdominal radiotherapy 0.51 (95% CI 0.27 to 1.00), while three- and five-year OS rates have no significant difference between the two groups., Authors' Conclusions: There is no evidence to suggest that the use of platinum agents, doxorubicin or paclitaxel used as maintenance chemotherapy is more effective than observation alone. Further investigations regarding the effect of paclitaxel used as maintenance chemotherapy are required.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is an aggressive disease with poor prognosis and limited methods to predict patient survival. Immune cells infiltrating tumors is known to impact clinical outcome. Here, we investigated the prognostic significance of immune infiltration within the tumor microenvironment in 245 specimens from two independent cohorts by immunohistochemical analyses. A Cox regression model was constructed using a training cohort and validated in an independent cohort. The diagnostic accuracy was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic curve. The activation, function, and chemotaxis of intratumoral regulatory T cells (Treg) were analyzed using flow cytometry, quantitative PCR, and chemotaxis assay. We identified that the proportion of FoxP3(+) cells within tumors is negatively associated with patient prognosis, whereas the proportion of interleukin (IL)-17(+) cell and the number of trypase(+) cells are positive predictor. The two Cox models, composed of independent predictors in multivariate analysis, provided a high diagnostic accuracy of prognosis for patients with HCC. The proportion of FoxP3(+) cells showed the most significant predictive power, with the highest Cox score in the two models. Furthermore, we found Tregs from tumor with high FoxP3(+) proportion were more active and powerful than the counterparts from tumor with low FoxP3(+) proportion. In conclusion, two Cox models are established that have considerable clinical value in predicting tumor recurrence and survival of patients with HCC, respectively. In the both models, the proportion of Tregs among CD4(+) T cells plays a central role.

An alternative method for labeling fully replicative enveloped viruses was developed, in which both the biosynthesis and metabolic incorporation of phospholipids in host cells were simultaneously utilized to introduce an azide group to the envelope of the vaccinia virus by taking advantage of the host-derived lipid membrane formation mechanism. Such an azide group could be subsequently used to fluorescently label the envelope of the virus via a bioorthogonal reaction. Furthermore, simultaneous dual-labeling of the virus through the virus replication was realized skillfully by coupling this envelope labeling strategy with "replication-intercalation labeling" of viral nucleic acid. For the first time, it is by natural propagation of the virus in its host cells in the presence of fluorophores that simultaneous dual-labeling of living viruses can be mildly realized with high efficiency in facile and mild conditions.

Objective: Acute rejection resulting from alloimmune responses is a major risk factor affecting patient survival following liver transplantation. Since interleukin (IL)-6 can mediate acute rejection, the association between IL-6 gene single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and incidence of acute rejection in liver transplant recipients was investigated., Methods: Patients who received liver transplant between January 2005 and December 2010 were typed for IL6-572C/G (rs1800796) polymorphisms using the snapshot technique. Association between genotype and acute rejection was analysed using the SNP Statistics website: http://bioinfo.iconcologia.net/snpstats/start.htm. Allelic and genotypic distributions for rs1800796 were compared among 335 patients with or without acute rejection within the first 6 months following liver transplant., Results: Incidence of acute rejection was 11.94%. A heterozygous CG genotype for IL6-572C/G was associated with a lower acute rejection rate compared with homozygous CC or GG genotypes., Conclusion: IL6-572 CG genotype may be related to protection from acute rejection following liver transplant in Han Chinese patients.

Background: Hepatolithiasis is very common in East Asia. It is benign in nature, but has a high recurrence rate. It is likely to lead to biliary cirrhosis and increase the risk of cholangiocarcinoma. Hence, the treatment of hepatolithiasis is difficult but vital. In this report, we present a novel approach to manage hepatolithiasis using the choledochoscopic Frequency-Doubled Double pulse Nd:YAG (FREDDY) laser lithotripsy combined with or without hepatectomy., Methods: Between July 2009 and October 2012, 45 patients underwent choledochoscopic FREDDY laser lithotripsy combined with or without hepatectomy (laser lithotripsy group). Forty-eight patients underwent a traditional operation (traditional method group) from January 2009 to June 2009. Comparative analysis was made of demographic and clinical characteristics of the two groups., Results: The final stone clearance rate of the laser lithotripsy group was 93.3%, whereas that of the traditional method group was 85.4% (P=0.22). In the laser lithotripsy group, 2 patients experienced hemobilia and 3 patients had acute cholangitis. In the traditional method group, 3 patients had intraoperative hemorrhage, 1 patient had bile leakage, 6 patients had acute cholangitis, and 1 patient died of liver failure. Moreover, the operative time in the traditional method group was significantly longer than that in the laser lithotripsy group (P=0.01). The mean hospital stay of the patients in the traditional method group was longer than that in the laser lithotripsy group (9.8 vs 8.2 days, P=0.17). Recurrent intrahepatic bile duct stones were not found during the follow-up period in the two groups., Conclusion: Operative choledochoscopic FREDDY laser lithotripsy combined with or without hepatectomy may be an effective and safe treatment for hepatolithiasis.

Objective: This study was undertaken to examine the association between maternal oseltamivir treatment for influenza and infant outcomes during the 2009 HINI influenza pandemic., Study Design: This was a retrospective cohort study using a population-based maternal newborn database including women who gave birth to a singleton infant in the Canadian province of Ontario from November 2009 through April 2010. Risks of small for gestational age (SGA) (10th percentile and 3rd percentile), preterm birth (<37 weeks of gestation), very preterm birth (<32 weeks of gestation), and 5-minute Apgar score <7 associated with maternal exposure to oseltamivir were analyzed by multivariable regression., Results: A total of 55,355 women with a singleton birth were included in this study. Among them, 1237 (2.2%) women received oseltamivir for treatment or prevention of influenza during pregnancy. Women who took oseltamivir during pregnancy were less likely to have a SGA infant based on the 10th percentile for growth (adjusted risk ratio, 0.77; 95% confidence interval, 0.60-0.98). No association between maternal use of oseltamivir with SGA on 3rd percentile, preterm birth, very preterm birth, and low Apgar score was observed., Conclusion: There is no evidence of an association between maternal use of oseltamivir for influenza and early birth, low Apgar at birth, and poor fetal growth., (Copyright © 2013 Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most aggressive malignancies in humans, and its prognosis is generally poor even after surgery. Many advances have been made to understand the pathogenesis of HCC; however, the molecular mechanisms that lead to hepatocarcinogenesis and progression are still not clearly understood., Methods: The expression of DACT2 in specimens from 30 paired HCCs and an additional 61 HCC patients after liver transplantation was evaluated by quantitative RT-PCR and immunohistochemical analysis. We investigated the methylation status of the DACT2 promoter region. We also analyzed the alterations of the cell cycle, migration and invasion after DACT2 knockdown., Results: The expression level of DACT2 was significantly lower in HCC tissues than in non-cancerous tissues. Reduced DACT2 expression was associated with large tumor size. DACT2 transcripts were at low levels in hypermethylated liver cancer cells and were restored by exposure to a demethylating agent. Reduced expression of DACT2 in MHCC97L cells induced G1/S arrest, increased cell proliferation, and promoted cell invasion., Conclusions: Our study suggests that DACT2 is silenced by promoter hypermethylation, and reduced DACT2 can promote liver cancer progression. DACT2 may serve as a novel tumor suppressor gene in HCC.

A novel moving redox reaction boundary (MRRB) model was developed for studying electrophoretic behaviors of analytes involving redox reaction on the principle of moving reaction boundary (MRB). Traditional potassium permanganate method was used to create the boundary model in agarose gel electrophoresis because of the rapid reaction rate associated with MnO(4)(-) ions and Fe(2+) ions. MRB velocity equation was proposed to describe the general functional relationship between velocity of moving redox reaction boundary (V(MRRB)) and concentration of reactant, and can be extrapolated to similar MRB techniques. Parameters affecting the redox reaction boundary were investigated in detail. Under the selected conditions, good linear relationship between boundary movement distance and time were obtained. The potential application of MRRB in electromigration redox reaction titration was performed in two different concentration levels. The precision of the V(MRRB) was studied and the relative standard deviations were below 8.1%, illustrating the good repeatability achieved in this experiment. The proposed MRRB model enriches the MRB theory and also provides a feasible realization of manual control of redox reaction process in electrophoretic analysis.

We present a theoretical model for describing light scattering from randomly distributed Au nanoparticles on a substrate, including the clustering effect. By using the finite-element Green's function method and spherical harmonic basis functions, we are able to calculate the polarization-dependent reflectivity spectra of the system (modeled by randomly distributed nanoparticles coupled with clusters) efficiently and accurately. The calculated ellipsometric spectra of the system with clusters can adequately describe the experimental data for the whole frequency range. We find that the clustering effect leads to some prominent features in the low frequency range of the ellipsometric spectra, which are attributed to plasmonic resonances associated with the coupling of Au nanoparticles and clusters.

Background: Recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after liver transplantation (LT) remains one of the most common causes of poor long-term survival. However, the host genetic factors affecting increased risk of tumor recurrence after transplantation have not been thoroughly elucidated. The present study was designed to investigate the association of cytokine gene polymorphisms with the risk of tumor recurrence in LT patients for HCC., Methods: Eleven single-nucleotide polymorphisms within the promoter regions of 7 cytokine genes, i.e., the IL-1 family (IL-1alpha and IL-1beta), IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, TNF-alpha, and TGF-beta1, were genotyped in 93 HCC patients treated with LT using DNA sequencing. The association between these polymorphisms and the risk of tumor recurrence was evaluated while controlling confounding clinical variables., Results: The genotype frequency of IL-10 -1082 A/G in patients with and without recurrence of HCC was AA 83.3%, GA 16.7% and AA 97.6%, GA 2.4%, respectively. The association between IL-10 -1082 GA and recurrence was significant (P=0.033). No other single-nucleotide polymorphism in the cytokine gene was found to be associated with recurrence. Kaplan-Meier survival curves showed that the homozygous AA patients had a significantly longer mean recurrence-free survival than heterozygous GA patients (23.5 vs 5.7 months, P=0.001). However, multivariate analysis failed to reveal that the GA genotype of IL-10 -1082 A/G was an independent indicator of recurrence., Conclusions: This study suggests the lack of association of selected cytokine gene polymorphisms with HCC recurrence after LT in the Han Chinese population. The finding does not exclude the idea that other cytokine polymorphisms could act as candidate biomarkers of disease prognosis.

Steady labeling of amyloid beta (Aβ) is crucial for studying the ingestion and degradation of Aβ by astrocytes and unraveling a relevant regulation mechanism. Quantum dots (QDs) are an optimum labeling reagent for this because of their strong and steady fluorescence properties. In this paper, Aβ was labeled with QDs by a simple mixed incubation strategy, with a QD labeled Aβ complex (QDs-Aβ) being obtained. In the complex, QDs efficiently restrained the formation of β-folding and fibrils of Aβ, while the graininess, dispersivity and fluorescence properties of the QDs hardly changed. The fluorescence microscopy imaging results showed that the astrocytes could ingest the QDs-Aβ. The QDs and Aβ did not separate from each other during the ingestion process, and the Aβ could be degraded subsequently.

Background: Hepatic ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury during liver surgery and transplantation is the main cause of postoperative liver failure and primary graft nonfunction, with subsequent rise in mortality in these patients. Triiodothyronine (T3) is a known hepatic mitogen. In this study we questioned whether exogenous administration of T3 protects against warm hepatic I/R injury., Materials and Methods: T3 or vehicle was administered to male Sprague-Dawley rats (single dose of 0.5 mg/kg intraperitoneally) 48 h before hepatic ischemia, then the rats were subjected to 60 min of partial hepatic I/R followed by 50% hepatectomy. Serum transaminases, histopathologic changes, apoptosis, malondialdehyde, and myeloperoxidase were evaluated. The expression of proinflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6), transcription factors (NF-кB and AP-1), and adhesion molecules (ICAM-1, VCAM-1) was also investigated., Results: Rats pretreated with T3 showed significant reduction of their postischemic hepatic injury (serum transaminases, liver necrosis, and apoptosis). Also, production of reactive oxygen species and neutrophil infiltration were markedly depressed by T3 administration. This was associated with downregulation of proinflammatory cytokines, transcription factors, and adhesion molecules., Conclusions: This study illustrated that T3 protects against hepatic I/R injury, an effect that is mediated through inhibition of proinflammatory cytokines, transcription factors, and adhesion molecules. Pretreatment with T3 may represent a promising pharmacologic strategy for protection against hepatic I/R injury., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: To create a preoperative prediction model for estimating the risk of non-organ-confined (pT3-4 or pN+) bladder urothelial cancer (NOC-BUC) in patients with clinically OC-BUC (cT1-2N0M0)., Methods: The study involved 248 consecutive patients who had undergone radical surgery for clinically OC-BUC at a tertiary cancer center between 2003 and 2011. Logistic regression analysis was used to develop a prediction model for estimating the risk of pathological NOC disease. Prespecified predictors included age, gender, recurrent frequency, tumor size and number, hydronephrosis, and pathological characteristics at transurethral resection (T-stage, tumor grade, lymphovascular invasion (LVI), and carcinoma in situ). Discrimination ability was measured by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC)., Results: Overall, 39.1 % of the patients with clinically OC-BUC had NOC disease at the time of radical surgery. In multivariate analysis, recurrent frequency, tumor size, hydronephrosis, and three pathological features at transurethral resection (T-stage, tumor grade, and LVI) were significantly associated with disease extent. The final prediction model included seven variables after backward elimination and achieved a bootstrap-corrected AUC of 0.79. Internal validation showed good calibration and clinical usefulness of the nomogram., Conclusions: Based on readily available clinicopathological parameters, we developed a nomogram for predicting NOC tumor in clinically OC-BUC. Despite reasonable performance in internal validation, the prediction model should be assessed in external dataset before applied in clinical setting.

Real-time tracking of the dynamic process of virus invasion is crucial to understanding the infection mechanism. For successful tracking, efficient labeling methods are indispensable. In this paper, we report a mild and reliable method for labeling viruses, especially with regard to easily disabled enveloped viruses. The copper-free click chemistry has been used to label enveloped viruses with quantum dots (QDs) by linking virions modified with azide to the QDs derived with dibenzocyclooctynes (DBCO). Both vaccinia virus (VACV) and avian influenza A virus (H9N2) can be specifically and rapidly labeled under mild conditions, with a labeling efficiency of more than 80%. The labeled virions were of intact infectivity, and their fluorescence was strong enough to realize single-virion tracking. Compared to previously reported methods, our method is less destructive, reliable, and universal, without specific requirements for the type and structure of viruses to be labeled, which has laid the foundation for long-term dynamic visualization of virus infection process.

Background: Ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury is an important barrier to liver surgery and transplantation because it impairs remnant liver/reduced-size-graft regeneration. Ischemic preconditioning (IPC), as an effective measure to overcome I/R injury, has been shown to enhance the regenerative capacity of hepatocytes. However, investigations have always focused on regeneration in the late phase after reperfusion. This study aimed to investigate whether IPC enhances hepatocyte proliferation in the early phase after reperfusion and possible underlying mechanisms., Methods: A total of 90 rats were divided into three groups: hemi-hepatectomy alone (PHx group), 60 minutes of ischemia plus hemi-hepatectomy (I/R group), and a cycle of 10 minutes of alternating I/R prior to 60 minutes of ischemia plus hemi-hepatectomy (IPC group). Each group was divided into five subgroups sacrificed after 0.5, 2, 6, 12 or 24 hours (n=6/subgroup). Subsequently, serum concentrations of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), and interleukin-6 (IL-6) were measured; caspase-3 and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) proteins were also determined by Western blotting. Furthermore, PCNA was detected by immunohistochemistry to identify the expression site., Results: Serum ALT and AST levels after 2-24 hours of reperfusion in the PHx and IPC groups were remarkably decreased compared to the I/R group, and the serum TNF-alpha was relatively lower. A significant increase of serum IL-6 levels was found in the PHx and IPC groups compared with the I/R group at each time point. Furthermore, PCNA expression was remarkably increased in the IPC group after 6-12 hours of reperfusion, and in the earlier 0.5 and 6 hours time points after reperfusion have shown the massive PCNA-positive hepatocytes. At the same time, the expression of liver p-JNK was higher in the IPC group in the early phase after reperfusion than that of the I/R group and its expression was consistent with the PCNA., Conclusion: IPC can initiate hepatocyte proliferation in the early phase after ischemia under hemi-hepatectomy, and may be associated with p-JNK expression and triggered by TNF-alpha/IL-6 signals.

Metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1(MALAT1), a long non-coding RNA (lncRNA), is up-regulated in many solid tumors and associated with cancer metastasis and recurrence. However, its role in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains poorly understood. In the present study, we evaluated the expression of MALAT1 by quantitative real-time PCR in 9 liver cancer cell lines and 112 HCC cases including 60 cases who received liver transplantation (LT) with complete follow-up data. Moreover, small interfering RNA (siRNA) was used to inhibit MALAT1 expression to investigate its biological role in tumor progression. We found that MALAT1 was up-regulated in both cell lines and clinical tissue samples. Patients with high expression level of MALAT1 had a significantly increased risk of tumor recurrence after LT, particularly in patients who exceeded the Milan criteria. On multivariate analysis, MALAT1 was an independent prognostic factor for predicting HCC recurrence (hazard ratio, 3.280, P = 0.003).In addition, inhibition of MALAT1 in HepG2 cells could effectively reduce cell viability, motility, invasiveness, and increase the sensitivity to apoptosis. Our data suggest that lncRNA MALAT1 play an important role in tumor progression and could be a novel biomarker for predicting tumor recurrence after LT and serve as a promising therapeutic target.

Objective: To investigate the prognostic factors for non-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC)in patients under 40 years of age., Methods: The clinicopathological data of 148 young patients with NSCLC were retrospectively analyzed. Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analyses were used to analyze the relationship between prognostic factors and survival time., Results: The patients were followed-up for 6 - 148 months, and the follow-up rate was 100%. In the whole group, 122 patients died and 26 cases were surviving. The 1-, 3- and 5-year survival rates were 54.7%, 10.4% and 5.6%, respectively. The median survival time (MST) was 14.7 months. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that Karnofsky performance status (KPS), clinical stage, treatment modality and serum CEA were related with prognosis (P < 0.05). Multivariate analysis indicated that KPS, clinical stage, treatment modality and serum CEA were independent prognostic factors (P < 0.05)., Conclusions: KPS, CEA, clinical stage and treatment modalities are independent prognostic factors in young NSCLC patients.

Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) represent the host immune response to cancer. CD8(+) cytotoxic T cells (CTLs) have a central role in the elimination of tumors, while regulatory T cells (Tregs) can suppress the immune reaction. The aim of this study was to investigate the prognostic value of TILs, especially Tregs and CTLs, in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients after resection. CD3(+), CD4(+), CD8(+), and FoxP3(+) TILs were assessed by immunohistochemistry in tumor tissue from 141 randomly selected HCC patients. Prognostic effects of low- or high-density TIL subsets were evaluated by Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analysis using the median values as cutoff. The density of intratumoral Tregs (P = 0.040) and peritumoral CTLs (P = 0.004) were an independent factor for overall survival (OS), but not for disease-free survival (DFS). The density of CD3(+) and CD4(+) TILs, and the prevalence of Tregs and CTLs were associated with neither OS nor DFS. The presence of low intratumoral Tregs with high intratumoral CTLs was a negative independent prognostic factor for OS (P = 0.001), while that of low intratumoral Tregs and low peritumoral CTLs independently correlated with improved DFS (P = 0.008). Moreover, the combined analysis of Tregs and CTLs displayed better prognostic performances than any of them alone. Additionally, higher density of intratumoral Tregs correlated with both the presence of liver cirrhosis (P = 0.025) and increased tumor size (P = 0.050). Tregs within tumor environment are promising prognostic parameters for HCC patients, and their combination with CTLs can predict prognosis more effectively.

Objective: To observe the immune response of Th17 cells in mesenteric lymph node (MLN) of C57BL/6 mice infected by Schistosoma japonicum., Methods: Twenty C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into infected group and control group each with ten mice. The mice in infected group were infected each with 40 +/- 5 S. japonicum cercariae. Five to six weeks later, MLN lymphocytes were separated and stimulated for 4 h by anti-CD3 (1 microg/ml) and anti-CD28 (1 microg/ml) before examination of IL-17 and retinoic acid receptor-related orphan receptor gammat (ROR-gammat) mRNA by reverse transcription PCR. The level of IL-17 and IFN-gamma was detected by ELISA after culturing with supernatant for 72h. MLN lymphocytes were stimulated for 5h by 10 ng/ml phorbol myristoyl acetate (PMA) and 1 microg/ml ionomycin. The intracellular cytokines were stained and the content of Th17 and other cytokines was examined by flow cytometry., Results: The level of IFN-gamma [(214.3 +/- 62.6) pg/ml] and IL-17 [(176.8 +/- 62.1) pg/ml] in the supernatant of cultured MLN cells from the infected mice was significantly higher than that of normal mice [(467 +/- 13.9) and 0 pg/ml) (P < 0.05). The expression level of IL-17 and ROR-gammat mRNA was also considerably higher than that of normal mice. IL-17+ IL-4+, IL-17+ IFN-gamma+, IL-17+ IL-5+ and IL-17+ IL-9 cells accounted for 0.06%, 0.02%, 0.02%, and 0.01% of the mesenteric lymph node CD4+ T cells of the infected mice, respectively. However, IL-17+ IL-10+ and IL-17+ Foxp3+ cells were undetected., Conclusion: The MLN of S. japonicum-infected C57BL/6 mice can induce the production of Th17 cells, and these cells can secrete IL-4, less IFN-gamma, IL-5 and IL-9, but not IL-10, and can not express Foxp3 in the infected mice.

The transplantation of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) provides a novel method for the treatment of human tumors or vascular diseases. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has proven to be effective in tracking transplanted stem cells by labeling the cells with superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) nanoparticles. The SPIO has been used to label and track the EPCs; however, the effect of SPIO upon EPCs remains unclear on a cellular level. In the present study, EPCs were labeled with home-synthesized SPIO nanoparticles in vitro and the biological characteristics of the labeled EPCs were evaluated. The EPCs were isolated from the peripheral blood of New Zealand rabbits and cultured in fibronectin-coated culture flasks. The EPCs were labeled with home-synthesized SPIO nanoparticles at a final iron concentration of 20 µg/ml. Labeled EPCs were confirmed with transmission electron microscopy and Prussian blue staining. The quantity of iron/cell was detected by atomic absorption spectrometry. The membranous antigens of EPCs were detected by cytofluorimetric analysis. Cell viability and proliferative capability between the labeled and unlabeled EPCs were compared. The rabbit EPCs were effectively labeled and the labeling efficiency was approximately 95%. The SPIO nanoparticles were localized in the endosomal vesicles of the EPCs, which were confirmed by transmission electron microscopy. No significant differences were found in cell viability and proliferative capability between labeled and unlabeled EPCs (P>0.05). In conclusion, rabbit peripheral blood EPCs were effectively labeled by home-synthesized SPIO nanoparticles, without influencing their main biological characteristics.

Aim: To further investigate the role of human B7 homolog 1 (B7-H1) in the mechanism of persistent hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection., Methods: Peripheral and intra-hepatic B7-H1 expression were compared by flow cytometry and immunochemical staining between two 2 distinct groups, one being chronic HBV tolerance patients (CHB-T) and the other being acute hepatitis B patients (AHB). B7-H1 mRNA expression level was also compared by real time polymerase chain reaction between CHB-T and AHB patients. The location of intra-hepatic B7-H1 and CD40 expression were analyzed by immunofluorescence. The levels of B7-H1 and CD40 expression on cultured myeloid dendritic cells (mDCs) with or without hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) treatment were analyzed dynamically by flow cytometry. Intracellular interferon-γ (IFN-γ) staining and the stimulatory capacity of mDC of cultured mDC with or without HBsAg treatment were also compared by flow cytometry., Results: Peripheral B7-H1 expression on mDCs was increased significantly in AHB compared to CHB-T patients (P < 0.05). In the liver tissues from CHB-T patients, B7-H1 positive cells were almost absent despite a persistently elevated serum HBsAg load. In contrast, there were indeed increased B7-H1-positive cells in situ in the liver tissue from AHB. In vitro analysis showed the parallel upregulation of B7-H1 and CD40 on CD11c+ mDCs after the onset of stimulation. Addition of recombinant hepatitis B surface antigen (rHBsAg) significantly decreased CD40 expression (P < 0.05 at 16 h, 20 h and 24 h time points). B7-H1 expression was also inhibited by rHBsAg, and the inhibition rate of CD40 was greater than that of B7-H1. This preferential inhibition of CD40 expression on mDCs by rHBsAg resulted in the dysfunction of mDCs and T cells in the mixed leucocyte reaction (MLR) system. With rHBsAg pretreatment, in a carboxyfluorescein diacetate succinimidyl ester (CFSE) labeled MLR system at a ratio of 1:5 responder cell-stimulator cell (R/S), the CFSE(dim) percentage of T cells decreased from 85.1% to 25.4% and decreased from 30.3% to 12.0% at 1:10 R/S. IFN-γ production by CD8+ T cells, in the MLR system, was reduced significantly by HBsAg pretreatment. At ratios of 1:5 R/S, the percentage of IFN-γ and CD8 dual positive T cells decreased from 55.2% ± 5.3% to 15.1% ± 3.1% (P < 0.001), and decreased from 35.0% ± 5.1% to 7.3% ± 2.7% at ratios of 1:10 R/S (P < 0.001)., Conclusion: B7-H1 is not a signature of immune dysfunction, but an inflammation marker. HBsAg regulate immune response by tipping the balance between B7-H1 and CD40.

Objective: To investigate the risk perception of heat wave, and further explore its related factors in Guangdong province., Methods: A total of 2183 adults were selected by a multi-stage sampling method in Guangdong province. Each subject was interviewed in their home with a structured questionnaire by a well trained investigator from September to November, 2010. The questionnaire contained socio-demographic characteristics, heat wave related knowledge, risk perception of heat wave, etc. Chi-square test and multivariate logistic regression were employed in this study., Results: The average age of total 2183 participants was (39.31 ± 14.16) years, among which 53.37% (1165/2183) were males, and 48.74% (1064/2183) were selected from urban. About 38.11% (832/2183) of participants heard about heat wave, and 38.52% (841/2183) of subjects thought the heat wave had higher impact on their health (risk perception score of heat wave ≥ 5 points). About 81.91% (1788/2183) of all participants thought the weather in most recent years was hotter than several years ago. Among these people, 30.48% (545/1788) thought the main reason of weather becoming hotter was due to emission of carbon dioxide, and 26.51% (474/1788) thought it was due to air pollution. Results from the multivariate logistic regression showed that the risk perception score of heat wave were higher in subjects with higher education (OR = 2.16, 95%CI: 1.41 - 3.30), from urban(OR = 1.37, 95%CI: 1.10 - 1.72), with higher score of trust(OR = 1.08, 95%CI: 1.01 - 1.14) and participants with higher score of heat wave related knowledge (OR = 1.39, 95%CI: 1.27 - 1.52). Furthermore, compared to hierarchist, egalitarian (OR = 1.73, 95%CI: 1.30 - 2.29), individualist (OR = 1.93, 95%CI: 1.41 - 2.65) and fatalist (OR = 1.80, 95%CI: 1.41 - 2.29) also had higher risk perception score of heat wave., Conclusion: There is a lack of knowledge and risk perception to heat wave among the residents in Guangdong province. Risk perception of heat wave was higher in people who were from urban, had higher level of trust on government, experts and media, had higher health-related knowledge score, and non-hierarchists.

In this paper, we successfully demonstrated the fabrication of highly ordered and large-scale P3HT:PCBM nanowires via a slow-drying method, which allows for the convenient and cost-effective preparation of well-defined P3HT:PCBM nanostructures with large domains. The formation of the organic nanowires can be explained by the self-organization of polymer chains under favorable thermodynamic conditions in the slow-drying process. Furthermore, the C-V measurements revealed that the P3HT:PCBM nanowires possess high capacitance. This supercapacitive behavior of the nanowires is related to their large surface area and open structure, which can facilitate ion transport and accumulation. Owing to their extremely easy preparation and excellent capacitance performance, the P3HT:PCBM nanowires offer a promising electrode material for supercapacitor devices.