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OBJECTIVE: Liver cancer emerged as a major health problem, and it accounts for leading cancer-related death worldwide. Due to recurrence and metastatic behavior, it is challenging to be controlled and managed. Understanding the regulative role of different proteins, which regulates liver cancer in various pathological stages, is essential to be investigated. In this study, we analyzed the correlation between Foxa1 suppression along with apoptosis and cancer stem cell proliferation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: CD133+ cells were used to induce the initial and advanced stage of liver cancer. Histology was used to study and confirm the tissue complications associated with initial, advanced and Foxa1 silenced liver cancer tissues. Immunohistochemistry and Western blotting were used to quantify Foxa1, CD133 expression. TUNEL assay was performed to study apoptosis. RESULTS: Initially using CD133+ cells, we successfully developed a mouse model with the initial and advanced stage of liver cancer upon 4 and 8 weeks incubation. Histologically, as the tumor progress, it shows more proliferative cells with disorganized tissue structure. Foxa1 silencing aids in recovering from initial liver cancer, but it has only limited effects with advanced liver cancer. The apoptosis process is enhanced in initial liver cancer, and Foxa1 silenced tissue when compared with the advanced stage of liver cancer. Foxa1 silencing also suppresses the cancer stem cell proliferation. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, our results reveal the critical role of Foxa1 in regulating apoptosis and liver cancer stem cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Skin plays an important role in innate immune responses to bacterial infection, but its molecular mechanism remains unclear in fish. The transcriptional profiling of the skin immune response to Aeromonas hydrophila infection of the zebrafish, Danio rerio (Hamilton), was performed by Affymetrix microarray analysis. The results showed that 538 genes were differentially expressed, of which 388 genes were up-regulated and 150 genes were down-regulated. The expression patterns for 106 representative genes were observed to be up-regulated in zebrafish skin at 24 and 36 h post-infection, and gene expression changes were clearly greater at 36 h. Gene Ontology classification indicated that 222 genes were significantly associated with the skin immunity, including complement activation, acute-phase response, stress response, chemotaxis and apoptosis. Further Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analysis showed that the significant pathways included MAPK, p53, Wnt, TGF-β, Notch, ErbB, JAK-STAT, VEGF, mTOR and Calcium signalling in skin immune responses, and several genes (e.g. akt2l, frap1, nras, rac1, xiap) were found to be involved in signalling networks. Moreover, expression changes in nine selected genes were verified by real-time qPCR analysis. This is the first known report on transcriptome analysis in the skin of zebrafish against the pathogen A. hydrophila. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate the value of histogram parameters in quantifying brain development trajectory at slice of anterior and posterior horns of lateral ventricles on conventional brain MRI in normal children aged 0-5 years. Methods: Routine brain MRI data [apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) map, T 1 -weighted imaging (T 1 WI), and T 2 -weighted imaging (T 2 WI)] were retrospectively collected from 300 children aged 0-5 years who underwent MRI at Children 's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University from April 2014 to November 2021, 154 males and 146 females, aged [ M ( Q 1 , Q 3 ) ] 35.57(17.98,50.66)months. According to the random sampling method, they were divided into training set ( n =240) and validation set ( n =60) in a ratio of 8∶2. The training set was divided into 6 groups according to age:≤0.5 years, 24 persons; >0.5-≤1 years,21 persons; >1-≤2 years,31 persons; >2-≤3 years,44 persons; >3-≤4 years,42 persons; >4-≤5 years,78 persons. MRIcron software was used to delineate the whole brain at the level of the anterior and posterior horns of the lateral ventricles of the three MRI data as the region of interest. Then gray histograms and their parameters [including mean, maximum, minimum, skewness, kurtosis, mode, variance, and percentiles at 5% intervals from 10% to 95%(10th-95th) ]were obtained. Intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) were used to assess consistency of intra-observer and inter-observer measurement. Representative parameters were selected by Spearman correlation analysis and curve fitting. The linear regression coefficient β represented development rates at different ages. The selected curve regression models were applied to the validation set, and the reliability of the model was evaluated with accuracy. Results: Intra-observer and inter-observer histogram measurement parameters were generally in good consistency (ICC>0.800, all P <0.001). Histogram parameters ADC 10th-65th, T 1 WI 55th-80th and T 2 WI 10th-45th were highly correlated with age (∣ r ∣≥0.700, 0.600 and 0.600 respectively; all P <0.001). ADC 30th and T 2 WI 10th had the greatest goodness of fit ( R ²=0.871, 0.873; both P <0.001). Map of brain development trends showed that ADC 30th and T 2 WI 10th decreased with age. ADC 30th changed rapidly before the age of 2 years, most significantly within 6 months, and the rate of decrease slowed down after 2 years old. T 2 WI 10th decreased rapidly within 1 year, and moderately after 1 year old. The curve regression models of ADC 30th and T 2 WI 10th had higher accuracy in validation set [93% (56/60) and 95% (57/60), respectively]. Conclusion: Histogram parameters can quantify brain developmental trajectories at slice of anterior and posterior horns of lateral ventricles on conventional MRI in normal children aged 0-5 years, and obtain the brain development curves reflecting this slice of this age group.

Atmospheric reactive nitrogen (N r ) has been a cause of serious environmental pollution in China. Historically, China used too little N r in its agriculture to feed its population. However, with the rapid increase in N fertilizer use for food production and fossil fuel consumption for energy supply over the last four decades, increasing gaseous N r species (e.g. NH 3 and NO x ) have been emitted to the atmosphere and then deposited as wet and dry deposition, with adverse impacts on air, water and soil quality as well as plant biodiversity and human health. This paper reviews the issues associated with this in a holistic way. The emissions, deposition, impacts, actions and regulations for the mitigation of atmospheric N r are discussed systematically. Both NH 3 and NO x make major contributions to environmental pollution but especially to the formation of secondary fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ), which impacts human health and light scattering (haze). In addition, atmospheric deposition of NH 3 and NO x causes adverse impacts on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems due to acidification and eutrophication. Regulations and practices introduced by China that meet the urgent need to reduce N r emissions are explained and resulting effects on emissions are discussed. Recommendations for improving future N management for achieving 'win-win' outcomes for Chinese agricultural production and food supply, and human and environmental health, are described. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Air quality, past present and future'.

Objective: To evaluate the classification of the types of pediatric posterior fossa brain tumors based on routine MRI (T(1)WI, T(2)WI and ADC) using wavelet transformation analysis of whole tumor. Methods: MRI images of medulloblastoma ( n= 59), ependymoma ( n= 13) and pilocytic astrocytoma ( n= 27) confirmed by pathology before treatments in Children's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University from January 2014 to February 2019 were enrolled in this retrospective study as well as the clinical data of age, gender and symptoms. Registration was performed among the three sequences and wavelet features of ROI were acquired. Afterwards, the top ten features were ranked and trained among groups by using random forest classifier. Finally, the results were compared and analyzed according to the classification. Results: The top ten contribution three sequences and wavelet features of ROI were acquired from the ADC sequence. The random forest classifier achieved 100% accuracy on training data and was validated best accuracy (86.8%) when combined of first and third wavelet features. The sensitivity was 100%, 94.8%, 76.9%, and the specificity was 97.6%, 88.0%, 98.8% respectively. Conclusions: Features based on wavelet transformation of ADC sequence of entire tumor can provide more quantitative information, which could provide help in the differential diagnosis of pediatric posterior fossa brain tumors. The optimum combination to distinguish three pediatric posterior fossa brain tumors is sixth and twelfth wavelet features of ADC sequence.

Background and Purpose: The Low-Profile Visualized Intraluminal Support (LVIS) stent is a new device recently introduced for the treatment of wide-neck intracranial aneurysms. This single-center study presents the authors' preliminary experience using the LVIS stent to treat saccular aneurysms with parent arteries smaller than 2.5 mm., Materials and Methods: Aneurysms with a LVIS stent used in a small parent vessel (<2.5 mm in diameter) between October 2014 and April 2016 were included. Procedure-related complications, angiographic results, clinical outcomes, and midterm follow-up data were analyzed retrospectively., Results: A total of 22 patients was studied, including 5 ruptured and 17 unruptured aneurysms. Most of the aneurysms were located in the anterior circulation (90.9%). Stent placement in the parent arteries measuring 1.7-2.4 mm in diameter (mean, 2.1 mm) was successful in 100% of cases. Procedure-related complication developed in 1 patient (4.5%) who presented with aneurysm rupture. No permanent morbidity and mortality occurred. Immediate angiographic outcome showed complete occlusion in 8 aneurysms (36.4%), neck residual in 8 (36.4%), and residual aneurysm in 6 (27.3%). All patients underwent angiographic follow-up at a mean of 8.3 months, which revealed complete occlusion in 18 (81.8%) patients, neck remnant in 3 (13.6%), and residual sac in 1 (4.5%). No recanalization of the target aneurysm was observed. There was 1 case with asymptomatic in-stent stenosis., Conclusions: Our preliminary results show that the deployment of LVIS stents in small vessels is feasible, safe, and effective in the midterm. Larger studies with long-term follow-up are needed to validate our promising results., (© 2017 by American Journal of Neuroradiology.)

Objective: To investigate the influence of depression levels on regulatory T cells (Tregs) in patients with non-M 3 acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Methods: A total of 63 patients with primarily diagnostic non-M 3 AML and 25 healthy controls were enrolled, and the levels of depression by using HADM score and the percentages of Tregs by flow cytometry were evaluated in pre-treatment and post-treatment, respectively. Results: After every course of chemotherapy, the percentages of Tregs of PBMNC in AML showed the higher level of (6.48±1.81)% than those of (4.99±1.29)% in control ( P = 0.001). There was no difference among different levels of depression groups after the first cycle. However, the percentages of Tregs increased with the worse of depression after the second and third cycles. Partial correlation analysis after adjusting age indicated that the percentages of Tregs showed no correlation with the levels of depression after the first cycle (correlation coefficient, 0.120, P =0.345), and showed the positive correlation with depression levels after the second and third cycles (correlation coefficient, 0.619 and 0.614, all P values <0.05). Conclusion: The depression levels showed an association with the percentages of Tregs in patients with non-M 3 AML, which could be observed only after the second cycles of chemotherapy.

It has been found that the electrochemical activity of glutathione was increased greatly at the glassy carbon electrodes modified with 5,10,15,20-tetraphenylporphine ruthenium(II) carbenyl (RuTPP), meso-tetraphenylporphine copper(II) complex (CuTTP) and hemin. It has been also found that glutathione would enhance the electrogenerated chemiluminescence (ECL) of Ru(bpy)3(2+) at a hemin glassy carbon electrode; the enhanced ECL intensity was linear with the concentration of glutathione in the range of 1 x 10(-7)-1 x 10(-4) mol l-1, based on which method for determination of glutathione has been developed. The detection limit of glutathione was 2 x 10(-8) mol l-1, and the relative standard deviation for 1 x 10(-6) mol l-1 glutathione was 2.7%. The mechanism for this ECL system has been proposed.