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Tissues have remarkable natural capabilities to regenerate for the purpose of physiological turnover and repair of damage. Adult mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are well known for their unique self‑renewal ability, pluripotency, homing potential, paracrine effects and immunomodulation. Advanced research of the unique properties of MSCs have opened up new horizons for tissue regenerative therapies. However, certain drawbacks of the application of MSCs, such as the low survival rate of transplanted MSCs, unsatisfactory efficiency and even failure to regenerate under an unbalanced microenvironment, are concerning with regards to their wider therapeutic applications. The activity of stem cells is mainly regulated by the anatomical niche; where they are placed during their clinical and therapeutic applications. Crosstalk between various niche signals maintains MSCs in homeostasis, in which the WNT signaling pathway plays vital roles. Several external or internal stimuli have been reported to interrupt the normal bioactivity of stem cells. The irreversible tissue loss that occurs during infection at the site of tissue grafting suggests an inhibitory effect mediated by microbial infections within MSC niches. In addition, MSC‑seeded tissue engineering success is difficult in various tissues, when sites of injury are under the effects of a severe infection despite the immunomodulatory properties of MSCs. In the present review, the current understanding of the way in which WNT signaling regulates MSC activity modification under physiological and pathological conditions was summarized. An effort was also made to illustrate parts of the underlying mechanism, including the inflammatory factors and their interactions with the regulatory WNT signaling pathway, aiming to promote the clinical translation of MSC‑based therapy.

Purpose The survival benefit of postoperative adjuvant treatment (POAT) for stage II oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma (OTSCC) remains controversial. This large SEER-based study aims to establish a prognostic nomogram to visualize the overall survival of these patients and to aid in POAT decision making. Patients and Methods The cut-off points of age at diagnosis and examined lymph node number (ELN) were determined using the population-based data from the SEER database. Univariate and multivariate Cox hazards regression models were utilized to identify prognostic factors that were integrated into the establishment of the prognostic nomogram. Patients with stage II OTSCC were then stratified into 3 cohorts based on this nomogram. The survival benefit of POAT was evaluated in these cohorts. Results Age at diagnosis (with cutoff points of 50 and 75 years) and ELN (with cutoff points of 0 and 22) was significantly associated with the survival outcomes in patients with stage II OTSCC. After the multivariate analysis, 4 factors, including age at diagnosis, sex, ELN, and differentiation grade, were identified as independent prognostic factors. Additionally, a prognostic nomogram with these factors was constructed to predict overall survival and to stratify these patients. Only patients in the high-risk cohort could significantly benefit from postoperative adjuvant treatment. Conclusions This prognostic nomogram could accurately predict the overall survival of stage II OTSCC patients after curative surgery. Notably, this model could also assist the decision-making of postoperative adjuvant treatment for patients with stage II OTSCC.

15,16-dihydrotanshinone I (DHTI), a lipophilic tanshinone extracted from Danshen root (Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge), has been reported to function as an antitumor agent. However, its activity on osteosarcoma (OS), the most common primary malignant bone tumor, is unclear.This study aimed to determine the effects of DHTI treatment on proliferation, apoptosis and migration of human OS cell line 143B and investigate the possible underlying molecular mechanisms.Human cell line 143B was used as a model for investigation of the inhibitory effects of DHTI on osteosarcoma. Cell proliferation was evaluated by MTT assays, while cell cycle progression, apoptosis and cell migration were analyzed by flow cytometer, caspase activity assays and scratch migration assays. qRT-PCR and western blot were carried out to detect the expression levels of representative genes and proteins during physiological processes examined above.DHTI treatment inhibited the proliferation of 143B cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner through arresting cells in G1 phase by reducing the expression of cyclin D1, cyclin E1, CDK2, CDK4, CDK6, p-Rb, E2F1, SKP2 and increasing the expression of P53, P21cip1, P27kip1. In addition, DHTI induced apoptosis of 143B cells through caspase pathways to activate caspase-3, caspase-8, caspase-9, Bax, and PARP cleavage but reduce the expression of Bcl-2. Furthermore, DHTI treatment attenuated cell migration by down-regulating adhesion molecules VCAM-1 and ICAM-1.These findings suggest that DHTI could be a novel and efficient therapeutic candidate for OS treatment and further detailed investigation is warranted.

Renewable energy, notably wind power, is developing very fast around the world. In practice, especially in China, base-load cycling capacity shortage and wind prediction errors are main obstacles to make full use of the wind power. There are growing interests in using demand side resources to facilitate the integration of renewable energy. In this context, in order that a wind power integration margin (WPIM) is assured for a system, a novel unit commitment model is proposed in this paper. In this model, the shiftable load (SL) and base-load cycling constraints are considered. To solve this model, the linearized formulation of the UC model is used, and then the model can be solved by the mixed integer linear programming (MILP) in GAMS. Finally, numerical simulations are presented to verify the effectiveness of the proposed model. It is shown that the SL can effectively mitigate the shortage of base-load cycling capacity, thus improve the WPIM. In addition, system operation costs can be reduced effectively when the SL is considered.