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The willingness to donate organs post-mortem varies considerably both across and within countries. Linking these differences to personal characteristics is an important focus of research investigating the supply of donor organs. Anecdotal evidence and previous findings indirectly suggest that the desire to reciprocate others’ (un)willingness to donate organs plays an important role in the decision to become an organ donor. We use individual measures of reciprocity in a large, representative survey in Germany and relate these to organ donation attitudes and behavior. Higher positive reciprocity is associated with a higher general willingness to donate organs, but it does not correlate with donor card possession. Individuals with higher negative reciprocity have a lower general willingness to donate organs and are less likely to have a donor card. Our findings open up the possibility of a double dividend of measures that increase organ donations. These could yield an additional increase of organ donations via a feedback loop through reciprocity.

Background: Prolactin (PRL), an inflammatory hormone with cytokine properties, has long been considered to play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases, including systemic sclerosis (SSc). However, the plasma/serum levels of PRL in SSc were inconsistent in published studies. The aim of this study was to evaluate the plasma/serum levels of PRL in patients with SSc accurately. Methods: Electronic databases, including PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, CNKI, VIP and WANFANG databases, were searched up to October 15, 2019. Pooled standard mean difference (SMD) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was calculated by fixed-effect or random-effects model analysis. All statistical analyses were conducted with STATA 12.0. Results: Fifty three articles were obtained after searching databases, and 9 studies with 293 SSc patients and 282 controls were finally included. The meta-analysis showed that the plasma/serum PRL level in SSC patients was significantly increased compared with the healthy controls, with the SMD of 1.00 and 95% CI (0.56, 1.43). Subgroup analysis showed that female patients had higher plasma/serum PRL levels. However, no significant change in plasma/serum PRL levels was observed in male patients (P = .318). In subgroup analysis by detection type, electrochemiluminescence immunoassay (ECLIA) group and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) group showed higher PRL levels among SSc patients. Conclusions: In summary, our meta-analysis showed a significantly higher plasma/serum PRL level in SSc patients than healthy controls, and it was associated with gender and detection method.

Background ATPase family, AAA+ domain containing 2 (ATAD2) is also known as AAA+ nuclear coregulator cancer-associated protein or PRO2000. ATAD2 has been reported as a prognostic factor in different cancer types, but the association between ATAD2 high expression and survival is still unclear. Thereby, this meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the prognostic value of ATAD2 high expression in human cancers. Methods All of the studies included were retrieved from PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library electronic databases. The clinical outcomes were evaluated by calculating hazard ratio (HR) with their 95% confidence interval (CI). Results Thirteen studies including 2689 patients were eligible for this analysis. The pooled results showed that ATAD2 over-expression was significantly associated with shorter overall survival (OS) (HR = 2.32, 95% CI = 1.77-3.02), as well as shorter recurrence-free survival (RFS), disease-free survival (DFS), and disease-specific survival (DSS) (HR = 1.83, 95% CI = 1.51-2.23) among human cancers. Subgroup analyses for OS were implemented in terms of region, tumor type, and sample size and the results were coincident with overall pooled results. Begg funnel plot and Egger test showed the presence of publication bias for OS. Sensitivity analysis indicated that both results were not affected for removing any study. Conclusion ATAD2 would be likely to act as a prognostic biomarker for the patients of different cancer types and provide a guide on clinical treatment. Prospective clinical studies are needed to support these findings.