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Objective. The accuracy of left atrial pulmonary vein CT enhanced single-phase and dual-phase scanning in the detection of left atrial appendage (LAA) thrombosis and spontaneous echo contrast (SEC) before radio frequency ablation was compared in atrial fibrillation patients, so as to optimize the scanning scheme. Methods. 78 patients with atrial fibrillation who were admitted to Cangzhou Central Hospital from October 2020 to September 2021 and underwent bilateral enhanced CT scan of left atrial pulmonary vein and transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) examination for planned frequency ablation were selected. TEE results were used as the “gold standard” to compare the diagnostic efficacy of the first phase, second phase, and double-phase comprehensive mode of enhanced left atrial pulmonary vein CT in detecting left atrial thrombosis and SEC. Results. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were 88.9%, 84.1%, 42.1%, and 98.3%, respectively, in the detection of left atrial thrombosis and SEC by the first phase of CT enhanced scan. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were 22.2%, 98.6%, 66.6%, and 90.7%, respectively, in the detection of left atrial thrombosis and SEC by the second phase of CT enhanced scan. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were 88.9%, 84.1%, 42.1%, and 98.3%, respectively, in the detection of left atrial thrombosis and SEC by the double-phase comprehensive mode of CT enhanced scan. There was no statistically significant difference in the accuracy of CT diagnosis of left atrial appendage thrombosis and SEC between the three modes of the first phase, the second phase, and the double-phase comprehensive CT ( P > 0.05 ). The mean effective radiation dose of double-phase enhanced scan was 7.49 ± 1.02 mSv. Conclusion. Single-phase enhanced CT scan of left atrial pulmonary vein can meet clinical requirements and significantly reduce the radiation dose compared with double-phase enhanced CT scan. Therefore, it is recommended as an initial screening examination for patients with atrial fibrillation before radiofrequency ablation.

PDF file, 93K, High expression of SPARCL1 is associated with survival of patients with colon cancers and related to prognosis in both early and late stages.

PDF file, 67K, Primer sequences in RT-PCR analysis.

PDF file, 65K, Determine the specificity of SPARCL1 antibody.

Purpose:Secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteines-like 1 (SPARCL1) is an extracellular matrix glycoprotein with malignancy-suppressing potential. The hypothesis that SPARCL1 reduces cancer invasiveness and predicts better survival in colorectal cancers (CRC) was investigated.Experimental Design: Stable SPARCL1 transfectants, RKO-SPARCL1, and corresponding vector control were constructed and implanted into nude mice to generate a mouse xenograft model of liver metastasis. Also, a retrospective outcome study was conducted on the COH set (222 CRCs) and ZJU set (412 CRCs). The protein expression level of SPARCL1 was determined by immunohistochemistry. The Kaplan–Meier and Cox analyses were used for survival analysis. The association of SPARCL1 with mesenchymal–epithelial transition (MET) was examined by reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) and Western blot analysis.Results: The ectopic expression of SPARCL1 significantly reduced the potential for anchorage-independent growth, migration, invasion and induced cell differentiation in RKO and SW620 cells. In mouse xenograft model, the expression of SPARCL1 significantly reduced the liver metastasis (P < 0.01). The patient-based studies revealed that the expression of SPARCL1 was related to better differentiation (P < 0.01), less lymph node involvement [OR, 0.67; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.45–1.00], and less distant metastasis (OR, 0.38; 95% CI, 0.18–0.79). The Kaplan–Meier and Cox analysis showed that the expression of SPARCL1 was associated with better overall survival (log-rank: P < 0.01; HR, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.39–0.84). Transfection of SPARCL1 induced MET of colon cancer cells.Conclusion:SPARCL1 functions as a tumor suppressor promoting differentiation possibly via MET, which inhibits the aggressiveness of CRCs. Clin Cancer Res; 18(19); 5438–48. ©2012 AACR.

PDF file, 38K, Study design.

PDF file, 49K, The quality of CRC database in COH set and ZJU set.

PDF file, 379K, Recombinant human SPARCL1 protein reversed malignant phenotypes colon cancer cells in vitro.

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PDF file, 126K, Uni- and Multivariate COX analysis for SPARCL1 and overall survival of CRCs.

PDF file, 89K, Standard of cytoplasm staining of SPARCL1.

On the basis of the structures of natural xanthines and pyrethroid insecticides, a series of novel xanthine derivatives

BACKGROUND Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMRI) is considered to be useful for the diagnosis of myocarditis, and the Lake Louise Criteria (LLC) has been proved to be of significance as the standard of diagnosis. However, the diagnostic performance of LLC-based CMRI for myocarditis compared with endomyocardial biopsy (EMB) has not been quantitatively evaluated in a meta-analysis. MATERIAL AND METHODS The databases PubMed, Cochrane's Library, and EMBASE were searched to identify studies on LLC and its individual components for the diagnosis of myocarditis. EMB was the control reference. The sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative diagnostic likelihood ratios were calculated with a random-effects model. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was estimated to show overall effectiveness. RESULTS We included 9 cohorts (614 patients) of patients with suspected MC. The combined sensitivities, specificities, and AUCs for T1-weighed global relative enhancement were 0.66, 0.73, and 0.71; for T2-weighed edema ratio they were 0.52, 0.73, and 0.72; for the late gadolinium enhancement, they were 0.70, 0.57, and 0.67; and for LLC-based CMRI they were 0.70, 0.56, and 0.70, respectively. Subgroup analysis indicated that the sensitivities, specificities, and diagnostic accuracies of LLC and its individual component-based CMRI seemed to be similar in patients with acute or chronic myocarditis. Results of the Deeks' funnel plot asymmetry test showed no significant publication bias among the studies. CONCLUSIONS CMRI based on LLC or its individual components seems to have moderate accuracy in diagnosis of acute or chronic myocarditis.

The formation of thrombosis has limited the applications of small diameter vascular in cardiovascular diseases. In order to improve the anticoagulant activities of scaffolds, this study combined fucoidan with CS/PVA and investigated the complete physicochemical and mechanical characterization of the scaffolds to evaluate the feasibility of Fucoidan/CS/PVA scaffolds used in vascular tissue engineering. The SEM graphs show a well defined and interconnected pore structure and the nanofiber diameters are ranging from 341 nm to 482 nm. After immersing in PBS for 5 days, the tensile strength of the crosslinked scaffolds was 722±38 kPa while the elongation at break was 35.5±1.6 %. Besides, added with fucoidan, the scafflolds showed lower rate of plate adhesion (14.75±2.10 %) and markedly prolonged the APTT and TT. Furthermore, owing to the great water uptake ability, sufficient porosity, enhanced drug release and low cytotoxicity, the Fucoidan/CS/PVA scaffolds might be used for vascular tissue engineering with good prospect.

The pathological risk degree of gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) has become an issue of great concern. Computed tomography (CT) is beneficial for showing adjacent tissues in detail and determining metastasis or recurrence of GISTs, but its function is still limited. Radiomics has recently shown a great potential in aiding clinical decision-making. The purpose of our study is to develop and validate CT-based radiomics models for GIST risk stratification. Three hundred and sixty-six patients clinically suspected of primary GISTs from January 2013 to February 2018 were retrospectively enrolled, among which data from 140 patients were eventually analyzed after exclusion. Data from patient CT images were partitioned based on the National Institutes of Health Consensus Classification, including tumor segmentation, radiomics feature extraction and selection. A radiomics model was then proposed and validated. The radiomics signature demonstrated discriminative performance for advanced and nonadvanced GISTs with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.935 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.870–1.000] and an accuracy of 90.2% for validation cohort. The radiomics signature demonstrated favorable performance for the risk stratification of GISTs with an AUC of 0.809 (95% CI 0.777–0.841) and an accuracy of 67.5% for the validation cohort. Radiomics analysis could capture features of the four risk categories of GISTs. Meanwhile, this CT-based radiomics signature showed good diagnostic accuracy to distinguish between nonadvanced and advanced GISTs, as well as the four risk stratifications of GISTs. Our findings highlight the potential of a quantitative radiomics analysis as a complementary tool to achieve an accurate diagnosis for GISTs.

Biological hydrogel is important in drug delivery system and tissue engineering. In this paper, we prepared a series of biological hydrogels with N,O-carboxymethyl chitosan and oxidized pumpkin polysaccharide-II (oxidized PP-II). Morphological analyses indicated that the N,O-carboxymethyl chitosan/oxidized PP-II hydrogels (CPHs) had porous interior structures. The pore diameters ranged from several tens to several hundreds of micrometers. The storage modulus (G′) of the hydrogels ranged from 11 to 77 Pa, which indicated that the hydrogels had suitable mechanical strength. In vitro release test showed that the cumulative release of bovine serum albumin decreased from 95 to 60 % along with the proportion of oxidized PP-II to N,O-carboxymethyl chitosan from 1:1 to 1:3. After CPH-2 implanted in muscle tissues of mice for 15 days, fibroblast grew well in the CPH-2 pieces without inflammatory reaction. Therefore, the CPH-2 presented good histocompatibility with the muscle tissues of mice. Taken together, the N,O-carboxymethyl chitosan/oxidized PP-II hydrogels (CPHs) might have potential applications in the drug delivery system and tissue engineering.

Beijing Capital Med Univ, Affiliated Beijing Friendship Hosp, Dept Ophthalmol, Beijing 100050, Peoples R China

Study of safeners has been seldom reported in literature. In this work, a series of novel acylsulfamoylbenzamide analogues was designed and synthesized with newly developed safener cyprosulfamide (CSA) as the leading compound. The activity assay against the herbicide thiencarbazone-methyl (TCM) on maize revealed that fifteen compounds showed better protective effect than CSA on the fresh weight of aerial parts, twelve compounds exhibited better activity on the dry weight of aerial parts. Remarkably, two compounds (6Ih, 7II) had protective effect on the four aspects of TCM treated maize. Further antifungal assay showed their excellent activity against Physollospora piricola. The structure–activity relationships of CSA analogues as safeners and fungicides were discussed and it might be valuable for further molecular modification of new CSA analogues.

Purpose: Secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteines-like 1 (SPARCL1) is an extracellular matrix glycoprotein with malignancy-suppressing potential. The hypothesis that SPARCL1 reduces cancer invasiveness and predicts better survival in colorectal cancers (CRC) was investigated. Experimental Design: Stable SPARCL1 transfectants, RKO-SPARCL1, and corresponding vector control were constructed and implanted into nude mice to generate a mouse xenograft model of liver metastasis. Also, a retrospective outcome study was conducted on the COH set (222 CRCs) and ZJU set (412 CRCs). The protein expression level of SPARCL1 was determined by immunohistochemistry. The Kaplan–Meier and Cox analyses were used for survival analysis. The association of SPARCL1 with mesenchymal–epithelial transition (MET) was examined by reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) and Western blot analysis. Results: The ectopic expression of SPARCL1 significantly reduced the potential for anchorage-independent growth, migration, invasion and induced cell differentiation in RKO and SW620 cells. In mouse xenograft model, the expression of SPARCL1 significantly reduced the liver metastasis (P < 0.01). The patient-based studies revealed that the expression of SPARCL1 was related to better differentiation (P < 0.01), less lymph node involvement [OR, 0.67; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.45–1.00], and less distant metastasis (OR, 0.38; 95% CI, 0.18–0.79). The Kaplan–Meier and Cox analysis showed that the expression of SPARCL1 was associated with better overall survival (log-rank: P < 0.01; HR, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.39–0.84). Transfection of SPARCL1 induced MET of colon cancer cells. Conclusion: SPARCL1 functions as a tumor suppressor promoting differentiation possibly via MET, which inhibits the aggressiveness of CRCs. Clin Cancer Res; 18(19); 5438–48. ©2012 AACR.

Diabetic retinopathy is severe damage to the retina caused by complications of diabetes, and is the prevailing cause of blindness. Accumulating evidence from both animal models and humans suggests that the inflammatory process plays a key role in the development of diabetic retinopathy and is facilitated by innate immune response. The aim of this study was to examine whether the TLR4 signaling pathway was involved in the streptozotocin-induced diabetic rat retina.Diabetes was induced by a single intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin, and rat diabetic retinopathy was examined at 4 weeks of diabetes duration. Then the accumulated leukocytes were counted in vivo by acridine orange leukocyte fluorography, and the retinal vascular permeability was measured by the Evans blue assay. The expressions of TLR4 and its downstream signaling molecules were measured by RT-PCR or Western blot respectively. To evaluate the effect of blocking TLR4 on diabetic retinopathy, TAK-242, a selective TLR4 antagonist, was administered by intraperitoneal injection.Our results showed that the retina of diabetic rats demonstrated accumulated leukocytes and retinal vascular permeability. The mRNA and protein expressions of TLR4 were upregulated in streptozotocin-treated diabetic rat retina. Furthermore, the protein levels of TLR4 downstream signaling molecules were significantly increased in streptozotocin-treated animals. In addition, the protein levels of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-1β, and interferon (IFN)-β, three downstream proinflammatory cytokines of TLR4 signal transduction pathway, were also markedly increased in diabetic rats. Administration of TAK-242 attenuated leukocytes accumulated and retinal vascular permeability, and decreased TLR4 downstream signaling molecules and proinflammatory cytokines in streptozotocin-induced animals.Together, these data have demonstrated that TLR4 has a critical role in streptozotocin-induced diabetic retinopathy at the level of inflammatory cytokine induction, in both the MyD88-dependent and MyD88-independent pathways. TLR4 may become a new potential pharmacological target for treating diabetic retinopathy.

To evaluate MSCT diagnostic value in children with foreign body and stenosis in trachea and bronchus.MSCT scan was done in 18 children suspected foreign body and stenosis in trachea and bronchus. Postprocessed (included Minp and MPR) were done after the axial images were obtained. All of 18 cases underwent conventional BFS.Fifteen cases were shown with foreign body through MSCT scan. In addition, total amount of foreign body reached 21 pieces; The CT value in one case was 278 HU, in the others were from--10.6 HU to 31 HU; Stenosis in trachea and bronchus was found in 2 cases; Stenosis in laryngeal cavity after foreign body removing in one case. Foreign body and stenosis in trachea and bronchus were shown better in MPR and Minp images. MSCT images were not only conformed to BFS completely, but also showing foreign body in segmental bronchus more accurately.MSCT scanning could show direct and indirect signs of the foreign body and stenosis in trachea and bronchus accurately, and determine the nature of foreign body. It can act as a primary examination.

Secreted protein that's acidic and rich in cysteine, like 1(SPARCL1), an extracellular de-adhesion glycoprotein, was down-regulated in several solid cancers such as non-small cell lung cancer and pancreatic cancer. Our previous study revealed that expression of SPARCL1 was negatively related to liver metastasis of colorectal cancer (CRC). To clarify the function of SPARCL1 and its mechanism in CRC, the overexpression cell clone, RKO-SPARCL1, was created for illustrating biological behavior of SPARCL1 in vitro and in vivo. It was shown that SPARCL1 significantly reduced colony formation (p=0.027), invasion ability (p=0.001) and adhesion (p=0.04) of CRC cells in vitro. In comparison with vector control (RKO-pLXSN), RKO-SPARCL1 displayed significantly reduction in liver metastatic nodules in intrasplenic injection nude mice model (p=0.009). Meanwhile, tissue samples from 412 CRC patients were reassembled as tissue microarray for an outcome study. The antibody against SPARCL1 was developed for Immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining to assess the expression level of SPARCL1. Uni- and multivariate Logistic analysis demonstrated that SPARCL1 was negatively related with poorly tumor differentiation (p=0.001), lymph node metastasis (Odds ratio, OR=0.67, 95% 0.45-1.00) and distant metastasis (OR=0.39, 95% 0.18-0.82). The Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that overexpression of SPARCL1 was significantly related to better overall survival in CRCs (p=0.004). Furthermore, the multivariate COX proportional hazard analysis demonstrated that SPARCL1 significantly reduced the risk of death from CRC (Hazard ratio, HR=0.57, 95% 0.39-0.84). Based on bioinformatics gene ontology analysis for gene expression microarray, overexpression of SPARCL1 significantly inhibited focal adhesion pathway and other tumor-associated oncogenes, such as S100A4 and ERBB3, in RKO cell line. Therefore, it is concluded that SPARCL1 may function as a tumor suppressor inhibiting the aggressiveness of cancer cells and reducing the risk of death from CRCs. It is suggested that SPARCL1 may serve as a prognostic biomarker for CRCs. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 2120. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-2120

To investigate the expression of markers that are correlated with the prognosis of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients.One hundred and fifty-six CRC patients were followed up for more than 3 years after radical surgery. Immunohistochemical (IHC) analysis was performed to detect the expression of 14 pathway-related markers (p53, APC, p21ras, E-cadherin, endothelin-B receptor, Shp2, ADCY-2, SPARCL1, neuroligin1, hsp27, mmp-9, MAPK, MSH2 and rho) in specimens from these patients. Bioinformatics analysis involving a Support Vector Machine (SVM) was used to determine the best prognostic model from combinations of these markers.Seven markers (SPARCL1, Shp2, MSH2, E-cadherin, p53, ADCY-2 and MAPK) were significantly related to the prognosis and clinical pathological features of the CRC patients (P0.05). Prognostic models were established through SVM from combinations of these 7 markers and proved able to differentiate patients with dissimilar survival, especially in stage II/III patients. According to the best prognostic model, the p53/SPARCL1 model, patients having high p53 and low SPARCL1 expression had about 50% lower 3-year survival than others (P0.001).SPARCL1, Shp2, MSH2, E-cadherin, p53, ADCY-2 and MAPK are potential prognostic markers in CRC. A p53/SPARCL1 bioinformatics model may be used as a supplement to tumor-nodes-metastasis staging.