Primary cilia support cartilage regeneration after injury.

In growing children, growth plate cartilage has limited self-repair ability upon fracture injury always leading to limb growth arrest. Interestingly, one type of fracture injuries within the growth plate achieve amazing self-healing, however, the mechanism is unclear. Using this type of fracture mouse model, we discovered the activation of Hedgehog (Hh) signaling in the injured growth plate, which could activate chondrocytes in growth plate and promote cartilage repair. Primary cilia are the central transduction mediator of Hh signaling. Notably, ciliary Hh-Smo-Gli signaling pathways were enriched in the growth plate during development. Moreover, chondrocytes in resting and proliferating zone were dynamically ciliated during growth plate repair. Furthermore, conditional deletion of the ciliary core gene Ift140 in cartilage disrupted cilia-mediated Hh signaling in growth plate. More importantly, activating ciliary Hh signaling by Smoothened agonist (SAG) significantly accelerated growth plate repair after injury. In sum, primary cilia mediate Hh signaling induced the activation of stem/progenitor chondrocytes and growth plate repair after fracture injury.

Immune regulation based on sex differences in ischemic stroke pathology.

Ischemic stroke is one of the world's leading causes of death and disability. It has been established that gender differences in stroke outcomes prevail, and the immune response after stroke is an important factor affecting patient outcomes. However, gender disparities lead to different immune metabolic tendencies closely related to immune regulation after stroke. The present review provides a comprehensive overview of the role and mechanism of immune regulation based on sex differences in ischemic stroke pathology.

The role of proteoglycan form of DMP1 in cranial repair.

BACKGROUND: The cranial region is a complex set of blood vessels, cartilage, nerves and soft tissues. The reconstruction of cranial defects caused by trauma, congenital defects and surgical procedures presents clinical challenges. Our previous data showed that deficiency of the proteoglycan (PG) form of dentin matrix protein 1 (DMP1-PG) could lead to abnormal cranial development. In addition, DMP1-PG was highly expressed in the cranial defect areas. The present study aimed to investigate the potential role of DMP1-PG in intramembranous ossification in cranial defect repair. METHODS: Mouse cranial defect models were established by using wild- type (WT) and DMP1-PG point mutation mice. Microcomputed tomography (micro-CT) and histological staining were performed to assess the extent of repair. Immunofluorescence assays and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT‒qPCR) were applied to detect the differentially expressed osteogenic markers. RNA sequencing was performed to probe the molecular mechanism of DMP1-PG in regulating defect healing. RESULTS: A delayed healing process and an abnormal osteogenic capacity of primary osteoblasts were observed in DMP1-PG point mutation mice. Furthermore, impaired inflammatory signaling pathways were detected by using RNA transcription analysis of this model. CONCLUSIONS: Our data indicate that DMP1-PG is an indispensable positive regulator during cranial defect healing.

Generation of functional oligopeptides that promote osteogenesis based on unsupervised deep learning of protein IDRs.

Deep learning (DL) is currently revolutionizing peptide drug development due to both computational advances and the substantial recent expansion of digitized biological data. However, progress in oligopeptide drug development has been limited, likely due to the lack of suitable datasets and difficulty in identifying informative features to use as inputs for DL models. Here, we utilized an unsupervised deep learning model to learn a semantic pattern based on the intrinsically disordered regions of ~171 known osteogenic proteins. Subsequently, oligopeptides were generated from this semantic pattern based on Monte Carlo simulation, followed by in vivo functional characterization. A five amino acid oligopeptide (AIB5P) had strong bone-formation-promoting effects, as determined in multiple mouse models (e.g., osteoporosis, fracture, and osseointegration of implants). Mechanistically, we showed that AIB5P promotes osteogenesis by binding to the integrin α5 subunit and thereby activating FAK signaling. In summary, we successfully established an oligopeptide discovery strategy based on a DL model and demonstrated its utility from cytological screening to animal experimental verification.

Tuning Crystallinity and Surface Hydrophobicity of a Cobalt Phosphide Cocatalyst to Boost CO2 Photoreduction Performance.

Photocatalytic CO2 conversion is a promising method to yield carbon fuels, but it remains challenging to regulate catalytic materials for enhanced reaction efficiency and tunable product selectivity. This study concerns the development of a facile and efficient thermal post-treatment method to improve the crystallinity and surface hydrophobicity of a cobalt phosphide (CoP) cocatalyst, which promotes the separation and transfer of photoexcited charge carriers, reinforces CO2 chemisorption, and weakens the H2 O affinity. Compared with pristine CoP, the optimal CoP-600 cocatalyst displays a 3.5-fold enhancement in activity and a 2.3-fold increase in selectivity for the reduction of CO2 to CO with a high rate of 68.1 µmol h-1 .

Glycosylation of DMP1 promotes bone reconstruction in long bone defects.

The regeneration of bone defects is necessary for the successful healing. During the process of healing, callus plays crucial roles in providing the stable bone-reconstruction environment. The callus is consisted of various large molecules including collagen proteins, non-collagen proteins and proteoglycans (PGs), which are involved in maintaining mechanical strength and interacting with cytokines and grow factors in the injury sites. Recently, our data have found that the PG form of Dentin Matrix Protein 1 (DMP1-PG), which is a newly identified PG, was richly expressed in the bone defect sites. Previous researches have demonstrated the special role of DMP1-PG in chondrogenesis and endochondral ossification, however, the knowledge about the role of DMP1-PG in bone defect repair is still limited. To further detect the potential function of DMP1-PG in the defect healing, we employed a bone defect intramembranous ossification model using the glycosylation site mutant DMP1-PG (S89-G89, S89G-DMP1) mouse. The morphologic changes of calluses and abnormal expression levels of osteogenesis genes were displayed in the injury sites in S89G-DMP1 mice. In addition, impaired BMP-Smad signaling pathway was observed due to the deficiency of DMP1-PG. Collectively, our findings indicated that the DMP1-PG is one of key proteoglycans in the process of defect healing via regulating the osteogenesis.

Cutoff of 25% for Ki67 expression is a good classification tool for prognosis in colorectal cancer in the AJCC­8 stratification.

Ki­67 expression has been widely used in clinical practice as an index to evaluate the proliferative activity of tumor cells. The cutoff for Ki67 expression in order to increase the prognostic value of Ki67 expression in colorectal cancer varies. The present study assessed the relationship between the 25% cutoff for Ki67 expression and prognosis in colorectal cancer in the AJCC­8 (American Joint Committee on Cancer 8 edition) stratification. The current trial included 1,090 colorectal cancer patients enrolled from 2006 to 2012 at Huzhou Central Hospital. Ki67 expression was classified according to 25% intervals, dividing the patients into four groups. Measurement data were analyzed by ANOVA, and count data by Crosstabs. Bivariate correlation analysis was performed to assess clinicopathological indicators based on Ki67 expression. Disease­free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) based on Ki67 levels were analyzed by the Kaplan­Meier method. A total of 1,090 patients of the 2,080 enrolled CRC cases were evaluated (52.4%). Invasive depth, tumor differentiation, tumor size, AJCC­8, positive number of lymph nodes and chemotherapy status showed significant differences in the various Ki67 expression groups (all P<0.05), with significant correlations (Spearman rho: 0.170, 0.456, 0.22, 0.195, 0.514 and ­0.201, respectively, all P<0.001). DFS and OS for the different Ki67 level groups based on AJCC­8 stratification were analyzed, and no significance was found in stage IV (P=0.334). DFS and OS survival rates were assessed at different Ki67 expression levels, and no significant differences were found (all P>0.05). Cox regression analysis showed that invasive depth, lymph node metastasis, tumor differentiation, AJCC­8 and Ki67 were independent factors affecting colorectal cancer (P=0.030, all others P<0.001). In conclusion, a cutoff of 25% for Ki67 expression is a good classification tool. High Ki67 has a close association with poor prognosis in colorectal cancer and independently predicts prognosis in the AJCC­8 stratification.

Optimization of Boron Doped TiO2 as an Efficient Visible Light-Driven Photocatalyst for Organic Dye Degradation With High Reusability.

No visible light activity is the bottle neck for wide application of TiO2, and Boron doping is one of the effective way to broaden the adsorption edge of TiO2. In this study, several Boron doped TiO2 materials were prepared via a facile co-precipitation and calcination process. The B doping amounts were optimized by the degradation of rhodamine B (Rh B) under visible light irradiation, which indicated that when the mass fraction of boron is 6% (denoted as 6B-TiO2), the boron doped TiO2 materials exhibited the highest activity. In order to investigate the enhanced mechanism, the difference between B-doped TiO2 and bare TiO2 including visible light harvesting abilities, separation efficiencies of photo-generated electron-hole pairs, photo-induced electrons generation abilities, photo-induced charges transferring speed were studied and compared in details. h+ and · O 2 - were determined to be the two main responsible active species in the photocatalytic oxidation process. Besides the high degradation efficiency, 6B-TiO2 also exhibited high reusability in the photocatalysis, which could be reused at least 5 cycles with almost no active reduction. The results indicate that 6B-TiO2 has high photocatalytic degradation ability toward organic dye of rhodamine B under visible light irradiation, which is a highly potential photocatalyst to cope with organic pollution.

When do defecation function and quality of life recover for patients with non-ostomy and ostomy surgery of rectal cancer?

BACKGROUND: Rectal cancer (RC) surgery often results in permanent colostomy, seriously limiting the quality of life (QOL) in patients in terms of bowel function. This study aimed to examine defecation function and QOL in RC patients who underwent non-ostomy or ostomy surgery, at different time-points after surgery. METHODS: In total, 82 patients who underwent an ostomy and 141 who did not undergo an ostomy for the treatment of RC at our colorectal surgery department between January 2013 and January 2015 were enrolled. Surgical methods, tumor distance from the anal margin (TD), anastomosis distance from the anal margin (AD) and complications were compered between the non-ostomy and ostomy surgery groups. QOL was compared between the two groups at years 2, 3, and 4 after surgery. The Wexner score and the validated cancer-specific European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC QLQ-CR30) questionnaire scores were assessed for all patients in January 2017. SPSS 21.0 was utilized for all data analyses. RESULTS: Surgical methods, TD, and AD significantly differed between the non-ostomy and ostomy surgery groups (all P < .001). However, no differences were found in the number of complications between the groups (P = .483). For the 192 patients undergoing Dixon surgery, role function (RF), global QOL (GQOL), sleep disturbance, and the incidence of constipation showed significant differences between the two groups (P = .012, P = .025, P = .036, and P = .015, respectively). In the 31 cases of permanent ostomy, we observed significant differences in GQOL scores, dyspnea incidence, and financial difficulties across the different years (P = .002, P = .036, and P < .01, respectively). Across all 223 cases, there were significant differences in social function and GQOL scores in the second year after surgery (P = .014 and P < .001, respectively). However, no differences were observed in the other indices across the three time-points. CONCLUSIONS: RC patients undergoing ostomy surgery, especially those with low and super-low RC, revealed poorer defecation function and QOL in the present study. However, 2 years after surgery, most of the defecation and QOL indicators showed recovery.

Molecular Junctions on Polymeric Carbon Nitrides with Enhanced Photocatalytic Performance.

Molecular catalysts (MC), namely homogeneous catalysts, have demonstrated great promise for efficient solar-to-chemical energy conversion in the hybrid system. However, the poor interfacial interaction between MC and photosensitizers (PS) impedes the efficient and fast interfacial electron transfer. To promote interfacial communication between PS and MC, a proof-of-concept method was developed for the combination of polymeric carbon nitride (PCN) PS with bipyridine cobalt [Co(bpy)3 2+ ] MC by covalent bonds, creating molecular junctions to promote interfacial electron transfer as confirmed by transient photoluminescence lifetime and electrochemical measurements. As a result, the binary photocatalyst [Co(bpy)3 2+ /BINA2 -CN] showed extensively enhanced photocatalytic activity such as H2 and CO2 reduction in comparison with the physical mixture of Co(bpy)3 2+ and PCN. This observation highlights the importance of construction of surface molecular junctions between PS and MC to accelerate the interfacial charge-carrier mobility and, consequently, improve the photocatalytic activity.

Prognostic and Therapeutic Significance of Adhesion-regulating Molecule 1 in Estrogen Receptor-positive Breast Cancer.

INTRODUCTION: Adhesion-regulating molecule 1 (ADRM1) is a polyubiquitin receptor on the 26S proteasome. ADRM1 is upregulated in many cancers. In this study, we evaluated the potential prognostic and predictive value of ADRM1 in breast cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Individual and pooled survival analyses were performed on 19 independent breast cancer microarray datasets. Gene signatures enriched by ADRM1 were also analyzed in pooled datasets. RESULTS: Gene set enrichment analysis revealed that high expression of ADRM1 was significantly associated with aggressive breast cancer. Our findings revealed that ADRM1 mRNA levels were significantly associated with estrogen receptor (ER) status, progesterone receptor status, tumor size, lymph node status, histologic grade, and molecular subtypes. We also found that higher mRNA ADRM1 expression was significantly correlated with poor survival in patients with breast cancer. The prognostic power of ADRM1 mRNA was similar to the 70-gene wound response genes and 21 gene recurrence score; it was superior to TNM staging. The prognostic value of ADRM1 was better in ER-positive (ER+) breast cancer cases than in ER-negative breast cancer cases. In cases involving stage II breast cancer, radiotherapy significantly reduced the relative risk of OS in the ADRM1-low subgroup. CONCLUSION: ADRM1 mRNA levels were significantly related to poor outcome in our breast cancer sample population. It could serve as a prognostic biomarker, especially in ER+ breast cancer and Luminal A breast cancer cases, as well as a predictive biomarker for ER+ breast cancer.

Toxicologic evaluation of repetitive 4-week intravenous injections of midkine antisense oligonucleotide nanoliposomes in rats.

Midkine antisense oligonucleotide (MK-ASODN) nanoliposomes have previously been shown to have inhibitory activity against hepatocellular carcinoma growth. Herein we report the 4-week sub-chronic toxicity of MK-ASODN nanoliposomes in SD rats. The adverse effects included loss of body weight gain and food consumption, peri-rhinal bleeding, piloerection, peri-anal filth, and kidney, liver, spleen, thymus, lung, and injection site lesions at high doses. Macroscopic changes were observed in the kidneys of the high-dose group, accompanied by a variation in urine protein and white blood cells, blood urea nitrogen, and serum creatinine. The increased spleen and liver coefficient, and the variation in circulating white blood cells, lymphocytes, and eosinophils in the high-dose group demonstrated that inflammation was caused by MK-ASODN nanoliposomes and was consistent with the macroscopic changes in the spleen and liver. The main necropsy findings of the animals that died were macroscopic changes in the lung. No severe toxic effects or mortalities occurred in the low- and medium-dose groups. However, a No Adverse Effect Level (NOAEL) was not identified since there were changes in organs deemed to be adverse at all dose levels. Thus, the maximum tolerated dose of MK-ASODN nanoliposomes for rats was considered to be 6 mg/kg/day.

LiCl as Phase-Transfer Catalysts to Synthesize Thin Co2 P Nanosheets for Oxygen Evolution Reaction.

Inorganic salts have been widely studied as templates for the synthesis of 2D layer structures. However, these salts normally can only serve as templates without any catalytic activity. Here, we report that LiCl used for the synthesis of ultrathin nanosheets not only serves as template for the synthesis of ultrathin Co2 P nanosheets with a thickness of 0.7 nm but also acts as a catalyst that induces the phase-transfer from CoP to Co2 P. The Co2 P nanosheets have a high electrochemical performance for oxygen evolution reaction.

Defluoridation investigation of Yttrium by laminated Y-Zr-Al tri-metal nanocomposite and analysis of the fluoride sorption mechanism.

In this study, a laminated nanocomposite of Y-Zr-Al with significantly high surface area of 256.6 m2/g was successfully prepared, and was used to investigate the defluoridation performance of sorbent based on Yttrium. The composite showed high fluoride sorption performance, especially at low F- concentration conditions. SEM, BET, Elemental Mapping and XPS were used to characterize physicochemical properties of the composite in detail. Several influence factors including pH, presence of coexisting anions and contacting time were detailly investigated. The sorption course was studied by equilibrium sorption isotherm and sorption kinetics. Based on experimental results, a mechanism for fluoride sorption onto Y-Zr-Al composite was proposed, which revealed that there were three main sorption models, including mesoporous diffusion sorption, electronic interaction sorption and ion exchange, in the sorption course. The composite was considered to be highly potential in treating fluoride polluted waste water due to its high efficiency, high anti-interference ability and easy operation, and the discovery of fluoride highly attractive rare earth element was important to further understand and develop defluoridation sorbents based on rare earth.

Comparison of the eighth version of the American Joint Committee on Cancer manual to the seventh version for colorectal cancer: A retrospective review of our data.

AIM: To analyze the survival trends in colorectal cancer (CRC) based on the different classifications recommended by the seventh and eighth editions of the American Joint Committee on Cancer staging system (AJCC-7th and AJCC-8th). METHODS: The database from our institution was queried to identify patients with pathologically confirmed stage 0-IV CRC diagnosed between 2006 and 2012. Data from 2080 cases were collected and 1090 cases were evaluated through standardized inclusion and exclusion criteria. CRC was staged by AJCC-7th and then restaged by AJCC-8th. Five-year disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were compared. SPSS 21.0 software was used for all data. DFS and OS were compared and analyzed by Kaplan-Meier and Log-rank test. RESULTS: Linear regression and automatic linear regression showed lymph node positive functional equations by tumor-node-metastasis staging from AJCC-7th and tumor-node-metastasis staging from AJCC-8th. Neurological invasion, venous infiltration, lymphatic infiltration, and tumor deposition put forward stricter requirements for pathological examination in AJCC-8th compared to AJCC-7th. After re-analyzing our cohort with AJCC-8th, the percentage of stage IVB cases decreased from 2.8% to 0.8%. As a result 2% of the cases were classified under the new IVC staging. DFS and OS was significantly shorter (P = 0.012) in stage IVC patients compared to stage IVB patients. CONCLUSION: The addition of stage IVC in AJCC-8th has shown that peritoneal metastasis has a worse prognosis than distant organ metastasis in our institution's CRC cohort. Additional datasets should be analyzed to confirm these findings.

The role of tissue and serum carcinoembryonic antigen in stages I to III of colorectal cancer-A retrospective cohort study.

PURPOSE: Tissue carcinoembryonic antigen (t-CEA) and serum carcinoembryonic antigen (s-CEA) expression profiles are the most useful tumor markers for the diagnosis and evaluation of colorectal cancer (CRC) worldwide; however, their roles in CRC progression remain controversial. This study aimed to compare the prognostic values of both s-CEA and t-CEA in CRC. METHODS: A total of 517 patients from January 2006 to December 2010 with stages I-III CRC were retrospectively examined, with 5-year postoperative follow-up and death as end-points. T-CEA expression, s-CEA expression, and clinical pathological parameters were inputted into the SPSS 21.0 software. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to analyze the 5-year disease-free survival (DFS) rate of patients in different tumor node metastasis (TNM) stages based on t-CEA and s-CEA expression. RESULTS: Tumor differentiation and the number of positive lymph node harvests were significantly different among the t-CEA groups (P < 0.001, P = 0.002); however, clinicopathological features showed no significant difference. The groups with high s-CEA and t-CEA expression had a significantly poorer prognosis than those with low s-CEA (P = 0.021) and t-CEA (P < 0.01) expression, respectively. The multivariate analysis demonstrated that t-CEA was an independent prognostic factor in CRC (P < 0.001), but s-CEA was not (P = 0.339). The 5-year disease-free survival rates among the t-CEA groups were significantly different in stages I, II, and III of CRC (P = 0.001, P < 0.001, P < 0.001), whereas in the s-CEA groups, this difference was observed only in stage III (P = 0.014). CONCLUSION: This study shows that postoperative t-CEA expression is an independent factor associated with poorer CRC prognosis and has a higher prognostic value than that of preoperative s-CEA expression.

MiR-1260b promotes the migration and invasion in non-small cell lung cancer via targeting PTPRK.

OBJECTIVE: Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for 80-85% of lung cancer cases which cause most of cancer-related deaths globally. As our previous study discovered miR-1260b can be regarded as a specific signature for metastasis in NSCLC patients. However, the molecular mechanisms of miR-1260b underlying NSCLC progression and metastasis remain dismal. METHODS: The expression of miR-1260b in NSCLC tissues and cell lines were examined by real-time PCR, the effects of miR-1260b on cell migration, invasion and proliferation were evaluated in vitro. Furthermore, luciferase reporter assay was performed to identify the targets of miR-1260b, and the association between miR-1260b and its target gene was determined by real-time PCR and western blot assay. RESULTS: The results showed that miR-1260b was significantly upregulated in NSCLC cell lines. The inhibition of miR-1260b expression decreased the migratory and invasive rates in A549 cells while miR-1260b overexpression had the opposite effect. Furthermore, PTPRK was identified as a direct target of miR-1260b, and PTPRK expression was inversely correlated with miR-1260b in NSCLC cell lines and clinical tissues. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggested that miR-1260b may play an important role in NSCLC metastasis progression and could serve as a putative target for diagnosis and treatment of NSCLC.

Decorating CoP and Pt Nanoparticles on Graphitic Carbon Nitride Nanosheets to Promote Overall Water Splitting by Conjugated Polymers.

The splitting of water into H2 and O2 using solar energy is one of the key steps in artificial photosynthesis for the future production of renewable energy. Here, we show the first use of CoP and Pt nanoparticles as dual co-catalysts to modify graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3 N4 ) polymer to achieve overall water splitting under visible light irradiation. Our findings demonstrate that loading dual co-catalysts on delaminated g-C3 N4 imparts surface redox sites on the g-C3 N4 nanosheets that can not only promote catalytic kinetics but also promote charge separation and migration in the soft interface, thus improving the photocatalytic efficiency for overall water splitting. This robust, abundant, and stable photocatalyst based on covalent organic frameworks is demonstrated to hold great promise by forming heterojunctions with CoP and Pt for catalyzing the direct splitting of water into stoichiometric H2 and O2 using energy from photons.

Giant Hollow Heterometallic Polyoxoniobates with Sodalite-Type Lanthanide-Tungsten-Oxide Cages: Discrete Nanoclusters and Extended Frameworks.

The first series of niobium-tungsten-lanthanide (Nb-W-Ln) heterometallic polyoxometalates {Ln12 W12 O36 (H2 O)24 (Nb6 O19 )12 } (Ln=Y, La, Sm, Eu, Yb) have been obtained, which are comprised of giant cluster-in-cluster-like ({Ln12 W12 }-in-{Nb72 }) structures built from 12 hexaniobate {Nb6 O19 } clusters gathered together by a rare 24-nuclearity sodalite-type heterometal-oxide cage {Ln12 W12 O36 (H2 O)24 }. The Nb-W-Ln clusters present the largest multi-metal polyoxoniobates and a series of rare high-nuclearity 4d-5d-4f multicomponent clusters. Furthermore, the giant Nb-W-Ln clusters may be isolated as discrete inorganic alkali salts and can be used as building blocks to form high-dimensional inorganic-organic hybrid frameworks.

Development of hybrid-type modified chitosan derivative nanoparticles for the intracellular delivery of midkine-siRNA in hepatocellular carcinoma cells.

BACKGROUND: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common cancers worldwide. Most of the patients with HCC lose the surgical opportunity at the time of diagnosis. Some novel therapeutic modalities, like gene therapy, are promising for the treatment of HCC. However, the success of gene therapy depends on two aspects: efficient gene materials and gene delivery vectors. The present study was to develop new chitosan-based nanoparticles for a midkine-siRNA (anti-HCC gene drug) delivery. METHODS: The novel gene delivery vector (MixNCH) was synthesized by hybrid-type modification of chitosan with 2-chloroethylamine hydrochloride and N, N-dimethyl-2-chloroethylamine hydrochloride. The chemical structure of MixNCH was characterized by FT-IR and 1HNMR. The cytotoxicity of MixNCH was determined by MTS assay. The gene condensation ability and size, zeta potential and morphology of MixNCH/MK-siRNA nanoparticles were measured. The in vitro transfection and gene knockdown efficiency of midkine by MixNCH/MK-siRNA nanoparticles was detected by qRT-PCR and Western blotting. Gene knockdown effect at the molecule level on the proliferation of HepG2 in vitro was determined by MTS assay. RESULTS: MixNCH was successfully acquired by aminoalkylation modification of chitosan. The MixNCH could condense MK-siRNA well above the weight ratio of 3. The average size of MixNCH/MK-siRNA nanoparticles was 100-200 nm, and the surface charge was about +5 mV. Morphologically, MixNCH/MK-siRNA nanoparticles were in regular spherical shape with no aggregation. Regarding to the in vitro transfection of nanoparticles, the MixNCH/MK-siRNA nanoparticles reduced MK mRNA level to 14.03%+/-4.03%, which were comparable to Biotrans (8.94%+/-3.77%). MixNCH/MK-siRNA effectively inhibited the proliferation of HepG2 in vitro. CONCLUSION: MixNCH/MK-siRNA nanoparticles could be effective for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma.