Clinical significance of plasma anti-TOPO48 autoantibody and blood survivin-expressing circulating cancer cells in patients with early stage endometrial carcinoma.

PURPOSE: To examine the clinical significance of an autoantibody (AAb) against a novel tumor-associated antigen (TAA) derived from human DNA-topoisomerase I, termed as TOPO48 AAb, and peripheral blood survivin-expressing circulating cells (CCC) in patients with early stage endometrial cancer (EC). METHODS: Blood samples were collected from 80 patients with early stage EC and 80 age-matched healthy subjects. Plasma levels of the TOPO48 AAb were measured with a specific antibody capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and blood survivin-expressing CCC assessed with a reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction products based on a hybridization-enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (RT-PCR-ELISA). Sixty patients were followed up for 36 months after the initial assay test. RESULTS: There were 75% and 60% samples with positive levels of the TOPO48 AAb and survivin-expressing CCC in the cancer patients, respectively. However, the cumulative positive rate of combination of the two markers was increased to 93.3% with 0.927 (95% CI 0.871-0.984) of area under the curve (AUC) in receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. During the follow-up period, patients with positive TOPO48 AAb but negative surviving-expressing CCC had a higher survival rate and a longer survival time than those with negative AAb but positive CCC (P = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The combination of TOPO48 AAb and survivin-expressing CCC may be used as a novel recipe to improve the efficiency of early diagnosis and provide more accurate prognostic prediction in patients with early stage EC.

[Effects of Zuogui pill, Yougui pill and relative compositions on differentiation towards germ cells of mouse embryonic stem cell 1B10].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of Zuogui pill, Yougui pill and the relative compositions on the differentiation towards germ cells of stem cells. METHOD: The rat drug sera for Zuogui pill, Yougui pill and the common composition of Zuogui pill and Yougui pill were prepared respectively as the experimental drugs; the mouse embryonic stem cell 1B10 (MESC-1B10) was used as the representative of stem cells; the above rat drug sera were used to intervene MESC-1B10 and the process was traced by microscopy imaging; after 72 h of the intervention, the RNAs were extracted from the different intervened MESC-1B10, cDNAs were synthesized immediately and finally the Real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) was used to measure the expression patterns of the 10 reproductive-differentiation-related genes for each intervention. RESULT: The rat drug serum of Zuogui pill (ZGW-RS) significantly up-regulated Oct-4 and SCP3 and significantly down-regulated GDF-9 and Stra8; the rat drug serum of Yougui pill (ZGW-RS) significantly up-regulated Oct-4, GDF-9, Mvh and SCP3 and significantly down-regulated Stra8, Itga6 and Itgb1; the rat drug sera for the common composition of Zuogui pill and Yougui pill (ZGWYGW-RS) significantly up-regulated Oct-4, SCP3 and ZP3 and significantly down-regulated GDF-9, Stra8, Itga6 and Itgb1. CONCLUSION: ZGW-RS can initiate the change towards meiosis, but can not start the reproductive differentiation of MESC-1B10; YGW-RS can initiate the change towards meiosis, and can also start the reproductive differentiation of MESC-1B10 towards female germ cells; ZGWYGW-RS can initiate the change towards meiosis, and can lightly start the reproductive differentiation of MESC-1B10 towards female germ cells but the inductive effect is smaller than YGW-RS. The experimental results, on one hand, strengthen the knowledge about the influence of the relative compositions of Zuogui pill and Yougui pill on the reproductive differentiation of stem cells, on the other hand, help to explain the mechanism of the treatment of the infertility by Zuogui pill and Yougui pill.

Impacts of You Gui Wan on the expression of estrogen receptors and angiogenic factors in OVX­rat vagina: a possible mechanism for the trophic effect of the formula on OVX­induced vaginal atrophy.

The administration of You Gui Wan (YGW) decoction has been observed to improve vaginal atrophy induced by ovariectomy (OVX) in rats. The aim of the current study was to explore the possible mechanisms underlying this effect. Following OVX, 37 Sprague Dawley female rats were randomly divided into three groups which were orally administered with YGW decoction, saline or estrogen for 11 weeks. In parallel with this, 19 normal and 17 rats with sham-surgery were used as controls. The effects of these treatments on estrogen receptors (ER) and various angiogenic factors, including vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-1 (VEGFR-1), angiopoietin (Ang)1 and 2 and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) in the vagina were compared using immunohistochemistry or quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). OVX was found to induce significant vaginal atrophy and decrease the expression of ER and various angiogenic factors when compared with the normal and sham-surgery animals (all P<0.05). Estrogen replacement and the administration of YGW decoction reversed the vaginal atrophic process. The hormonal replacement and YGW treatment recovered the protein expression of ER-α and -ß, VEGF and VEGFR-1 and the mRNA levels of ER-α, VEGF, VEGFR-1, Ang1 and 2, and bFGF when compared with OVX-rats with saline, normal and sham-surgery treatments (all P<0.05). Thus, it may be concluded that a possible mechanism underlying the effect of YGW on OVX-induced vaginal atrophy may be the upregulated expression of ER and various angiogenic factors in the vaginal tissue.