Association between CA repeat polymorphism in IGF1 gene promoter and colorectal cancer risk in a native Chinese population.

Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) is implicated in normal cell growth. It has been reported that IGF1 has a mitogenic and anti-apoptotic effect on colorectal cancer cells. However, results of studies on the association between cytosine-adenine (CA) repeat polymorphism in IGF1 gene promoter and colorectal cancer (CRC) risk are inconsistent. We aimed to evaluate the association between CA repeat polymorphism and CRC risk, as well as the relationship with the clinicopathological characteristics of CRC and circulating IGF1 level in a native Chinese population. There were 734 participants who were native Chinese in this case-control study, including 367 CRC cases and 367 age- and sex-matched controls. CA repeat polymorphism was genotyped by PCR and fragment analysis. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were evaluated by unconditional logistic regression analysis. Circulating level of IGF1 in cases was significantly higher than that in controls (P = 0.002), particularly in males. Less than 38 CA repeats were associated with decreased CRC risk after adjusting for age and sex (37 versus 38 CA repeats: OR = 0.45; 95%CI = 0.26-0.78), especially in males. (CA)18/19 genotype showed approximately half reduced CRC risk comparing to (CA)19/19 genotype (OR = 0.46; 95%CI = 0.25-0.85). There was a significant association between the sum of CA repeats and degree of differentiation of CRC (P = 0.044). We observed a trend that circulating level of IGF1 in individuals with CA ≤ 38 repeats was lower than that in individuals with CA > 38 repeats with a borderline statistically significance in overall and males. In conclusion, our findings support the possible role of CA repeat polymorphism in CRC risk.

First-principles calculation of the effects of Li-doping on the structure and piezoelectricity of (K0.5Na0.5)NbO3 lead-free ceramics.

The crystal structures of the lead-free piezoelectric ceramics (K0.5Na0.5)NbO3 and (K0.5Na0.5)0.94Li0.06NbO3 prepared by a solid-state method were investigated using first-principles calculations. The calculated values of piezoelectricity were in good agreement with the experimental data. We found that the primary contribution to piezoelectricity in this material comes from the hybridization of the O 2p and Nb 4d orbitals, which causes a change in the Nb-O bond length and the distortion of the Nb-O octahedral structure. Analysis of the band structure and the total density of states revealed that Li-doped (K0.5Na0.5)NbO3 enhances hybridization of the O 2p and Nb 4d orbitals. This hybridization enhancement further reduces the Nb-O1 bond length and enhances the distortion of the Nb-O octahedron along the [001] direction, which may be the main reason for the improvement of the piezoelectric properties. In addition, the piezoelectric coefficients are calculated here, which show the same trend as the experimental results.