ZBTB20 is essential for cochlear maturation and hearing in mice.

The mammalian cochlear epithelium undergoes substantial remodeling and maturation before the onset of hearing. However, very little is known about the transcriptional network governing cochlear late-stage maturation and particularly the differentiation of its lateral nonsensory region. Here, we establish ZBTB20 as an essential transcription factor required for cochlear terminal differentiation and maturation and hearing. ZBTB20 is abundantly expressed in the developing and mature cochlear nonsensory epithelial cells, with transient expression in immature hair cells and spiral ganglion neurons. Otocyst-specific deletion of Zbtb20 causes profound deafness with reduced endolymph potential in mice. The subtypes of cochlear epithelial cells are normally generated, but their postnatal development is arrested in the absence of ZBTB20, as manifested by an immature appearance of the organ of Corti, malformation of tectorial membrane (TM), a flattened spiral prominence (SP), and a lack of identifiable Boettcher cells. Furthermore, these defects are related with a failure in the terminal differentiation of the nonsensory epithelium covering the outer border Claudius cells, outer sulcus root cells, and SP epithelial cells. Transcriptome analysis shows that ZBTB20 regulates genes encoding for TM proteins in the greater epithelial ridge, and those preferentially expressed in root cells and SP epithelium. Our results point to ZBTB20 as an essential regulator for postnatal cochlear maturation and particularly for the terminal differentiation of cochlear lateral nonsensory domain.

Prognostic factor analysis in patients with early-stage nasopharyngeal carcinoma in the USA.

Aim: To evaluate independent risk factors specific for early-stage nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Methods: A total of 566 patients with early-stage NPC from 2004 to 2019 were identified using the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results database. Results: Older ages (70-79 and >80 years) were independent risk factors, with hazard ratios of 1.961 and 5.011, respectively. The hazard ratio for early-stage NPC in Asian and Pacific Islander residents (0.475) was lower than that for White residents. A tumor size <3 cm was a protective factor for overall and cancer-specific survival in the current study. Conclusion: In patients with early-stage NPC, age >70 years, race and tumor size were independent prognosticators for cancer-specific survival.

Organizing Pneumonia in A Patient Double-Positive for ANCA and Anti-GBM Antibodies: A Case Report.

Both anti-glomerular basement membrane (GBM) disease and the anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV) are common causes of pulmonary-renal syndrome. Organizing pneumonia (OP), a special pattern of interstitial lung disease, is extremely rare either in AAV or anti-GBM disease. We report an old woman presented with OP on a background of co-presentation with both ANCA and anti-GBM antibodies.

Do annual and perennial populations of an insect-pollinated plant species differ in mating system?

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Theory predicts that outcrossing should be more prevalent among perennials than annuals, a pattern confirmed by comparative evidence from diverse angiosperm families. However, intraspecific comparisons between annual and perennial populations are few because such variation is uncommon among flowering plants. Here, we test the hypothesis that perennial populations outcross more than annual populations by investigating Incarvillea sinensis, a wide-ranging insect-pollinated herb native to China. The occurrence of both allopatric and sympatric populations allows us to examine the stability of mating system differences between life histories under varying ecological conditions. METHODS: We estimated outcrossing rates and biparental inbreeding in 16 allopatric and five sympatric populations in which both life histories coexisted using 20 microsatellite loci. In each population we measured height, branch number, corolla size, tube length and herkogamy for ~30 individuals. In a sympatric population, we recorded daily flower number, pollinator visitation and the fruit and seed set of annual and perennial plants. KEY RESULTS: As predicted, outcrossing rates (t) were considerably higher in perennial (mean = 0.76) than annual (mean = 0.09) populations. This difference in mating system was also maintained at sympatric sites where plants grew intermixed. In both allopatric and sympatric populations the degree of herkogamy was consistently larger in outcrossing than selfing plants. Perennials were more branched, with more and larger flowers than in annuals. In a sympatric population, annuals had a significantly higher fruit and seed set than perennials. CONCLUSIONS: Genetically based differences in herkogamy between annuals and perennials appear to play a key role in governing outcrossing rates in populations, regardless of variation in local ecological conditions. The maintenance of mating system and life history trait differentiation between perennial and annual populations of I. sinensis probably results from correlated evolution in response to local environmental conditions.

Inhibition of catechol-O-methyltransferase by natural pentacyclic triterpenes: structure-activity relationships and kinetic mechanism.

Inhibitors of COMT are clinically used for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. Here, we report the first natural pentacyclic triterpenoid-type COMT inhibitors and their structure-activity relationships and inhibition mechanism. The most potent compounds were found to be oleanic acid, betulinic acid and celastrol with IC50 values of 3.89-5.07 µM, that acted as mixed (uncompetitive plus non-competitive) inhibitors of COMT, representing a new skeleton of COMT inhibitor. Molecular docking suggested that they can specifically recognise and bind with the unique hydrophobic residues surrounding the catechol pocket. Furthermore, oleanic acid and betulinic acid proved to be less disruptive of mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) compared to tolcapone, thus reducing the risk of liver toxicity. These findings could be used to produce an ideal lead compound and to guide synthetic efforts in generating related derivatives for further preclinical testing.

Dicer1 dysfunction promotes stemness and aggression in endometrial carcinoma.

Endometrial carcinoma is one of the most common gynecological malignancies, but the molecular events involved in the development and progression of endometrial carcinoma remain unclear. Dicer1 and cancer stem cells play important roles in cell motility and survival. This study investigated the role of the let-7 family and Dicer1 in the stemness of endometrial carcinoma cells. We profiled Dicer1 expression in clinical samples and explored its relationship with stem cell-associated markers and clinical parameters. We showed that Dicer1 dysfunction leads to the enrichment of tumor stemness features and tumor aggression both in vitro and in vivo. We also identified the mechanism related to this potential tumor-predisposing phenotype: loss of Dicer1 induced abnormal expression of the let-7 family, which comprises well-known tumor suppressors, thus regulating stemness in endometrial carcinoma cells.

Piwil1 causes epigenetic alteration of PTEN gene via upregulation of DNA methyltransferase in type I endometrial cancer.

Piwil1, a member of the Piwi family, has been well demonstrated to mediate tumorigenesis associated with DNA hypermethylation. It has been reported that Piwil1 is overexpressed in various types of cancer, including endometrial cancer. However, the underlying mechanism of Piwil1 in endometrial cancer remains largely unclear. PTEN exerts an important tumor suppressor role in endometrial carcinogenesis. The present study aimed to investigate whether Piwil1 could regulate the expression of PTEN. Herein, we found that Piwil1 could promote the loss of PTEN expression and increase aberrant hypermethylation of PTEN gene promoter in Ishikawa cells. We also found that Piwil1 could regulate the expression of DNA methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1). Silencing DNMT1 gene could upregulate the PTEN gene expression and change the methylation status of PTEN gene promoter in Ishikawa cells. These results suggested that Piwil1 caused the loss of PTEN expression through DNMT1-mediated PTEN hypermethylation. Taken together, these data provide a novel regulatory mechanism of Piwil1 in endometrial cancer.

Activation of a positive feedback loop involving IL-6 and aromatase promotes intratumoral 17ß-estradiol biosynthesis in endometrial carcinoma microenvironment.

Tumor-stroma interactions contribute greatly to intratumoral estrogen biosynthesis in endometrial carcinoma, but the mechanisms involved remain largely unknown. Previous study demonstrated that intratumoral aromatase upregulation in stromal cells participated in this process, but the specific aromatase-regulators have not been reported. In the present study, we found that aromatase expression in intratumoral stroma, but not in tumor epithelium, correlated positively with interleukin 6 (IL-6) expression in cancer epithelial cells by immunohistochemistry, which was confirmed using laser capture microdissection/real-time reverse transcription-PCR. With stimulation by exogenous IL-6, aromarase expression was increased in stromal cells not but not in cancer cells. Aromatase mRNA levels in endometrial cancer cells were not influenced by cocultivation with intratumoral stromal cells. When cocultured with 17ß-estradiol (E2 )-treated cancer cells, aromatase mRNA in stromal cells was significantly elevated and increased IL-6 protein levels were detected in E2 -treated culture medium. Next, we demonstrated that E2 -induced IL-6 production was through cooperation between estrogen receptor α and nuclear factor-kappa B. Furthermore, an IL-6 receptor blocking antibody could attenuate the upregulation of aromatase expression in stromal cells and the E2 concentration in coculture systems of cancer and stromal cells. The results were confirmed by an orthotopic nude endometrial carcinoma model in vivo. These studies elucidated the activation of a positive feedback loop, that is, IL-6 stimulated by E2 in endometrial cancer cells induced aromatase expression in stromal cells, promoting enhanced intratumoral E2 synthesis. Blocking of this tumor-stroma interaction may be a therapeutic strategy to overcome in situ estrogen biosynthesis in endometrial carcinoma.

Interleukin 6 promotes endometrial cancer growth through an autocrine feedback loop involving ERK-NF-κB signaling pathway.

Interleukin (IL)-6 as an inflammation factor, has been proved to promote cancer proliferation in several human cancers. However, its role in endometrial cancer has not been studied clearly. Previously, we demonstrated that IL-6 promoted endometrial cancer progression through local estrogen biosynthesis. In this study, we proved that IL-6 could directly stimulate endometrial cancer cells proliferation and an autocrine feedback loop increased its production even after the withdrawal of IL-6 from the medium. Next, we analyzed the mechanism underlying IL-6 production in the feedback loop and found that its production and IL-6-stimulated cell proliferation were effectively blocked by pharmacologic inhibitors of nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) and extra-cellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK). Importantly, activation of ERK was upstream of the NF-κB pathways, revealing the hierarchy of this event. Finally, we used an orthotopic nude endometrial carcinoma model to confirm the effects of IL-6 on the tumor progression. Taken together, these data indicate that IL-6 promotes endometrial carcinoma growth through an expanded autocrine regulatory loop and implicate the ERK-NF-κB pathway as a critical mediator of IL-6 production, implying IL-6 to be an important therapeutic target in endometrial carcinoma.

CAIDE Score, Alzheimer's Disease Pathology, and Cognition in Cognitively Normal Adults: The CABLE Study.

Background: Cardiovascular Risk Factors, Ageing and Dementia (CAIDE) risk score serves as a credible predictor of an individual's risk of dementia. However, studies on the link of the CAIDE score to Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology are scarce. Objective: To explore the links of CAIDE score to cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers of AD as well as to cognitive performance. Methods: In the Chinese Alzheimer's Biomarker and LifestylE (CABLE) study, we recruited 600 cognitively normal participants. Correlations between the CAIDE score and CSF biomarkers of AD as well as cognitive performance were probed through multiple linear regression models. Whether the correlation between CAIDE score and cognitive performance was mediated by AD pathology was researched by means of mediation analyses. Results: Linear regression analyses illustrated that CAIDE score was positively associated with tau-related biomarkers, including pTau (p < 0.001), tTau (p < 0.001), as well as tTau/Aß42 (p = 0.008), while it was in negative association with cognitive scores, consisting of MMSE score (p < 0.001) as well as MoCA score (p < 0.001). The correlation from CAIDE score to cognitive scores was in part mediated by tau pathology, with a mediation rate varying from 3.2% to 13.2%. Conclusions: A higher CAIDE score, as demonstrated in our study, was linked to more severe tau pathology and poorer cognitive performance, and tau pathology mediated the link of CAIDE score to cognitive performance. Increased dementia risk will lead to cognitive decline through aggravating neurodegeneration.

[Combination of acupuncture and medication for dry eye complicated with computer vision syndrome: a randomized controlled trial].

OBJECTIVE: To compare the clinical efficacy of acupuncture, Chinese medication and combination of acupuncture and medication in the treatment of dry eye complicated with computer vision syndrome (CVS). METHODS: A total of 152 patients with dry eye complicated with CVS were randomly divided into an acupuncture-medication group (38 cases, 1 case was removed), an acupuncture group (38 cases, 1 case dropped off), a Chinese medication group (38 cases, 1 case was removed), and a western medication group (38 cases, 1 case dropped off). In the western medication group, sodium hyaluronate eye drop combined with esculin and digitalis glycosides eye drop were used. In the acupuncture group, acupuncture was applied at bilateral Taiyang (EX-HN 5)， Cuanzhu (BL 2), Fengchi (GB 20), Qimen (LR 14) , and Hegu (LI 4) etc., once a day. In the Chinese medication group, Yiqi Congming decoction formula ganule was given orally, one dose a day. In the acupuncture-medication group, acupuncture combined with Yiqi Congming decoction formula granule were used. All groups were treated for 14 d. The non-invasive first tear film break-up time (NIBUT f), non-invasive average tear film break-up time (NIBUT av), tear meniscus height (TMH), ocular surface disease index (OSDI) score, and CVS symptom score were compared between the patients of each group before and after treatment. RESULTS: After treatment, the NIBUT f, NIBUT av, and TMH were increased compared with those before treatment in the patients of the 4 groups (P<0.01); the NIBUT f and NIBUT av in the acupuncture-medication group and the acupuncture group were higher than those in the Chinese medication group and the western medication group (P<0.05), and the TMH in the acupuncture-medication group and the Chinese medication group were higher than those in the acupuncture group and the western medication group (P<0.05). After treatment, the OSDI scores, the various scores and total scores of CVS (except for head symptom score in the western medication group) were decreased compared with those before treatment in the patients of the 4 groups (P<0.01). The OSDI score, total score, eye symptom score, and body symptom score of CVS in the acupuncture-medication group were lower than those in the acupuncture group, the Chinese medication group, and the western medication group (P<0.01, P<0.05), the head symptom score of the acupuncture-medication group was lower than that in the western medication group (P<0.05), and the CVS physical symptom scores and mental cognitive symptom scores of the acupuncture-medication group and the acupuncture group were lower than those in the Chinese medication group and the western medication group (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Acupuncture has advantages in improving NIBUT f, NIBUT av, and CVS physical symptoms and cognitive symptoms, and the Chinese medication has advantage in improving TMH. The combination of acupuncture and Chinese medication has better effects compared with monotherapy.

Pan-cancer analysis identifies NT5E as a novel prognostic biomarker on cancer-associated fibroblasts associated with unique tumor microenvironment.

Background: Ecto-5'-nucleotidase (NT5E) encodes the cluster of differentiation 73 (CD73), whose overexpression contributes to the formation of immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment and is related to exacerbated prognosis, increased risk of metastasis and resistance to immunotherapy of various tumors. However, the prognostic significance of NT5E in pan-cancer is obscure so far. Methods: We explored the expression level of NT5E in cancers and adjacent tissues and revealed the relationship between the NT5E expression level and clinical outcomes in pan-cancer by utilizing the UCSC Xena database. Then, correlation analyses were performed to evaluate the relationship between NT5E expression and immune infiltration level via EPIC, MCP-counter and CIBERSORT methods, and the enrichment analysis were employed to identify NT5E-interacting molecules and functional pathways. Furthermore, we conducted single-cell analysis to explore the potential role of NT5E on single-cell level based on the CancerSEA database. Meanwhile, gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) in single-cell level was also conducted in TISCH database and single-cell signature explorer was utilized to evaluate the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) level in each cell type. Results: The expression level of NT5E was aberrant in almost all cancer types, and was correlated with worse prognosis in several cancers. Notably, NT5E overexpression was related to worse overall survival (OS) in pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PAAD), head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSC), mesothelioma (MESO), stomach adenocarcinoma (STAD), uveal melanoma (UVM) and cervical squamous cell carcinoma and endocervical adenocarcinoma (CESC) (p < 0.01). NT5E-related immune microenvironment analysis revealed that NT5E is associated positively with the degree of infiltration of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) and endothelial cells in most cancers. Enrichment analysis of cellular component (CC) demonstrated the critical part of NT5E played in cell-substrate junction, cell-substrate adherens junction, focal adhesion and external side of plasma membrane. Finally, single-cell analysis of NT5E illuminated that EMT function of CAFs was elevated in basal cell carcinoma (BCC), skin cutaneous melanoma (SKCM), HNSC and PAAD. Conclusion: NT5E could serve as a potential prognostic biomarker for cancers. The potential mechanism may be related to the upregulated EMT function of CAFs, which provides novel inspiration for immunotherapy by targeting CAFs with high NT5E expression.

Analytical methodologies for sensing catechol-O-methyltransferase activity and their applications.

Mammalian catechol-O-methyltransferases (COMT) are an important class of conjugative enzymes, which play a key role in the metabolism and inactivation of catechol neurotransmitters, catechol estrogens and a wide range of endobiotics and xenobiotics that bear the catechol group. Currently, COMT inhibitors are used in combination with levodopa for the treatment of Parkinson's disease in clinical practice. The crucial role of COMT in human health has raised great interest in the development of more practical assays for highly selective and sensitive detection of COMT activity in real samples, as well as for rapid screening and characterization of COMT inhibitors as drug candidates. This review summarizes recent advances in analytical methodologies for sensing COMT activity and their applications. Several lists of biochemical assays for measuring COMT activity, including the probe substrates, along with their analytical conditions and kinetic parameters, are presented. Finally, the challenges and future perspectives in the field, such as visualization of COMT activity in vivo and in situ, are highlighted. Collectively, this review article overviews the practical assays for measuring COMT activities in complex biological samples, which will strongly facilitate the investigations on the relevance of COMT to human diseases and promote the discovery of COMT inhibitors via high-throughput screening.

Facile Synthesis of Uniform Mesoporous Nb2O5 Micro-Flowers for Enhancing Photodegradation of Methyl Orange.

The removal of organic pollutants using green environmental photocatalytic degradation techniques urgently need high-performance catalysts. In this work, a facile one-step hydrothermal technique has been successfully applied to synthesize a Nb2O5 photocatalyst with uniform micro-flower structure for the degradation of methyl orange (MO) under UV irradiation. These nanocatalysts are characterized by transmission and scanning electron microscopies (TEM and SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) method, and UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS). It is found that the prepared Nb2O5 micro-flowers presents a good crystal phases and consist of 3D hierarchical nanosheets with 400-500 nm in diameter. The surface area is as large as 48.6 m2 g-1. Importantly, the Nb2O5 micro-flowers exhibit superior catalytic activity up to 99.9% for the photodegradation of MO within 20 mins, which is about 60-fold and 4-fold larger than that of without catalysts (W/O) and commercial TiO2 (P25) sample, respectively. This excellent performance may be attributed to 3D porous structure with abundant catalytic active sites.

Discovery and characterization of naturally occurring potent inhibitors of catechol-O-methyltransferase from herbal medicines.

Human catechol-O-methyltransferase (hCOMT) is considered a therapeutic target due to its crucial roles in the metabolic inactivation of endogenous neurotransmitters and xenobiotic drugs. There are nevertheless few safe and effective COMT inhibitors and there lacks a diversity in structure. To discover novel safe and effective hCOMT inhibitors from herbal products, in this study, 53 herbal products were collected and their inhibitory effects against hCOMT were investigated. Among them, Scutellariae radix (SR) displayed the most potent inhibitory effect on hCOMT with an IC50 value of 0.75 µg mL-1. To further determine specific chemicals as COMT inhibitors, an affinity ultrafiltration coupled with liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry method was developed and successfully applied to identify COMT inhibitors from SR extract. The results demonstrated that scutellarein 2, baicalein 9 and oroxylin A 12 were potent COMT inhibitors, showing a high binding index (>3) and very low IC50 values (32.9 ± 3.43 nM, 37.3 ± 4.32 nM and 18.3 ± 2.96 nM). The results of inhibition kinetics assays and docking simulations showed that compounds 2, 9 and 12 were potent competitive inhibitors against COMT-mediated 3-BTD methylation, and they could stably bind to the active site of COMT. These findings suggested that affinity ultrafiltration allows a rapid identification of natural COMT inhibitors from a complex plant extract matrix. Furthermore, scutellarein 2, baicalein 9 and oroxylin A 12 are potent inhibitors of hCOMT in SR, which could be used as promising lead compounds to develop more efficacious non-nitrocatechol COMT inhibitors for biomedical applications.

[Therapeutic effect of intradermal needling combined with rehabilitation intervention on knee osteoarthritis in the middle and early stages].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of intradermal needing combined with rehabilitation intervention on middle and early knee osteoarthritis. METHODS: Seventy patients were randomly divided into an observation group and a control group, 35 cases in each group. Excluding the dropping cases, finally, 34 cases in the observation group and 32 cases in the control group were included in the statistics. Intradermal needing combined with rehabilitation intervention were given in the observation group, the intradermal needing was applied at Dubi (ST 35), Neixiyan (EX-LE 8), Xuehai (SP 10), Liangqiu (ST 34), Yanglingquan (GB 34), ashi point, and retained for 24 h; the simple conventional rehabilitation intervention was given in the control group. The visual analogue scale (VAS) was used to evaluate knee pain before treatment, the end of initial treatment, 1 month after treatment, and 3 months after treatment. The Western Ontario and McMaster Osteoarthritis index (WOMAC) was used to assess the joint function of the knee, the active knee flexion range (ROM) was used to assess the joint mobility of the knee before treatment and 1 month after treatment, and the efficacy of the two groups was evaluated. RESULTS: At the end of the initial treatment, the VAS score in the observation group were significantly improved as compared with that before treatment and the control groups (P<0.05), but there was no significant difference in the control group compared with that before treatment (P>0.05). After 1 month of treatment, the VAS score, WOMAC score and ROM measurement in the two groups were significantly improved as compared with those before treatment (P<0.05), and the observation group was superior to the control group (P<0.05); the total effective rate in the observation group was 97.1% (33/34), which was better than 81.3% (26/32) in the control group (P<0.05). At the follow-up, the VAS scores in the two groups were slightly higher than those after 1 month of treatment, but the difference was still statistically significant as compared with those before treatment (P<0.05), and the observation group was still superior to the control group (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: The combination of intradermal needing combined with rehabilitation intervention can effectively alleviate knee pain and improve joint function. It has a beneficial effect on the rehabilitation of middle and early knee osteoarthritis.

Cubic and hexagonal liquid crystals as drug carriers for the transdermal delivery of triptolide.

The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate triptolide-loaded cubic and hexagonal liquid crystals for transdermal drug delivery systems (TDDSs). We prepared and characterized triptolide-loaded lyotropic liquid crystals and evaluated for their percutaneous permeation properties in vitro and in vivo. We then used the adjuvant arthritic rat model and HaCaT cells to analyze the pharmacodynamics and conduct cell-stimulating studies of these liquid crystals. The optimized preparations were identified as cubic and hexagonal phase structures, respectively. Moreover, the in vitro percutaneous penetration studies demonstrated that compared to the homemade triptolide gel, cubic and hexagonal liquid crystals could significantly increase the percutaneous cumulative penetration of drugs within 48 h. Besides, the results of skin-blood synchronous microdialysis showed that the triptolide concentration in skin was higher than that in blood, and the cubic and hexagonal liquid crystals significantly increased the bioavailability of triptolide. Triptolide-loaded cubic and hexagonal liquid crystals presented excellent anti-arthritic effects, alleviating paw swelling and inhibiting inflammation by downregulating the levels of TNF-α and IL-1ß. In vitro cell-stimulating studies displayed that triptolide-loaded cubic and hexagonal liquid crystals exhibited no obvious toxicity, which exhibited that triptolide-loaded cubic and hexagonal liquid crystals were remarkable biocompatibility. Collectively, triptolide-loaded cubic and hexagonal liquid crystals represented a promising candidate for rheumatoid arthritis therapy.

Icariin protects vascular endothelial cells from oxidative stress through inhibiting endoplasmic reticulum stress.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the protective effect and underlying mechanism(s) of icariin (ICA) in preventing hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)-induced vascular endothelial cell injury via endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS). METHODS: To study the effects of ICA on H2O2-induced damage, we used the cell counting kit-8 assay to detect cell viability and the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling assay to determine cell adhesion and apoptosis, respectively. Spectrophotometry and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay were used to measure the expression levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px). Subsequently, glucose-regulated protein 78 (GRP78), activating transcription factor-4 (ATF4) and eukaryotic initiation factor-2α (eIF2α) were detected using Western blotting. RESULTS: In human umbilical vein endothelial cells, different concentrations of ICA exhibited multiple effects, including reduced H2O2 damage, improved cell viability and adhesion, reduced cell apoptosis and increased SOD and GSH-Px activity. Among the ICA concentrations used, only the H2O2 + 100 µmol/L ICA group had significant differences compared to the H2O2 group. ERS activators H2O2 and dl-dithiothreitol (DTT) significantly increased GRP78, ATF4 and eIF2α expressions, decreased cell activity and reduced SOD and GSH-Px activity. In contrast, the H2O2 + 100 µmol/L ICA and H2O2 + 100 µmol/L ICA + DTT groups had significant inhibitory effects on the expressions of GRP78, ATF4 and eIF2α proteins, showing enhanced cell viability and SOD and GSH-Px activity. CONCLUSION: The results showed the dose-dependent effects of ICA against H2O2-induced injury in vascular endothelial cells. The inhibition of GRP78, ATF4 and eIF2α protein expressions in the ERS, and the subsequent alleviation of oxidative stress damage, might be the molecular mechanism.

Inner ear structure of miniature pigs measured by multi-planar reconstruction techniques.

To study the structures of the scala vestibuli and tympani of miniature pigs in order to evaluate the feasibility of using miniature pigs as the animal model for cochlear implant. The temporal bones of three miniature pigs with normal hearing were scanned by micro-CT. With the aid of the Mimics software, we reconstructed the 3D structure of inner ear basing on the serial images of the miniature pig, and obtained dimensions of the scala vestibuli and tympani with multi-planar reconstruction (MPR) technique. The constructed slicing images displayed the fine structures of the cochlea. The results of our study showed that the cross-sectional areas of the scala tympani were greatest at 2.67 ± 0.90 mm2 when the circumferential length from the starting point of basal turn of the cochlea reached to 1.16 mm. The scala vestibuli has a largest width and height at the starting point of basal turn. The width and the height were 2.65 ± 0.45 mm and 2.43 ± 0.2 mm respectively. The largest width and height of the scala tympani were 2.17 ± 0.30 mm and 1.83 ± 0.42 mm. The result of our study suggests that the cochlea of miniature pigs is highly consistent with human's. Miniature pigs may be used as a new model for cochlear implant. MPR technique may be used as a new approach to obtain further information of patient's cochlea in surgeons which is helpful to select suitable cochlear implant devices and surgery approach.

Tumor-associated macrophage-derived CXCL8 could induce ERα suppression via HOXB13 in endometrial cancer.

PURPOSE: To elucidate the role of tumor-associated macrophage (TAM) in the loss of ERα in endometrial cancer (EC) and the underlying mechanism. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Tissue microarrays and immunohistochemistry assays were performed using endometrial cancer tissue along with coculture, immunofluorescence, invasion assays and ChIP-qPCR using a human endometrial cancer cell line. RESULTS: Compared with normal tissue, an increased number of TAM was found in EC tissue (34.0 ± 2.6 vs. 8.3 ± 1.1, respectively; p < 0.001), which may downregulate ERα (27.4%, p < 0.05 for HEC-1A and 16.9%, p < 0.05 for Ishikawa) and promote EC cell invasion (1.8-fold, p < 0.001 for HEC-1A and 2.0-fold, p < 0.001 for Ishikawa). Furthermore, we found that TAM-derived CXCL8 mediated the loss of ERα and cancer invasion via HOXB13. HOXB13 was highly expressed in the ERα-negative subtype (r = -0.204, p = 0.002) and low expression of ESR1 was associated with a poor prognosis for EC patients (log-rank p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: TAM-secreted CXCL8 downregulated the ERα expression of EC cells via HOXB13, which may be associated with cancer invasion, metastasis and poor prognosis.