Analysis of CARD10 and CARD11 somatic mutations in patients with ovarian endometriosis.

Endometriosis is a complex and heterogeneous pre-malignant inflammatory disease harboring multiple gene mutations. Previous studies have suggested that caspase recruitment domain family member (CARD)10 and CARD11 mutations may exist in endometriosis. In the present study, a collection of endometriotic lesions and paired peripheral blood from 101 patients with ovarian endometriosis were obtained, and the entire coding sequences of the CARD10 and CARD11 genes were sequenced. Evolutionary conservation analysis and online prediction programs were applied to analyze the disease-causing potential of the identified mutations. A total of 4 novel somatic mutations were identified in 4 out of the 101 (4.0%) samples: 2 in-frame deletions in CARD10 (c.785_790delAGGAGA, p.K272_E273delKE; c.785_802delAGGAGAAGGAGAAGGAGA, p.K272_V277delKEPDNV) and 2 heterozygous missense mutations in CARD11 (c.49G>T, p.D17Y; c.160G>C, p.E54Q). The sample with CARD10 p.K272_E273delKE deletion was obtained from a 47-year-old patient who was also diagnosed with uterine leiomyoma, while the CARD10 p.K272_V277delKEPDNV-mutated sample was from a 43-year-old patient exhibiting a decreased blood eosinophil granulocyte ratio (0.3%) and an elevated serum creatine kinase level (314 U/l). The patient with the CARD11 p.D17Y mutation was 38 years old and exhibited an increased level of cancer antigen 125 (45.4 U/ml), while the patient with the CARD11 p.E54Q mutation was 46 years old and exhibited no other gynecological conditions. Evolutionary conservation analysis and online prediction programs suggested that these mutations may be disease-causing. In summary, 4 novel somatic mutations in the CARD10 and CARD11 genes were identified from amongst 101 cases of ovarian endometriosis for the first time, these mutations may serve active roles in the development of ovarian endometriosis.

Rapid determination of carbendazim in complex matrices by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry with syringe filter needle.

The determination of pesticide residues is an indispensable task in controlling food safety and environment protection. Carbendazim is one of the extensive uses of pesticides in the agricultural industry. In this study, a simple method utilizing syringe filter has been applied as electrospray ionization emitter for mass spectrometric identification and quantification of carbendazim in complex matrices including soil, natural water, and fruit juice samples, which contain many insoluble materials. With online syringe filter of the complex samples, most of insoluble materials such as soil were excluded in spray ionization process due to the filter effect, and analytes were subsequently sprayed out from syringe needle for mass spectrometric detection. The pore sizes of filters and diameters of syringe needles also were investigated. The analytical performances, including the linear range (1-200 ng·mL-1 ), limit of detection (0.2-0.6 ng·mL-1 , S/N > 3), limit of quantitation (3.5-8.6 ng·mL-1 , S/N > 10), reproducibility (6.4%-12.5%, n = 6), and recoveries (72.1%-91.0%, n = 6) were well acceptable for direct analysis of raw samples. Matrix effect for detection of carbendazim in soil samples also was experimentally investigated. This study demonstrated that syringe filter needle coupled with electrospray ionization mass spectrometry is a simple, efficient, and sensitive method for detection of pesticide residues in water, soil, and fruit juice for risk assessment.

Downregulation of DNA methyltransferase 3 alpha promotes cell proliferation and invasion of ectopic endometrial stromal cells in adenomyosis.

Adenomyosis is a common benign gynecological condition in female reproductive tract and the detailed molecular etiology remains largely elusive. Previous studies implicated that deregulated expression of DNA (cytosine-5)-methyltransferase 3A (DNMT3A), a de novo DNA methyltransferase, might be involved in the pathogenesis of adenomyosis. Meanwhile, ectopic endometrial stromal cells (EESCs) were suggested to play crucial roles in adenomyosis. Herein, we evaluated the expression of DNMT3A protein in 36 ectopic endometriums with adenomyosis and 37 eutopic endometriums in controls with Western blotting (WB) or immunohistochemistry (IHC), we found that the expression of DNMT3A was significantly decreased in the ectopic endometriums and EESCs in adenomyosis relative to that of eutopic endometriums and EESCs in control samples, respectively. In addition, our functional assays revealed that overexpression of DNMT3A suppressed cell proliferation and invasion, while knockdown of DNMT3A enhanced cell proliferation and invasion in EESCs. Taken together, our results suggested that DNMT3A expression was decreased in ectopic endometriums and EESCs in adenomyosis, and we provided the first evidence that decreased DNMT3A expression in EESCs facilitated the development of adenomyosis via enhanced cell growth and invasion.

Absence of DICER1, CTCF, RPL22, DNMT3A, TRRAP, IDH1 and IDH2 hotspot mutations in patients with various subtypes of ovarian carcinomas.

Cancer is caused by multiple genetic alterations within cells. Recently, large-scale sequencing has identified frequent ribonuclease type III (DICER1), CCCTC-binding factor (CTCF), ribosomal protein L22 (RPL22), DNA (cytosine-5-)-methyltransferase 3α (DNMT3A), transformation/transcription domain-associated protein (TRRAP), isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH)1 and IDH2 hotspot mutations in diverse types of cancer. However, it remains largely unknown whether these mutations also exist in ovarian carcinomas. In the present study, a collection of 251 patients with distinct subtypes of ovarian carcinomas were recruited and sequenced for the presence of these hotspot mutations. However, no mutations in the seven genes were detected in the samples. These negative results, together with certain recent reports, indicate that the hotspot mutations in the CTCF, RPL22, DNMT3A, TRRAP, IDH1 and IDH2 genes may not be actively involved in the carcinogenesis of ovarian carcinoma. Of note, the DICER1 mutation frequency in Sertoli-Leydig cell tumor in the present study was significantly lower compared to prior observation, and therefore, it is speculated that this discrepancy may be mainly due to the small sample size analyzed in the study. In addition, among these samples, frequent polymerase (DNA directed) ε, catalytic subunit (POLE1) and ring finger protein 43 (RNF43) mutations were identified in endometrioid and mucinous ovarian carcinomas, respectively; thus DICER1, CTCF, RPL22, DNMT3A, TRRAP, IDH1 and IDH2 hotspot mutations may not play synergistic roles with POLE1 or RNF43 mutations in the carcinogenesis of endometrioid or mucinous ovarian carcinomas.