Exploration on surgical-related factors influencing HCC patients prognosis.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: To evaluate the prognostic value of surgical operation-related factors in patients with primary liver cancer (PLC). METHODOLOGY: A retrospective study was carried out analyzing the data of 114 patients with PLC undergoing hepatic resection from January 2002 to December 2009. Survival rates were analyzed using Kaplan-Meier curve and log-rank tests were employed to compare the survival rates observed in those patients with surgical operation-related factors (e.g. operation method, time, portal blockage, complications, resection margin, amount of intraoperative blood loss and amount of blood transfusion), and bivariate correlation analysis was used to examine the associations of these surgical operation-related factors. RESULTS: Intraoperative blood loss, amount of blood transfusion and operation time were significant predictors for patients with PLC after hepatic resection (p<0.05). The operation method, resection margin, portal blockage and complications (e.g. intra-abdominal infections, intra-abdominal hemorrhage, gastro-intestinal hemorrhage, biliary leakage, etc.) were not significant prognostic factors (p>0.05). There was a positive correlation between intraoperative blood loss, amount of blood transfusion, portal blockage time and operation time, in addition, a negative correlation was found between resection margin and the operation method. CONCLUSIONS: Hepatic surgery can improve the patients prognosis if the operation time is shortened, and the amount of intraoperative blood transfusion and blood loss lessened.

Cordycepin prevents hyperlipidemia in hamsters fed a high-fat diet via activation of AMP-activated protein kinase.

Hyperlipidemia is a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. In this study, we investigated the potential effects of cordycepin (3'-deoxyadenosine), a bioactive component of the fungus Cordyceps militaris, on hyperlipidemia. We found that in male Syrian golden hamsters fed a high-fat diet (HFD), daily administration of cordycepin effectively reduced the accumulation of serum total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c) and suppressed HFD-associated increases in relative retroperitoneal fat. It also increased the levels of phospho-AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and phospho-acetyl-CoA carboxylase (phospho-ACC) in liver and retroperitoneal adipose tissues. In HepG2 cells, cordycepin stimulated robust concentration- and time-dependent AMPK activation that correlated with the activation of ACC and the suppression of lipid biosynthesis. However, pretreatment with compound C, a specific inhibitor of AMPK, substantially abolished the effects of cordycepin on AMPK activation and lipid biosynthesis inhibition. These results indicate that cordycepin prevents hyperlipidemia via activation of AMPK. Experiments on abnormal metabolic mice indicated that cordycepin can also improve insulin sensitivity effectively.