Research, Development and Pharmacological Activity of Sinomenine and Its Derivatives.

In this manuscript, the resource distribution, pharmacological activity, pharma-cokinetics of sinomenine and the structure, synthesis, biological activity and mechanism of sinomenine derivatives reported from 2000 to December 2023 were reviewed. The lit-erature was retrieved through Web of Science, PubMed, Science Direct, SciFiner Scholar and other websites. Sinomenine belongs to isoquinoline alkaloids and was extracted from the Chinese herb Sinomenium acutum root. In Asian countries such as China and Japan, it is commonly prescribed as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis. In addition, sinomenine also has sedative, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, immunosuppressive, neuroprotective, an-ti-drug dependence, anti-tumor and other biological activities. Sinomenine limited its ap-plication prospects because of its large dosage, poor epidermal permeability and short half-life. To overcome these defects, new sinomenine derivatives have been synthesized. Based on the comprehensive analysis of relevant literature at home and abroad, this paper reviews the recent progress in the study of sinomenine's pharmacological effects and structural modifications. Future research on sinomenine will focus on improving its thera-peutic effect, and developing new drug preparations and structural modifications. It is hoped that this review will help to better understand the research progress of sinomenine and provide constructive suggestions for further research of sinomenine.

Exosomes from TNF-α preconditioned human umbilical cord mesenchymal stromal cells inhibit the autophagy of acinar cells of severe acute pancreatitis via shuttling bioactive metabolites.

Severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) is a common critical disease of the digestive system, with high mortality and a lack of effective prevention and treatment measures. Despite mesenchymal stromal cell transplantation having the potential to treat SAP, its clinical application prospect is limited, and the mechanism is unclear. Here, we reveal the therapeutic role of exosomes from TNF-α-preconditioned human umbilical cord mesenchymal stromal cells (HUCMSCs) in attenuating SAP and show that it is partly dependent on exosomal metabolites. Bioactive metabolomics analysis showed that 48 metabolites be significantly differentially expressed between the two groups (Exo-Ctrl group versus Exo-TNF-α group). Then, the further functional experiments indicated that 3,4-dihydroxyphenylglycol could be a key molecule mediating the therapeutic effect of TNF-α-preconditioned HUCMSCs. The animal experiments showed that 3,4-dihydroxyphenylglycol reduced inflammation and oxidative stress in the pancreatic tissue and inhibited acinar cell autophagy in a rat model of SAP. Mechanistically, we revealed that 3,4-dihydroxyphenylglycol activated the mTOR pathway to inhibit acinar cell autophagy and alleviate SAP. In summary, our study demonstrated that exosomes from TNF-α-preconditioned HUMSCs inhibit the autophagy of acinar cells of SAP by shuttling 3,4-dihydroxyphenylglycol and inhibiting the mTOR pathway. This study revealed the vital role and therapeutic potential of metabolite-derived exosomes in SAP, providing a new promising method to prevent and therapy SAP.

MSCs Deliver Hypoxia-Treated Mitochondria Reprogramming Acinar Metabolism to Alleviate Severe Acute Pancreatitis Injury.

Mitochondrial function impairment due to abnormal opening of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (MPTP) is considered the central event in acute pancreatitis; however, therapeutic choices for this condition remain controversial. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are a family member of stem cells with immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory capabilities that can mitigate damage in experimental pancreatitis. Here, it is shown that MSCs deliver hypoxia-treated functional mitochondria to damaged pancreatic acinar cells (PACs) via extracellular vesicles (EVs), which reverse the metabolic function of PACs, maintain ATP supply, and exhibit an excellent injury-inhibiting effect. Mechanistically, hypoxia inhibits superoxide accumulation in the mitochondria of MSCs and upregulates the membrane potential, which is internalized into PACs via EVs, thus, remodeling the metabolic state. In addition, cargocytes constructed via stem cell denucleation as mitochondrial vectors are shown to exert similar therapeutic effects to MSCs. These findings reveal an important mechanism underlying the role of mitochondria in MSC therapy and offer the possibility of applying mitochondrial therapy to patients with severe acute pancreatitis.

Iron metabolism mediates the relationship between Vitamin C and hepatic steatosis and fibrosis in NAFLD.

Vitamin C (Vit C) and iron metabolism are closely related to metabolic disorders. However, the relation between iron storage protein ferritin and Vit C has not been elucidated. We aimed to investigate the crosstalk between Vit C and ferritin and its implications on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Clinical information of 3,614 subjects was obtained from the NHANES Public Data 2017-2018. FibroScan data, which estimates liver steatosis and fibrosis and Vit C, were selected to assess factors influencing NAFLD in this cross-sectional study. Ferritin and Vit C among different categories of liver steatosis and fibrosis were assessed by CAP and E value. Logistic regression and RCS models were used to analyze the correlations. In vitro study in hepG2 were conducted to validate the regulations. Ferritin increased while Vit C decreased with more severe hepatic steatosis and hepatic fibrosis (all P < 0.001). Logistic regression models indicated that increased serum ferritin was a risk factor for NAFLD while increased Vit C was a protective factor for NAFLD and hepatic fibrosis after adjusting the continuous and categorical variables. Vitamin C was negatively associated with ferritin. Further mediation analysis identified that ferritin mediates the impact of Vit C on NAFLD (P < 0.05) and cirrhosis (P < 0.001). The experiments on cellular level suggested Vit C alleviated PA/OA induced steatosis and maintains iron homeostasis through inhibiting PA/OA induced upregulation of iron bound protein ferritin and labile iron pool (LIP) induction in hepG2 cells. In conclusion, Vit C was a protective factor, whereas ferritin was a risk factor for hepatic steatosis and fibrosis. Vitamin C alleviated NAFLD and maintained iron homeostasis via ferritin suppression and LIP induction.

Convolutional-de-convolutional neural networks for recognition of surgical workflow.

Computer-assisted surgery (CAS) has occupied an important position in modern surgery, further stimulating the progress of methodology and technology. In recent years, a large number of computer vision-based methods have been widely used in surgical workflow recognition tasks. For training the models, a lot of annotated data are necessary. However, the annotation of surgical data requires expert knowledge and thus becomes difficult and time-consuming. In this paper, we focus on the problem of data deficiency and propose a knowledge transfer learning method based on artificial neural network to compensate a small amount of labeled training data. To solve this problem, we propose an unsupervised method for pre-training a Convolutional-De-Convolutional (CDC) neural network for sequencing surgical workflow frames, which performs neural convolution in space (for semantic abstraction) and neural de-convolution in time (for frame level resolution) simultaneously. Specifically, through neural convolution transfer learning, we only fine-tuned the CDC neural network to classify the surgical phase. We performed some experiments for validating the model, and it showed that the proposed model can effectively extract the surgical feature and determine the surgical phase. The accuracy (Acc), recall, precision (Pres) of our model reached 91.4, 78.9, and 82.5%, respectively.

Chinese and Global Burdens of Gastrointestinal Cancers From 1990 to 2019.

Background: Gastrointestinal (GI) cancers are an important component of the tumor. This study aimed to investigate the burden of six major GI cancers in China and globally from 1990 to 2019. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study based on the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) 2019. Indicators on incidence, deaths, disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), and risk factors for esophageal, stomach, liver, pancreatic, colon and rectum, and gallbladder and biliary tract cancers were collected and analyzed for time trends. The contribution of each cancer and the proportion of cases in China among global cases were further reported. Results: Global incidence cases, death cases, and DALYs of GI cancers showed an overall ascending trend over the past 30 years, but there was temporal and geographical variation across cancer types. By 2019, colon and rectum cancer had overtaken stomach cancer as the most burdensome GI cancer globally. However, stomach cancer narrowly continued to be the most burdensome GI in China. In addition, the proportion of incidence and death cases of stomach, pancreatic, colon and rectum, and gallbladder and biliary tract cancers among global cases had further increased. It was noteworthy that the burden of liver cancer in China has been alleviated significantly. Conclusion: GI cancers remain a major public health problem in China and globally. Despite the temporal and geographic diversity of different cancers, targeted primary and secondary prevention are still necessary for the future to face these unknown challenges.

A nomogram for predicting stones recurrence in patients with bile duct stones undergoing laparoscopic common bile duct exploration.

Background: The recurrence of bile duct stones is a long-term outcome for patients undergoing laparoscopic common bile duct exploration (LCBDE) that is worthy of attention. This study aimed to investigate long-term risk factors for stones recurrence after LCBDE and develop a nomogram for predicting the risk. Methods: The clinical data on consecutive patients with bile duct stones undergoing LCBDE at Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital between January 2014 and February 2019 with a follow-up period longer than 2 years were reviewed. Independent risk factors of stones recurrence identified by the Cox regression model were used to develop a nomogram in predicting stones recurrence after LCBDE. Results: Eight hundred and twenty-two patients were eventually included in this study. Of these patients, 42 (5.11%) developed stones recurrence. The cumulative incidences of stones recurrence at 1, 3, and 5 years after LCBDE were 1.34%, 4.36%, and 7.14%, respectively. Independent risk factors of stones recurrence were identified to be age (HR = 1.04, 95% CI = 1.02-1.07), T-tube drainage (HR = 3.28, 95% CI = 1.23-8.72), fatty liver (HR = 2.69, 95% CI = 1.39-5.20), urinary calculus (HR = 4.68, 95% CI = 2.29-9.56), post-cholecystectomy (HR = 5.21, 95% CI = 2.39-11.33), and post-ERCP + EST (HR = 2.87, 95% CI = 1.18-6.96). By these factors, a developed nomogram showed a C-index of 0.770 to predict stones recurrence. Conclusions: The nomogram, based on identified risk factors, showed good accuracy for predicting stones recurrence, which is valuable to guide these patients' follow-up and prevention.

Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells ameliorate severe acute pancreatitis by inhibiting oxidative stress in rats.

To investigate whether bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) attenuate pancreatic injury via mediating oxidative stress in severe acute pancreatitis (SAP). The SAP model was established in rats. Phosphate buffered saline (PBS) or BMSCs were injected into the rats by tail veins. ML385 was used to down-regulate Nrf2 expression in rats. Pancreatic pathological score was used to evaluated pancreatic injury. Inflammatory-associated cytokines, serum lipase and amylase, levels of myeloperoxidase, malondialdehyde, reactive oxygen species and superoxide dismutase, as well as catalase activity were measured for injury severity evaluation. ML385 aggravates oxidative stress in SAP + ML385 group, compared with SAP + PBS group. BMSCs transplantation alleviated pancreatic injury and enhance antioxidant tolerance in SAP + BMSCs group, while ML385 administration weakened this efficacy in SAP + BMSCs + ML385 group. In addition, BMSCs promoted Nrf2 nuclear translocation via PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. Besides, BMSCs reduced inflammatory response by inhibiting NF-κB signaling pathway in SAP. BMSCs can inhibit oxidative stress and reduce pancreatic injury via inducing Nrf2 nuclear translocation in SAP.

Two new stilbene glucosides and a new benzoic acid derivative from Tournefortia sibirica.

Two new stilbene glucosides, trans-3,5-dihydroxy-4-methoxystilbene 3-O-ß-D-glucopyranoside (1), cis-3,5-dihydroxy-4-methoxystilbene 3-O-ß-D-glucopyranoside (2), one new benzoic acid derivative, cis-4-hydroxy-3-hydroxymethyl-2-butenyl benzoate 4-O-ß-D-glucopyranoside (3), and four known compounds (4 - 7) were isolated from Tournefortia sibirica L. The structures of these compounds were elucidated on the basis of spectral data. Anti-inflammatory effects of compounds (1 - 7) were evaluated in terms of inhibition on production of NO, TNF-α and IL-6 in LPS-induced RAW 264.7 cells. Compounds 1, 2 and 5 - 7 could inhibit the levels of NO, TNF-α and IL-6 in LPS-induced RAW264.7 cells with IC50 values ranging from 40.96 to 88.76 µM.

Chloroplast genomes of five Oedogonium species: genome structure, phylogenetic analysis and adaptive evolution.

BACKGROUND: The order Oedogoniales within the single family Oedogoniaceae comprised of three genera, Oedogonium, Oedocladium, and Bulbochaete based on traditional morphological criteria. While several molecular phylogenetic studies have suggested that both Oedogonium and Oedocladium may not be monophyletic, broader taxon sampling and large amounts of molecular data acquisition could help to resolve the phylogeny and evolutionary problems of this order. This study determined five chloroplast (cp) genomes of Oedogonium species and aimed to provide further information on cp genome for a better understanding of the phylogenetic and evolutionary relationships of the order Oedogoniales. RESULTS: The five Oedogonium cp genomes showed typical quadripartite and circular structures, and were relatively conserved in their structure, gene synteny, and inverted repeats boundaries in general, except for small variation in genome sizes, AT contents, introns, and repeats. Phylogenetic analyses based on 54 cp protein-coding genes examined by maximum likelihood and Bayesian analyses using amino acid and nucleotide datasets indicated that both Oedocladium and Oedogonium are polyphyletic groups. A positively selected gene (psbA) was identified in the two Oedocladium species and the terrestrial Oedogonium species, indicating that terrestrial Oedogoniales taxa may have undergone adaptive evolution to adjust to the difference in light intensity between aquatic and terrestrial habitats. CONCLUSIONS: Our results enrich the data on cp genomes of the genus Oedogonium. The availability of these cp genomes can help in understanding the cp genome characteristics and resolve phylogenetic and evolutionary relationships of the order Oedogoniales.

Serum lipids mediate the relationship of multiple polyaromatic hydrocarbons on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: A population-based study.

Polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are recognized as organic pollutants with liver toxicity. However, the relationship between PAHs and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is unclear in humans. The aim of this study was to investigate the levels of PAHs in the US population and their association with the risk of NAFLD. We investigated urinary levels of nine PAHs in 2436 participants from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) between 2005 and 2012, including 1-Hydroxynapthalene (1-OHN), 2-Hydroxynapthalene (2-OHN), 3-Hydroxyfluorene (3-OHF), 2-Hydroxyfluorene (2-OHF), 3-Hydroxyphenanthrene (3-OHPhe), 1-Hydroxyphenanthrene (1-OHPhe), 2-Hydroxyphenanthrene (2-OHPhe), 1-Hydroxypyrene (1-OHPyr), 9-Hydroxyfluorene (9-OHF). Logistic regression models were used to estimate the relationship between single PAH and NAFLD. Assessment of the overall effect of multiple PAH mixtures on NAFLD using Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) model. There were 698 participants diagnosed with NAFLD in the study group. After adjusting for related covariates such as sex, age, race, education, marital status, poverty income ratio (PIR), body mass index (BMI), total energy intake, smoking, hypertension, and diabetes, logistic regression analysis showed that compared to the low tertile (T1), the odds ratio of the high tertile (T3) was 1.70 (95%CI: 1.26-2.29, p = 0.001) for total PAHs, 1.50 (95%CI: 1.11-2.03, p = 0.008) for 2-OHN, 1.75 (95%CI: 1.31-2.34, p < 0.001) for 2-OHPhe, 1.59 (95%CI: 1.18-2.14, p = 0.002) for 9-OHF and 0.63 (95%CI: 0.46-0.87, p = 0.004) for 3-OHF. In the BKMR model, we found that the overall effect of the nine PAH mixtures was positively associated with the risk of NAFLD. Mediation analysis showed that HDL and TG mediated the association between PAHs and NAFLD. Our study suggests that multiple PAHs mixtures exposure may induce NAFLD by mediating serum lipids in human metabolism.

Computed Tomography-Based Radiomics Model for Predicting the WHO/ISUP Grade of Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma Preoperatively: A Multicenter Study.

PURPOSE: To examine the ability of computed tomography radiomic features in multivariate analysis and construct radiomic model for identification of the the WHO/ISUP pathological grade of clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). METHODS: This was a retrospective study using data of four hospitals from January 2018 to August 2019. There were 197 patients with a definitive diagnosis of ccRCC by post-surgery pathology or biopsy. These subjects were divided into the training set (n = 122) and the independent external validation set (n = 75). Two phases of Enhanced CT images (corticomedullary phase, nephrographic phase) of ccRCC were used for whole tumor Volume of interest (VOI) plots. The IBEX radiomic software package in Matlab was used to extract the radiomic features of whole tumor VOI images. Next, the Mann-Whitney U test and minimum redundancy-maximum relevance algorithm(mRMR) was used for feature dimensionality reduction. Next, logistic regression combined with Akaike information criterion was used to select the best prediction model. The performance of the prediction model was assessed in the independent external validation cohorts. Receiver Operating Characteristic curve (ROC) was used to evaluate the discrimination of ccRCC in the training and independent external validation sets. RESULTS: The logistic regression prediction model constructed with seven radiomic features showed the best performance in identification for WHO/ISUP pathological grades. The Area Under Curve (AUC) of the training set was 0.89, the sensitivity comes to 0.85 and specificity was 0.84. In the independent external validation set, the AUC of the prediction model was 0.81, the sensitivity comes to 0.58, and specificity was 0.95. CONCLUSION: A radiological model constructed from CT radiomic features can effectively predict the WHO/ISUP pathological grade of CCRCC tumors and has a certain clinical generalization ability, which provides an effective value for patient prognosis and treatment.

Development and Validation of Prognostic Survival Nomograms for Patients with Anal Canal Cancer: A SEER-Based Study.

OBJECTIVE: Anal canal cancer is a rare malignancy with increasing incidence in recent times. This study aimed to develop two nomograms to predict the overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) of patients with anal canal cancer. METHODS: Information of patients with anal canal cancer from 2004 to 2015 was extracted from the surveillance, epidemiology, and end results (SEER) database. Cox analysis was used to select the risk factors for prognosis, and nomograms were constructed using the R software. The C-index, area under the curve (AUC) of time-dependent receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, calibration plot and decision curve analysis (DCA) were used to assess the clinical utility of the nomograms. RESULTS: A total of 2458 patients with malignant tumours of the anal canal were screened out. Sex, age, marital status, histological type, grade, tumour size, AJCC stage, SEER stage and chemotherapy were independent prognostic factors for OS, whereas sex, age, race, histological type, grade, tumour size, AJCC stage, SEER stage and radiotherapy were independent prognostic factors for CSS. In the training cohort, the C-index value for OS nomogram was 0.73 (95% CI, 0.69-0.77), and the AUC values that predicted the 1-, 3- and 5-year survival rates were 0.764, 0.758 and 0.760, respectively, whereas the C-index value for CSS nomogram model was 0.74 (95% CI, 0.69-0.79), and the AUC values were 0.763, 0.769 and 0.763, respectively. The calibration plot and DCA curves demonstrated good prediction performance of the model in both the training and validation cohorts. CONCLUSION: The established nomogram is a visualisation tool that can effectively predict the OS and CSS of patients with anal canal cancer.

Microwave-assisted extraction, characterization and immunomodulatory activity on RAW264.7 cells of polysaccharides from Trichosanthes kirilowii Maxim seeds.

Microwave-assisted extraction of polysaccharides from Trichosanthes kirilowii Maxim seeds (TKMSP) was optimized using Response surface methodology (RSM) base on Central composite design (CCD). The optimum extraction conditions are detailed as follows: liquid-solid ratio 42 mL/g, extraction temperature 80 °C, microwave power 570 W, extraction time 26 min. Under this conditions, the mean value of TKMSP yield 2.43 ± 0.45% (n = 3), which was consistent closely with the predicted value (2.44%). The five polysaccharides (TKMSP-1, TKMSP-2, TKMSP-3, TKMSP-4 and TKMSP-5) were isolated from TKMSP by DEAE-52. TKMSP-1, TKMSP-2 and TKMSP-4 were common in containing Man, Rib, Rha, GluA, GalA, Glu, Gal, Xyl, Arab and Fuc. However, there was no Fuc in TKMSP-3, while TKMSP-5 lacked GluA, GalA and Fuc. UV-vis and FT-IR analysis combined with molecular weight determination further indicated that the five fractions were polydisperse polysaccharides. A significant difference was achieved in the structural characterization of these five fractions. TKMSP exhibited immunosuppressive activity on RAW264.7 cells. It can be applied as a potential immunosuppressant agent in medicine.

Impact of Nutritional Indices on the Survival Outcomes of Patients with Colorectal Cancer.

BACKGROUND: The effect of preoperative nutritional status on the survival of patients with colorectal cancer is still unknown. The purpose of our study was to examine the impact of the prognostic nutritional index (PNI), prealbumin (PAB) and the albumin to globulin ratio (AGR) on survival outcomes in patients with colon and rectal cancer. METHODS: Between January 2012 and December 2013, 361 patients with colorectal cancer who underwent curative surgery in the survey and various clinical and haematological parameters were recorded. The optimal cut-off values of the PNI, PAB and AGR were determined by MedCalc software, and Cox regression analysis was performed to investigate the effect of the PNI, PAB and AGR on the overall survival (OS) of patients with colon and rectal cancer. RESULTS: In patients with colon and rectal cancer, a high PNI, PAB, and AGR correlate with higher survival times. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed that at most time points, the PNI has a higher area under the curve (AUC) in predicting colon and rectal cancer OS. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that of the PNI, PAB and AGR, only the PNI was an independent risk factor for OS in patients with colon and rectal cancer. Patients with a high PNI were predicted to have higher OS (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.479; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.233-0.985; P = 0.045) in colon cancer and higher OS (HR: 0.225; 95% CI: 0.111-0.454; P < 0.001) in rectal cancer compared with patients with a low PNI. CONCLUSION: Preoperative PNI, PAB and AGR may be predictors of OS in patients with colon and rectal cancer after radical surgery, especially the PNI, which has a good ability to predict OS in both tumours.

Identifying BAP1 Mutations in Clear-Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma by CT Radiomics: Preliminary Findings.

To evaluate the potential application of computed tomography (CT) radiomics in the prediction of BRCA1-associated protein 1 (BAP1) mutation status in patients with clear-cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). In this retrospective study, clinical and CT imaging data of 54 patients were retrieved from The Cancer Genome Atlas-Kidney Renal Clear Cell Carcinoma database. Among these, 45 patients had wild-type BAP1 and nine patients had BAP1 mutation. The texture features of tumor images were extracted using the Matlab-based IBEX package. To produce class-balanced data and improve the stability of prediction, we performed data augmentation for the BAP1 mutation group during cross validation. A model to predict BAP1 mutation status was constructed using Random Forest Classification algorithms, and was evaluated using leave-one-out-cross-validation. Random Forest model of predict BAP1 mutation status had an accuracy of 0.83, sensitivity of 0.72, specificity of 0.87, precision of 0.65, AUC of 0.77, F-score of 0.68. CT radiomics is a potential and feasible method for predicting BAP1 mutation status in patients with ccRCC.

Bursectomy Versus Nonbursectomy for Gastric Adenocarcinoma: A Single-Center, Propensity-Score Matched Cohort Study in China.

Background: The therapeutic value of bursectomy remains controversial for patients with gastric cancer. Therefore, the purpose of our study was to explore the safety and survival benefits of bursectomy. Materials and Methods: A total of 943 patients with gastric adenocarcinoma were included in our study, and all patients were operated on by high-quality gastrointestinal surgeons. The factors associated with overall survival (OS) were determined using the Kaplan-Meier method. In addition, patients in the bursectomy group and nonbursectomy group were matched with 1:1 propensity score matching for sex, age, tumor location, type of operation, tumor size, degree of differentiation, and pathological stage to reduce the possibility of choice bias. Results: Among the 943 eligible patients, 188 (19.9%) underwent bursectomy and 755 (80.1%) did not. In all patients, the number of retrieved lymph nodes (P = .0596), blood loss volume (P = .0896), operation time (P = .0747), number of postoperative complications (P = .626), and OS in the bursectomy group were similar to those in the nonbursectomy group. After a stratified analysis of TNM grade and T stage, it was found that bursectomy could lead to survival benefits for patients with stage T4 disease (P = .0398). Conclusions: Bursectomy does not increase the amount of blood loss, operation time, or incidence of postoperative complications. This procedure is an extended and safe surgical method for gastric adenocarcinoma. Bursectomy does not improve the survival of all patients, but for patients with stage T4 disease, bursectomy can provide survival benefits.

Characterization of a polysaccharide with antioxidant and anti-cervical cancer potentials from the corn silk cultivated in Jilin province.

Corn silk polysaccharides (CSPs) were extracted from the corn silk cultivated in Jilin province, China, where is one of the golden corn belts worldwide. Three fractions (CSP-1, CSP-2 and CSP-3) were obtained by DEAE-52 cellulose and the former two fractions were further purified by Sephadex G-150 column chromatography to obtain CSP-S-1 and CSP-S-2. The molecular weights of CSP-S-1 and CSP-S-2 were calculated to be 586 kDa and 813 kDa, respectively. CSP-S-1 was composed of galactose, arabinose, xylose and rhamnose at a molar ratio of 4.16:1.00:1.01:6.32 and CSP-S-2 was composed of galactose, arabinose, glucose and rhamnose at a molar ratio of 8.71:3.58:0.169:1.00. CSP-S-2 outperformed CSP-S-1 in scavenging DPPH, ABTS and hydroxyl radicals, and significantly inhibited the proliferation of HeLa cells. IR and NMR analysis indicated that CSP-S-2 was pyranose. CSP-S-2 consisted of 1 → 4 and 1 → 6 linkages and exhibited a triple helix configuration. In summary, CSP-S-2 possesses high potential to be developed as a novel antioxidant and anti-cervical cancer agent.

CT texture analysis: a potential tool for predicting the Fuhrman grade of clear-cell renal carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to analyze the image heterogeneity of clear-cell renal-cell carcinoma (ccRCC) by computer tomography texture analysis and to provide new objective quantitative imaging parameters for the pre-operative prediction of Fuhrman-grade ccRCC. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of 131 cases of ccRCCs was performed by manually depicting tumor areas. Then, histogram-based texture parameters were calculated. The texture-feature values between Fuhrman low- (Grade I-II) and high-grade (Grade III-IV) ccRCCs were compared by two independent sample t-tests (False Discovery Rate correction), and receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was used to evaluate the efficacy of using texture features to predict Fuhrman high- and low-grade ccRCCs. RESULTS: There were no statistical differences for any texture parameters without filtering (p > 0.05). There was a statistically significant difference between the entropy (fine) of the corticomedullary phase and the entropy (fine and coarse) of the nephrographic phase after Laplace of Gaussian filtering. The area under the ROC of the entropy was between 0.74 and 0.83. CONCLUSIONS: Computer tomography texture features can predict the Fuhrman grading of ccRCC pre-operatively, with entropy being the most important imaging marker for clinical application.

New Preoperative Nomogram Using the Centrality Index to Predict High Nuclear Grade Clear Cell Renal Carcinoma.

OBJECTIVE: Nuclear grading is an independent prognosis factor of clear-cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). A non-invasive preoperative predictive WHO/International Society of Urologic Pathology (WHO/ISUP) grading of ccRCC model is needed for clinical use. The anatomical complexity scoring system can span a variety of image modalities. The Centrality index (CI) is a quantitatively anatomical score commonly used for renal tumors. The purpose of this study was to develop a simple model to predict WHO/ISUP grading based on CI. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The data in this study were from 248 ccRCC patients from five hospitals. We developed three predictive models using training data from 167 patients: a CI-only model, a valuable clinical parameter model and a fusion model of CI with valuable clinical parameters. We compared and evaluated the three models by discrimination, clinical usefulness and calibration, then tested them in a set of validation data from 81 patients. RESULTS: The fusion model consisting of CI and tumor size (valuable clinical parameter) had an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.82. In the validation set, the AUC was 0.85. The decision curve showed that the model had a good net benefit between the threshold probabilities of 5-80%. And the calibration curve showed good calibration in the training set and validation set. CONCLUSION: This study confirms that CI is associated with the WHO/ISUP grade of ccRCC, and the possibility that a bivariate model incorporating tumor size may help urologist's evaluation patients' prognostic.