[Application of interventional respiratory techniques in the treatment of pulmonary bullae:an update].

Pulmonary bullae is a common complication of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD), causing the deterioration in lung function, leading to aggravated dyspnea and poor quality of life for patients. The traditional therapeutic approach for pulmonary bullae is bullectomy using surgical thoracoscopy. The disadvantage of this approach is the postoperative complications and high risk of recurrence in many patients. In addition, for some patients, due to the patient's physical conditions, such as poor lung function and other diseases, bullectomy could not be used. Therefore, new alternative approaches were urgently needed. In recent years, interventional respiratory technology has been trialed to treat pulmonary bulla all around the world and has achieved great success. In this paper, we reviewed the relevant clinical research progress of interventional respiratory medicine techniques in the treatment of pulmonary bullae.

[SENP1 induced protein deSUMO modification increased the chemotherapy sensitivity of endometrial cancer side population cells].

Objective: To inhibit the stemness maintenance potential of endometrial cancer and increase the sensitivity of endometrial cancer side population cells to chemotherapy drugs by inducing extensive deSUMOylation modification of proteins. Methods: Flow cytometry was used to sort and culture CD133(+) CD44(+) KLE endometrial cancer cell clone spheres. Protein expression level of small ubiquitin-related modifier 1 (SUMO1) and two stemness maintenance genes of tumor side population cells, octamer binding transcription factor-4 (Oct4) and sex determining region Y-box2 (Sox2), were detected by western blotting method. Lentivirus-mediated Sentrin/SUMO-specific proteases 1 (SENP1) gene was stably transfected into KLE side population cells. Western blotting was used to detect the protein expressions of SENP1, SUMO1, Oct4 and Sox2. The clone formation rate was compared between KLE side population cells with or without SENP1 overexpression. Flow cytometry was applied to detect cell cycle changes. 3-(4, 5-Dimethylthiazole-2)-2, 5-diphenyl-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) experiment and flow cytometry apoptosis method were used to detect the chemosensitivity of the side population of endometrial cancer cells to cisplatin. Tumor-bearing mouse models of endometrial cancer were established to detect the effect of SENP1 overexpression on the chemotherapy sensitivity of cisplatin. Results: Compared with CD133(-)CD44(-) KLE cells, CD133(+) CD44(+) KLE side population cells could form clonal spheres and express higher levels of SUMO1, Oct4 and Sox2 proteins (P<0.05). Compared with KLE side population cells that were not transfected with SENP1 gene, the expression level of SENP1 protein in KLE side population cells overexpressing SUMO1、Oct4 and Sox2 were lower. The clonal sphere formation rate was reduced from (25.67±5.44)% to (7.46±1.42)%, and cell cycle shifted from G(0)/G(1) phase to G(2) phase. IC(50) of cisplatin decreased from (55.46±6.14) µg/ml to (11.55±3.12) µg/ml, and cell apoptosis rate increased from (9.76±2.09)% to (16.79±3.44)%. Overexpression of SENP1 could reduce the tumorigenesis rate of KLE side population cells in vivo and increase their chemotherapy sensitivity to cisplatin (P<0.05). Conclusion: Overexpression of SENP1 can induce protein deSUMOylation modification, inhibit the stemness maintenance potential of endometrial cancer side population cells, and enhance their chemotherapy sensitivity, which provides a new reference for gene therapy of endometrial cancer.

SIRT3 Promotes the Development of Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma by Regulating Hexokinase 2 through the AKT Signaling Pathway.

In the present study, we explored whether sirtuin-3 (SIRT3) regulates the proliferation and migration of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and investigated the mechanisms underlying the oncogene role of SIRT3. siRNA was used to transfect Eca109 cells and downregulate SIRT3. The proliferation and migration of Eca109 cells were examined by the CCK-8 assay, colony formation assay, Transwell assay, and scratch test. Quantitative real-time PCR and Western blotting were used to detect SIRT3, hexokinase 2, AKT, and p-AKT in Eca109 cells. Functional assays showed that downregulation of SIRT3 could inhibit the proliferation and migration of ESCC cells. Reduced SIRT3 expression downregulated hexokinase 2 expression and inhibited AKT activation in ESCC. These results indicated that SIRT3 promote ESCC development and progression by regulating hexokinase 2 through the AKT signaling pathway. SIRT3 promote ESCC proliferation and migration by regulating HK-2 through the AKT signaling pathway.

Registration using natural features for augmented reality systems.

Registration is one of the most difficult problems in augmented reality (AR) systems. In this paper, a simple registration method using natural features based on the projective reconstruction technique is proposed. This method consists of two steps: embedding and rendering. Embedding involves specifying four points to build the world coordinate system on which a virtual object will be superimposed. In rendering, the Kanade-Lucas-Tomasi (KLT) feature tracker is used to track the natural feature correspondences in the live video. The natural features that have been tracked are used to estimate the corresponding projective matrix in the image sequence. Next, the projective reconstruction technique is used to transfer the four specified points to compute the registration matrix for augmentation. This paper also proposes a robust method for estimating the projective matrix, where the natural features that have been tracked are normalized (translation and scaling) and used as the input data. The estimated projective matrix will be used as an initial estimate for a nonlinear optimization method that minimizes the actual residual errors based on the Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) minimization method, thus making the results more robust and stable. The proposed registration method has three major advantages: 1) It is simple, as no predefined fiducials or markers are used for registration for either indoor and outdoor AR applications. 2) It is robust, because it remains effective as long as at least six natural features are tracked during the entire augmentation, and the existence of the corresponding projective matrices in the live video is guaranteed. Meanwhile, the robust method to estimate the projective matrix can obtain stable results even when there are some outliers during the tracking process. 3) Virtual objects can still be superimposed on the specified areas, even if some parts of the areas are occluded during the entire process. Some indoor and outdoor experiments have been conducted to validate the performance of this proposed method.

Registration based on projective reconstruction technique for augmented reality systems.

In AR systems, registration is one of the most difficult problems currently limiting their application. In this paper, we propose a simple registration method using projective reconstruction. This method consists of two steps: embedding and tracking. Embedding involves specifying four points to build the world coordinate system on which a virtual object will be superimposed. In tracking, a projective reconstruction technique is used to track these four specified points to compute the model view transformation for augmentation. This method is simple, as only four points need to be specified at the embedding stage and the virtual object can then be easily augmented onto a real scene from a video sequence. In addition, it can be extended to a scenario using the projective matrix that has been obtained from previous registration results using the same AR system. The proposed method has three advantages: 1) It is fast because the linear least square method can be used to estimate the related matrix in the algorithm and it is not necessary to calculate the fundamental matrix in the extended case. 2) A virtual object can still be superimposed on a related area even if some parts of the specified area are occluded during the whole process. 3) This method is robust because it remains effective even when not all the reference points are detected during the whole process, as long as at least six pairs of related reference points correspondences can be found. Some experiments have been conducted to validate the performance of the proposed method.

Optimization of preparative conditions for poly-DL-lactide- polyethylene glycol microspheres with entrapped Vibrio cholera antigens.

Poly-dl-lactide-polyethylene glycol (PELA) with different contents of polyethylene glycol(PEG) were synthesized and the PEG content was estimated according to the integral height of hydrogen shown in 1H-NMR. PELA microspheres containing V. cholera antigen, outer membrane protein (OMP) were prepared by a water-in-oil-in-water (W/O/W) based on solvent evaporation procedure. Antigen microspheres with smooth surface, suitable size for oral administration (0.5-5 microm), high loading efficiency (about 60%) and low level of residual solvent (lower than 20ppm) were obtained. Microspheres prepared from PELA with PEG content of about 10% achieved the highest loading efficiency among PELA copolymers and poly-dl-lactide (PLA) homopolymer, which suggested that microspheres size, morphology and the precipitation rate of polymer showed considerable relations with OMP loading efficiency. The regulation of the solvent components of the oil phase contributes to a stable emulsion W/O, and it is concluded that the stable emulsion W/O plays a significant role in improving the protein loading efficiency of obtained microspheres. The addition of stabilizer, such as gelatin and polyvinyl alcohol, into the internal water phase before emulsification produced no significant difference in OMP entrapment and microspheres size. A higher OMP loading efficiency was achieved by adding NaCl or adjusting the pH at the iso-electric point of OMP in the external water phase. It was indicated in vitro that PELA microspheres with smaller size showed larger extent of initial release and higher release rate, whereas microspheres with the diameter of 2.17 microm showed no apparent burst effect.

The heat shock response of an antarctic alga is evident at 5 degrees C.

A subtidal seaweed collected in antarctic waters, Plocamium cartilagineum (L. Dix.), displayed induction of mRNAs encoding the 70 kDa heat shock protein (HSP70) and the ubiquitin polyprotein (UBI) when incubated at 5 degrees C. Maximal induction of HSP70 mRNA was observed when the alga was incubated at 10 degrees C for 1 h. Incubations at higher temperatures or for longer periods reduced the amount of HSP70 mRNA detected. Incubations at 20 degrees C or greater resulted in cell death. These data indicate that dispite the unusually low temperature of induction, this macrophyte exhibits a heat shock response similar to that of other organisms at temperatures 5 to 10 degrees C above usual growth conditions.

Conservation of the myoglobin gene among Antarctic notothenioid fishes.

We determined the myoglobin cDNA sequence for seven Antarctic notothenioid fish species. These data identify mutations in the myoglobin gene for Champsocephalus gunnari and Pagetopsis macropterus, two icefish species that lack detectable quantities of the polypeptide but express myoglobin mRNA. a third species lacking myoglobin polypeptide, Chaenocephalus aceratus, is devoid of myoglobin mRNA and accordingly failed to produce myoglobin products on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification. Myoglobin cDNA sequences were highly conserved among the species the express the protein, particularly in the coding region. Sequence variation among the myoglobin-expressing channichthyid species was 2.0% to 2.9% in the coding region and 2.6% to 3.3% over the entire cDNA. The same extent of variation, 1.6% to 3.2% in the coding sequence and 2.8% to 3.7% overall, was observed between the icefishes and more distantly related, red-blooded nototheniid species. The two species expressing mutant myoglobin mRNA, C. gunnari and P. macropterus, exhibited the highest degree of sequence variation among the fish myoglobins examined. Drift in the myoglobin sequence in these two species, and conservation of myoglobin cDNA among fishes from two distinct families, suggest that a selective pressure operates to maintain myoglobin in the species that express the protein.

Variable expression of myoglobin among the hemoglobinless Antarctic icefishes.

The important intracellular oxygen-binding protein, myoglobin (Mb), is thought to be absent from oxidative muscle tissues of the family of hemoglobinless Antarctic icefishes, Channichthyidae. Within this family of fishes, which is endemic to the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica, there exist 15 known species and 11 genera. To date, we have examined eight species of icefish (representing seven genera) using immunoblot analyses. Results indicate that Mb is present in heart ventricles from five of these species of icefish. Mb is absent from heart auricle and oxidative skeletal muscle of all species. We have identified a 0.9-kb mRNA in Mb-expressing species that hybridizes with a Mb cDNA probe from the closely related red-blooded Antarctic nototheniid fish, Notothenia coriiceps. In confirmation that the 0.9-kb mRNA encodes Mb, we report the full-length Mb cDNA sequence of the ocellated icefish, Chionodraco rastrospinosus. Of the eight icefish species examined, three lack Mb polypeptide in heart ventricle, although one of these expresses the Mb mRNA. All species of icefish retain the Mb gene in their genomic DNA. Based on phylogeny of the icefishes, loss of Mb expression has occurred independently at least three times and by at least two distinct molecular mechanisms during speciation of the family.