Comparative study of optical coherence tomography angiography algorithms for rodent retinal imaging.

Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) is a functional extension of optical coherence tomography for non-invasive in vivo three-dimensional imaging of the microvasculature of biological tissues. Several algorithms have been developed to construct OCTA images from the measured optical coherence tomography signals. In this study, we compared the performance of three OCTA algorithms that are based on the variance of phase, amplitude, and the complex representations of the optical coherence tomography signals for rodent retinal imaging, namely the phase variance, improved speckle contrast, and optical microangiography. The performance of the different algorithms was evaluated by comparing the quality of the OCTA images regarding how well the vasculature network can be resolved. Quantities that are widely used in ophthalmic studies including blood vessel density, vessel diameter index, vessel perimeter index, vessel complexity index were also compared. Results showed that both the improved speckle contrast and optical microangiography algorithms are more robust than phase variance, and they can reveal similar vasculature features while there are statistical differences in the calculated quantities.

Effects of Tra2-beta1 on proliferation, apoptosis, and metastasis of hypoxic endometrial carcinoma cell and its correlation with clinicopathological features.

BACKGROUND: This study aims to examine the influence of human transformer-2-beta1 (Tra2-beta1) on endometrial carcinoma (EC) development. The effects of Tra2-beta1 on the proliferation, apoptosis, invasion, and cell cycle of EC cells were also investigated. METHODS: Functional in vitro experiments were performed on Tra2-beta1 knockdown cells and hypoxic model cells. Western blot was used to detect HIF-1a, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and Tra2-beta1 protein expression; CCK8 assay was used to detect cell proliferation; flow cytometry was used to detect apoptosis and cell cycle, and Transwell assay was used to detect cell invasion ability. Tumor specimens were collected from 128 consecutive patients to detect the expression of Tra2-beta1, and the relationship between and EC and Tra-beta1 were analyzed by clinical pathological data, which included lymph node metastasis, pathological types, histological grade, myometrial invasion, etc. RESULTS: Tra2-beta1 was highly expressed in EC and was associated with clinical pathological features. It was related to the prognosis, and was found to promote proliferation (F=48.3, P<0.001) and migration (P<0.05), and inhibit apoptosis (P<0.05). Statistical analyses revealed a positive correlation between Tra2-beta1 and HIF-1a (correlation coefficient =0.36, P<0.001) and VEGF protein (correlation coefficient =0.23, P=0.021). In the hypoxic cell group and the combined intervention group, cell proliferation after 72 h was 9,783±45.6 and 6,783±68.4 (P<0.001), while the number of invasive cells was 421±16.8 and 276±11.2 (P<0.001), respectively. The apoptosis rates were 0.45±0.03 and 1.28±0.16, respectively (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The present findings demonstrate that the development of EC is positively correlated with Tra2-beta1. Tra2-beta1 may reverse the effect of hypoxia on EC, and this may provide new insights into the occurrence and development of EC.

Expression of TRA2B in endometrial carcinoma and its regulatory roles in endometrial carcinoma cells.

Expression levels of Transformer 2 protein homolog beta (TRA2B) in patients with endometrial carcinoma were assessed to investigate the impact of TRA2B on endometrial carcinoma cells. Furthermore, we analyzed the expression of several genes in the tissue samples from patients with endometrial cancer (EC) to identify whether cancer related genes we chose are differently expressed between the endometrial carcinoma tissues and adjacent normal tissues. The results of RT-qPCR analysis, western blot technology and immunofluorescence method consistently manifested that the expression of several genes in endometrial carcinoma tissue was significantly dysregulated between the two groups. Among the dysregulated genes, the strongly upregulated TRA2B in the tissues and serum from patients with EC was selected for further analysis. Endometrial carcinoma cells were transfected with chemically synthesized TRA2B plasmid, siRNA-TRA2B and their corresponding negative control respectively to assess the effects of TRA2B on the EC cells. Overexpression of TRA2B increased both the cell viability and proliferation potency of EC cells. Whereas, the viability and the proliferation ability of EC cells were strongly decreased by siRNA-TRA2B treatment. Furthermore, the invasion of EC cells was promoted by transfection of TRA2B and overexpression of TRA2B decreased the apoptosis of EC cells. Moreover, siRNA-TRA2B transfection inhibited the invasion but accelerated apoptosis of EC cells. Our results demonstrated that TRA2B is closely related to the development of endometrial carcinoma, and inhibition of TRA2B can decrease viability, proliferation and invasion of endometrial carcinoma, suggesting TRA2B is associated with the pathogenesis of human EC. Knockdown of TRA2B may be used for treatment of endometrial carcinoma, furthermore, these findings suggest an experimental foundation to clinical prognostic role of TRA2B in patients with endometrial carcinoma.

MicroRNA-130b functions as a tumor suppressor by regulating RUNX3 in epithelial ovarian cancer.

AIM: To evaluate the clinical significance of microRNA (miR)-130b-Runt domain transcription factor (RUNX3) axis and its effects on oncogenic phenotypes of human epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). METHODS: QRT-PCR was performed to detect the expression of miR-130b and RUNX3 mRNA in 100 EOC and 20 normal ovarian tissues. The associations between miR-130b and/or RUNX3 expression and various clinicopathological features of EOC patients were statistically analyzed. Then, the effects of miR-130b-RUNX3 axis on migration and invasion of EOC cells were assessed in vitro. RESULTS: miR-130b expression was downregulated, while RUNX3 mRNA was upregulated, in EOC tissues compared to normal ovarian tissues (both P=0.001). Importantly, the expression level of miR-130b in EOC tissues was negatively correlated with that of RUNX3 mRNA significantly. Additionally, miR-130b-low and/or RUNX3-high expression were all closely correlated with advanced International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage (all P<0.05). Moreover, overexpression of miR-130b reduced the expression of RUNX3 and inhibited cancer cell migration and invasion of EOC cells, whereas knockdown of miR-130b increased the expression of RUNX3 and promoted cancer cell migration and invasion of EOC cells. After that, the impaired motility of the miR-130b overexpression cells was recovered partly by the expression of RUNX3. Furthermore, the knockdown of RUNX3 also gave rise to a decrease in cell migration and invasion. CONCLUSION: Our data reveal that the dysregulation of miR-130b-RUNX3 axis may play important roles in EOC development and progression, and the loss of miR-130b may contribute to the malignant biological behavior of EOC cells via regulating the expression of RUNX3, implying their potentials as promising markers for predicting EOC progression and as candidate targets for gene therapy.

Comparison of pathogenicity between Ureaplasma urealyticum serotype 1 and 3 in genital tract of female BALB/c mice / 中华皮肤科杂志

Objective To investigate the pathogenicity of the same concentration of Ureaplasma urealyticum serotype1 (Uu1) and 3 (Uu3),alone or in combination,in genital tract of female BALB/c mice.Methods A total of 144 estradiol-pretreated adult female BALB/c mice were randomly and equally divided into 3 groups to be inoculated intravaginally with the same concentration (106 copies/g) of Uu1 and Uu3 alone or in combination.Twelve estradiol-pretreated female BALB/c mice were inoculated with sterile culture solution and served as the control group.At 1,3,7,14,21,35 days after the inoculation,8 mice in each Uu-inoculated group and 2 mice in the control group were sacrificed.Tissue specimens were obtained from the cervix,endometria and fallopian tube and subjected to hematoxylin-eosin staining followed by light microscopy.Scanning electron microscopy was used to observe the tissue specimens collected at 14 days from cervical mucosa of mice infected by Uu.Chi-square test was performed for statistical evaluation.Results The total infection rate of Uu within 3-35 days after the inoculation was 35.0％ (14/40),47.5％ (19/40) and 62.5％ (25/40) in the Uu1 group,Uu3 group,and combination group respectively (x2 =6.07,P ＜ 0.05).None of these mice was infected by Uu in the control group.Conclusions At the same inoculation concentration,the combination of Uu1 and Uu3 shows the strongest pathogenicity in genital tract of BALB/c mice,followed sequentially by Uu3 and Uu1 alone.