[Establishment of a prediction model for colorectal cancer immune cell infiltration based on the cancer genome atlas (TCGA) database].

OBJECTIVE: To study the correlation between immune cell infiltration in colorectal cancer tissue and clinical prognosis and to explore the levels of some immune cell genes for predicting the prognosis of patients with glioma colorectal cancer. METHODS: In this study, we extracted colorectal cancer data from the cancer genome atlas (TCGA). Based on a deconvolution algorithm (called CIBERSORT) and clinically annotated expression profiles, the analysis assessed the infiltration patterns of 22 immune cells in colorectal cancer tissue to determine the association between each cell type and survival. Differences in five-year survival rate effectively illustrate the clinical prognostic value of each immune cell proportion in colorectal cancer, using a bar graph, correlation-based heatmap to represent the proportion of immune cells in each colorectal cancer sample. RESULTS: A total of 473 colorectal cancer tissues and 41 normal control tissues were extracted from the TCGA database, and the comparative analysis showed that there were differences in the proportion of various TIICs in colorectal cancer tissues, which could characterize individual differences and have prognostic value. Among the cell subsets studied, the proportions of memory B cells, plasma cells, CD4+ T cells, natural killer (NK) cells, M0 macrophages, M2 macrophages, and activated mast cells were significantly different between normal and cancer tissues. Resting NK cells, CD8+ T cells, and plasma cells were associated with T phase, activated dendritic cells were associated with N phase, and eosinophils, M1 macrophages, and activated mast cells were associated with M phase. Survival analysis showed that activated dendritic cells were positively associated with five-year survival rate in colorectal cancer patients. Naive CD4+ T cells were inversely associated with five-year survival rate. CONCLUSION: There are different degrees of immune cell infiltration in colorectal cancer tissues, and these differences may be important determinants of prognosis and treatment response. We conducted a new gene expression-based study of immune cell subtype levels and prognosis in colorectal cancer, which has potential clinical prognostic value in colorectal cancer patients.

The composition and structure of the intestinal microflora of Anguilla marmorata at different growth rates: a deep sequencing study.

AIMS: The aim of this study was to determine the intestinal microflora of Anguilla marmorata at different growth rates and to identify potential probiotic/pernicious bacteria. METHODS AND RESULTS: Bacterial communities from eight different eels' intestinal sites (including the intestinal contents and the intestinal mucosa) from three fish groups (three fast-, two medium-, and three stunted-growth samples), two water samples, and one diet sample were characterized by Illumina next-generation sequencing. The data revealed that the predominant genera (relative abundance of bacteria genera >1%) in the intestine of fast- and medium-growth groups were Cetobacterium, Edwardsiella, Clostridium, Lactococcus, Bacteroides, Plesiomonas and Akkermansia. The dominant genus in the stunted-growth group was Spiroplasma. Moreover, culture-associated (water and feed) environmental microbes were distinct from those present in fish intestines, and included Flavobacterium (the dominant bacteria in water) and Corynebacterium (the dominant bacteria in feed). CONCLUSIONS: Only minor differences in gut microbial communities were observed between the fast-growth group and the medium-growth group; however, significant differences were observed between the normal-growth group (including the fast-growth group and medium-growth group, which showed uninhibited growth during the rearing stage) and the stunted-growth group. Together, these data suggested that intestinal microbes were significantly associated with marbled eels' growth rate. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: In this study, we demonstrated for the first time, the intestinal bacterial communities of A. marmorata at different growth rates. Moreover, we found that the genus Spiroplasma was abundant in the guts of stunted-growth eels, which had never been noticed. Such a finding indicates that the genus Spiroplasma plays a key role associated with retardation in growth and should be controlled to recover the growth of stunted eels, which is meaningful to farmers.

Overexpression of EPS8L3 promotes cell proliferation by inhibiting the transactivity of FOXO1 in HCC.

The homology of epidermal growth factor receptor pathway substrate 8 (EPS8), EPS8L3, is elevated significantly in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissues and cell lines compared with the normal liver tissues and cell lines. The MTT and colony formation assays demonstrated that overexpressing EPS8L3 enhances, while silencing reduces the proliferation of HCC cells. Further experiments illustrated that overexpressing EPS8L3 promotes the expression of p-AKT, Cyclin D1, but inhibits the transcriptional activity of FOXO1. Besides, colony formation assay demonstrated that AKT inhibitor suppresses the effect of EPS8L3 on proliferation in EPS8L3-overexpressing cells, whereas AKT restores the proliferation of EPS8L3-silenced cells, suggesting that EPS8L3 might promote proliferation by hyperactivating the AKT signaling pathway and subsequently inhibiting the FOXO1 transcriptional activity. Our results provide new view between EPS8L3 and progression of human HCC, suggesting that EPS8L3 may be a novel therapeutic target for HCC.

[The effects of epidermal growth factor and its antibody on the growth of xenografts in athymic nude mice].

Soybean trypsin inhibitor was added to the primary cell culture for establishing a novel moderately differentiated human pancreatic adenocarcinoma cell line, PC-7. The PC-7 cell line was confirmed to be a malignant human pancreatic adenocarcinoma by morphological and biological studies. Chromosomal analysis and DNA content of PC-7 determined by flow cytometry showed a hypodiploid karyotypic pattern. Cultured PC-7 cells were inoculated into the back of athymic nude mice to create a transplanted tumor model. The effects of epidermal growth factor (EGF) and anti-EGF antiserum on PC-7 transplanted tumor were observed by injecting EGF or anti-EGF at the periphery of the solid tumors. In comparing to the control group, the tumor weights of the EGF group and the anti-EGF group were 138% and 67% respectively. Histological and electron microscopic studies higher mitotic rate in the EGF group and a lower rate in the anti-EGF group compared to the control. The results indicate that EGF stimulated and anti-EGF partially inhibited the growth of transplanted PC-7 solid tumors in athymic nude mice.

[Immunocytochemical localization of human chorionic gonadotropin and placental lactogen in gestational trophoblastic neoplasms].

Preliminary observation on immunocytochemical localization of anti-HCG and anti-HPL in 49 patients with gestational trophoblastic neoplasms was studied. The findings were; (1) staining patterns to the two antibodies were different in cytotrophoblasts (CT), intermediate trophoblasts (IT), and syncytiotrophoblasts (ST) of the different types of trophoblastic tumor, (2)STs in tumors of all patients except one, showed positive staining of anti-HCG, and ITs in 17 cases of HM, 10 cases of IM and 1 case of GC were stained positively for anti-HCG; (3)STs in all of the 29 cases of HM, 14 cases of IM and 1 case of GC were positive for anti-HPL, ITs in 22 cases of HM, 11 cases of IM and 2 cases of GC were stained positively for anti-HPL. CTs in all tumors of the 49 patients were devoid of HCG and HPL. The results indicated that the production of HPL was found in well-differentiated cells and HCG in undifferentiated cells. The prognostic value of immunocytochemical localization of the two antibodies in trophoblastic tumors needs to be further clarified.

[Immunocytochemical localization of human chorionic gonadotropin and placental lactogen in normal placentae].

Preliminary observations on immunocytochemical localization of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) and human placental lactogen (hPL) were made in 35 placentae of normal pregnancy at various stages of development. By analysing the processing regularities of the two hormones and comparing the characteristics of immunocytochemical localization and hematoxylin-eosin stain on various trophoblasts in the normal placentae, the findings showed: (1) presence of the three types of trophoblasts, namely, cytotrophoblast (CT), intermediate trophoblast (IT), and syncytiotrophoblast (ST) was confirmed in normal placentae of first-trimester pregnancy. (2) IT has distinctive immunocytochemical features that distinguishes itself from CT and ST. In the first-trimester, ST contains a large amount of hCG which sharply diminishes thereafter, but hPL in ST increases with the fetal age. IT contains hPL all through the pregnancy period and the peak-value occurs in the second trimester. CT is devoid of hCG and hPL. The results indicated: (1) IT is more like ST but different from CT. (2) IT contains chiefly hPL and hCG only locally in early pregnancy which demonstrates that the processing of hPL is in the more well differentiated cells whereas hCG is in the less differentiated cells.