Shorter hemodialysis duration is a risk factor for the recurrence of urothelial carcinoma of the bladder in patients on maintenance hemodialysis.

PURPOSE: To investigate the association of hemodialysis duration with the recurrence of urothelial carcinoma (UC) of the bladder and overall survival in patients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis (MHD). PATIENTS AND METHODS: 52 bladder cancer patients who underwent MHD at the Xiangya Hospital of The Central South University between 2001 and 2011 were enrolled in the study. The patients were divided into three groups according to hemodialysis duration, and patient mortality and tumor recurrence rates were analyzed. The association of hemodialysis duration with occurrence and recurrence of UC of the bladder was analyzed by Cox regression analysis. Survival was evaluated by the Kaplan-Meier method. RESULTS: Out of 6266 chronic hemodialysis patients, 52 patients had UC of the bladder after the initiation of hemodialysis for 6 months. The mean age at hemodialysis onset was 55 years (IQR 36, 71). The major complaints were painless gross hematuria and urethral bloody discharge. Tumors were generally large and multifocal. The standardized incidence ratio of UC of the bladder was 43.9 compared with general population, and it was higher in women (76.7) and in the age group 61-65 years (186.6). The mean hemodialysis duration before the diagnosis of bladder cancer was 32 months. 30 (57.7 %) patients received hemodialysis no more than 3 years, 10 (19.2 %) patients received hemodialysis between 3 and 6 years, and 12 (23.1 %) patients received hemodialysis for more than 6 years. CONCLUSION: Preoperative shorter hemodialysis duration is a risk factor for the occurrence and recurrence of UC of the bladder in patients undergoing MHD.

Interleukin-8 promotes human ovarian cancer cell migration by epithelial-mesenchymal transition induction in vitro.

PURPOSE: It has been well established that high serum levels of interleukin-8 (IL-8) in ovarian cancer result in a poor clinical outcome. Thus, the aim of this study was investigating the role of IL-8 in ovarian cancer development. METHODS: Two human ovarian cancer cell lines (SKOV3 and OVCAR3) were cocultured with IL-8 (100 ng/L) for 24 h, then cell migration was determined by transwell assay. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-associated proteins including E-cadherin and ß-catenin, and phosphorylation status of ß-catenin were investigated by Western blot analysis. RESULTS: After treatment with IL-8 (100 ng/L) for 24 h, transwell assay result showed that the number of migrated ovarian cells increased significantly. Western blot analysis revealed that protein levels of E-cadherin were decreased, while that of ß-catenin were elevated both in IL-8 pretreated SKOV3 and OVCAR3 cells. We further found that phosphorylation status of ß-catenin were elevated either in cytoplasm or in nucleus of these two ovarian cancer cell lines after treatment with IL-8 for 24 h. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that IL-8 induces EMT in ovarian cancer cells and implicates its potential role in enhancing ovarian cancer cell metastasis.

Genetic diversity of HLA-DRB1 alleles in the Tujia population of Wufeng, Hubei Province, China.

We established a genetic database by investigating human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DRB1 allelic frequencies in a disease-association study in the Tujia population in Wufang, Hubei, China. The allele frequencies of the HLA-DRB1 locus in 262 healthy, unrelated Tujia individuals living in the Wufeng region of the Hubei Province were analyzed using the Luminex HLA sequence-specific oligonucleotide method with a WAKFlow HLA typing kit. A total of 13 alleles were detected at the HLA-DRB1 locus. HLA-DRB1*09 was the most common allele (22.52%), followed by DRB1*08 and DRB1*15 (11.07%), and DRB1*12 and DRB1*04 (10.69%). These data were compared with the results obtained for 10 other ethnic groups living in other regions as well as to Han groups using neighbor-joining dendrograms and principal component analysis. The results showed that the Tujia population has a close genetic relationship with the Middle Han population at the HLA-DRB1 locus. This information will be useful for HLA-DRB1-linked disease-association studies.

Molecular characterization and structure analysis of RPL10/QM-like protein from the red drum Sciaenops ocellatus (Sciaenidae).

The QM-like gene encodes a ribosomal protein L10. Besides housekeeping roles in protein synthesis, QM-like proteins have multiple extraribosomal functions during cell growth, cell differentiation and apoptosis. We obtained the full-length cDNA of QM-like protein (designated as SoQM) from the salt water game fish Sciaenops ocellatus, using RACE-PCR. The sequence consists of 740 bp, encoding 215-amino acid residues with 24.60 kDa. The AA sequence of the SoQM protein contains a series of functional motifs that belong to the QM family signature, which is conserved among different species. The SoQM gene contains five introns and six exons. The expression pattern of SoQM as determined by RT-PCR indicated that SoQM mRNA was expressed in all tissues tested, including brain, gill, head-kidney, intestine, stomach, heart, spleen, blood, muscle, and gonads. The phylogenetic tree constructed with MEGA 4.0 showed that SoQM clusters together with that of other fish. It was found that the sequences of the SoQM gene are highly conserved, suggesting the fundamental and critical functions of SoQM in S. ocellatus. The three-dimensional structure of the SoQM protein core domain (4~169) was predicted by the Swiss-Model program. Compared with QM proteins in other species, the main structure of SoQM protein was conserved, while the C-terminal domain was different from other QM-like proteins. Prediction of the three-dimensional structure of SoQM would provide valuable insight into the molecular basis of protein function, allowing an effective design of experiments, such as site-directed mutagenesis, studies of disease-related mutations or structure-based design of specific inhibitors.