Skinny people serum factors promote the differentiation of multipotent stem cells into brown adipose tissue.

The original study by Alessio et al reported that skinny people (SP) serum can promote the formation of brown adipocytes, but not the differentiation of white adipocytes. This finding may explain why SP do not often become obese, despite consuming more calories than the body needs. More importantly, they demonstrated that circulating factors in SP serum can promote the expression of UCP-1 protein, thereby reducing fat accumulation. In this study, only male serum samples were evaluated to avoid the interference of sex hormones in experiments, but adult males also synthesize estrogen, which is produced by the cells of the testes. At the same time, adult females secrete androgens, and females synthesize androgens that are mainly produced by the adrenal cortex. We believe that the approach of excluding sex hormone interference by sex selection alone may be flawed, so we comment on the article and debate the statistical analysis of the article.

Gluconokinase IDNK Promotes Cell Proliferation and Inhibits Apoptosis in Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

PURPOSE: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the deadliest cancers globally with a poor prognosis. Breakthroughs in the treatment of HCC are urgently needed. This study explored the role of IDNK in the development and progression of HCC. METHODS: IDNK expression was suppressed using short hairpin (shRNA) in BEL-7404 and Huh-7 cells. The expression of IDNK in HCC cells after IDNK knockdown was evaluated by real-time quantitative RT-PCR analysis and Western blot. After IDNK silencing, the proliferation and apoptosis of HCC cells were evaluated by Celigo cell counting, flow cytometry analysis, MTT assay, and caspase3/7 assay. Gene expressions in BEL-7404 cells transfected with IDNK shRNA lentivirus plasmid and blank control plasmid were evaluated by microarray analysis. The differentially expressed genes induced by deregulation of IDNKwere identified, followed by pathway analysis. RESULTS: The expression of IDNK at the mRNA and protein levels was considerably reduced in shRNA IDNK transfected cells. Knockdown of IDNK significantly inhibited HCC cell proliferation and increased cell apoptosis. A total of 1196 genes (585 upregulated and 611 downregulated) were differentially expressed in IDNK knockdown BEL-7404 cells. The pathway of tRNA charging with Z-score = -3 was significantly inhibited in BEL-7404 cells with IDNK knockdown. CONCLUSION: IDNK plays a key role in the proliferation and apoptosis of HCC cells. IDNK may be a candidate therapeutic target for HCC.

Over-expression of ASIC1a promotes proliferation via activation of the ß-catenin/LEF-TCF axis and is associated with disease outcome in liver cancer.

Acid-sensing ion channels 1a (ASIC1a) has been reported to promote migration and invasion in liver cancer. However, the clinical significance and molecular mechanism of ASIC1a in liver cancer remain unknown. In the study, we found that ASIC1a is frequently up-regulated in liver cancer tissues. The over-expression of ASIC1a is associated with advanced clinical stage and poor prognosis. The pro-proliferative of ASIC1a is pH dependent. Knockout of ASIC1a by CRISPR/CAS9 inhibited liver cancer cell proliferation and tumorigenicity in vitro and in vivo through ß-catenin degradation and LEF-TCF inactivation. Our results indicated a potential diagnostic marker and chemotherapeutic target for liver cancer.

Increased number of forkhead box P3+ tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes correlates with high preoperative albumin level and better survival in patients with stage II or III colorectal cancer.

Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) that test positive for forkhead box P3 (FOXP3) and elevated preoperative serum albumin levels have been positively associated with survival in colorectal cancer (CRC). This study aimed to investigate correlations among FOXP3+ TILs, preoperative serum albumin, overall survival, and other clinicopathological features of CRC patients. Surgical specimens from 340 stage II-III CRC patients were stained immunohistochemically for the presence of FOXP3+ TILs. Serum albumin levels were determined using an automatic biochemistry analyzer. Associations between various clinicopathological features and patient survival were analyzed via a Cox proportional hazards regression model. The correlation between FOXP3+ TILs and preoperative serum albumin was assessed using Pearson's correlation analysis. Survival curves were constructed by the Kaplan-Meier method. A high FOXP3+ TIL density (>15/five high-power fields), elevated preoperative serum albumin (≥35 g/L), and proximal colon carcinoma were significantly associated with better survival, and high FOXP3+ TIL number and elevated preoperative serum albumin were independent predictors of better survival. The correlation between the number of FOXP3+ TILs and preoperative serum albumin level was significant but neither of these correlated with gender, age, tumor size, tumor differentiation, mucinous tumor, T4 stage, postoperative chemotherapy, or tumor location. Our findings suggest that increased FOXP3+ TILs and high preoperative serum albumin levels are independent prognostic markers for improved survival in CRC patients. Furthermore, the number of FOXP3+ TILs correlates with preoperative serum albumin levels in these patients.

Involvement of acid-sensing ion channel 1α in hepatic carcinoma cell migration and invasion.

An acidic microenvironment promotes carcinoma cell proliferation and migration. Acid-sensing ion channels (ASICs) are H(+), Ca(2+), and Na(+)-gated cation channels that are activated by changes in the extracellular pH, and ASIC1α may be associated with tumor proliferation and migration. Here, we investigated the role of ASIC1α in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) migration and invasion. The expression of ASIC1α was examined in 15 paired HCC and adjacent non-tumor tissues by immunohistochemistry. Reverse transcription (RT)-PCR and Western blotting were used to assess ASIC1α messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein expression in the HCC cell line SMMC-7721 cultured in different pH media or transfected with short hairpin RNA (shRNA) against ASIC1α. Cell migration ability was detected by wound healing and Transwell assays. ASIC1α expression was significantly higher in tumor tissues than in non-tumor tissues, and it was higher in HCC with postoperative metastasis than in that without metastasis. ASIC1α mRNA and protein expression was significantly higher in SMMC-7721 cells cultured at pH 6.5 than in those cultured at pH 7.4 and 6.0. shRNA-mediated silencing of ASIC1α significantly downregulated ASIC1α mRNA and protein expression compared with negative control or untransfected cells and inhibited HCC cell migration and invasion. ASIC1α is overexpressed in HCC tissues and associated with advanced clinical stage. A moderately acidic extracellular environment promoted ASIC1α expression, and silencing of ASIC1α expression inhibited the migration and invasion of HCC cells. Suppression of ASIC1α expression by RNAi attenuated the malignant phenotype of HCC cells, suggesting a novel approach for anticancer gene therapy.

Immunosuppression and the infection caused by gut mucosal barrier dysfunction in patients with early severe acute pancreatitis

Few data are available on the relationship between immune response and the infection caused by gut mucosal barrier dysfunction in patients with severe acute pancreatitis (SAP). The aim of this study was to investigate the immune response to gut mucosal barrier dysfunction in patients with early SAP. The results showed that the levels of endotoxin, the lactulose/mannitol (L/M) ratio, the D(-)-lactate concentration, the proportion of HLA-DR-positive monocytes, and the expression levels of TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-10 all decreased from a high level while the frequency of Tregs increased during the first 14 days. The Th1/Th2 ratio was decreased, with a decreased Th1 and an increased Th2 profile, in the beginning, but it was subsequently increased, with an increased Th1 profile. The data from this study showed that immunosuppression, the shift of the Th1/Th2 balance toward a Th2 response, increased Tregs, and related inflammatory cytokines are involved in the complex process of inflammation and infection caused by gut mucosal barrier dysfunction in patients with early SAP.

Overexpression of GOLPH3 is associated with poor clinical outcome in gastric cancer.

This study aims to investigate the expression and significance of GOLPH3 in human gastric cancer progression and prognosis. Using immunohistochemistry (IHC) and real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction assay, we identified abnormally elevated expression of GOLPH3 in gastric cancer tissues compared to paired normal stomach mucosa tissues in 40 patients. In addition, the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to quantify serum GOLPH3 concentrations in the same 40 gastric cancer patients and 40 healthy individuals. ELISA revealed significantly higher serum concentrations of GOLPH3 in gastric cancer patients compared to healthy individuals (p = 0.002). In order to investigate the correlations between GOLPH3 and the clinicopathological features of gastric cancer, the expression of GOLPH3 in 123 gastric cancer patients were detected by IHC, and the results showed that overexpression of GOLPH3 was associated with the size of the tumor (p = 0.013), histological grade (p = 0.002), depth of invasion (p < 0.001), lymph node metastasis (p < 0.001), distant metastasis (p = 0.018), and TNM stage (p < 0.001). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that high GOLPH3 expression exhibited a significant correlation with poor prognosis for gastric cancer patients. Further, Cox multivariate analysis indicated that GOLPH3 expression level was an independent prognostic factor for patients after radical resection. In conclusion, the overexpression of GOLPH3 is closely related to the progression of gastric cancer and might be regarded as an independent predictor of poor prognosis for gastric cancer.

Lack of association of SULT1A1 R213H polymorphism with colorectal cancer: a meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: A number of case-control studies were conducted to investigate the association of SULT1A1 R213H polymorphisms with colorectal cancer (CRC) in humans. But the results were not always consistent. We performed a meta-analysis to examine the association between the SULT1A1 R213H polymorphism and CRC. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Data were collected from the following electronic databases: PubMed, Elsevier Science Direct, Excerpta Medica Database, and Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, with the last report up to September 2010. A total of 12 studies including 3,549 cases and 5,610 controls based on the search criteria were involved in this meta-analysis. Overall, no significant association of this polymorphism with CRC was found (H versus R: OR = 1.04, 95%CI = 0.94-1.16, P = 0.46; HR+HH versus RR: OR = 1.01, 95%CI = 0.92-1.11, P = 0.81; HH versus RR+HR: OR = 1.01, 95%CI = 0.74-1.38, P = 0.95; HH versus RR: OR = 1.00, 95%CI = 0.77-1.31, P = 0.98; HR versus RR: OR = 1.01, 95%CI = 0.92-1.11, P = 0.86). In subgroup analysis, we also did not find any significant association in Cauasians (H versus R: OR = 1.02, 95%CI = 0.92-1.15, P = 0.68; HR+HH versus RR: OR = 0.99, 95%CI = 0.91-1.09, P = 0.90; HH versus RR+HR: OR = 1.01, 95%CI = 0.73-1.39, P = 0.97; HH versus RR: OR = 0.99, 95%CI = 0.75-1.31, P = 0.94; HR versus RR: OR = 0.99, 95%CI = 0.90-1.09, P = 0.85). The results were not materially altered after the studies which did not fulfill Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium were excluded (H versus R: OR = 1.06, 95%CI = 0.95-1.19, P = 0.31; HR+HH versus RR: OR = 1.03, 95%CI = 0.93-1.13, P = 0.56; HH versus RR+HR: OR = 1.10, 95%CI = 0.78-1.56, P = 0.57; HH versus RR: OR = 1.09, 95%CI = 0.83-1.44, P = 0.53; HR versus RR: OR = 1.02, 95%CI = 0.92-1.13, P = 0.75). CONCLUSION: This meta-analysis demonstrates that there is no association between the SULT1A1 R213H polymorphism and CRC.

Protective effects of Atractylodes macrocephala polysaccharide on liver ischemia-reperfusion injury and its possible mechanism in rats.

Atractylodes macrocephala polysaccharide (AMP), a traditional Chinese medicine, is thought to have protective effects against liver injury. Therefore, this study was designed to explore the effects of AMP on hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) and elucidate the possible mechanisms. Ninety-six Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into four groups with 24 rats per group: a normal control group, an IRI group, an AMP-treated group (0.4 g/kg/d) and a bifendate-treated group (100 mg/kg). Rats were treated with AMP or bifendate once daily for seven days by gastric gavage. The normal control group and the IRI model group received an equivalent volume of physiological saline. At 1, 6 and 24 h after surgery, the rats were killed and liver tissue samples were obtained to determine interleukin-1 (IL-1) expression by Western blotting and nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) expression by immunohistochemistry. Liver morphology was assessed by microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Blood samples were obtained to measure liver function (alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, total bilirubin and direct bilirubin). AMP significantly reduced the elevated expression of markers of liver dysfunction and the hepatic morphologic changes induced by hepatic IRI in rats. AMP also markedly inhibited IRI-induced lipid peroxidation and altered the activities of the antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase and malondialdehyde levels. Moreover, pretreatment with AMP suppressed the expression of interleukin-1ß and NF-kB in IRI-treated rats. These results suggest that AMP exerts protective and therapeutic effects against hepatic IRI in rats, which might be associated with its antioxidant properties and inhibition of NF-κB activation. More studies are needed to better understand the mechanisms underlying the protective effects of AMP on hepatic IRI.

Functional polymorphisms in CD166/ALCAM gene associated with increased risk for breast cancer in a Chinese population.

Activated Leukocyte Cell Adhesion Molecules (ALCAM, also called CD166, MEMD) are cell surface immunoglobulins that are considered to be prognostic markers for breast cancer. CD166/ALCAM has gained increasing attention because of its significant association with tumor progression and the metastatic spread of breast cancer. Two polymorphisms have been identified in the CD166/ALCAM gene: 5'UTR C/T (rs6437585) and 3'UTR A/G (rs11559013). We analyzed the genotypes of 1033 individuals with breast cancer, and 1116 controls; odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using logistic regression. The effects and functions of polymorphisms were examined using luciferase gene expression assays and real-time PCR analyses. Our data demonstrated that individuals with the rs6437585 CT + TT genotype had an OR of 1.38 (95% CI, 1.11-1.72) for developing breast cancer, compared to those with the CC genotype. The T allele increased the risk of breast cancer in a dose-dependent manner (P (trend) < 0.001). However, there were no significant differences found between cases and controls at the rs11559013 A/G site. Additional experiments that we performed, which focused on reporter gene expression driven by CD166/ALCAM promoters, demonstrated that the presence of an rs6437585 T allele led to greater transcriptional activity than the rs6437585 C allele. This was consistent with the increased cancer risk that we observed in our case-control analysis.

Current evidence on the relationship between HRAS1 polymorphism and breast cancer risk: a meta-analysis.

Rare alleles at the HRAS1 variable number of tandem repeats (VNTRs) locus have been implicated in breast cancer risk. Although many studies have showed that rare HRAS1 alleles may be associated with breast cancer risk, this relationship remains controversial. A meta-analysis was conducted to investigate the potential association between rare HRAS1 alleles and breast cancer risk. A database search found a total of 13 studies involving 1926 breast cancer cases and 2800 controls. Crude odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were used to test the strength of association. When all the studies were combined into the meta-analysis, we found that breast cancer cases had a significantly higher frequency of rare alleles (OR = 2.03, 95% CI = 1.34, 3.10). In the subgroup analysis by race, we found that breast cancer cases had a significantly higher frequency of rare alleles (OR = 2.14, 95% CI = 1.37, 3.36) among Caucasians. In the subgroup analysis by study design, we found that breast cancer cases had a significantly higher frequency of rare alleles (OR = 2.47, 95% CI = 1.62, 3.79) among groups with hospital-based controls. In conclusion, this meta-analysis suggested that rare alleles at the HRAS1 VNTRs may contribute to breast cancer susceptibility. More population-based case-control studies were needed especially in Asians in the future.

Current evidence on the relationship between four polymorphisms in the matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) gene and breast cancer risk: a meta-analysis.

The matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) can degrade various components of the extracellular matrix and its functional genetic polymorphisms may be associated with breast cancer risk. However, this relationship remains controversial. A meta-analysis was conducted in order to investigate the potential association between four polymorphisms in the MMP gene and breast cancer risk. A database search yielded a total of 9 studies involving 2,597 cases and 2,618 controls. Four polymorphisms were included in the meta-analysis: MMP-1 -1607 2G/1G (rs1799750), MMP-2 -1306 C/T (rs243865), MMP-3 -1171 6A/5A (rs3025058) and MMP-9 -1562 C/T (rs3918242). Crude odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were used to assess the strength of association. When all the studies were pooled into the meta-analysis, we found that breast cancer cases had a significantly higher frequency of CC genotype (OR = 1.27, 95% CI = 1.10, 1.47; P = 0.001) and lower frequency of CT genotype (OR = 0.78, 95% CI = 0.67, 0.91; P = 0.001) of MMP-2. No significant difference was found in any genotype of MMP-1, MMP-3 or MMP-9. In conclusion, this meta-analysis suggested that MMP-2 -1306 C/T polymorphism may contribute to breast cancer susceptibility. More studies were needed especially in Asians in the future.

Association of NOD1 (CARD4) insertion/deletion polymorphism with susceptibility to IBD: a meta-analysis.

AIM: To find evidences about whether NOD1/CARD4 insertion/deletion polymorphism is associated with inflammatory bowel disease by meta-analysis. METHODS: We surveyed the studies on the association of NOD1/CARD4 insertion/deletion polymorphism with inflammatory bowel disease in PubMed. Meta-analysis was performed for genotypes GG/T vs T/T, GG/GG vs T/T, GG/T + GG/GG vs T/T, GG/GG vs T/T + GG/T, and GG allele vs T allele in a fixed/random effect model. RESULTS: We identified 8 studies (6439 cases and 4798 controls) in Caucasian populations using PubMed search. We found no association between NOD1/CARD4 insertion/deletion polymorphism and inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis. Stratification of cases by age showed that NOD1/CARD4 insertion/deletion polymorphism was associated with inflammatory bowel disease in younger age group at onset (< 40 years) (GG vs T: OR = 0.68, 95% CI: 0.50-0.93, P = 0.02; GG/T + GG/GG vs T/T: OR = 0.71, 95% CI: 0.59-0.85, P = 0.0003). CONCLUSION: This meta-analysis demonstrates an association between NOD1/CARD4 insertion/deletion polymorphism and inflammatory bowel disease in the younger age group at onset (< 40 years) in Caucasian populations.