Expression of leucine aminopeptidase 3 (LAP3) correlates with prognosis and malignant development of human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Leucine aminopeptidases (LAPs) were associated with tumor cell proliferation, invasion and/or angiogenesis. LAP3 is one important member of this family. However, its clinical significance and biological function in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains unknown. In the present study, we demonstrated that LAP3 expression was significantly up-regulated in HCC tissues as well as cells and was closely correlated with lower differentiation, positive lymph node metastasis and high Ki-67 expression, indicating a poor prognosis. Then cell viability assays, flow cytometry assays, wound-healing assays and matrigel invasion assays were performed to demonstrate that LAP3 promoted HCC cells proliferation by regulating G1/S checkpoint in cell cycle and advanced HCC cells migration. Furthermore, we discovered that knockdown LAP3 will enhance the sensitivity of HCC cells to cisplatin, thus promoting the cell death of HCC cells. Collectively, our results indicated that up-regulated expression of LAP3 might contribute to the proliferation and metastasis of HCC. Our data gains greater insight into the cancer-promoting role of LAP3 and its functions in HCC cells, possibly providing potential therapeutic strategies for clinical trials.

Classifications of clinical and bowel morphological changes and their relationship with characteristics of patients with incarcerated groin hernias.

BACKGROUND: There is currently no grading standard for the degree of clinical and bowel morphological changes. The objective of this study was to define clinical and bowel morphological classifications and investigate the possible relationship with the characteristics of patients with incarcerated groin hernias. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We retrospectively studied 195 patients who underwent emergency hernia repair with simultaneous bowel resection between January 1992 and January 2012. We classified the degree of clinical and bowel morphological changes into 3 grades based on the incarceration time, intestinal morphology after damage, hernia sac integrity, degree of inflammation, and the presence/absence of bacterial growth, peritonitis signs, mechanical obstruction, cellulitis, and systemic shock. We also recorded patient characteristics and analyzed their relationships with these degrees according to our grading system. RESULTS: We identified 134, 42, and 19 cases of Grades I, II, and III of clinical and bowel morphological changes, respectively. Pearson's chi-squared tests revealed that advanced age (P=0.001), presence of comorbid disease (P=0.002), and high American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score (P=0.017) were related to the degree. Morbidity and mortality also showed significant relationships with the degree (P<0.001, P=0.005, respectively), especially with regard to post-operative infection. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed 3-stage classifications of clinical and bowel morphological changes can be used to objectively reflect the degree of bowel damage. Greater levels of the changes were associated with higher incidences of complications and increased mortality, especially for older patients with comorbid diseases and poor ASA scores. Urgent surgery should be performed to avoid bowel damage exacerbation.