Lifespan Risk Exposure Measurement Instrument: a Feasible and Effective Tool for Life Course Epidemiology Research.

Life course epidemiology should practically illustrate how risk exposures and their dynamic changes influence the occurrence, development and prognosis of chronic diseases from early life to the elderly. This paper develops the lifespan risk exposure measurement instrument (LREMI) in the framework of retrospective study to collect lifestyle, diet, physical activity information across subjects'life courses from 18-years-old to current age. Through a pilot study, the result of the test-retest analysis demonstrated the reliability of LREMI. In Shandong Multicenter Cohort, the LREMI showed its feasibility, for it could measure the exposure spectrum on both individuals and population with different life experiences. Moreover, it had good differentiation ability for identifying cases versus controls in population-based case-control study. However, further studies should be conducted in an already available prospective cohort to ascertain that our results could match prospective data.

Comparative transcriptomics analysis reveals difference of key gene expression between banana and plantain in response to cold stress.

BACKGROUND: Banana and plantain (Musa spp.) comprise an important part of diets for millions of people around the globe. Low temperature is one of the key environmental stresses which greatly affects the global banana production. To understand the molecular mechanism of the cold-tolerance in plantain we used RNA-Seq based comparative transcriptomics analyses for both cold-sensitive banana and cold-tolerant plantain subjected to the cold stress for 0, 3 and 6 h. RESULTS: The cold-response genes at early stage are identified and grouped in both species by GO analysis. The results show that 10 and 68 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) are identified for 3 and 6 h of cold stress respectively in plantain, while 40 and 238 DEGs are identified respectively in banana. GO classification analyses show that the majority of DEGs identified in both banana and plantain belong to 11 categories including regulation of transcription, response to stress signal transduction, etc. A similar profile for 28 DEGs was found in both banana and plantain for 6 h of cold stress, suggesting both share some common adaptation processes in response to cold stress. There are 17 DEGs found uniquely in cold-tolerance plantain, which were involved in signal transduction, abiotic stress, copper ion equilibrium, photosynthesis and photorespiration, sugar stimulation, protein modifications etc. Twelve early responsive genes including ICE1 and MYBS3 were selected and further assessed and confirmed by qPCR in the extended time course experiments (0, 3, 6, 24 and 48 h), which revealed significant expression difference of key genes in response to cold stress, especially ICE1 and MYBS3 between cold-sensitive banana and cold-tolerant plantain. CONCLUSIONS: We found that the cold-tolerance pathway appears selectively activated by regulation of ICE1 and MYBS3 expression in plantain under different stages of cold stress. We conclude that the rapid activation and selective induction of ICE1 and MYBS3 cold tolerance pathways in plantain, along with expression of other cold-specific genes, may be one of the main reasons that plantain has higher cold resistance than banana.

Morphological factors and cardiac doses in whole breast radiation for left-sided breast cancer.

BACKGROUND: To investigate the impact of the breast size, shape, maximum heart depth (MDH), and chest wall hypotenuse (the distance connecting middle point of the sternum and the length of lung draw on the selected transverse CT slice) on the volumetric dose to heart with whole breast irradiation (WBI) of left-sided breast cancer patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fifty-three patients with left-sided breast cancer undergoing adjuvant intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) were enrolled in the study. The primary breast size and shape, MHD and DCWH (chest wall hypotenuse) were contoured on radiotherapy (RT) planning CT slices. The dose data of hearts were obtained from the dose-volume histograms (DVHs). Data were analyzed by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Student's t-test and linear regression analysis. RESULTS: Breast size was independent of heart dose, whereas breast shape, MHD and DCWH were correlated with heart dose. The shapes of breasts were divided into four types, as the flap type, hemisphere type, cone type and pendulous type with heart mean dose being 491.8±234.6 cGy, 752.7±219.0 cGy, 620.2±275.7 cGy, and 666.1±238.0 cGy, respectively. The flap type of breasts shows a strong statistically reduction in heart dose, compared to others (p=0.008 for V30 of heart). DCWH and MHD were found to be the most important parameters correlating with heart dose in WBI. CONCLUSIONS: More attention should be paid to the heart dose of non-flap type patients. The MHD was found to be the most important parameter to correlate with heart dose in tangential WBI, closely followed by the DCWH, which could help radiation oncologists and physicsts evaluate heart dose and design RT plan in advance.

Aberrant expression of Beclin-1 and LC3 correlates with poor prognosis of human hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Beclin-1, a key regulator of autophagy. Microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 (LC3), is involved in autophagsome formation during autophagy. The autophagic genes beclin-1 and LC3 paly an important role in the development and progression of tumor. This study was designed to investigate the expression of beclin-1 and LC3 and to clarify their clinical significance in hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (HSCC). METHODS: Eighty-two surgical hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma specimens and fifty-four adjacent non-cancerous mucosal epithelial tissues were obtained. Beclin-1 and LC3-II expression was examined by immunohistochemistry, real-time RT-PCR and Western blotting assays. Correlations with patient clinical characteristics and overall survival were evaluated. RESULTS: Beclin-1 was positively expressed in 42.7% (35/82) of HSCC specimens (adjacent non-cancerous tissues, 79.6%, 43/54; P<0.0001). Furthermore, 41.5% (34/82) of HSCC specimens exhibited high LC3 immunoreactivity (adjacent non-cancerous tissues, 74.1%, 40/54; P=0.0002). Beclin-1 and LC3-II mRNA transcript levels were significantly lower in HSCCs than in paired non-cancerous tissues (P<0.0001, P=0.0001, respectively). Similarly, western blotting assays showed that beclin-1 and LC3-II were markedly decreased in HSCCs (P=0.02, P=0.004, respectively). A positive correlation was observed between the mRNA transcript levels of beclin-1 and LC3-II in HSCCs (r=0.51, P<0.0001; 95%CI: 0.273 to 0.689). Beclin-1 and LC3 expression were significantly correlated with T categories, differentiation and lymph node metastasis. Negative beclin-1 immunoreactivity and low LC3 expression were associated with poorer overall survival in HSCC patients (P<0.0001, P=0.0145, respectively). Multivariate analysis revealed that beclin-1 was an independent prognositic factor for overall survival. CONCLUSION: Beclin-1 and LC3-II are downregulated in HSCCs and their aberrant expression correlates with poor prognosis of HSCCs.