[Advances in Hippo signaling pathway in oral squamous cell carcinoma].

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is a common cancer that develops from oral epithelial cells, it has a high incidence, mortality and teratogenic rate, which poses a serious threat to people's life and health.The Hippo signaling pathway plays a key role in tumorigenesis, regulation of stem cell homeostasis, tissue regeneration, and organ size control. In OSCC, activation of Hippo signaling pathway can inhibit malignant biological behavior, epithelial mesenchymal transformation and distant metastasis of tumors, and improve the survival rate of patients. Considering the importance of the Hippo signaling pathway in the development of cancer, this paper summarized the composition and regulatory mechanism of Hippo pathway, elaborated the role of Hippo signaling pathway in the occurrence and development of OSCC.At the same time, make a simple generalization about the potential therapeutic approaches and strategies to reduce the risk of drug resistance for OSCC patients targeting this pathway.

MiR-100 up-regulation enhanced cell autophagy and apoptosis induced by cisplatin in osteosarcoma by targeting mTOR.

Since this article has been suspected of research misconduct and the corresponding authors did not respond to our request to prove originality of data and figures, "MiR-100 up-regulation enhanced cell autophagy and apoptosis induced by cisplatin in osteosarcoma by targeting mTOR, by Z. Yu, N. Li, K. Jiang, N. Zhang, L.-L. Yao, published in Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci 2018; 22 (18): 5867-5873-DOI: 10.26355/eurrev_201809_15913 -PMID: 30280766" has been withdrawn. The Publisher apologizes for any inconvenience this may cause. https://www.europeanreview.org/article/15913.

MiR-100 up-regulation enhanced cell autophagy and apoptosis induced by cisplatin in osteosarcoma by targeting mTOR.

OBJECTIVE: Mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) can negatively regulate cell autophagy, while its expression and activity are associated with the pathogenesis of osteosarcoma. MicroRNA 100 (MiR-100) down-regulation is associated with the pathogenesis and chemo-sensitivity of osteosarcoma. Bioinformatics analysis revealed the targeted relationship between miR-100 and the 3'-UTR of mTOR. We investigate the role of miR-100 in affecting mTOR expression, osteosarcoma cell autophagy, and sensitivity to cisplatin. PATIENTS AND METHODS: MiR-100, mTOR, and Beclin-1 expressions in osteosarcoma tissue and normal control were compared. The relationship between miR-100 and mTOR was verified by dual luciferase assay. MiR-100, mTOR, and Beclin-1 levels in MG-63 cells and MG-63/DDP cells were tested. Cell apoptosis was determined by using flow cytometry. Cell malignancy was evaluated by colony formation assay. RESULTS: MiR-100 and Beclin-1 significantly declined, while mTOR significantly increased in osteosarcoma tissue compared with that of normal tissue (p<0.05). MiR-100 targeting significantly inhibited mTOR expression compared to that of untreated (p<0.05). MiR-100 expression was down-regulated and mTOR level was elevated in MG-63/DDP cells compared with MG-63 cells (p<0.05). MG-63/DDP cells exhibited reduced cell autophagy and apoptosis, and enhanced colony formation induced by DDP. MiR-100 mimic and/or small interfere mTOR (si-mTOR) significantly promoted Beclin-1 expression, cell autophagy, and cell apoptosis, while attenuated colony formation. CONCLUSIONS: MiR-100 declined, while mTOR up-regulated in osteosarcoma tissue. MiR-100 up-regulation enhanced cell autophagy and apoptosis induced by cisplatin via targeted inhibiting of mTOR.

Knockdown of long noncoding RNA CCAT1 inhibits cell growth, invasion and peritoneal metastasis via downregulation of Bmi-1 in gastric cancer.

Long noncoding RNA colon cancer-associated transcript 1 (lncRNA CCAT1) is highly expressed in gastric cancer (GC) tissues compared with normal counterparts and CCAT1 upregulation can promote proliferation and migration of GC cells in vitro. B-cell specific moloney leukemia virus insertion site 1 (Bmi-1) expression is positively correlated with tumor progression. The present study aimed to investigate the biological functions of CCAT1 and the relationships between CCAT1 and Bmi-1 in GC progression. In the present study, CCAT1 was knocked down by specific shRNA transfection in two human GC cell lines (MGC-803 and SGC-7901). The effects of CCAT1 knockdown on GC cell proliferation, cell cycle, migration and invasion were investigated in vitro. The effect of CCAT1 knockdown on peritoneal metastasis was assessed in nude mice. Bmi-1 expression levels were examined both in vitro and in vivo. The results showed that CCAT1 knockdown markedly inhibited cell proliferation, migration and invasion, arrested the cell cycle at G0/G1 phase in vitro, and inhibited peritoneal metastasis in nude mice, along with the downregulation of Bmi-1. Taken together, CCAT1 is functionally involved in growth and metastasis of GC cells and it may be a potential target for GC therapy.

Tuning Crystal Phase and Emission Properties of Upconversion Nanocrystals Through Lanthanide Doping.

Infrared-to-visible upconversion fluorescent nanocrystals of Yb³âº/Er³âº-codoped NaYF4 and Yb³âº/Er³âº/Gd³âº-tridoped NaYF4 were synthesized using a modified coprecipitation process. X-ray diffraction and transmission electron diffraction scans of the nanocrystals confirmed that Gd³âº doping caused a phase transition to occur in the nanocrystals, changing them from a cubic to a hexagonal phase. Hexagonal phase Yb³âº/Er³âº/Gd³âº-tridoped NaYF4 nanocrystals displayed much stronger and sharper upconversion luminescence, and larger intensity ratios of red over green emissions relative to their cubic phase counterparts. The influence of the crystal phase on the upconversion emission properties was explored by use of excitation power dependence curves, dynamic fluorescence and Raman spectra. The results suggest that the cubic-to-hexagonal phase transition decreases the crystal field symmetry, and then enhances upconversion luminescence intensity by relaxing forbidden selection rules. The conversion into the hexagonal phase also increases the number of phonon modes, and consequently improves the phonon-assisted energy transfer efficiency from Yb³âº to Er³âº, thus facilitating the output of red emissions.

[Calculation of the surface radial dose distribution of radioactive biliary stent loaded with 125I seeds by treatment planning system].

OBJECTIVE: To study the surface radial dose distribution of different length radioactive biliary stents in different activity of (125)I seeds by treatment planning system. METHODS: After a radioactive biliary stent was positioned in measurement phantom, which were made of solid paraffin and polymethyl methacrylate, a CT scan was performed to get the stent images. The images were then transferred to the treatment planning system for planning. The maximum dose level slice nearest to the center of the stent was selected to calculate the surface radial dose distribution. RESULTS: The length of the stents (F=3 189.160, P<0.01) and the activity of the (125)I seeds (F= 811.509, P<0.01) can both significantly affect the cumulative radial dose distribution of the radioactive stent. Radial cumulative dose dose (Gy), stent length (cm), (125)I seeds activity (mCi) and distance from the stent surface (cm) meet the regression equation: ln dose =2.565+ 0.208 length+ 1.502 activity-0.738 distance (F=4 929.279, P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The choice of suitable activity of radioactive (125)I should be based on treatment purpose in combination with the length and diameter of lesion and also with reference to the dose table. The measurement results are with smaller uncertainty, which can provide reference for the clinical application of dosimetry.

Cervical cytology ASCUS patients with HPV detection and clinical value.

OBJECTIVE: Patients whose cervical cytological exams produced a result of atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS) were asked to undergo human papillomavirus (HPV DNA) genotyping detection to assess the role of HPV infection in ASCUS. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study included 1,219 patients with ASCUS that were randomly divided into two groups. The first group contained 618 patients. These participants underwent colposcopy with cervical biopsy. The remaining 601 underwent colposcopy and biopsy with HPV DNA detection. RESULTS: Out of the 56,000 patients with ASCUS who underwent ThinPrep cytology test (TCT) de- tection in the authors' hospitals' gynecological outpatient clinics, 1,604 were diagnosed with ASCUS (2.86%). Among the 1,219 patients with ASCUS, the rate of detection of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) and cancerization was 22.89% (279/1,219). Among the 601 patients who underwent HPV testing, 182 were positive for high-risk HPV (30.28%). Among HPV-positive samples, the most common high-risk types were HPV16, and HPV58. The most common low-risk types were HPV6 and HPV 11. The rate of detection among high- risk patients who were positive for HPV and cervical carcinoma with intraepithelial neoplasia was 70.88% (129/182). The rate of detection for HPV-negative patients with cervical cancer with intraepithelial neoplasia was 11.55% (47/407). The rate of detection of high-risk HPV was higher than among patients who had not undergone HPV detection and among patients who were negative for HPV (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The results of cervical cytological examination showed that the manner of progression from inflammation to cancer could differ considerably. HPV DNA examination is an effective means of categorizing and managing ASCUS.

Oligonucleotide microarray analysis reveals dysregulation of energy-related metabolism in insulin-sensitive tissues of type 2 diabetes patients.

Impaired insulin action within skeletal muscle, adipose tissue, and the liver is an important characteristic of type 2 diabetes (T2D). In order to identify common underlying defects in insulin-sensitive tissues that may be involved in the pathogenesis of T2D, the gene expression profiles of skeletal muscle, visceral adipose tissue, and liver from autopsy donors with or without T2D were examined using oligonucleotide microarrays and quantitative reverse transcriptase-PCR. Compared with controls, 691 genes were commonly dysregulated in these three insulin-sensitive tissues of humans with T2D. These co-expressed genes were enriched within the mitochondrion, with suggested involvement in energy metabolic processes such as glycolysis and gluconeogenesis, fatty acid beta oxidative, tricarboxylic acid cycle, and electron transport. Genes related to energy metabolism were mostly downregulated in diabetic skeletal muscle and visceral adipose tissue, while they were upregulated in the diabetic liver. This observed dysregulation in energy-related metabolism may be the underlying factor leading to the molecular mechanisms responsible for the insulin resistance of patients with T2D.

L-3-n-Butylphthalide protects rats' cardiomyocytes from ischaemia/reperfusion-induced apoptosis by affecting the mitochondrial apoptosis pathway.

AIMS: This study investigated the role of L-3-n-Butylphthalide (NBP) in cardiac protection. METHODS: The left anterior descending coronary arteries (LAD) of the rats were occluded for 30 min following by 2-h reperfusion to make the ischaemia/reperfusion models. Neonatal cardiomyocytes were cultured and subjected to hypoxia. L-3-n-Butylphthalide was administered intraperitoneally 2 h before the surgery and right after the reperfusion in the in vivo experiments or added to the culture medium in vitro. Haemodynamic parameters were recorded to evaluate the cardiac functions, triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) and Evens blue staining were used to determine the area of risk and infarct area, apoptotic cell numbers were counted with terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labelling (TUNEL) staining. Western blotting was used to determine the apoptotic protein levels and immune staining to determine the translocation of Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) protein. RESULTS: Our research showed for the first time that L-3-n-Butylphthalide had great effects in improving cardiac hemodynamic function and decreasing cardiac infarct areas and apoptotic cell numbers in the peri-infarct areas. The apoptotic signals investigation showed that L-3-n-Butylphthalide affected the mitochondrial pathway including Bcl-2 protein expression, inhibition of caspase 3 activation and cytochrome C releasing. Besides, Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase protein translocation was inhibited by L-3-n-Butylphthalide treatment, and this effect was mediated by endogenous reactive oxygen species (ROS). CONCLUSION: L-3-n-Butylphthalide protects cardiomyocytes from ischaemia/reperfusion-induced apoptosis by antioxidant effect and affecting mitochondrial apoptotic pathway.

Pedobarography - a novel screening tool for diabetic peripheral neuropathy?

AIM: To investigate the diagnostic significance of foot plantar pressure distribution abnormalities in patients with diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN). PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 107 patients were divided into normal control (28 participants, 56 feet), non-DPN (56 patients, 112 feet), and DPN groups (23 patients, 46 feet). Foot plantar pressure was measured while patients walked at a constant speed over a flat floor using F-Scan pressure insoles. Recordings of six middle strides were averaged to evaluate the characteristics of foot plantar pressure distribution. RESULTS: Compared with the normal group, the time of contact (TOC) was longer in non-DPN (p < 0.05) and DPN groups (p < 0.01). The foot to floor force-time integral (FTI) was increased in DPN group (p < 0.01). The forefoot plantar force ratio increased in non-DPN and DPN patients (p < 0.05). Moreover, in DPN patients, the ratio of lateral foot plantar force increased (p < 0.05). The examination of the correlations between biomechanical parameters of the foot plantar and electrophysiological parameters of the lower limbs showed foot plantar biomechanical abnormalities correlated with abnormal sensory conduction of the sural nerve and motor conduction of the common peroneal nerve. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis showed the area under FTI curve was 0.714 (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The plantar pressure was shifted towards the side of the forefoot in DPN patients. The foot plantar biomechanical changes were closely correlated with lower limb paresthesia and contraction abnormalities of lower-limb extensor muscles. Foot plantar pressure measurement might be used as a screening tool for early diagnosis of DPN.

Multiple loci in silico mapping in inbred lines.

The in silico mapping (ISM) technique and its extension represent major advances for novel gene discovery in germplasm resources of inbred lines. However, the techniques suffer from a relatively high false-positive rate (FPR) and they do not consider the effect of linkage disequilibrium (LD) markers around the identified quantitative trait locus (QTL). In addition, it has not yet been established whether it is optimal to use absolute trait differences as the response variable. To address these problems, this article presents the multiple loci ISM (MLISM) approach, which uses all markers on the entire genome, along with a penalized maximum likelihood. The method proposed here was verified by a series of simulation experiments with a maize pedigree population of inbred lines of known ancestry. Results from the simulated studies show that the best response variable is the trait product. The MLISM FPR is substantially decreased and the proportion of the number of false QTL to the number of LD markers around the identified QTL is adequately reduced. The MLISM method, with the trait product as the response variable, is an improvement on the existing methods for novel QTL mapping in germplasm resources of inbred lines.

Effect of shear stress on cultivation of Bacillus thuringiensis for thuringiensin production.

Cultivation of Bacillus thuringiensis for thuringiensin production is a mixed-growth-associated system. Cultivation conditions should be different during the cell growth stage and production stage. In this study, agitation speed and aeration rate were varied during the exponential growth phase and stationary phase in order to investigate the effect of shear stress via agitation on cultivation of B. thuringiensis for thuringiensin production. It was found that shear stress had a significant effect on thuringiensin production during the stationary phase. By decreasing the agitation speed during the stationary phase, product formation was increased up to 43%.

In vivo assembly of rhodopsin from expressed polypeptide fragments.

Rhodopsin folding and assembly were investigated by expression of five bovine opsin gene fragments separated at points corresponding to proteolytic cleavage sites in the second or third cytoplasmic regions. The CH(1-146) and CH(147-348) gene fragments encode amino acids 1-146 and 147-348 of opsin, while the TH(1-240) and TH(241-348) gene fragments encode amino acids 1-240 and 241-348, respectively. Another gene fragment, CT(147-240), encodes amino acids 147-240. All five opsin polypeptide fragments were stably produced upon expression of the corresponding gene fragments in COS-1 cells. The singly expressed polypeptide fragments failed to form a chromophore with 11-cis-retinal, whereas coexpression of two or three complementary fragments [CH(1-146) + CH(147-348), TH(1-240) + TH(241-348), or CH(1-146) + CT(147-240) + TH(241-348)] formed pigments with spectral properties similar to wild-type rhodopsin. The NH2-terminal polypeptide in these rhodopsins showed a glycosylation pattern characteristic of wild-type COS-1 cell rhodopsin and was noncovalently associated with its complementary fragment(s). Further, the CH(1-146) + CH(147-348) rhodopsin showed substantial light-dependent activation of transducin. We conclude that the functional assembly of rhodopsin is mediated by the association of at least three protein-folding domains.

[Surgical treatment of rectal carcinoid--report of 60 cases].

From 1973 to 1989, 60 patients with rectal carcinoid, as discovered by mass screening, were treated. It accounted for 0.02% of subjects screened and was the first among all G-I carcinoids. 96.7% of patients were asymptomatic and 86.6% were located within 8 cm of the anus. All were treated by surgery and none has died of this disease. The frequency of positive stump was 27% as observed in 31 specimens by local resection. Extended local resection still gave a positive residual rate of 9.4%. The authors believe that extended local resection is indicated even for small lesions less than 0.5 cm across.

Mitogenic response of rat Schwann cells to fibroblast growth factors is potentiated by increased intracellular cyclic AMP levels.

Rat sciatic nerve Schwann cells either do not proliferate, or proliferate very slowly, in medium containing 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS). They were previously shown to respond only to a limited number of mitogens associated with cells of central and peripheral nervous systems, which appeared to be distinct from FGFs and PDGF, and to agents that raise intracellular cAMP levels. In a basal medium consisting of 75% DMEM, 25% Ham's F-12, 5 nM sodium selenite, 50 microM 2-amino ethanol, and 2 mM histidine, supplemented with 5% FBS, we showed that aFGF, bFGF, and PDGF were all capable of stimulating Schwann cell growth and the stimulation was greatly potentiated by forskolin and dibutyryl-cAMP. In addition, pretreating culture surface with purified matrix proteins such as laminin, fibronectin, or type 1 collagen, was necessary for obtaining a better cellular response to the mitogenesis of these growth factors even in 10% FBS. Our results clearly indicated that providing a suitable medium and substratum, aFGF, bFGF and PDGF are mitogens for rat sciatic nerve Schwann cells in medium with and without forskolin or dibutyryl-cAMP.