Clinical significance of ubiquilin 1 in gastric cancer.

Ubiquilin 1 (UBQLN1) plays an essential role in the regulation of protein degradations which is involved in the pathophysiology of neurodegenerative diseases and cancer. This study aimed to investigate the expression level of UBQLN1 in gastric cancer and evaluated the relationship between its expression and clinicopathological characteristics, as well as prognostic of patients with gastric cancer. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used to detect the expression levels of UBQLN1 in 179 pairs of gastric cancer and adjacent normal tissues. The UBQLN1 was significantly upregulated in gastric cancer tissue. High UBQLN1 expression was associated with high histological grade, invasion, lymph node metastasis, and tumor node metastasis (TNM) stage III (P < .001). Multivariate Cox analysis showed that larger tumor size (HR = 3.125, 95%CI: 2.031-4.808, P < .001), histological grade 3 (HR = 15.313, 95%,CI: 8.075-29.041, P < .001), pT3 + pT4 (HR = 3.224, 95%CI: 1.389-7.483, P = .006), LNM (HR = 4.467, 95%CI: 2.404-8.302, P < .001), TNM stage III (HR = 2.152, 95%CI: 1.289-3.594, P = .003), and high UBQLN1 expression (HR = 2.547, 95%CI: 1.511-4.292, P < .001) were significantly associated with worse prognosis of patients with gastric cancer. In conclusion, high UBQLN1 expression was an independent worse prognostic factor for patients with gastric cancer.

Risk Factors for Lower Limb Deep Vein Thrombosis in Patients With Single-Level Lumbar Fusion: A Prospective Study of 710 Cases.

Lower limb deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is not an uncommon postoperative complication of spinal fusion surgery. However, the related risk factors identified in previous studies remain controversial. This study aimed to investigate risk factors for lower limb DVT in patients with single-level lumbar fusion surgery. Between January 2010 and December 2016, a total of 710 patients undergoing lumbar fusion were recruited for this study, including 172 males and 538 females (aged 18-75 years). Deep vein thrombosis was detected by ultrasonography. Accordingly, patients were divided into the DVT group and the non-DVT group and compared in terms of operative data, underlying diseases, and biochemical data. Additionally, logistic regression analysis was performed to identify risk factors for lower limb DVT. The incidence of lower limb DVT was 11.8% (84 of 710 cases). Five patients were symptomatic, with lower limb pain and swelling. Two patients developed pulmonary embolism and 1 died. Binary logistic regression indicated that advanced age (P = .001, odds ratio [OR] = 2.86, 95% CI: 1.85-5.12), hypertension (P = .006, OR = 4.10, 95% CI: 1.09-2.30), and increased d-dimer (P < .001, OR = 3.49, 95% CI: 2.05-6.36) were risk factors for postoperative DVT. In conclusion, for patients with single-level lumbar fusion, advanced age, increased d-dimer, and hypertension may contribute to DVT development after spinal fusion surgery. Therefore, patients with these risk factors should be protected during the perioperative period.

Two novel mutations of the LDL receptor gene associated with familial hypercholesterolemia in a Chinese family.

BACKGROUND: Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is a type of dominant autosomal disease that causes high levels of plasma low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). In the past years, molecular data related to FH were limited in China. Now, to gain more information about FH, we analyzed one proband with a severe FH phenotype as well as his relatives. METHODS: After the entire coding sequence and the intron-exon junctions of the low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) gene were amplified using PCR, we sequenced the LDLR gene of a Chinese FH family. RT-PCR was used to detect changes in the mRNA. RESULTS: Two novel mutations were identified in the LDLR gene of this family. One, W165X, was a G > A substitution at the third nucleotide of codon 165. The other, IVS5-1G > A, was also a G > A substitution at the acceptor splice site of intron 5. The most striking discovery is that the proband was heterozygous for W165X but homozygous for IVS5-1G > A. The cDNA sequencing showed that the IVS5-1G > A mutation caused the insertion of 10 nucleotides, namely GCTCTCACAA, between exon 5 and exon 6. CONCLUSIONS: The two nucleotide variations are thought to be the FH-causing mutations because the co-segregation of the mutant allele with the phenotype of FH has been shown in this Chinese family. These data show an increase in the mutational spectrum of FH in China and verify a scarce mutational form in the LDLR gene.

Evidence for a missing source of efficient ice nuclei.

It has been known for several decades that some bioaerosols, such as ice-nucleation-active (INA) bacteria, especially Pseudomonas syringae strains, may play a critical potential role in the formation of clouds and precipitation. We investigated bacterial and fungal ice nuclei (IN) in rainwater samples collected from the Hulunber temperate grasslands in North China. The median freezing temperatures (T50) for three years' worth of unprocessed rain samples were greater than -10 °C based on immersion freezing testing. The heat and filtration treatments inactivated 7-54% and 2-89%, respectively, of the IN activity at temperatures warmer than -10 °C. We also determined the composition of the microbial community. The majority of observed Pseudomonas strains were distantly related to the verified ice-nucleating Pseudomonas strains, as revealed by phylogenetic analysis. Here, we show that there are submicron INA particles <220 nm in rainwater that are not identifiable as the known species of high-INA bacteria and fungi and there may be a new potential type of efficient submicroscale or nanoscale ice nucleator in the regional rainwater samplers. Our results suggest the need for a reinterpretation of the source of high-INA material in the formation of precipitation and contribute to the search for new methods of weather modification.

Influences of Land Use/Cover Types on Nitrous Oxide Emissions during Freeze-Thaw Periods from Waterlogged Soils in Inner Mongolia.

Nitrous oxide emissions during freeze/thaw periods contribute significantly to annual soil N2O emissions budgets in middle- and high-latitude areas; however, the freeze/thaw-related N2O emissions from waterlogged soils have hardly been studied in the Hulunber Grassland, Inner Mongolia. For this study, the effects of changes in land use/cover types on N2O emissions during freeze-thaw cycles were investigated to more accurately quantify the annual N2O emissions from grasslands. Soil cores from six sites were incubated at varying temperature (ranging from -15 to 10°C) to simulate freeze-thaw cycles. N2O production rates were low in all soil cores during freezing periods, but increased markedly after soil thawed. Mean rates of N2O production differed by vegetation type, and followed the sequence: Leymus chinensis (LC) and Artemisia tanacetifolia (AT) steppes > LC steppes ≥ Stipa baicalensis (SB) steppes. Land use types (mowing and grazing) had differing effects on freeze/thaw-related N2O production. Grazing significantly reduced N2O production by 36.8%, while mowing enhanced production. The production of N2O was related to the rate at which grassland was mowed, in the order: triennially (M3) > once annually (M1) ≥ unmown (UM). Compared with the UM control plot, the M3 and M1 mowing regimes enhanced N2O production by 57.9% and 13.0% respectively. The results of in situ year-round measurements showed that large amounts of N2O were emitted during the freeze-thaw period, and that annual mean fluxes of N2O were 9.21 µg N2O-N m-2 h-1 (ungrazed steppe) and 6.54 µg N2O-N m-2 h-1 (grazed steppe). Our results further the understanding of freeze/thaw events as enhancing N2O production, and confirm that different land use/cover types should be differentiated rather than presumed to be equivalent, regarding nitrous oxide emission. Even so, further research involving multi-year and intensive measurements of N2O emission is still needed.

[Diversity of bacterial aerosols in precipitation of Shanghai area].

In the present study, 16S rRNA gene sequencing based approaches were used to analyze the bacterial communities and diversity in the precipitation samples from Shanghai city, which were carried out in different months in 2012. Five clone libraries were established based on the rainwater samples collected during 5 different precipitation periods. The results showed that Proteobacteria (alpha-, beta-, gamma-) (32.5% - 94.1%) were dominant in the precipitation, including Alphaproteobacteria, Betaproteobacteria, and Gammaproteobacteria, while other 6 bacterial communities, such as Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria, Deinococcus-Thermus, Cyanobacteria, Acidobacteria, and Firmicutes, were involved as well. Furthermore, a small proportion of undetermined bacteria (TM7, 2.5%) were also found. In addition, microbial diversity in the sample of SH6 was obviously more than those in other samplers. The investigation revealed that there was a difference in the bacterial communities and diversity in precipitation of different months.