Receptor for activated protein kinase C 1 suppresses gastric tumor progression through nuclear factor‑κB pathway.

OBJECTIVE: Nuclear factor‑κB (NF‑κB) activity is crucial for survival and proliferation of many kinds of malignancies, including gastric cancer (GC). The receptor for activated protein kinase C 1 (RACK1) is known to regulate tumor development, whereas the underlined mechanism has not been described clearly. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We analyzed expression of RACK1 in paired human GC samples by both real‑time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and western blot. Effects of RACK inhibition with small interfering RNA or its overexpression in cultured GC cell lines were evaluated in cell viabilities. NF‑κB signaling was investigated using luciferase reporter assay and real‑time PCR. RESULTS: RACK1 was significantly decreased in GC samples. Knockdown of RACK elevated GC cell viabilities, whereas overexpression of RACK1 suppressed tumorigenesis of GC cells. Importantly, NF‑κB signaling was enhanced after RACK1 expression was inhibited, suggesting the negative regulation of the pro‑oncogenic NF‑κB activity by RACK1 might contribute to its tumor suppressor role in GC cells. CONCLUSION: Our results support that RACK1 suppresses gastric tumor progression through the NF‑κB signaling pathway.

A meta‑analysis of serum p16 gene promoter methylation for diagnosis of nonsmall cell lung cancer.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the diagnostic value of serum p16 gene promoter methylation for diagnosis of nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: By searching the databases of PubMed and CNKI, we included all the published articles related serum p16 gene promoter methylation and nonsmall lung cancer. The true positive, false positive, false negative, and true negative data for each included publication were extracted by the reviewers. The diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, and area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) were pooled by MetaDiSc1.4 software. RESULTS: Finally, 13 manuscripts with 1440 subjects were involving in this diagnostic meta‑analysis. The pooled sensitivity and specificity were 0.25 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.18–0.32) and 0.95 (95% CI: 0.93–0.97), respectively, with randomized effect model. The pooled positive likelihood ratio and negative likelihood ratio were 5.08 (95% CI: 3.00–8.62) and 0.69 (95% CI: 0.62–0.77) with fixed effect model and randomized effect model, respectively. The diagnostic ROC curve for the included 13 publications was pooled by statistical software MetaDiSc14.0 according to the Bayes theorem. The pooled area under the ROC was 0.72 with its standard error of 0.10. CONCLUSION: According to the published articles, high specificity and low sensitivity were found in this meta‑analysis for the p16 gene promoter methylation in the diagnosis of NSCLC.

Role of Sphk1 in the malignant transformation of breast epithelial cells and breast cancer progression.

BACKGROUND: The ojective of the following study is to investigate the role of sphingosine kinase 1 (Sphk1) in the malignant transformation of breast epithelial cells and breast cancer progression and its mechanism. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Immunohistochemistry was performed to detect Sphk1 and E‑cadherin (E‑cad) in resected breast samples. Sphk1 was transfected in normal human breast epithelial cell line (MCF‑10A) by Lentivirus and silenced in breast cancer cell line (MCF‑7) using small interfering ribonucleic acid. The effect of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF‑α) and/or N, N‑dimethylsphingosine (DMS) on the Sphk1 and E‑cad expression, MCF‑10A cell proliferation and invasion was investigated. Real time‑polymerase chain reaction and western‑blot was used to detect messenger ribonucleic acid and protein. Cell counting kit‑8 and transwell were used to measure cell proliferation and invasion. RESULTS: Sphk1 was positive expression in 114 breast tumors (75.50%) but negative in fibroadenomas. The expression of E‑cad and Sphk1 were negatively correlated and E‑cad (−)/Sphk1 (+) carriers showed higher ratio of axillary lymph node metastasis than E‑cad (+)/Sphk1 (−) carriers. Overexpression of Sphk1 in MCF‑10A reduced E‑cad expression and improved cell proliferation and invasion, but knockdown of Sphk1 in MCF‑7 decreased cell proliferation and invasion. TNF‑α increased Sphk1 expression, enhanced the ability of Sphk1 in decreasing E‑cad expression, which could be blocked by DMS. TNF‑α promoted MCF‑10A cell proliferation and invasion.CONCLUSION: Sphk1 plays an important role in the malignant transformation of breast epithelial cells and modulates breast cancer metastasis through the regulation of E‑cad expression. TNF‑α can up‑regulate Sphk1 expression and reduce E‑cad expression through Sphk1, which can be blocked by DMS. TNF‑α/Sphk1/E‑cad pathway may be a newly discovered pathway and plays an important role in tumorigenesis and metastasis.

Evaluation of ultrasound application in diagnosis and clinical staging of thyroid cancers.

Objectives: The usage of Ultrasonography (US) in the diagnosis and management of patients with thyroid nodules and thyroid cancer is increasing. This method is also advocated for the pre-operative and post-operative diagnosis of cervical lymph node (LN) metastases. This article is trying to figure out the correlation between ultrasound features and pathological classification of thyroid carcinoma (TC). Materials and Methods: A total of 407 cases of patients with TC were selected from records between 2000 and 2006, which were used to analyze and compare the ultrasound features in different pathologic classification of TC. We grouped the US typing of TC according to the ultrasound features. Then, we implemented pre-surgery evaluation of TC by ultrasound assessment. Results: We classified these patients into six groups by ultrasound: (1) classical, (2) non-typical, (3) microminiaturize, (4) diffuse sclerosing, (5) medullary, and (6) undifferentiated. Ultrasonographic types of papillary TC: (1) classical, (2) microminiaturize, (3) diffuse, (4) cystic, (5) peripheral, (6) multi-nodules, (7) invasive, and (8) complicated Hashimoto. Grouping of the ultrasonic type of cervical LN metastasis: (1) cystic, (2) micro calcification, (3) macro-lymph, (4) microminiaturize, and (5) invasive. The ultrasound assessment of clinical staging had a higher sensitivity rate and specificity, and the accuracy rate of T stage was 93.9%. Conclusion: Ultrasound is a useful tool in the evaluation, characterization, quantification, and location of TC and cervical LN metastasis.

Cloning and analysis of IFRG (interferon responsive gene) in rabbit oocytes and preimplantation embryos

Although there is more evidence that shows that IFNs (interferons) plays a very important role in the early development of the embryo, the mechanism of IFNs is still unclear. Our study showed that IFRG is expressed from oocytes- through to the preimplantation embryo in rabbits. This finding provides some clues for better understanding the role of IFNs in the development of the embryo. The full length of rabbit IFRG cDNA (Accession No. AJ584672), with a 2794bp encoding 131 amino acid sequence, was cloned IFRG expression can be detected in 8 different tissues: ovary, heart, lung, liver, kidney, spleen, cerebra, and the 18-day whole-body embryo. Whole-mount in situ hybridization showed that IFRG was highly expressed in the inner-cell mass of rabbit blastula. IFRG may play an important role in embryo development and tissue differentiation.