Intravital Two-photon Imaging of Dynamic Alteration of Hepatic Lipid Droplets in Fasted and Refed State

Objective@#The liver plays a central role in lipid metabolism. During fasting and feeding, the fatty acid trafficking between adipose tissue and liver induces accumulation and dissociation of dynamic hepatic lipid droplets (LDs). Herein, we established an intravital 2-photon imaging technique to longitudinally visualize the dynamic in vivo alteration of hepatic LD deposition during fasting and refeeding in the liver of live mouse. @*Methods@#Intravital 2-photon imaging of liver was performed to observe hepatic LD alteration induced by fasting for different periods of time, 12, 24, and 48 hours followed by refeeding. Hepatic LDs were fluorescently labelled in vivo by intravenous injection of Seoul-Flour 44 and visualized by custom-built intravital 2-photon microscope. @*Results@#Significant increases of the number and size of hepatic LDs were observed by intravital 2-photon imaging of the liver after 12 hours of fasting. The degree of hepatic LD accumulation continuously increased with fasting up to 48 hours. Remarkably, with refeeding for 24 hours, the hepatic LDs accumulated by fasting were fully dissociated and the LD occupancy in the liver was recovered to the normal state. @*Conclusion@#Utilizing intravital 2-photon microscope with in vivo systemic fluorescent labeling of LD in live mice, dynamic alterations of hepatic LDs such as accumulation and dissociation by fasting and refeeding were successfully visualized at a subcellular level in vivo. The established method enabling the in vivo visualization of LDs will be a useful tool to investigate the pathophysiology of various diseases associated with dysregulated lipid metabolism.

Preoperative High Neutrophil-Lymphocyte Ratio May Be Associated with Lateral Lymph Node Metastasis in Patients with Papillary Thyroid Cancers

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The present study investigated the association between preoperative neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and poor prognostic outcomes in conventional papillary thyroid carcinomas (cPTCs). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two hundred and five patients who underwent total thyroidectomy for cPTCs larger than 10 mm were evaluated retrospectively. Patients were classified into the low NLR (n=103) and high NLR (n=102) groups by the median NLR value (1.78) and logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate whether the NLR predicted aggressive PTC features. Patients were also classified into the disease-free (n=183) and persistence/recurrence (n=22) groups and Cox regression analysis was used to investigate factors affecting persistence/recurrence by Cox regression analysis. RESULTS: The high NLR group had a higher presence of lateral lymph node metastasis (p=0.004) and higher radioactive iodine doses (p=0.006) than the low NLR group. High NLR was an independent predictor of lateral lymph node metastasis (LNM) (OR, 2.786; p=0.005) but was not significantly associated with persistence/recurrence. CONCLUSION: Preoperative high NLR was an independent predictor of lateral LNM in cPTCs.

Prognostic Factors and Scoring Model for Survival in Metastatic Biliary Tract Cancer / Journal of the Korean Cancer Association, 대한암학회지

PURPOSE: Metastatic biliary tract cancer (mBTC) has a dismal prognosis. In this study, an independent dataset of patients with mBTC was used to implement and validate a routine clinico-laboratory parameter-based scoring model for risk group identification. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From September 2006 to February 2015, 482 patients with mBTC were assigned randomly (ratio, 7:3) into investigational (n=340) and validation datasets (n=142). The continuous variables were dichotomized using a normal range or the best cutoff values determined using the Contal and O'Quigley statistical methods. Following a Cox’s proportional hazard model, the scoring model was derived by summing the rounded chi-square scores for the factors identified by multivariate analysis. RESULTS: The performance status (Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group 3-4), hypoalbuminemia (< 3.4 mg/dL), carcinoembryonic antigen (≥ 9 ng/mL), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (≥ 3.0), and carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (≥ 120 U/mL) were identified as independent prognosticators (Harrell’s C index, 0.682; integrated area under the curve, 0.653). Survival was clearly correlated with the risk groups (low, intermediate, and high, 14.0, 7.3, and 2.3 months, respectively; p < 0.001). The prognosis was also discriminative in the validation data set (median survival, 16.7, 7.5, and 1.9 months, respectively; p < 0.001). Chemotherapy did not offer any survival benefits for high-risk patients. CONCLUSION: These proposed prognostic criteria for mBTC can facilitate accurate patient risk stratification and treatment-related decision-making.