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AIM: To study the effects of disulfiram/copper complex (DSF/Cu) on ultrastructures and mechan-ical properties of human breast cancer and normal breast epithelial cells by atomic force microscopy (AFM) based on the nanoscale resolution and piconewton force measurement level.METHODS: The change of cell cycle and apoptotic rate of MCF-7 cells and MCF-10A cells induced by DSF/Cu were compared by flow cytometry.The cell surface morphology, ultra-structure, height, width and roughness were detected by AFM.The effects of DSF/Cu on the hardness (Young’s modu-lus) of the 2 kinds of cells were determined by AFM with indentation technique.RESULTS: DSF/Cu significantly in-duced apoptosis of the MCF-7 cells in a dose-dependent manner, whereas had little effect on the MCF-10A cells.The cell cycle analysis showed that DSF/Cu induced G2 /M arrest in the MCF-7 cells, but led to G0 /G1 arrest in the MCF-10A cells.The AFM images showed that the MCF-7 cells shrank and showed smaller and smoother morphology, and the filopo-dia were retracted obviously, even some became into lamellipodia, or disappeared completely after treated with DSF/Cu at concentrations of 400 and 800 nmol/L.The quantitative analysis indicated that the MCF-7 cells showed smaller width and larger height, and the root mean square roughness and average roughness were decreased significantly in a dose-dependent manner after treated with DSF/Cu at concentrations of 400 and 800 nmol/L.However, little effect in the MCF-10A cells was observed.The biomechanics test at a single cell level demonstrated that the Young’s modulus of the MCF-7 cells and MCF-10A cells were both increased, yet the proportion increased in the MCF-7 cells was much higher than that in the MCF-10A cells after treated with DSF/Cu at concentrations of 400 and 800 nmol/L.CONCLUSION: DSF/Cu has strong antitumor effect on breast cancer with high efficiency and low toxicity by changing the properties of the biomechanics specifically.
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Objective To compare postoperative complications between endoscopic thyroidectomy via breast areola approach and open thyroidectomy.Methods From June 2011 to June 2014,475 patients underwent thyroidectomy.Patients were divided into traditional open group (251 cases) and endoscopic thyroidcctomy group (224 cases).Postoperative complications were recorded and compared.Results All operations were successfully completed.There was no case in endoscopic thyroidectomy group converted to traditional open surgery.There was no serious postoperative complication occurred,including injury to trachea,mediastinal emphysema,intraoperative massive hemorrhage and cardiopulmonary accidents.The difference of postoperative complication between two groups had no statistical significance (all P ＞0.05) as to permanent recurrent laryngeal nerve injury,Homer syndrome,permanent hypoparathyroidism,chyle leakage,postoperative hemorrhage and infection of incision.However,postoperative ecchymosis was more often in endo group (P ＜0.05).Conclusions Compared to traditional open thyroidectomy,endoscopic thyroidectomy via breast areola approach has significant cosmetic advantages without increasing the incidence of major postoperative complications.
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Aim To study the mechanism of DSF-Cu induced apoptosis of human nasopharyngeal carcinoma CNE-2 Z cells by affecting the function of mitochondria and cytoskeleton. Methods The cell cycle,the rate of apotosis,the levels of intracellular ROS and MMP in CNE-2 Z cells were tested by flow cytometry after trea-ted with different concentration of DSF-Cu. The chan-ges of the cell surface morphology, ultrastructure, cell height, width and roughness were detected by AFM. The distribution and reorganization of cytoskeleton F-actin were observed by Laser scanning confocal micro-scope. Results Cells were incubated with different concentration of DSF-Cu ( 0 ~200 nmol · L-1 ) for 24 h, the apoptotic ratio increased significantly and the treatment of DSF-Cu resulted in a concentration-de-pendent accumulation of CNE-2Z cells in G2/M phase. Furthermore,the treatment of DSF-Cu was able to in-crease the production of intracellular ROS and decrease the MMP in CNE-2Z cells. In addition,AFM imaging showed that compared to the control group,with the in-crease of DSF-Cu concentration,the CNE-2Z cells be-came smaller, cytoplasm condensed, the height in-creased,and the surface roughness reduced. Moreover, the filopodia became shorter, shrinked and even com-pletely destroyed after treated with different concentra-tion of DSF-Cu. At last,the LSCM image showed that the fluorescence intensity of F-actin networks was de-creased, then the structure was rearranged and de-stroyed obviously by treated with DSF-Cu. Conclusion DSF-Cu can induce apoptosis and arrest cell cycle at G2/M phase in CNE-2Z cell through a mitochondria-dependent pathway. Above findings highlight the appli-cations of AFM at the single cell level for the investiga-tion of antineoplastic drug in nasopharyngeal carcinoma therapy.
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Objective:To review the clinical efficacy of botulinum toxin type A(BTX-A)in the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia (TN).Methods:The main bibliographic databases were searched from English and Chinese literatures on the topic and the refer-ences of the identified articles were also searched for additional studies.2 reviewers assessed the quality of the included studies and extracted data duplicate.Results:3 Chinese and 1 English reports with 203 participants were included.However,substantial hetero-geneity(I2 =77%)precluded meta-analysis and the results were individually described.3 trials reported that BTX-A was more effec-tive than the control and 1 showed no difference between groups.Adverse effects of BTX-A were reported in 4 reports and were mild to moderate.Conclusion:BTX-A is effective in treating TN with few adverse effects.However,the evidence is weak because of a few studies included and most of them with low methodological quality.Further studies with high quality are needed to testify the evidence.
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In recent years, the applications of atomic force microscopy (AFM) have underpinned the fast progress in the area of tissue engineering. Besides the study of surface morphology in the dimension of micro- and nano-, AFM has played an important role in the fabrication of micro- and nano-structure as well as in the investigation of mechanical properties of material and cell. This overview is aimed to introduce the principle of AFM and to review its recent applications in tissue engineering.