Prognostic value of lncRNA HOTAIR expression in patients with cancer: A Meta-analysis / 中南大学学报(医学版)

To systematically review the prognostic value regarding the expression of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) Hox transcript antisense intergenic RNA (HOTAIR) in patients with cancer. 
 Methods: Databases including The Cochrane Library, EMBASE, MEDLINE, and PubMed were searched to collect English literature on the correlation between lncRNA HOTAIR expression and overall survival in tumors. The retrieval time was from inception to September 2015. After data were extracted, a Meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.3 software.
 Results: A total of 17 studies were included, which was involved in 1 639 patients. The Meta-analysis showed that high expression of HOTAIR could predict poor overall survival in cancer (HR: 2.39, 95% CI 2.01-2.86, P<0.001). High expression of HOTAIR could also predict poor overall survival both in digestive tumor (HR: 2.51, 95% CI 2.02-3.11, P<0.001) and non-digestive tumor (HR: 2.17, 95% CI 1.59-2.98, P<0.001). Moreover, overexpression of HOTAIR was found to be significantly associated with recurrence-free survival.
 Conclusion: The overexpression of lncRNA HOTAIR might be associated with poor prognosis in patients with cancer.

Effect of nerve growth factor on CCL4-induced hepatic fibrosis in mice / 重庆医学

Objective To observe the effect of nerve growth factor(NGF) on CCL4‐induced hepatic fibrosis in mice .Methods The hepatic fibrosis model was induced by subcutaneous injection of CCL 4 in mice .Thirty female Kunming mice were equally and randomly divided into three groups :fibrosis model group (A) ,NGF intervention group (B) and normal saline control group (C) .At 8 weeks following the initiation of experiment ,the samples were collected to measure ALT ,AST ,TBIL ,ALB by the fully automativ biochemical analyzer ,an the liver fibrosis indices (HA ,LN ,PC Ⅲ ) by radioimmunoassay .The Ishaki scoring system was adopted to assess the severity of hepatic inflammation and fibrosis degree .Results Serum levels of ALT ,AST ,HA and LN in the group A and B were significantly higher than those in the group C (F= 111 .45 ,658 .80 ,157 .43 ,167 .99 ;P< 0 .05) ,the levels of ALT 、AST and LN in the group B were significantly lower than those in the group A (P< 0 .05) .The HE staining ,reticular fiber staining and Masson staining showed that the liver fibrosis degree and the liver tissue inflammation in the group A were most obvious ,the liver tissue inflamation in the group B were significantly alleviated as compared with the group A .No fibrous septum was formed and the fiber tissues were fine and short .No obvious inflammatory cells infiltration and fibers formation were found in the liver tissue of the group C .The scores of liver inflamation grade and fibrosis staging in the group C were higher than those in the group B and C ,moreover the scores of liver inflammation grade and fibsosis had statstical differences among 3 groups (P < 0 .05) .Conclusion NGF can block hepatic fibrosis induced by CCL4 and relieve the liver inflammation .