Role of high-mobility group box 1 in cancer / 中南大学学报(医学版)

High-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) is a non-histone nuclear protein in most eukaryocytes. Inside the nucleus, HMGB1 plays an important role in several DNA events such as DNA repair, transcription, telomere maintenance, and genome stability. While outside the nucleus, it fulfils more complicated functions, including promoting cell proliferation, inflammation, angiogenesis, immune tolerance and immune escape, which may play a pro-tumoral role.Meanwhile, HMGB1 acts as an anti-tumoral protein by regulating immune cell recruitment and inducing immunogenic cell death (ICD) during the carcinogenesis process. Therefore, abnormal expression of HMGB1 is associated with oncogenesis, development, and metastasis of cancer, which may play a dual role of pro-tumor and anti-tumor.

CYP2J2-produced epoxyeicosatrienoic acids contribute to the ferroptosis resistance of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma in a PPARγ-dependent manner / 中南大学学报(医学版)

Objective: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most malignant digestive tract tumors with a poor prognosis and high recurrence rate. Recently, ferroptosis resistance has been found in PDAC. However, the underlying mechanism of ferroptosis resistance has not been fully elucidated. Cytochrome P4502J2 (CYP2J2) is the main enzyme which mediates arachidonic acid to produce epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs) in human tissues. It has been reported that EETs involve in the development of cancer, while the roles of EETs in PDAC and ferroptosis remain unclear. This study aims to explore the effect of CYP2J2/EETs on ferroptosis of human pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma cells PANC-1 cells and the underlying mechanisms.Methods: The tumor tissues and para-carcinoma tissues of 9 patients with PDAC were collected and the expression of CYP2J2 was detected with real-time PCR and Western blotting. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect the level of 8,9-dihydroxyeicosatrienoic acid (8,9-DHET), and the degradation product of 8,9-epoxyeicosa-trienoic acid (8, 9-EET). PANC-1 cells were used in this study. The ferroptosis inducer erastin was used to induce ferroptosis. The intracellular long-chain acyl-CoA synthetase 4 (ACSL4) protein level, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity, malondialdehyde (MDA) content, Fe2+concentration, and cell survival were detected. The 8, 9-EET was pretreated to observe its effect on erastin-induced ferroptosis in PANC-1 cells. Lentivirus was used to construct a CYP2J2 knockdown cell line to observe its effect on the ferroptosis of PANC-1 cells induced by erastin. A peroxisome proliferation-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) blocker was used to observe the effect of 8, 9-EET on erastin-induced glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4) and MDA content in PANC-1 cells.Results: High expression of CYP2J2 was found in PDAC, accompanied by an increased level of 8, 9-DHET. The 8, 9-EET pretreatment significantly attenuated the PANC-1 cell death induced by erastin. The 8, 9-EET reduced the Fe2+ concentration, LDH activity and MDA content, and ACSL4 protein expression in erastin-treated PANC-1 cells. The 8,9-EET also restored the ferroportin (FPN) and ferroptosis suppressor protein 1 (FSP1) mRNA expressions in erastin-treated PANC-1 cells. But CYP2J2 knockdown exacerbated the erastin-induced ferroptosis in PANC-1 cells. Besides, CYP2J2 knockdown furtherly down-regulated the gene expression of FPN and FSP1. The 8, 9-EET increased the expression of GPX4 in the erastin-treated PANC-1 cells, which was eliminated by a PPARγ blocker GW9662. And GW9662 abolished the anti-ferroptosis effects of 8,9-EET. Conclusion: CYP2J2/EETs are highly expressed in PDAC tissues. EETs inhibit the ferroptosis via up-regulation of GPX4 in a PPARγ-dependent manner, which contributes to the ferroptosis resistance of PDAC.

Effect of IL-11 on the invasive and metastatic abilities of anaplastic thyroid carcinoma cells / 中华耳鼻咽喉头颈外科杂志

Objective@#To explore the effect of hematopoietic cytokines IL-11 on invasion and metastasis abilities of anaplastic thyroid cacinoma(ATC) cells.@*Methods@#Real-time PCR was performed for examining the IL-11 mRNA expression in thyroid carcinoma cell lines, and IL-11 protein expression in the supernament of thyroid carcinoma cell lines was detected by ELISA. Molecular cloning was employed to construct IL-11 stable knockdown cell line; MTT assay was used to analyze the effect of IL-11 on the proliferation of ATC cells; Transwell and wound healing assays were employed to analyze the abilities of migration and invasion in ATC cells. Western blotting was used to detect the relative pathway proteins. SPSS statistical package 19.0 was used to analyze the date, and Student′s t test was used for multiple comparisons.@*Results@#The protein level of IL-11 were significantly lower in knock-down cell lines than that in negative control cell lines(21.55±1.69, 16.18±0.85, 26.37±2.00 vs 54.54±3.99, all P<0.05). Colony formation assays reveal that colony number between knock-down cells and negative control cells has no significance(P>0.05). Meanwhile, MTT assays show that there is no significance between knock-down cell lines and negative control cell line(P>0.05). However, Transwell invasion and migration assays show that number of migrated cells is increased when ATC cells were treated with rhIL-11(0-100 ng/ml)at increasing concentrations.@*Conclusion@#IL-11 improves the migratory and invasive abilities of ATC cells via inducing EMT of ATC cells, and it can be used as a potential target for ATC molecular targeted therapy.

Clinical analysis of 51 cases of oral mucosal melanoma / 中华口腔医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the treatment and prognosis of the patients with oral mucosal melanoma (OMM).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The clinicopathological and follow-up data of patients with OMM in Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center from January 1976 to December 2005 were analyzed retrospectively.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Fifty-one cases were analyzed. The pathological lymph node metastasis rate was 61% (31/51) and the affected sites were confined to level I(b)-III (94%). The overall three year and five yearsurvival rates were 35% and 21% respectively. No significant difference of three year and five year survival rates were found between the group of incisional biopsy and the group of excisional biopsy. The prognosis was not affected by pigmentation. The survival rate of the patients receiving surgery combined with biotherapy or biochemotherapy was significantly higher than that of the patients treated by other modalities (P = 0.003).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>In patients with OMM, lymph node metastasis was mostly confined to level I(b)-III. Incisional biopsy and pigmentation were not associated with an unfavorable prognosis. The prognosis of the patients with OMM was poor and the patients may get a better prognosis by receiving surgery combined with biotherapy or biochemotherapy.</p>