The expression of PTK7 in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and its clinical significance / 中国肿瘤临床

Objective: To explore the expression of PTK7 in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and its clinical significance. Methods: The clinical and follow-up data of 85 patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma who underwent radical surgery at Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital from May 2011 to January 2016 were analyzed. The expression of PTK7 in 85 pancreatic cancer tissues and the corresponding para-cancer tissues was detected by immunohistochemistry, and the relationship between PTK7 expression level and the clinical pathological features and prognosis was analyzed. Results: Positive expression of PTK7 was observed mainly in the cytoplasm, presenting as brownish yellow granules. It was noted that expression of PTK7 in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma tissues and para-carcinoma tissues was 70.6% (60/85) and 52.9% (45/85), respectively, and the positive rate in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma tissues was significantly higher than that in para-carcinoma tissues; the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). The abnormal expression of PTK7 was correlated with the tumor stage, lymph node metastasis, and the vascular tumor embolus (P<0.05). The survival analysis suggested that the survival time or recurrence-free time of patients with PTK7 high expression in pancreatic duct adenocarcinoma was significantly shorter than in those with low expression (P<0.05, respectively). ShRNA interference of PTK7 was successfully established in the cell stabilizing system, verified by MTT and clone formation. Results indicated that cell survival was significantly lower in the shRNA experimental group compared to the control group (P<0.05), the number of colonies formed was significantly smaller in the shRNA experimental group compared to the control group (P<0.05), and the expression of proliferation-related proteins Ki-67 and PCNA was significantly lower in the shRNA experimental group compared to the control group (P<0.05, respectively). Conclusions: The up-regulation of PTK7 expression in pancreatic ductal ad-enocarcinoma tissues was associated with the tumor stage, lymph node metastasis, and the vascular tumor thrombus, suggesting poor prognosis. It was also found that in pancreatic cancer cell lines, PTK7 could promote the proliferation of pancreatic cancer cells by regulating the levels of proliferative factors Ki-67 and PCNA.

Pancreaticoduodenectomy: a single center experience of 118 patients / 中华肝胆外科杂志

Objective To study the clinical experience on pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) in thepast three years from a single operation group at the Cancer Institute and Hospital of Tianjin Medical Universiy.Methods The clinical data of 118 patients who underwent PD from January 2015 to December 2017 were collected and analyzed retrospectively.Results Of the 118 patients who underwent PDs,102 underwent open pancreaticoduodenectomy (OPD) (86.4％),and 16 laparoscopic pancreaticoduodenectomy (LPD) (13.6％).There were 54.2％ males with a age of (56.0±12.0) years (39.83％ over 60 years).Malignancy was confirmed by pathology in 73.7％ (87/118 patients).The operative time was (324.0±95.6) minutes.Intraoperative blood loss was (192.8±97.5) ml and R0 resection was achieved in all patients.The postoperative complication rate was 46.6％ (55/118).The median postoperative hospital stay was (19.9±9.5) days.There was no perioperative mortality.The operation time of LPD was significantly longer than OPD,but there was no significant difference in intraoperative bleeding,lymph node clearance,postoperative complication rate and postoperative hospital stay (P＞0.05).Conclusions PD is safe and feasible.The postoperative complication rate was relatively high but all patients were discharged from hospital after appropriate treatment.Compared with OPD,LPD is a better alternative for patients.

Protein kinase C micron plays an essential role in hypertonicity-induced heat shock protein 70 expression

Heat shock protein 70 (HSP70), which evidences important functions as a molecular chaperone and anti-apoptotic molecule, is substantially induced in cells exposed to a variety of stresses, including hypertonic stress, heavy metals, heat shock, and oxidative stress, and prevents cellular damage under these conditions. However, the molecular mechanism underlying the induction of HSP70 in response to hypertonicity has been characterized to a far lesser extent. In this study, we have investigated the cellular signaling pathway of HSP70 induction under hypertonic conditions. Initially, we applied a variety of kinase inhibitors to NIH3T3 cells that had been exposed to hypertonicity. The induction of HSP70 was suppressed specifically by treatment with protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitors (Go6976 and GF109203X). As hypertonicity dramatically increased the phosphorylation of PKC micron, we then evaluated the role of PKC micron in hypertonicity-induced HSP70 expression and cell viability. The depletion of PKC micron with siRNA or the inhibition of PKC micron activity with inhibitors resulted in a reduction in HSP70 induction and cell viability. Tonicity-responsive enhancer binding protein (TonEBP), a transcription factor for hypertonicity-induced HSP70 expression, was translocated rapidly into the nucleus and was modified gradually in the nucleus under hypertonic conditions. When we administered treatment with PKC inhibitors, the mobility shift of TonEBP was affected in the nucleus. However, PKC micron evidenced no subcellular co-localization with TonEBP during hypertonic exposure. From our results, we have concluded that PKC micron performs a critical function in hypertonicity-induced HSP70 induction, and finally cellular protection, via the indirect regulation of TonEBP modification.

Local exposure of 849 MHz and 1763 MHz radiofrequency radiation to mouse heads does not induce cell death or cell proliferation in brain

Even though there is no direct evidence to prove the cellular and molecular changes induced by radiofrequency (RF) radiation itself, we cannot completely exclude the possibility of any biological effect of mobile phone frequency radiation. We established a carousel-type exposure chamber for 849 MHz or 1763 MHz of mobile phone RF radiation to expose RF to the heads of C57BL mice. In this chamber, animals were irradiated intermittently at 7.8 W/kg for a maximum of 12 months. During this period, the body weights of 3 groups-sham, 849 MHz RF, and 1763 MHz RF-did not show any differences between groups. The brain tissues were obtained from 3 groups at 6 months and 12 months to examine the differences in histology and cell proliferation between control and RF exposure groups, but we could not find any change upon RF radiation. Likewise, we could not find changes in the expression and distribution of NeuN and GFAP in hippocampus and cerebellum, or in cell death by TUNEL assay in RF exposure groups. From these data, we conclude that the chronic exposure to 849 MHz and 1763 MHz RF radiation at a 7.8 W/kg specific absorption rate (SAR) could not induce cellular alterations such as proliferation, death, and reactive gliosis.

Clinical manifestations and epidemic factors of autumn-winter type scrub typhus in children from northern new endemic area / 中华儿科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>Scrub typhus is an infectious disease due to Orientia tsutsugamushi transmitted by infected chigger mites. Scrub typhus has long been recognized to occur in southern areas of China, but has recently been increasingly often reported from the north since the first case was reported in Mengyin County, Shandong Province in 1986. The key objectives of the present study were to investigate the clinical manifestations and epidemic factors of scrub typhus in children from the northern new natural foci.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The case records of 56 children with scrub typhus who were admitted to the 5 hospitals of Fei County from September 1993 to January 2004 were reviewed. Orientia tsutsugamushi (Ot) was isolated from the cases. Based on ecological observations on the composition, seasonal fluctuation of animal hosts and chigger mites, Ot was isolated from rodents and chiggers. IgG antibodies to Ot was detected by IFA. Genotypes of the Ot isolates were also identified by nested PCR.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Among 56 children scrub typhus cases, 46 were male, 10 were female; 96% exhibited typical eschars or ulcers, 100% cases had high fever, skin rashes were observed in 55 cases (98%), and regional lymphadenopathy occurred in 48 cases (86%). All cases came from countryside, and all had histories of exposure to the crop field. fifty-one serum samples of suspected patients with scrub typhus were collected, 48 were positive for antibodies to Ot. The serotypes were Gilliam types. The cases only appeared in September to December with the peak at mid and late October. Leptotrombidium (L.) scutellare was the most important vector causing scrub typhus in the foci. Apodemus (A.) agrarius was the main host animals of Ot in the crop field. Totally 26 strains were isolated from patients, rodents, and chigger mites. The serotypes of 24 out of the 26 isolates were Gilliam types, while the genotypes of these isolates were Kawasaki types. The serotypes of the other 2 isolates were identical and both were Karp types.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Children scrub typhus patients were frequently seen in the new natural foci of Shandong province. Exposure history, typical eschars or ulcers, and presence of IgG antibody were the important indexes to diagnose the disease.</p>

Prediction of the Exposure to 1763MHz Radiofrequency Radiation Based on Gene Expression Patterns

Radiofrequency (RF) radiation at the frequency of mobile phones has been not reported to induce cellular responses in in vitro and in vivo models. We exposed HEI-OC1, conditionally-immortalized mouse auditory cells, to RF radiation to characterize cellular responses to 1763 MHz RF radiation. While we could not detect any differences upon RF exposure, whole-genome expression profiling might provide the most sensitive method to find the molecular responses to RF radiation. HEI-OC1 cells were exposed to 1763 MHz RF radiation at an average specific absorption rate (SAR) of 20 W/kg for 24 hr and harvested after 5 hr of recovery (R5), alongside sham-exposed samples (S5). From the whole-genome profiles of mouse neurons, we selected 9 differentially-expressed genes between the S5 and R5 groups using information gain-based recursive feature elimination procedure. Based on support vector machine (SVM), we designed a prediction model using the 9 genes to discriminate the two groups. Our prediction model could predict the target class without any error. From these results, we developed a prediction model using biomarkers to determine the RF radiation exposure in mouse auditory cells with perfect accuracy, which may need validation in in vivo RF-exposure models.

Prediction of Exposure to 1763MHz Radiofrequency Radiation Using Support Vector Machine Algorithm in Jurkat Cell Model System

We have investigated biological responses to radiofrequency (RF) radiation in in vitro and in vivo models. By measuring the levels of heat shock proteins as well as the activation of mitogen activated protein kinases (MAPKs), we could not detect any differences upon RF exposure. In this study, we used more sensitive method to find the molecular responses to RF radiation. Jurkat, human T-Iymphocyte cells were exposed to 1763 MHz RF radiation at an average specific absorption rate (SAR) of 10 W/kg for one hour and harvested immediately (R0) or after five hours (R5). From the profiles of 30,000 genes, we selected 68 differentially expressed genes among sham (S), R0 and R5 groups using a random-variance F-test. Especially 45 annotated genes were related to metabolism, apoptosis or transcription regulation. Based on support vector machine (SVM) algorithm, we designed prediction model using 68 genes to discriminate three groups. Our prediction model could predict the target class of 19 among 20 examples exactly (95% accuracy). From these data, we could select the 68 biomarkers to predict the RF radiation exposure with high accuracy, which might need to be validated in in vivo models.