Aneurysmal Fibrous Histiocytoma: Clinicopathology Analysis of 30 Cases of a Rare Variant of Cutaneous Fibrohistiocytoma.

Aneurysmal fibrous histiocytoma is often clinically misdiagnosed. In this study, we put forward an insight on how to help diagnose this disease clinically. A retrospective chart review was performed on all patients diagnosed with aneurysmal fibrous histiocytoma from 2007 to 2017 in the Department of Dermatology, Union Hospital, China, and all clinical data were collected from the hospital archives. From a total of 418 patients diagnosed with cutaneous fibrous histiocytoma, only 30 patients were confirmed to have aneurysmal fibrous histiocytoma out of which only 2 patients were clinically diagnosed with aneurysmal fibrous histiocytoma. The remaining 28 patients were diagnosed with various types of vascular tumors although pathology classified them as having aneurysmal fibrous histiocytoma. Among the 30 patients, 9 were male and 21 were female. There were following age groups: 13-19 (mean 16, n=4), 20-29 (mean 26.25, n=8), 30-39 (mean 33, n=7), 40-49 (mean 44, n=4), 50-59 (mean 56.75, n=4), 60 and above (mean 61, n=3). Tumors were present on the head, neck, back, waist, hips and upper and lower extremities. After complete excision, there was no recurrence and no complications. Histologically, lesions showed the typical pseudoangiomatoid spaces without endothelial lining and infiltration of fibrohistiocytes in hemosiderotic pigmentation. It was suggested that although the prognosis of aneurysmal fibrous histiocytoma is good, accurate diagnosis is paramount to avoid clinical misdiagnosis and subsequent complications.

Increased Cthrc1 Activates Normal Fibroblasts and Suppresses Keloid Fibroblasts by Inhibiting TGF-ß/Smad Signal Pathway and Modulating YAP Subcellular Location.

Keloid may induce severe impairment of life quality for the patients, although keloid is a cutaneous benign tumor. Collagen triple helix repeat containing protein 1 (Cthrc1) was identified as a novel gene that was originally found in adventitial fibroblasts after arterial injury. To address the role of Cthrc1 in keloid, the expression level of Cthrc1 was assessed in normal skin and keloid tissue, as well as in normal fibroblasts (NFs) and keloid fibroblasts (KFs) by using quantitative PCR, Western blotting and immunohistochemical analysis. The results showed that Cthrc1 was increased in keloid tissue and KFs as compared with normal skin and NFs. Meanwhile, CCK8 and Transwell assays found the cellular proliferation and migration of KFs were increased as compared with NFs. Further, to verify the function of Cthrc1 in NFs and KFs, we increased Cthrc1 expression by transfecting lentivirus (LV) vectors LV-Cthrc1. The cellular proliferation and migration, collagen synthesis and the influence on TGF-ß and YAP signaling were tested. The cellular proliferation and migration were increased in NFs-Cthrc1 as compared with NFs-control. Meanwhile, YAP expression and nuclear-location was increased in NFs-Cthrc1. On the contrary, when Cthrc1 was overexpressed in KFs, the cellular migration was suppressed and YAP expression was reduced and transferred to cytoplasm in KFs-Cthrc1 as compared with KFs-control. But the expression level of collagen I was decreased and pSmad2/3 nucleus transfer was suppressed in both NFs-Cthrc1 and KFs-Cthrc1 by using Western blotting and immunofluorescence. Increased Cthrc1 activated NFs by promoting YAP nucleus translocation, whereas suppressed KFs by inhibiting YAP nucleus translocation. Enhanced Cthrc1 decreased collagen I in both NFs and KFs by inhibiting TGF-ß/Smad pathway. In conclusion, Cthrc1 may play a role in the pathogenesis of keloid by inhibiting collagen synthesis and fibroblasts migration via suppressing TGF-ß/Smad pathway and YAP nucleus translocation.

Mycosis fungoides patient accompanied actinic keratosis, actinic keratosis with squamous cell carcinoma transformation, and porokeratosis after NBUVB therapy - 1st case report and review of the literature.

INTRODUCTION: Mycosis fungoides (MF) is the most common form of primary cutaneous T cell lymphoma. Narrowband ultraviolet B light (NBUVB) is used increasingly in treating MF because of its good toleration and well-established management. CONCERNS: To discuss the risk factors and underlying pathogenic factors in the patients with secondary skin diseases after NBUVB therapy. METHODS: We report in details the first case of a patient with MF accompanied with actinic keratosis (AK), AK with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) transformation and porokeratosis after NBUVB therapy. Meanwhile, Sequence variants in tumor suppressor p53 gene in the patient's specimens were detected. A literature search of the key word "narrowband ultraviolet B light "and "side effects" was performed on PubMed, 14 cases of this entity were found. A total of 15 patients including our case were reviewed in this study and meaningful conclusion could be drawn. OUTCOMES: The mean age at diagnosis of secondary skin dermatoses after NBUVB therapy was 62.08 years with a male to female ratio of 2:1. The cases were reported more in Europeans than in Asians (2.75:1), and the Fitzpatrick skin type was mainly Ito III (12/15). The mean cumulative number and cumulative dose of UVB treatments were 43.71 and 42, 400 (mJ/cm), respectively. There was a positive relationship between Fitzpatrick skin type and cumulative dose of UVB treatments. Among the secondary skin diseases after NBUVB treatment, 12 were tumors, 2 were non-tumorous dermatoses. Only our patient presented with both. By polymerase chain reaction-single nucleotide polymorphism (PCR-SNP) analysis, C-G mutation of exon 4 of p53 was found in AK and MF specimens in our patient. CONCLUSION: To our knowledge, our case is the first MF patient accompanied with AK, AK with SCC transformation and Porokeratosis after NBUVB treatment. Lower Fitzpatrick skin type may be the risk factor of secondary skin diseases after NBUVB treatment.

Downregulation of Cdk1 and cyclinB1 expression contributes to oridonin-induced cell cycle arrest at G2/M phase and growth inhibition in SGC-7901 gastric cancer cells.

BACKGROUND: Oridonin isolated from Rabdosia rubescens, a plant used to treat cancer in Chinese folk medicine, is one of the most important antitumor active ingredients. Previous studies have shown that oridonin has anti- tumor activities in vivo and in vitro, but little is known about cell cycle effects of oridonin in gastric cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: MTT assay was adopted to detect the proliferation inhibition of SGC-7901 cells, the cell cycle was assessed by flow cytometry and protein expression by Western blotting. RESULTS: Oridonin could inhibit SGC-7901 cell proliferation, the IC50 being 15.6 µM, and blocked SGC-7901 cell cycling in the G2/M phase. The agent also decreased the protein expression of cyclinB1 and CDK1. CONCLUSIONS: Oridonin may inhibit SGC-7901 growth and block the cells in the G2/M phase by decreasing Cdk1 and cyclinB1 proteins.

Silencing endothelin-3 expression attenuates the malignant behaviors of human melanoma cells by regulating SPARC levels.

Endothelin-3 (ET-3) is aberrantly expressed in both metastatic melanoma tissues and cultured melanoma cells. Our previous work showed that ET-3 could promote survival of metastatic melanoma cells via its altered expression. In this study, we investigated the mechanisms responsible for these gene-induced phenotypes in melanoma cells. An ET-3 gene sequence-specific shRNA vector pLVTHM-ET3-RNAi was constructed and transfected into human malignant melanoma cells A375 and MMRU, and the resultant molecular events and cellular changes were examined. As compared with the empty-vector group, cell proliferation was slowed down, and the growth inhibition rates were 38.9% in A375 cells and 38.4% in MMRU cells after transfection. In addition, cell invasion capability was also inhibited, with a reduction of 62.2% in A375 cells and 54.3% in MMRU cells. The percentage of apoptotic cells was found to increase. Meanwhile, in both cell lines, secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine (SPARC) levels were down-regulated together with inhibition of its upstream signaling molecule, NF-κB. Thus, the current results suggested that down-regulated expression of ET3 attenuates the malignant behaviors of human melanoma cells partially by decreasing the expression of SPARC and NF-κB.

[Study on removing the lamp spectrum structure in differential optical absorption spectroscopy].

Differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS) technique has been used to measure trace gases in the atmosphere by their strongly structured absorption of radiation in the UV and visible spectral range, and nowadays this technique has been widely utilized to measure trace polluted gases in the atmosphere e.g. SO2, NO2, O3, HCHO, etc. However, there exists lamp (xenon lamp or deuteriumlamp) spectrum structure in the measured band (300-700 nm) of the absorption spectra of atmosphere, which badly impacts on precision of retrieving the concentration of trace gases in the atmosphere. People home and abroad generally employ two ways to handle this problem, one is segmenting band retrieving method, another is remedial retrieving method. In the present paper, a new retrieving method to deal with this trouble is introduced. The authors used moving-window average smoothing method to obtain the slow part of the absorption spectra of atmosphere, then achieved the lamp (xenon lamp in the paper) spectrum structure in the measured band of the absorption spectra of atmosphere. The authors analyzed and retrieved the measured spectrum of the atmosphere, and the result is better than the forenamed ways. Chi-square of residuum is 2.995 x 10(-4), and this method was proved to be able to avoid shortcoming of choosing narrowband and disadvantage of discovering the new component of atmosphere in retrieving the concentration of air pollutants and measuring the air pollutants.

[Study of retrieving formaldehyde with differential optical absorption spectroscopy].

The present paper introduces the method of retrieving the concentration of HCHO with differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS). The authors measured ambient HCHO in Beijing region with the help of differential optical absorption spectroscopy instrument made by ourself, and discussed numerous factors in retrieving the concentration of HCHO with differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS), especially, the choice of HCHO wave band, how to avoid absorption of ambient SO2, NO2 and O3, and the influence of the Xenon lamp spectrum structure on the absorption of ambient HCHO. The authors achieved the HCHO concentration by simultaneously retrieving the concentrations of HCHO, SO2, NO2 and O3 with non-linear least square fitting method, avoiding the effect of choosing narrow wave of HCHO and the residual of SO2, NO2, O3 and the Xenon lamp spectrum structure in retrieving process to attain the concentration of HCHO, Finally the authors analyzed the origin of error in retrieving the concentration of HCHO with differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS), and the total error is within 13.7% in this method.