Anatomical characteristics of the inferior epigastric artery in Uygur and it's implication in the management of bleeding.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to determine the locations of the inferior epigastric arteries in a group of Uygur by ultrasound and explore the anatomical characteristics of vessels in the management of inferior epigastric bleeding. METHODS: The study included 61 patients. The locations of inferior epigastric arteries through ultrasound were determined at three levels, and the distance from the midline was correlated with patients' demographics by Pearson correlation coefficient. RESULTS: This study included 52 males and nine females, with a mean age of 37.56 years (± SD 3.16) and a mean BMI of 24.34 kg/m2 (± SD 3.71). At the symphysis pubis level, the average distance from the inferior epigastric artery to the midline was 5.98 ± 0.13 cm on the right and 7.32 ± 0.15 cm on the left. At the anterior superior iliac spine level, the average distance of the inferior epigastric artery on the right was 4.12 ± 0.15 cm and 5.2 ± 0.15 cm on the left. The inferior epigastric arteries were 3.86 ± 0.17 cm on the right and 5.06 ± 0.16 cm on the left of the midline at the level midway between the umbilicus and anterior superior iliac spine. CONCLUSION: Inferior epigastric arteries were located between 3.5 and 8 cm from the midline, with the right vessel being closer to the midline than the left. The invasive operations through the abdominal wall should avoid these areas to reduce vascular injury. The anatomical characteristics of inferior epigastric arteries may potentially manage inferior epigastric bleeding.

Adsorption of chlortetracycline onto biochar derived from corn cob and sugarcane bagasse.

Biochar was prepared from two different types of biological waste materials, corn cob (CC) and sugarcane bagasse (SB). The adsorption capacity of each class of adsorbent was determined by chlortetracycline (CTC) adsorption tests. The adsorption kinetics and isotherms of chlortetracycline onto sugarcane bagasse biochar (SBB) and corn cob biochar (CCB) were studied. Experimental results indicated that pseudo-second-order adsorption kinetics of CTC onto SBB and CCB were more reasonable than pseudo-first-order kinetics, and the adsorption kinetic model of CTC onto SBB was slightly better than that onto CCB. The maximum adsorption capacity of CTC onto SBB was 16.96 mg/g at pH 4, while the highest adsorption efficiency of CTC onto CCB was achieved at pH 5 with a maximum adsorption of 12.39 mg/g. The Freundlich isotherm model was better than the Langmuir model at illustrating the adsorption process of CTC onto SBB and CCB. These results provide a way to understand the value of specific biochars, which can be used as efficient and effective adsorbents for CTC removal from waste-water. Compared with raw pinewood, SBB and CBB were considered as alternative materials to remove antibiotics from aqueous environments.

Toxic effects of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid on human sperm function in vitro.

The herbicide 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) is globally used in agriculture and has been linked to human sperm abnormalities in vivo. However, its effects on ejaculated human spermatozoa in vitro have not been characterized. Therefore, we examined the effects of 2,4-D on the functions of ejaculated human spermatozoa in vitro, including: sperm motility, the ability to move through a viscous medium, capacitation, and the acrosome reaction. Different doses of 2,4-D (10 nM, 100 nM, 1 µM, 10 µM, 100 µM, and 200 µM) were applied to human spermatozoa prepared from normal fresh semen samples. The results indicated that 2,4-D did not affect the viability, capacitation, or spontaneous acrosome reactions of human spermatozoa, but it dose-dependently inhibited the total motility, progressive motility, ability to penetrate viscous medium, and progesterone-induced capacitation and acrosome reaction rates. These results suggest that exposure to 2,4-D and its accumulation in the seminal plasma and follicular fluid might increase the risk of infertility. Our findings provide new insights for understanding the male reproductive toxicity of 2,4-D.

TDRG1 regulates chemosensitivity of seminoma TCam-2 cells to cisplatin via PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway and mitochondria-mediated apoptotic pathway.

We previously identified TDRG1 (testis developmental related gene 1), a novel gene with exclusive expression in testis, promoted the proliferation and progression of cultured human seminoma cells through PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling. As increasing evidence reveal that aberrant activation of this signaling is involved in cisplatin resistance. Then, in this study, we further explored whether TDRG1 regulated the chemosensitivity of seminoma TCam-2 cells to cisplatin. Our researches showed TDRG1 could regulate the viability of TCam-2 cells following cisplatin treatment in vitro through control of both cell apoptosis and cell cycle. Mechanistically, we observed TDRG1 positively regulated the expression levels of the key elements in PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway including p-PI3K, p-Akt and p-mTOR and also affected the translocation of nuclear p-Akt in TCam-2 cells during cisplatin treatment. Meanwhile, the levels of Bad, cytochrome c, caspase-9 ratio (activated/total), caspase-3 ratio (activated/total) and cleaved-PARP were negatively modulated by TDRG1, which meant the involvement of mitochondria-mediated apoptotic pathway. Furthermore, we found the effect of TDRG1 knockdown or TDRG1 overexpression could be reversed by IGF-1, a PI3K signaling activator, or LY294002, a inhibitor of this pathway, respectively. Similar effects of TDRG1 on cisplatin chemosensitivity and associated molecular mechanism were also confirmed in vivo by employing xenograft assays. In addition, the positive correlation between TDRG1 and p-PI3K, or p-Akt, was found in tumor tissues from seminoma patients. In conclusion, we uncover that TDRG1 regulates chemosensitivity of TCam-2 cells to cisplatin through PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling and mitochondria-mediated apoptotic pathway both in vitro and in vivo.

TDRG1 functions in testicular seminoma are dependent on the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway.

Human testis development-related gene 1 (TDRG1) is a recently identified gene that is expressed exclusively in the testes and promotes the development of testicular germ cell tumors. In this study, the role of TDRG1 in the development of testicular seminoma, which is the most common testicular germ cell tumor, was further investigated. Based on polymerase chain reaction, Western blotting, and immunohistochemistry tests, both gene and protein expression levels of TDRG1 were significantly upregulated in testicular seminoma tissues compared with normal testicular tissues. Additionally, the levels of phosphoinositide-3 kinase (PI3K)/p110 and Akt phosphorylation were dramatically upregulated in testicular seminoma tissues. Accordingly, in our cell experiment, seminoma TCam-2 cells were subjected to different treatments: the TDRG1 knockout, TDRG1 overexpression, PI3K inhibition (LY294002 administration), or PI3K activation (insulin-like growth factor-1 administration). Cell proliferation, the proliferation index, apoptosis rate, cell adhesive capacity, and cell invasion capability were assessed. Cells with both TDRG1 knockout and PI3K inhibition exhibited decreased cell proliferation, proliferation indexes, cell adhesion capacity, and cell invasion capability and increased apoptosis rates. Most of these effects were reversed by TDRG1 overexpression or PI3K activation, indicating that both TDRG1- and PI3K-mediated signaling promote proliferation and invasion of testicular seminoma cells. The knockout of TDRG1 significantly decreased the phosphorylation levels of PI3K/p85, PI3K/p110, Akt, and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR; Ser(2448)). Except for PI3K/p110, TDRG1 overexpression had the opposite effects on phosphorylation levels. Phosphorylated mTOR at Ser(2481) and Thr(2446) was not affected by TDRG1 or PI3K in our tests. Thus, these results indicate that TDRG1 promotes the development and migration of seminoma cells via the regulation of the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway; this contributes to an understanding of the precise mechanisms underlying the development and migration of seminomas and lays a theoretical foundation for the development of appropriate therapies.

In vitro study on shRNA-mediated reduction of testis developmental related gene 1 expression and its effects on the proliferation, invasion and apoptosis of NTERA-2 cells.

Testis developmental related gene 1 (TDRG1) is a novel human testis-specific gene. TDRG1 is differentially expressed in cancerous tissue compared with normal testicular tissue and demonstrates a unique expression pattern in normal testes; therefore, this gene may be involved in the occurrence and development of testicular germ cell tumors (TGCT). In the present study, the expression level of TDRG1 was downregulated in human TGCT NTERA-2 cells by RNA interference (RNAi) in order to investigate the association between TDRG1 and TGCT. The TDRG1 mRNA and protein expression levels in NTERA-2 cells were significantly inhibited following transfection with specific RNAi plasmids. The ability to proliferate (inhibited by 15.4% at day 3 and 26.1% at day 5; P<0.001) and invade (reduced by 49.1%; P=0.01) in vitro was suppressed in cells in which the expression level of TDRG1 was reduced, and a corresponding increase in the apoptotic potential was observed (the early apoptotic potential and total apoptotic potential were increased by 75%; P=0.019 and 54.8%; P=0.009, respectively). The results of the present study indicated that the biological behavior of NTERA-2 cells is associated with TDRG1 expression levels, and that this gene may be a novel target candidate in the treatment of TGCT.