Association between STAT3 gene polymorphisms and ulcerative colitis susceptibility: a case-control study in the Chinese Han population.

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammation of the large intestine. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of two polymorphisms in STAT3 with the risk of UC development in the Chinese Han population. This is a hospital-based case-control study involving 56 UC patients and 274 controls. Genotyping was performed using the polymerase chain reaction with sequence-specific primers (PCR-SSP) method. Statistical analyses were conducted using logistic regression and genotype risk score. Overall, there was a significant difference between patients and controls in the genotype distribution of rs2293152 (P = 0.044). The risk for UC associated with the rs2293152-G mutant allele was increased (odds ratio = 2.76; 95% confidence interval = 1.06- 7.24) under the dominant model. However, we failed to find any obvious differences in the rs4796793 genotype or allele distributions between the UC patients and controls, and did not detect any significant association of the rs4796793 polymorphism with UC across different genetic models of inheritance. Our study implies that the STAT3 rs2293152 polymorphism may be associated with the occurrence of UC and might be used as a predictive factor for UC in the Chinese Han population.

Phenotypic correction and stable expression of factor VIII in hemophilia A mice by embryonic stem cell therapy.

Hereditary deficiency of factor VIII (FVIII) leads to hemophilia A, a severe X-linked bleeding disorder. Current therapies include fixed-dose FVIII prophylaxis, factor replacement therapy, and most recently, gene therapy. Prophylaxis and FVIII replacement therapies are limited by incomplete efficacy, high cost, restricted availability, and development of neutralizing antibodies in chronically treated individuals. Limited success has been obtained in preclinical trials using gene therapy for the treatment of hemophilia. Therefore, new options for therapy for hemophilia A are needed. We evaluated the potential of embryonic stem cells for correcting hemophilia A in mice. FVIII-deficient mouse blastocysts were collected and injected with mouse embryonic stem cells stably expressing green-fluorescent protein (GFP) and transferred to pseudopregnant recipient mice. Expression of FVIII was measured in the liver and plasma of the 5 chimeric mice that were produced. Three of these mice were GFP-positive at the age of 6 months. The plasma FVIII activity levels were equal to those of wild-type mice. These data demonstrate that embryonic stem cell transplantation at an early embryonic stage has potential as therapy for this progressively debilitating, life-threatening bleeding disorder.