A single center retrospective study: Comparison between centrifugal separation plasma exchange with ACD-A and membrane separation plasma exchange with heparin on acute liver failure and acute on chronic liver failure.

The purpose of this retrospective study is to compare the efficacy and safety of the centrifugal separation therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) using citrate anticoagulant (cTPEc) with membrane separation TPE using heparin anticoagulant (mTPEh) in liver failure patients. The patients treated by cTPEc were defined as cTPEc group and those treated by mTPEh were defined as mTPEh group, respectively. Clinical characteristics were compared between the two groups. Survival analyses of two groups and subgroups classified by the model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) score were performed by Kaplan-Meier method and were compared by the log-rank test. In this study, there were 51 patients in cTPEc group and 18 patients in mTPEh group, respectively. The overall 28-day survival rate was 76% (39/51) in cTPEc group and 61% (11/18) in mTPEh group (P > .05). The 90-day survival rate was 69% (35/51) in cTPEc group and 50% (9/18) in mTPEh group (P > .05). MELD score = 30 was the best cut-off value to predict the prognosis of patients with liver failure treated with TPE, in mTPEh group as well as cTPEc group. The median of total calcium/ionized calcium ratio (2.84, range from 2.20 to 3.71) after cTPEc was significantly higher than the ratio (1.97, range from 1.73 to 3.19) before cTPEc (P < .001). However, there was no significant difference between the mean concentrations of total calcium before cTPEc and at 48 h after cTPEc. Our study concludes that there was no statistically significant difference in survival rate and complications between cTPEc and mTPEh groups. The liver failure patients tolerated cTPEc treatment via peripheral vascular access with the prognosis similar to mTPEh. The prognosis in patients with MELD score < 30 was better than in patients with MELD score ≥ 30 in both groups. In this study, the patients with acute liver failure (ALF) and acute on chronic liver failure (ACLF) treated with cTPEc tolerated the TPE frequency of every other day without significant clinical adverse event of hypocalcemia with similar outcomes to the mTPEh treatment. For liver failure patients treated with cTPEc, close clinical observation and monitoring ionized calcium are necessary to ensure the patients' safety.

Randomised controlled trial: effect of metformin add-on therapy on functional cure in entecavir-treated patients with chronic hepatitis B.

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) clearance, indicating functional cure or resolved chronic hepatitis B (CHB), remains difficult to achieve via nucleos(t)ide analogue monotherapy. We investigated whether metformin add-on therapy could help achieve this goal in entecavir-treated patients with hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-negative CHB. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients with HBeAg-negative CHB who met eligibility criteria (entecavir treatment for > 12 months, HBsAg < 1000 IU/mL) were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive 24 weeks of either metformin (1000 mg, oral, once a day) or placebo (oral, once a day) add-on therapy. The group allocation was blinded for both patients and investigators. Efficacy and safety analyses were based on the intention-to-treat set. The primary outcome, serum HBsAg level (IU/mL) at weeks 24 and 36, was analysed using mixed models. RESULTS: Sixty eligible patients were randomly assigned to the metformin (n = 29) and placebo (n = 31) groups. There was no substantial between-group difference in the HBsAg level at week 24 (adjusted mean difference 0.05, 95% confidence interval -0.04 to 0.13, p = 0.278) or week 36 (0.06, -0.03 to 0.15, p = 0.187), and no significant effect of group-by-time interaction on the HBsAg level throughout the trial (p = 0.814). The occurrence of total adverse events between the two groups was comparable (9 [31.0%] of 29 vs. 5 [16.1%] of 31, p = 0.227) and no patient experienced serious adverse events during the study. CONCLUSION: Although it was safe, metformin add-on therapy did not accelerate HBsAg clearance in entecavir-treated patients with HBeAg-negative CHB.

Down-regulation of SENP1 expression increases apoptosis of Burkitt lymphoma cells.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of down-regulation of Sentrin/SUMO-specific protease 1 (SENP1) expression on the apoptosis of human Burkitt lymphoma cells (Daudi cells) and potential mechanisms. METHODS: Short hairpin RNA (shRNA) targeting SENP1 was designed and synthesized and then cloned into a lentiviral vector. A lentiviral packaging plasmid was used to transfect Daudi cells (sh-SENP1-Daudi group). Daudi cells without transfection (Daudi group) and Daudi cells transfected with blank plasmid (sh-NC-Daudi group) served as control groups. Flow cytometry was performed to screen GFP positive cells and semiquantitative PCR and Western blot assays were employed to detect the inference efficiency. The morphology of cells was observed under a microscope before and after transfection. Fluorescence quantitative PCR and Western blot assays were conducted to measure the mRNA and protein expression of apoptosis related molecules (caspase-3, 8 and 9). After treatment with COCl2 for 24 h, the mRNA and protein expression of hypoxia inducible factor -1α (HIF-1α) was determined. RESULTS: Sequencing showed the expression vectors of shRNA targeting SENP1 to be successfully constructed. Following screening of GFP positive cells by FCM, semiqualitative PCR showed the interference efficiency was 79.2±0.026%. At 48 h after transfection, the Daudi cells became shrunken, had irregular edges and presented apoptotic bodies. Western blot assay revealed increase in expression of caspase-3, 8 and 9 with prolongation of transfection (P<0.05). Following hypoxia treatment, mRNA expression of HIF-1α remained unchanged in three groups (P>0.05) but the protein expression of HIF-1α markedly increased (P<0.05). However, in the sh-SENP1-Daudi group, the protein expression of HIF-1α remained unchanged. CONCLUSION: SENP1-shRNA can efficiently inhibit SENP1 expression in Daudi cells. SENP1 inhibition may promote cell apoptosis. These findings suggest that SENP1 may serve as an important target in the gene therapy of Burkitts lymphoma.

[Preliminary study of biological mechanism and apoptotic effect induced by YM155 in SUDHL-4 cell line].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the apoptotic effect of follicular lymphoma and related mechanism induced by YM155 in vitro and provide laboratory rationales for the clinical treatment of follicular of lymphoma with YM155 in the future. METHODS: SUDHL-4 cells were cultured to logarithmic phase and transferred to 96-well plates. There were a series of YM155 concentration gradients: 100, 10, 1, 0.1 and 0 ng/ml and cultured for 24, 48 and 72 h. After the addition of CCK-8 reagent for 2 h at each time point, optical density values were obtained from the cell growth inhibition curves depending on time and drug concentration and the half growth inhibition concentration (IC(50)) values calculated. SUDHL-4 cells were co-cultured with YM155 (1 ng/ml) for 0, 24, 48 and 72 h respectively. Then flow cytometry (FCM) was used to detect apoptosis. SUDHL-4 cell line was treated with YM155 for 24 and 48 h to extract the total RNA. The mRNA expressions of bcl-2, bcl-xl, bid, bax and survivin gene at the time point of 48 h and the survivin mRNA expression at 24 h were detected by reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR). The protein expressions of survivin, caspase-9, cleaved caspase-9, caspase-3 and cleaved caspase-3 were detected at each time point with Western blot respectively. RESULTS: SUDHL-4 cell line showed significant growth inhibition effect depending on time and dose. And the 24, 48, 72 h IC(50) was 6.1, 2.7 and 1.2 ng/ml respectively. SUDHL-4 cells stained AnnexinV-FITC and PI examined by FCM demonstrated that the proportion of AnnexinV-FITC positive cells gradually increased with time (17.3% ± 2.1%, 35.7% ± 3.3%, 54.6% ± 4.3% vs 2.1% ± 0.3%, all P < 0.05). And the results of real-time fluorescent PCR proved that YM155 decreased the expression of survivin gene obviously (24 h: 0.72 ± 0.02, 48 h: 0.56 ± 0.01 vs 1.00, both P < 0.05) but had little effects on the gene expressions of bax, bid, bcl-2 and bcl-xl. The Western blot results further confirmed that the protein expressions of survivin and caspase-3 decreased with time while caspase-9 and cleaved caspase-9 showed no obvious changes. But cleaved caspase-3 increased significantly. CONCLUSIONS: YM155 displays significant apoptotic effects in SUDHL-4 cell lines. The mechanism may be the direct activation of caspase-3 through the down-regulation of survivin. And the apoptotic pathway is probably not regulated by bcl-2 family.

[The effect of apoptosis induced by IL-21 in SUDHL-4 cell line and its mechanism].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the apoptosis effect of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma cell line (DLBCL) SUDHL-4 induced by IL-21 and its related mechanism. METHODS: SUDHL-4 cells were treated with IL-21 at different concentration (1000 ng/ml, 100 ng/ml, 10 ng/ml, 1 ng/ml) for 24 h, 48 h, 72 h, respectively. The inhibitory rate of cell proliferation was detected by CCK-8 assay. The cell growth curves were drawn and half inhibitory concentration (IC(50)) values were calculated. The cell apoptosis were detected by flow cytometry (FCM), the expression of the caspase-9, caspase-3, cleaved caspase-3, Bcl-2, Bcl-XL, Bid, Bax and c-myc protein in SUDHL-4 cells treated with IL-21 by western blot, the mRNA expression of Bcl-2, Bcl-XL, Bid, Bax, c-myc by Survivin gene with RT-PCR. RESULTS: IL-21 markedly inhibited SUDHL-4 cell growth in a time- and dose-dependent manner. The 48 hIC(50) was 140.9ng/ml; The FCM showed that the apoptosis proportion of SUDHL-4 cells treated with 100 ng/ml of IL-21 apoptosis (AnnexinV-FITC(+) positive cells) gradually increased (48 h: 19.7 ± 2.3%). The protein expression of caspase-9, caspase-3, Bcl-2 and Bcl-XL decreased in a time-dependent manner. The Bax and c-myc protein markedly increased, but the Bid protein level did not change. IL-21 up regulated c-myc and Bax gene expression, however down regulated Bcl-2 and BCL-XL gene expression, but the gene expression of Bid and Survivin hadn't been changed significantly. CONCLUSIONS: IL-21 can inhibit proliferation and induce apoptosis of SUDHL-4 cell. The mechanism may involve in endogenous mitochondrial pathway mediated by the c-myc and the Bcl-2 genes.

[Silencing of survivin gene in Jeko-1 cell line with small interfering RNA].

This study was aimed to investigate the impact of specific siRNA on survivin gene in transfected lymphoma cell line and provide experimental evidences for future treatment of mantle cell lymphoma. The small interfering RNA (siRNA) targeted survivin mRNA was synthesized in vitro and was transfected into Jeko-1 that showed high survivin expression in mRNA level. The levels of survivin mRNA and protein expression were detected by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blot respectively. The apoptosis effect was examined by calculating the ratio of Annexin V-FITC/PI positive cells using flow cytometry. The inhibition of cell proliferation was assayed with CCK-8 reagent after transfection. The results showed that expression of survivin mRNA was markedly suppressed by the siRNA. The relative expression levels were 0.49 ± 0.03, 0.38 ± 0.02 and 0.17 ± 0.02 at time points of 24, 48 and 72 h respectively, compared with the control group; the inhibitive rates of cell proliferation were (31.2 ± 2.1)%, (43.3 ± 3.4)% and (52.6 ± 2.5)%; the apoptotic rates of cells were (6.3 ± 0.5)%, (13.5 ± 1.1)% and (23.6 ± 1.6)% respectively; survivin protein expression levels were gradually reduced. It is concluded that the siRNA targeting survivin down-regulates the expressions of survivin mRNA and protein evidently. The siRNA of survivin displays the potent ability to inhibit the proliferation of lymphoma cell line Jeko-1; survivin may become a potential molecular target for the therapy of lymphoma in the future.

[Study of hypermethylation of SOCS gene in typical myeloproliferative disease].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the clinical role of hypermethylation of suppressor of cytokine signaling (SOCS) on typical myeloproliferative disease (MPD) patients and its mechanism. METHODS: Methylation specific PCR was used to detect SOCS1, 2, 3 methylation, direct DNA sequencing was performed to detect JAK2V617F mutation, real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR were applied to evaluate transcriptional activity of SOCS1, 2, 3. RESULTS: Among 100 MPD patients, hypermethylation of SOCS1 was detected in 27 (27%), hypermethylation of SOCS2 in 9 (9%), hypermethylation of SOCS3 in 34 (34%); JAK2V617F mutation in 64 (64%). Hypermethylation of SOCS1, 3 greatly inhibited gene expression compared with unmethylated ones (P < 0.05). Presence of JAK2V617F mutation markedly down-regulated SOCS1, 3 gene mRNA expression compared with wild JAK2V617F (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Hypermethylation of SOCS1, 3 and JAK2V617F mutation exist in MPD, which inhibited SOCS1, 3 gene expression. SOCS hypermethylation and JAK2V617F mutation can activate JAK-STAT signaling pathways, these observations may provide a potential therapeutic direction.