Expression characteristics of CDC20 in gastric cancer and its correlation with poor prognosis.

The cell division cycle 20 homolog (CDC20) expression is increased in diverse human cancers and plays a vital role in tumorigenesis and progression. However, the clinical significance of CDC20 expression in gastric cancer (GC) remains largely unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate the clinicopathologic features and prognostic significance of CDC20 in GC. The CDC20 mRNA expression was measured by quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used to detect the expression of CDC20 protein in 131 clinicopathologically characterized GC cases. The relationship between CDC20 expression and clinicopathological features was analyzed by appropriate statistics. Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to investigate the correlation between CDC20 expression and prognosis of GC patients. The relative mRNA expression of CDC20 were significantly higher in GC tumor tissues than in the corresponding noncancerous tissues (P<0.001). Simultaneously, CDC20 protein expression was positively correlated with tumor size (P=0.02), histological grade (P=0.037), lymph node involvement (P=0.009), and TNM stage (P=0.015). Furthermore, Kaplan-Meier analysis indicated that patients with high CDC20 expression had poor overall survival (P<0.001). Multivariate analysis showed that high CDC20 expression was an independent predictor of overall survival. In conclusion, our data indicated that CDC20 upregulation was associated with aggressive progression and poor prognosis in GC. CDC20 was identified for the first time as an independent marker for predicting the clinical outcome of GC patients.

Polymorphisms of angiotensin converting enzyme and nitric oxide synthase 3 genes as risk factors of high-altitude pulmonary edema: a case-control study and meta-analysis.

High-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) is a non-cardiogenic type of pulmonary edema developing altitudes > 2,500 m. Angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) and nitric oxide synthase 3 (NOS3) play important roles in regulating pulmonary vascular tone. To assess associations between genetic variants in the ACE and NOS3 genes and HAPE risk, 27 HAPE patients and 108 matched controls were genotyped and analyzed. The indicated HAPE association of the NOS3 G894T (Glu298Asp) single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), which may change NO production, was further evaluated by a meta-analysis of six studies involving 399 HAPE patients and 495 controls. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were determined with fixed-effects models. Stratification analyses of ethnicity and geographic location were performed. Significant associations were observed for the dominant model in two ACE tag SNPs influencing serum ACE concentrations (rs8066114 polymorphism: GG+CG vs. CC; rs4461142 polymorphism: TT+CT vs. CC). Furthermore, Single-locus analysis indicated significantly different distributions of G allele frequency between the cases (29.63%) and controls (17.13%) for the ACE rs8066114 polymorphism. The case-control distributions of genotype frequencies and T allele frequency of NOS3 G894T (Glu298Asp) polymorphism were significantly higher in the cases than controls, and the NOS3 G894T (Glu298Asp) SNP showed elevated HAPE risk under the dominant model (TT+GT vs. GG). Meta-analysis showed overall association of NOS3 G894T SNP with HAPE risk under the allele contrast and dominant genetic models, which remained significant for Asians. In conclusion, ACE rs8066114 and rs4461142 and NOS3 rs1799983 (G894T) polymorphisms may be associated with increased HAPE risk in Asians.

Overexpression of KPNA2 correlates with poor prognosis in patients with gastric adenocarcinoma.

This study aims to investigate the expression and significance of KPNA2 in human gastric adenocarcinoma progression and prognosis. Using immunohistochemistry and real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction assay, we identified abnormally elevated expression of KPNA2 in gastric adenocarcinoma tissues compared to paired normal stomach mucosa tissues in 30 patients (p < 0.05). In order to investigate the correlations between KPNA2 and the clinicopathological features of gastric adenocarcinoma, the expression of KPNA2 in 142 patients with gastric adenocarcinoma was detected by immunohistochemistry, and the results showed that overexpression of KPNA2 was associated with the size of tumor (p < 0.001), histological grade (p < 0.001), lymph node involvement (p = 0.001), and tumor node metastasis stage (p < 0.001). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that patients with high KPNA2 expression showed a significantly shorter overall survival time compared with patients with low KPNA2 expression. Multivariate analysis suggested that KPNA2 expression might be an independent prognostic indicator (p < 0.001) for the survival of patients with gastric adenocarcinoma. In conclusion, overexpression of KPNA2 is closely related to progression of gastric adenocarcinoma and might be regarded as an independent predictor of poor prognosis for gastric adenocarcinoma.

[Systematic review of water treatment technologies in the natural disaster striken area].

Systematical evaluate the literature about application and effect of post-disaster water treatment methods in the recent 20 years through a comprehensive search and collection, to provide the best evidence for decision-making of post-disaster water treatment in the future. The main conclusion are the methodology of water treatment and supply in disaster rescue of developed countries and the world has been comparatively formal and mature. Some simple methods of water supply and treatment play a relatively important part in the disaster rescues.