Abnormal serum carbohydrate antigen 19-9 levels in a patient with splenic retiform haemangioendothelioma concomitant with hepatic amyloidosis: A case report.

BACKGROUND: Carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA 19-9) is a glycoprotein that is used as a reliable tool for monitoring pancreatic cancer. Serum CA 19-9 levels are increased in patients suffering from liver, lung, and other non-malignant diseases. Haemangioendothelioma is a vascular neoplasm with a borderline biological behaviour. However, no case of haemangioendothelioma has yet been reported to be associated with CA 19-9. CASE SUMMARY: A 54-year-old Chinese man was referred to our hospital for discontinuous fatigue and unintentional weight loss for over one year. Laboratory investigations revealed an elevated serum CA 19-9 concentration of 39 IU/mL (reference interval, 0-37 IU/mL) over one year before admission. Afterwards, coagulopathy appeared, and the patient's serum CA 19-9 concentration increased continuously. At the time of admission, abdominal pain and haemorrhagic shock burst occurred, and emergency medical operation was performed. Laboratory investigations conducted upon admission showed a serum CA19-9 concentration of 392.56 IU/mL. Surgical resection of the spleen was undertaken, and pathological examination showed retiform haemangioendothelioma. The patient developed jaundice ten days after surgical excision of the spleen. Pathological examination of needle biopsy samples of the liver yielded a diagnosis of hepatic amyloidosis. CONCLUSION: We describe a rare case of splenic retiform haemangioenthelioma concomitant with hepatic amyloidosis. Physicians should note abnormal serum CA 19-9 levels with early symptoms of fatigue and unintentional weight loss.

Variability of mesophyll conductance and its relationship with water use efficiency in cotton leaves under drought pretreatment.

Drought slows net photosynthetic rate (AN) but increases water use efficiency (WUE). Farmers give an artificial drought pretreatment to some crops in the early growth stage and find that yield increases accompanying with the improvement of WUE. We conducted well-watered, non-drought, mild drought and moderate drought pretreatments of potted cotton cultivars. The aims of the present study were to analyse the importance of mesophyll conductance (gm) as a factor that may simultaneously improve AN and WUE under drought pretreatment conditions, and to analyse the role of anatomical structure and biochemical mechanism in the variability of gm. Our results showed that significant variability of gm estimated by gas exchange and chlorophyll fluorescence was observed between non-drought pretreatment and drought pretreatment associated with change in AN and WUE. There was great difference in anatomical structure and expression of aquaporins (GhAQP1) among all the treatments. In addition, expression of carbonic anhydrase (CA) may not be important in the regulation of gm under drought pretreatment conditions. We concluded that the variability of gm offers a potential target for improving leaf AN and WUE simultaneously by the regulation of anatomical structure and GhAQP1.

Role of B7-H4 siRNA in Proliferation, Migration, and Invasion of LOVO Colorectal Carcinoma Cell Line.

OBJECTIVES: Colorectal cancer is one of the most common malignancies. Recent studies investigated that B7-H4 is highly expressed in various cancers. We aimed at exploring the effect of B7-H4 siRNA on proliferation, invasion, and migration of LOVO cells which expressed B7-H4 notably. DESIGN AND METHODS: Colon adenocarcinoma dataset was downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas. 35 colorectal cancer patients admitted to Shanghai Tongren Hospital were enrolled in this study. Cell proliferation and cell cycle distribution were identified by CCK8 and flow cytometry, respectively. Transwell assay was performed to detect the invasion and migration of LOVO cells. CXCL12/CXCR4 expression and JAK2/STAT3 phosphorylation were determined by real-time PCR and western blot. RESULTS: B7-H4 expressed is elevated in colorectal cancer tissues than in the adjacent normal tissues. B7-H4 siRNA effectively inhibited the proliferation at 24 h and 48 h, arrested cell cycle at G0/G1, and suppressed cell invasion and migration. Gene set enrichment analysis showed that CXCL12/CXCR4 and JAK/STAT were correlative with the B7-H4 expression. Additionally, CXCL12/CXCR4 expression and JAK2/STAT3 phosphorylation were reduced. CONCLUSIONS: B7-H4 siRNA can effectively inhibit proliferation, invasion, and migration of LOVO cells by targeting CXCL12/CXCR4 and JAK2/STAT3 signaling, which can serve as a new target for colorectal carcinoma treatment.