Single-cell RNA sequencing reveals the immune microenvironment and signaling networks in cystitis glandularis.

Introduction: Cystitis glandularis (CG) is a rare chronic bladder hyperplastic disease that mainly manifests by recurrent frequent urination, dysuria and gross hematuria. The current lack of unified diagnosis and treatment criteria makes it essential to comprehensively describe the inflammatory immune environment in CG research. Methods: Here, we performed scRNA-sequencing in CG patients for the first time, in which four inflamed tissues as well as three surrounding normal bladder mucosa tissues were included. Specifically, we isolated 18,869 cells to conduct bioinformatic analysis and performed immunofluorescence experiments. Results: Our genetic results demonstrate that CG does not have the classic chromosomal variation observed in bladder tumors, reveal the specific effects of TNF in KRT15 epithelial cells, and identify a new population of PIGR epithelial cells with high immunogenicity. In addition, we confirmed the activation difference of various kinds of T cells during chronic bladder inflammation and discovered a new group of CD27-Switch memory B cells expressing a variety of immunoglobulins. Discussion: CG was regarded as a rare disease and its basic study is still weak.Our study reveals, for the first time, the different kinds of cell subgroups in CG and provides the necessary basis for the clinical treatment of cystitis glandularis. Besides, our study significantly advances the research on cystitis glandularis at the cellular level and provides a theoretical basis for the future treatment of cystitis glandularis.

HIF2α is associated with poor prognosis and affects the expression levels of survivin and cyclin D1 in gastric carcinoma.

Hypoxia-inducible factor-2α (HIF2α) is a major determinant factor of invasion and metastasis in various tumors. It has been reported that HIF2α is overexpressed in many tumors, including gastric cancer. However, the roles of HIF2α in the progression of gastric cancer are still not clear. In this study, we first examined the levels of HIF2α in gastric cancer by using immunohistochemistry, western blot and real-time PCR analysis. The results showed that HIF2α was highly expressed in gastric cancers compared to non-neoplastic mucosa and significantly correlated with histologic grade, TNM stages and peritoneal dissemination. MTT and colony formation assay revealed HIF2α overexpression induced high proliferation in BGC823 cells and HIF2α knockdown significantly inhibited proliferation in SGC7901 cells. Furthermore, we demonstrated that HIF2α could promote migration and invasion in gastric cancer cells. The results of western blot and RT-PCR analysis indicated that Survivin, Cyclin D1, MMP2 and MMP9 are upregulated with HIF2α overexpression. Finally, similar roles of HIF2α also in vivo were demonstrated. Taken together, the present study suggested that HIF-2α was involved in proliferation, metastasis and invasion of gastric cancer cells, with the induction of Survivin, Cyclin D1, MMP2 and MMP9 expression.