Systematic Analysis of the Expression and Prognosis of Fcγ Receptors in Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma.

Background: Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) remains a common malignancy in the urinary system. Although dramatic progress was made in multimodal therapies, the improvement of its prognosis continues to be unsatisfactory. The antibody-binding crystallizable fragment (Fc) γ receptors (FcγRs) are expressed on the surface of leukocytes, to mediate antibody-induced cell-mediated anti-tumor responses when tumor-reactive antibodies are present. FcγRs have been studied extensively in immune cells, but rarely in cancer cells. Methods: ONCOMINE, UALCAN, GEPIA, TIMER, TISIDB, Kaplan-Meier Plotter, SurvivalMeth, and STRING databases were utilized in this study. Results: Transcriptional levels of FcγRs were upregulated in patients with ccRCC. There was a noticeable correlation between the over expressions of FCGR1A/B/C, FCGR2A, and clinical cancer stages/tumor grade in ccRCC patients. Besides, higher transcription levels of FcγRs were found to be associated with poor overall survival (OS) in ccRCC patients. Further, high DNA methylation levels of FcγRs were also observed in ccRCC patients, and higher DNA methylation levels of FcγRs were associated with shorter OS. Moreover, we also found that the expression of FcγRs was significantly correlated with immune infiltrates, namely, immune cells (NK, macrophages, Treg, cells) and immunoinhibitor (IL-10, TGFB1, and CTLA-4). Conclusions: Our study demonstrated that high DNA methylation levels of FcγRs lead to their low mRNA, protein levels, and poor prognosis in ccRCC patients, which may provide new insights into the choice of immunotherapy targets and prognostic biomarkers.

A Study on the Effectiveness of XMOOC Teaching in Improving Practical Nursing Teaching.

This article studies the effectiveness of xMOOC teaching in the area of nursing education, by making a comparison between two study groups. Though observation, academic tests and interview, this study finds out that the application of xMOOC to teaching scheme practice could effectively increase teaching ability of teachers, learning ability of students and their test scores which had positive significance in improving clinical nursing teaching quality.

Effects of estrogen deprivation on expression of aquaporins in rat vagina.

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to investigate the expression of aquaporin (AQP) 0, AQP3, AQP5, AQP6, AQP10, AQP11, and AQP12 in the vaginal tissue of ovariectomized rats. METHODS: Eight-week-old female Sprague-Dawley rats (n = 18) were randomly divided into three groups: control group (n = 6), ovariectomy group (n = 6), and ovariectomy/estrogen therapy group (n = 6). After 4 weeks, vaginal lubrication level and expression of AQP0, AQP3, AQP5, AQP6, AQP10, AQP11, and AQP12 in vaginal tissue were examined. RESULTS: Serum estrogen level was significantly lower in the ovariectomy group than in the control and ovariectomy/estrogen therapy groups (P < 0.05). Vaginal lubrication was significantly lower in the ovariectomy group (mean [SD], 1.62 [0.30]) than in the control group (mean [SD], 2.37 [0.70]) and ovariectomy/estrogen therapy group (mean [SD], 2.38 [0.73]; P < 0.05). Protein expression of AQP0, AQP3, AQP5, AQP6, AQP10, AQP11, and AQP12 was significantly lower in the ovariectomy group than in the control and ovariectomy/estrogen therapy groups (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Decreased vaginal lubrication in ovariectomized rats after electrostimulation may be partly caused by decreased AQPs in vaginal tissue.

[Extracorporeal shockwave therapy for erectile dysfunction and Peyronie's disease].

Penile vascular endothelial damage, vasomotor dysfunction, and blood flow deficiency are the major causes of erectile dysfunction (ED). Current management of ED mostly depends on selective phosphodiesterase type 5- (PDE5) inhibitors, which fail for some ED patients. For Peyronie's disease-induced ED, surgical and physical therapies are used in addition to PDE5I medication, but frequently it is difficult to achieve satisfactory results. Recent studies show that the low-intensity extracorporeal shockwave therapy can promote angiogenesis and improve blood flow to the penis, which promises to be a novel effective therapy for ED and Peyronie's disease.