Effect of ABCA1 promoter methylation on premature coronary artery disease and its relationship with inflammation.

Background: ATP-binding cassette transporter A1 (ABCA1) plays a major role in high-density lipoprotein (HDL) metabolism and reverse cholesterol transport (RCT) and exerts anti-inflammatory effects. Increased ABCA1 promoter methylation level may result in the progression of coronary artery disease. Thus, the present study investigated the association between promoter methylation status of ABCA1 and inflammation in the development of premature coronary artery disease (pCAD).

Cosmetic and functional results of a newly reconstructed thumb by combining the phalanx of second toe and the great toenail flap transplantation.

Background: Microsurgical toe-to-hand transfer is a gold standard when it comes to repairing a thumb defect. Great toenail flap, thumbnail valva flap, free great toe, and second toe transplantation are the common methods in thumb reconstruction. Second toe transplantation achieves good function, but poor esthetics.

Determination of hemolysis index thresholds for biochemical tests on Siemens Advia 2400 chemistry analyzer.

Background: In vitro hemolysis is still the most common source of pre-analytical nonconformities. This study aimed to investigate the hemolytic effects on commonly used biochemical tests as well as to determine the hemolysis index (HI) thresholds on Siemens Advia 2400 chemistry analyzer.

Methods: Peripheral blood samples were collected from forty healthy volunteers.

MicroRNA-873 (miRNA-873) inhibits glioblastoma tumorigenesis and metastasis by suppressing the expression of IGF2BP1.

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is known as a highly malignant brain tumor with a poor prognosis, despite intensive research and clinical efforts. In this study, we observed that microRNA-873 (miR-873) was expressed at low levels in GBM and that the overexpression of miR-873 dramatically reduced the cell proliferation, migration, and invasion of GBM cells. Our further investigations of the inhibition mechanism indicated that miR-873 negatively affected the carcinogenesis and metastasis of GBM by down-regulating the expression of IGF2BP1, which stabilizes the mRNA transcripts of its target genes.

MicroRNA-15a promotes neuroblastoma migration by targeting reversion-inducing cysteine-rich protein with Kazal motifs (RECK) and regulating matrix metalloproteinase-9 expression.

In this study, we found that the expression of miR-15a was positively correlated with neuroblastoma (NB) clinical pathological stage and was negatively correlated with reversion-inducing cysteine-rich protein with Kazal motifs (RECK) expression. Using the enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) reporter construct carrying the 3'-UTR of RECK, we identified RECK as a direct target of miR-15a. Suppression of miR-15a significantly decreased the migration ability of GI-LA-N and SK-N-SH cell lines, whereas overexpression of miR-15a increased the migration ability; these effects could be partly reversed by RECK inhibition or ectopic expression.