Intranasal dexmedetomidine combined with local anesthesia for conscious sedation during breast lumpectomy: A prospective randomized trial.

Breast lumpectomy is usually performed under general or local anesthesia. To the best of our knowledge, whether conscious sedation with intranasal dexmedetomidine and local anesthesia is an effective anesthetic technique has not been studied. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of conscious sedation with intranasal dexmedetomidine combined with local anesthesia in breast lumpectomy, and to identify its optimal dose.

Clinical relevance and therapeutic potential of angiopoietin-like protein 4 in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Background: Development of novel adjuvant therapy to eradicate tumor angiogenesis and metastasis is a pressing need for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We aimed to investigate the clinical relevance and therapeutic potential of angiopoietin-like 4 (ANGPTL4) in HCC.

Methods: ANGPTL4 mRNA levels in tumor and non-tumor liver tissues of HCC patients were analyzed to investigate its clinical relevance.

Identification of transmembrane protein 98 as a novel chemoresistance-conferring gene in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Chemoresistance is one of the major obstacles in systemic chemotherapy and targeted therapy for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. To identify novel chemoresistance-associated targets in hepatocellular carcinoma, chemoresistant hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines were established. By comparing the global gene expression profiles between chemoresistant and chemosensitive cell lines, eight novel chemoresistance-associated genes were identified to be significantly associated with the commonly augmented chemoresistance of hepatocellular carcinoma cells.

The roles of lipocalin-2 in small-for-size fatty liver graft injury.

Objective: To investigate the roles and underlying mechanism of an inflammatory mediator-lipocalin-2 (Lcn2) in small-for-size fatty graft liver injury.

Background: Understanding of the distinct mechanism regulating small-for-size fatty liver graft injury will be crucial to prevent marginal graft failure during living donor liver transplantation (LDLT).

Methods: The roles of Lcn2 in small fatty graft injury were investigated in orthotopic liver transplantation model rats, human LDLT samples, an in vitro simulated ischemia-reperfusion (IR) model, and a hepatic ischemic reperfusion plus major hepatectomy (IR + H) model in mice.

A garlic derivative, S-allylcysteine (SAC), suppresses proliferation and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is highly malignant and metastatic. Currently, there is no effective chemotherapy for patients with advanced HCC leading to an urgent need to seek for novel therapeutic options. We aimed to investigate the effect of a garlic derivative, S-allylcysteine (SAC), on the proliferation and metastasis of HCC.

Molecular signature linked to acute phase injury and tumor invasiveness in small-for-size liver grafts.

Objective: We aimed to explore the precise molecular mechanism of early and invasive tumor growth in a small-for-size graft after liver transplantation and to identify the distinct molecular signature linked to acute-phase injury and late-phase tumor invasiveness.

Summary Background Data: Acute phase small-for-size liver graft injury plays an important role in tumor recurrence after liver transplantation. For prevention of such recurrence, understanding of its underlying mechanism will be important in developing novel therapeutic strategies.

Suppression of tumorigenesis and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma by shRNA interference targeting on homeoprotein Six1.

We previously demonstrated that the overexpression of homeoprotein Six1 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients is associated with venous infiltration, advanced pathologic tumor metastasis (pTNM) stage and poor overall survival rate (Ng et al. Br J Cancer 2006;95:1050-5). In this study, short hairpin RNA (shRNA) interference approach was used to suppress the expression of Six1 in a metastatic HCC cell line MHCC97L.