Publications by authors named "T-B Chen"

Objective: To determine the relationship between apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and histopathological differentiation of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Methods: Magnetic resonance examinations of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) plain scan, LAVA dynamic enhanced scan and diffusion weighted imaging (DWI)(1.5 T, b values: 0 and 600 s/mm²) were retrospectively reviewed for 229 surgically resected HCCs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The histone deacetylases (HDACs) have been implicated in pain hypersensitivity. This study investigated the potential involvement of an HDAC4-related mechanism in the spinal nerve ligation (SNL)-induced nociceptive hypersensitivity.

Methods: The left L5 to L6 spinal nerves of 627 adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were surgically ligated.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Biphenotypic acute leukemia (BAL) is an uncommon type of cancer, which accounts for <5% of all adult ALs. Based upon a previously described scoring system, the European Group for the Immunological Classification of Leukemias (EGIL) proposed a set of diagnostic criteria for BAL. This scoring system is based upon the number and degree of specificity of several markers for myeloid or T/B-lymphoid blasts.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Carbonyl compounds are important intermediates in atmospheric photochemistry, but their primary sources are still not understood well. In this work, carbonyls, hydrocarbons, and alkyl nitrates were continuously measured during November 2011 at a rural site in the Yangtze River Delta region of China. Mixing ratios of carbonyls and hydrocarbons showed large fluctuations during the entire measurement.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Despite the long availability of a traditional prophylactic vaccine containing the HBV surface antigen (HBsAg) and aluminum adjuvant, nearly 10% of the population remains unable to generate an effective immune response. Previous studies have indicated that hepatitis B virus (HBV) PreS2-S is abundant in T/B cell epitopes, which induces a stronger immune response than HBsAg, particularly in terms of cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) reaction. In the current study, the HBV PreS2-S gene encoding an extra 26 amino acids (PreS2 C-terminus) located at the N-terminus of HBsAg was cloned into the pVCH1300 expression vector.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: To develop a positron emission tomography (PET) attenuation correction method for brain PET/magnetic resonance (MR) imaging by estimating pseudo computed tomographic (CT) images from T1-weighted MR and atlas CT images.

Materials And Methods: In this institutional review board-approved and HIPAA-compliant study, PET/MR/CT images were acquired in 20 subjects after obtaining written consent. A probabilistic air segmentation and sparse regression (PASSR) method was developed for pseudo CT estimation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Autophagy is a lysosomal degradation pathway that protects cancer cells from multiple endogenous and extraneous stresses, particularly during the pathogenesis of cancer. An autophagic balance exists in the tumour microenvironment. Appropriate disturbance to this balance may have therapeutic potential.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: To investigate the roles of the CCL2-CCR2 and CX₃CL1-CX₃CR1 pathways in experimental autoimmune uveoretinitis (EAU)-mediated retinal tissue damage and angiogenesis.

Methods: The C57BL/6J wild-type (WT) and CCL2(-/-)CX₃CR1(gfp/gfp) (double knockout [DKO]) mice were immunized with IRBP₁₋₂₀. Retinal inflammation and tissue damage were evaluated clinically and histologically at different days postimmunization (p.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: Early diagnosis and therapeutic monitoring of acute osteomyelitis (AO) is challenging. Here, we use a polyethylene glycol (PEG)ylated chemotactic peptide cinnamoyl-F-(D)L-F-(D)L-F (cFLFLF) conjugated with hydrazinonicotinamide (HYNIC) and labeled with Tc-99m ([(99m)Tc]cFLFLF) to image AO in a rat model and to validate its efficacy in early diagnosis and therapeutic evaluation of AO.

Procedures: Forty rats were divided into eight groups of five each.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Fluid shear stress intimately regulates vasculogenesis and endothelial homeostasis. The canonical Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathways play an important role in differentiation and proliferation. In this study, we investigated whether shear stress activated angiopoietin-2 (Ang-2) via the canonical Wnt signaling pathway with an implication in vascular endothelial repair.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In C plants, pyruvate orthophosphate dikinase (PPDK) activity is tightly dark/light regulated by reversible phosphorylation of an active-site threonine (Thr) residue; this process is catalyzed by PPDK regulatory protein (PDRP). Phosphorylation and dephosphorylation of PPDK lead to its inactivation and activation, respectively. Here, we show that light intensity rather than the light/dark transition regulates PPDK activity by modulating the reversible phosphorylation at Thr-527 (previously termed Thr-456) of PPDK in maize (Zea mays).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: To relate serum insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) to risk of Alzheimer disease (AD) dementia and to brain volumes in a dementia-free community sample spanning middle and older ages.

Methods: Dementia-free Framingham participants from generation 1 (n = 789, age 79 ± 4 years, 64% women) and generation 2 (n = 2,793, age 61 ± 9 years, 55% women; total = 3,582, age 65 ± 11 years, 57% women) had serum IGF-1 measured in 1990-1994 and 1998-2001, respectively, and were followed prospectively for incident dementia and AD dementia. Brain MRI was obtained in stroke- and dementia-free survivors of both generations 1 (n = 186) and 2 (n = 1,867) during 1999-2005.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Analysis of hematopoietic stem cell function in nonhuman primates provides insights that are relevant for human biology and therapeutic strategies. In this study, we applied quantitative genetic barcoding to track the clonal output of transplanted autologous rhesus macaque hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells over a time period of up to 9.5 months.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Rationale: The human genome harbors a large number of sequences encoding for RNAs that are not translated but control cellular functions by distinct mechanisms. The expression and function of the longer transcripts namely the long noncoding RNAs in the vasculature are largely unknown.

Objective: Here, we characterized the expression of long noncoding RNAs in human endothelial cells and elucidated the function of the highly expressed metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (MALAT1).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The neonatal Fc receptor (FcRn) plays a pivotal role in IgG homeostasis, i.e., it salvages IgG antibodies from lysosomal degradation following fluid-phase pinocytosis, thus preventing rapid systemic elimination of IgG.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: To explore the relationship between body fat distribution, insulin resistance, islet β cell function and metabolic disorders in adult population.

Methods: From February to November 2012, a total of 174 subjects aged 20-68 years were recruited. Their anthropometric parameters, blood biochemical indices and the results of oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) and insulin releasing test (IRT) were collected.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Approximately 50 to 60% of patients with essential thrombocythemia or primary myelofibrosis carry a mutation in the Janus kinase 2 gene (JAK2), and an additional 5 to 10% have activating mutations in the thrombopoietin receptor gene (MPL). So far, no specific molecular marker has been identified in the remaining 30 to 45% of patients.

Methods: We performed whole-exome sequencing to identify somatically acquired mutations in six patients who had primary myelofibrosis without mutations in JAK2 or MPL.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The recombination-activating gene (RAG) 1/2 proteins play a critical role in the development of T and B cells by initiating the VDJ recombination process that leads to generation of a broad T-cell receptor (TCR) and B-cell receptor repertoire. Pathogenic mutations in the RAG1/2 genes result in various forms of primary immunodeficiency, ranging from T(-)B(-) severe combined immune deficiency to delayed-onset disease with granuloma formation, autoimmunity, or both. It is not clear what contributes to such heterogeneity of phenotypes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Laboratory studies suggest that exposure to fine particulate matter (≤2.5 μm in diameter) (PM2.5) can trigger a combination of pathophysiological responses that may induce the development of hypertension.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Immunoregulatory cytokine interleukin-10 (IL-10) is elevated in sera from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) correlating with disease activity. The established association of IL10 with SLE and other autoimmune diseases led us to fine map causal variant(s) and to explore underlying mechanisms. We assessed 19 tag SNPs, covering the IL10 gene cluster including IL19, IL20 and IL24, for association with SLE in 15,533 case and control subjects from four ancestries.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of blindness in the elderly population. Evidence has shown that the human immune system may play critical roles in this disease. Inducible costimulator (ICOS) promotes T-cell activation, differentiation, and T:B-cell interactions.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Patients with inflammatory gynecological/obstetrical problems often complain of irritable bowel syndrome. The authors examined whether acute uterus irritation reflexively provokes colonic motility in rat preparations.

Methods: A modified colon manometry and striated abdominal muscle electromyogram activity in response to mustard oil (MO) instillation into the uterine horn were continuously recorded in anesthetized rats.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Given the important roles of miRNAs in post-transcriptional regulation and its implications for the development of immune tissues and cells, characterization of miRNAs promotes us to uncover the molecular mechanisms underlying the pathway of trisomic chromosome 21 that disrupts the disomic genes expression and immunological defects related to Down syndrome (DS). In the present study, we analyzed global changes and chromosome distribution characteristics of miRNAs expression in lymphocytes from children with trisomy 21 by means of the Illumina high-throughput sequencing technology. Two small libraries were constructed using pool RNA of normal and DS children.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Since its discovery in 2000, IL-21 has been shown to play critical roles in the regulation of both innate and adaptive immune responses. IL-21 is produced predominantly by multiple effector CD4 T-cell types [T helper 17 (Th17), follicular helper T (T), and other activated CD4 cells] and NKT cells. In addition to T cell receptor (TCR) signals, the production of IL-21 by activated CD4 T cells is intricately regulated by various extrinsic factors and intrinsic molecules, such as IL-6, IL-21, ICOS, Stat3, IRF4, and Batf.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cell-in-cell structures refer to a unique phenomenon that one living cell enters into another living cell intactly, occurring between homotypic tumor cells or tumor (or other tissue cells) and immune cells (named as heterotypic cell-in-cell structure). In the present study, through a large scale of survey we observed that heterotypic cell-in-cell structure formation occurred commonly in vitro with host cells derived from different human carcinomas as well as xenotypic mouse tumor cell lines. Most of the lineages of human immune cells, including T, B, NK cells, monocytes as well as in vitro activated LAK cells, were able to invade tumor cell lines.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF