Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation-Related Genes Associated with Tumor Grade and Prognosis in Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Bioinformatic Study.

Aim: The aim of the present study was to identify the association between tumor grade and liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS)-related genes, and to generate a LLPS-related gene-based risk index (LLPSRI) as a prognostic tool for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Methods: Weighted gene correlation network analysis was performed to test whether the LLPS-related gene modules were associated with tumor grade of HCC. The candidate modules were subjected to functional enrichment analysis.

Adjuvant transarterial chemoembolization for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma involving microvascular invasion.

Background: Microvascular invasion (MVI) has recently been reported to be an independent prognostic factor in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This study compared the outcomes of adjuvant transarterial chemoembolization (A-TACE) after hepatic resection (HR) in patients with HCC involving MVI.

Methods: This prospective study involved 200 consecutive patients with MVI-HCC who underwent HR alone (n = 109) or HR with A-TACE (n = 91).

Synaptic noise is an information bottleneck in the inner retina during dynamic visual stimulation.

In daylight, noise generated by cones determines the fidelity with which visual signals are initially encoded. Subsequent stages of visual processing require synapses from bipolar cells to ganglion cells, but whether these synapses generate a significant amount of noise was unknown. To characterize noise generated by these synapses, we recorded excitatory postsynaptic currents from mammalian retinal ganglion cells and subjected them to a computational noise analysis.

Cross inhibition from ON to OFF pathway improves the efficiency of contrast encoding in the mammalian retina.

The retina is divided into parallel and mostly independent ON and OFF pathways, but the ON pathway "cross" inhibits the OFF pathway. Cross inhibition was thought to improve signal processing by the OFF pathway, but its effect on contrast encoding had not been tested experimentally. To quantify the effect of cross inhibition on the encoding of contrast, we presented a dark flash to an in vitro preparation of the mammalian retina.

The ON pathway rectifies the OFF pathway of the mammalian retina.

In the vertebrate visual system, ON cells respond to positive contrasts and OFF cells respond to negative contrasts, and thus both ON and OFF cells exhibit rectification. We investigated the retinal circuits by which the ON pathway rectifies the OFF pathway. White noise was projected onto an in vitro preparation of the mammalian retina and excitatory currents were recorded from retinal ganglion cells under whole-cell voltage clamp.

Reliability and frequency response of excitatory signals transmitted to different types of retinal ganglion cell.

The same visual stimulus evokes a different pattern of neural signals each time the stimulus is presented. Because this unreliability reduces visual performance, it is important to understand how it arises from neural circuitry. We asked whether different types of ganglion cell receive excitatory signals with different reliability and frequency content and, if so, how retinal circuitry contributes to these differences.

Weakened feedback abolishes neural oblique effect evoked by pseudo-natural visual stimuli in area 17 of the cat.

The psychological oblique effect, a well-known phenomenon that humans and some mammals are more visually sensitive to cardinal (vertical and horizontal) contours than to oblique ones, has commonly been associated with the overrepresentation of cardinal orientations in the visual cortex. In contrast to the oblique effect, however, Essock et al. [E.

Slab-like functional architecture of higher order cortical area 21a showing oblique effect of orientation preference in the cat.

Optical imaging based on intrinsic signals is a powerful tool for in vivo studying functional organization of various cortices. Here, the functional architecture of orientation-sensitive neurons in higher order extrastriate cortical area 21a was investigated in cats using optical imaging combined with electrophysiological methods. It is found that neurons in area 21 with similar preferred orientations were functionally organized into a slab-like columnar structure orthogonal to the cortical surface, and the orientation columns were distributed more densely than those in area 17.

Differential behavior of simple and complex cells in visual cortex during a brief IOP elevation.

Purpose: To study and compare responses of different types of cortical neurons in the primary visual cortex in cats to grating stimuli before and during brief elevation of intraocular pressure (IOP).

Methods: Single-unit electrophysiological recordings were performed in anesthetized and paralyzed cats. The IOP was elevated by injecting saline into the anterior chamber of the cat's eyes through a syringe needle.