Mechanical confinement promotes heat resistance of hepatocellular carcinoma via SP1/IL4I1/AHR axis.

Mechanical stress can modulate the fate of cells in both physiological and extreme conditions. Recurrence of tumors after thermal ablation, a radical therapy for many cancers, indicates that some tumor cells can endure temperatures far beyond physiological ones. This unusual heat resistance with unknown mechanisms remains a key obstacle to fully realizing the clinical potential of thermal ablation.

Visceral adipose volume is correlated with surgical tissue fibrosis in Crohn's disease of the small bowel.

Background: This study explored the diagnostic performance of visceral adiposity to predict the degree of intestinal inflammation and fibrosis.

Methods: The patients with Crohn's disease (CD) who underwent surgical small bowel resection at the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University (Guangzhou, China) between January 2007 and December 2017 were enrolled. We evaluated the intestinal imaging features of computed tomography enterography (CTE), including mesenteric inflammatory fat stranding, the target sign, mesenteric hypervascularity, bowel wall thickening, lymphadenopathy, stricture diameter, and maximal upstream diameter.

The presence of microvascular invasion guides treatment strategy in recurrent HBV-related HCC.

Objectives: We used the status of microvascular invasion (MVI) at primary resection to help treatment selection for hepatitis B virus-positive (HBV+) recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma (rHCC) patients in Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) stage B-C.

Methods: From 2009 to 2017, we enrolled 221 consecutive HBV+ rHCC patients at BCLC stage B-C who underwent re-resection (RR), radiofrequency ablation (RFA), or transarterial chemoembolization (TACE). Post recurrence survival (PRS) and overall survival (OS) were compared between RR/RFA and TACE according to MVI status.

[Association of the ALOX5AP gene SG13S114 A/T polymorphism with atherosclerosis].

Objective: To investigate the relationship between the polymorphism of SG13S114 A/T in the 5-lipoxygenase-activating protein (ALOX5AP) gene and the stability of carotid atherosclerosis.

Methods: Polymorphism of SG13S114 A/T in the ALOX5AP gene was analyzed in 152 cases of acute infarction with stable plaque, and 132 cases of acute infarction with vulnerable plaques, by using polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism. Carotid artery plaque was analyzed by carotid artery color ultrasound.