Associations of gene polymorphisms with the development and clinical progression of benign prostatic hyperplasia: a case-control study in northern Chinese population.

This study aims to explore the effect of gene polymorphisms of 5a-reduction enzyme (), steroidogenic cytochrome P-450 17alpha-hydroxylase (), aromatase cytochrome P450 family 19 () and vita-min D receptor () on benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) susceptibility and clinical progress. A total of 452 BHP patients and 501 healthy individuals were selected in Harbin Medical University Daqing School from October 2014 and December 2015 as the case and control groups. All BPH patients received drug treatment and were subsequently divided into the progression and non-progression groups based on their therapeutic efficacy.

A novel interplay between HOTAIR and DNA methylation in osteosarcoma cells indicates a new therapeutic strategy.

Purpose: Osteosarcoma (OS) is one of the most prevalent primary malignant bone tumors in adolescent. HOTAIR is highly expressed and associated with the epigenetic modifications, especially DNA methylation, in cancer. However, the regulation mechanism between HOTAIR and DNA methylation and the biological effects of them in the pathogenesis of osteosarcoma remains elusive.

Chitosan oligosaccharide improves the therapeutic efficacy of sitagliptin for the therapy of Chinese elderly patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Sitagliptin improves glycemic control in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients but its side effects are undesirable. Chitosan oligosaccharide (COS) is expected to improve the therapeutic result as a natural product. A total of 200 elderly T2DM patients were evenly assigned into four groups: sitagliptin group (SG), receiving sitagliptin 100 mg/day; COS group (CG), receiving COS 100 mg/day; combination therapy of sitagliptin and COS group (SCG), receiving both sitagliptin and COS 100 mg/day; and placebo group (PG), receiving placebo 100 mg/day.

Next-generation sequencing for D47N mutation in Cx50 analysis associated with autosomal dominant congenital cataract in a six-generation Chinese family.

Background: Congenital cataract is the most frequent cause of blindness during infancy or early childhood. To date, more than 40 loci associated with congenital cataract have been identified, including at least 26 genes on different chromosomes associated with inherited cataract. This present study aimed to identify the genetic mutation in a six-generation Chinese family affected with congenital cataract.

Therapy of tacrolimus combined with corticosteroids in idiopathic membranous nephropathy.

We evaluated the efficacy and safety of tacrolimus (TAC) combined with corticosteroids in treating patients with idiopathic membranous nephropathy (IMN). One hundred seventy-seven biopsy-proven IMN patients were recruited in this retrospective clinical study. Sixty patients received TAC (target blood concentration of 4-8 ng/mL) and 117 patients received daily cyclophosphamide (CYC, 100 mg) combined with prednisone.

Curcumin improves treatment outcome of Takayasu arteritis patients by reducing TNF-α: a randomized placebo-controlled double-blind clinical trial.

Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors have been found to exhibit certain efficacy in treating refractory Takayasu arteritis (TA) in clinic despite severe adverse effects. The aim of this study is to investigate a natural anti-TNF compound, curcumin, its function, and its potential as treatment against TA. In total, 246 patients who were diagnosed of acute TA participated have completed this clinical trial.

Metformin improves cardiac function in mice with heart failure after myocardial infarction by regulating mitochondrial energy metabolism.

To investigate whether metformin can improve the cardiac function through improving the mitochondrial function in model of heart failure after myocardial infarction. Male C57/BL6 mice aged about 8 weeks were selected and the anterior descending branch was ligatured to establish the heart failure model after myocardial infarction. The cardiac function was evaluated via ultrasound after 3 days to determine the modeling was successful, and the mice were randomly divided into two groups.

Susceptibility to oral squamous cell carcinoma: correlation with variants of I, .

In order to investigate the association between polymorphisms in genes encoding metabolizing enzymes (-I, (), , , , cigarette and alcohol consumption, and the risk of oral squamous cell carcinoma, we conducted a prospective case-control study comprised of 750 individuals with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and 750 healthy individuals. Data about smoking and drinking habits were collected along with other demographic and clinical information. Peripheral blood samples were collected for DNA extraction, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and PCR-RFLP (restriction fragment length polymorphism) were used to determine genotypes of , , , .

HPIP expression predicts chemoresistance and poor clinical outcomes in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer.

This study aims to investigate the expression of the hematopoietic pre-B-cell leukemia transcription factor-interacting protein (HPIP) and its association with platinum resistance in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). The protein expression of HPIP was analyzed by immunohistochemistry in 248 patients with EOC. Furthermore, we analyzed the association between HPIP expression and clinicopathological features including prognosis in EOC samples.

Heme oxygenase-1 retards hepatocellular carcinoma progression through the microRNA pathway.

Heme metabolism system is involved in microRNA (miRNA) biogenesis. The complicated interplay between heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) and miRNA has been observed in various tissues and diseases, including human malignancy. In the present study, our data showed that stable HO-1 overexpression in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells downregulated several oncomiRs.

Screening glioma stem cells in U251 cells based on the P1 promoter of the CD133 gene.

Cluster of differentiation (CD)133 is an important cell surface marker of glioma stem cells (GSCs). The transcription of the CD133 gene is controlled by five alternative promoters (P1, P2, P3, P4 and P5), which are expressed in a tissue-specific manner. In the present study, gene recombination technology was used to construct two types of gene expression vectors that contained the P1 promoter of the CD133 gene, which regulated either the neomycin-resistance gene or the herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase (HSV-TK) gene.

The increasingly anti-tumor effect of a colonic carcinoma DNA vaccine carrying HER2 by the adjuvanticity of IL-12.

The present study aimed to determine the effect of recombinant DNA vaccine-based human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2) and Interleukin 12 (IL-12) on the development of colonic carcinoma in mice and the potential immune mechanisms involved. Recombinant plasmids pVAX1-HER2, pVAX1-IL-12 and pVAX1-HER2-IL-12 were constructed, and injected into female mice intramuscularly (i.m.

Discriminating poststroke depression from stroke by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy-based metabonomic analysis.

Poststroke depression (PSD), the most common psychiatric disease that stroke survivors face, is estimated to affect ~30% of poststroke patients. However, there are still no objective methods to diagnose PSD. In this study, to explore the differential metabolites in the urine of PSD subjects and to identify a potential biomarker panel for PSD diagnosis, the nuclear magnetic resonance-based metabonomic method was applied.

AEG-1 as a predictor of sensitivity to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in advanced epithelial ovarian cancer.

Objectives: Astrocyte elevated gene-1 (AEG-1) plays a critical role in tumor progression and chemoresistance. The aim of the present study was to investigate the protein expression of AEG-1 in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) who underwent debulking surgery after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC).

Materials And Methods: The protein expression of AEG-1 was analyzed using immunohistochemistry in 162 patients with EOC.

SRPX2 Enhances the Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition and Temozolomide Resistance in Glioblastoma Cells.

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common and most aggressive central nervous system tumor in adults. Due to GBM cell invasiveness and resistance to chemotherapy, current medical interventions are not satisfactory, and the prognosis for GBM is poor. It is necessary to investigate the underlying mechanism of GBM metastasis and drug resistance so that more effective treatments can be developed for GBM patients.

Amplification of rabbit hepatocyte growth factor and detection of its expression in COS-7 cell line.

We used RT-PCR, nested PCR to acquire the partial 5'- race fragment of rabbit HGF cDNA and the partial 3'- race fragment of rabbit HGF cDNA. Then, we used recombination PCR to acquire rabbit HGF successfully. Homology analysis was conducted among the sequence of RABHGF and known human and rat HGF by DNAStar.

SEMA6A is a prognostic biomarker in glioblastoma.

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is one of the most aggressive tumors in the central nervous system. SEMA6A, the first identified class 6 semaphorin, is contributed to regulate vascular development and adult angiogenesis. However, the function of SEMA6A in GBM is still undefined.

Pilot study special AT-rich sequence-binding protein 1 investigating as a potential biomarker for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

In the present study, we aimed to evaluate the expression of special AT-rich sequence-binding protein 1 (SATB1) in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and assess the correlation between its expression and the clinicopathological features and prognosis of the disease. SATB1 expression in ESCC tissue was determined by using immunohistochemical analysis, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, and western blot analysis. The relationship between SATB1 expression and clinicopathological features was examined by using the chi-squared test, and the survival rate was calculated by using the Kaplan-Meier survival curve.

Antitumor activity of adenoviral vector containing T42 and 4xT42 peptide gene through inducing apoptosis of tumor cells and suppressing angiogenesis.

The T42 peptide, generated from two active fragments of tumstatin, has been shown to have anti‑tumor activity. The adenoviral vector is the most frequently used vector in research and clinical trials for gene therapy. In the present study, the anti‑tumor activity of the T42 peptide and quadruple T42 (4xT42) peptide adenoviral vectors were elucidated for the first time, to the best of our knowledge.

MicroRNA-106a confers cisplatin resistance in non-small cell lung cancer A549 cells by targeting adenosine triphosphatase-binding cassette A1.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been discovered to have pivotal roles in regulating the drug resistance of various types of human cancer, including cisplatin (DDP) resistance in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Fewer studies have explored the roles of miR-106a in NSCLC-cell resistance to DDP and its precise molecular mechanism has remained elusive. In the present study, whether miR-106a was able to mediate resistance of the lung cancer cell line A549 to DDP was investigated.

Down-regulated miR-15a mediates the epithelial-mesenchymal transition in renal tubular epithelial cells promoted by high glucose.

High glucose (HG) has been reported to be associated with renal dysfunction. And one potential mechanism underlining the dysfunction is the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of renal tubular epithelial cells. Present study showed that EMT was induced in the HG-treated renal tubular epithelial cells by promoting the expression of mesenchymal phenotype molecules, such as α-SMA and collagen I, and down-regulating the expression of epithelial phenotype molecule E-cadherin.

Reduced levels of interleukin‑1 receptor antagonist act as a marker for pneumonia in the elderly.

Pneumonia is a disease causing serious inflammation and infection of the lungs and accounts for >50,000 mortalities annually. The elderly are at an increased risk of developing pneumonia. Pneumonia is more serious in the elderly than in any other age group due to the increased inflammation and risk of community‑acquired pneumonia associated with aging.

HTUPA as a new thrombolytic agent for acute myocardial infarction: a multicenter, randomized study.

Background: It is necessary to develop a new thrombolytic agent which can be used by a single bolus at first aid sites to decrease the time to reperfusion in clinical practice. HTUPA, a genetically engineered new thrombolytic with a longer half-life, is well qualified. We aim to compare the thrombolytic efficacy and safety of human tissue urokinase type plasminogen activator (HTUPA) to recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA) in Chinese patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI).

[Feasibility and outcome of rotational atherectomy for treating resistant chronic total occlusions].

Objective: To assess the application of rotational atherectomy to improving the success rate and outcome of percutaneous recanalization of resistant chronic total occlusion (CTO), i.e. the guidewire could cross the lesion but it is impossible to advance any device over the wire through the occluded segment.

[Comparison of periodontal indices and Porphyromonas gingivalis between conventional and self-ligating brackets].

Objective: To compare the periodontal indices and Porphyromonas gingivalis (P. gingivalis) between the use of self-ligating brackets and conventional brackets.

Methods: Thirty patients were divided into 2 groups(n=15).