Quercetin increases macrophage cholesterol efflux to inhibit foam cell formation through activating PPARγ-ABCA1 pathway.

The accumulation of cholesterol in macrophages could induce the formation of foam cells and increase the risk of developing atherosclerosis. We wonder if quercetin, one of flavonoids with anti-inflammation functions in different cell types, could elevate the development of foam cells formation in atherosclerosis. We treated foam cells derived from oxLDL induced THP-1 cells with quercetin, and evaluated the foam cells formation, cholesterol content and apoptosis of the cells.

Role of IL-10 gene polymorphisms on the susceptibility for esophageal cancer and its association with environmental factors.

We conducted a hospital-based case-control study to investigate the association of three common SNPs (-1082G/A rs1800896, -819T/C rs1800871, and -592A/C rs1800872) of IL-10 gene polymorphisms with the susceptibility to esophageal cancer in a Chinese population. 246 patients with pathologically proven esophageal cancer and 492 healthy control subjects were collected in our study. Genotyping of IL-10-1082G/A rs1800896, -819T/C rs1800871, and -592A/C rs1800872 was performed using the Sequenom MassARRAY platform (Sequenom; San Diego, CA).

Effect of rapamycin (RAPA) on the growth of lung cancer and its mechanism in mice with A549.

Objective: To investigate the effects of rapamycin (RAPA) on the tumor growth of lung cancer in the mice bearing A549 and the mechanisms.

Methods: 60 mice with A549 lung cancer models established were randomly divided into model group, low RAPA dose group and high RAPA dose group. The low dose group underwent intraperitoneal injection of 1.

Helicobacter pylori infection and pepsinogen levels have clinical significance in hypertension patients.

Helicobacter pylori (Hp) infection is known to alter levels of pepsinogens (PG) and is correlated with several disease states, including gastric and cardiovascular diseases. This study sought to assess whether Hp infection is associated with hypertension as well as to identify the value of assessing the PG I/PG II ratio in patients with hypertension. The study included 396 individuals with hypertension who were assessed for infection with Hp by colloidal gold assay.

Up-regulation of miR-335 predicts a favorable prognosis in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Introduction: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are noncoding RNAs that regulate multiple cellular processes during cancer progression. MiR-335 has recently been identified to be involved in tumorigenesis of several cancers such as ovarian cancer and gastric cancer. However, the regulation of miR-335 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) has not been reported yet.