Exp Ther Med
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Infantile hemangioma is one of the most common benign tumors affecting children, with ~10-15% requiring medical treatment. These tumors consist of endothelial cells and stromal components, including fibroblasts, pericytes and mast cells. Effects of propranolol treatment in combination with bevacizumab or vincristine on cell growth were compared in the current study using human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and BJ human normal fibroblasts (BJs) to determine potential synergic effects in vitro. ⋯ Single treatment with vincristine, propranolol or bevacizumab induced apoptosis in BJs and HUVECs. In BJs, triple treatment exhibited the greatest influence on apoptosis, compared with single and dual treatments and in HUVECs, vincristine and bevacizumab combination treatment induced apoptosis to the highest level. The present study offers novel perspectives in drug repurposing studies for the three drugs, particularly in diseases where the pathogenesis is based on healthy endothelial cell proliferation, including hemangiomas.
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Spinal cord injury (SCI) results in inflammation, and TLR4, which is an inflammatory factor, has an important role in the pathological injury that occurs following SCI. Recently, bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) have been demonstrated to be a novel treatment in SCI. However, the underlying mechanism of neuroprotection in SCI by BMSCs remains unclear. ⋯ Furthermore, it was demonstrated that BMSCs downregulated the expression of apoptosis factor caspase-12 in the SCI rat model. The present results demonstrated that BMSCs may have incorporated into the spinal cord to improve locomotor function after SCI, partly via the TLR4/NF-κB signaling pathway. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to determine that BMSCs prevented secondary injury and enhanced functional recovery in SCI via inhibition of TLR4/NF-κB-mediated inflammation.
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The present study investigated the mechanism underlying the protective effect of dexmedetomidine (Dex) on hippocampal neuronal HT22 cell apoptosis induced by the anesthetics isoflurane and bupivacaine. The cellular morphology was observed using a phase contrast microscope. The effects of anesthetics on cell proliferation were assayed using a Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8). ⋯ Analysis of the protein expression levels revealed that exposure to anesthetics resulted in the activation of cleaved caspase-3, Bax, cytochrome c, HIF-α and PKM2 and decreased the expression levels of Bcl-2, p-PI3K and p-AKT. However, these changes were inhibited by treatment with Dex or the PI3K/AKT agonist. Dex protected hippocampal neuronal HT22 cells from anesthetic-induced apoptosis through the promotion of the PI3K/AKT pathway and inhibition of the HIF-α/PKM2 axis.
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The aim of the current study was to analyze the efficacy of percutaneous transforaminal endoscopic discectomy (PTED) in the treatment of lumbar degenerative disc disease for senior patients. The clinical and follow-up data of senior patients were retrospectively reviewed. Patients were divided into a PTED group and an open surgery group. ⋯ In the open surgery group, patients suffered from multiple postoperative complications, including constipation, urinary system infection, wound infection, gastrointestinal hemorrhagic stress ulcer, pneumonia, pulmonary embolism, mortality following myocardial infarction, mortality following cerebral infarction, and hemiplegia following cerebral hemorrhage. By contrast, patients in the PTED group did not experience any of these complications. In conclusion, PTED resulted in reduced trauma and a lower incidence of severe complications compared with open surgery, which suggests that PTED is a safe and effective minimally invasive surgery for senior patients with lumbar degenerative disc disease.
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The present study aimed to assess the usefulness of soluble triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 1 (sTREM-1) in the diagnosis of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) in paediatric patients with congenital heart disease (CHD) following cardiac surgery. The current prospective study enrolled 48 patients with congenital heart diseases who were suspected of having VAP; these patients were undergoing cardiac surgery between August 2016 and October 2017 in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit of Shanghai Children's Medical Center (Shanghai, China). A total of 31 patients were diagnosed with VAP using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay, while 17 patients without VAP were designated as the Non-VAP group. ⋯ BALF specimens were also sent to the microbiology laboratory for PCR assays and quantitative culturing. The positive detection rate of bacteria using the PCR assay and traditional culture was 64.6% (31/48) and 39.6% (19/48). sTREM-1 was significantly higher in the BALF (146.21 pg/ml vs. 118.06 pg/ml) and EVC (125.29 pg/ml vs. 120.48 pg/ml) of patients with VAP demonstrated compared with the patients without VAP. The findings suggest that the detection of sTREM-1 in BALF and EVC samples may be useful for the diagnosis of VAP following heart surgery in children.