Int J Med Sci
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Comparative Study
Association of Maternal Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D Concentrations in Second Trimester with Delivery Mode in A Chinese Population.
Objective: To determine the maternal serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] concentrations in a Chinese population and investigate its associations with subsequent delivery mode by studying 1924 unrelated pregnant women. Methods: The serum 25(OH)D concentrations was measured by euzymelinked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Simultaneously, maternal information and subsequent delivery mode were collected. ⋯ Only in the subgroup of the women without abnormal pregnancy history, higher 25(OH)D (> 75.0 nmol/L) concentrations could significantly decrease the risk of caesarean section. Conclusion: Vitamin D deficiency is a quite serious problem in Chinese pregnant women. There is no evidence that the maternal serum 25(OH)D concentrations is associated with increased risk of caesarean section.
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Comparative Study
An Application of NGS for WDR36 Gene in Taiwanese Patients with Juvenile-Onset Open-Angle Glaucoma.
Primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) is one of the most important disease in ophthalmology with high prevalence and risk of irreversible blindness. If diagnosed before the age of 35, it is usually categorized as juvenile open-angle glaucoma (JOAG). The WDR36 gene is reckoned as one of the major causative genes of POAG, and had been studied to be related to the pathogenesis of POAG in the literature. ⋯ Among these 26 variations, there were 3 noteworthy variations. First, a novel variation c.460-650A>G was found in our study which might cause premature termination of splicing of the conserved domain in WDR36; second, c.1494+1111G>T (rs13178997) had significantly different frequency in our JOAG patients compared to the reference frequency on NCBI; third, a variation c.710+30C>T (rs10038177) was found in our study, which had already been reported to be related to high-pressure glaucoma. We offer the profile of WDR36 in JOAG in Taiwan population, and we suggest that WDR36 gene is involved in the pathogenesis of JOAG as a subordinate modifier gene.
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Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the sixth most common cancer globally and the third most common cause of cancer mortality. In Taiwan, HCC is the second leading cause of cancer death. CCL4 (C-C chemokine ligand 4), is a macrophage inflammatory protein with a chief effect in inflammation and immune-regulation, and was documented in cancer progression by promoting instability in the tumor environment. ⋯ We found that the A/G homozygotes of CCL4 rs10491121 polymorphism reduced the risks for HCC. On the other hand, AG and GA haplotypes of 2 CCL4 SNPs (rs1049112 and rs171915) also reduced the risks for HCC by 0.025 and 0.515 fold, respectively. The present report is the first time to examine the risk factors associated with CCL4 SNPs in HCC progression in Taiwan.
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Background: Currently, sorafenib is the only systemic chemotherapy drug for advanced stage Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, emerging data from some clinical HCC patients indicate that sorafenib alone has only moderate antitumor efficacy, and could not inhibit disease metastasis and progression. KU-55933 is a specific ATM inhibitor, which has pro-apoptotic effect on tumor cells. ⋯ The combination treatment with sorafenib and KU-55933 resulted in a strong synergistic effect in vitro. Conclusion: Our results demonstrate that sorafenib combined with KU-55933 treatment does effectively inhibit proliferation of HCC cell lines synergistically. These data suggests that KU-55933 may be a promising chemosensitizer to sorafenib in the treatment of HCC.
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In Taiwan, oral cancer is the fourth most common cancer and the most common malignancy with a poor prognosis. Endothelial cell-specific molecule-1 (ESM-1) is secreted by vascular endothelial cells in the liver, lungs, kidneys, and gastrointestinal tract. ESM-1 expression is associated with tumor prognosis, metastasis, and angiogenesis in many cancers. ⋯ TCGA bioinformatics database analysis revealed that ESM-1 expression was significantly higher in OSCC patients than in normal individuals (p < 0.05). In addition, the examination revealed similar results for the ESM-1 expression levels and pathological stage in OSCC. In conclusion, plasma ESM-1 is a novel biomarker for predicting the T status in OSCC patients.