Int J Med Sci
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Background: Ultrasound is emerging as an effective method for measuring muscle mass in elderly people. It has been applied in numerous studies to obtain measurement of lower limbs. The study aims to explore the relationship between sarcopenia and ultrasound measurements of biceps brachii. ⋯ Binary logistic regression analysis showed that age (OR=1.149, 95%CI: 1.060-1.246; P=0.001) and CSA (OR=0.465, 95%CI: 0.225-0.963; P=0.039) was significant indicators associated with sarcopenia. Area Under Curve was 0.822 (95%CI: 0.725-0.919, P<0.001) for the prediction equation composed of age, gender and CSA for sarcopenia. Conclusion: CSA of the biceps brachii measured with ultrasound is an important indicator associated with sarcopenia.
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Berberine is an isoquinoline alkaloid isolated from various Chinese herbs that has potential of anti-inflammatory, anti-lipidemic, anti-neoplastic, and anti-diabetic activity. In this study, we evaluated the anti-inflammatory efficacy of berberine on allergic airway inflammation by targeting epithelial cells. Allergic airway inflammation driven by T helper 2 (Th2)-type immunity is characterized by airway hyperresponsiveness, elevated IgE production, and eosinophilic infiltration. ⋯ NF-κB and MAP kinase pathways were seemingly unaffected in BEAS-2B cells with berberine treatment. Significant reduction of nuclear STAT6 protein expression in activated BEAS-2B cells with berberine treatment was observed. Current study reveals that berberine has inhibitory effect in pro-inflammatory cytokine-activated BEAS-2B cells through reducing IL-6 and CCL11 production, which is possibly modulated by suppressing STAT6 signaling pathway.
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Observational Study
Shorter Leukocyte Telomere Length coupled with lower expression of Telomerase Genes in patients with Essential Hypertension.
Background: The essential hypertension (EH) pathophysiology remains poorly understood. Many studies indicate that reduced leukocyte telomere length (LTL) is involved in the EH pathogenesis, however, the direct analysis of arterial telomere length (ATL) from EH patients and normotensive individuals did not show a difference. To address these discrepant observations between LTL and ATL, we performed comprehensive analyses of LTL, telomerase gene expression and their genetic variants in healthy normotensive controls and EH patients. ⋯ However, there were no differences in the genetic variants of rs2736100 and rs12696304 between patient and control groups. Conclusions: EH patients have significantly shorter LTL, which may result from defective TERT and TERC expression in leukocytes. Collectively, lower telomerase expression contributes to shorter LTL observed in EH patients, and telomerase activators may be considered for EH therapy.
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ATPase family AAA domain-containing protein 2 (ATAD2) is highly expressed in a variety of malignancies and can promote the proliferation of tumor cells and inhibit their differentiation. However, the expression of ATAD2 and its related mechanism in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) are still unknown. Immunohistochemical staining of ATAD2, cancer stem cells (CSCs) markers and immune checkpoint molecules was conducted on human OSCC specimens to determine the expression levels of these proteins and their correlations with the clinicopathological characteristics of ATAD2 in OSCC. ⋯ In addition, the protein expression of ATAD2 was notably correlated with the expression of B7-H4, PD-L1, CMTM6, Slug and ALDH1 in human OSCC. ATAD2 knockdown arrested the cell cycle, promoted the apoptosis, and inhibited the proliferation, migration, and EMT of OSCC cells. In conclusion, these findings revealed that ATAD2 is highly expressed in OSCC and can act as a poor prognostic indicator.
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Chemoresistance mediated by insulin resistance (IR) in HCC has already been validated. However, the underlying mechanism, especially the involvement of microRNAs (miRNAs) was unelucidated. In this study, miRNA microarrays and bioinformatics methods were employed to determine the dysregulation of miRNA by IR in HCC cells, and quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) was applied to valid the miRNA array data. ⋯ Interestingly, bioinformatics analysis by Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment pathway indicating that function of the predicted target genes of these dysregulated miRNAs were significantly enriched in the processes related with biosynthesis, catabolism, modification etc., and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) mapping showed that the biological regulatory mechanisms were integrated in cancer-related pathways. Moreover, we also constructed a network which connected the differentially expressed miRNAs to target genes, GO enrichments and KEGG pathways to reveal the hub miRNAs, genes and pathways. Collectively, our present study demonstrated the possible miRNAs and predicted target genes involving in the pathophysiology of insulin resistant HCC, providing novel insights into the molecular mechanisms of multidrug resistance in the insulin resistant HepG2 cells.