Activity

Due to the difficulty in predicting the prognosis of endometrial carcinoma (EC) patients by clinical variables alone, this study aims to build a new EC prognosis model integrating clinical and molecular information, so as to improve the accuracy of predicting the prognosis of EC. The clinical and gene expression data of 496 EC patients in the TCGA database were used to establish and validate this model. General Cox regression was applied to analyze clinical variables and RNAs. Elastic net-penalized Cox proportional hazard regression was employed to select the best EC prognosis-related RNAs, and ridge regression was used to construct the EC prognostic model. The predictive ability of the prognostic model was evaluated by the Kaplan-Meier curve and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC-ROC). A clinical-RNA prognostic model integrating two clinical variables and 28 RNAs was established. The 5-year AUC of the clinical-RNA prognostic model was 0.932, which is higher than that of the clinical-alone (0.897) or RNA-alone prognostic model (0.836). This clinical-RNA prognostic model can better classify the prognosis risk of EC patients. In the training group (396 patients), the overall survival of EC patients was lower in the high-risk group than in the low-risk group . The same comparison result was also observed for the validation group. A novel EC prognosis model integrating clinical variables and RNAs was established, which can better predict the prognosis and help to improve the clinical management of EC patients.A rapid, highly sensitive, and robust diagnostic technique for point-of-care (PoC) testing can be developed using the combination of the nanoparticle-based lateral flow biosensors (LFB) and isothermal nucleic acid amplification technology. Here, we developed a polymerase spiral reaction (PSR) containing FITC-labeled DNA probes coupled with the nanoparticle-based LFB assay (PSR-LFB) to detect the amplified products to detect HBV visually. Under the optimized conditions, the PSR assay involved incubation of the reaction mixture for 20 min at 63°C, followed by visual detection of positive amplicons using LFB, which would generate a red test line based on the biotin/streptavidin interaction and immunoreactions, within 5 min. A cross-reactivity test revealed that the developed PSR-LFB assay showed good specificity for HBV and could distinguish HBV from other pathogenic microorganisms. For the analytical sensitivity, the limit of detection (LoD) of PSR-LFB assay was recorded as 5.4 copies/mL of HBV genomic DNA, which was ten-times more sensitive than qPCR and loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP). Additionally, all the HBV-positive (29/82) samples, identified using ELISA, were also successfully detected by the PSR-LFB assay. We found that the true positive rate of the PSR-LFB assay was higher than that of qPCR (100 vs. 89.66%, respectively), as well as the LAMP assay (100 vs. 96.55%, respectively). Furthermore, the integrated procedure could be completed in 60 min, including the processing of the blood samples (30 min), an isothermal reaction (20 min), and result visualization (5 min). Thus, this PSR-LFB assay could be a potentially useful technique for PoC diagnosis of HBV in resource-limited countries.Objective The aim of this study is to describe the macroscopic features and histologic details observed after retromuscular abdominal wall reconstruction with the combination of an absorbable mesh and a permanent mesh. Methods We have considered all patients that underwent abdominal wall reconstruction (AWR) with the combination of two meshes that required to be reoperated for any reason. Data was extracted from a prospective multicenter study from 2012 to 2019. Macroscopic evaluation of parietal adhesions and histological analysis were carried out in this group of patients. Results Among 466 patients with AWR, we identified 26 patients that underwent a reoperation after abdominal wall reconstruction using absorbable and permanent mesh. In eight patients, the reoperation was related to abdominal wall issues four patients were reoperated due to recurrence, three patients required an operation for chronic mesh infection and one patient for symptomatic bulging. A miscellanea of pathologies was the cause for reopns.Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) is a quick-cooking, rapidly expanding protein-rich crop with high iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn), but low bioavailability due to the presence of phytate, similar to other grains. Lentils dual fortified with Fe and Zn can significantly improve the bioavailable Fe and Zn content. Three milled lentil product types (LPTs) were fortified with Fe using NaFeEDTA (Fe fortified) or Zn from ZnSO4·H2O (Zn fortified), or both (dual fortified). Fe, Zn, phytic acid (PA) concentration, and relative Fe bioavailability (RFeB%) were assessed for samples from two fortified batches (initial and for 1 year stored). Fe, Zn, and RFeB% increased significantly in two batches of samples from the three LPTs, and decreased by 5-15% after 1 year of storage. PA concentration decreased from 8 to 15% after fortification of all samples from two batches of the three LPTs but showed different patterns of influence after storage. Dual-fortified lentil fortified with 24 mg Fe and 12 mg Zn 100 g-1 lentil had the highest amount of Fe and Zn, and the lowest PA concentration, and RFeB% was increased from 91.3 to 519.5%. Significant (p ≤ 0.01) Pearson correlations were observed between Fe concentration vs. PAFe molar ratio (MR), Fe concentration vs. RFeB%, RFeB% vs. PAFe MR, and Zn concentration vs. PAZn MR in all samples from two batches of the three LPTs. In conclusion, dual-fortified lentil can contribute significant bioavailable Fe and Zn to populations at risk of Fe and Zn deficiency.Salivary amylase initiates the digestion of starch and it has been hypothesized that salivary amylase may play a role in the development of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. The aim was to examine the interaction between copy number variation in the salivary amylase gene AMY1 and starch intake. We studied 3,624 adults without diabetes or elevated blood glucose in the Malmö Diet Cancer cohort. We assessed the associations and interactions between starch intake, AMY1 copies and glucose homeostasis traits (i.e., fasting plasma glucose, insulin and HOMA-IR) and risk of type 2 diabetes over an average of 18 follow-up years. AMY1 copy number was not associated with glucose, insulin or HOMA-IR. We observed a significant interaction between starch intake and AMY1 copies on insulin and HOMA-IR after adjusting for potential confounders (p less then 0.05). The inverse association between starch intake and insulin and HOMA-IR was stronger in the group with 10 or more copies (Ptrend less then 0.001). In addition, we observed an inverse association between starch intake and type 2 diabetes in the group with 10 or more copies (ptrend = 0.003), but not in the other groups. This cross-sectional observational study suggests that AMY1 copy numbers might interact with starch intake on glucose homeostasis traits. Interventional studies are required to determine whether individuals with high AMY1 copy numbers may benefit from a high starch intake.A poor diet is one of the leading causes for non-communicable diseases. Due to the increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity, there is a strong focus on dietary overconsumption and energy restriction. Many strategies focus on improving energy balance to achieve successful weight loss. One of the strategies to lower energy intake is refraining from sugars and replacing them with artificial sweeteners, which maintain the palatability without ingesting calories. Nevertheless, the safety and health benefits of artificial sweeteners consumption remain a topic of debate within the scientific community and society at large. Notably, artificial sweeteners are metabolized differently from each other due to their different properties. Therefore, the difference in metabolic fate of artificial sweeteners may underlie conflicting findings that have been reported related to their effects on body weight control, glucose homeostasis, and underlying biological mechanisms. Thus, extrapolation of the metabolic effects of a single artificial sweetener to all artificial sweeteners is not appropriate. Although many rodent studies have assessed the metabolic effects of artificial sweeteners, long-term studies in humans are scarce. The majority of clinical studies performed thus far report no significant effects or beneficial effects of artificial sweeteners on body weight and glycemic control, but it should be emphasized that the study duration of most studies was limited. Clearly, further well-controlled, long-term human studies investigating the effects of different artificial sweeteners and their impact on gut microbiota, body weight regulation and glucose homeostasis, as well as the underlying mechanisms, are warranted.In this study, by analyzing the relationship between hybrid combinations and parental lines, we found that the eating quality traits of hybrid combinations were determined by both parents. The sterile lines determined the overall eating quality characteristics of the hybrid combinations. For the same sterile line, there were some correlations between the hybrid combinations and restorer lines in terms of taste value, rapid visco analyzer breakdown and setback values, apparent amylose content, and cooked rice hardness and stickiness. Analysis of the starch fine structure between hybrid combinations and their restorer lines demonstrated positive correlations between them in terms of short-branch amylopectin chains and amylose. Moreover, different allelic combinations of the Wx gene showed different genetic effects on the eating quality traits of hybrid rice. Overall, this study provides a framework for the development of hybrid rice with superior eating quality.Macrophages are essential components of the human host immune system, which upon activation facilitates a broad pallet of immunomodulatory events including release of pro- or anti-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, restoration of immune homeostasis and/or wound healing. Moreover, some macrophage phenotypes are crucially involved in fibrogenesis through stimulation of myofibroblasts, while others promote fibrolysis. During the last decades, the role of resident liver macrophages viz. Kupffer cells and recruited monocytes/macrophages in acute and chronic liver diseases has gained interest and been extensively investigated. Specifically, the scavenger receptors CD163 and mannose receptor (CD206), expressed by macrophages, are of utmost interest since activation by various stimuli induce their shedding to the circulation. Thus, quantifying concentrations of these soluble biomarkers may be of promising clinical relevance in estimating the severity of inflammation and fibrosis and to predict outcomes such as survival. Imatinib mouse Here, we review the existing literature on soluble CD163 and soluble mannose receptor in liver diseases with a particular focus on their relationship to hepatic fibrosis in metabolic associated fatty liver disease, as well as in chronic hepatitis B and C.