Objective To investigate the changes in histological characteristics and collagen content in uterosacral and cardinal ligaments of pefimenopausal women in relation to relaxation of pelvic supports.Methods Twenty-eight subjects undergoing hysterectomies were selected,in which 14 cases were perimenopausal women with relaxation of pelvic support as the relaxation group and 14 women at perimenopansal age with leomyoma,cervical cancer,adenomyosis as the control group.Samples of cardinal ligaments and uterosacral ligaments were obtained at hysterectomies,and the tissues were shced and stained bv Masson's trichrome technique.Histological characteristics of the samples were studied and immunohistochemistry assay was applied to demonstrate the contents of collagen types I andⅢ.Results (1)The collagen in uterosacral ligaments and cardinal ligaments were stained blue by tlle MaSson's trichome technique.In comparison to the control group,the relaxation group had milder positive stains of the collagen and the stains were distributed in unequal intensities.Collagen content was arranged in loose pattern.Focal arrangement of the collagen was dense but fragmented.Collagen fibers were atrophic. (2)In immunohistochemistry assay and image analysis,collagen was positive in light to deep brown areas.In the relaxation group,positive units of collagen types I and III in cardinal ligaments were 13.8±2.1 and 9.6±2.4 respectively.Positive units of coHagen types I and Ⅲ of cardinal ligaments in the control group were 27.4 ±3.5 and 17.7 ±4.0 respectively.Difierences between these two groups were statistically significant (P

BACKGROUND:The umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells possess multipotent differentiation capacity, but less research focus on its differentiation into fibroblasts.
OBJECTIVE:To investigate the capacity of human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells differentiating into fibroblasts.
METHODS:Using adherent method, human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells were isolated, and flow cytometric analysis of the surface antigen was performed. Passage 3 cells were selected for osteogenic and
adipogenic differentiation, and cells differentiated into fibroblasts under the induction of basic fibroblast growth factor. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Adherent stem cells were stably isolated from the umbilical cord. Human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells lowly expressed CD31, CD45, CD40, HLA-DR, but strongly expressed CD29, CD90, CD44, CD105. Oil red O staining showed red droplets were ful of the cytoplasm after adipogenic induction;alizarin red staining showed red calcium nodules after osteogenic induction. After induced by basic fibroblast growth factor, the type I col agen expression was significantly higher than that in the control group. These findings indicate that the adherent human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells are reliably isolated with high purity;basic fibroblast growth factor can induce differentiation of umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells into fibroblasts.

Objective:This paper is to propose a calibration model based on sine function which enables more choices to determine the functional relationship between the absorbance and the concentration of the tested substance.Methods:This paper uses Taylor series expansion and Levenberg-Marquardt to obtain the optimal parameters for the Sine model and then summarizes the characters of the Sine model. On the basis of these characters, this paper compares and evaluates the experimental data processed by the Sine model from four aspects: correctness, precision, linearity and correlation.Results:The generated sine function calibration model achieved deviations within ±3% of the national standard substance, precision ( CV%) less than 2%, and a linear correlation coefficient greater than 0.990 within the measurement range of 32-710 mg/L. The correlation coefficients between the sine model and other well-performing linear calibration models for 104 clinical samples were all greater than 0.990. Conclusions:The performance evaluation of the prealbumin assay kit using the sine function calibration model meets industry standards and shows good correlation with the results of clinical sample measurements. This indicates that the sine function calibration model can serve as a new calibration model for in vitro diagnostic research and clinical applications.

Epigenetic therapies that cause genome-wide epigenetic alterations, could trigger local interplay between different histone marks, leading to a switch of transcriptional outcome and therapeutic responses of epigenetic treatment. However, in human cancers with diverse oncogenic activation, how oncogenic pathways cooperate with epigenetic modifiers to regulate the histone mark interplay is poorly understood. We herein discover that the hedgehog (Hh) pathway reprograms the histone methylation landscape in breast cancer, especially in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). This facilitates the histone acetylation caused by histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors and gives rise to new therapeutic vulnerability of combination therapies. Specifically, overexpression of zinc finger protein of the cerebellum 1 (ZIC1) in breast cancer promotes Hh activation, facilitating the switch of H3K27 methylation (H3K27me) to acetylation (H3K27ac). The mutually exclusive relationship of H3K27me and H3K27ac allows their functional interplay at oncogenic gene locus and switches therapeutic outcomes. Using multiple in vivo breast cancer models including patient-derived TNBC xenograft, we show that Hh signaling-orchestrated H3K27me and H3K27ac interplay tailors combination epigenetic drugs in treating breast cancer. Together, this study reveals the new role of Hh signaling-regulated histone modifications interplay in responding to HDAC inhibitors and suggests new epigenetically-targeted therapeutic solutions for treating TNBC.