Objective: To investigate the effect of Twist, β-catenin and E-cadherin on the recurrence and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and its correlation with clinical prognosis.Methods; Immunohistochemical staining (SP) was conducted to detect the expression of Twist, β-catenin and E-cadherin in 97 hepatocellular carcinoma patients (49 with recurrence and metastasis and 48 without recurrence and metastasis).Results: The recurrence and metastasis of HCC were correlated with clinical stage (P=0.000), but were not correlated with sex or age (P=0.424, P=0.738).The abnormal expression of Twist and β-catenin in the recurrence and metastasis group was higher than that in the group without recur-rence or metastasis (,0=-0.000, P=0.000).The positive ratio of E-cadherin in the recurrence and metastasis group was lower than that in the group without recurrence or metastasis (P=0.027).The mean survival was 28.880±3.285 months in patients with positive expression of Twist and 31.477±3.359 months in patients with positive expression of β-catenin.The median survival time of them was 26 and 28 months, respctively.The mean survival was 44.603±3.521 months in patients without Twist expression and 42.009±3.720 months in patients without β-catenin expression.The median survival time of them was 49 and 45 months, respectively.The survival of patients with positive expression of Twist and β-catenin was shorter than that in patients without expression of Twist and β-catenin (P=0.002, P=0.029).The mean survival time and median survival time of patients with Twist and β-catenin expression were 44.514±3.447 months and 49 months, respectively, significantly higher than those in patients without Twist and β-catenin expression (P=0.002), which were 29.110±3.581 months and 25 months, respectively.Conclusion: The overexpression of Twist and β-catenin as well as decreased expression of E-cad-herin may play critical roles in the recurrence and metastasis of HCC and indicate poor prognosis.

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to explore the effect of fluoxetine on memory, locomotor and depressive behavior in transient forebrain ischemic model of gerbil. METHODS: Doses of fluoxetine (10, 40 mg/kg) or vehicle were intraperitoneally administered once 30 min before ischemic surgery in gerbil. Novel object recognition test, spontaneous motor activity, learned helplessness test were performed 4 days, 8 days, or 9 days, respectively, after sham or ischemic surgery. RESULTS: Fluoxetine treatment (40 mg/kg) significantly reduced recognition memory in sham operated gerbil. However, fluoxetine (10, 40 mg/kg) did not affect ischemia-induced impairment in recognition memory. The treatment of fluoxetine (10, 40 mg/kg) significantly inhibited locomotor hyperactivity induced by transient ischemia even though fluoxetine (40 mg/kg) did not affect spontaneous motor activity in the sham operated gerbils. Fluoxetine did not affect depressive behavior in sham and ischemic gerbils. CONCLUSION: The treatment of fluoxetine inhibited ischemia-induced hyperactivity, but did not affect memory and depressive behavior in transient forebrain ischemic gerbils.

Verification of internal organ motion during treatment and its feedback is essential to accurate dose delivery to the moving target. We developed an offline based internal organ motion verification system (IMVS) using cine EPID images and evaluated its accuracy and availability through phantom study. For verification of organ motion using live cine EPID images, a pattern matching algorithm using an internal surrogate, which is very distinguishable and represents organ motion in the treatment field, like diaphragm, was employed in the self-developed analysis software. For the system performance test, we developed a linear motion phantom, which consists of a human body shaped phantom with a fake tumor in the lung, linear motion cart, and control software. The phantom was operated with a motion of 2 cm at 4 sec per cycle and cine EPID images were obtained at a rate of 3.3 and 6.6 frames per sec (2 MU/frame) with 1,024x768 pixel counts in a linear accelerator (10 MVX). Organ motion of the target was tracked using self-developed analysis software. Results were compared with planned data of the motion phantom and data from the video image based tracking system (RPM, Varian, USA) using an external surrogate in order to evaluate its accuracy. For quantitative analysis, we analyzed correlation between two data sets in terms of average cycle (peak to peak), amplitude, and pattern (RMS, root mean square) of motion. Averages for the cycle of motion from IMVS and RPM system were 3.98+/-0.11 (IMVS 3.3 fps), 4.005+/-0.001 (IMVS 6.6 fps), and 3.95+/-0.02 (RPM), respectively, and showed good agreement on real value (4 sec/cycle). Average of the amplitude of motion tracked by our system showed 1.85+/-0.02 cm (3.3 fps) and 1.94+/-0.02 cm (6.6 fps) as showed a slightly different value, 0.15 (7.5% error) and 0.06 (3% error) cm, respectively, compared with the actual value (2 cm), due to time resolution for image acquisition. In analysis of pattern of motion, the value of the RMS from the cine EPID image in 3.3 fps (0.1044) grew slightly compared with data from 6.6 fps (0.0480). The organ motion verification system using sequential cine EPID images with an internal surrogate showed good representation of its motion within 3% error in a preliminary phantom study. The system can be implemented for clinical purposes, which include organ motion verification during treatment, compared with 4D treatment planning data, and its feedback for accurate dose delivery to the moving target.
Diaphragm ; Human Body ; Lung ; Particle Accelerators ; Track and Field