Background and purpose:The E-cadherin as a pivotal structural protein is important for cellular polarity and maintainance of normal tissue morphology and cellular differentiation. Recently some study investigated the impact of the C/A genetic polymorphism at-160 from the site of the E-cadherin gene promoter on susceptibility in NPC. To evaluate the association of the E-cadherin gene promoter-160 C/A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and nasopharyngeal carcinoma risk in a Chinese population, we designed a hospital-based case-control study. Methods:Subjects included in this study were 303 patients deifnitely diagnosed with NPC, and 318 matched healthy controls. We used TaqMan Probe method for analyzing polymorphism. Results:The A/A genotype was associated with increased risk of NPC after being adjusted for age and gender (adjusted OR=2.09, 95%CI:1.03-4.22, P=0.04). When 2 gender groups were analysed respectively, female group with A/A genotypes showed a higher risk (OR=7.57, 95%CI:1.57-36.47, P=0.012). Besides, among NPC patients compared with males A/A genotype, females with A/A genotype had a signiifcant risk(OR=2.66, 95%CI:1.14-6.20, P=0.024). Conclusion:The A/A genotype of E-cadherin promoter-160 C/A might be genetic risk factor for NPC, especially female patients.

Objective To investigate the effect of IGF-1R inhibitor AG1024 on the esophageal cancer xenografts and the underlying mechanisms.Methods The mouse model was established by injecting EC9706 cells subcutaneous in nude mice.When the tumors were 100 mm3 in size,the mice were divided into 4 groups randomly withcontrol group with no treatment; irradiation group with 8 Gy 6 MV Xrays at 1 and 8 d each time; AG1024-treatment group with 30 μg/(kg-d) AG1024 injected intraperitoneally (ip) 5 times a week for two weeks ; combination group:receiving both 30 μg/(kg· d)-1 AG1024 ip and irradiation of 8 Gy X-rays.The diameters of the tumors were measured every 3 days.The mice were sacrificed and the weights of tumors were measured at 15 d after treatment.Tumor inhibition rate was calculated.The cell cycle was examined by flow cytometry.The expression of cell cycle protein D1 (CyclinDl) of the tumors were detected by immunohistochemical staining.Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase biotin-dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) assay was used to detect the cell apoptosis in the tumor tissue.Results The tumor weight in the irradiation group,AG1024-treatment group and combination group were significantly decreased compared with the control group,and the inhibition rate were 39.16％,18.73％,57.04％,respectively (F =13.566,P ＜ 0.05).After treatment with AG1024 and irradiation,tumor tissue cells were significantly accumulatedin the G0/G1 and G2/M phases and decreased in S phase compared to the irradiation group (t =-6.654,-16.738,12.871,P ＜ 0.05).The CyclinD1 expression of the combination group was significantly decreased compared with the control group.In the combination group,the apoptotic cells were detected by TUNEL assay.Conclusions IGF-1R inhibitor AG1024 could change the cell cycle and induce cell apoptosis,which might result in the enhancement of radiosensitivity on the esophageal cancer xenografts.

Objective To study the effect of thrombin on proliferation and invasion of esophageal cancer cell line Eca109, and to explore its possible mechanism. Methods The proliferation and invasion of Eca 109 cells treated with thrombin were detected by MTT and Transwell assay, respectively. The activity of matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP-2) and MMP-9 in the supernatant of Eca109 cells was detected by gelatin zymography. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and immunocytochemistry were used to study the mRNA expression of protease-activated receptor 1 (PAR-1), the important receptor of thrombin, and subcellular localization of PAR-1 protein in Eca109 cells, respectively. Results Thrombin could promote Eca109 cells proliferation in a dose-dependent manner. Cell proliferative rates of 0.5 U/ml and 1.0 U/ml thrombin were 34.38 % and 57.19 %, respectively (P< 0.05). Compared to that of control group, the number of Eca109 cells incubated with 1.0 U/ml thrombin invading through the basement membrane of Transwell was increased (303.33 ±6.66 vs. 116.33 ±11.51, P< 0.05). When treated with various concentrations of thrombin for 24 h, the activities of MMP-2 and MMP-9, especially MMP-9, in the supernatant of Eca109 cells were increased in a dose-dependent manner. Eca109 cells expressed PAR-1 mRNA, and PAR-1 protein was mainly located on the cellular membrane. Conclusion Thrombin increases proliferation and invasion of esophageal cancer Eca109 cells and enhances the activities of MMP-2 and MMP-9 in cells supernatant, which might be induced by activation of PAR-1 located on cellular membrane.

Objective:To investigate the value of serum miR-143 level combined with MRI in predicting the early response to concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) in cervical cancer.Methods:A total of 85 patients with pathologically confirmed cervical cancer underwent conventional MRI, intravoxel incoherent motion diffusion-weighted imaging (IVIM-DWI), and dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) before CCRT. The biopsy tissues and serum samples were collected. The differential expression of miRNA in the biopsy tissues was determined by microarray chip. The expression level of miR-143 in the serum samples was analyzed by qRT-PCR. All patients were divided into the non-residual and residual tumor groups according to post-treatment MRI. Pre-treatment clinical factors, MRI parameters and miR-143 between two groups were statistically analyzed by the univariate and multivariate analyses. The optimal thresholds and predictive performance for post-treatment incidence of residual tumors were estimated by drawing the ROC curve.Results:At one month after CCRT, there were 52 patients in the non-residual tumor group and 33 patients in the residual tumor group. In the residual tumor group, pre-treatment FIGO staging, apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), D and V e were significantly higher (all P<0.05), whereas K trans value was significantly lower ( P<0.001) when compared to those in the non-residual tumor group. The miRNA array analysis showed that there were 16 miRNAs with differential expression levels between two groups (all P<0.05). Among them, the increase of miR-143 was the most significant in the residual tumor group. Compared with the residual tumor group, the expression level of serum miR-143 was significantly down-regulated in the non-residual tumor group ( P=0.002). Compared with the SiHa cells, the expression level of miR-143 in the SiHa-R cells was significantly up-regulated ( P<0.05). Multivariate analysis showed that only miR-143, D, K trans and V e were the independent prognostic factors. The combination of multi-parametric MRI and miR-143 exhibited the highest predictive performance (AUC=0.975), with a sensitivity of 84.8% and a specificity of 96.2%. Conclusion:The combination of multi-parametric MRI with miR-143 further improves the predictive performance for residual tumors after CCRT, which contributes to the personalized treatment of cervical cancer.