Continuing medical education is an important task of military medical universities,which undertake a large amount of education and training of medical officers.This article made a survey of some military medical officers and put forward some suggestions in order to sum up experience and lessons and provide a reference for the education in the future.

Objective: To detect the expression of nuclear transcription factor OCT-4 in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) and its relationship with CD44, and to explore the relationship between OCT-4 and the cancer stem cells and its significance in tumors. Methods: Sixty-nine specimens of laryngeal surgical resection were selected from LSCC patients from January 2008 to December 2012 in Lanzhou General Hospital of Lanzhou Military Region. Another 18 cases of normal laryngeal mucosa tissues were selected as control. OCT-4, CD44 and OCT-4⁺ CD44⁺ cells were observed by using tissue microarray, immunohistochemistry staining and immunohistochemical double staining techniques, and the relationship between their pathological features, such as expression intensity, distribution, cell morphology and clinical parameters were analyzed to explore the clinicopathological significance of CD44⁺ OCT-4⁺ cells. Results: The percentage of CD44-positive cells in LSCC was significantly higher than that in normal laryngeal mucosa tissues [(63.62±8.76)% vs. (13.61±5.81)%, P < 0.001]. The percentage of OCT-4-positive cells in LSCC was (50.44±10.84)%, while it was not expressed in normal laryngeal mucosa tissues (P < 0.001). In LSCC, the expression of OCT-4 was significantly lower than that of CD44 (P < 0.001); the coexpression rate of these two molecules was (5.07±2.90)%. The percentage of CD44-positive cells in poorly differentiated LSCC was significantly higher than that in the well-differentiated group [62.78% (8.22%) vs. 28.62% (30.45%), P < 0.05]. The percentage of OCT-4-positive cells in poorly differentiated LSCC was significantly higher than that in the well-differentiated group [49.89% (13.12%) vs. 33.00% (20.00%), P < 0.05]. In the cancer stem cells, the percentage of OCT-4⁺ CD44⁺ cells in poorly differentiated carcinoma group was also significantly higher than that in the well-differentiated carcinoma group (P < 0.01), the lower the degree of differentiation, the higher the expression level of OCT-4. In LSCC poorly differentiated group, the expressions of OCT-4 and CD44 showed no significant difference between different T stages, but the percentage of OCT-4⁺ CD44⁺ cells elevated with T stage increasing (P < 0.05). The expression of OCT-4 in patients with lymph node metastasis was significantly higher than that in patients without lymph node metastasis (P < 0.01). Conclusions The expressions of OCT-4 and CD44 are associated with the malignant biological behaviors of LSCC closely. OCT-4 may be a valuable marker of tumor stem cells of LSCC.

BACKGROUND: Bladder cancer, characterized by a high potential of tumor recurrence, has high lifelong monitoring and treatment costs. To date, tumor cells with intrinsic softness have been identified to function as cancer stem cells in several cancer types. Nonetheless, the existence of soft tumor cells in bladder tumors remains elusive. Thus, our study aimed to develop a micro-barrier microfluidic chip to efficiently isolate deformable tumor cells from distinct types of bladder cancer cells. METHODS: The stiffness of bladder cancer cells was determined by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The modified microfluidic chip was utilized to separate soft cells, and the 3D Matrigel culture system was to maintain the softness of tumor cells. Expression patterns of integrin β8 (ITGB8), protein kinase B (AKT), and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) were determined by Western blotting. Double immunostaining was conducted to examine the interaction between F-actin and tripartite motif containing 59 (TRIM59). The stem-cell-like characteristics of soft cells were explored by colony formation assay and in vivo studies upon xenografted tumor models. RESULTS: Using our newly designed microfluidic approach, we identified a small fraction of soft tumor cells in bladder cancer cells. More importantly, the existence of soft tumor cells was confirmed in clinical human bladder cancer specimens, in which the number of soft tumor cells was associated with tumor relapse. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the biomechanical stimuli arising from 3D Matrigel activated the F-actin/ITGB8/TRIM59/AKT/mTOR/glycolysis pathways to enhance the softness and tumorigenic capacity of tumor cells. Simultaneously, we detected a remarkable up-regulation in ITGB8, TRIM59, and phospho-AKT in clinical bladder recurrent tumors compared with their non-recurrent counterparts. CONCLUSIONS The ITGB8/TRIM59/AKT/mTOR/glycolysis axis plays a crucial role in modulating tumor softness and stemness. Meanwhile, the soft tumor cells become more sensitive to chemotherapy after stiffening, that offers new insights for hampering tumor progression and recurrence.
Animals ; Mice ; Humans ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt/metabolism* ; Actins/metabolism* ; Neoplasm Recurrence, Local ; TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases/metabolism* ; Urinary Bladder Neoplasms ; Glycolysis ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Cell Proliferation ; Mammals/metabolism* ; Tripartite Motif Proteins/metabolism* ; Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins/metabolism* ; Integrin beta Chains