BACKGROUND:Endothelial progenitor cells can be used to repair vascular injuries and predict severity of early vascular injuries. These biological characteristics have been recommended to the research of aneurysm, which provide new ideas for studying the occurrence, expansion and early staging diagnosis of aneurysm.
OBJECTIVE:To elaborate the effects of endothelial progenitor cells on the aneurysm in the clinical trials based on the biological characteristics of endothelial progenitor cells, including proliferation, migration, adherence and senescence.
METHODS:A computer-based search of Wanfang, CNKI, Springer, PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Ovid was performed using the keywords of“endothelial progenitor cells, precursor cell, aneurysm, stem cel”. Irrelevant and repetitive articles were excluded, and the result analysis was conducted.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Aneurysms patients display decreased endothelial progenitor cells in the peripheral circulating blood accompanied by functional impairment. After aneurysm-related treatment, the number of endothelial progenitor cells can increase. Application of endothelial progenitor cells can early predict occurrence, development, and rupture of aneurysms, which is also a therapeutic method to prevent aneurysms. How endothelial progenitor cells are used clinical y to prevent occurrence and development of aneurysms is a serious problem to be solved.

Objective:To investigate the differential expression of four-jointed box kinase 1 (FJX1) gene in colorectal cancer and its relationship with prognosis and the related mechanisms.Methods:On July 16, 2021, the transcriptome data and clinical data of colorectal cancer were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database to analyze the expressions of FJX1 mRNA in colorectal cancer tissues and paracancerous tissues, and the relationship between FJX1 mRNA and clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of patients. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was drawn to evaluate the value of FJX1 mRNA in predicting the survival of patients with colorectal cancer. Cox proportional hazards model was used to evaluate whether FJX1 mRNA was an independent influencing factor for prognosis of colorectal cancer. The overall survival (OS) time and survival status of colorectal cancer patients were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database, and the relationship between FJX1 mRNA and prognosis of patients was analyzed. The methylation data of colorectal cancer was downloaded from the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC xena) database to determine the degree of methylation at each site of FJX1 mRNA and the correlation between the expression of FJX1 mRNA and the degree of methylation at each site. Signaling pathways associated with FJX1 mRNA in colorectal cancer were analyzed by using the Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) (4.1.0). The correlation between FJX1 mRNA and tumor-infiltrating immune cells was investigated by using the Tumor Immunity Evaluation Resource (TIMER) database. Spearman analysis and small molecule/drug sensitivity analysis were used to explore the correlation between FJX1 mRNA expression and drug sensitivity.Results:In the transcriptome data of 612 colorectal cancer cases in TCGA database, the expression of FJX1 mRNA in colorectal cancer tissues was higher than that in the paracancerous tissues ( P < 0.001). In 549 colorectal cancer patients with complete data, FJX1 mRNA expression was correlated with M stage ( P = 0.007), pathological stage (stage Ⅳ vs. stage Ⅰ, P = 0.016; stage Ⅳ vs. stage Ⅱ, P = 0.03; stage Ⅳ vs. stage Ⅲ, P = 0.012), but it was not correlated with age, gender, T stage and N stage (all P > 0.05). In TCGA database and GEO database, the patients were divided into high expression group and low expression group according to the median expression of FJX1 mRNA. The OS in FJX1 mRNA high expression group was worse than that in low expression group (all P<0.05). The ROC curve of FJX1 mRNA expression on the 1-, 3-, and 5-year OS rates of colorectal cancer patients was drawn by using the data in TCGA database, and the areas under the curve (AUC) were 0.595, 0.625 and 0.764, respectively. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that age ( HR = 1.050, 95% CI 1.028-1.073, P < 0.001), T stage ( HR = 1.787, 95% CI 1.090-2.927, P = 0.021) and high FJX1 mRNA expression ( HR = 1.160, 95% CI 1.049-1.282, P = 0.004) were independent influencing factors for poor OS in colorectal cancer. The gene set enrichment analysis found that FJX1 mRNA was related to colorectal cancer, TGF-β signaling pathway, VEGF signaling pathway, Wnt signaling pathway, etc. The expression of FJX1 mRNA in colon cancer was negatively correlated with the degree of methylation of FJX1 mRNA ( r = -0.16, P < 0.001), and the expression of FJX1 mRNA in rectal cancer was positively correlated with the degree of methylation of FJX1 mRNA ( r = 0.33, P < 0.001). The expression of FJX1 mRNA was related to the infiltration of resting memory CD4 + T cells, M0 macrophages and resting dendritic cells. FJX1 mRNA was significantly associated with the resistance of various chemotherapeutic drugs and tumor-targeted drugs such as methotrexate, 5-fluorouracil, gefitinib, etc. Conclusions:FJX1 mRNA may be a potential biomarker of colorectal cancer and is associated with the infiltration of immune cells.

Objective:To investigate whether miR-548b-3p can regulate the malignant biological traits of hepatocellular carcinoma cells by down-regulating the expression of decoy receptor 3( DcR3). Methods:The miR-548b-3p levels in 5 common hepatoma cell lines Hep3b, HepG2, Huh7.5.1, PLC and 97H were detected by real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR. The experimental hepatoma cell lines were purchased from Shanghai Cancer Institute. The subcutaneous tumor formation experiment in nude mice included two parts: miR-548b-3p over expression group and down expression group. miR-548b-3p over expression experiment included Huh7.5.1- miR-548b-3p cell group and Huh7.5.1-NC cell group. The experimental group with low expression of miR-548b-3p included PLC- miR-548b-3p-sponge group and PLC-NC cell group, with 5 nude mice in each group. The nude mice used in the experiment were male Balb/c strain, body weight 20-25 g, 4-6 weeks old. Starbase software was used to predict whether there were binding sites between miR-548b-3p and DcR3. Dual luciferase reporting assay to verify whether DcR3 is the target gene of miR-548b-3p. Rescue experiments were conducted to verify whether the effects of miR-548b-3p on the proliferation, invasion and migration of liver cancer cells were realized through DcR3. Statistical analysis was performed using Graphpad Prism 9. Measurement data with normal distribution were expressed as mean±standard deviation( ± s), and t-test was adopted for comparison between general measurement data groups. Results:The relative expression level of 2 -ΔΔCt was used as the parameter for real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR comparison. Hep3b expression level was 1, HepG2 expression level was 0.902, Huh7.5.1 expression level was 0.712, PLC expression level was 1.293, and 97H expression level was 0.818. The final results showed that, The highest expression of miR-548b-3p was in PLC cells, and the lowest expression was in Huh7.5.1 cells. The subcutaneous tumor formation experiment of nude mice showed that after 4 weeks, the tumor volume of Huh7.5.1- miR-548b-3p was(444.77±142.34) mm 3, and that of Huh7.5.1-NC was(918.80±139.21) mm 3. The tumor volume of PLC- miR-548b-3p-sponge was(407.49±58.50) mm 3, and that of PLC-NC was(218.62±47.55) mm 3. The binding sites of miR-548b-3p and DcR3 were predicted by Starbase software. Dual luciferase assay showed that DcR3 was the target gene of miR-548b-3p. Rescue experiments verified that the effects of miR-548b-3p on the proliferation, invasion and migration of liver cancer cells were realized through DcR3. Conclusion:miR-548b-3p can regulate the proliferation, invasion, migration and other malignant biological traits of liver cancer cells, and it is achieved by down-regulating the expression level of DcR3.

Objective:To investigate the expression of anti apoptosis inhibitor antibody in serum of patients with advanced primary liver cancer and its relationship with the prognosis after transcatheter hepatic arterial chemoembolization (TACE).Methods:One hundred and three patients with advanced primary liver cancer were selected from our hospital and treated with TACE. Serum anti-survivin antibody expression levels were detected 1 day before surgery and 1 month after surgery. To analyze the relationship between serum anti-survivin antibody level and short-term therapeutic effect, clinicopathological features and prognosis were analyzed.Results:the level of anti-survivin antibody in patients with disease remission was significantly lower than that in patients without disease remission (81.84±9.30 vs. 90.84±10.21, P<0.05), and the change of anti-survivin antibody in patients with disease remission was significantly higher than that in patients without disease remission (30.93±5.63 vs. 22.75±4.52, P<0.05). The changes of anti-survivin antibody before and after TACE were correlated with TNM stage, maximum tumor diameter and degree of differentiation ( P<0.05). The results of survival analysis showed that the postoperative survival of patients with △ reduced anti-survivin antibody was significantly better than that of patients without △ reduced anti-survivin antibody ( P<0.05). The area under the ROC curve was 0.850 in the prediction of one-year death value of patients with primary liver cancer by △ anti-survivin antibody. Conclusion:the difference of anti survivin antibody before and after TACE in patients with advanced liver cancer is closely related to the short-term and long-term prognosis.

Arsenic trioxide (ATO) has been identified as an effective treatment for acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) but is much less effective against solid tumors such as hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In the search for ways to enhance its therapeutic efficacy against solid tumors, we have examined its use in combination with a novel derivative of β-elemene, N-(β-elemene-13-yl)tryptophan methyl ester (ETME). Here we report the effects of the combination on cell viability, apoptosis, the cell cycle and mitochondria membrane potential (MMP) in HCC SMMC-7721 cells. We found that the two compounds acted synergistically to enhance antiproliferative activity and apoptosis. The combination also decreased the MMP, down-regulated Bcl-2 and pro-proteins of the caspase family, and up-regulated Bax and BID, all of which were reversed by the p53 inhibitor, pifithrin-α. In addition, the combination induced cell cycle arrest at the G2/M phase and reduced tumor volume and weight in an xenograft model of nude mice. Overall, the results suggest that ETME in combination with ATO may be useful in the treatment of HCC patients particularly those unresponsive to ATO alone.

Objective: To elucidate the anti-inflammatory mechanism of Reduning Injection (RDN) by analyzing the potential biomarkers and metabolic pathways of the carrageenan-induced inflammatory model from the overall metabolic level. Methods: Rat inflammatory model was established by carrageenan. UPLC-Q-TOF/MS was used to detect and analyze changes of endogenous metabolites in the serum and urine of carrageenan-induced inflammatory rats. Combined with multivariate analysis and databases analysis, inflammatory-related potential biomarkers were screened and identified to analyze possible metabolic pathways. The reliability and biological significance of these biomarkers was verified by metabolic network analysis and correlation analysis with pharmacodynamic indicators. Results: A total of 16 potential biomarkers were screened and identified by multivariate analysis and metabolite databases, among which 13 species could be adjusted by RDN. The metabolism pathway analysis revealed that histidine metabolism, sphingolipid metabolism, and tyrosine metabolism were greatly disturbed. Their biomarkers involved urocanic acid, sphingosine, and norepinephrine, all of which showed a callback trend after RDN treatment. The three biomarkers had a certain correlation with some known inflammatory-related small molecules (histamine, arachidonic acid, Leukotriene B4, and PGE

Objective    To evaluate whether long frozen elephant trunk (FET) increases the risk of spinal cord injury in patients with acute type A aortic dissection. Methods    From 2018 to 2019, 172 patients with acute type A aortic dissection were treated in Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital. They were divided into two groups according to the length of FET: patients treated with stents of 100 mm in length were enrolled into a short FET group, and those with stents of 150 mm in length into a long FET group. There were 124 patients in the short FET group, including 108 (87.1%) males and 16 (12.9%) females with a mean age of 51.8±7.9 years. There were 48 patients in the long FET group, including 44 (91.7%) males and 4 (8.3%) females with a mean age of 50.6±9.7 years. The clinical data and prognosis of the patients were analyzed. Results    The mean distal stent graft was at the level of T 8.5±0.7 in the long FET group, and at the level of T 6.8±0.6 in the short FET group (P=0.001). Sixteen patients died after operation in the two groups, including 13 (10.5%) in the short FET group and 3 (6.2%) in the long FET group (P=0.561). There were 7 patients of spinal cord injury in the two groups, including 6 (4.8%) in the short FET group and 1 (2.2%) in the long FET group (P=0.675). There was no statistical difference in other complications between the two groups. The follow-up time was 16.7 (1-30) months. During the follow-up, 2 patients died in the long FET group and 5 died in the short FET group. No new spinal cord injury or distal reintervention occurred during the follow-up. Conclusion    Long FET does not increase the incidence of spinal cord injury in patients with acute type A aortic dissection.