Objective To explore the role of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs)in improving functional recovery and promoting neurogenesis in damaged area of ischemic rat brain by MRI,neurological severity score (NSS),and pathological examinations.Meth-ods EPCs wereseparated,cultured,and identified,ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide(USPIO)particles was used to label EPCs in vitro.Transient middle cerebral arterial occlusion(tMCAO)was successfully performed in 30 adult SD rats.Magnetically labeled cells(the experimental group)and normal saline (the control group)were injected intravenously into the tMCAO rats through the tail vein respectively,then MR imaging and NSS was performed 0 day,2 days,4 days,6 days and 8 days later.At last the paraffin-embedded rat brain tissues were obtained and examed by Prussian blue staining and Measurement of microvessel density.Re-sults EPCs wereseparated,cultured,and identified successfully.MR imaging showed significant low signal intensity at the ischemic area on T2 WI sequence.Prussian blue staining images were corresponding to the EPCs staining in vitro.The NSS and microvessel density in experimental group were significantly higher than in control group.Conclusion EPCs can migrate to the damage zone, improve functional recovery and promote neurogenesis in damaged area of ischemic rat brain,and may be a new source of multipoten-tial stem cells for stroke treatment.

Objectives To investigate the clinical significance of dual energy spectral CT (DESCT) in quantitatively differentiating peripheral lung cancers from pulmonary inflammatory masses.Methods Sixty patients with 35 lung cancers and 25 inflammatory masses underwent DESCT to get arterial phase (AP) images and venous phase (VP) images.Iodine concentrations in the central and peripheral zone of the masses were measured and normalized to the aorta as normalised iodine concentration (NIC).The difference of NIC between central and peripheral zone of the masses (dNIC) was calculated.The spectral attenuation curve was obtained automatically and the slope of curve (λHU) was also calculated in the two groups.The quantitative parameters was presented as M (Q1,Q3),and Wilcoxon signed rank test was used to compare above two independent samples.Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were generated to calculate the sensitivity and specificity.Results NICs in the central zone of peripheral lung cancers were significantly lower than that of inflammatory masses:mean NICs were 0.03 (0,0.05) versus 0.12 (0.07,0.20) in AP,and 0.14 (0.12,0.19) versus 0.30 (0.21,0.57) in VP (Z=-4.14,-3.70,respectively,P＜0.01).While the dNIC values of lung cancers were significantly higher than that of inflammatory masses:dNIC values were 0.08 (0.05,0.11) versus 0.04 (-0.02,0.08) in AP,and 0.23 (0.17,0.34)versus 0.07 (-0.04,0.08) in VP(Z=-2.56,-4.00,respectively,P＜0.05).Mean λHU values of lung cancers were also lower than inflammatory masses:1.03 (0.67,1.67)versus 2.75 (1.61,3.19) in AP,and 1.58 (1.30,2.17) versus 3.25 (2.37,4.54) in VP (Z=-3.90,-4.42 respectively,P＜0.01).According to ROC curves,cutoff value of λHU =2.11 in VP had the highest sensitivity (89％) and specificity (91％) in differentiating peripheral lung cancers from inflammatory masses.Conclusions Contrast-enhanced dual energy spectral CT imaging with some quantitative parameters such as normalised iodine concentration,dNIC,and the slope of spectral attenuation curves may be a promising new method for differentiating peripheral lung cancers from inflammatory masses.

Objective:To explore the optimal acceleration factor and feasibility of the compressed SENSE (CS) technique in non-contrast MR coronary angiography (NMRCA) for clinical practice.Methods:The image data of completed coronary CTA and 3.0 T NMRCA sequence in 31 patients with suspected coronary heart disease were prospectively recruited at Fuyang People′s Hospital from August 2021 to November 2021. NMRCA sequences included conventional SENSE2 sequence and CS sequences with acceleration factors of 4, 5, and 6, respectively. The subjective scores of image quality and the objective scores, the contrast ratios between assessed coronaries and myocardium (CMCR) were compared among the 4 groups using the Friedman and Wilcoxon rank sum test.Results:Compared with the conventional SENSE2 [(343±46)s], the scan time of CS4 (269±36), CS5 (214±29) and CS6 (178±26) s were shortened by 21.5%, 37.5% and 48.0%, respectively. There was a good consistency between the subjective scores of the four groups (Kappa=0.769, 95% Cl 0.738-0.800). There was no significant difference in subjective score and CMCR value between CS4 and SENSE2 ( P>0.05). The coronary artery segments of CS5 and CS6 were significantly different from SENSE2 group ( P<0.05). Conclusions:For 3.0 T NMRCA, CS technology shows high feasibility. The CS4 can reduce imaging time while ensuring high-quality coronary arterial images, which has a well-established clinical application value for NMRCA.

As the continuation of the left ventricle,the left atrium and left ventricle interact and play an important role in the function of the whole heart.At present,there are many techniques to evaluate the atrial structure and function,but the left atrial structure is complex and the myocardium is thin,which brings some challenges to the relevant evaluation.This paper introduces the parameters,precautions and relevant clinical applications in the process of left atrial evaluation from the aspects of myocardial strain and delayed enhancement.

Objective To explore the prognostic value of MCF in elderly patients with cardiac amy-loidosis using CMR.Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on 54 elderly patients with cardiac amyloidosis diagnosed in our hospital.All patients underwent CMR imaging.They were di-vided into a survival group of 25 cases and a mortality group of 29 cases based on clinical out-comes.Correlations of MCF with CMR parameters and biochemical indicators were evaluated.Cox regression analysis was performed to identify independent predictors of patient survival.Survival analysis was used to assess the value of MCF in predicting patient prognosis.Results The surviv-al group had significantly higher MCF than the mortality group[(70.63±24.72)％vs(43.59± 13.36)％,P=0.001].As MCF increasing,LVEF level was in an increasing trend,while LVMI,LVGPWT,ECV,and troponin T and NT-proBNP levels showed a decreasing trend.Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that MCF was an independent predictor of patient survival(HR=0.922,95％CI:0.866-0.981,P=0.011).Kaplan-Meier survival curve showed that the patients with MCF＞57％had significantly higher survival rates than those with MCF ≤57％(P＜0.01).Conclusion MCF is an effective imaging indicator for evaluating the prognosis of elderly patients with cardiac amyloidosis,which can help identify high-risk patients and guide clinical treatment.

Purpose To investigate the clinical value of artificial intelligence(AI)quantitative parameters in predicting the invasion degree of lung adenocarcinoma with diameter≤2 cm of ground-glass density.Materials and Methods A total of 80 patients with lung adenocarcinoma with diameter≤2 cm ground-glass density confirmed by pathology from March 2019 to April 2022 were retrospectively analyzed.A total of 90 nodules were rerolled,including 8 adenocarcinomas in situ(AIS),34 minimally invasive adenocarcinomas(MIA)and 48 invasive adenocarcinomas(IAC).They were divided into the experimental group(IAC)and the control group(AIS and MIA).The differences of the AI quantitative parameters such as volume,three-dimensional length diameter,maximum area,maximum CT value,minimum CT value and average CT value were compared between two groups,and the predictive values of AI quantitative parameters for the invasion degree of lung adenocarcinoma was evaluated.Results There were statistically significant differences with age,volume,three-dimensional length diameter,maximum area,maximum CT value and average CT value between the two groups(all P<0.05),but no statistically significant differences in gender and minimum CT value(both P>0.05).Binary Logistic regression analysis showed that the three-dimensional length diameter(odd ratio=2.020,P=0.034)and the maximum CT value(odd ratio=1.008,P=0.013)were independent predictors for lung adenocarcinoma with diameter≤2 cm of ground-glass density.The regression model based on the three-dimensional length diameter and the maximum CT value had the best predictive performance,and its AUC was 0.901.When the critical value was 2.432,its sensitivity and specificity were 93.75%and 71.43%,respectively.Conclusion AI quantitative parameters have a high value in predicting the degree of invasion of lung adenocarcinoma with diameter≤2 cm of ground-glass density,and the combined model with three dimensional long diameter and maximum CT value has the highest diagnostic efficiency.

MAGED4B belongs to the melanoma-associated antigen family; originally found in melanoma, it is expressed in various types of cancer, and is especially enriched in glioblastoma. However, the functional role and molecular mechanisms of MAGED4B in glioma are still unclear. In this study, we found that the MAGED4B level was higher in glioma tissue than that in non-cancer tissue, and the level was positively correlated with glioma grade, tumor diameter, Ki-67 level, and patient age. The patients with higher levels had a worse prognosis than those with lower MAGED4B levels. In glioma cells, MAGED4B overexpression promoted proliferation, invasion, and migration, as well as decreasing apoptosis and the chemosensitivity to cisplatin and temozolomide. On the contrary, MAGED4B knockdown in glioma cells inhibited proliferation, invasion, and migration, as well as increasing apoptosis and the chemosensitivity to cisplatin and temozolomide. MAGED4B knockdown also inhibited the growth of gliomas implanted into the rat brain. The interaction between MAGED4B and tripartite motif-containing 27 (TRIM27) in glioma cells was detected by co-immunoprecipitation assay, which showed that MAGED4B was co-localized with TRIM27. In addition, MAGED4B overexpression down-regulated the TRIM27 protein level, and this was blocked by carbobenzoxyl-L-leucyl-L-leucyl-L-leucine (MG132), an inhibitor of the proteasome. On the contrary, MAGED4B knockdown up-regulated the TRIM27 level. Furthermore, MAGED4B overexpression increased TRIM27 ubiquitination in the presence of MG132. Accordingly, MAGED4B down-regulated the protein levels of genes downstream of ubiquitin-specific protease 7 (USP7) involved in the tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α)-induced apoptotic pathway. These findings indicate that MAGED4B promotes glioma growth via a TRIM27/USP7/receptor-interacting serine/threonine-protein kinase 1 (RIP1)-dependent TNF-α-induced apoptotic pathway, which suggests that MAGED4B is a potential target for glioma diagnosis and treatment.
Humans ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha ; DNA-Binding Proteins/metabolism* ; Ubiquitin-Specific Peptidase 7 ; Cisplatin ; Temozolomide ; Transcription Factors ; Glioma ; Cell Proliferation ; Melanoma ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Apoptosis ; Nuclear Proteins/genetics*