OBJECTIVE:To observe clinical efficacy and safety of Xianlinggubao combined with alendronate sodium in the treatment of osteoporosis. METHODS:112 patients with osteoporosis were randomly divided into treatment group and control group with 56 cases in each group. Both group were given routine treatment as calcium carbonate,vitamin D and life style. Control group were given alendronate sodium 10 mg orally,qd;treatment group was additionally given Xianlinggubao capsule 1.5 g,bid, on the basis of control group. Both groups received 12 weeks of treatment. The levels of S-Ca,S-P,24 h urinary calcium(U-Ca), alkaline phosphatase(ALP),osteocalcin,IL-6,bone mineral density(BMD)of L2-4 lumbar spine and femoral neck were observed in 2 groups before and after treatment. Clinical efficacy and toxic reaction were compared. RESULTS:There was no statistical sig-nificance in the levels of S-P and S-Ca between 2 groups after treatment(P>0.05);the level of ALP、osteocalcin、BMD increased in treatment group after treatment,the level of U-Ca and IL-6 decreased compared to before treatment,and the treatment group was better than the control group,with statistical significance(P<0.05). Total effective rate of treatment group(92.86%)was sig-nificantly higher than that of control group (73.21%),with statistical significance (P<0.05). No obvious toxic side effects was found in 2 groups. CONCLUSIONS:Xianlinggubao combined with alendronate sodium shows significant therapeutic efficacy for patients with osteoporosis with good safety.

Objective To screen genes differentially expressed between dermal papilla cells from occipital and vertex scalp of patients with androgenic alopecia (AGA) through a 3D culture system.Methods Dermal papilla cells isolated from the occipital scalp tissue of patients with AGA were cultured in a 2D system for several days.Then,the third-passage dermal papilla cells were subjected to a 3D culture with the presence of dihydrotestosterone (DHT) for 72 hours (experimental group).The dermal papilla cells isolated from the vertex scalp tissue of patients with AGA,which were cultured in a 3D system with dimethyl sulfoxide,but not DHT,served as the control group.Subsequently,total RNA was extracted from the cells and reversely transcribed into cDNA followed by labeling with Cy3 and hybridization to a NimbleGen microarray.Gene ontology (GO) and pathway analysis was carried out to screen differentially expressed genes between the experimental and control group.Real time PCR was conducted to validate the results of microarray analysis.Results As the genome-wide expression profile analysis showed,there were 622 genes differentially expressed between the experimental group and control group,of which,359 were up-regulated and 263 were down-regulated in the experimental group compared with the control group.The above results were corffirmed by real time PCR.GO analysis revealed that the up-regulated genes,such as the CHEK1 and Tobl genes,were mainly involved in the inhibition of cell proliferation and promotion of cell apoptosis,while the down-regulated genes,such as the BAMBI,EFNA3,Dlx3 and UCGC genes,were associated with the acceleration of cell proliferation as well as the growth and development of epidermis.Pathway analysis showed that cell circle-controlling molecules were the most abundant molecules.Conclusions Numerous signalling molecules and pathways are involved in the development of AGA,which are mainly responsible for the modulation of cell circle,proliferation and apoptosis.

Objective To preliminarily evaluate the effect of levocetirizine hydrochloride at different concentrations on the growth of in vitro cultured human dermal papilla cells,and to explore its mechanism.Methods Human dermal papilla cells were divided into several groups to be cultured with Dulbecco's modified eagle medium (DMEM) containing 0 (control group),1,10,100,1 000,10 000 μg/L levocetirizine hydrochloride respectively for 48 hours.Immunofluorescence staining was performed to observe the growth of the dermal papilla cells,and methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) assay to evaluate the proliferative activity of the dermal papilla cells.Real-time fluorescence-based quantitative PCR was conducted to measure the mRNA expression of cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2),prostaglandin D2 synthase (PTGDS),prostaglandin E2 (PGE2),prostaglandin F2alpha (PGF2α),G protein-coupled receptor 44 (GPR44),protein kinase B (AKT) and glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK3β),and Western blot analysis to determine the protein expression of PTGDS.After 24-hour culture with DMEM containing levocetirizine hydrochloride at different concentrations,enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was performed to detect the levels of prostaglandin D2 (PGD2) and PGD2R receptor in the culture supernatant of the human dermal papilla cells.Statistical analysis was carried out with SPSS 17.0 software using one-way analysis of variance for the comparison of the above indices among the groups,and least significant difference (LSD)-t test for multiple comparisons.Results Immunofluorescence staining showed that human dermal papilla cells grew well and reached over 90％ confluence in the 100 μg/L levocetirizine hydrochloride group.MTT assay revealed that there were significant differences in the proliferation rate among all the groups (F =42.22,P ＜ 0.05),and the proliferation rate was significantly higher in the 100 μg/L levocetirizine hydrochloride group (115.80％ ± 5.10％) than in the control group (100％,t =28.26,P ＜ 0.05).The mRNA expression(2-△△Ct) of COX-2,PGF2a,PTGDS,GPR44 and AKT all significantly differed among these groups (F =1.97,3.66,2.17,2.66 and 7.32 respectively,all P ＜ 0.05),while no significant difference in the mRNA expression of PGE2 and GSK3β was observed among these groups (F =0.87 and 1.19 respectively,both P ＞ 0.05).The 100 μg/L levocetirizine hydrochloride group showed significantly decreased mRNA expression of COX-2,PTGDS and GPR44 (0.84± 0.08,0.81±0.10 and 0.85 ± 0.09 respectively) compared with the control group (t =1.97,2.17 and 2.66 respectively,all P ＜ 0.05),but significantly increased mRNA expression of PGF2α and AKT (1.96 ± 0.25 and 1.74 ± 0.32 respectively) compared with the control group (t =3.66,7.32 respectively,both P ＜ 0.05).Moreover,the protein expression of PTGDS,PGD2 and PGD2R significantly differed among these groups (all P ＜ 0.05),and was significantly lower in the 100 μg/L levocetirizine hydrochloride group than in the control group (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion Levocetirizine hydrochloride can promote the in vitro growth of human dermal papilla cells,likely by inhibiting the PGD2-GPR44 pathway and activating the AKT signal pathway.

Purpose: This study aims to explore whether neoadjuvant chemotherapy with immunotherapy (NACI) leads to different tumor shrinkage patterns, based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), compared to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) alone in patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Additionally, the study investigates the relationship between tumor shrinkage patterns and treatment efficacy was investigated. Methods: This retrospective study included patients with TNBC patients receiving NAC or NACI from January 2019 until July 2021 at our center. Pre- and post-treatment MRI results were obtained for each patient, and tumor shrinkage patterns were classified into three categories as follows: 1) concentric shrinkage (CS); 2) diffuse decrease; and 3) no change.Tumor shrinkage patterns were compared between the NAC and NACI groups, and the relevance of the patterns to treatment efficacy was assessed. Results: Of the 99 patients, 65 received NAC and 34 received NACI. The CS pattern was observed in 53% and 20% of patients in the NAC and NACI groups, respectively. Diffuse decrease pattern was observed in 36% and 68% of patients in the NAC and NACI groups. The association between the treatment regimens (NAC and NACI) and tumor shrinkage patterns was statistically significant (p = 0.004). The postoperative pathological complete response (pCR) rate was 45% and 82% in the NAC and NACI groups (p < 0.001), respectively. In the NACI group, 17% of patients with the CS pattern and 56% of those with the diffuse decrease pattern achieved pCR (p = 0.903). All tumor shrinkage patterns were associated with achieved a high pCR rate in the NACI group. Conclusion Our study demonstrates that the diffuse decrease pattern of tumor shrinkage is more common following NACI than that following NAC. Furthermore, our findings suggest that all tumor shrinkage patterns are associated with a high pCR rate in patients with TNBC treated with NACI.

This corrects the article “Analysis of Tau Protein Expression in Predicting Pathological Complete Response to Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Different Molecular Subtypes of Breast Cancer” in volume 23 on page 47.This article was initially published on the Journal of Breast Cancer with a misspelled the abbreviation in figure 3. The abbreviation ‘HP’ should be corrected as ‘HR’.

PURPOSE: Tau is a microtubule-associated protein that can be found in both normal and abnormal breast cells. Whether the expression of Tau protein can predict the response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) is still unclear. In this study, we assessed the role of Tau protein expression in predicting a pathological complete response (pCR) to NACT for different subtypes of breast cancer. METHODS: Four hundred and sixty-eight eligible patients were retrospectively recruited in our study. The relationship between clinicopathologic factors, including Tau protein expression, and pCR in different subtypes was evaluated using logistic regression analysis. Correlation between Tau and disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) was performed using Kaplan–Meier analysis. RESULTS: The expression of Tau protein was negatively correlated with pCR, especially in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). No significant difference was observed in the luminal human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2)-negative subtype and HER2-positive subtype. Patients with pCR were associated with better DFS and OS (p < 0.05). However, Tau protein expression had no association with either DFS or OS (p > 0.05). CONCLUSION Tau protein expression can predict pCR before NACT in TNBC, but there was no correlation between Tau expression and DFS or OS.