Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; Embryo Implantation ; drug effects ; Endometrium ; drug effects ; physiology ; Female ; Humans

OBJECTIVETo investigate the correlation of the deleted azoospermia (DAZ) gene copy related to gr/gr and b2/b3 deletions in the AZFc region with male spermatogenic impairment.

METHODSThis study included 121 infertile men with different de- grees of spermatogenic impairment and 95 healthy donors from the sperm bank. Using PCR, PCR-RFLP, and Y chromosome specific sequence tagged sites (STS) , we analyzed the association of DAZ gene copy deletions related to gr/gr and b2/b3 deletions in the AZFc region with spermatogenic impairment.

RESULTSThere were 15 cases of gr/gr deletion (12. 40% ) and 6 cases of b2/b3 deletion (4.96%) in the infertility group as compared with 13 cases of gr/gr deletion (13.68%) and 1 case of b2/b3 deletion (1.05%) in the control. Analysis of the DAZ-specific single nucleotide variant (SNV) loci revealed 11 gr/gr-DAZI/DAZ2 deletions (9.09%), 4 gr/gr-DAZ3/DAZ4 deletions (3.31%), and 6 b2/b3-DAZ1/DAZ2 deletions (4.96%) in the infertile men in comparison with 3 gr/ gr-DAZ1/DAZ2 deletions (3.16%), 10 gr/gr-DAZ3/DAZ4 deletions (10.53%), and 1 b2/b3- DAZ3/DAZ4 deletion (1.05%) in the control.

CONCLUSIONPartial deletions of gr/gr and b2/b3 exist in both healthy men and male patients with different degrees of spermatogenic impairment and cannot be considered as a risk factor for spermatogenesis impairment. However, deletions of different DAZ duplicons in gr/gr and b2/b3 deletions have different effects on spermatogenesis. DAZ1/DAZ2 instead of DAZ3/DAZ4 deletions might be associated with spermatogenesis impairment.

Deleted in Azoospermia 1 Protein ; Gene Deletion ; Gene Dosage ; Humans ; Male ; RNA-Binding Proteins ; genetics ; Spermatogenesis ; genetics

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most common malignant tumors as well as a frequent cause of cancer-related mortality in men worldwide. The test of serum markers has dramatically improved the early diagnosis of PCa, but its underlying molecular mechanisms are not yet completely identified. Long noncoding RNA (IncRNA) is emerging as a new player in the PCa paradigm demonstrating its potential roles in both oncogenic and tumor suppressive pathways. LncRNA is frequently aberrantly expressed in the majority of PCa cases. This review highlights recent findings of the aberrant expression of lncRNA in PCa and discusses its novel roles in the diagnosis, prediction, prognosis, metastasis, and potential clinical treatment of PCa.
Humans ; Male ; Prognosis ; Prostatic Neoplasms ; metabolism ; RNA, Long Noncoding ; metabolism

Astragalus polysaccharide has been widely used in food and medicinal industry owing to its health-promoting properties. In order to characterize better the relationship among molecular weight, structure-activity and activities, a simple method was used different concentration of ethanol including 30% (PW30), 50% (PW50), 70% (PW70), 75% (PW75), 80% (PW80) and 90% (PW90) to precipitate Astragalus polysaccharides into different molecular weight. As a result, PW90 showed smooth surface and the strongest antioxidant activity among these six fractions (P < 0.05). In conclusion, graded ethanol precipitation was a simple method to separate Astragalus polysaccharides into different molecular weight with different antioxidant activity fractions.
Antioxidants ; pharmacology ; Astragalus Plant ; chemistry ; Chemical Precipitation ; Ethanol ; chemistry ; Polysaccharides ; chemistry ; pharmacology

OBJECTIVETo investigate the factors influencing the prognosis of penis-sparing surgery (PSS) for early-stage penile cancer.

METHODSWe retrospectively studied the clinical data about 45 cases of early-stage penile cancer treated by PSS from January 2007 to December 2014. We calculated the rate of local recurrence-free survival by the Kaplan-Meier method, and conducted univariate and multivariate COX regression analyses on the relevant factors including the patient's age, marital status, tumor location, tumor size, postoperative sexual life, histological grade, and TNM stage.

RESULTSOne-year and three-year local recurrence-free survival rates were 95.5% and 52.2%, respectively. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that the histological grade (P = 0.039) and postoperative sexual life (P = 0.049) were independent factors for the prognosis of PSS. Logistic regression showed the patients age to be significantly associated with histological grade (P = 0.014).

CONCLUSIONHistological grade and postoperative sexual life are important independent prognostic factors of PSS for early-stage penile cancer, and the patients age is associated with the prognosis of PSS through its influence on the tumor grade.

Age Factors ; Disease-Free Survival ; Humans ; Kaplan-Meier Estimate ; Logistic Models ; Male ; Multivariate Analysis ; Neoplasm Grading ; Organ Sparing Treatments ; Penile Neoplasms ; surgery ; Penis ; surgery ; Prognosis ; Proportional Hazards Models ; Quality of Life ; Retrospective Studies

Wuzhuyu Tang is a classical formula for treating migraine, but its' pharmacological ingredients is unclear yet. Present study employed the everted intestinal sac model to collect the absorption samples of 10 kinds of Wuzhuyu decoction, and then analyzed the contents of 9 ingredients in Wuzhuyu Tang and absorption samples quantitatively or semi-quantitatively by HPLC-DAD method. Reserpine was used to establish the mice model of migraine, and then the contents and activities of 5-hydroxytryptamine, noradrenaline, dopamine, nitric oxide and nitricoxide synthase in brain tissues and serums were determined respectively after oral administration of Wuzhuyu Tang. Using the partial least squares regression method to correlate the total absorption quantity of 9 ingredients and pharmacodynamics. The result shows that limocitrin-3-O-beta-D-glucoside, ginsenoside Rg1 and Rb1, rutaevine, limonin, evodiamine and rutaecarpine are the main ingredients influenced the effects in absorption samples in everted intestinal sacs, especially ginsenoside Rg1, rutaevine, evodiamine and rutaecarpine among them have obvious improving effects to most pharmacodynamics index, might be the pharmacological ingredients influenced the therapeutical effects of Wuzhuyu Tang treating migraine.
Animals ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; Female ; Intestinal Absorption ; drug effects ; Intestines ; drug effects ; Male ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred ICR ; Migraine Disorders ; drug therapy ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar

Objective To determine LDLR gene mutation in 2 clinically diagnosed FH patients from Hubei province and provide basis for gene diagnosis of FH.Methods Clinical data of 2 FH patients and their parents were collected.The promoter region and exon 1 to exon 18 region of LDLR gene were amplified through PCR and the amplified products were analyzed by forward and reverse DNA sequencing.The mutations were identified after comparison with LDLR gene sequence in GenBank.The pathogenic gene mutations were confirmed according to both genotype and phenotype of FH probands.Results The levels of plasma TC of two probands were 12.79 and 11.98 mmol/L.respectively.No gene mutations were detected in region 3 500 to 3 531 of ApoB100. The mutations of LDLR gene were compound heterozygous mutations. The novel mutation 665G > T detected in the exon 4 of No. 1 proband's LDLR gene was heterozygous missense mutation. The novel mutation 1 358 +32C > T was detected in the exon 9 of No. 1 proband's LDLR gene.The mutations 665G > T ( paternal origin) and 1 358 + 32C > T ( maternal origin) were inherited from the parents. A novel mutation 1 257 C > A was detected in the exon 9 of No. 2 proband's LDLR gene, resulting the presence of a premature termination codon, which was different from 1 257 C > G reported in Belgium.Another heterozygous missense mutation 1 879 G > A was detected in exon 13. They were derived from paternal origin and maternal origin, respectively. Conclusions There are three novel gene mutations:665G >T, 1 358 +32C > T, 1 257C > A found in two probands with compound heterozygous mutations in LDLR respectively. They maybe play a potential role in FH pathogensis.

Objective To discover radioresistance-associated proteins by performing comparative proteomic analysis on nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell lines.Methods The total proteins were extracted from radioresistant human nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell line CNE-2R and its parental cell line CNE-2,respectively.These proteins were separated by high quality two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2-DE) and then the 2-DE profiles were screened for differentially expressed protein spots by the Image Master 5.0 software.Those spots were identified by a matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry.Results 32 significantly differentially expressed protein spots were screened in two different radiosensitivity cell lines and 11 proteins were identified by tandem mass spectrometry,among which 3 proteins were up-regulated in radioresistant human nasopharyngcal carcinoma cell line CNE-2R and the other 8 proteins were down-regulated.Conclusions The differentially expressed proteins of nasopharyegeal carcinoma cells with different radiosensitivity were mainly involved in apoptosis regulation,DNA damage and repair,cell cycle regulation,RNA transcription,cell signaling,cytoskeleton formation and radiation stress responses.

Objective To study the difference of gene expression profile between the radioresistant human nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell line CNE-2R and CNE-2,and to screen the signaling pathway associated with radioresistance of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.Methods The radioresistant nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell line CNE-2R was constructed from the original cell line CNE-2.CNE-2R and CNE-2 cells were cultured and administered with 60Co γ-ray irradiation at the dose of 400 cGy for 15 times.Human-6v 3.0 whole genome expression profile was used to screen the differentially expressed genes.Bioinformatic analysis was used to identify the pathways related to radioresistance.Results The number of the differentially expressed genes that were found in these 2 experiments was 374.The Kegg pathway and Biocarta pathway analysis of the differentially expressed genes showed the biological importance of Toll-like receptor signaling pathway and IL-1 R-mediated signal transduction pathway to the radioresistance of the CNE-2R cells and the significant differences of 13 genes in these 2 pathways,including JUN,MYD88,CCL5,CXCL10,STAT1,LY96,FOS,CCL3,IL-6,IL-8,IL-1α,IL-1B,and IRAK2(t=13.47-66.57,P<0.05).Conclusions Toll-like receptor signaling pathway and IL-1R-mediated signal transduction pathway might be related to the occurrence of radioresistance.