AIM: To determine the optimal protocol and condition in which macaca irus mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are induced to differentiate into neuron-like cells by cryptotanshinone in vitro. METHODS: MSCs from macaca irus bone marrow were generated in vitro and induced with cryptotanshinone. The morphological changes of MSCs were evaluated by microscope. The positive percentages of neurofilament (NF), neuron specific enolase (NSE) and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) expression were measured by immunocytochemistry with ABC staining. RESULTS: The result showed that MSCs were positive for CD29, CD44, CD105, CD166, and negative for CD34, CD71, CD80 and CD86. After induced with cryptotanshinone, MSCs began to display neuronal morphologies, such as contracted multipolar cell body and formed extensive networks. The percentages of positive NSE, NF expression were 68.3%?3.5%, 70.3%?1.5%, respectively. CONCLUSION: Macaca irus MSCs could be induced to differentiate into neuron-like cells in vitro by cryptotanshinone and might be applied in cell transplantation and gene therapy in nervous system disorders.

OBJECTIVE: To assess clinical value of fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) for differentiation of malignant from benign focal thyroid incidentaloma. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This retrospective study included 99 patients with focal thyroid incidentaloma of 5216 non-thyroid cancer patients that had undergone PET/CT. PET/CT semi-quantitative parameters, volume-based functional parameters, metabolic tumor volume (MTV), and total lesion glycolysis (TLG) of thyroid incidentaloma were assessed. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was conducted and areas under the curve (AUC) were compared by Hanley and McNeil test to evaluate usefulness of maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax), MTV and TLG, as markers for differentiating malignant from benign thyroid incidentalomas. RESULTS: Of 99 thyroid incidentalomas, 64 (64.6%) were malignant and 35 (35.4%) were benign. Malignant thyroid incidentalomas were larger (1.8 cm vs. 1.3 cm, p = 0.006), and had higher SUVmax (11.3 vs. 4.8, p < 0.001), MTV (all p < 0.001) and TLG (all p < 0.001) than benign. TLG 4.0 had the highest performance for differentiation of malignant from benign thyroid incidentaloma in all semi-quantitative parameters with AUC 0.895 by ROC curve analysis. AUC (TLG 4.0) was significantly larger than AUC (SUVmean), AUC (MTV 2.5), AUC (MTV 3.0), AUC (MTV 3.5), AUC (TLG 2.5), and AUC (TLG 3.0), respectively (all, p < 0.05). There was no statistical difference between AUC (TLG 4.0) and AUC (SUVmax) (p > 0.05). A threshold TLG 4.0 of 2.475 had 81.3% sensitivity and 94.3% specificity for identifying malignant thyroid incidentalomas. CONCLUSION: Volume-based PET/CT parameters could potentially have clinical value in differential diagnosis of thyroid incidentaloma along with SUVmax.
Area Under Curve ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Electrons ; Fluorodeoxyglucose F18* ; Glycolysis ; Humans ; Positron-Emission Tomography and Computed Tomography* ; Retrospective Studies ; ROC Curve ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Thyroid Gland* ; Thyroid Neoplasms ; Tumor Burden

An expert consensus about the clinical diagnosis and treatment of dry eye was documented in 2013 by a corneal expert group of Chinese Ophthalmological Society.However, due to the rapid development of diagnostic and therapeutic devices of dry eye, researoh on dry eye has made significont progress in China since then.Consequently, the existing expert consensus cannot meet the needs of clinical practice.It is therefore urgent to develop a series of standardized diagnosis and treatment protocols, and publish a new consensus of experts and an operating guideline.At the same time, basic, clinical, and translational research on dry eye should be promoted to provide better services to the patients with dry eyes.On January 12, 2019 many experts in the field of dry eye in China held a panel discussion of dry eye study in Guangzhou to analyze the current development status and trends in the field of dry eye in China and abroad.In that meeting, opinions and recommendations were put forward based on a new understanding of the definition of dry eye, new concepts of dysfunctional dry eye, advances its diagnosis and classification, refinement and standardization of dry eye treatment, and the future development of dry eye research.

Objective:To explore the prediction model of tissue chip technology for the chemotherapy response of patients with colorectal cancer.Methods:217 patients with colorectal cancer who had received standardized chemotherapy in the Affiliated People’s Hospital of Ningbo University from Jan. 2017 to Dec. 2019 were prospectively selected. The patients were randomly divided into training set (152 cases) and test set (65 cases) according to the ratio of 7:3, and were followed up for 6 months. The clinical data of the patients in the training set were compared, the expression levels of Ang-2, caspase-3 and CD147 in the patients were analyzed by tissue microarray technology, and the related factors affecting the responsiveness of colorectal cancer chemotherapy were analyzed by the Logistic regression model. R software was used based on the training set. A nomogram prediction model was built and model performance on the test set was evaluated.Results:One case was excluded from the training center, and 151 cases were finally included, including 93 cases in the chemotherapy response group and 58 cases in the chemotherapy response group. The tumor diameter, serum carcinoembryonic antigen, caspase3, Ang2 expression level, and the proportion of clinical stage IV in the poor chemotherapy group were significantly higher than those in the good chemotherapy group (all P<0.05) ; Logistic regression showed tumor diameter ( OR=2.394), serum carcinoembryonic antigen ( OR=1.878), caspase-3 ( OR=4.261), Ang-2 expression level ( OR=5.457), and clinical stage IV ( OR=5.954) were independent risk factors for adverse drug reactions in patients with colorectal cancer (all P<0.05). The consistency index (C-index) for predicting the factors related to adverse chemotherapy reactions in patients with colorectal cancer was 0.915. External verification showed that the sensitivity was 86.96%, the specificity was 92.50%, and the accuracy was 90.48% (42/65) . Conclusion:The expression levels of Ang-2 and caspase-3 are correlated with the responsiveness of colorectal cancer to chemotherapy, and can be used as predictive indicators to evaluate the responsiveness of colorectal cancer to chemotherapy.