The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of Tspan-1, Jab1 and p27 in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and their clinicopathological significance. The expression of Tspan-1, Jab1 and p27 was detected in HCC tissues, the tissues around cancer (76 cases), and the normal tissues around the liver hemangiomas (10 cases). The overexpression of Tspan-1 and Jab1 was found in HCC tissues, positively correlated with clinical stage and negatively correlated with survival rate. The expression of p27 was found inversely linked to which of Tspan-1 and Jab1. In conclusion, the expression of Tspan-1, Jab1 and p27 is significantly associated with development of HCC. Overexpression of Tspan-1 and Jab1 suggests poor prognosis but overexpression of p27 may expect good prognosis for patients with HCC.
Adult ; Aged ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular/metabolism/mortality/*pathology ; Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p27/*metabolism ; Female ; Humans ; Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins/*metabolism ; Liver Neoplasms/metabolism/mortality/*pathology ; Male ; Membrane Proteins/*metabolism ; Middle Aged ; Peptide Hydrolases/*metabolism ; Prognosis ; Survival Rate

PURPOSE: This study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic value of SonoLiver software for parametric imaging in breast tumors. METHODS: Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) was performed in 216 breast lesions (113 malignant, 103 benign). The CEUS parameters were compared between benign and malignant lesions. The rise time, the time to peak, the mean transit time and dynamic vessel pattern (DVP) were analyzed using SonoLiver software. RESULTS: Quantitative analysis showed that the rise time was 16.52+/-4.15 seconds in the benign group vs. 13.86+/-3.36 seconds in the malignant group (p=0.007), and the time to peak was 19.86+/-4.87 seconds in the benign group vs. 16.52+/-4.85 seconds in the malignant group (p=0.009). The mean transit time was 80.55+/-18.65 seconds in the benign group vs. 65.16+/-20.28 seconds in the malignant group (p=0.006). The difference between the distribution of DVP in benign and malignant tumors was statistically significant. One hundred one malignant tumors (89.4%) performed an irregular red/yellow fill in the region of interest (ROI) and 85 benign tumors (82.5%) performed a single blue/green fill in the ROI. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of parametric imaging in breast tumors were 84.1%, 85.4%, 84.7%, respectively. CONCLUSION: The CEUS parametric imaging can distinguish differences between malignant and benign breast tumors as well as provide diagnostic information on breast lesions.
Breast ; Breast Neoplasms ; Contrast Media ; Glycosaminoglycans ; Sensitivity and Specificity

PURPOSE: Circulating free DNA (cfDNA) in plasma is promising to be a surrogate for tumor tissue DNA. However, not all epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations in tumor tissue DNA has been detected in matched cfDNA, at least partly due to inefficient cfDNA extraction method. The purpose of this study was to establish an efficient plasma cfDNA extraction protocol. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The yield of plasma cfDNA extracted by our modified phenol-chloroform (MPC) method from non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients was compared with that by QIAamp MinElute Virus Spin kit (Qiagen kit) as control, using the Wilcoxon rank-sum test. TaqMan quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assays were used to quantify the plasma cfDNA extracted. Both Mutant-enriched PCR (ME-PCR) coupled sequencing and DxS EGFR mutation test kit were used to evaluate the impact of extraction method on EGFR mutation analysis. RESULTS: MPC method extracted more plasma cfDNA than Qiagen kit method (p=0.011). The proportion of longer fragment (> or =202 bp) in cfDNA extracted by MPC method was significantly higher than by Qiagen kit method (p=0.002). In the sequencing maps of ME-PCR products, a higher mutant peak was observed on plasma cfDNA extracted by MPC method than by Qiagen kit method. In DxS EGFR mutation test kit results, plasma cfDNA extracted by MPC method contained more tumor-origin DNA than by Qiagen kit method. CONCLUSION: An improved plasma cfDNA extraction method of MPC is provided, which will be beneficial for EGFR mutation analysis for patients with NSCLC.
Base Sequence ; Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung/*genetics ; Chloroform ; DNA Mutational Analysis/*methods ; DNA, Neoplasm/*blood/*isolation & purification ; Genetic Testing/methods ; Humans ; Lung Neoplasms/*genetics ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Phenol ; Polymerase Chain Reaction/methods ; Receptor, Epidermal Growth Factor/*genetics

Toxoplasma gondii is an opportunistic protozoan parasite that can infect almost all warm-blooded animals including humans with a worldwide distribution. Micronemes play an important role in invasion process of T. gondii, associated with the attachment, motility, and host cell recognition. In this research, sequence diversity in microneme protein 6 (MIC6) gene among 16 T. gondii isolates from different hosts and geographical regions and 1 reference strain was examined. The results showed that the sequence of all the examined T. gondii strains was 1,050 bp in length, and their A + T content was between 45.7% and 46.1%. Sequence analysis presented 33 nucleotide mutation positions (0-1.1%), resulting in 23 amino acid substitutions (0-2.3%) aligned with T. gondii RH strain. Moreover, T. gondii strains representing the 3 classical genotypes (Type I, II, and III) were separated into different clusters based on the locus of MIC6 using phylogenetic analyses by Bayesian inference (BI), maximum parsimony (MP), and maximum likelihood (ML), but T. gondii strains belonging to ToxoDB #9 were separated into different clusters. Our results suggested that MIC6 gene is not a suitable marker for T. gondii population genetic studies.
Amino Acid Sequence ; Animals ; Base Sequence ; Cats ; Cell Adhesion Molecules/chemistry/*genetics/metabolism ; Deer ; *Genetic Variation ; Genotype ; Goats ; Humans ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Phylogeny ; Protozoan Proteins/chemistry/*genetics/metabolism ; Sequence Alignment ; Sheep ; Swine ; Toxoplasma/classification/*genetics/isolation & purification/physiology ; Toxoplasmosis/*parasitology ; Toxoplasmosis, Animal/*parasitology

Myopericytoma is a newly proposed subgroup of perivascular tumors in the World Health Organization classification of soft tissue tumors. In this study, we report a case of a benign myopericytoma with detailed multidetector CT (MDCT) findings in the parotid gland, a location that has not been described for this type of tumor previously. The clinical presentation, imaging features, histopathological and immunohistochemical findings, and the differential diagnosis with other tumors in the parotid gland are described and reviewed.
Adult ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Female ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Parotid Neoplasms/pathology/*radiography ; Soft Tissue Neoplasms/pathology/*radiography ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed/*methods