Objective:To investigate the expression of keratin 1 (KRT1) and sialyl-Tn antigen (sTn) in cervical squamous cell carcinoma and its possible mechanism.Methods:Six cervical squamous cell carcinoma specimens were collected at the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China from 2022 to 2023. Spatial transcriptomics analysis was performed on the paraffin sections of 6 patients to analyze the transcriptomes of invasive squamous cell carcinoma and adjacent normal cervical squamous epithelium. The differential gene KRT1 was selected. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was used to examine the prognostic value of KRT1 in cervical squamous cell carcinoma patients using the TCGA database. The possible downstream molecule sTn was identified according to literature research. Immunohistochemistry was carried out to investigate the expression of KRT1 and sTn proteins in the primary tumor and metastases of cervical squamous cell carcinoma (40 cases with pelvic lymph node metastasis and 30 cases without). Spearman correlation analysis was conducted to analyze the correlation of their expression.Results:The spatial transcriptomic results of the 6 specimens indicated that the level of KRT1 mRNA significantly decreased in cervical squamous cell carcinoma (compared with that in adjacent normal cervical squamous epithelium), while Kaplan-Meier survival analysis revealed that cervical squamous cell carcinoma patients with low KRT1 mRNA levels (versus high) had a worse prognosis. Immunohistochemistry proved that KRT1 expression was significantly lower in cervical squamous cell carcinoma than in adjacent normal squamous epithelium ( P<0.05), but sTn showed the opposite change (increased in carcinoma, P<0.05). The expression changes of KRT1 and sTn were inversely correlated ( r=-0.217, P<0.05). In addition, the expression levels of KRT1 and sTn in lymph node metastases were not significantly different from those in primary tumors. Conclusions:The decreased expression of KRT1 in primary cervical squamous cell carcinoma and lymph node metastasis may promote tumor cell proliferation and inhibit apoptosis by upregulating sTn, contributing to the poor prognosis of advanced cervical squamous cell carcinoma.

Objective:To investigate the expression of keratin 1 (KRT1) and sialyl-Tn antigen (sTn) in cervical squamous cell carcinoma and its possible mechanism.Methods:Six cervical squamous cell carcinoma specimens were collected at the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China from 2022 to 2023. Spatial transcriptomics analysis was performed on the paraffin sections of 6 patients to analyze the transcriptomes of invasive squamous cell carcinoma and adjacent normal cervical squamous epithelium. The differential gene KRT1 was selected. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was used to examine the prognostic value of KRT1 in cervical squamous cell carcinoma patients using the TCGA database. The possible downstream molecule sTn was identified according to literature research. Immunohistochemistry was carried out to investigate the expression of KRT1 and sTn proteins in the primary tumor and metastases of cervical squamous cell carcinoma (40 cases with pelvic lymph node metastasis and 30 cases without). Spearman correlation analysis was conducted to analyze the correlation of their expression.Results:The spatial transcriptomic results of the 6 specimens indicated that the level of KRT1 mRNA significantly decreased in cervical squamous cell carcinoma (compared with that in adjacent normal cervical squamous epithelium), while Kaplan-Meier survival analysis revealed that cervical squamous cell carcinoma patients with low KRT1 mRNA levels (versus high) had a worse prognosis. Immunohistochemistry proved that KRT1 expression was significantly lower in cervical squamous cell carcinoma than in adjacent normal squamous epithelium ( P<0.05), but sTn showed the opposite change (increased in carcinoma, P<0.05). The expression changes of KRT1 and sTn were inversely correlated ( r=-0.217, P<0.05). In addition, the expression levels of KRT1 and sTn in lymph node metastases were not significantly different from those in primary tumors. Conclusions:The decreased expression of KRT1 in primary cervical squamous cell carcinoma and lymph node metastasis may promote tumor cell proliferation and inhibit apoptosis by upregulating sTn, contributing to the poor prognosis of advanced cervical squamous cell carcinoma.

Purpose To examine the clinicopathologic,immunohistochemical,and molecular genetic characteristics and differential diagnosis of low-grade oncocytic tumor(LOT)of kidney with CK7 positive and CD117 negative,so as to enhance the understanding of this tumor among pathologists.Methods A total of five cases of renal LOT from the First Affiliated Hospi-tal of Soochow University between December 2016 and February 2023 were included in this analysis.The clinicopathological fea-tures,immunophenotype,genetic characteristics,and prognosis were evaluated using HE staing,immunohistochemical staining,and Sanger sequencing.Additionally,relevant literature was re-viewed to supplement the findings.Results Among the cohort of five patients,four were female and one was male,aged 57-70 years with a median age of 65 years and an average age of 64.8 years.Clinical presentation revealed that only the first case exhibited frequent urination accompanied by intermittent lumba-go,while the remaining cases were asymptomatic and incidental-ly discovered.Imaging studies demonstrated space-occupying le-sions with clear boundaries and even internal echoes on B-ultra-sonography,and patchy low-density shadows in the center with obvious edge enhancement on CT.Grossly,the tumor was nodu-lar,with a maximum diameter ranging from 2.1 to 7.6 cm,and an average diameter of 4.04 cm,with a solid section.Micro-scopically,the boundary of LOT was consistently well-defined,with a thick capsule.The arrangement of tumor cells was ob-served to be both dense and sparse,accompanied by fresh bleed-ing foci and proteinoid secretions.Focal lymphocyte aggrega-tion,hepatic plate like and hepatic sinusoid like structures,thick-walled blood vessels,false nodules of tumor cells,and old hemorrhage were also noted.The tumor cells exhibited uniformi-ty in shape,appearing round or polygonal,with eosinophilic and fine granular cytoplasm.The nuclei were of similar size and shape,appearing round or oval with a clear nuclear membrane.The histological features of the tumor included 2-grade small nu-cleoli,perinuclear halos,binuclear cells,and nuclear shrink-age,but no mitotic figures were detected.The immunophenotyp-ic analysis revealed strongly diffuse expression of CK7 in the tumor cells,while CD117 was negative.The Ki67 proliferation index was low.Sanger sequencing identified mutations in mTORC1 pathway genes in four cases,including three mutations in MTOR and one mutation in RHEB.The patients underwent either local or radical nephrectomy,and were followed up for a period ranging from 2 to 52 months,during which all patients re-mained free of recurrence.Conclusion The low-grade,eosino-philic,and rare renal tumor known as LOT exhibits inert behav-ior.At present,the follow-up results show that complete resec-tion of local operation is sufficient,and the prognosis is good.It is important to distinguish this lesion from other eosinophilic re-nal tumors.

Homotypic fusion and vacuole protein sorting(HOPS) is a protein complex consisting of VPS11, VPS16, VPS18, VPS33, VPS39, VPS41 and regulates membrane transport in vivo through membrane fusion mechanisms. The evidence suggests that HOPS complex as a fusion factor, facilitates autophagosome-lysosome fusion. To determine whether the HOPS complex directly interacts with the autophagic SNARE protein STX17 in vitro, the coding sequence of the six genes were amplified from the existing plasmids by PCR, and then ligated to the prokaryotic expression vector pGEX 4T-1-GST or pET-His-NusA. After identification through colony PCR and DNA sequencing, 6 recombinant plasmids were constructed and transferred into Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3). The recombinant proteins were purified by glutathione sepharose 4B and nickel column. We used the tobacco etch virus protease to cut off the GST-tag or His-NusA-tag, to obtain HA-VPS11 protein of about 105 kDa, Flag-VPS16 protein of about 97 kDa, HA-VPS18 protein of about 108 kDa, Flag-VPS33 protein of about 70 kDa, HA-VPS39 protein of about 97 kDa, and Flag-VPS41 protein of about 98 kDa. The function of the purified proteins was verified by in vitro glutathione S-transferases pull-down assay, confirming that autophagic SNARE protein STX17 interacted directly with HOPS components. Our findings provide experimental basis to further study the function and mechanism of HOPS complex in the process of autophagosome-lysosome fusion.