[Objective] To analyze the prognostic value of prostate cancer (PCa) pyroptosis-related genes (PRGs) using gene expression databases and to explore the regulatory mechanism of nucleotidebinding oligomerization domain-like receptor containing pyrin domain 1 (NLRP1) in the pyroptosis of PCa cells. [Methods] Fragments per kilobase of exon model per million reads mapped (FPKM) data and clinical information from PCa and adjacent tissues from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) were obtained. Differentially expressed PRGs between PCa and adjacent tissues, classified subtypes and plotted survival curves were analyzed. Univariate Cox regression analysis, least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression analysis were conducted to screen prognosis-related PRGs, risk scores were calculated, and a prognostic risk model was constructed and validated. Patients were divided into high and low risk groups based on the median risk scores from the training and validation sets, and gene ontology (GO) enrichment and kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) analysis were conducted on differentially expressed PRGs. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to detect the expression level of NLRP1 in PCa cell lines, and pyroptosis was induced in DU145 and LNCaP cells while morphological changes were observed. Western blot (WB) was performed to detect the expression of pyroptosis-related molecules. [Results] A total of 6 prognostic-related PRGs were obtained, including CHMP4C, CYCS, GPX4, GSDMB, NLRP1, and PLCG1. The risk score was positively correlated with the risk of recurrence but negatively correlated with the progression-free survival (P<0.001). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUCs) for the training set at 1, 3, and 5 years were 0.769 (95%CI: 0.652-0.878), 0.804 (95%CI: 0.736-0.882), and 0.772 (95%CI: 0.631-0.905), respectively, while those for the validation set were 0.731 (95%CI: 0.647-0.826), 0.753 (95%CI: 0.674-0.818), and 0.763 (95%CI: 0.626-0.849), respectively. Differences in expression levels of the 6 PRGs were observed between the high and low risk groups in both the training and validation sets (P<0.05). Cox regression analysis showed that T stage, prostate specific antigen (PSA), Gleason grade, and risk score were independent predictors of PCa prognosis (P<0.05). Differences in risk scores were observed among patients of different ages, T stages, and Gleason grades (P<0.05). NLRP1 was found to be lowly expressed in PCa cell lines and was involved in the regulation of pyroptosis in DU145 and LNCaP cells. [Conclusion] The prognostic risk model constructed based on PRGs has a certain predictability for the prognosis of PCa patients, and NLRP1 may be involved in the regulation of pyroptosis in PCa cells.

Objective:To investigate the distribution of pathological types of unilateral primary aldosteronism, and to explore the clinical characteristics and prognosis of patients with different pathological types.Methods:A total of 241 patients with unilateral primary aldosteronism who underwent adrenal surgery were included in this study. The clinical data and postoperative follow-up data were collected, and the postoperative tissue sections were stained with HE and aldosterone synthase. According to the staining results, pathological types of 241 patients were classified, and the clinical characteristics and surgical prognosis of patients with unilateral primary aldosteronism were compared.Results:According to the international histopathology consensus for unilateral primary aldosteronism, among 241 patients with unilateral primary aldosteronism, 223 were classical(92.5%), 17 were non-classical(7.1%), and 1 was aldosterone producing carcinoma(0.4%). Among classical cases, 189 were aldosterone producing adenoma and 34 were aldosterone producing nodule. In the non-classical cases, 8 cases were multiple aldosterone producing nodule and 9 cases were multiple aldosterone producing nodule. Compared with the classical group, the non-classical group had a longer duration of hypertension(9.0 vs 5.0 years, P=0.062) and a lower baseline plasma aldosterone concentration(273 vs 305 pg/mL, P=0.147), but the difference was not significant. There was no significant difference between the two groups in the proportion of patients who achieved a complete biochemical response after surgery(98% vs 92.3%, P=0.281), but the proportion of patients who achieved a complete clinical response was significantly lower in the non-classical group(23.1% vs 52.9%, P=0.046). Conclusion:The pathological types of unilateral primary aldosteronism are predominantly classical, with aldosterone-producing adenoma being the most common. There were no significant differences in the clinical characteristics and postoperative biochemical remission rates between classical and non-classical patients, but the clinical prognosis of the latter was inferior to the former.

Primary aldosteronism(PA) is one of the most common secondary hypertension, the pathogenesis is still not fully understood. Aldosterone synthase(CYP11B2) was thought to be continuously expressed in the zona glomerulosa of the adrenal cortex. In recent years, it is found that there were discontinuous CYP11B2 positive cell clusters in adrenal cortex via immunohistochemical staining, and proposed the concept of aldosterone-producing cell clusters(APCC). Thenceforwarding a growing body of studies suggest that there may be a potential causal link between APCC and PA. This article summarizes the latest studies on APCC and provide an update on the potential role of APCC in the pathogenesis of PA.

Macrophages play critical roles in renal fibrosis. However, macrophages exhibit ontogenic and functional heterogeneities, and which population of macrophages contributes to renal fibrosis and the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, we genetically targeted Notch signaling by disrupting the transcription factor recombination signal binding protein-Jκ (RBP-J), to reveal its role in regulation of macrophages during the unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO)-induced murine renal fibrosis. Myeloid-specific disruption of RBP-J attenuated renal fibrosis with reduced extracellular matrix deposition and myofibroblast activation, as well as attenuated epithelial-mesenchymal transition, likely owing to the reduced expression of TGF-β. Meanwhile, RBP-J deletion significantly hampered macrophage infiltration and activation in fibrotic kidney, although their proliferation appeared unaltered. By using macrophage clearance experiment, we found that kidney resident macrophages made negligible contribution, but bone marrow (BM)-derived macrophages played a major role in renal fibrogenesis. Further mechanistic analyses showed that Notch blockade reduced monocyte emigration from BM by down-regulating CCR2 expression. Finally, we found that myeloid-specific Notch activation aggravated renal fibrosis, which was mediated by CCR2 macrophages infiltration. In summary, our data have unveiled that myeloid-specific targeting of Notch could ameliorate renal fibrosis by regulating BM-derived macrophages recruitment and activation, providing a novel strategy for intervention of this disease.

Objective To investigate the changes and their significance of glutamate-aspartate transporter (GLAST) and glutamate transporter-1 (GLT-1) expressions in glial cells following spinal cord injury (SCI) in adult rats.Methods Twenty-five healthy female adult SD rats were randomly divided into control group (5 rats) and experimental group (20 rats).The contusive spinal cord injury models were prepared at T10 segment in the rats in the experimental group according to the modified Allen's method.At days 1,3,7 and 14 following SCI,five rats were sacrificed by cardiac perfusion and the spinal cord segments adjacent to the epicenter of injury were obtained at each time point after the neurological function of hind limbs was assessed using the modified Tarlov scale.Changes of GLAST and GLT-1 expressions were detected semi-quantitatively using immunofluorescence and computer image analysis system (IPP 6.0).Results (1) Single immunofluorescence:Moderate GLAST expression was found in the control group.The GLAST expression was increased slightly at day 1 after SCI,decreased progressively at days 3 and 7 after SCI,and increased slightly at day 14 after SCI.The GLAST expression in experimental group was significantly lower than those in control group at days 3,7 and 14 after SCI (P ＜ 0.05).Moderate GLT-1 expression was detected in the control group.The expression of GLT-1 was increased slightly at day 1 after SCI,decreased to the lowest at day 3 after SCI,and increased slightly at days 7 and 14 after SCI.The GLT-1 expression in experimental group was significantly lower than those in control group at days 3,7 and 14 after SCI (P ＜0.05).(2) Double immunofluorescence:GLAST expression was found on astrocytes in the control group.The GLAST expression in experimental group was decreased at day 1 after SCI,further decreased progressively at days 3 and 7 after SCI,and started to recover at day 14 after SCI.The coexpressions of GLAST and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) in experimental group were significantly lower than those in the control group at days 3 and 7 after SCI (P ＜ 0.05).The expression of GLAST was found on microglial cells in the control group.The expression of GLAST in experimental group was increased obviously at day 1 after SCI and increased progressively at days 3-14 after SCI.The coexpressions of GLAST and OX-42 in experimental group were significantly than those in the control group at days 3,7 and 14 after SCI (P ＜ 0.05).(3) Double immunofluorescence:GLT-1 expression was found on astrocytes in the control group.The GLT-1 expression was decreased at day 1 after SCI,further decreased progressively at days 3 and 7 after SCI,and started to recover at day 14 after SCI.The coexpressions of GLT-1 and GFAP were significantly lower than those in the control group at days 3 and 7 after SCI (P ＜ 0.05).The GLT-1 expression was found on microglial cells in the control group.The GLT-1 expression was increased obviously at day 1 after SCI and increased progressively at days 3-14 after SCI.The coexpressions of GLT-1 and OX-42 were significantly higher than those in the control group at days 1,3,7 and 14 after SCI (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion The glutamate transporters GLAST and GLT-1 show different expression patterns in astrocytes and microglia following SCI in rats,which may be correlated with the roles of different glial cells in repair of spinal cord injury.

Objective To reveal the mechanisms of immunological infertility,the method of coimmunoprecipitation(CO-IP) and liquid chromatogram mass/mass (LC-MS/MS) was used to screen sperm membrane proteins which interacting with antisperm antibodies (ASA).Methods This study was designed as a case-control.The disease group including 56 serum samples from 521 cryptogenic infertile patients were screened ASA positive by ELISA and conformed with mixed antiglobulin reaction(MAR).The controls were 31 serum samples which ASA is negative and already possessed healthy offspring.All subjects were enrolled from September 2015 to December 2015 in China PLA General Hospital.Spermatozoa samples from 48donors with normal sperm parameters were from January 2016 to April 2016 in China PLA General Hospital.The purified human sperm membrane proteins were then mixed with serum from disease group (positive for ASA) and control group (not containing ASA).The binding proteins of antisperm antibodies were enriched using CO-IP assay.The immunoprecipitates were separated on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyactylamide gel (SDS-PAGE),then the binding proteins were cut from the gel and analyzed by LC-MS/MS after the enzymolysis.These proteins could bc idcntified as definition,biological function (s) and subccllular localization with Uniprot database.Results The serum samples from infertile persons (39 females and 17males) were screened ASA positive by ELISA and conformed with MAR.The healthy controls (17 females and 14 males) were ASA-negative in ELISA.Forty proteins that interact with ASA were obtained from the study and these could be divided into three groups:11 antigens detected by control serum samples only,14antigens recognised by both infertile patients and control sera,and 15 antigens specific for patients with ASA.These 15 proteins are Sperm Cation channcl protein 1,Sperm Cation channel protein 3,Sperm Cation channel protein 4,Sperm associated antigen 9,Apolipoprotein A-I,Dynein heavy chain 14,Cylicin-2,Izumo sperm-egg fusion protein 4,Thioredoxin domain-containing protein 2,IQ domain-containing protein H,IQ domain-containing protein F1,Spermatogenesis-associated protein 5,Spermatogenesis-associated protein 5-like protein 1,Sperm acrosome membrane-associated protein 1,E3 ubiquitin-protein ligase RNF 114.Conclusion Fifteen proteins discovered with CO-IP technology and LC-MS/MS analysis could be referred as male immunoinfertility-related antigens and they may hold the great importance in revealing the secret of immunological infertility.

In order to determine the effect of various hosts on feeding performance of Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus, we used 3 mammalian species as hosts, cattle (Qinchuan), sheep (T an), and rabbits (Japanese white rabbit) for infest-ing ticks. Five hundreds of R. microplus larvae were exposed to each animal (3 animals/host species). Tick recoveries were 11.0%, 0.47%, and 5.5% from cattle, sheep, and rabbits, respectively. The averages of tick feeding periods were not significantly different on cattle, sheep, and rabbits, 28.8, 25.3, and 26.7 days, respectively. The average weights of individual engorged female from cattle, sheep, and rabbits were 312.5, 219.1, and 130.2 mg, respectively and those of egg mass weights each to 85.0, 96.6, and 17.8 mg. The highest egg hatching rate was in the ticks from cattle (96.0%), fol-lowed by those from rabbits (83.0%) and sheep (19.2%). These data suggest that rabbits could be as an alternative host to cultivate R. microplus for evaluating vaccines and chemical and biological medicines against the tick in the laboratory, although the biological parameters of ticks were less than those from cattle.
Animals ; Cattle* ; Female ; Humans ; Larva ; Ovum ; Rabbits* ; Rhipicephalus* ; Sheep* ; Ticks ; Vaccines ; Weights and Measures

ObjectiveTo establish the proper review rules for the microscopic screening of urine samples tested by automatic urinalysis work station which is composed of LabUMat urine dry chemical analyzer and Urised urine sedimental analyzer.Methods The paired comparison was used to analyze the results tested by microscopy and Urised.A total of 2015 random urine samples were enrolled to establish and validate review rules.All the samples were collected from the inpatients and ontpatients of General Hospital of the People's Liberation Army from May to November 2011 and tested by urinalysis work station.2015 urine samples were firstly tested by urinalysis work station,including both urine dry chemical analyzer and urine sediments analyzer.Then each urine sample was examined microscopically by two technicians-in-charge using double-blind method.The average results from the two technicians were used as review results.Compared with review results,we set up the review rules and evaluated the Irue positive rate,false positive rate,true negative rate,false negative rate (omission diagnostic rate) and review rate.According to different test methods by automatic urinalysis work station,four microscopic review protocols were defined:( 1 ) Protocol 1:based on chemistry results only,microscopy review was performed when any of WBC,RBC,PRO and NIT was positive; (2) Protocol 2:based on urine sedimental analysis only,microscopy review was performed when any of WBC,RBC and CAST count was over upper limit of the reference range ; (3) Protocol 3:if any of BLD vs.RBC,LEU vs.WBC was different between two systems,or quantitative results had two or more than two gradient differences,microscopy review was performed; (4) Protocol 4:if any of BLD vs.RBC,LEU vs.WBC was different between two systems,or CAST was over upper limit of the reference range,or alam appeared,microscopic review was performed.300 randomly selected urine samples were tested to validate the review rules.Omission diagnostic rate and review rate were used to evaluate the rules.Results According to our review rules,the positive samples rate was 41.14％ (829/2015) and the negative rate was 58.86％ ( 1186/2015 ) ; Positive samples were composed of RBC (50.30％),WBC (53.32％) and CAST (3.74％).The review rates of four protocols were 42.93％ (865/2015),39.70％ (810/2015),29.58％(596/2015),18.91％ (381/2015 ),respectively.The false negative rates (omission diagnostic rates) were 6.36％ (128/2015),4.42％ (89/2015),1.34％ (27/2015)and 1.04％ (21/2015)respectively.Protocol 4 was selected as an ideal plan.Additional 300 urine samples were tested using protocol 4 in order to confirm the review rule.The review rate,consistency rate,true positive rate,false positive rate,true negative rate,omission diagnostic rate were 19.67％ (59/300),91.67％ (275/300),35.67％ (107/300),7.67％(23/300),56.00％ (168/300),0.67％ (2/300),respectively.After image review revised,the review rate was 8.67％ (26/300).ConclusionThe review rules established by our research for Urinalysis Work Station can find the abnormal urine samples effectively and exactly and can reduce the workload significantly.(Chin J Lab Med,2012,35:810-814)

Objective To establish the proper review rules for the microscopic screening of urine analyzed by UF-1000i automatic urinalysis work station (composed of UF-1000i urine flow cytometer and AX-4030 urine dry chemical analyzer).Methods A total of 2 839 random urine samples were collected at Chinese People′s Liberation Army General Hospital from September 2009 to February 2010, and were analyzed using UF-1000i urinalysis work station.The parameters obtained from UF-1000i and AX-4030 included RBC, WBC, CAST and ERY, LEU, PRO.After analysis by urinalysis work station, each urine sample was examined microscopically by two technologists using double-blind method.The average results got from the two technologists were regarded as the judging criterion.Based on the criterion, the review rules for the 2 839 urine samples tested by urinalysis work station were created and adjusted, and the true positive rate, false positive rate, true negative rate, false negative rate and review rate of these review rules were calculated.After that, 299 randomly selected urine samples were tested to validate these review rules.Omission diagnostic rate and review rate were used to assess the clinical practicability of the review rules.Results Thirty seven rules for microscopic review and twenty seven rules without further microscopic examination were set up based on six parameters using UriAccess 3.0 Software.The microscopic examination result was taken as the judging criterion, the consistency rate of these rules was 81.11%(2 311/2 839), the true positive rate was 40.51%(1 150/2 839), the false positive rate was 16.17%(459/2 839), the true negative rate was 41.00%(1 164/2 839), the false negative rate(omission diagnostic rate) was 2.43%(69/2 839) and the review rate was 18.28% (519/2 839).Additional 299 urine samples were assayed using UriAccess3.0 software to further verify these review rules.The consistency rate was 82.27%(246/299), the true positive rate was 36.12%(108/299), the false positive rate was 16.39%(49/299), the true negative rate was 46.15%(138/299), the false negative rate(omission diagnostic rate) was 1.34%(4/299), the review rate was 19.06%(57/299). The 4 false negative samples selected by these review rules did not come from the nephropathy department or the urology department.Microscopic results of RBC and WBC form these 4 samples ranged 3-8 cells/HP. Thus, these review rules could avoid the missed diagnosis of those patients with severe renal dysfunction.Conclusion The review rules established from this study for the UF-1000i urinalysis work station can effectively detect abnormal urine samples and improve the efficiency and the quality of urinalysis in routine clinical practice.

Base on the situations of urine analysis at home and abroad and the wrong tendency of neglecting the urine formed elements in routine test, the authors describe the clinical value and standard test protocol according to the national guideline, references, personal clinical practice and research findings. The authors also make comments on the advantages and disadvantages of microscopic analysis with a variety of instruments, and provide suggestions on how to strengthen the quality management of urine analysis in our couutry.