Int J Med Sci
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Objective: The purpose of this study was to provide an insight into the biological effects of knockdown Yes-associated protein (YAP) on the proliferation and apoptosis of human periodontal ligament stem cells (h-PDLSCs). Methods: Immunofluorescence and Western blot were used to evaluate Hippo-YAP signaling expression level. Enhanced green fluorescence protein lentiviral vector was constructed to down-regulate YAP in h-PDLSCs. ⋯ After the lentivirus transfection, the expression of YAP mRNA and protein was significantly reduced (P<0.001). When YAP was knocked down, the proliferation activity of h-PDLSCs was inhibited; the early & late apoptosis rates increased; the proportion of cells in G1 phases increased (P<0.05), while that in G2 and S phase decreased (P<0.05); cellular senescence was accelerated (P<0.01); ERK and its target proteins P-P90RSK and P-MEK were reduced while Bcl-2 family members increased. Conclusion: Knockdown of YAP inhibits the proliferation activity and induces apoptosis of h-PDLSCs with the involvement of Hippo pathway and has a crosstalk between Erk and Bcl-2 signaling pathways.
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Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease in the elderly. Cerebrovascular diseases such as cerebral ischemic lesion (CIL) also commonly occur in elderly adults. However, previous studies on the relationship between PD and cerebrovascular disease have not found consistent results. Therefore, we conducted this study to evaluate whether or not PD is related to an increased prevalence of ischemic cerebrovascular lesions. ⋯ This study demonstrates that PD patients have a significantly higher prevalence of CIL compared to HCs. Therefore, although the present study is not a large-scale study, we cautiously suggest that PD can play an important role as a risk factor in the occurrence of ischemic cerebrovascular disease.
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Peripheral parenteral nutrition (PPN) solutions contain amino acids, glucose, and electrolytes, with or without some water soluble vitamins. Peripheral venous catheters are one of the causes of catheter related blood stream infection (CRBSI), which requires infection control. In Japan, PPN solutions have rarely been prepared under aseptic conditions. ⋯ As for C. albicans, they grew in all test solutions. C. albicans grew especially well in solutions that contained biotin. When commercial amino acids and glucose solutions with electrolytes are administered, in particular those containing multivitamins or water soluble vitamins, efforts to control infection must be taken to prevent proliferation of microorganisms.
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Objectives: To determine whether the soluble programmed cell death ligand 1 (sPD-L1) levels in patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) are associated with the clinical features of the disease and the efficacy of treatment, including interferon (IFN)-α. Methods: We investigated the sPD-L1 levels in the sera of 80 genotype 1b Japanese patients with CHC who underwent 12 weeks of telaprevir (TVR)- or simeprevir (SMV)-based triple therapy followed by 12 weeks of dual therapy with pegylated IFN-α plus ribavirin. Serum was also obtained from 22 patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and from 10 healthy donors (HC). ⋯ Although immortalized hepatocytes do not express PD-L1, we confirmed that PD-L1 expression was induced after stimulation with IFN-γ. Conclusions: In this study, we first found that sPD-L1 was increased in patients with CHC. Our results indicate that the level of serum sPD-L1 might be associated with the progression of CHC and the generation of hepatocellular carcinoma.
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Endothelial cell-specific molecule 1 (ESM1) is a major prognostic marker of several tumor types, but its value as a marker for prostate cancer is unknown. The purpose of the present study was to measure the relationship of ESM1 expression with androgen receptor (AR) expression and with Gleason score in human prostate carcinoma tissue. ⋯ ESM1 expression was also greater in prostate tissues with higher Gleason score and Gleason grade (p < 0.001 for both comparisons), and also correlated with AR expression (R = 0.727, p < 0.001). In conclusion, our results demonstrated that ESM1 should be considered as a marker for the diagnosis of prostate cancer.