Int J Med Sci
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Background: Female pattern hair loss (FPHL) is one of the most common types of hair loss with complex genetic predisposition. A frontal pattern hair loss with ponytail hairstyle is pervasively seen among young Chinese women. The purpose of this study is to investigate the association between the severity of FPHL and behavioral factors which include dietary, and sleep habits, and to test the hypothesis on whether ponytail hairstyle is an independent factor that increases the risks of being more severe on the FPHL scale. ⋯ Results: 1,825 participants with different severities of FPHL completed the questionnaire. Ordinal logistic regression analysis revealed that the age group between thirty and forty years (OR:2.03, 95% CI: 1.56,2. 65), insufficient time with poor quality (OR:1.30, 95% CI: 1.05,1.62), presence of alcohol consumption (OR:2.15, 95% CI: 1.14,4.42), ponytail hairstyles (OR:2.03, 95% CI: 1.40,2.96), and oily scalps (OR:2.00, 95% CI: 1.65,2.43) were risk factors which increased the odds of being in the more severe type of FPHL, compared to the age group that ranged from eighteen to thirty years, sufficient sleep with good quality, without alcohol consumption, ponytail hairstyles, and oily scalps. Conclusion: Avoiding alcohol consumption and ponytail hairstyles, in combination with proper control of scalp oil, improve sleep quality with sufficient time may help prevent FPHL from deteriorating to the more severe type.
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Background: Tumor mutation burden (TMB) is considered as a novel biomarker of response to immunotherapy and correlated with survival outcomes in various malignancies. Here, TMB-related genes (TRGs) expression signatures were constructed to investigate the association between TMB and prognosis in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), and the potential mechanism in immunoregulation was also explored. Methods: Based on somatic mutation data of 436 EOC samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas database, we examined the relationship between TMB level and overall survival (OS), as well as disease-free survival (DFS). ⋯ Accordingly, TMB levels of low-risk patients were significantly higher both in OS and DFS model (P < 0.01). Conclusions: Our TRGs-based models are reliable predictive tools for OS and DFS. High TMB may confer with an immunogenic microenvironment and predict favorable outcomes in EOCs.
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Observational Study
IL-21 promotes osteoblastic differentiation of human valvular interstitial cells through the JAK3/STAT3 pathway.
Objectives: This study amied to whether IL-21 promotes osteoblast transdifferentiation of cultured human Valvular interstitial cells (VICs). Methods: We first confirmed that IL-21 alters gene expression between CAVD aortic valve tissue and normal samples by immunohistochemistry, qPCR, and western blotting. VICs were cultured and treated with IL-21. ⋯ Results: IL-21 expression was upregulated in calcified aortic valves and promotes osteogenic differentiation of human VICs. IL-21 accelerated VIC calcification through the JAK3/STAT3 pathway. Conclusion: Our data suggest that IL-21 is a key factor in valve calcification and a promising candidate for targeted therapeutics for CAVD.
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Interferon (IFN)-β and/or tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) secreted by adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ASCs) have been proposed as key mechanistic factors in anti-cancer efficacy in lung cancer and breast cancer cells, where they act through paracrine signaling. We hypothesized that IFN-β and TRAIL produced by ASCs suppress proliferation of hepatocellular carcinoma cells (HCCs). The present study evaluated the anti-cancer effects of ASCs on HCCs in vitro. ⋯ Treatment with JAK1/JAK2 inhibitors recovered inhibition of growth in Huh7 cells incubated in ASC-CM or IFN-β via down-regulation of pSTAT1/p53/p21. However, treatment of IFN-β resulted in no alterations in resistance of Huh7 cells to TRAIL. Our findings suggest that ASCs decrease growth through activated STAT1-mediated p53/p21 by IFN-β, but not TRAIL, in Huh7 cells.
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Background: Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is the most lethal gynecological malignancy, chemo-resistance is the main cause for treatment failure. Our previous studies have found that SKOV3 could promote immune escape and tumor progression via Notch1 pathway. Therefore, Notch1 is suspected to be involved in chemo-resistance. ⋯ Notch1 affected apoptosis of cells through Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT), increasing the proportion of cells in S phase and G2 phase, thus affecting drug resistance. Conclusion: Notch1 affects EOC cells chemo-resistance by regulating EMT. This may provide a new target for the treatment of ovarian cancer.