Int J Med Sci
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Background: Left ventricular (LV) global area strain (GAS) is a novel index derived from resting 3D speckle-tracking echocardiography (STE), and its clinical significance has rarely been studied. We examined the association of LV GAS and exercise capacity in a health check-up population. Methods: We recruited 94 symptom-free participants (52.2 ± 11.7 years, 62.8% male) without substantial structural heart disease or coronary heart diseases who were undergoing a routine health examination. ⋯ LV GAS3d (OR 1.24, 95% CI 1.10-1.39, P < 0.001) was an independent predictor of impaired exercise capacity and the optimal cut-off value was -19.96% at a sensitivity of 77.8% and at a specificity of 92.1%. LV GAS3d could improve the discriminatory power of exercise capacity in individuals with early mitral filling velocity to average mitral annulus velocity ratio (E/e') ≥ 8. Conclusions: LV GAS3d was significantly associated with exercise time and exhibited incremental predictive value on E/e' for exercise capacity in participants undergoing treadmill exercise test.
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Background: The most common spinal disorder in elderly is lumbar spinal canal stenosis (LSCS). Previous studies showed that ligamentum flavum hypertrophy (LFH) with fibrosis as the main pathological change is one of the pathogenic factors leading to LSCS. Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF) is known to have an intimate relationship with fibrosis in various tissues. ⋯ Meanwhile, pEGFR, TGF-β1, pSmad3, collagen I and collagen III protein expression was significantly enhanced in LF cells after exogenous EGF exposure, which can be notably blocked by erlotinib. In addition, pSmad3, collagen I and collagen III protein expression was blocked by TGF-β1-neutralizing antibody. Conclusions: EGF promotes the synthesis of collagen I and collagen III via the TGF-β1/Smad3 signaling pathway, which eventually contributes to LFH.
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Isolation of quality RNA from articular cartilage has been challenging due to low cellularity and the high abundance of extracellular matrix and proteoglycan proteins. Recently developed methods for isolation of high quality RNA from cartilage are more applicable to larger cartilage specimens typically weighing at least 25 mg. ⋯ Here we report a protocol for direct RNA isolation from less than 3 mg of wet weight rabbit articular cartilage for quantitative microarray gene profiling. This protocol is useful for identifying differentially expressed genes in chondrocytes following focal cartilage repair and can potentially be adopted for gene expression analysis of cartilage biopsy specimens from human joints.
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Bladder carcinoma is one of the most common malignancies worldwide, and >90% of all bladder cancers are classified as urothelial carcinomas (UC). Surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, targeted therapy, and immunotherapy are evidence-based treatments that are administered depending on the clinical stage of UC. All these treatments exhibited limited effects in cases of metastatic UC, and UC with specific location, invasiveness, and recurrence. ⋯ It also induced the activation of both extrinsic and intrinsic caspase-dependent apoptotic pathways. Further investigation revealed that ivermectin induced apoptosis in UC cells is mediated via c-Jun N-terminal kinase signaling. Herein, we demonstrated that ivermectin can be used as a new therapeutic agent for treating UC cells.
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The role of HOXA family genes in the occurrence and progression of a variety of human cancers has been scatteredly reported. However, there is no systematic study on the differential expression, prognostic significance and potential molecular mechanism of HOXA4 and HOXA5 in LUAD. ⋯ In conclusion, the identified downexpressed HOXA4 and HOXA5 had significant distinguishing ability for LUAD samples and affected the cellular functions of LUAD cells. The low expression of HOXA5 indicated worse overall survival of LUAD patients. Therefore, the two HOXA family genes especially HOXA5 may serve as potential biomarkers for LUAD.