Recognition criteria for occupational cancers in relation to hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus in Korea

Seroprevalence of measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella-zoster antibodies in new female nurses in the Republic of Korea

BACKGROUND

For health care workers, immune management plays an important role in the protection against infectious diseases. This study investigated the seroprevalence of measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella-zoster in newly employed female nurses.

METHODS

We conducted a survey on the seroprevalence of measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella-zoster in newly employed female nurses at a university hospital from 2011 to 2019, before the nurses were given their department placements and duty start. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent and chemiluminescence immunoassays were used to detect immunoglobulin G antibodies. We analyzed whether there was a significant difference in seroprevalence depending on the age, birth year, birth season, and region of residence (metropolitan residency: yes or no).

RESULTS

The arithmetic mean ages of the participants were 28.6 ± 4.8, 23.5 ± 3.2, 23.6 ± 3.0, and 26.1 ± 4.5 years for measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella-zoster, respectively. The seropositivity rates were 93.9% (551/587), 60.2% (50/83), 83.3% (3,093/3,711), and 89.5% (978/1,093) for measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella-zoster, respectively. Significant differences in the seroprevalence when assessed according to the age and birth year were noted with measles, while significant differences in the seroprevalence were only noted with rubella and varicella-zoster when assessed according to birth year and age, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

In this study, we identified the levels of antibody prevalence in new female nurses. Considering the seropositivity levels, cost-effectiveness, and convenience for the participants, we recommend that the measles-mumps-rubella vaccination be provided without serologic testing for all new female nurses and the varicella-zoster vaccination only be performed for persons who are negative after serologic testing. And it would be useful if the vaccinations were combined with compulsory worker health examinations, such as the pre-placement health examinations.

Low expression of IL-37 protein is correlated with high Oct4 protein expression in hepatocellular carcinoma

OBJECTIVE

The function of IL-37 in cancer remains largely unclear. The present research was to probe the protein expression of IL-37 and Oct4 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), para-cancerous tissues (PT) and cancer cell lines, and discuss their relationship.

METHODS

Forty-nine HCC specimens and forty-nine PT samples were collected for immunohistochemical staining of IL-37 and Oct4 protein. Then, the correlations among IL-37, Oct4 and the clinical indicators were analyzed. In further in vitro studies, IL-37 was over expressed in HepG2 and MHCC97H cancer cell lines by gene transfection using a lipo3000 kit. Finally, the protein expression of IL-37 and Oct4 was detected by immunofluorescence and western blot to verify the in vivo correlation between IL and 37 and Oct4.

RESULTS

In HCC, IL-37 protein expression was weakly positive with a positive rate of 12.2% while Oct4 expression was strongly positive with a positive rate of 91.8%. In PT, strong positive IL-37 (83.7%) and weakly positive Oct4 (91.8%) were shown. The increased IL-37 and decreased Oct4 induced by IL-37 gene transfection were observed through IF in cells. In terms of clinical significance, the difference of IL-37 expression between HCC and PT was statistically significant (χ² = 51.815, P = 3.2796 × 10^-11). IL-37 in tumor tissues was associated with serum AFP (χ² = 5.515, P = 0.048) and cirrhosis (χ² = 7.451, P = 0.014). IL-37 expression of PT was link to gender (χ² = 10.376, P = 0.013) and tumor size (χ² = 8.118, P = 0.04). The expression of Oct4 in HCC was related to the patient's gender and cirrhosis. Importantly, there was a negative correlation between IL and 37 and Oct4 in tumor tissues (r = -0.299, P = 0.047) but not in PT (P > 0.05). Oct4 protein expression was down-regulated by IL-37 by 63.35% in HepG2 cells (P < 0.05) and 95.20% in MHCC97H cells (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

IL-37 expression in tumor tissues and PT was related to serum AFP and liver cirrhosis, tumor size, respectively. IL-37 protein expression was correlated with Oct4 in cancer cell lines and tumor tissues but not PT. The present study indicated that IL-37 might play a role in the development of HCC.