MiR-125b-5p/STAT3 Axis Regulates Drug Resistance in Osteosarcoma Cells by Acting on ABC Transporters

Background

The poor prognosis of the highly malignant tumor osteosarcoma stems from its drug resistance and therefore exploring its resistance mechanisms will help us identify more effective treatment options. However, the effects of miR-125b-5p on drug resistance in osteosarcoma cells are still unclear.

Methods

To study the effects of miR-125b-5p on drug resistance in osteosarcoma cells. Osteosarcoma-resistant miR-125b-5p was obtained from the databases GeneCards and g:Profiler. CCK8, western blot, and transwell were applied for the detection of the miR-125b-5p effects on proliferation, migration, invasion, apoptosis, and drug resistance in osteosarcoma. Bioinformatics is aimed at demonstrating the targeting factor miR-125b-5p, performing protein interaction enrichment analysis by Metascape, and finally validating by binding sites.

Results

Upregulation of miR-125b-5p restrains proliferation, migration, and invasion of osteosarcoma and promotes apoptosis. In addition, miR-125b-5p can restore drug sensitivity in drug-resistant osteosarcoma. miR-125-5p restrains the signal transducer and inhibits the transcription 3 (STAT3) expression activator via targeting its 3'-UTR. STAT3 affects drug-resistant osteosarcoma to regulate the ABC transporter.

Conclusion

miR-125b-5p/STAT3 axis mediates the drug resistance of osteosarcoma by acting on ABC transporter.

The incidence and severity of the cold intolerance after reverse homodigital dorsoradial flap for coverage of thumb tissue defect

BACKGROUND

The reverse homodigital dorsoradial flap (RHDF) has been an optional treatment for thumb soft tissue defects. The current study aims to investigate the incidence and severity of cold intolerance after the use of the RHDF for thumb soft tissue reconstruction.

METHODS

49 patients with thumb soft-tissue defects treated with RHDF from 2010 to 2018 were included with the mean follow-up time of 36 (range, 14-61) months. The assessment of sensory recovery in the flap, the Cold Intolerance Symptom Severity (CISS) questionnaire, symptoms triggering temperature grade, and natural history of the symptoms were included in the final follow-up.

RESULTS

35 out of 49 patients (71.4%) reported cold intolerance. The mean CISS score of 35 cases was 28 (range 3-72) points. The mean age of the intolerance group was significantly older than that of the non-cold intolerance group. The incidence of cold intolerance in the dorsum was significantly lower than in the pulp and tip. Significantly positive correlations were presented between CISS scores and temperature grades of symptoms triggered. Seven patients were with partial recovery while 6 patients were with complete recovery from negative symptoms. 22 patients reported no change in terms of the symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS

Cold intolerance is a common complication after the RHDF for thumb tissue reconstruction, especially in the elderly population. Cold intolerance following RHDF warrants more attention for surgeons to describe the patient expect after the procedure.

In-depth learning of automatic segmentation of shoulder joint magnetic resonance images based on convolutional neural networks

OBJECTIVE

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is gradually replacing computed tomography (CT) in the examination of bones and joints. The accurate and automatic segmentation of the bone structure in the MRI of the shoulder joint is essential for the measurement and diagnosis of bone injuries and diseases. The existing bone segmentation algorithms cannot achieve automatic segmentation without any prior knowledge, and their versatility and accuracy are relatively low. For this reason, an automatic segmentation algorithm based on the combination of image blocks and convolutional neural networks is proposed.

METHODS

First, we establish 4 segmentation models, including 3 U-Net-based bone segmentation models (humeral segmentation model, joint bone segmentation model, humeral head and articular bone segmentation model as a whole) and a block-based Alex Net segmentation model; Then we use 4 segmentation models to obtain the candidate bone area, and accurately detect the location area of the humerus and joint bone by voting. Finally, the Alex Net segmentation model is further used in the detected bone area to segment the bone edge with the accuracy of the pixel level.

RESULTS

The experimental data is obtained from 8 groups of patients in the orthopedics department of our hospital. Each group of scan sequence includes about 100 images, which have been segmented and labeled. Five groups of patients were used for training and five-fold cross-validation, and three groups of patients were used to test the actual segmentation effect. The average accuracy of Dice Coefficient, Positive Predicted Value (PPV) and Sensitivity reached 0.91 ± 0.02, respectively. 0.95 ± 0.03 and 0.95 ± 0.02.

CONCLUSIONS

The method in this paper is for a small sample of patient data sets, and only through deep learning on 2D medical images, very accurate shoulder joint segmentation results can be obtained, provide clinical diagnostic guidance to orthopedics. At the same time, the proposed algorithm framework has a certain versatility and is suitable for the precise segmentation of specific organs and tissues in MRI based on a small sample data.

Gigabit per second visible light communication based on AlGaInP red micro-LED micro-transfer printed onto diamond and glass

Full-color smart displays, which act both as a display and as a high-speed visible light communication (VLC) transmitter, can be realized by the integration of red-green-blue micron-sized light emitting diodes (micro-LEDs) onto a common platform. In this work, we report on the integration of aluminum gallium indium phosphide red micro-LEDs onto diamond and glass substrates by micro-transfer printing and their application in VLC. The device on-diamond exhibits high current density and bandwidth operation, enabled by diamond's superior thermal properties. Employing an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing modulation scheme, error-free data rates of 2.6 Gbps and 5 Gbps are demonstrated for a single micro-LED printed on-glass and on-diamond, respectively. In a parallel configuration, a 2x1 micro-LED array achieves error-free data rates of 3 Gbps and 6.6 Gbps, on-glass and on-diamond, respectively.

On-chip GaN-based dual-color micro-LED arrays and their application in visible light communication

Integrated multi-color micron-sized light emitting diode (micro-LED) arrays have been demonstrated in recent years for display applications; however, their potential as visible light communication (VLC) transmitters is yet to be fully explored. In this work, we report on the fabrication and characterization of on-chip dual-color micro-LED arrays and their application in VLC. For this purpose, blue-green and blue-violet micro-LED arrays were fabricated by transfer printing blue-emitting micro-LEDs onto the substrate of green and violet micro-LEDs, respectively. The potential of these dual-color micro-LED arrays as VLC transmitters is demonstrated with respective error-free data rates of 1.79 and 3.35 Gbps, achieved by the blue-green and blue-violet devices in a dual wavelength multiplexing scheme.

A randomised controlled trial of stepwise sputum collection to increase yields of confirmed tuberculosis

<sec> <title>SETTING</title> The proportion of bacteriologically confirmed tuberculosis (TB) in China has decreased far below the worldwide average. </sec> <sec> <title>OBJECTIVE</title> To investigate whether stepwise measures to ensure sputum quality can improve the rate of bacteriologically confirmed TB. </sec> <sec> <title>DESIGN</title> We enrolled 980 adults with suspected TB from three counties in China during 2017 for this multicentre randomised controlled trial. Half the participants (n = 490) were randomly assigned to intervention groups that received instructions by a study nurse, and sputum induction, if necessary. In the remaining 490 patients, sputum samples were collected without observation. The primary outcome was the proportion of patients detected as bacteriologically positive on smear, culture or molecular assays (EasyNAT or Xpert). </sec> <sec> <title>RESULTS</title> Bacteriological confirmation rates were significantly higher in the intervention than in the control group: overall (159/490 [32%] vs. 122/490 [25%]; P = 0.009); confirmation using smear (17% vs. 11%; P = 0.010); confirmation using culture (28% vs. 21%; P = 0.021); and confirmation using molecular assays (27% vs. 18%; P = 0.001). Most of the improvement was in patients who received instruction alone, while improvement was greatest in younger patients (adjusted odds ratio 1.27, 95%CI 1.05-1.53 per 10 years). </sec> <sec> <title>CONCLUSIONS</title> If implemented effectively in resource-limited primary care clinics, our simple stepwise procedure combining instruction and sputum induction could increase the proportion of bacteriologically confirmed TB significantly. </sec>.

Myostatin induces mitochondrial metabolic alteration and typical apoptosis in cancer cells

Myostatin, a member of the transforming growth factor-β superfamily, regulates the glucose metabolism of muscle cells, while dysregulated myostatin activity is associated with a number of metabolic disorders, including muscle cachexia, obesity and type II diabetes. We observed that myostatin induced significant mitochondrial metabolic alterations and prolonged exposure of myostatin induced mitochondria-dependent apoptosis in cancer cells addicted to glycolysis. To address the underlying mechanism, we found that the protein levels of Hexokinase II (HKII) and voltage-dependent anion channel 1 (VDAC1), two key regulators of glucose metabolisms as well as metabolic stress-induced apoptosis, were negatively correlated. In particular, VDAC1 was dramatically upregulated in cells that are sensitive to myostatin treatment whereas HKII was downregulated and dissociated from mitochondria. Myostatin promoted the translocation of Bax from cytosol to mitochondria, and knockdown of VDAC1 inhibited myostatin-induced Bax translocation and apoptosis. These apoptotic changes can be partially rescued by repletion of ATP, or by ectopic expression of HKII, suggesting that perturbation of mitochondrial metabolism is causally linked with subsequent apoptosis. Our findings reveal novel function of myostatin in regulating mitochondrial metabolism and apoptosis in cancer cells.

[Determination of airway reactivity in the conscious and unrestrained guinea pigs]

A simple, stable determining system in the conscious and unrestrained guinea pigs was established that can quantitatively analyse the airway reactivity (AR). In this model, the response to histamine (His) or acetylcholine (ACh) aerosol was concentration-dependent with EC50 effective concentration causing 50% animals wheezing) of 53.3 mumol/m3 and 269 mumol/m3 respectively.

[[The relationship between socioeconomic development clusters and migration in Taiwan (1979-1988)]]

"The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship between socio-economic development and migration among different counties in Taiwan. Based on data of 1979 and 1988 this study examines the hypothesis that socio-economic development had an impact on migration. Using the method of cluster analysis, we identified six clusters of socio-economic development of counties in 1979 and in 1988.... The examination...indicates that the higher the socio-economic development level, the higher the in-migration rate. In addition, the larger the difference between socio-economic clusters, the bigger the migration stream." (SUMMARY IN ENG)