18 research outputs found

    Association between Vitamin D Receptor Gene Polymorphisms and Breast Cancer Risk: A Meta-Analysis of 39 Studies

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    <div><p>Background</p><p>The associations between vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene polymorphisms and breast cancer risk were comprehensively investigated to clarify issues that remain controversial.</p><p>Methodology/Principal Findings</p><p>An electronic search was conducted of several databases, including PubMed, the Cochrane library, Web of Science, EMBASE, CBM and CNKI, for papers that describe the association between <i>Fok1,</i> poly-A repeat, <i>Bsm1, Taq1</i> or <i>Apa1</i> polymorphisms of the <i>VDR</i> gene and breast cancer risk. Summary odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated based on a fixed-effect model (FEM) or random-effect model (REM), depending on the absence or presence of significant heterogeneity. A total of 39 studies met the inclusion criteria. A meta-analysis of high-quality studies showed that the <i>Fok1</i> polymorphism of the <i>VDR</i> gene was associated with an increased risk of breast cancer (<i>ff</i> vs. <i>Ff</i>+<i>FF</i>, OR: 1.09, 95%CI: 1.02 to 1.16, p = 0.007). No significant associations were observed between the other polymorphisms and breast cancer risk. No positive results were detected by pooling the results of all relevant studies.</p><p>Conclusion</p><p>A meta-analysis of high-quality studies demonstrated that the <i>Fok1</i> polymorphism of the <i>VDR</i> gene was closely associated with breast cancer risk.</p></div

    Begg’s funnel plot to examine publication bias for comparisons of <i>Fok1</i> polymorphism (<i>ff</i> vs. <i>Ff</i>+<i>FF</i>).

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    <p>Begg’s funnel plot to examine publication bias for comparisons of <i>Fok1</i> polymorphism (<i>ff</i> vs. <i>Ff</i>+<i>FF</i>).</p

    The pooled measures on the relation of Fok1, Poly A, Bsm1, Taq1 and Apa1 polymorphisms with breast cancer.

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    <p>HWE: Hardy Weinberg Equilibrium.</p><p>P<sub>h:P</sub> for heterogeneity, heterogeneity was checked by the chi square based Q test.</p><p>The symbol *shows the positive result.</p

    Forest plots of association of <i>Fok1</i> polymorphism with breast cancer.

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    <p>Significant association was detected between the genotype <i>ff</i> and breast cancer in recessive model (<i>ff</i> vs. <i>Ff</i>+<i>FF</i>). The squares and horizontal lines correspond to OR and 95% CI of specific study, and the area of squares reflects study weight. The diamond represents the pooled OR and 95% CI. Heterogeneity was checked by the chi square based Q test.</p

    Data_Sheet_1_Potential application of a newly isolated phage BUCT609 infecting Stenotrophomonas maltophilia.docx

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    Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (S. maltophilia) is widely distributed in nature and frequently causes nosocomial infections. In this work, the biological characteristics and genome of a new S. maltophilia phage BUCT609 isolated from hospital sewage with S. maltophilia strain No. 3015 as host was analyzed and its therapeutic effect in vivo was explored. It was observed by TEM that phage BUCT609 belongs to the Podoviridae with a 10 nm tail structure and a capsid with a diameter of about 50 nm. It has a short latent period (about 10 min) and its burst size is 382 PFU /cell when multiplicity of infection (MOI) is 0.01. Furthermore, it has a high survival rate in the environment with a pH range from 3 to 10 and temperature range from 4°C to 55°C. The complete genome of phage BUCT609 is linear double-stranded DNA of 43,145 bp in length, and the GC content is 58%. The genome sequence of phage BUCT609 shares <45% homology with other phages. No virulence genes and antibiotic resistance genes were found in bacteriophage BUCT609. In vivo animal experiments showed that the survival rate of mice infected with S. maltophilia was significantly improved after the intranasal injection of phage BUCT609. Therefore, our study supports that phage BUCT609 could be used as a promising antimicrobial candidate for treating S. maltophilia infections.</p

    Effect of Calcite, Kaolinite, Gypsum, and Montmorillonite on Huadian Oil Shale Kerogen Pyrolysis

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    In this paper, anhydrous pyrolysis experiments were performed on Huadian oil shale kerogen with and without different minerals (calcite, kaolinite, gypsum, montmorillonite) using a Fischer assay retorting system. The effect of mineral matrixes on the formation of oil was investigated, and their catalytic activities were obtained through pyrolysis experiments. Because of strong catalytic activity, montmorillonite and gypsum promoted the formation of oil products and minimized the formation of residue products. Kerogen with montmorillonite or kaolinite tends to direct the generated hydrocarbons from kerogen into low molecular hydrocarbons (C<sub>7</sub>–C<sub>12</sub>), indicating the Lewis acidic activity by montmorillonite and kaolinite. Calcite appears to inhibit the formation of oil. The ratios of isoalkanes/<i>n</i>-alkanes and alkanes/olefins and the content of branched saturated hydrocarbons generally increase in pyrolysis experiments for kerogen mixed with montmorillonite. In addition, the adsorption affinities of hydrocarbons on montmorillonite were obtained through pyrolysis experiments, consistent with computer simulation

    Ectopically expressed SARS-MRV μ1 and σ1 caused pathological changes in 293 T cells.

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    <p>Phase-contrast microscopic images of transfected cells under visible light (A–C) and ultraviolet light (a–c). Cells expressing GFP fusion proteins of μ1 (B, b) or σ1 (C, c) show cytopathic effects of cell rounding and shrinkage, compared with the healthy cell monolayer expressing GFP alone (A, a).</p

    Histopathological evaluation of multiple tissues from mock-infected (A–H) and BYD1-infected (a–h) suckling mice.

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    <p>Micrographs show representative examples of H&E-stained tissues evaluated eight days postinfection at ×200 magnification. The tissue types are pallium (a), hippocampus (b), thalamus (c), cardiac muscle (d), lung (e), renal cortex (f), distal convoluted tubule (g), and nephridial tissue (h). BYD1 infection caused pathological injury to the central nervous tissues (a, b), myocarditis (d), and pneumonia (e) in suckling mice.</p

    Ectopically expressed SARS-MRV μ1 and σ1 induced typical apoptosis in 293 T cells.

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    <p>(A) Cells transfected with pEGFP-C3–σ1 or pEGFP-C3–μ1 had a significantly higher rate of apoptosis than cells transfected with the pEGFP-C3 control vector (<i>p</i><0.01), detected with flow cytometry at 18 h posttransfection. (B–F) Electron microscopic images of 293 T cells 48 h after transfection with pEGFP-C3 (B), pEGFP-C3–σ1 (C–D), or pEGFP-C3–μ1 (E–F) identified apoptotic cells with early chromatin condensation (C, E) and late karyorrhexis (D, F). Bar  = 2 μm (E) or 5 μm (B, C, D, F).</p
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