Pelvic lymph node dissection in prostate cancer staging : evaluation of morbidity and oncological outcomes

Background: To evaluate the morbidity of different surgical approaches for pelvic lymph node dissection (PLND), to evaluate the influence of morbidity on radiotherapy (RT) planning and to evaluate a possible therapeutic effect of a more extensive yield of PLND. Methods: From 2000-2016, 228 patients received staging PLND before primary RT in a single tertiary care center. Nine patients were excluded for the evaluation of morbidity. Fifty patients were operated in an open approach, 96 laparoscopic and 73 robot-assisted (RA). Clavien-Dindo classification was used for evaluating complications. Predictors of biochemical recurrence (BCR), clinical relapse (CR), cancer-specific survival (CSS) and overall survival (OS) were evaluated by regression analyses to determine a possible therapeutic effect. Results: Minimal invasive surgery (laparoscopic or RA) caused five times less major complications (22% vs. 4.3%, p = .001) and a median 3 days shorter hospital stay (5 days versus 2 days, p < .001). Major complications resulted in a delayed (23 days, p < .001) RT start but no oncological effect was seen. Independent oncological predictors were the number of positive nodes (BCR, CR, CSS, OS), a lower age (CR), a higher level of initial prostate-specific antigen (PSA) (BCR) and post-RT PSA (BCR). Conclusion: Minimal invasive surgery can diminish major complications which delay RT start. Nodal staging proved to be of importance for prognosis but no therapeutic effect was seen of performing PLND as such

The Therapeutic Effect of Acupuncture Treatment on Chronic Inflammation of High Fat Diet Induced Rats

Objective: Obesity may be viewed as a chronic low-grade inflammatory disease, and there are increasing evidences proved that the acupuncture has the effect of anti-obesity; here we explored the therapeutic effect of acupuncture treatment on chronic Inflammation of high fat diet induced rats. Methods: Use the high fat diet to induced obesity rats, and treat the rats with specific acupoints acupuncture and non-acupoints acupuncture. After the interference, all the rats were exposure to CO2 atmosphere and were killed by decapitation, the epididymis fat and the perirenal fat were isolated and weighted, and measured the serum level of FFA, TG, TC, IL-6 and TNFα. Results. The highfat-diet induced rats had heavier body weight, epididymal and perirenal fat pad weight, and higher level of FFA, TC, TG, IL-6 and TNFα level in serum than the normal control group fed with standard chow. The specific acupoints and nonacupoints acupuncture treatment has the effect of significantly reducing body weight, epididymal and perirenal fat pad weight and serum FFA, TC, TG, IL-6 and TNFα. Compare the specific acupoints and non-acupoints acupuncture treatment, the body weight, and epididymal and perirenal fat pad weight in specific acupoints treatment group lower than the non-acupoints treatment group, however there is no significant difference of serum FFA, TC, TG, IL-6 and TNFα. Conclusion: The specific acupoints (St 25, St 36, Sp6, P6 and St 40) acupuncture treatment have remarkable effect of anti-obesity and its mechanism may related to down-regulating the concentration of serum FFAs, IL-6 and TNFα

From EMT to HSC to AML: ZEB2 is a cell fate switch.

In this issue of Blood, complimentary studies by J. Li et al1 and H. Li et al2 identify the transcription factor ZEB2 as a critical regulator of multilineage differentiation in both normal and malignant hematopoiesis. In particular, these studies show that ZEB2 is an inhibitor of normal granulocyte production, and in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), antagonizing ZEB2 function releases the granulocytic differentiation block, creating an antileukemic therapeutic effect

The therapeutic effects of Dead Sea mineral-based skincare

Dead Sea mineral-based skincare can be considered a unique part of the 'Sea' cosmetic trend. The sea as a natural source of healing is quite an old concept. In 1750 Richard Russel presented his thesis on the Therapeutic effect of seawater at Oxford. And in 1869 the term thalassotherapy or 'bringing together the sea and medicine' was coined by the French physican La Bonardier d'Arachonpeer-reviewe

Establishment of a novel method to evaluate peritoneal microdissemination and therapeutic effect using luciferase assay

学位記番号：医博甲1684

Biodegradable multiblock copolymers for drug delivery applications

With rapid advances in genomic research and biotechnology, an increasing number of pharmaceutical proteins and peptides become available for a variety of diseases. However, the efficient delivery of these drugs is hampered by their large size and (biological) instability. Consequently, to obtain a desired therapeutic effect, proteins and peptides are usually administered parenterally by repeated subcutaneous or intramuscular injection. To overcome the problem of patient compliance, extensive research is performed on the development of controlled release systems

Therapeutic Effect of Targeting Branched-Chain Amino Acid Catabolic Flux in Pressure-Overload Induced Heart Failure.

Background Branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) catabolic defect is an emerging metabolic hallmark in failing hearts in human and animal models. The therapeutic impact of targeting BCAA catabolic flux under pathological conditions remains understudied. Methods and Results BT2 (3,6-dichlorobenzo[b]thiophene-2-carboxylic acid), a small-molecule inhibitor of branched-chain ketoacid dehydrogenase kinase, was used to enhance BCAA catabolism. After 2 weeks of transaortic constriction, mice with significant cardiac dysfunctions were treated with vehicle or BT2. Serial echocardiograms showed continuing pathological deterioration in left ventricle of the vehicle-treated mice, whereas the BT2-treated mice showed significantly preserved cardiac function and structure. Moreover, BT2 treatment improved systolic contractility and diastolic mechanics. These therapeutic benefits appeared to be independent of impacts on left ventricle hypertrophy but associated with increased gene expression involved in fatty acid utilization. The BT2 administration showed no signs of apparent toxicity. Conclusions Our data provide the first proof-of-concept evidence for the therapeutic efficacy of restoring BCAA catabolic flux in hearts with preexisting dysfunctions. The BCAA catabolic pathway represents a novel and potentially efficacious target for treatment of heart failure

Combination Therapy With Fingolimod and Neural Stem Cells Promotes Functional Myelination

Myelination, which occurs predominantly postnatally and continues throughout life, is important for proper neurologic function of the mammalian central nervous system (CNS). We have previously demonstrated that the combination therapy of fingolimod (FTY720) and transplanted neural stem cells (NSCs) had a significantly enhanced therapeutic effect on the chronic stage of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, an animal model of CNS autoimmunity, compared to using either one of them alone. However, reduced disease severity may be secondary to the immunomodulatory effects of FTY720 and NSCs, while whether this therapy directly affects myelinogenesis remains unknown. To investigate this important question, we used three myelination models under minimal or non-inflammatory microenvironments. Our results showed that FTY720 drives NSCs to differentiate into oligodendrocytes and promotes myelination in an ex vivo brain slice culture model, and in the developing CNS of healthy postnatal mice in vivo. Elevated levels of neurotrophic factors, e.g., brain-derived neurotrophic factor and glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor, were observed in the CNS of the treated infant mice. Further, FTY720 and NSCs efficiently prolonged the survival and improved sensorimotor function of shiverer mice. Together, these data demonstrate a direct effect of FTY720, beyond its known immunomodulatory capacity, in NSC differentiation and myelin development as a novel mechanism underlying its therapeutic effect in demyelinating diseases