Ferritin level prospectively predicts hepatocarcinogenesis in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection

Previous studies have detected a higher level of ferritin in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but a potential causal association between serum ferritin level and hepatocarcinogenesis remains to be clarified. Using a well-established prospective cohort and longitudinally collected serial blood samples, the association between baseline ferritin levels and HCC risk were evaluated in 1,152 patients infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV), a major risk factor for HCC. The association was assessed by Cox proportional hazards regression model using univariate and multivariate analyses and longitudinal analysis. It was demonstrated that HBV patients who developed HCC had a significantly higher baseline ferritin level than those who remained cancer-free (188.00 vs. 108.00 ng/ml, P\u3c0.0001). The patients with a high ferritin level (≥200 ng/ml) had 2.43-fold increased risk of HCC compared to those with lower ferritin levels [hazard ratio (HR), 2.43; 95% confidence interval, 1.63-3.63]. A significant trend of increasing HRs along with elevated ferritin levels was observed (P for trend \u3c0.0001). The association was still significant after multivariate adjustment. Incorporating ferritin into the α-fetoprotein (AFP) model significantly improved the performance of HCC prediction (the area under the curve from 0.74 to 0.77, P=0.003). Longitudinal analysis showed that the average ferritin level in HBV patients who developed HCC was persistently higher than in those who were cancer-free during follow-up. HCC risk reached a peak at approximately the fifth year after baseline ferritin detection. Moreover, stratified analyses showed that the association was noted in both males and females, and was prominent in patients with a low AFP value. In short, serum ferritin level could independently predict the risk of HBV-related HCC and may have a complementary role in AFP-based HCC diagnosis. Future studies are warranted to validate these findings and test its clinical applicability in HCC prevention and management. © 2018, Spandidos Publication

Why a local moment induces an antiferromagnetic ordering: An RVB picture

Based on a Gutzwiller projected BCS wavefunction, it is shown that a local S=1/2 moment is present around a vacancy site (zinc impurity) in a form of staggered magnetic moments, which is a direct consequence of the short-ranged resonating-valence-bond (RVB) pairing in the spin background.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Users Collaborative Mix-Zone to Resist the Query Content and Time Interval Correlation Attacks

In location-based services of continuous query, it is easier than snapshot to confirm whether a location belongs to a particular user, because sole location can be composed into a trajectory by profile correlation. In order to cut off the correlation and disturb the sub-trajectory, an un-detective region called mix-zone was proposed. However, at the time of this writing, the existing algorithms of this type mainly focus on the profiles of ID, passing time, transition probability, mobility patterns as well as road characteristics. In addition, there is still no standard way of coping with attacks of correlating each location by mining out query content and time interval from the sub-trajectory. To cope with such types of attack, users have to generalize their query contents and time intervals similarity. Hence, this paper first provided an attack model to simulate the adversary correlating the real location with a higher probability of query content and time interval similarity. Then a user collaboration mix-zone (CoMix) that can generalize these two types of profiles is proposed, so as to achieve location privacy. In CoMix, each user shares the common profile set to lowering the probability of success opponents to get the actual position through the correlation of location. Thirdly, entropy is utilized to measure the level of privacy preservation. At last, this paper further verifies the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed algorithm by experimental evaluations

The correlation between the severity of radiotherapy-induced glossitis and endothelial cell injury in local tissues in a rat model

Objectives: To explore the correlation between the severity of radiotherapy-induced glossitis (RTG) and endothelial cell injury in local tissues in a rat model. Study Design: The RTG animal model was designed and used by our team. The Oral mucositis index(OMI) was documented daily. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) Staining of CD34 was utilized to identify endothelial cells in the RTG tissues. Apoptosis of endothelial cells in local lesions due to RTG was detected by the TUNEL assay. The dynamic relationship between the OMI and apoptotic endothelial cells was statistically analyzed by time. Results and Conclusions: The injury and apoptosis of endothelial cells were observed 3 day post-irradiation. The vascular lumens of the post-irradiation tongue lesions were irregular; thrombosis formation in the center of the lumens, unsmooth lumen walls and vasodilated vessels were observed. Also, endothelial cells detached from the basal membrane and were found in the lumens. The percentages (%) of apoptotic endothelial cells were 78.3±0.31 (5 day); 89.3±0.83 (8 day); 83.5±0.41 (14 day); 69.3±0.57 (21 day); and 47.3±0.59 (28 day). The OMI was correlated with the percentage of apoptotic endothelial cells (R=0.67, P=0.034). Summary, endothelial cell injury was correlated with the pathogenic condition of RTG. © Medicina Oral S. L

Self-organized Boolean game on networks

A model of Boolean game with only one free parameter $p$ that denotes the strength of herd behavior is proposed where each agent acts according to the information obtained from his neighbors in network and those in the minority are rewarded. The simulation results indicate that the dynamic of system is sensitive to network topology, where the network of larger degree variance, i.e. the system of greater information heterogeneity, leads to less system profit. The system can self-organize to a stable state and perform better than random choice game, although only the local information is available to the agents. In addition, in heterogeneity networks, the agents with more information gain more than those with less information for a wide extent of herd strength $p$.Comment: 5 pages, 5 eps figure

Application of Metabolomics in Traditional Chinese Medicine Differentiation of Deficiency and Excess Syndromes in Patients with Diabetes Mellitus

Metabolic profiling is widely used as a probe in diagnosing diseases. In this study, the metabolic profiling of urinary carbohydrates was investigated using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and multivariate statistical analysis. The kernel-based orthogonal projections to latent structures (K-OPLS) model were established and validated to distinguish between subjects with and without diabetes mellitus (DM). The model was combined with subwindow permutation analysis (SPA) in order to extract novel biomarker information. Furthermore, the K-OPLS model visually represented the alterations in urinary carbohydrate profiles of excess and deficiency syndromes in patients with diabetes. The combination of GC/MS and K-OPLS/SPA analysis allowed the urinary carbohydrate metabolic characterization of DM patients with different traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndromes, including biomarkers different from non-DM patients. The method presented in this study might be a complement or an alternative to TCM syndrome research

Expressions of Neuregulin 1β and ErbB4 in Prefrontal Cortex and Hippocampus of a Rat Schizophrenia Model Induced by Chronic MK-801 Administration

Recent human genetic studies and postmortem brain examinations of schizophrenia patients strongly indicate that dysregulation of NRG1 and ErbB4 may be important pathogenic factors of schizophrenia. However, this hypothesis has not been validated and fully investigated in animal models of schizophrenia. In this study we quantitatively examined NRG1 and ErbB4 protein expressions by immunohistochemistry and Western blot in the brain of a rat schizophrenia model induced by chronic administration of MK-801 (a noncompetitive NMDA receptor antagonist). Our data showed that NRG1β and ErbB4 expressions were significantly increased in the rat prefrontal cortex and hippocampus but in different subregions. These findings suggest that altered expressions of NRG1 and ErbB4 might be attributed to the schizophrenia. Further study in the role and mechanism of NRG1 and ErbB4 may lead to better understanding of the pathophysiology for this disorder