Characteristics of the study population.

<p><b>Abbreviations:</b> M, male; F, female; DR, diabetic retinopathy; PDR, proliferative diabetic retinopathy;</p><p>Characteristics of the study population.</p

ASNV disappeared with Vmax in right SCA and OA improved after CEA in patient 1.

<p>A, INV can be seen at the pupil margin from 9 to 11 o’clock in the right eye before CEA. B, INV in the right eye disappeared at 10 days after CEA. C, TCD examination showed lower Vmax in right SCA and OA comparing to the left side before CEA in the right ICA. D, TCD examination showed improved Vmax in right SCA and OA comparing to the left side at 10 days after CEA in the right ICA.</p

Overexpression of HTRA1 Leads to Down-Regulation of Fibronectin and Functional Changes in RF/6A Cells and HUVECs

<div><p>Multiple genetic studies have suggested that high-temperature requirement serine protease (HTRA1) is associated with polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV). To date, no functional studies have investigated the biological effect of HTRA1 on vascular endothelial cells, essential vascular components involved in polypoidal vascular abnormalities and arteriosclerosis-like changes. In vitro studies were performed to investigate the effect of HTRA1 on the regulation of fibronectin, laminin, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), platelet derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR) and matrix metalloparoteinases 2 (MMP-2) and the role of HTRA1 in choroid-retina endothelial (RF/6A) and human umbilical vein endothelial (HUVEC) cells. Lentivirus-mediated overexpression of HTRA1 was used to explore effects of the protease on RF/6A and HUVEC cells in vitro. HTRA1 overexpression inhibited the proliferation, cell cycle, migration and tube formation of RF/6A and HUVEC cells, effects that might contribute to the early stage of PCV pathological lesions. Fibronectin mRNA and protein levels were significantly down-regulated following the upregulation of HTRA1, whereas the expressions of laminin, VEGF and MMP-2 were unaffected by alterations in HTRA1 expression. The decreased biological function of vascular endothelial cells and the degradation of extracellular matrix proteins, such as fibronectin, may be involved in a contributory role for HTRA1 in PCV pathogenesis.</p> </div

Birth weight against gestational age of 469 infants treated for threshold or prethreshold ROP.

<p>Dotted line indicates Chinese screening criteria.</p

Plot of birth weight against postmenstrual age at treatment (A); Plot of gestational age against postmenstrual age at treatment (B).

<p>Plot of birth weight against postmenstrual age at treatment (A); Plot of gestational age against postmenstrual age at treatment (B).</p

Effects of wild-type ARMS2 and rs10490924 on the cell cycles of human RPE cells.

<p>A) Cell cycle of pReceiver-M29-Basic plasmid-treated ARPE-19 cells. B) Cell cycle of wild-type ARMS2 plasmid-treated ARPE-19 cells. C) Cell cycle of rs10490924 plasmid-treated ARPE-19 cells. D) Data from the ARPE-19 cell cycle distribution of the control group, wild-type ARMS2 and rs10490924 group. Flow cytometric analysis demonstrates the effects of wild-type ARMS2 and rs10490924 on the human RPE cell cycle. The x-axis represents fluorescence intensity on a logarithmic scale and the y-axis represents the number of events. The results show that the fraction of cells in the G1 phase has decreased and the proportion of cells in the S phase has increased in the presence of wild-type ARMS2 and rs10490924-treated cells(*P<0.05, **P<0.01). Values are the mean±SD from three independent experiments. Abbreviations: wild-type ARMS2 plasmid-treated cells (WT); rs10490924 plasmid -treated cells (G270T); pReceiver-M29-Basic plasmid-treated cells (Vector).</p

Effects of wild-type ARMS2 and rs10490924 on the attachment of RF/6A and RPE cells.

<p>Cell attachment was assessed after 6 h incubation and subsequent MTT assay. Values are the means±SD of at least three independent experiments. Asterisks denote values significantly different from those of cells treated with wild-type ARMS2 and rs10490924 compared to negative control (p<0.01). Abbreviations: wild-type ARMS2 plasmid-treated cells (WT); rs10490924 plasmid -treated cells (G270T); pReceiver-M29-Basic plasmid-treated cells (Vector) (*P<0.05, **P<0.01).</p

Effect of wild-type ARMS2 and rs10490924 on the migration of RF/6A and human RPE cells.

<p>The migratory activity of both cell lines was estimated based on the number of cells that had migrated through the filter of the chamber. A) Migrated cells of pReceiver-M29-Basic plasmid-treated RF/6A cells. B) Migrated cells of wild-type ARMS2 plasmid-treated RF/6A cells. C) Migrated cells of rs10490924 plasmid -treated RF/6A cells. Values are the means±SD of at least three independent experiments. D) The results showed that the number of migrating cells in the wild-type ARMS2 plasmid -treated group was the most during the three groups(p<0.01). Abbreviations: wild-type ARMS2 plasmid-treated cells (WT); rs10490924 plasmid -treated cells (G270T); pReceiver-M29-Basic plasmid-treated cells (Vector) (*P<0.05, **P<0.01).</p

Lymph node status have a prognostic impact in breast cancer patients with distant metastasis

<div><p>Background</p><p>The objective of this retrospective study was to determine whether lymph node metastasis has a prognostic impact on patients with stage IV breast cancer.</p><p>Patients and methods</p><p>Seven thousand three hundred and seventy-nine patients with <i>de novo</i> stage IV breast cancer diagnosed from 2004 to 2013 were identified. Kaplan-Meier estimate method was fitted to measure overall survival and breast cancer-specific survival (BCSS). Cox proportional hazard analysis was used to evaluate the association between N stage and BCSS after controlling variables such as other patient/tumor characteristics.</p><p>Results</p><p>The primary site of M1 tumors was mainly upper-outer quadrant and overlapping lesion of the breast. Patients with N1 disease had better overall survival and BCSS than did those without lymph node metastasis. The overall survival and BCSS of M1 patients with N3 disease were significantly lower than that of those with N0, N1 and N2 disease, whereas patients with N2 and N0/N1 involvement showed no significant difference with survival. Multivariate analysis showed that lymph node metastasis was an important prognostic factor for M1 patients (N1 versus N0, hazard ratio [HR] = 0.902, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.825–0.986, p = 0.023; N3 versus N0, HR = 1.161, 95% CI: 1.055–1.276, p = 0.002). For M1 patients, age, race, marital status, primary site, ER, PR and HER2 were the independent prognostic factors.</p><p>Conclusions</p><p>The cohort study provides an insight into <i>de novo</i> stage IV breast cancer with lymph node metastasis. Our results indicated that accurate lymph node evaluation for stage IV patients is still necessary to obtain important prognostic information.</p></div

Effect of HTRA1 on the migration of RF/6A cells and HUVECs.

<p>The migratory activities of both cell lines were estimated based on the numbers of cells that had migrated through the filter of the chamber. The numbers of migrating cells in the HTRA1-transfected group were less than the number observed in the untransfected control group and the lentiviral vector control group (G, *p<0.01).</p