CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells decreased future liver remnant after associating liver partition and portal vein ligation for staged hepatectomy

BACKGROUND

Associating liver partition and portal vein ligation for staged hepatectomy (ALPPS) is an innovative surgical approach for the treatment of massive hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the key to successful planned stage 2 ALPPS is future liver remnant (FLR) volume growth, but the exact mechanism has not been elucidated. The correlation between regulatory T cells (Tregs) and postoperative FLR regeneration has not been reported.

AIM

To investigate the effect of CD4⁺CD25⁺ Tregs on FLR regeneration after ALPPS.

METHODS

Clinical data and specimens were collected from 37 patients who developed massive HCC treated with ALPPS. Flow cytometry was performed to detect changes in the proportion of CD4⁺CD25⁺ Tregs to CD4⁺ T cells in peripheral blood before and after ALPPS. To analyze the relationship between peripheral blood CD4⁺CD25⁺ Treg proportion and clinicopathological information and liver volume.

RESULTS

The postoperative CD4⁺CD25⁺ Treg proportion in stage 1 ALPPS was negatively correlated with the amount of proliferation volume, proliferation rate, and kinetic growth rate (KGR) of the FLR after stage 1 ALPPS. Patients with low Treg proportion had significantly higher KGR than those with high Treg proportion (P = 0.006); patients with high Treg proportion had more severe postoperative pathological liver fibrosis than those with low Treg proportion (P = 0.043). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve between the percentage of Tregs and proliferation volume, proliferation rate, and KGR were all greater than 0.70.

CONCLUSION

CD4⁺CD25⁺ Tregs in the peripheral blood of patients with massive HCC at stage 1 ALPPS were negatively correlated with indicators of FLR regeneration after stage 1 ALPPS and may influence the degree of fibrosis in patients’ livers. Treg percentage was highly accurate in predicting the FLR regeneration after stage 1 ALPPS.

Is intralesional resection suitable for central grade 1 chondrosarcoma: A systematic review and updated meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

The surgical choice for grade 1 chondrosarcoma has been debated for decades. Intralesional resection can minimize the damage caused by surgery and offer better functional outcome. However, controversy remains about whether it will result in higher rates of local recurrence and metastasis, fewer complications, and better functional outcome compared with resection with wide margin. This systematic review and updated meta-analysis therefore compared intralesional resection and resection with wide margin in terms of local recurrence, metastasis, complications, and functional outcome.

METHODS

Medline, Embase, and the Cochrane Library were comprehensively searched in December 2016 to identify studies comparing intralesional resection and resection with wide margin for central grade 1 chondrosarcoma. Data of interest were extracted and analyzed using Review Manager 5.3.

RESULTS

Ten studies involving 394 patients were included, with 214 patients who had intralesional resection and 180 patients who had resection with wide margin for grade 1 chondrosarcoma. Intralesional resection was associated with lower complication rates (P < 0.0001) and better Musculoskeletal Tumor Society score (MSTS). There were no significant differences in terms of overall local recurrence (P = 0.27), local recurrence based on adjuvant therapies (P = 0.22), local recurrence in studies that included lesions of the hand, foot, pelvis, and axial skeleton (P = 0.55), and metastasis (P = 0.74) between groups.

CONCLUSION

Intralesional resection provides lower complications and better functional outcome with no significant increase in the risk of recurrence and metastasis. We think it is a suitable treatment for central grade 1 chondrosarcoma.

Towards stable silicon nanoarray hybrid solar cells

Silicon nanoarray hybrid solar cells benefit from the ease of fabrication and the cost-effectiveness of the hybrid structure, and represent a new research focus towards the utilization of solar energy. However, hybrid solar cells composed of both inorganic and organic components suffer from the notorious stability issue, which has to be tackled before the hybrid solar cells could become a viable alternative for harvesting solar energy. Here we show that Si nanoarray/PEDOT:PSS hybrid solar cells with improved stability can be fabricated via eliminating the water inclusion in the initial formation of the heterojunction between Si nanoarray and PEDOT:PSS. The Si nanoarray hybrid solar cells are stable against rapid degradation in the atmosphere environment for several months without encapsulation. This finding paves the way towards the real-world applications of Si nanoarray hybrid solar cells.

Single-crystal CdSe nanowires prepared via vapor-phase growth assisted with silicon

Hexagonal cadmium selenide (CdSe) nanowires, with diameter around 20 nm, were synthesized using a simple vapor-phase growth. Silicon (Si) powder acts as a source material assisting the synthesis, which is very important to the formation of the CdSe nanowires. We also suggest that self-catalysis at the Cd-terminated (0001) surface, together with the assistance action of Si, leads to the formation of wire-like structures to be formed. Meanwhile, the assistance of Si is responsible for the fineness and uniformity of the CdSe nanowires. The possible growth mechanism of the CdSe nanowires is proposed, and the optical property of the as-grown CdSe nanowires is characterized.

Analysis of competitive binding of ligands to human serum albumin using NMR relaxation measurements

The competitive binding of two ligands, ibuprofen (IBP) and salicylic acid (SAL), to human serum albumin (HSA) was studied by using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) relaxation measurements. When the concentration of one ligand was increased in the solution containing IBP, SAL and HSA, the fractions of free IBP and SAL were increased because of the competitive binding. The 1H relaxation rates (R1) of both ligands were subsequently decreased. If a ligand is in fast exchanging between the free and bound forms, the observed 1H relaxation rate is a weighted average of that for the free ligand and the protein-ligand complex. The concentrations of the free and bound ligands can be quantitatively derived from the relaxation rates. The results presented in this work revealed that IBP and SAL shared certain low-affinity binding sites on the HSA molecule, in addition to the same high-affinity binding site of AIII.

Determination of molecular self-diffusion coefficient using multiple spin-echo NMR spectroscopy with removal of convection and background gradient artifacts

A new approach is presented for the measurement of the self-diffusion coefficients of molecules in solution. It has been applied to metabolites in biofluids such as seminal and blood plasma at physiological temperature. The method is based on the double-gradient-spin-echo pulse sequence in which CPMG and bipolar gradient pulses have been implemented. The double-gradient spin-echo is shown to be useful in reducing the thermal convection that can cause over-estimation of the diffusion coefficients. The multiple spin-echoes in association with the CPMG approach is also insensitive to background gradient artifacts. In addition, the CPMG sequence enables longer diffusion periods (up to seconds) to be used without phase distortion; therefore, the proposed method is suitable for determining the diffusion coefficients of small metabolites in biofluids, where the resonances of large molecules, such as proteins, are suppressed during the spin-echo period as a result of their fast relaxation.

CP/MAS 13C spectral editing of dried pine leaves

The recently developed CP/MAS 13C spectral editing technique is applied to the study of the structure of the dried Australian pine leaves. Subspectra of quaternary carbon C, methenyl CH, methylene CH2 and methyl CH3 for Australian pine leaves have been obtained. Simple formulae for spectral editing are proposed.

NMR microscopy of polyacrylamide hydrogel

Polyacrylamide Hydrogel (PAMG) is a kind of water-absorbing functional material. It has the ability of absorbing large amounts of water and releasing water under different conditions. So PAMG has an extensive background of applications in many fields. It is an interesting problem to clarify the distribution and status of water in PAMG1. This paper reports experiments in which the proton distribution and structures of networks in gamma-irradiation crosslinked PAMG samples have been shown by using spin-echo single-slice imaging of nuclear magnetic resonance microscopy.

Solid-state NMR investigation of acid sites in dealuminated HZSM-5 zeolite

The acid sites and the hydration behaviors of dealuminated HZSM-5 zeolites (calcined at 550, 600, 650, and 700 degrees C) were characterized by high-resolution 1H MAS, 1H{27A1} spin-echo double resonance in combination with 27A1 MAS NMR. Apart from the usually observed peaks for dealuminated zeolite HZSM-5, a narrow plus a broad peak simultaneously appears at ca. 6.9 ppm in the 1H spectra and they exhibit different decay behavior in the 1H [27A1] double-resonance experiments. The existence of the former signal indicates that Lewis acid sites may'be formed in the zeolites after calcination. By means of the spin echo double resonance technique, we observed for the first time a previously unexpected narrow signal at 5.2 ppm, which resonates on the downfield side of Bronsted acid signal (4.3 ppm) and cannot be resolved in the 1H MAS spectra. This new signal is probably due to another kind of Bronsted acid site, locating in the small cages bounded by four- and five-membered rings. Three narrow peaks at 50 ppm, 30 ppm, and 0 ppm are superimposed on a very broad signal in the 27A1 MAS NMR spectra of dried HZSM-5. The intensity of the line at 50 ppm is significantly reduced compared with that of the rehydrated sample. 27A1 MAS NMR suggests that most part of the four-coordinated framework A1 turns into a intermediate case between four- and three-coordinated A1 after the dehydration and this process is reversible upon dehydration/rehydration. While some framework A1 atoms are transformed into three-coordinated A1 species and Lewis acid sites are, thus, generated in the dealuminated zeolites. For the signal at 30 ppm, the hydration leads to a dispersion in the chemical shift or the quadrupole interaction, which broadens its linewidth in hydrated samples.

Effects of pulsatile reperfusion on globally ischemic myocardium

To evaluate the effects of pulsatile reperfusion on the post ischemic myocardium, two categories of sheep were put on cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). In Category I, the hearts of 23 sheep were arrested by global ischemia for 30 min, reperfused with pulsatile flow in 10 animals (P group), and non pulsatile flow in 13 animals (NP group), and then defibrillated. The incidence of ventricular fibrillation was much higher in the NP group than the P group, 77% versus 40% (p < 0.05). The lipoperoxide products and creatinine kinase from coronary sinus blood were elevated, but there were no significant differences between the two groups during 2 hour reperfusion. In the P group, less ultrastructural damage was observed, and Na+ and H2O accumulations in the subendomyocardium were significantly less than in the NP group, at 7.11 +/- 0.60 versus 9.98 +/- 1.10 mg/g dry weight (p < 0.05) and 82.58 +/- 0.47% versus 84.3 +/- 0.38% (p < 0.05), respectively. In Category II, the ischemic time of 17 sheep (eight in the P group, nine in the NP group) was prolonged to 45 min, and animals were supported by CPB after defibrillation. Myocardial energy phosphates were measured with high-performance liquid chromatography, and triphenyltetrazolium chloride was used to delineate the infarct size. After 2 hour of reperfusion, there were no significant differences in myocardial AMP and ADP between the two groups.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)