AIMTo investigate the clinicopathological significance of progesterone receptor membrane component 1 (PGRMC1) and PGRMC2 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).METHODSWe performed immunohistochemical staining to evaluate the estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), PGRMC1, and PGRMC2 in a clinical cohort consisting of 89 paired HCC and non-tumor liver samples. We also analyzed HCC data (n = 373) from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We correlated the expression status of PGRMC1 and PGRMC2 with clinicopathological indicators and the clinical outcomes of the HCC patients. We knocked down or overexpressed PGRMC1 in HCC cell lines to evaluate its biological significance in HCC cell proliferation, differentiation, migration, and invasion.RESULTSWe found that few HCC cases expressed ER (5.6%) and PR (4.5%). In contrast, most HCC cases expressed PGRMC1 (89.9%) and PGRMC2 (100%). PGRMC1 and PGRMC2 exhibited significantly lower expression in tumor tissue than in non-tumor tissue (P < 0.001). Lower PGRMC1 expression in HCC was significantly associated with higher serum alpha-fetoprotein expression (P = 0.004), poorer tumor differentiation (P = 0.045) and liver capsule penetration (P = 0.038). Low PGRMC1 expression was an independent predictor for worse disease-free survival (P = 0.002, HR = 2.384, CI: 1.377-4.128) in our cases, as well as in the TCGA cohort (P < 0.001, HR = 2.857, CI: 1.781-4.584). The expression of PGRMC2 did not relate to patient outcome. PGRMC1 knockdown promoted a poorly differentiated phenotype and proliferation of HCC cells in vitro, while PGRMC1 overexpression caused the opposite effects.CONCLUSIONPGRMC1 is a non-classical hormonal receptor that negatively regulates hepatocarcinogenesis. PGRMC1 down-regulation is associated with progression of HCC and is a poor prognostic indicator.

Background Because there are no published biochemical reference intervals (RI) for pregnant Taiwanese women, we used an established islandwide birth cohort, the Taiwan Maternal and Infant Cohort Study, to establish RIs for important biochemical parameters in women during their 3rd trimester in Taiwan. Additionally, we compared the differences in these biochemical parameters between early third trimester (weeks 28 to 31) and late third trimester (weeks 37 to 40) of pregnant women as well as the differences in them between the third trimester and after delivery. Methods Between 2012 and 2015, we recruited a total of 2,136 pregnant women from nine hospitals located in northern (n = 3), central (n = 3), southern (n = 2), and eastern Taiwan (n = 1) to receive regular prenatal health examinations during their third trimester (weeks 28 to 40). After exclusion, samples obtained from 993 eligible pregnant women were analyzed. Results There were increases in both lower and upper normal limits for blood neutrophil, thyroid profile (triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4)), testosterone, estradiol, and progesterone and decreases for RBC, hemoglobin (Hb), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and creatinine (Cr) during their third trimesters. Women in their late third trimester (n = 378) had higher median RBC, Hb, aspartate aminotransferase (AST), Cr, thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), testosterone, estradiol, and progesterone and lower median platelet and insulin, compared with those in their early third trimester (n = 490). Twenty-three of the women had both third trimester and post-pregnancy data. After delivery, the women had lower median AST, ALT, insulin, T3, T4, testosterone, estradiol, and progesterone and higher median Cr, free T4, FSH, and luteinizing hormone (LH), compared to their third trimesters. Conclusions Gestation-related changes in important biochemical parameters should be considered when evaluating clinical laboratory values in pregnant women.

The dataset includes 5797 genes, with 1534 genes having positive roles in stem cells, 1335 genes having negative roles, 1654 genes with both positive and negative roles, and 1274 with an uncertain role. The precision of gene role in StemTextSearch is 0.66, and the recall is 0.78. StemTextSearch is a web-based engine with queries that specify (i) gene, (ii) category of stem cell, (iii) gene role, (iv) gene regulation, (v) cell process, (vi) stem-cell regulation, and (vii) species. StemTextSearch is available through http://bio.yungyun.com.tw/StemTextSearch.aspx.