Chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) is a common health problem in the world. However, its etiology remains unclear. Recent researches have hypothesized that Staphylococcus aureus (SA) exotoxins which act as superantigens might be associated with inflammatory mucosal changes seen in CRSwNP. The objective of this study is to evaluate the relationship between Staphylococcus aureus superantigens and CRSwNP. PubMed, MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Library and CNKI were searched to collect the case-control studies on the relationship between SA superantigens and CRSwNP from the date of establishment of the databases to May 2013. The extracted data were analyzed by RevMan 5.0. The main outcome measures were SA culture-positive rate, the detection rate of SA superantigens and its specific IgE. Twelve studies including 340 cases and 178 controls were selected. The results showed that SA culture-positive rate in the CRSwNP group was significantly higher than that in the control group (OR 4.85, 95% CI 1.80-13.05, P = 0.002), the detection rate of SA superantigens and its specific IgE in the CRSwNP group were both significantly higher than that in the control group (OR 12.07, 95% CI 4.57-31.90, P < 0.00001; OR 17.03, 95% CI 5.43-53.39, P < 0.00001, respectively) and the CD4(+) T cell counts and Lund-Mackay CT scores were statistically higher in the IgE-positive group than in the IgE-negative group (MD 16.26, 95% CI 4.86-27.67, P = 0.005, MD 2.43, 95 % CI 0.39-4.48, P = 0.02, respectively). However, the eosinophil and CD8(+) T cell counts showed no difference between IgE-positive group and -negative group. This meta-analysis indicated that the SA superantigens may be a risk factor for CRSwNP, and the presence of SA superantigen is related to the disease severity of CRSwNP.

Background Computed tomography (CT) is commonly used in all stages of oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) management. Compared to basic CT features, CT radiomic features can objectively obtain more information about intratumour heterogeneity. Although CT radiomics has been proved useful for predicting treatment response to chemoradiotherapy in oesophageal cancer, the best way to use CT radiomic biomarkers as predictive markers for determining resectability of oesophageal SCC remains to be developed. This study aimed to develop CT radiomic features related to resectability of oesophageal SCC with five predictive models and to determine the most predictive model. Methods Five hundred ninety-one patients with oesophageal SCC undergoing contrast-enhanced CT were enrolled in this study, and were composed by 270 resectable cases and 321 unresectable cases. Of the 270 resectable oesophageal SCCs, 91 cases were primary resectable tumours; and the remained 179 cases received neoadjuvant therapy after CT, shrank on therapy, and changed to resectable tumours. Four hundred thirteen oesophageal SCCs including 189 resectable cancers and 224 unresectable cancers were randomly allocated to the training cohort; and 178 oesophageal SCCs including 81 resectable tumours and 97 unresectable tumours were allocated to the validation group. Four hundred ninety-five radiomic features were extracted from CT data for identifying resectability of oesophageal SCC. Useful radiomic features were generated by dimension reduction using least absolute shrinkage and selection operator. The optimal radiomic features were chosen using multivariable logistic regression, random forest, support vector machine, X-Gradient boost and decision tree classifiers. Discriminating performance was assessed with area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), accuracy and F-1score. Results Eight radiomic features were selected to create radiomic models related to resectability of oesophageal SCC (P-values < 0.01 for both cohorts). Multivariable logistic regression model showed the best performance (AUC = 0.92 ± 0.04 and 0.87 ± 0.02, accuracy = 0.87 and 0.86, and F-1score = 0.93 and 0.86 in training and validation cohorts, respectively) in comparison with any other model (P-value < 0.001). Good calibration was observed for multivariable logistic regression model. Conclusion CT radiomic models could help predict resectability of oesophageal SCC, and multivariable logistic regression model is the most predictive model.

BackgroundWe previously demonstrated that endothelial microparticles (EMPs) are increased in mitral valve diseases and impair valvular endothelial cell function. Perioperative systemic inflammation is an important risk factor and complication of cardiac surgery. In this study, we investigate whether EMPs increase in congenital heart diseases to promote inflammation and endothelial dysfunction.MethodsThe level of plasma EMPs in 20 patients with atrial septal defect (ASD), 23 patients with ventricular septal defect (VSD), and 30 healthy subjects were analyzed by flow cytometry. EMPs generated from human umbilical vascular endothelial cells (HUVECs) were injected into C57BL6 mice, or cultured with HUVECs without or with siRNAs targeting P38 MAPK. The expression and/or phosphorylation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), P38 MAPK, and caveolin-1 in mouse heart and/or in cultured HUVECs were determined. We evaluated generation of nitric oxide (NO) in mouse hearts, and levels of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) in cultured HUVECs and in mice.ResultsEMPs were significantly elevated in patients with ASD and VSD, especially in those with pulmonary hypertension when compared with controls. EMPs increased caveolin-1 expression and P38 MAPK phosphorylation and decreased eNOS phosphorylation and NO production in mouse hearts. EMPs stimulated P38 MAPK expression, TNF-α and IL-6 production, which were all inhibited by siRNAs targeting P38 MAPK in cultured HUVECs.ConclusionsEMPs were increased in adult patients with congenital heart diseases and may contribute to increased inflammation leading to endothelial dysfunction via P38 MAPK-dependent pathways. This novel data provides a potential therapeutic target to address important complications of surgery of congenial heart disease.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12967-016-1087-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

PurposeWe aimed to assess the prognostic value of pretreatment high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and investigate the possible biological effects of these lipoproteins on NPC cells in vitro.Experimental DesignWe examined the prognostic value of pretreatment HDL-C levels in 2443 patients with non-metastatic NPC from three independent institutions. The Cox proportional hazard model and log-rank test were used to analyze the correlation between HDL-C levels and overall survival (OS). Cell growth, colony formation, and apoptotic assays were used to determine the biological functions of HDL on NPC cells in vitro. All of the statistical tests were two-sided.ResultsOS was decreased in patients with high pretreatment HDL-C levels compared with those with low HDL-C levels (P < 0.05). Similarly, a decreased OS was noted in advanced stage (stage III-IV), NPC patients with high pretreatment HDL-C levels (P < 0.01). Multivariate analyses indicated that HDL-C was an independent prognostic factor associated with shorter OS in training cohorts. These findings were confirmed in both independent validation cohorts (P < 0.01). In vitro experiments demonstrated that HDL could increase cell proliferation, invasion, and colony formation, which were largely dependent on the expression of its receptor SR-B1. Finally, HDL could enhance chemoresistance by protecting cancer cells from apoptosis.ConclusionsPretreatment HDL-C is a poor prognostic factor for patients with NPC. This effect may be associated with the ability of HDL to enhance proliferation, colony formation, migration, and chemoresistance in NPC cells.