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Improved insight into the molecular characteristics of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is required to predict prognosis and to develop a new rationale for targeted therapeutic strategy. Bioinformatics methods, including functional enrichment and network analysis combined with survival analysis, are required to process a large volume of data to obtain further information on differentially expressed genes (DEGs). The RNA sequencing data related to HCC in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database were analyzed to screen DEGs, which were separately submitted to perform gene enrichment analysis to identify gene sets and signaling pathways, and to construct a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network. Subsequently, hub genes were selected by the core level in the network, and the top hub genes were focused on gene expression analysis and survival analysis. A total of 610 DEGs were identified, including 444 upregulated and 166 downregulated genes. The upregulated DEGs were significantly enriched in the Gene Ontology analysis (GO): Cell division and in the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway: Cell cycle, whereas the downregulated DEGs were enriched in GO: Negative regulation of growth and in the KEGG pathway: Retinol metabolism, with significant differences. Cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK)1 was selected as the top hub gene by the PPI network, which exhibited a similar expression trend with the data from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. Survival analysis revealed a significantly negative correlation between CDK1 expression level and overall survival in the TCGA group (P<0.01) and the GEO group (P<0.01). Therefore, high-throughput TCGA data analysis appears to be an effective method for screening tumor molecular markers, and high expression of CDK1 is a prognostic factor for HCC.

Background Previous studies have indicated that sarcopenia is associated with poor post-operative outcomes in liver cancer patients, but the studies are limited by confounding from mixed diseases, retrospective data, and non-standardized measurement methods. At present, there is no research with both muscle mass and strength as predictors for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) outcomes. We studied the impact of sarcopenia on post-operative outcomes in HCC patients in a cohort study designed according to the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People standards. Methods A total of 781 consecutive patients admitted to our centre were registered from May 2020 to August 2021. All participants submitted questionnaires and underwent handgrip strength, chair stand test, physical performance, and computed tomographic evaluation. Then, they were divided into three groups according to muscle mass and strength: Group A (reduced muscle mass and strength), Group B (reduced muscle strength or reduced muscle mass), and Group C (normal muscle mass and strength). The baseline data and post-operative outcomes were compared and analysed. The primary outcome variable in this study was the presence of a major post-operative complication, and the secondary outcome was the 90-day re-admission rate. Results A total of 155 patients [median age, 60.00 (IQR, 51.00-66.00) years; 20 females (12.90%)] were included after strict exclusion. The mean (SD) BMI was 23.37 ± 0.23 kg/m 2 . The mean (SD) SMI of all participants was 47.05 ± 0.79 cm 2 /m 2 , and the mean (SD) handgrip strength was 32.84 ± 0.69 kg. Among them, 77 (49.68%) patients underwent laparoscopic hepatectomy, and 73 (47.10%) patients received major hepatectomy. Regarding the post-operative results, Group A had a higher rate of major complications [40.91% (9 of 22) vs. 11.94% (8 of 67) in Group B and 6.06 (4 of 66) in Group C; P = 0.001], higher rate of blood transfusion (77.27% vs. 46.27% in Group B and 42.42% in Group C; P = 0.015), higher hospitalization expenses (P = 0.001), and longer hospital stay (P < 0.001). There was no difference in 90-day re-admission rates among the three groups. Sarcopenia (hazard ratio, 10.735; 95% CI, 2.547-45.244; P = 0.001) and open surgery (hazard ratio, 4.528; 95% CI, 1.425-14.387; P = 0.010) were independent risk factors associated with major complications. Conclusions Sarcopenia is associated with adverse outcomes after liver resection for HCC. It should be evaluated upon admission to classify high-risk patients and reduce the risk of major complications.

Ovarian cancer (OC) is the fifth most frequent cause of cancer-associated mortality worldwide, and is accompanied by asymptomatic progression. Sirtuins (SIRTs) are a family of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide-dependent protein deacetylases, comprising seven members (SIRT1, SIRT2, SIRT3, SIRT4, SIRT5, SIRT6 and SIRT7). Accumulating evidence has demonstrated that SIRTs act as prognostic estimators in certain types of cancer such as lung cancer, prostate cancer, gastric cancer, breast cancer and colorectal cancer. However, it remains unknown whether individual SIRTs can serve as independent prognostic factors in OC. In the present study, the Kaplan-Meier plotter online database was utilized to examine the prognostic values of SIRT mRNA expression in patients with OC. The results demonstrated that the overexpression of SIRT3, SIRT5, SIRT6 and SIRT7 mRNAs was associated with a good prognosis in patients, whereas elevated mRNA levels of SIRT1 and SIRT4 indicated poor survival in patients with OC. In addition, among the favorable predictors, SIRT3, SIRT5, SIRT6 and SIRT7 overexpression were associated with overall survival (OS), according to clinical characteristics, such as histological classification, clinical stage, pathology grade, drug therapy and tumor protein p53 mutation status in patients with OC. Similarly, SIRT4 mRNA overexpression was associated with poor OS in pathological grade III cancer. High SIRT1 and SIRT4 expression were associated with unfavorable OS at all clinical stages. Furthermore, SIRT1 and SIRT4 were negatively associated with OS in drug-treated patients. In summary, the present study demonstrated that the SIRT family is associated with the prognosis of human OC, suggesting that individual SIRTs may also act as prognostic predictors in patients.

BackgroundRegenerative medicine and tissue engineering are promising approaches for organ transplantation. Extracellular matrix (ECM) based scaffolds obtained through the decellularization of natural organs have become the preferred platform for organ bioengineering. In the field of pancreas bioengineering, acellular scaffolds from different animals approximate the biochemical, spatial and vascular relationships of the native extracellular matrix and have been proven to be a good platform for recellularization and in vitro culture. However, artificial endocrine pancreases based on these whole pancreatic scaffolds have a critical flaw, specifically their difficult in vivo transplantation, and connecting their vessels to the recipient is a major limitation in the development of pancreatic tissue engineering. In this study, we focus on preparing a novel acellular extracellular matrix scaffold derived from the rat pancreatic body tail (pan-body-tail ECM scaffold).ResultsSeveral analyses confirmed that our protocol effectively removes cellular material while preserving ECM proteins and the native vascular tree. DNA quantification demonstrated an obvious reduction of DNA compared with that of the natural organ (from 931.9 ± 267.8 to 11.7 ± 3.6 ng/mg, P < 0.001); the retention of the sGAG in the decellularized pancreas (0.878 ± 0.37) showed no significant difference from the natural pancreas (0.819 ± 0.1) (P > 0.05). After transplanted with the recellularized pancreas, fasting glucose levels declined to 9.08 ± 2.4 mmol/l within 2 h of the operation, and 8 h later, they had decreased to 4.7 ± 1.8 mmol/l (P < 0.05).ConclusionsThe current study describes a novel pancreatic ECM scaffold prepared from the rat pancreatic body tail via perfusion through the left gastric artery. We further showed the pioneering possibility of in vivo circulation-connected transplantation of a recellularized pancreas based on this novel scaffold. By providing such a promising pancreatic ECM scaffold, the present study might represent a key improvement and have a positive impact on endocrine pancreas bioengineering.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s13036-018-0096-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.