Background: Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the colon and rectum, which is positively correlated with the occurrence of IBD-related colorectal cancer (IBD-CRC). Conventional therapies based on drugs such as corticosteroids, mesalamine, and immunosuppression have serious side effects. Pulsatillae decoction (PD) served as a classical prescription for the treatment of colitis in China, has been shown to exert prominent curative effects and good safety. Based on clinical experience and our amelioration, we added an extra herb into this classical prescription, but its therapeutic effect on UC and the underlying mechanism are still unclear. Results: We first found the curative effect of modified PD on dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-incubated NCM460 cells. Then C57BL/6 mice were administered DSS to induce UC to evaluate the therapeutic of modified PD. The results showed that modified PD alleviated the inflammatory injury, manifested in body weight, colon length, and disease activity index, with histological analysis of colon injury. Transcriptomic sequencing indicated that modified PD treatment downregulated the IL-6/STAT3 signaling pathway, and reduced the levels of p-NF-κB, IL-1β and NLRP3, which were confirmed by western blot. Conclusions: Collectively, our results indict that modified PD could efficiently relieve clinical signs and inflammatory mediators of UC, providing evidence of the anti-colitis effect of modified PD, which might provide novel strategies for therapeutic intervention in UC, which may be applied to the prevention of IBD-CRC.

Tissue engineering is a promising approach to regenerate transplantable tissue or organ substitutes in vitro. However, the existing methods are based on seeding cells on macroscale polymer scaffolds, which are associated with several challenges including limited control over cell microenvironment, limited nutrient diffusion, directed cell alignment. The emerging bottom-up tissue engineering methods hold great potential to address these challenges by assembling building blocks into complex 3D tissue constructs. In this study, we developed a layer-by-layer assembly approach to recreate 3D cell-laden constructs. Our experiment showed the predefined channels form a vascular system and help the transplant cells to transport the requirement of culture cells in early case of cells attaching and growing up. It is an original concept to demonstrate the feasibility of forming a network with a vascular geometry in a biocompatible polymer and fabricated different scaffold with different cells. The concept was developed to create a complete branching vascular circulation in 3D on surface of mixture of chitosan and gelatin structures and pre-define the structure of channel for culturing smooth muscle for controlling the SMC growing up as smooth muscle fiber.

Multiple myeloma (MM) is an incurable plasma cell malignancy, in which alternativepre-mRNA splicing (AS) acts as one of the key transcriptome modifier. The Deleted in Azoospermia-Associated Protein 1 (DAZAP1) is a splicing factor that has been identified as an oncogene in multiple cancers, yet its role in MM proliferation remains unclear. We first analyzed MM clinical databases and found that MM patients with elevated DAZAP1 had a poor survival. Furthermore, we overexpressed DAZAP1 by lentiviral transfection and utilized siRNA silencing the expression of DAZAP1 in MM cells. DAZAP1 promoted MM cell proliferation in vitro and accelerated MM xenograft tumor growth in vivo. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis showed that ERK signaling pathway was activated in DAZAP1-OE MM cells. The analyses of RIP-seq and RIP-qPCR revealed that DAZAP1 activated alternative splicing of KIT proto-oncogene ligand (KITLG) mRNA. Further study validated that DAZAP1 increased ERK phosphorylation via modulating alternative splicing of KITLG mRNA to promote MM cell proliferation. In conclusion, we establish DAZAP1 as a tumor-promoting gene with therapeutic potential and provide mechanistic insights into targeting DAZAP1 as a new strategy for the diagnosis and treatment of MM.

BACKGROUND Extranodal natural killer (NK) T-cell lymphoma (ENKTL), nasal type is a rare subtype of extranodal non-Hodgkin lymphoma characterized by vascular damage and necrosis. The lesions usually present in the nasal cavity and adjacent tissues, however, the disease originates from the gastrointestinal or genitourinary tract in 25% of cases. Since rectal involvement in ENKTL is rare, rectal symptoms in the course of ENKTL are often misdiagnosed and considered to be related to benign diseases such as rectal fistula or perianal abscess. CASE SUMMARY We report the case of a 24-year-old Han Chinese female who initially presented with a perianal abscess that was subsequently diagnosed as nasal type ENKTL. Due to typical perianal pain, perianal abscess was diagnosed and surgical incision and drainage were performed. After recurrent, severe anal hemorrhages leading to hypovolemic shock and multiple surgeries, a diagnosis of ENKTL was made. The patient’s condition gradually deteriorated, and she died shortly after initiation of chemotherapy. CONCLUSION Systemic and neoplastic diseases should be included in the differential diagnosis of any potentially benign perianal abscess complicated with recurrent hemorrhages.

BACKGROUND Primary neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) in the presacral region are extremely rare, some of which are caused by other primary tumors or metastatic rectal carcinoids. Nevertheless, cases of NETs have been increasing in recent years. This report describes the first primary neuroendocrine tumor in the presacral region that was found at our hospital within the last five years. CASE SUMMARY The patient was identified as a 36-year-old woman with a presacral mass and pelvic floor pain. A digital rectal examination revealed a presacral mass with unclear margins and obvious tenderness. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) demonstrated a 57 mm × 29 mm presacral lump. An ultrasound-guided needle biopsy confirmed a well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumor. No other primary or metastatic tumors were found. CONCLUSION Comprehensive consideration of our case report and literature reported by others suggests that a conclusive diagnosis of NETs should be based on computed tomography/MRI and pathological examinations. The treatment of primary NETs in the presacral region mainly relies on surgical procedures with follow-up.