The C-X-C-type chemokine Cxcl12, also known as stromal cell-derived factor-1, plays a critical role in hematopoiesis during fetal development. However, the functional requirement of Cxcl12 in the adult hematopoietic stem/progenitor cell (HSPC) regulation was still unclear. In this report, we developed a murine Cxcl12 conditional deletion model in which the target gene can be deleted at the adult stage. We found that loss of stroma-secreted Cxcl12 in the adult led to expansion of the HSPC population as well as a reduction in longterm quiescent stem cells. In Cxcl12

BackgroundThe Chang Gung Research Database (CGRD) is a de-identified database derived from original medical records of Chang Gung Memorial Hospital (CGMH), which comprises seven medical institutes located from the northeast to southern regions of Taiwan. The volume of medical services performed in CGMH is large, and clinical and scientific studies based on the CGRD are reported to be of high quality. However, the CGRD as a useful database for research has not been analyzed before. The objective of the study was to analyze the CGRD with regard to its characteristics and coverage of Taiwan's population.MethodsWe performed a nationwide cohort study using population-based data from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD). All patients who had any medical record of outpatient visits or admission between January 1, 1997, and December 31, 2010, were included, and the sex ratio, age distribution, socioeconomic status, urbanicity, severity of illness, prevalence of specific disease, and coverage of the CGRD were analyzed.ResultsThe sex ratio, age distribution, socioeconomic status, and urbanicity of the population of the CGRD are different from those of Taiwan NHIRD and medical centers in Taiwan (all the pairwise p < 0.05). The severity of comorbidities, and prevalence of specific diseases of the population of the CGRD are significantly higher than those of Taiwan NHIRD and medical centers in Taiwan for both outpatient and inpatient samples (all the pairwise p < 0.05). The overall coverage of the CGRD was 21.2% for outpatients and 12.4% for inpatients. The disease-specific coverage of the CGRD was 27–34% for outpatients and 14–21% for inpatients.ConclusionsThe CGRD is a multi-institutional, original medical record-based research database with high overall and disease-specific coverage of Taiwan. The population of the CGRD has significantly higher severity of comorbidities, and prevalence of specific diseases than those of Taiwan NHIRD and medical centers in Taiwan.

Identification of potential factors that can stratify a tumor’s response to specific therapies will aid in the selection of cancer therapy. The aim was to highlight the role of programmed cell death 1 ligand 1 (PD-L1) in bladder cancer. In this study, 92 of muscle-invasive bladder cancers and 28 of non- muscle invasive bladder cancers were selected for immunohistochemical staining analysis. Furthermore, human and murine bladder cancer cell lines were used to examine the correlation between PD-L1 and radiation response. Our data revealed that PD-L1 was overexpressed in the bladder tumor specimens compared with adjacent non-malignant specimens. Furthermore, the staining of PD-L1 was significantly linked to higher clinical stage, lower complete response rates and reduced disease-free survival rates. By in vitro and in vivo experiments, irradiation up-regulated the expression of PD-L1 in tumor cells, and its increase correlated with the irradiation dose. In immunocompetent mouse models, blocking PD-L1 induced a longer tumour growth delay following irradiation. The inhibition of T cell functions including proliferation and cytotoxicity against tumor cells was responsible to the effects of PD-L1 on radiation response. In conclusion, PD-L1 could be a significant clinical predictor for clinical stage and treatment response of bladder cancer.