Transcription factor specificity protein 1 (Sp1) and hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF1α) serve vital roles in tumor growth and metastasis. The present study aimed to evaluate the impact of co-expression of Sp1 and HIF1α on the prognosis of patients with hepatocellular cancer (HCC) using The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database and to validate the association between the expression levels of Sp1/HIF1α in HCC specimens and patient survival using immunohistochemical analysis. A total of 214 eligible patients with HCC from TCGA database were collected for the study. The expression profile of Sp1 and HIF1α were obtained from the TCGA RNAseq database. Clinicopathological characteristics, including age, height, weight, gender, race, ethnicity, family cancer history, serum α-fetoprotein (AFP), surgical procedures and TNM stage were collected. The Cox proportional hazards regression model and Kaplan-Meier curves were used to assess the relative factors. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves for cancer-specific survival (CSS) prediction were plotted to compare the prediction ability of expression of Sp1 and HIF1α and their co-expression. The location and expression of Sp1 and HIF1α in the HCC tissues were detected by immunohistochemistry (IHC) to verify the association between these two genes and CSS. The results demonstrated that the expressions of Sp1 and HIF1α were significantly increased in the succumbed group (P=0.001), compared with the surviving group. The CSS rates were 60.1% at 3 years (1,067 days), 35.8% at 5 years (1,823 days) and 9.5% at 10 years (3,528 days). Multivariate Cox regression analysis demonstrated that only the high expression levels of Sp1 and HIF1α (≥2×103) were independent predictors for cancer mortality, with P=0.001 and P=0.029, respectively. The area under the curve for the ROC was found to be higher using the combination testing for two genes (0.751) in predicting cancer mortality, compared to a single gene (0.632 for Sp1 and 0.717 for HIF1α). Based on the cutoff points for gene expression, patients were divided into 3 groups: G1 (both genes <2×103), G2 (either gene ≥2×103) and G3 (both genes ≥2×103). The risk of cancer mortality increased with high expression of genes, and G3 exhibited a greater risk than G2 when compared with the G1 group (HR=5.420, 95% CI 2.767–10.616, P=0.001; HR=3.270, 95% CI 1.843–5.803, P=0.001). The IHC staining results indicated that patients who died of cancer presented with significantly higher expression levels of these genes compared with those that did not (P=0.001). In summary, high expression levels of Sp1 and HIF1α in HCC tissues were associated with poor prognosis; in particular, the co-expression of these two genes increased the risk of cancer mortality.

In this study, the effects of postharvest treatment with 1% pullulan, 2% calcium chloride, and 1% chitosan on the physiological and biochemical properties, enzymatic activities and the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) with sucrose metabolism of Annona squamosa L. fruits stored at 15 ± 1°C for 12 days were investigated. Exogenous substances treatment retained a higher level of firmness, surface color, total soluble solids, organic acids, and tvolatile flavor substances compared to the control fruit. Exogenous substances treatments, particularly calcium chloride, enhanced sucrose phosphate synthase activity, whereas it inhibited acid invertase (AI) and neutral invertase (NI) activities. These changes in enzyme activities together resulted in a significantly higher sucrose content and lower glucose and fructose contents. The number (1550 genes), proportion (6.46%), and expression levels of DEGs in the calcium chloride‐treated fruit, which was enriched in the starch and sucrose metabolism pathways, were all significantly higher than in chitosan treatment. The findings indicated that exogenous calcium chloride might alter sucrose metabolism during fruit ripening by regulating the enzymatic activities and metabolism pathway. This will provide a theoretical basis for further research on the regulation of sugar metabolism by exogenous substances treatment to solve the problem of quality degradation in the storage of A. squamosa. Novelty impact statement This study indicated that the application of chitosan, pullulan, or calcium chloride, especially calcium chloride treatment, can effectively maintain the quality of Annona squamosa fruit during storage. It was found that exogenous calcium chloride might alter sucrose metabolism during fruit ripening by regulating the enzymatic activities and metabolism pathway. The results provided a theoretical basis for exploring the mechanism of exogenous substances for maintaining the postharvest quality and enhancing the shelf life of A. squamosa fruit in further research.

The Handan–Xingtai region in the southern Taihang Mountains in central North China Craton hosts several skarn‐type iron deposits. Here we investigate an ore‐forming intrusion associated with a typical iron skarn deposit to explore the magmatic evolution from mineral zoning textures, and to constrain the ore genesis. We report results of X‐ray mapping of the composition of amphibole and plagioclase. The amphibole thermobarometers suggest: (a) magma chamber at a depth of 17 km; (b) two types of magma with different physical and chemical properties, one representing the main magma chamber with high water content, and the other characterized by more mafic composition and higher oxygen fugacity. The final emplacement depth of magma is estimated as ca. 1.5 km. The oxygen fugacity shows an obvious increase from the primary magma chamber to its emplacement depth. The zoning texture of plagioclase and amphibole suggest that the mafic magma was injected into felsic magma chamber many times, leading to magma mixing. We construct a petrogenetic and metallogenic model which envisages the following processes: (a) during 135–120 Ma, mantle‐derived magma and crust‐derived magma underwent mixing and homogenization at the crust–mantle boundary; (b) the hybrid magma rose to the middle crust and formed a magma chamber; (c) multiple injection of mafic magma into the felsic magma chamber resulted in oscillatory zoning; (d) the magma with high water content and higher modal content of plagioclase and amphibole formed through multiple magmatic injection‐mixing‐crystallization processes; and (f) the high water content and higher oxygen fugacity enabled the hybrid magma to rise to the shallow crust, where it released iron‐rich melt and fluids, which reacted with the surrounding limestones to generate the skarn‐ type iron deposit.

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