Abnormal deposition of amyloid-β(Aβ) peptides and formation of neuritic plaques are recognized as pathological processes in Alzheimer's disease (AD) brain. By using amyloid precursor protein (APP) transfected cells, this study aims to investigate the effect of overproduction of Aβ on cell differentiation and cell viability. It was shown that after serum withdrawal, untransfected cell (N2a/Wt) and vector transfected cells (N2a/vector) extended long and branched cell processes, whereas no neurites was induced in wild type APP (N2a/APP695) and Swedish mutant APP (N2a/ APPswe) transfected N2a cells. After differentiation by serum withdrawal, the localization of APP/Aβ and neurofilament was extended to neurites, whereas those of APP-transfected cells were still restricted within the cell body. Levels of both APP and Aβ were significantly higher in N2a/APP695 and N2a/APPswe than in N2a/Wt, as determined by Western blot and Sandwich ELISA, respectively. To further investigate the effect of Aβ on the inhibition of cell differentiation, we added exogenously the similar level or about 10-times of the Aβ level produced by N2a/APP695 and N2a/APPswe to the culture medium and co-cultured with N2a/Wt for 12 h, and we found that the inhibition of serum withdrawalinduced differentiation observed in N2a/APP695 and N2a/APPswe could not be reproduced by exogenous administration of Aβ into N2a/Wt. We also observed that neither endogenous production nor exogenous addition of Aβ 1-40 or Aβ 1-42 , even to hundreds fold of the physiological concentration, affected obviously the cell viability. These results suggest that the overproduction of Aβ could not arrest cell differentiation induced by serum deprivation and that, at least to a certain degree and in a limited time period, is not toxic to cell viability.

The purpose of our study was to assess the alteration of the brainstem raphe (BR) on transcranial sonography (TCS) in depression patients with or without Parkinson's disease (PD) and to explore whether the different changes of BR could reflect an increasing impairment of raphe structures. TCS was performed in patients with PD, depression with PD, depression only, and controls. Using the red nucleus as an internal standard, the BR was rated semi-quantitatively from grades 1-4 with grades 1-3 determined as abnormal. The rate of abnormal BR (≤grade 3) was found to be only 10 % in patients with PD (4/40) and 5 % in control patients (2/40). The rate of abnormal raphe was significantly higher (p < 0.05) in patients with both depression and PD (85 %, 34/40) or patients with depression only (87.5 %, 35/40). TCS of the raphe in most patients with mild depression scored grade 3, while those with moderate depression scored grade 2-3, and those with severe depression scored grade 1. The different BR echogenicity score reflected an increasing impairment of raphe structures in depression patients with or without PD (p < 0.05). TCS provides a good tool for assessing depression, more severe depressive symptoms were associated with different aspects in TCS studies.

Gastric involvement of extranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma, nasal type is extremely rare, and its clinicopathologic features are also poorly understood. Until now, only 4 cases have been reported in literature. In this article, 3 cases of extranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma, nasal type are reported. In this current series, one patient (case 2) was admitted to emergency due to life-threatened hemorrhage of the upper-digestive tract and the volume of blood loss was about 2000 mL. For case 3, the sample was a small piece of gastroendoscopy biopsy tissue. It is a challenge for pathologist to make the diagnosis for this special type of tumor. In all, 2 of 3 cases had a relevant history of midfacial extranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma, nasal type before. The other patient died of tumor 2 months later with no history of the tumor when she was alive. Literature review was carried out; The cases reported in this article are documented and compared with the 4 previously reported cases of tumor.

Aim. Data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) show that the ZNF703 gene amplifies and overexpresses in head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC). However, the clinical relevance of this observation in HNSCC is unclear. The purpose of this study was to clarify the expression of ZNF703 protein and its prognostic effect on HNSCC. Methods. Two hundred ten HNSCC patients from Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center with complete survival follow-up were included in this study. Tumor samples from primary sites were collected. The expression of the ZNF703 protein was tested by immunohistochemistry (IHC). Results. The high expression of ZNF703 in HNSCC tumor tissues was significantly higher than that of the matched noncancerous tissues (48.6% versus 11.6%, P < 0.001). ZNF703 overexpression was correlated with tumor position (laryngeal carcinoma) and recurrence (all P < 0.05). Multivariate analysis revealed that ZNF703 protein overexpression was an independent prognostic factor (P = 0.022, hazard ratio = 1.635, 95% CI 1.073–2.493) in HNSCC patients. Conclusion. ZNF703 overexpression is associated with adverse prognosis in HNSCC, which might be a novel biomarker of HNSCC.

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