Background Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is the most serious type of coronary atherosclerotic heart disease (CAD). The pathological changes are characterized by atherosclerosis. Oxidative stress plays an important role in atherosclerosis. Thioredoxin-interacting protein (TXNIP), an endogenous inhibitor and regulator of thioredoxin, could bind thioredoxin to regulate its expression and antioxidant activity negatively. The NCBI data show that there are two isoforms in TXNIP gene, namely, TXNIP1 and TXNIP2. Our previous studies have shown that TXNIP expression levels in patients with unstable angina pectoris (UAP) were increased compared with controls (CTR). However, no upregulation of TXNIP was detected in AMI patients. Methods The leucocytes were isolated from peripheral venous blood, and total RNA of the leucocytes was extracted. Then, real-time quantitative PCR was performed. Results mRNA levels of TXNIP2 in AMI were significantly increased compared with CTR (P < 0.05). However, the expression of TXNIP1 was downregulated in AMI, but the difference was not statistically significant (P > 0.05). Logistic regression analysis showed that TXNIP2 mRNA levels were significantly associated with AMI (OR = 2.207, P < 0.05). Conclusions The expression of TXNIP2, not TXNIP1, is upregulated in leukocytes of AMI patients, indicating that only TXNIP2 in circulating leucocytes may be involved in the pathogenesis of AMI.

Background Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is one of the most common cancers, especially in China. Its 5-year survival rate remains very low. Lysosomal associated membrane proteins (LAMPs), including LAMP1 and LAMP2, are major protein components of the lysosome, which also plays an important role in tumor evolution. Our previous studies have confirmed that LAMP1 and LAMP2 play an important role in the evolution and prognosis of ESCC. To further explore their roles in ESCC, we compared the roles of LAMP1 and LAMP2 in predicting the prognosis of ESCC. Methods Five hundred and seventy-nine ESCC patients were enrolled in this study. The clinical information, address and telephone number of patients were collected from the medical records. Results The 3-year survival rate was 51.91% (231/445), and 5-year survival rate was 34.58% (83/240). Kaplan-Meier survival curves indicated that the higher the expression level of LAMP1, the worse the prognosis of patients, compared with LAMP2 (P<0.05). Additionally, we used the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves to compare the sensitivity and specificity of LAMP1 and LAMP2 in predicting prognosis of ESCC. The area under the curve (AUC) of LAMP1 was significantly higher than that of LAMP2 (AUC LAMP1 =0.593, AUC LAMP2 =0.534, P<0.05), which indicated that the LAMP1 is a more sensitive marker than LAMP2. Conclusions LAMP1 is more sensitive than LAMP2 in predicting the prognosis of ESCC, which indicated that LAMP1 may play a more important role in the evolution and metastasis of ESCC.