sLe^(x) expression in invasive micropapillary breast carcinoma is associated with poor prognosis and can be combined with MUC1/EMA as a supplementary diagnostic indicator

Objective: Mucin 1(MUC1/EMA) and sialyl Lewis X(sLe^(x)) indicate polarity reversal in invasive micropapillary carcinoma(IMPC). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the expression of MUC1/EMA and sLe^(x) and to assess their diagnostic and prognostic value in patients with IMPC.Methods: The expression of sLe^(x) and MUC1/EMA in 100 patients with IMPC and a control group of 89 patients with invasive ductal carcinoma not otherwise specified(IDC-NOS) were analyzed with IHC. Fresh tumor tissues were collected from patients with IMPC or IDC-NOS for primary culture and immunofluorescence analysis.Results: The rate of nodal metastasis was higher in patients with IMPC than those with IDC-NOS, and IMPC cells tended to express more sLe^(x) and MUC1/EMA in the cytomembranes(the stroma-facing surfaces of the micropapillary clusters) than IDC-NOS cells. In IMPC, high cytomembrane expression of sLe^(x), but not MUC1/EMA, indicated poor prognosis. In addition, among the 100 patients with IMPC, 10 patients had sLe^(x)+/EMA-expression patterns, and 8 patients had sLe^(x)-/EMA+ expression patterns. The primary IMPC cells were suspended, non-adherent tumor cell clusters, whereas the primary IDC cells were adherent tumor cells. Immunofluorescence analysis showed that MUC1/EMA and sLe^(x) were co-expressed on the cytomembranes in IMPC cell clusters and in the cytoplasm in IDC-NOS cells.Conclusions: sLe^(x) can be used as a prognostic indicator and can be combined with MUC1/EMA as a complementary diagnostic indicator to avoid missed IMPC diagnosis.

Kinetic Determination of Urea in Milk Powder by Nonlinear Chemical Fingerprint Technique

To detect urea content in milk powder, a nonlinear chemical fingerprint technique was developed. In our study, Belousov-Zhabotinsky oscillatory chemical reaction (B-Z) was performed using milk powder and malonic acid as main dissipative substances. The same dosage of milk powder with or without artificially added urea was introduced to “H+ + Ce4+ + + malonic acid” oscillating system, respectively, and nonlinear chemical fingerprints of different milk powder were thus obtained. The proposed method was based on a linear relationship between inductive time of non-linear chemical fingerprints and urea content in milk powder, which held when urea content in milk powder was in the range of 0 - 40 mg/g. A detection limit of 7.8 × 10-3mg/g was also obtained. Our results showed that the method could be used to certify urea content in milk powder without pretreatment of samples, which was more simple and economical compared with traditional methods.

Control of Aggregate Size of Polyethyleneimine-Coated Magnetic Nanoparticles for Magnetofection

Using magnetic nanoparticles to enhance gene transfection,a recently developed technique termed magnetofection,has been shown to be a powerful technology in gene delivery.The most widely used magnetic nanoparticles in this area are those coated with polyethyleneimine,which is a well known non-viral transfection agent.In this article,we report methods to control the aggregate size of polyethyleneimine-coated magnetite particles.These particles were then used to enhance transfection of green fluorescent protein(GFP)into NIH 3T3 cells in vitro.We find that the aggregate size of the particles has a great effect on their performance in magnetofection,with less aggregated magnetic particles being more effective in enhancing the gene transfection.

Erratum Enhancing THz fingerprint detection on the planar surface of an inverted dielectric metagrating:publisher's note

The Funding section in Ref.[1]originally reads as follows:Funding.Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province(2020J06009);Open Fund of State Key Laboratory of Applied Optics (SKLAO2020001A15);National Safety Academic Fund (U2130112);National Natural Science Foundation of China (62175205).

Preparation and Characterization of 3D Printed Hydroxyapatite-Whisker-Strengthened Hydroxyapatite Scaffold Coated with Biphasic Calcium Phosphate

This study investigates the in vitro degradation of calcium-deficient hydroxyapatite powder after heat treatment at different temperatures and analyzes the calculated phase composition,particle size distribution,degradation rate,and bioactivity of the powder after heat treatment.A mixture of hydroxyapatite and𝛽-tricalcium phosphate(BCP)coatings was prepared on the surface of a 3D-printed hydroxyapatite-whisker-strengthened hydroxyapatite scaf-fold(HAw/HA)by vacuum impregnation and ultraviolet light curing combined with an optimized heat treatment process.The performance of the coatings under different methods was characterized.The composite scaffolds with highly interconnected pores and excellent mechanical properties were prepared,and their biodegradation performance,bioactivity,osteoconductivity,and osteoinductivity of the scaffolds were improved.The results showed that calcium-deficient hydroxyapatite began to transform into BCP between 600℃and 800℃,and the powder treated at 800℃has better bioactivity.The BCP coating prepared by light curing was more uniform,resulting in a higher interfacial bonding strength,and has better osteoconductivity and osteoinductivity than that prepared by vacuum impregnation.

Function of Slit/Robo signaling in breast cancer

Slit and Robo are considered tumor suppressors because they are frequently inactivated in various tumor tissue. These genes are closely correlated with CpG hypermethylation in their promoters. The Slit/Robo signaling pathway is reportedly involved in breast cancer development and metastasis. Overexpression of Slit/ Robo induces its tumor suppressive effects possibly by inactivating the β-catenin/LEF/TCF and PI3K/Akt signaling pathways or by altering β-catenin/E-cadherin-mediated cell-cell adhesion in breast cancer cells. Furthermore, loss of Slit proteins or their Robo receptors upregulates the CXCL12/CXCR4 signaling axis in human breast carcinoma. In addition, this pathway regulates the distant migration of breast cancer cells not only by mediating the phosphorylation of the downstream molecules of CXCL12/CXCR4 and srGAPs, such as PI3K/ Src, RAFTK/Pyk2, and CDC42, but also by regulating the activities of MAP kinases. This review includes recent studies on the functions of Slit/Robo signaling in breast cancer and its molecular mechanisms.

Enhancing THz fingerprint detection on the planar surface of an inverted dielectric metagrating

Terahertz(THz)molecular fingerprint sensing provides a powerful label-free tool for the detection of traceamount samples.Due to the weak light–matter interaction,various metallic or dielectric metasurfaces have been adopted to enhance fingerprint absorbance signals.However,they suffer from strong background damping or complicated sample coating on patterned surfaces.Here,we propose an inverted dielectric metagrating and enhance the broadband THz fingerprint detection of trace analytes on a planar sensing surface.Enhancement of the broadband signal originates from the effects of evanescent waves at the planar interface,which are excited by multiplexed quasi-bound states in the continuum(quasi-BICs).One can evenly boost the near-field intensities within the analytes by tuning the asymmetry parameter of quasi-BIC modes.The multiplexing mechanism of broadband detection is demonstrated by manipulating the incident angle of excitation waves and thickness of the waveguide layer.Compared to the conventional approach,the THz fingerprint peak value is dramatically elevated,and the largest peak enhancement time is 330.Our work gives a promising way to facilitate the metasensing of the THz fingerprint on a planar surface and will inspire universal THz spectral analysis for trace analytes with different physical states or morphologies.

Clinical features, treatment strategies and outcomes of craniocervical junction arteriovenous fistulas: a cohort study of 193 patients

Background Craniocervical junction(CCJ)arteriovenous fistulas(AVFs)are rare.The current treatment strategies for AVFs with different angioarchitecture need to be clarified.The present study aimed to analyse the correlation between angioarchitecture and clinical characteristics,share our experience in treating this disease and identify risk factors associated with subarachnoid haemorrhage(SAH)and poor outcomes.Methods A total of 198 consecutive patients with CCJ AVFs from our neurosurgical centre were retrospectively reviewed.The patients were grouped according to their clinical manifestations,and their baseline clinical characteristics,angioarchitecture,treatment strategies and outcomes were summarised.Results The patients’median age was 56 years(IQR 47–62 years).The majority of patients were men with 166(83.8%)patients.The most common clinical manifestation was SAH(52.0%),followed by venous hypertensive myelopathy(VHM)(45.5%).The most common CCJ AVFs type was dural AVF,with 132(63.5%)fistulas.The most frequent fistula location was C-1(68.7%)and dural branch of vertebral artery(70.2%)was the most involved arterial feeders for fistulas.The most common direction of venous drainage was descending intradural drainage(40.9%),followed by ascending intradural drainage(36.5%).Microsurgery was the most common treatment strategy applied for 151(76.3%)patients,15(7.6%)patients were treated with interventional embolisation only,and 27(13.6%)received both interventional embolisation and microsurgical treatment.The learning curve for microsurgery only was analysed by cumulative summation method,and the turning point was the 70th case,and blood loss in post-group was lower than that in pre-group(p=0.034).At the last follow-up,there were 155(78.3%)patients with favourable outcomes(modified Rankin Scale(mRS)<3).Age≥56(OR 2.038,95%CI 1.039 to 3.998,p=0.038),VHM as the clinical manifestation(OR 4.102,95%CI 2.108 to 7.982,p<0.001)and pretreatment mRS≥3(OR 3.127,95%CI 1.617 to 6.047,p<0.001)were significantly associated with poor outcomes.Conclusion The arterial feeders and direction of the venous drainage were important factors in the clinical presentations.The location of fistula and drainage vein was essential for choosing different treatment strategies.Older age,VHM onset and poor pretreatment functional status predicted poor outcomes.