Bioinformatics analysis of metastasis-related proteins in hepatocellular carcinoma

AIM: To analyze the metastasis-related proteins in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and discover the biomarker candidates for diagnosis and therapeutic intervention of HCC metastasis with bioinformatics tools. METHODS: Metastasis-related proteins were determined by stable isotope labeling and MS analysis and analyzed with bioinformatics resources, including Phobius, Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG), online mendelian inheritance in man (OMIM) and human protein reference database (HPRD). RESULTS: All the metastasis-related proteins were linked to 83 pathways in KEGG, including MAPK and p53 signal pathways. Protein-protein interaction network showed that all the metastasis-related proteins were categorized into 19 function groups, including cell cycle, apoptosis and signal transduction. OMIM analysis linked these proteins to 186 OMIM entries. CONCLUSION: Metastasis-related proteins provide HCC cells with biological advantages in cell proliferation,migration and angiogenesis, and facilitate metastasis of HCC cells. The bird's eye view can reveal a global characteristic of metastasis-related proteins and many differentially expressed proteins can be identified as candidates for diagnosis and treatment of HCC.

An efficient method of sorting liver stem cells by using immuno-magnetic microbeads

AIM： To develop a method to isolate liver stem cells fast and efficiently. METHODS： Fetal mouse liver cells were characterized by cell surface antigens （c-Kit and CD45/TER119） using flow cytometry. The candidate liver stem cells were sorted by using immuno-magnetic microbeads and identified by -lone-forming culture, RT-PCR and immunofluorescence says. RESULTS： The c-Kit-（CD45/TER119）- cell population with 97.9% of purity were purified by immuno-magnetic microbeads at one time. The yield of this separation was about 6% of the total sorting cells and the cell viability was above 98%. When cultured in vitro these cells had high clone-forming and self-renewing ability and expressed markers of hepatocytes and bile duct cells. Functionally mature hepatocytes were observed after 21 d of culture. CONCLUSION： This method offers an excellent tool for the enrichment of liver stem cells with high purity and viability, which could be used for further studies. It is fast, efficient, simple and not expensive.

Targeting immunometabolism by active ingredients derived from traditional Chinese medicines for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis(RA),the most common inflammatory arthropathy word wild,is a systemic autoimmune disease that mainly affects the synovium of joints with a high disability rate.Metabolic misregulation has emerged as a fundamental pathogenesis of RA linked to immune cell dysfunction,while targeting immunometabolism provides a new and effective approach to regulate the immune responses and thus alleviate the symptom of RA.Recently,natural active compounds from traditional Chinese medicines(TCMs)have potential therapeutic effects on RA and regulating immunometabolism.In this review,in addition to updating the connection between cellular metabolism and cell function in immune cells of RA,we summarized that the anti-inflammatory mechanisms of the potential natural compounds from TCM by targeting metabolic reprogramming of immune cells,and discusses them as a rich resource for providing the new potential paradigm for the treatment of RA.