Mild atopic dermatitis lacks systemic inflammation and shows reduced nonlesional skin abnormalities

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Mucosal bromodomain-containing protein 4 mediates aeroallergen-induced inflammation and remodeling

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Circulating CCL20: A potential biomarker for active vitiligo together with the number of Th1/17 cells

Background

Vitiligo is an autoimmune disease with varying pathological features. Activation of the CCL20-CCR6 axis plays an important role in chronic inflammatory diseases. However, whether CCL20-CCR6 and Th1/17 cells are indicative of active vitiligo is unclear.

IDH1 mutation detection by droplet digital PCR in glioma

Glioma is the most frequent central nervous system tumor in adults. The overall survival of glioma patients is disappointing, mostly due to the poor prognosis of glioblastoma (Grade IV glioma). Isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) is a key factor in metabolism and catalyzes the oxidative decarboxylation of isocitrate. Mutations in IDH genes are observed in over 70% of low-grade gliomas and some cases of glioblastoma. As the most frequent mutation, IDH1(R132H) has been served as a predictive marker of glioma patients. The recently developed droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) technique generates a large amount of nanoliter-sized droplets, each of which carries out a PCR reaction on one template. Therefore, ddPCR provides high precision and absolute quantification of the nucleic acid target, with wide applications for both research and clinical diagnosis. In the current study, we collected 62 glioma tissue samples (Grade II to IV) and detected IDH1 mutations by Sanger direct sequencing, ddPCR, and quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). With the results from Sanger direct sequencing as the standard, the characteristics of ddPCR were compared with qRT-PCR. The data indicated that ddPCR was much more sensitive and much easier to interpret than qRT-PCR. Thus, we demonstrated that ddPCR is a reliable and sensitive method for screening the IDH mutation. Therefore, ddPCR is able to applied clinically in predicting patient prognosis and selecting effective therapeutic strategies. Our data also supported that the prognosis of Grade II and III glioma was better in patients with an IDH mutation than in those without mutation.     

Chlamydia trachomatis inhibits telomeric DNA damage signaling via transient hTERT upregulation

Epidemiological data exist to support a positive association between Chlamydia trachomatis (Ctr) infection and gynecological cancers; however, putative cellular mechanisms for this association are lacking. Here, we identified Ctr-induced perturbations to host cell phenotypes in vitro that persisted after clearance of infection and could directly contribute to host cell transformation. In particular, human telomerase catalytic subunit (hTERT) mRNA expression and catalytic subunit activity were increased in acute infected late passage IMR90E1A cells. hTERT upregulation was accompanied by recruitment of ceramide, a known regulator of hTERT, to the chlamydial inclusion and was abrogated following doxycycline-mediated infection clearance. In cells cleared of Ctr infection, average telomere length was slightly increased and immunofluorescence staining of the DNA damage marker γH2A.X was reduced after clearance of infection compared with cells that had not been infected. Reduced p53 binding to the promoter of the cell cycle checkpoint regulator p21 was also detected in cells cleared of infection and p21 levels were reduced; moreover, this cell population exhibited increased resistance to etoposide-induced DNA damage. Thus, Ctr infection altered cell aging and survival pathways, which persisted after infection clearance. Cells that survive infection are likely to exhibit altered physiology, as evidenced by an increased resistance to DNA damage-induced apoptosis, which may support cellular transformation.     

Down-Regulated CK8 Expression in Human Intervertebral Disc Degeneration

As an intermediate filament protein, cytokeratin 8 (CK8) exerts multiple cellular functions. Moreover, it has been identified as a marker of notochord cells, which play essential roles in human nucleus pulposus (NP). However, the distribution of CK8 positive cells in human NP and their relationship with intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) have not been clarified until now. Here, we found the percentage of CK8 positive cells in IDD (25.7±4.14%) was significantly lower than that in normal and scoliosis NP (51.9±9.73% and 47.8±5.51%, respectively, p<0.05). Western blotting and qRT-PCR results confirmed the down-regulation of CK8 expression in IDD on both of protein and mRNA levels. Furthermore, approximately 37.4% of cell clusters were CK8 positive in IDD. Taken together, this is the first study to show a down-regulated CK8 expression and the percentage of CK8 positive cell clusters in IDD based upon multiple lines of evidence. Consequently, CK8 positive cells might be considered as a potential option in the development of cellular treatment strategies for NP repair.     

Estrogen Activation of G-Protein–Coupled Estrogen Receptor 1 Regulates Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase and mTOR Signaling to Promote Liver Growth in Zebrafish and Proliferation of Human Hepatocytes

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