Circumstances preceding the suicide of Asian Pacific Islander Americans and White Americans

This study examined the circumstances preceding suicide among Asian and Pacific Islander Americans (APIAs) and White American decedents using data from the National Violent Death Reporting System in the United States. After controlling for gender and age, APIAs had lower rates of recent disclosure of suicide ideation, recent mental health treatment, recent mental health problems, and intimate partner problems, but higher rates of school problems than White Americans. There were also significant Race?×?Age moderation effects for recent mental health, financial, and school problems and a significant Race?×?Gender moderation effect for intimate partner problems.     

Expression of RRM1 and RRM2 as a novel prognostic marker in advanced non-small cell lung cancer receiving chemotherapy

The aim of this study was to examine the prognostic value of BRCA1, RRM1, and RRM2 in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who received adjuvant chemotherapy. A total of 418 patients who underwent curative pulmonary resection were obtained between January 2007 and November 2009. The relative cDNA quantification for BRCA1, RRM1, and RRM2 was conducted using a fluorescence-based, real-time detection method, and β-actin was used as a reference gene. The low expression of RRM1 and RRM2 significantly increased the platinum-based chemotherapy response (For RRM1: odds ratio (OR)?=?2.09, 95 % confidence interval (CI)?=?1.38–3.18; For RRM2: OR?=?1.64, 95 % CI?=?1.09–2.48). The univariate analysis indicated that low expression of RRM1 attained a longer time to progression and overall survival time, with HR (95 % CI) of 0.50 (0.33–0.77) and 0.60 (0.39–0.92), respectively. Similarly, low expression of RRM2 had a longer time to progression and overall survival, with HR (95 % CI) of 0.57 (0.38–0.86) and 0.47 (0.31–0.71), respectively. In conclusion, low expression of RRM1 and RRM2 could be used to predict the treatment response to platinum-based chemotherapy and survival in NSCLC. The RRM1 and RRM2 could substantially contribute to the future design of individualized cancer treatment in NSCLC patients.     

医学伦理与老龄保健事业

本文简要介绍医学伦理与医疗卫生工作,特别是老龄保健事业之间的紧密联系,指出医学伦理要求医务人员在医疗实践中应遵循的三个基本原则。医务人员应将患者的利益放在首位,处理好医患关系。由于我国人口众多,加之年龄日益老化,进入新世纪后,繁重的老龄保健事业对医疗卫生工作提出更高要求,同时也使医学伦理面临新的挑战和机遇。     

Unusual hyperpigmented patches,an undeveloped breast and a cataract in a female with incontinentia pigmenti

A 19‐year‐old female and her mother visited our department with a history of unusual reticular brown‐black patches on their trunks and limbs since infancy. Besides the obviously fulsome hyperpigmentation, the daughter also showed other unusual clinical manifestations such as generalized hypohidrosis, especially on the hyperpigmented patches, cicatricial alopecia, a cataract on her right eye, abnormal teeth and a right dysplastic breast. The mother had a median diastema between her maxillary central incisors, hypoplasia of the enamel, hypohidrosis and hyperpigmented patches on her left thoracic region. Analysis of the NEMO (NF‐κB essential modulator) gene in the patient and her mother revealed a deletion of exons 4–10. Their EDA and EDAR genes were normal.     

Short-term environmental enrichment exposure induces proliferation and maturation of doublecortin-positive cells in the prefrontal cortex

Previous studies have demonstrated that doublecortin-positive immature neurons exist pre- dominantly in the superficial layer of the cerebral cortex of adult mammals such as guinea pigs, and these neurons exhibit very weak properties of self-proliferation during adulthood under physiological conditions. To verify whether environmental enrichment has an impact on the proliferation and maturation of these immature neurons in the prefrontal cortex of adult guinea pigs, healthy adult guinea pigs were subjected to short-term environmental enrichment. Animals were allowed to play with various cognitive and physical stimulating objects over a period of 2 weeks, twice per day, for 60 minutes each. Immunofluorescence staining results indicated that the number of doublecortin-positive cells in layer II of the prefrontal cortex was significantly increased after short-term environmental enrichment exposure. In addition, these doublecortin-positive cells co-expressed 5-bromo-2-deoxyuridine （a marker of cell prolifera- tion）, c-Fos （a marker of cell viability） and NeuN （a marker of mature neurons）. Experimental findings showed that short-term environmental enrichment can induce proliferation, activation and maturation of doublecortin-positive cells in layer II of the prefrontal cortex of adult guinea pigs.     

MiR-876-5p acts as an inhibitor in hepatocellular carcinoma progression by targeting DNMT3A

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the biggest challenges that human beings faced with in 21st century. Previous researches have revealed that miRNAs can serve as regulators in various cancers. MiR-876-5p, a member of miRNA family, has been studied in lung cancer for its anti-oncogenic function. However, the exact function of it is not reported in HCC. Our study aims to find out the effects of miR-876-5p expression on HCC progression. Two HCC cells were chosen to do functional assays after miR-876-5p expression was detected in cell lines by qRT-PCR. HepG2 cell was transfected with miR-876-5p mimics, whereas LM3 cell was transfected with miR-876-5p inhibitors. Next, cell activities of these two indicated cells were analyzed by means of MTT assay, colony forming assay, transwell migration assay and western blot analysis. Consequently, we found that miR-876-5p could inhibit both cell proliferation and metastasis. Moreover, we found out a target gene (DNMT3A) of miR-876-5p by performing bioinformatics analysis, dual luciferase reporter assay and biotin-avidin pull-down assay. Finally, rescue assays were carried out in HepG2 cells. We found that DNMT3A could reverse miR-876-5p mimics-induced inhibition. Therefore, we concluded that miR-876-5p suppressed hepatocellular carcinoma progression by targeting DNMT3A.