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Background: Neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (NRDS) is one of the most common diseases in neonatal intensive care units, with an incidence rate of about 7% among infants. Additionally, it is a leading cause of neonatal death in hospitals in China. The main mechanism of the disease is hypoxemia and hypercapnia caused by lack of surfactant., Aim: To explore the effect of pulmonary surfactant (PS) combined with noninvasive positive pressure ventilation on keratin-14 (KRT-14) and endothelin-1 (ET-1) levels in peripheral blood and the effectiveness in treating NRDS., Methods: Altogether 137 neonates with respiratory distress syndrome treated in our hospital from April 2019 to July 2021 were included. Of these, 64 control cases were treated with noninvasive positive pressure ventilation and 73 observation cases were treated with PS combined with noninvasive positive pressure ventilation. The expression of KRT-14 and ET-1 in the two groups was compared. The deaths, complications, and PaO 2 , PaCO 2 , and PaO 2 /FiO 2 blood gas indexes in the two groups were compared. Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis was used to determine the diagnostic value of KRT-14 and ET-1 in the treatment of NRDS., Results: The observation group had a significantly higher effectiveness rate than the control group. There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of neonatal mortality and adverse reactions, such as bronchial dysplasia, cyanosis, and shortness of breath . After treatment, the levels of PaO 2 and PaO 2 /FiO 2 in both groups were significantly higher than before treatment, while the level of PaCO 2 was significantly lower. After treatment, the observation group had significantly higher levels of PaO 2 and PaO 2 /FiO 2 than the control group, while PaCO 2 was notably lower in the observation group. After treatment, the KRT-14 and ET-1 levels in both groups were significantly decreased compared with the pre-treatment levels. The observation group had a reduction of KRT-14 and ET-1 levels than the control group. ROC curve analysis showed that the area under the curve (AUC) of KRT-14 was 0.791, and the AUC of ET-1 was 0.816., Conclusion: Combining PS with noninvasive positive pressure ventilation significantly improved the effectiveness of NRDS therapy. KRT-14 and ET-1 levels may have potential as therapeutic and diagnostic indicators., Competing Interests: Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose., (©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Pathological manifestations of hepatic tumours are often associated with prognosis. Although surgical specimens (SS) can provide more information, currently, pre-treatment needle core biopsy (NCB) is increasingly showing important value in understanding the nature of liver tumors and even in diagnosis and treatment decisions. However, the concordance of the clinicopathological characteristics and immunohistochemical (IHC) staining between NCB and SS from patients with hepatic tumours were less concerned., Aim: To introduce a more accurate method for interpreting the IHC staining results in order to improve the diagnostic value of hepatic malignancy in NCB samples., Method: A total of 208 patients who underwent both preoperative NCB and surgical resection for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) or intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) between 2008 and 2015 were enrolled in this study. The expression of CK19, GPC3, and HepPar1 were detected by IHC staining. Clinicopathological, NCB, and surgical data were collected and analysed using χ 2 and kappa statistics., Results: Morphologically, the presence of compact tumour nests or a cord-like structure in NCB was considered the primary cause of misdiagnosis of HCC from ICC. The kappa statistic showed a moderate agreement in histomorphology (k = 0.504) and histological grade (k = 0.488) between NCB and SS of the tumours. A 4-tier (+++, ++, +, and -) scoring scheme that emphasized the focal neoplastic cell immunoreactivity of tumour cells revealed perfect concordance of CK19, GPC3 and HepPar1 between NCB and SS (k = 0.717; k = 0.768; k = 0.633). Furthermore, with the aid of a binary classification derived from the 4-tier score, a high concordance was achieved in interpreting the IHC staining of the three markers between NCB and final SS (k = 0.931; k = 0.907; k = 0.803), increasing the accuracy of NCB diagnosis C (k = 0.987; area under the curve = 0.997, 95%CI: 0.990-1.000; P < 0.001)., Conclusion: These findings imply that reasonable interpretation of IHC results in NCB is vital for improving the accuracy of tumour diagnosis. The simplified binary classification provides an easy and applicable approach., Competing Interests: Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Aim: To study the potential prognostic role of microRNA-382 (miR-382) in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC)., Methods: Forty six patients were divided into 2 groups according to postoperative survival time: the poor outcome group (28 patients), who showed early metastasis but no recurrence, and died within 1 year after surgery, 12 patients of the group received postoperative chemotherapy treatment that was given after early metastasis happening; the good outcome group (18 patients), who had no clinical metastasis and recurrence, and survived 5 years or more after surgery, all patients did not receive any postoperative treatment. Total RNA was extracted from the patients' formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded esophageal cancer tissues. miR-382 level was evaluated using high-throughput real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis. The correlation between miR-382 level and clinicopathologic features was analyzed through COX regression model, and Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to analyze the relationship between miR-382 level and patient survival time., Results: miR-382 was differentially expressed in the two groups. Overall the average miR-382 level in the ESCC patients with good outcome was 9.8 ± 3.8, while miR-382 level in the ESCC patients with poor outcome was 3.0 ± 0.8. The differences of miR-382 levels between two groups were significant (P < 0.05). Kaplan-Meier analysis results showed that miR-382 expression level generally had a significant reverse-correlation with ESCC patient survival time (P < 0.001), in which the patients with higher expressions of miR-382 had a longer survival time either among individuals with the same tumor stage or among the overall patients., Conclusion: miR-382 levels are reverse-correlated with ESCC poor outcomes, suggesting that miR-382 could be a potential predictive biomarker for both prognosis and treatment of ESCC.

Aim: To investigate the effect of detachment of esophageal cancer cells from extracellular matrix on the localization of death receptor 5 (DR5) and apoptosis., Methods: Anchorage-dependent EC9706 cells of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma were pretreated or not treated with brefeldin A. Detached cells were harvested by ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid digestion. Expression and localization of DR5 in these cells were determined by immunocytochemical and immunofluorescence assays, as well as flow cytometry analysis. Apoptosis of EC9706 cells was detected by flow cytometry after stained with fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled annexin V/propidium iodide. Activation of caspase 8 was detected by Western blot analysis., Results: Immunocytochemical assay indicated that DR5 was predominantly perinuclear in adherent cells but was mainly localized in cell membrane in detached cells. In addition, immunofluorescence assay also confirmed the above-mentioned results, and further demonstrated that DR5 was present in the form of coarse granules in detached cells, but in the form of fine granules in adherent cells. Cytometry analysis revealed higher levels of DR5 expression on the surfaces of brefeldin-A-untreated cells than on the surfaces of brefeldin-A-treated cells, but brefeldin A treatment did not affect the total DR5 expression levels. Moreover, nocodazole did not influence the extracelluar DR5 expression levels in EC9706 cells. Apoptosis assay revealed that detached cells were more sensitive to DR5 antibody-induced apoptosis than adherent cells. Western blotting showed that caspase 8 was activated in temporarily detached cells 4 h earlier than in adherent cells., Conclusion: Progress from adhesion to detachment of EC9706 cells causes DR5 relocalization, and promotes cytoplasmic translocation of DR5 to cell surfaces via a Golgi-dependent pathway. Moreover, it might also result in DR5 aggregation to render apoptosis of detached cells.

Aim: To explore the possibility of repression of chloromycetin (Cm) acyl transferase by using external guided sequence (EGS) in order to converse the clinical E coli isolates from Cm- resistant to Cm- sensitive., Methods: EGS directed against chloromycetin acetyl transferase gene (cat) was cloned to vector pEGFP-C1 which contains the kanamycin (Km) resistance gene. The recombinant plasmid pEGFP-C1+EGScat1+cat2 was constructed and the blank vector without EGS fragment was used as control plasmids. By using the CaCl(2) transformation method, the recombinant plasmids were introduced into the clinically isolated Cm resistant but Km sensitive E coli strains. Transformants were screened on LB agar plates containing Km. Extraction of plasmids and PCR were applied to identify the positive clones. The growth curve of EGS transformed bacteria cultured in broth with Cm resistance was determined by using spectrophotometer at A(600). Drug sensitivity was tested in solid culture containing Cm by using KB method., Results: Transformation studies were carried out on 16 clinically isolated Cm-resistant (250 microg/mL of Cm) E coli strains by using pEGFP-C1-EGScat1cat2 recombinant plasmid. Transformants were screened on LB-agar plates containing Km after the transformation using EGS. Of the 16 tested strains, 4 strains were transformed successfully. Transformants with EGS plasmid showed growth inhibition when grown in liquid broth culture containing 200 microg/mL of Cm. In drug sensitivity test, these strains were sensitive to Cm on LB-agar plates containing 200 microg/mL of Cm. Extraction of plasmids and PCR amplification showed the existence of EGS plasmids in these four transformed strains. These results indicated that the Cat of the four clinical isolates had been suppressed and the four strains were converted to Cm sensitive ones., Conclusion: The EGS directed against Cat is able to inhibit the expression of Cat, and hence convert Cm-resistant bacteria to Cm-sensitive ones. Thus, the EGS has the capability of converting the phenotype of clinical drug-resistant isolates strains to drug-sensitive ones.