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Growing evidence indicates that the cross-linked N-telopeptide of type I collagen (NTx) is likely to be involved in the development of bone metastasis among lung cancer patients. We perform a meta-analysis to disclose the correlation between bone metastasis and NTx and also to evaluate its value in diagnosis of bone metastasis (BM) in lung cancer.Electronic databases were searched and calculated the weighted mean difference (WMD) with 95% confidence interval (CI) to assess the expression difference of NTx between BM+ and BM- lung cancer patients. Moreover, we conducted a sensitivity and specificity test and drew a summary receiver operating characteristic curve (SROC) to assess the diagnostic value of NTx in discerning bone metastasis.A total of eleven studies with 1108 individuals were included in this analysis. The results showed an increased NTx was correlated with the incidence of lung cancer (P < 0.001). The overall sensitivity and specificity of serum NTx (sNTx) for discerning bone metastasis was 0.74 (95% CI = 0.67 to 0.79) and 0.85 (95% CI = 0.80 to 0.89), respectively. As for urine NTx (uNTx) the pooled sensitivity and specificity was 0.77(95% CI = 0.67 to 0.86) and 0.81(95% CI = 0.76 to 0.86). The area under the SROC curve was 0.8889(SE = 0.0255) and 0.8655(SE = 0.0254) for sNTx and uNTx respectively.The elevation of NTx in lung cancer was positively related with the development and progression of bone metastasis. A higher specificity over sensitivity of NTx suggested that it is a more accurate biomarker to distinguish patients without bone metastasis. Regarding SROC curve, sNTx may be a better choice.

The upregulation of vascular cell adhesion molecule-1(VCAM-1) on vascular endothelium plays a great role in the progression of atherosclerosis (AS). In this study, ultrasound molecular imaging was performed to monitor the inflammation injuries in the onset and progression of atherosclerosis with microbubbles targeted to VCAM-1.Mice deficient for the apolipoprotein E (ApoE-/-mice) with high-cholesterol diet were studied as an age-dependent model of atherosclerosis. At 8, 16, 24, and 32 weeks of age, contrast enhanced ultrasound (CEU) molecular imaging of proximal ascending aorta was performed with microbubbles targeted to VCAM-1. Plaque size, monocytes infiltration and the expression of VCAM-1 in the proximal ascending aorta were assessed by histology and western blot analysis, separately.In ApoE-/- mice, molecular imaging for VCAM-1 detected selective signal enhancement (P