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Abstract: Current prognostic signatures need to be improved in identifying high‐risk patients of gastric cancer (GC). Thus, we aimed to develop a reliable prognostic signature that could assess the prognosis risk in GC patients. Two microarray datasets of GSE662254 (n = 300, training set) and GSE15459 (n = 192, test set) were included into analysis. Prognostic genes were screened to construct prognosis‐related gene pairs (PRGPs). Then, a penalized Cox proportional hazards regression model identified seven PRGPs, which constructed a prognostic signature and divided patients into high‐ and low‐risk groups according to the signature score. High‐risk patients showed a poorer prognosis than low‐risk patients in both the training set (hazard ratios [HR]: 6.086, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 4.341–8.533) and test set (1.773 [1.107–2.840]). The PRGPs signature also achieved a higher predictive accuracy (concordance index [C‐index]: 0.872, 95% CI: 0.846–0.897) than two existing molecular signatures (0.706 [0.667–0.744] for a 11‐gene signature and 0.684 [0.642–0.726] for a 24‐lncRNA signature) and TNM stage (0.764 [0.715–0.814]). In conclusion, our study identified a novel gene pairs signature in the prognosis of GC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The present study aims to investigate whether RAGE promotes the calcification of human arterial smooth muscle cells (HASMCs) and determine the relationshipbetween RAGE and the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway in this process., Method: In this study,there were four groups, namelythe blank control group, the non-transfection group, the empty vector group, and the RAGE transfection group.Cells were co-cultured with 10 mmol/L β-glycerophosphoric acid, pyruvate and 20 mg/L AGE. The expression of osteogenic proteins in each group before and after the intervention wasdetected using Western blotting. Short interfering RNA (siRNA) targeting β-catenin was used toinhibitthe expression of β-catenin. HASMCs cultured under normal conditions were usedas the blank control., Results: (1) High RAGE expression was successfully induced in HASMCs according to the results of GFP detection, flow cytometry and Western blotting. (2) Compared with the blank control group, non-transfection group and empty vector group, RAGE transfection enhanced the calcification of cells when incubated with calcification medium plus AGE. (3) The expression of RAGE, β-catenin, OPG and Cbfa1 proteins in the blank control group, empty vector group and RAGE transfection group wasnot significantly enhanced after intervention. However, expression of the proteins in the RAGE transfection group was much higher than those of the other groups. (4) Compared with the RAGE transfection group and control siRNA group, the cells transfected with β-catenin siRNA and cultured with interventional drugs showed significant inhibition of the expression of the downstream Cbfa1 and OPG genes., Conclusion: Increased expression of RAGE promoted calcification in HASMCs and up regulated the β-catenin, OPG and Cbfa1 genes. RAGE may activate the downstream genes via the Wntβ-catenin pathway, thereby promoting HASMC differentiation into osteogenic cells and calcification.

Objective: To investigate the mechanism of Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) promoting the calcification of smooth muscle cells., Methods: The successfully cultured smooth muscle cells were divided into three groups: normal culture group (group A), calcified culture group (group B), calcification + AGEs group (group C); the concentration of intracellular calcium ion was detected in each group; the promotion of AGEs on the calcification of HSMCs was confirmed by VON KOSSA staining; and the expressions of β-catenin, RAGE, β-catenin, OPG and E-cadherin protein were detected by immunofluorescence and western blot., Results: The morphology of the cells in each group showed that the amount of calcified plaques in calcification + AGES group were significantly higher than the calcification group. VON KOSSA staining showed that with increasing concentrations of AGE-BSA, the amount of its calcification gradually increased. Calcium concentration in Calcification + 20 mg/L AGEs group was significantly higher, followed by 40 mg/L AGEs group. The expression of β-catenin increased with the increasing concentrations of AGEs., Conclusion: AGEs can promote the calcification of human femoral artery smooth muscle cells, with a concentration gradient effect. With increasing concentrations of AGEs, the expression of RAGE increased, indicating that AGEs-induced HSMCs proliferation was correlated with RAGE expression.

Purpose: To evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) with surgical re-resection (SRR) in patients with postoperative recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma (RHCC) meeting the Milan criteria., Methods: A literature search was performed to identify comparative studies addressing outcomes of both RFA and SRR for RHCC meeting the Milan criteria. Pooled odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were calculated using either the fixed effects model or the random effects model., Results: Five nonrandomized controlled trials were included in the analysis. These studies included a total of 543 patients: 243 treated with RFA and 300 treated with SRR. The SRR group had a better 3-year recurrence-free survival rate compared with RFA group (OR 0.44, 95%CI 0.25-0.77, p=0.004). However, there were no obvious differences between RFA and SRR group in overall survival (OS) rates, re-recurrence rate and OS rates with tumors ≤ 3cm. What's more, the RFA group had a safety advantage with less complications of Clavien classification grade II or higher compared with SRR group (OR 0.21, 95%CI 0.05-0.94, p=0.04)., Conclusions: RFA seemed to be superior to SRR in the treatment of patients with RHCC meeting the Milan criteria on account of clinical safety. However, these findings have to be carefully interpreted due to the lower level of evidence.