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Abstract. Increased expression of the human DEK proto-oncogene (DEK) gene has been associated with numerous human malignancies. The DEK protein is associated with chromatin reconstruction and gene transcription, and is important in cell apoptosis. The present study aimed to elucidate the role of DEK with regard to gastric adenocarcinoma tumor progression and patient prognosis. DEK protein expression was analyzed using immunohistochemistry in 192 tumors paired with adjacent non-cancerous gastric mucosa that had been surgically resected from patients with primary gastric adenocarcinoma. The association between DEK expression and the clinicopathological characteristics of the patients was evaluated using the χ 2 test and Fisher's exact test. The survival rates of the patients were calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Cox analysis evaluated the association between the expression of DEK and the survival rate of the patients. The DEK protein was expressed in 84 patients with gastric adenocarcinoma (43.8%) and in 20 of the paired normal gastric mucosa tissues (11.5%). The DEK expression rate was found to be associated with tumor size (P=0.006), tumor grade (P=0.023), lymph node metastasis (P=0.018), serous invasion (P=0.026), tumor stage (P=0.001) and Ki-67 expression (P=0.003). Furthermore, patients with gastric adenocarcinoma that expressed DEK had decreased disease-free (log-rank, 16.785; P<0.0001) and overall (log-rank, 15.759; P<0.0001) survival rates compared with patients without DEK expression. Patients with late-stage gastric adenocarcinoma that expressed DEK exhibited a lower overall survival rate compared with patients without DEK expression (P=0.002). Additional analysis revealed that DEK expression was an independent prognostic factor for the prognosis of gastric adenocarcinoma (hazard ratio, 0.556; 95% confidence interval, 0.337-0.918; P=0.022). From the results of the present study, it can be concluded that the detection of DEK protein expression in gastric adenocarcinoma tissues may be important for the diagnosis and prognosis of patients, and may be a targeted therapy for the treatment of gastric adenocarcinoma.

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MiR-381-3p and nuclear autoantigenic sperm protein (NASP) have regulatory functions in tumors. Whether NASP is targeted by miR-381-3p to influence biological characteristics of cancer in head-neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) cells was investigated. StarBase (version 3.0) found that the expression of NASP was increased with the down-regulation of miR-381-3p in laryngocarcinoma tissue, AMC-HN-3，FaDu，HNE-3，and Detroit 562 cell lines. MiR-381-3p could target NASP, reduce the expression of MMP-2 and MMP-9, Vimentin, repress the cell viability, invasion, and migration, and promote the expression of E-cadherin in AMC-HN-3 cells. Overexpressed NASP could increase the viability, migration and invasion rates in AMC-HN-3 cells, which could be partially reversed by overexpressed miR-381-3p. Thus, miR-381-3p targeted and suppressed NASP gene, reduced the viability, migration, invasion, EMT of HNSCC cells, demonstrating that miR-381-3p has the potential to be a therapeutic target in inhibiting the progression of HNSCC.

This study was to investigate the feasibility of PGS combined with ChABC for repairing the transection of spinal cords (TSC) in rats. A thoracic 10 (T10) TSC model of rats was employed. The effects of PGS with ChABC on the morphology and histological structure of the spinal cords, Basso, Beattie, Bresnahan (BBB) scores, and the expression of GAP-43 and NF-200 were comparatively studied. The BBB scores indicated that all rats with TSC were paralyzed immediately after surgery and then recovered hind limb movement gradually, but did not fully recover until the end of week 12. The rats treated with PGS alone, ChABC alone, and PGS/ChABC recovered significantly (p < 0.05) better than the control rats with TSC only. The PGS/ChABC treated rats recovered significantly (p < 0.05) more movement function than the rats treated with PGS or ChABC treated alone. The spinal cords in the control rats showed lusterless surfaces, big holes, and big scars; in both PGS rats and ChABC rats showed lucent surfaces, small holes, and small scars; in PGS/ChABC rats showed the best. The expression of GAP-43 and NF-200 in the TSC region was hardly detected in the control rats, moderately detected in PGS or ChABC rats, and highly detected in PGS/ChABC rats. In conclusion, both PGS and ChABC alone could promote nerve regeneration and partially recover the movement function in TSC rats. A combination of PGS and ChABC resulted in augmented nerve regeneration and functional recovery. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 106B: 1770-1777, 2018.