Among the diverse medical education systems in China, the 8-year program is dedicated to cultivating physician scientists. Although the research ability of senior students in 8-year medical programs is a pivotal quality, it remains unclear. This study aimed to clarify the current status and challenges of students’ research experience, abilities, and outputs.A multicenter cross-sectional study was conducted in 5 medical schools in northern China. Electronic questionnaires were sent to 235 randomly chosen fifth-grade or sixth-grade 8-year-program medical students. A total of 211 responses were collected and analyzed using SPSS 22.0.Only 13.3% of participants chose research as their future career goal. Students generally felt that conducting research was stressful and difficult. The greatest obstacle was a lack of time due to heavy workloads. The 2 major motivations for research were graduation and/or future employment (75.8%) and research interest (24.2%). More than half of the students (142, 67.3%) had research experience by the time of the survey, among whom 84 students already had research outputs. A higher proportion of students with outputs was motivated by the requirements for graduation or employment compared to students without outputs (71.4% vs 55.2%, P = .046).Senior 8-year-program medical students in China generally had high pressure to conduct research and devoted their efforts to overcome these challenges. More guidance and novel encouragement to enhance students’ initiative and interest in research could be provided by medical schools and educators in the future.

Background Eruptive syringomas is a rare variant of syringoma, which is a benign adenoma differentiated from the terminal ducts of the eccrine glands. Nowadays, it's widely valued because of obvious skin lesions, large scope of influence, and high misdiagnosis rate. Objectives We aim to explore the clinical features of eruptive syringomas and the current research progress. Materials and Methods We firstly summarized the clinical features of 90 cases of eruptive syringomas. Then, the chi‐square test was used to analyze the relationship between the onset site of eruptive syringomas and age, as well as gender. Finally, we briefly reviewed the previous literature. Results During 12 years, 90 cases of eruptive syringomas were diagnosed in our hospital, including 28 males (31.1%) and 62 females (68.9%). The average diagnosed age was 28.8. Patients from 20 to 40 years old is 63 (70%), which is the most. 60 (66.7%) patients had the course for more than 1 year. Among onset sites, the neck, chest, and abdomen were in the top three. The chi‐square test showed that there were no significant differences in the onset sites of patients aged ≤ 20 and >20 years old (p‐value = 0.181), as well as male and female (p‐value = 0.363). Conclusion We found that more female than male was affected, and the most common onset sites were the neck, chest, and abdomen. Neither age nor gender was significantly associated with onset site distribution. Our study provides some data support for the research of eruptive syringomas.

Background Increasing evidence indicates that psoriasis (PSO) and periodontitis (PD) are likely to occur together, however, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. Materials and methods The expression profiles of PSO (lesion vs non-lesion, GSE30999, GSE14905) and PD (affected vs unaffected gingival tissue, GSE16134, GSE10334) were downloaded from the GEO database. First, we investigated the common differentially expressed genes (DEGs) of PSO and PD. Then, GO and KEGG enrichment analysis, protein interaction network (PPI) construction, and hub gene identification analysis were carried out. Finally, GO and KEGG enrichment analysis, miRNA interaction analysis, and transcription factors (TFs) interaction analysis for hub genes were performed. Results Eighteen DEGs were identified for further analysis, including 15 up-regulated genes and 3 down-regulated genes. 9 hub genes were then identified via Cytohubba, including IL1B, CXCL1, CXCL8, MMP12, CCL18, SELL, CXCL13, FCGR3B, and SELE. Their functions are mainly enriched in two aspects: neutrophil chemotaxis and migration, chemokine activation and interaction. The enriched signaling pathways includes three categories: host defense, inflammation-related signaling pathways, and disease-related pathways. 9 common miRNAs based on experimental evidence and 10 common TFs were further identified in both PSO and PD. Conclusion Our study revealed possible comorbidity mechanisms in PSO and PD from the perspective of bioinformatics tentatively. The data can present new insight for joint prevention and treatment of in PSO and PD, as well as provide data support for further prospective studies.

Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) is one of the most common skin malignancies, and its incidence rate is increasing worldwide. Proline-rich 11 (PRR11) has been reported to be involved in the occurrence and development of various tumors. However, the role of PRR11 in cSCC remains unknown. In the present study, we observed upregulated expression of PRR11 in cSCC tissues and cell lines. Knockdown of PRR11 in the cSCC cell lines A431 and SCL-1 inhibited cell proliferation by inducing cell cycle arrest during the G1/S phase transition, promoted cell apoptosis, and reduced cell migration and invasion in vitro. Conversely, overexpression of PRR11 promoted cell proliferation, decreased cell apoptosis, and enhanced cell migration and invasion. PRR11 knockdown also inhibited cSCC tumor growth in a mouse xenograft model.Mechanistic investigations by RNA sequencing revealed that 891 genes were differentially expressed genes between cells with PRR11 knockdown and control cells. Enrichment analysis of different genes showed that the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling pathway was the top enriched pathway. We further validated that PRR11 induced EGFR pathway activity, which contributed to cSCC progression. These data suggest that PRR11 may serve as a novel therapeutic target in cSCC.

ObjectiveTo analysis the relationship between periodontitis (PD) and oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) by bioinformatic analysis.Materials and MethodsWe analyzed the gene expression profiles of PD (GSE16134) from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database and OSCC samples from TCGA‐HNSC (head and neck squamous cell carcinoma) and identified common differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in PD and OSCC. Then, functional annotation and signaling pathway enrichment, protein interaction network construction, and hub gene identification were performed. Subsequently, the function and signaling pathway enrichment of hub genes, miRNA interaction, and transcription factor interaction analyses were carried out. We analyzed GSE10334 and GSE30784 as validation datasets, and performed qRT‐PCR experiments simultaneously for validation, and obtained 4 hub genes. Finally, immune infiltration analysis and clinical correlation analysis of 4 hub genes and related miRNAs were performed.ResultsWe identified 31 DEGs (16 up‐regulated and 15 down‐regulated). Four hub genes were obtained by qRT‐PCR and validation dataset analysis, including IL‐1β, CXCL8, MMP12, and MMP13. The expression levels of them were all significantly upregulated in both diseases. The functions of these genes focus on three areas: neutrophil chemotaxis, migration, and CXCR chemokine receptor binding. Key pathways include IL‐17 signaling pathway, chemokine signaling pathway, and cytokine–cytokine receptor interactions pathway. Immune infiltration analysis showed that the expressions of 4 hub genes were closely related to a variety of immune cells. ROC curve analysis indicated that AUCs of 4 hub genes are all greater than 0.7, among which MMP12 and MMP13 were greater than 0.9. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis indicated that worse OS was strongly correlated with CXCL8 and MMP13 high‐expression groups. MMP12 low‐expression group was strongly associated with worse OS. The results of multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that age, N stage, CXCL8, MMP12, and MMP13 were independent prognostic factors for OS. We also identified 3 miRNAs, including hsa‐miR‐19b‐3p, hsa‐miR‐181b‐2‐3p, and hsa‐miR‐495‐3p, that were closely related to 4 hub genes. Hsa‐miR‐495‐3p is closely related to the diagnosis and prognosis of OSCC.ConclusionsWe identified 4 hub genes between PD and OSCC, including IL‐1β, CXCL8, MMP12, and MMP13. These genes may mediate the co‐morbid process of PD and OSCC through inflammation‐related pathways such as the IL‐17 signaling pathway. It is worth noting that CXCL8, MMP12, and MMP13 have great significance in the diagnosis and prognosis of OSCC.