ABSTRACT. has been implicated in a wide variety of cellular functions that affect the biological response to tumors. However, there is insufficient evidence to prove that IL-18 gene variants are associated with risk of prostate cancer. We examined a possible association between two promoter polymorphisms, -137G/C (rs187238) and -607C/A (rs1946518), in the IL-18 gene and prostate cancer occurrence and prognosis in Han Chinese. We used a high-resolution melting method to genotype these two polymorphisms in 375 Chinese Han patients with prostate cancer and in 400 age-matched healthy controls. A hundred and eighty-one prostate cancer patients who had been receiving androgen deprivation therapy, including operational and medical castration, were enrolled to follow-up in this study. Carriers of the GG genotype of the -137G/ C polymorphism had a 2.165-times higher risk of prostate cancer progression than carriers of GC [95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.270-3.687]. Patients with the GG genotype at clinical stages III and IV also had significantly lower rates of progression-free survival (relative risk = 2.174, 95%CI = 1.211-3.906). However, we found no significant association of genotype or allele distributions of these two polymorphisms with occurrence of prostate cancer. We conclude that there is evidence that the IL-18 gene promoter polymorphism -137G/ C influences the prognosis of prostate cancer patients in androgen deprivation therapy, although neither of the two SNPs contributes to prostate cancer development.

Ni-SiC composite coating was prepared by electrodeposition under the pulse current as an alternative for the environment polluted and human cancerogenic hard chromium plating. The microstructure and tribological performance of the composite coating under different duty cycle were studied. The results showed that the mechanical performance of the Ni-SiC can be optimized by adjusting the pulse duty cycle. With the increase of the duty cycle, the grains were refined and the friction coefficient of the coating decreased. Composite coating obtained under 80 % duty cycle processed the lowest wear volume during the friction and wear test. The effect of duty cycle on the microstructure and tribological performance of the composite coating was discussed. Moreover, the co-deposition mechanism of Ni atoms and the SiC particles under the pulse current were discussed.