Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) allows neoplastic cells to gain the invasive phenotype and become migratory, which is required for cancer progression and metastasis. In the present study, the expression of EMT-associated biomarkers and their association with clinicopathological parameters in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) was investigated. E-cadherin, N-cadherin, β-catenin and zinc finger E-box binding homeobox 2 (ZEB2) protein expression was evaluated with immunohistochemistry in a cohort of 76 patients with operable LSCC. The association between these transition markers, clinicopathological parameters and their prognostic impact in LSCC was analyzed. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed that EMT-associated proteins were differentially expressed between LSCC and adjacent non-neoplastic laryngeal tissue. Negative E-cadherin expression and positive N-cadherin, β-catenin and ZEB2 expression were associated with a later tumor (T) stage, decreasing tumor differentiation and a reduced overall survival (OS) time (OS: E-cadherin, P=0.016; N-cadherin, P=0.003; β-catenin, P=0.002; ZEB2, P=0.0003). E-cadherin/β-catenin co-expression was significantly associated with the majority of clinicopathological parameters assessed, including lymph node metastases, T stage and tumor cell differentiation (P=0.004, P=0.005, and P<0.001, respectively). Multivariate analysis indicated that T stage and the positive expression of β-catenin and ZEB2 were independent risk factors for OS in LSCC (P=0.014, P=0.025 and P=0.003, respectively). It was concluded that EMT mediates tumor progression, and reduces OS time in patients with LSCC. E-cadherin/β-catenin co-expression may be associated with clinicopathological parameters. T stage, and the positive co-expression of β-catenin and ZEB2 may be independent predictors of prognosis in LSCC.

Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) have been widely investigated and applied in the field of biomedicine due to their excellent superparamagnetic properties and reliable traceability. However, with the optimization of core composition, shell types and transfection agents, the cytotoxicity and metabolism of different SPIONs have great differences, and the labeled cells also show different cellular behaviors. Therefore, a holistic review of the construction and application of SPIONs is desired. This review focuses the advances of SPIONs in the field of biomedicine in recent years. After summarizing the toxicity of different SPIONs, the uptake, distribution and metabolism of SPIONs in vitro were discussed. Then, the regulation of labeled-cells behavior is outlined. Furthermore, the major challenges in the optimization process of SPIONs and insights on its future developments are proposed.

IMP through a microcatheter is a promising treatment for refractory SSNHL. The data suggest that the treatment may be more effective when administered at the earlier stages of SSNHL when the conventional treatment has failed.

Laryngeal carcinoma is a kind of head and neck carcinoma with high incidence and mortality. Chemotherapy treatments ofhuman laryngeal carcinoma may fail due to the development of chemo-resistance. Tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases 3 (TIMP3) has been shown to be implicated in a number of pathological processes typical for cancer. The present study aims to investigate the involvement of TIMP-3 in chemo-resistance of laryngeal carcinoma. We showed that TIMP3 expression was significantly decreased in chemo-resistant laryngeal carcinoma tissues compared with chemo-sensitivity tissues. Patients with low TIMP-3 expression exhibited poorer overall survival than those with high TIMP-3 expression. Moreover, cisplatin-resistant Hep-2 cells (Hep-2/R) were associated with inhibition of mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) depolarization after cisplatin challenge. In addition, cisplatin resulted in a more pronounced cytochrome c release from mitochondria to cytoplasm in Hep-2 cells than in their resistant variants. Overexpression of TIMP-3 by adenovirus encoding TIMP-3 cDNA remarkably enhanced cisplatin-induced apoptosis, cytochrome c release and caspase activation in Hep-2/R cells, thereby sensitizing cancer cells to cisplatin. On the other hand, downregulation of TIMP-3 markedly inhibited cisplatin-induced apoptosis in Hep-2 cells through attenuating mitochondria-dependent pathway activation. Taken together, these results demonstrate that decreased TIMP-3 expression may contribute cisplatin resistance via inhibition of mitochondria-dependent apoptosis, indicating that forced TIMP-3 expression may be a useful strategy to improve the efficacy of cisplatin to treat laryngeal carcinoma.

The present study was aimed to investigate the effects of DNS on the structure of nasal cavity. The paranasal sinus coronal view CT of 108 patients with DNS and 129 hospitalized patients without DNS was retrospectively analyzed. The transverse diameter of nasal cavity (a), transverse diameter of nasal cavity and paranasal sinus (b), angle between maxillary and palatal bone, interalveolar distance, and maxillary rotation distance were measured. The ratio of a/b in experimental group was 0.367 ± 0.006 which was significantly (P = 0.0023) less than that in control group (0.391 ± 0.005). For the angle between maxillary and palatal bone, there was no significant difference found between DNS and control group for both right and left sides. The interalveolar distance was 40.75 mm in experimental group, and 38.8 mm in control (P = 0.0002). For the maxillary rotation distance, findings were considered as significant (P < 0.0001) in experimental group (11.25 mm) compared with control (10.1 mm). The present study demonstrates that long-term DNS affects the development of nasal cavity and paranasal sinus, as well as increases the interalveolar distance and maxillary rotation distance. These influences may be caused by the alteration of airflow inside the nasal cavities.