Asprosin, a novel glucogenic adipokine, is encoded by two exons (exon 65 and exon 66) of the gene Fibrillin 1 (FBN1) and mainly synthesized and released by white adipose tissue during fasting. Asprosin plays a complex role in the central nervous system (CNS), peripheral tissues, and organs. It is involved in appetite, glucose metabolism, insulin resistance (IR), cell apoptosis, etc. In this review, we will summarize the newly discovered roles of asprosin in metabolic diseases including diabetes, obesity, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), and cardiovascular disease (CVD), which may contribute to future clinical diagnosis and treatment.

These results suggested that pancreatic carcinogenesis involves an increased mRNA expression of three DNMTs, and they may become valuable diagnostic and prognostic markers as well as potential therapeutic targets for pancreatic cancer.

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Glomus tumors (GTs) of the trachea are very rare neoplasms that usually arise from the distal portion of the respiratory tree. The origin of these tumors is modified smooth muscle cells of glomus bodies. In this study, we describe two cases of GT of the trachea, as well as the histologic features of these tumors and their treatments. One tumor was diagnosed via bronchoscopic biopsy, and the other tumor was diagnosed via surgery. Clinical follow-up showed that the two patients are alive and well after 8 and 15 months post-treatment, respectively. We also review the literature regarding GTs and discuss the clinical presentation, histologic features, differential diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of these tumors.

The MUC4 gene could have a key role in the progression of pancreatic cancer, but the quantitative measurement of its expression in clinical tissue samples remains a challenge. The correlations between MUC4 promoter methylation status in vivo and either pancreatic cancer progression or MUC4 mRNA expression need to be demonstrated. We used the techniques of quantitative real-time PCR and DNA methylation-specific PCR combined microdissection to precisely detect MUC4 expression and promoter methylation status in 116 microdissected foci from 57 patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Both mRNA expression and hypomethylation frequency increased from normal to precancerous lesions to pancreatic cancer. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that high-level MUC4 expression (P = 0.008) and tumor-node-metastasis staging (P = 0.038) were significant independent risk factors for predicting the prognosis of 57 patients. The MUC4 mRNA expression was not significantly correlated with promoter methylation status in 30 foci of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. These results suggest that high mRNA expression and hypomethylation of the MUC4 gene could be involved in carcinogenesis and in the malignant development of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. The MUC4 mRNA expression may become a new prognostic marker for pancreatic cancer. Microdissection-based quantitative real-time PCR and methylation-specific PCR contribute to the quantitative detection of MUC4 expression in clinical samples and reflect the epigenetic regulatory mechanisms of MUC4 in vivo.

BackgroundMUC4 plays important roles in the malignant progression of human pancreatic cancer. But the huge length of MUC4 gene fragment restricts its functional and mechanism research. As one of its splice variants, MUC4/Y with coding sequence is most similar to that of the full-length MUC4 (FL-MUC4), together with alternative splicing of the MUC4 transcript has been observed in pancreatic carcinomas but not in normal pancreas. So we speculated that MUC4/Y might be involved in malignant progression similarly to FL-MUC4, and as a research model of MUC4 in pancreatic cancer. The conjecture was confirmed in the present study.MethodsMUC4/Y expression was detected by real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) using gene-specific probe in the clinic samples. The effects of MUC4/Y were observed by serial in vitro and in vivo experiments based on stable over-expressed cell model. The underlying mechanisms were investigated by sequence-based transcriptome analysis and verified by qRT-PCR, Western blot and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays.ResultsThe detection of clinical samples indicates that MUC4/Y is significantly positive-correlated with tumor invasion and distant metastases. Based on stable forced-expressed pancreatic cancer PANC-1 cell model, functional studies show that MUC4/Y enhances malignant activity in vitro and in vivo, including proliferation under low-nutritional-pressure, resistance to apoptosis, motility, invasiveness, angiogenesis, and distant metastasis. Mechanism studies indicate the novel finding that MUC4/Y triggers malignancy-related positive feedback loops for concomitantly up-regulating the expression of survival factors to resist adverse microenvironment and increasing the expression of an array of cytokines and adhesion molecules to affect the tumor milieu.ConclusionsIn light of the enormity of the potential regulatory circuitry in cancer afforded by MUC4 and/or MUC4/Y, repressing MUC4 transcription, inhibiting post-transcriptional regulation, including alternative splicing, or blocking various pathways simultaneously may be helpful for controlling malignant progression. MUC4/Y- expression model is proven to a valuable tool for the further dissection of MUC4-mediated functions and mechanisms.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12967-014-0309-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Calbindin-D, a vitamin D-dependent calcium-binding protein of 28 kD, is found predominantly in the distal tubules of the kidney and central nervous system tissues in humans. To evaluate damage to the renal tubules caused by cisplatin-based chemotherapy, levels of urinary and serum calbindin-D were determined in patients treated with cisplatin- or carboplain-based chemotherapies using a highly sensitive enzyme immunoassay system developed in our laboratory. Levels of urinary 28-kD calbindin-D were also determined in patients with benign and malignant urological diseases. The mean urinary calbindin-D level was 2.44 ± 0.31 (mean ± SE) ng/mg creatinine in 40 healthy subjects. Urinary calbindin-D levels were elevated ( > 10 ng/mg creatinine) in 2 of 33 patients (6%) with benign and 1 of 50 (2%) with malignant urological diseases. Urinary calbindin-D levels were significantly increased after cisplatin-based chemotherapy in 14 patients, with peaks (71.8 ± 13.5 ng/mg creatinine) being found 8 days after administration of cisplatin, and then a gradual return to the baseline. On the other hand, 7 patients receiving carboplatin-based chemotherapy demonstrated no significant elevation (highest level 7.7 ± 2.5 ng/mg creatinine). In 7 patients treated with cisplatin-based chemotherapy the serum calbindin-D level was also raised after treatment, with a good correlation to urinary values. These findings suggest that urinary and serum calbindin-D may be kidney-derived and that 28-kDa calbindin-D is a useful marker for damage to the distal renal tubules associated with cisplatin-based chemotherapy.