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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.

In order to examine the role of insulin-like growth factor II mRNA-binding protein 3 (IMP3) expression for the prognostic evaluation of non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC), a total of 186 breast cancer patients, with adjacent non-tumor lung tissues, were selected for immunohistochemical staining of IMP3 protein. The NSCLC tissues and paired adjacent non-tumor tissues of six patients were quantified using reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction. The correlations between IMP3 overexpression and the clinical features of NSCLC were evaluated using the χ2 test and Fisher’s exact test. The survival rate was calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method, and the association between prognostic factors and patient survival was also analyzed by Cox’s proportional hazards models. The results showed that IMP3 protein exhibited a mainly cytoplasmic staining pattern in the NSCLC tissues. The positive rate of IMP3 protein expression was 74.7% (139/186) in the NSCLC tissues and was significantly higher than the rate of 19.9% (37/186) in the adjacent non-tumor tissues. The expression rate of the NQO1 protein was correlated with a large tumor size, poor differentiation, lymph node metastasis, late clinical stage, and disease-free and overall survival rates in the NSCLC patients. In the early- and late-stage NSCLC groups, the disease-free and overall survival rates of the patients with IMP3 expression were significantly lower than those of the patients without IMP3 expression. Further analysis using Cox’s proportional hazard regression model revealed that IMP3 expression was a significant independent hazard factor for the overall survival rate of patients with NSCLC. In conclusion, the present study found that IMP3 plays a significant role in the progression of NSCLC, and that it may potentially be used as an independent biomarker for prognostic evaluation of the cancer.

A method involving the simultaneous extraction and decontamination of 12 organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and seven heavy metals (HM) from Rehmannia glutinosa Libosch was established using supercritical fluid extraction (SFE). A gas chromatography (GC) method with electron capture detection was employed for the determination of the OCPs. The quantitative determination of active constituents (iridoid glycoside and catalpol) in Rehmannia glutinosa Libosch was detected by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). An atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) was designed for the determination of seven HM, including lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), arsenic (As), and mercury (Hg) in Rehmannia glutinosa Libosch. Recovery of the determination of the 12 organochlorine pesticides in Rehmannia glutinosa Libosch sample was 85.9%-101.4% by GC, and relative standard deviation (RSD) was 1.9%-6.0%. Catalpol determination with HPLC in a Rehmannia glutinosa Libosch sample was 0.2486 and 0.2559 mg/mL before and after decontaminating OCPs by SFE, respectively. Those were 0.2486 and 0.2632 mg/mL before and after decontaminating HM by SFE, respectively. After a series of experiments to optimize the final SFE, the following conditions were used to determine the OCPs: pure CO(2), extraction pressure of 15 Mpa, extraction temperature of 60 degrees C, extraction time of 30 min, flow rate at 35 kg/h, and the final SFE conditions of HM was pure CO(2), extraction pressure of 18 Mpa, extraction temperature of 50 degrees C, extraction time of 20 min, modifier at 2.5 mL/50 g. The SFE was used to remove the 12 OCP residues and seven HM residues from Rehmannia glutinosa Libosch with less residue left and negligible loss of the active constituent catalpol.