Annual Financial Impact of Thyroidectomies for Nodular Thyroid Disease in China

Liu, Xiao-Yun,Zhu, Li-Jun,Cui, Dai,Wang, Zhi-Xiao,Chen, Huan-Huan,Duan, Yu,Shen, Mei-Ping,Zhang, Zhi-Hong,Wang, Xiao-Dong,Chen, Jia-Wei,Alexander, Erik Karl,Yang, Tao Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.14

A large proportion of patients with thyroid nodules in China undergo thyroidectomy in order to get confirmatory histology diagnosis. The financial impact of this modality remains to be investigated. To evaluate rationality of performing thyroidectomy without a routine FNA preoperatively from the economic perspective, we conducted a retrospective, observational study of all archival thyroidectomies with records of cost per stay (CPS), cost per day (CPD) and length of stay (LOS) from 2008 to 2013 in the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University. We compared all the parameters between cancer and non-cancer thyroidectomies. We recruited 6, 140 thyroidectomies with valid records of CPS, CPD and LOS in this period. The CPS of cancer thyroidectomy was significantly higher than non-cancer thyroidectomy. The percentage of cancer thyroidectomy increased from 26.5% to 41.6%. The percentage of annual cost of cancer thyroidectomies rose from 30.2% to 45.2%. The LOS for cancer and non-cancer thyroidectomy decreased while the CPD increased in the past six years. The estimated national cost in 2012 for all thyroidectomies would be USD 1.86 billion with USD 1.09 billion for non-cancer thyroidectomies. We have witnessed great improvement in the healthcare for patients with thyroid nodules in China. However, given limited healthcare resources, currently thyroid FNA for more precise preoperative diagnosis may help to curb the rapidly increasing demand in healthcare costs in the future for nodular thyroid disease in China.

Rho-GTPase Effector ROCK Phosphorylates Cofilin in Actin-Meditated Cytokinesis During Mouse Oocyte Meiosis

Duan, Xing,Jun-Liu,Dai, Xiao-Xin,Liu, Hong-Lin,Cui, Xiang-Shun,Kim, Nam-Hyung,Wang, Zhen-Bo,Qiang-Wang,Sun, Shao-Chen Society for the Study of Reproduction [etc.] 2014 BIOLOGY OF REPRODUCTION Vol.90 No.2

During oocyte meiosis, a spindle forms in the central cytoplasm and migrates to the cortex. Subsequently, the oocyte extrudes a small body and forms a highly polarized egg; this process is regulated primarily by actin. ROCK is a Rho-GTPase effector that is involved in various cellular functions, such as stress fiber formation, cell migration, tumor cell invasion, and cell motility. In this study, we investigated possible roles for ROCK in mouse oocyte meiosis. ROCK was localized around spindles after germinal vesicle breakdown and was colocalized with cytoplasmic actin and mitochondria. Disrupting ROCK activity by RNAi or an inhibitor resulted in cell cycle progression and polar body extrusion failure. Time-lapse microscopy showed that this may have been due to spindle migration and cytokinesis defects, as chromosomes segregated but failed to extrude a polar body and then realigned. Actin expression at oocyte membranes and in cytoplasm was significantly decreased after these treatments. Actin caps were also disrupted, which was confirmed by a failure to form cortical granule-free domains. The mitochondrial distribution was also disrupted, which indicated that mitochondria were involved in the ROCK-mediated actin assembly. In addition, the phosphorylation levels of Cofilin, a downstream molecule of ROCK, decreased after disrupting ROCK activity. Thus, our results indicated that a ROCK-Cofilinactin pathway regulated meiotic spindle migration and cytokinesis during mouse oocyte maturation.

Chk2 Regulates Cell Cycle Progression during Mouse Oocyte Maturation and Early Embryo Development

Dai, Xiao-Xin,Duan, Xing,Liu, Hong-Lin,Cui, Xiang-Shun,Kim, Nam-Hyung,Sun, Shao-Chen Korean Society for Molecular and Cellular Biology 2014 Molecules and cells Vol.37 No.2

As a tumor suppressor homologue during mitosis, Chk2 is involved in replication checkpoints, DNA repair, and cell cycle arrest, although its functions during mouse oocyte meiosis and early embryo development remain uncertain. We investigated the functions of Chk2 during mouse oocyte maturation and early embryo development. Chk2 exhibited a dynamic localization pattern; Chk2 expression was restricted to germinal vesicles at the germinal vesicle (GV) stage, was associated with centromeres at pro-metaphase I (Pro-MI), and localized to spindle poles at metaphase I (MI). Disrupting Chk2 activity resulted in cell cycle progression defects. First, inhibitor-treated oocytes were arrested at the GV stage and failed to undergo germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD); this could be rescued after Chk2 inhibition release. Second, Chk2 inhibition after oocyte GVBD caused MI arrest. Third, the first cleavage of early embryo development was disrupted by Chk2 inhibition. Additionally, in inhibitor-treated oocytes, checkpoint protein Bub3 expression was consistently localized at centromeres at the MI stage, which indicated that the spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC) was activated. Moreover, disrupting Chk2 activity in oocytes caused severe chromosome misalignments and spindle disruption. In inhibitor-treated oocytes, centrosome protein ${\gamma}$-tubulin and Polo-like kinase 1 (Plk1) were dissociated from spindle poles. These results indicated that Chk2 regulated cell cycle progression and spindle assembly during mouse oocyte maturation and early embryo development.

Alu Tandem Sequences Inhibit GFP Gene Expression by Triggering Chromatin Wrapping

Xiu Fang Wang,Xiao Yan Wang,Jing Liu,Jing Jing Feng,Wen Li Mu,Xiao Juan Shi,Qin Qing Yang,Xiao Cui Duan,Ying Xie,Zhan Jun Lu 한국유전학회 2009 Genes & Genomics Vol.31 No.3

Alu elements belonging to the short interspersed nuclear elements (SINE) of repetitive elements are present in more than one million copies which altogether represent 10% of the whole human genome. In this study, the roles of Alu tandem sequences in the process of GFP gene (GFP) expression and packing into chromatin of its DNA were studied. To detect the effect of Alu repeats on gene expression, different copies of Alus were inserted GFP downstream respectively in pEGFP-C1 vector. We found that Alu sequences decreased the amount of GFP transcription, the percentage of GFP positive cells and the accessibility to DNase I in length-dependent manner. Inserting Alu caused the production of higher-molecular-mass RNA, indicating Alu sequence did not induce premature transcriptional termination. Tight packing chromatins keep silent and resist to DNase I digestion, which is a general phenomenon. We suggested that head and tail tandem Alu sequences suppressed GFP expression in length dependent manner by triggering chromatin packing.

The Size Dependence of Dissolution Thermodynamics of Nanoparticles

Zhi-Qiang Wang,Yongqiang Xue,Zixiang Cui,Huijuan Duan,Xiao-Yan Xia 성균관대학교(자연과학캠퍼스) 성균나노과학기술원 2016 NANO Vol.11 No.9

Dissolution of nanoparticles is involved in the preparation, research and application of nanomaterials, but there is a surprising difference in dissolution thermodynamics between nanoparticles and the corresponding bulk materials. In the paper, the relations of dissolution thermodynamic properties, equilibrium constant of nanoparticles, respectively, and particle size were derived by introducing interface variables and the surface chemical potential. Experimentally, the solubility of nano-barium sulfate with different average particle sizes at different temperatures were determined by the method of electrical conductivity, obtaining the influencing regularities of particle size on the dissolution thermodynamic properties and the equilibrium constant. The regularities are in accordance with the theory. The results show that there are remarkable effects of particle size of nanoparticles on the dissolution thermodynamic properties and the equilibrium constant; with the decreasing of the size of nanoparticles, the dissolution equilibrium constant increases, while the standard dissolution Gibbs free energy, the standard dissolution enthalpy and the standard dissolution entropy decrease; and the logarithm of the dissolution equilibrium constant, the standard dissolution Gibbs free energy, the standard dissolution enthalpy and the standard dissolution entropy are linearly associated with the reciprocal of particle size, respectively. This new theory provides a quantitative description of nanoparticles dissolution behavior, and has important scientific significance for understanding and predicting of thermodynamic regularity of dissolution concerned in the preparation, researches and applications of nanomaterials.

Role of Nucleation-Promoting Factors in Mouse Early Embryo Development

Wang, Qiao-Chu,Liu, Jun,Wang, Fei,Duan, Xing,Dai, Xiao-Xin,Wang, Teng,Liu, Hong-Lin,Cui, Xiang-Shun,Sun, Shao-Chen,Kim, Nam-Hyung Cambridge University Press 2013 Microscopy and microanalysis Vol.19 No.3

<B>Abstract</B><P>During mitosis nucleation-promoting factors (NPFs) bind to the Arp2/3 complex and activate actin assembly. JMY and WAVE2 are two critical members of the NPFs. Previous studies have demonstrated that NPFs promote multiple processes such as cell migration and cytokinesis. However, the role of NPFs in development of mammalian embryos is still unknown. Results of the present study show that the NPFs JMY and WAVE2 are critical for cytokinesis during development of mouse embryos. Both JMY and WAVE2 are expressed in mouse embryos. After injection of JMY or WAVE2 siRNA, all embryos failed to develop to the morula or blastocyst stages. Moreover, using fluorescence intensity analysis, we found that the expression of actin decreased, and multiple nuclei were observed within a single cell indicating that NPFs-induced actin reduction caused the failure of cell division. In addition, injection of JMY and WAVE2 siRNA also caused ARP2 degradation, indicating that involvement of NPFs in development of mouse embryos is mainly through regulation of ARP2/3-induced actin assembly. Taken together, these data suggested that WAVE2 and JMY are involved in development of mouse embryos, and their regulation may be through a NPFs-Arp2/3-actin pathway.</P>

Microbial Ecology and Diversity : Impact of Diet in Shaping Gut Microbiota Revealed by a Comparative Study in Infants During the First Six Months of Life

( Wen Guang Fan ),( Gui Cheng Huo ),( Xiao Min Li ),( Li Jie Yang ),( Cui Cui Duan ) 한국미생물 · 생명공학회 2014 Journal of microbiology and biotechnology Vol.24 No.2

The development of the gut is controlled and modulated by different interacting mechanisms, such as genetic endowment, intrinsic biological regulatory functions, environment influences and last but no least, the diet influence. In this work, we compared the fecal microbiota of breast-fed (BF), formula-fed (FF), and mixed-fed (MF) infants from Hebei Province, China. By using high-throughput 16S rDNA sequencing analyses, we found some differences in gut microbiota in the three groups. Firmicutes and Proteobacteria were the dominant bacteria at the phylum level in the three groups, where FF infants showed a significant depletion in Bacteroidetes (p < 0.001) and Actinobacteria (p < 0.05). Enterobacteriaceae was the dominant bacteria at the family level in the three groups, but FF infants showed higher Enterobacteriaceae enrichment than BF and MF infants (p < 0.05); the abundance of the Bifidobacteriaceae was only 8.16% in the feces of BF infants, but higher than in MF and FF infants (p < 0.05). The number of genera detected (abundance >0.01%) in BF, MF, and FF infants was only 15, 16, and 13, respectively. This study could provide more accurate and scientific data for the future study of infant intestinal flora.