Xiao-dong Zhang

Effect of spinal cord injury on urinary bladder spinal neural pathway: a retrograde transneuronal tracing study with pseudorabies virus.

OBJECTIVES To determinate the effect of acute and chronic spinal cord injury (SCI) resulting from thoracic cord transection on the urinary bladder spinal neural pathway. METHODS Seventy-six adult Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into four groups, non-SCI (normal rats undergoing no surgical procedure except pseudorabies virus [PRV] injection), SCI(b) (SCI and PRV injected immediately after SCI), SCI(c) (SCI and PRV injected at 3 weeks after SCI), and SCI(d) (SCI and PRV injected at 3 months after SCI). Transcardiac perfusion fixation was done at appropriate survival periods after PRV injection into the bladder wall tissue. Sections of the dorsal root ganglion, spinal cord, and brain were processed for visualization of the virus by the streptavidin-peroxidase immunohistochemical procedure. RESULTS The bladder weight of the non-SCI, SCI(b), SCI(c), SCI(d) rats was 144 +/- 9 mg, 142 +/- 8 mg, 486 +/- 51 mg, and 656 +/- 69 mg, respectively. The time-ordered flow charts of PRV tracing were similar in the non-SCI and SCI rats. The cross-sectional area of the labeled dorsal root ganglion cell profiles increased significantly after SCI (P <0.001): 593 +/- 40 microm2, 588 +/- 39 microm2, 815 +/- 53 microm2, and 902 +/- 57 microm2 in the non-SCI, SCI(b), SCI(c), SCI(d) rats, respectively. The number of labeled cells in the dorsal horn in the L6 and S1 segments 3 days after PRV injection markedly increased in chronic SCI rats, as did the number of labeled motor neurons 4 days after injection. CONCLUSIONS Acute and chronic SCI have no effect on the process of virus transneuronal transport below the level of the lesion. Subsequent to chronic SCI, reorganization of the micturition reflex pathways may occur.

Long-term Follow-up of Sigmoid Bladder Augmentation for Low-compliance Neurogenic Bladder

OBJECTIVE To assess the clinical and urodynamic outcomes of patients with low-compliance neurogenic bladder who were treated with sigmoid bladder augmentation (SBA) over a long-term follow-up. MATERIALS AND METHODS We retrospectively reviewed 52 patients with low-compliance neurogenic bladder who underwent SBA alone or with antireflux techniques in our hospital from 2006 to 2014. Clinical outcomes regarding bladder function, incontinence, medications, catheterization schedules, subsequent interventions, bowel function, and patient satisfaction were addressed. RESULTS The mean follow-up was 49 months. All patients experienced significant increases in safe cystometric capacity from 113.8 ± 65.9 mL to 373.1 ± 66.7 mL (P <.001), bladder compliance from 2.96 ± 1.55 mL/cm H2O to 14.07 ± 5.45 mL/cm H2O (P <.001), and decreases in creatinine from 88.1 ± 38.6 μmol/L to 77.1 ± 30.4 μmol/L (P <.001) compared with those before surgery. Six patients (11.5%) required anticholinergic medicine to control neurogenic detrusor overactivity, and 11 (21.1%) had recurrent febrile urinary tract infections after SBA. Among 47 prehydronephrosis patients (grade I-II in 10 and III-V in 37), 16 still had minor hydronephrosis after SBA, but the hydronephrosis had been improved significantly (all posthydronephroses were grade I-II instead). All patients reported significant improvements in constipation, and no patient had obvious metabolic acidosis or bladder perforation after SBA. All patients expressed extreme satisfaction with the operation. CONCLUSION SBA provided durable clinical and urodynamic improvement for patients with low-compliance neurogenic bladder and constipation. SBA alone, without ureteral reimplantation, seemed sufficient for neurogenic bladder. Furthermore, there was a high level of patient satisfaction with SBA.

Fibroblast activation protein-α promotes the growth and migration of lung cancer cells via the PI3K and sonic hedgehog pathways

A characteristic of the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in cancer cells is the upregulation of mesenchymal markers. Fibroblast activation protein α (FAPα) is predominantly expressed by stromal fibroblasts. Previous studies have demonstrated that FAPα is also expressed by certain epithelium-derived cancer cells and is involved in the regulation of certain signaling pathways. One of our previous studies showed that FAPα promoted the proliferation of breast cancer cells via the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K) signaling pathway. In the present study, the A549 adenocarcinoma (AC) and SK-MES-1 squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) lung cancer cell lines were transfected with FAPα. The FAPα-expressing SK-MES-1 cells exhibited an increased growth rate, whereas the FAPα-expressing A549 cells exhibited a similar growth rate, compared with respective empty vector-transfected control cells. Electric cell-substrate impedance sensing (ECIS)-based attachment and wound-healing assays showed that the overexpression of FAPα markedly increased the adhesive and migratory properties of the SK-MES-1 cells but not those of the A549 cells. Additionally, inhibitors of focal adhesion kinase, agonist-induced phospholipase C, neural Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein, extracellular signal-regulated kinase, Rho-associated protein kinase, PI3K, and sonic hedgehog (SHH) were used to evaluate the interaction between FAPα and signaling pathways. Only the inhibitors of SHH and PI3K inhibited the increased motility of the FAPα-expressing SK-MES-1 cells. Western blot analysis confirmed the activation of PI3K/AKT and SHH/GLI family zinc finger 1 signaling in the FAPα-expressing SK-MES-1 cells. These results revealed that FAPα promoted the growth, adhesion and migration of lung SCC cells. In addition, FAPα regulated lung cancer cell function, potentially via the PI3K and SHH pathways. Further investigations are required to examine the role of FAPα in lung AC cells.

An Unusual Etiology for Hematospermia and Treatments That Were Successful

OBJECTIVE To describe the unusual etiology and effective treatments of intractable hematospermia from posterior urethral hemangioma. METHODS The ages, disease duration, syndromes, urinary routine, pathologic findings, immunohistochemical staining results, and postoperative complications of 5 patients were recorded. Four patients had a transurethral resection for total removal of lesions, and 1 patient was treated with transurethral fulguration. RESULTS The 5 patients involved were middle aged with an average age of 46.2 years and average disease duration of 8.8 years. The clinical features of their hematospermia were as follows: break outs repeatedly after ejaculation in large quantities, no obvious mixing with the seminal plasma, urine after the first ejaculation or second in the morning is hematuria and is even accompanied by blood clots, and urethrorrhagia after sexual excitation, and there is no significant effect of various positive anti-inflammatory treatments. Cystourethroscopy found that the solitary varicosities were located between the distal end of the verumontanum and the external urethral sphincter. The varicose lesion was removed by transurethral resection for posterior urethral lesions, and the surrounding tissue was removed with fulguration. Vessel formation was confirmed by CD31 and CD34 immunohistochemical staining. Finally, the presence of posterior urethral hemangioma was verified in 4 patients by pathologic examination combined with immunohistochemistry, but 1 patient did not have any specimens available. CONCLUSION The possibility of posterior urethral hemangioma should be considered for patients with repeated intractable hematospermia. Cystourethroscopy is recommended for examination throughout patient services, and transurethral resection, fulguration, or laser cutting methods can also be performed.

Prognosis impact of clinical characteristics in patients with inoperable esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Background Patients with inoperable esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) were not homogeneous and their outcomes were widely divergent. There was a lack of identified clinical factors related to prognosis; and there were no previous studies constructing prognosis score to predict survival and guide treatment. Methods In this retrospective cohort study, twelve clinical characteristics of one hundred and twenty inoperable ESCC patients were collected at diagnosis and analyzed by Cox regression model. Various methods including univariate analysis, confounding adjusted multivariate analysis and model selection were applied to determine factors associated with poor prognosis; and prognosis score was built on established factors. Results Four characters were identified as poor prognosis factors, including mid- and low-thoracic tumor (aHR = 2.20, 95% CI = 1.03, 4.72), abdominal and retroperitoneal lymph node metastasis (aHR = 1.62, 95% CI = 1.00, 2.64), albumin no more than 39g/L (aHR = 2.81, 95% CI = 1.24, 6.41) and hematogenous metastasis (aHR = 1.61, 95% CI = 0.97, 2.69). Patients were stratified into three groups by prognosis score, that was, good survival with none of four identified factors (score zero), poor survival with three to four factors (score three to four) and median with one to two factors (score one to two), survival of three groups were statistically different (ptrend = 0.020). Conclusion Prognosis score based on selected clinical characteristics could predict survival among inoperable ESCC patients, which was critical for individualized treatment and central of precise medicine.