Although accumulating evidence has confirmed the important roles of thyroid hormone (T(3)) and its receptors (TRs) in tumor progression, the specific functions of TRs in carcinogenesis remain unclear. In the present study, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) was directly upregulated by T(3) in TR-overexpressing hepatoma cell lines. TRAIL is an apoptotic inducer, but it can nonetheless trigger non-apoptotic signals favoring tumorigenesis in apoptosis-resistant cancer cells. We found that TR-overexpressing hepatoma cells treated with T(3) were apoptosis resistant, even when TRAIL was upregulated. This apoptotic resistance may be attributable to simultaneous upregulation of Bcl-xL by T(3), because (1) knockdown of T(3)-induced Bcl-xL expression suppressed T(3)-mediated protection against apoptosis, and (2) overexpression of Bcl-xL further protected hepatoma cells from TRAIL-induced apoptotic death, consequently leading to TRAIL-promoted metastasis of hepatoma cells. Moreover, T(3)-enhanced metastasis in vivo was repressed by the treatment of TRAIL-blocking antibody. Notably, TRAIL was highly expressed in a subset of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients, and this high-level expression was significantly correlated with that of TRs in these HCC tissues. Together, our findings provide evidence for the existence of a novel mechanistic link between increased TR and TRAIL levels in HCC. Thus, TRs induce TRAIL expression, and TRAIL thus synthesized acts in concert with simultaneously synthesized Bcl-xL to promote metastasis, but not apoptosis.Cell Death and Differentiation advance online publication, 11 May 2012; doi:10.1038/cdd.2012.58.

This paper details the authors' efforts to push the baseline of emotion recognition performance on the Geneva Multimodal Emotion Portrayals (GEMEP) Facial Expression Recognition and Analysis database. Both subject-dependent and subject-independent emotion recognition scenarios are addressed in this paper. The approach toward solving this problem involves face detection, followed by key-point identification, then feature generation, and then, finally, classification. An ensemble of features consisting of hierarchical Gaussianization, scale-invariant feature transform, and some coarse motion features have been used. In the classification stage, we used support vector machines. The classification task has been divided into person-specific and person-independent emotion recognitions using face recognition with either manual labels or automatic algorithms. We achieve 100% performance for the person-specific one, 66% performance for the person-independent one, and 80% performance for overall results, in terms of classification rate, for emotion recognition with manual identification of subjects.

PURPOSE Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), an important proinflammatory cytokine, exerts a variety of physiologic and pathogenic effects that lead to tissue destruction. Recent laboratory evidence indicates that TNF-α have either protective or adverse effects on primary open angle glaucoma (POAG). Inheritance of the TNF-α (-863) C allele has been associated with an elevated risk of Alzheimer disease. The neuronal injuries associated with Alzheimer disease have several similarities with the optic nerve changes often seen with POAG. In this study we investigated the possible association between the TNF-α (-863) polymorphism and the development of POAG. METHODS A total of 234 patients with POAG were recruited and compared with 230 healthy controls in a Chinese population. Sequence-specific primers with 3' end mismatches were used to identify the presence of specific allelic variants by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification. Patients and controls were genotyped for the A/C polymorphism at position -863 of the TNF-α gene promoter region. RESULTS The frequency of the TNF-α (-863)A allele (22% versus 30%, respectively; p=0.007) and the carriers of the TNF-α (-863)A allele (37% versus48%; p=0.017, OR 0.63, 95% CI 0.44-0.92) were lower in POAG patients compared with those in controls. There is a reduced risk of POAG associated with homozygosity for the TNF-α (-863)A allele (AA genotype) compared with that in the control population (AA genotype; 7% versus 11%, respectively, p=0.037; OR 0.5, 95% CI 0.26-0.98). CONCLUSIONS The TNF-α (-863)A allele polymorphism may be a protective factor in the development of POAG.

In this paper, we report a new method to incorporate 3D scaffold with electrotaxis measurement in the microfluidic device. The electrotactic response of lung cancer cells in the 3D foam scaffolds which resemble the in vivo pulmonary alveoli may give more insight on cellular behaviors in vivo. The 3D scaffold consists of ordered arrays of uniform spherical pores in gelatin. We found that cell morphology in the 3D scaffold was different from that in 2D substrate. Next, we applied a direct current electric field (EF) of 338 mV/mm through the scaffold for the study of cells' migration within. We measured the migration directedness and speed of different lung cancer cell lines, CL1-0, CL1-5, and A549, and compared with those examined in 2D gelatin-coated and bare substrates. The migration direction is the same for all conditions but there are clear differences in cell morphology, directedness, and migration speed under EF. Our results demonstrate cell migration under EF is different in 2D and 3D environments and possibly due to different cell morphology and/or substrate stiffness.

We investigated and evaluated the demographics, clinical and laboratory features, treatment responses, and disease duration of 25 children with immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) eligible for detection of antiplatelet antibodies. We found that patients without antecedent of preceding infection (API) were more likely to have anti-GPIa/IIa than those with API (42.9% vs. 5.5%, P=0.048). Age groups of <2 years and 2 to 10 years were more likely to show response (R) or complete response (CR) to given treatments, whereas none of the patients whose onset age >10 years showed R or CR to given treatments (88.9% and 100% vs 0%, P=0.001). The percentage of newly diagnosed ITP was higher in age groups of <2 years (100%) and in 2 to 10 years (90%) than the age group of >10 years (16.7%, P=0.001). Patients without API (71.4%) were more likely to develop chronic ITP than those with API (5.6%, P=0.002). In conclusion, younger age was a favorable prognostic factor, especially in patients <2 years of age with respect to treatment responses and disease duration. In addition, API was associated with a short disease course as well as absence of anti-GPIa/IIa.

BACKGROUND: The absence of biallelic TCRγ deletion (ABD) is a characteristic of early thymocyte precursors before V(D)J recombination. The ABD was reported to predict early treatment failure in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). This study aimed to investigate its prognostic value in Taiwanese patients with T-cell ALL. PROCEDURE: Forty-five children with T-cell ALL were enrolled from six medical centers in Taiwan. Quantitative DNA polymerase chain reaction (Q-PCR) was performed to check the status of TCRγ deletion. The threshold for homozygous deletions by Q-PCR was defined as a fold-change <0.35. RESULTS: ABD was found in 20 patients [20:45] who had higher incidences of induction failure than those without ABD (P = 0.03; hazard ratio [HR] = 8.13; 95% confidence interval [95% CI] = 1.23-53.77) after multivariate regression analysis. Patents with ABD also had inferior EFS and OS (P = 0.071 and 0.0196, respectively). Multivariate Cox analysis indicated that the association between ABD and overall survival was independent of age and leukocyte count on presentation (P = 0.036; HR = 4.25; 95% CI = 1.10-16.42). CONCLUSIONS: The absence of TCRγ deletion is a predictor of a poor response to induction chemotherapy for pediatric patients with T-cell ALL in Taiwan. Providing patients with T-cell ALL and ABD with alternative regimens may be worthwhile to test in future clinical trials. Pediatr Blood Cancer © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

OBJECTIVE More than 30 years after the onset of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic, there is no information on the prevalence of psychiatric disorders among HIV-positive individuals in the general population. We sought to compare the prevalence of 12-month psychiatric disorders among HIV-positive and HIV-negative adults stratified by sex and to examine the differential increase in risk of a psychiatric disorder as a function of the interaction of sex and HIV status. METHOD Face-to-face interviews were conducted between 2004 and 2005 with participants in the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions Wave 2, a large nationally representative sample of US adults (34,653). The diagnostic interview used was the Alcohol Use Disorder and Associated Disabilities Interview Schedule-DSM-IV Version. RESULTS When compared with their HIV-negative same-sex counterparts, HIV-positive men were more likely to have any mood disorder (odds ratio [OR]= 6.10; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.99-12.44), major depressive disorder/dysthymia (OR = 3.77; 95% CI, 1.16-12.27), any anxiety disorder (OR = 4.02; 95% CI, 2.12-7.64), and any personality disorder (OR = 2.50; 95% CI, 1.34-4.67). In relation to their same-sex HIV-negative counterparts, the effect of HIV status on the odds of any mood disorder (OR = 7.17; 95% CI, 2.52-20.41), any anxiety disorder (OR = 3.45; 95% CI, 1.27-9.38), and any personality disorder (OR = 2.66; 95% CI, 1.16-6.10) was significantly greater for men than women. CONCLUSIONS HIV status was significantly more strongly associated with psychiatric disorders in men than in women. HIV-positive men had a higher prevalence than HIV-negative men of most psychiatric disorders. By contrast, HIV-positive women were not significantly more likely than HIV-negative women to have psychiatric disorders.

Tissue engineering for cartilage regeneration provides an alternative to surgery for degenerative osteoarthritis. Recently, a highly organized three-dimensional (3D) alginate scaffold was prepared using a microfluidic device; this scaffold is effective for chondrocyte culture in vitro. The performance of this scaffold was further demonstrated; an alginate scaffold seeded with porcine chondrocytes was implanted in the dorsal subcutaneous site of SCID mice. The recipients were sacrificed at 2, 4, and 6 weeks after transplantation. The grafted implants retrieved from the subcutaneous site were analyzed with histologic examinations. Real-time PCR was used to identify the gene expression patterns of the chondrocytes. The hematoxylin and eosin staining showed that the chondrocytes survived normally in SCID mice; cartilage-like structures were formed after 4 weeks implantation. Immunohistochemical staining revealed cells secreted type II collagen, produced glycosaminoglycans (proved by alcian blue stain), and maintained the expression of S-100. On the other hand, the cells were negative for type I and type X collagen staining. PCR showed that the mRNA expressions of aggrecan and type II collagen were up-regulated at weeks two and four, while type I and type X collagen were down-regulated during the study period. In summary, this highly organized 3D alginate scaffold provided a suitable environment and maintained functional phenotypes for chondrocytes in this animal study.

BACKGROUND Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) must be applied in early stages to perfuse organs before donation in order to expand the donor pool. The aim of this study was to examine the benefits of ECMO for potential organ donors with multiple complications. MATERIALS AND METHODS This retrospective review describes patients with ECMO support who were on the verge of brain death and therefore potential subjects for organ donation. RESULTS Six organ donors with severe neurological damage under ECMO support completed the procedures, namely, two women and four men of ages 19 to 58 years (mean, 32 years). Three donors completed the brain-death determination procedure, one failed the procedure, and two experienced cardiac asystole prior to the procedure and were unable to be declared dead even after resuscitation. Nine kidneys and three livers were successfully retrieved from 5/6 donors, leading to 11 successful transplantations: eight kidneys, two livers, and one simultaneous kidney-liver transplantations. The organs functioned well and the recipients made full recoveries. CONCLUSIONS ECMO allows for the maintenance of abdominal organ tissue perfusion without warm ischemia before organ procurement, providing sufficient time for safe organ donation procedures and reducing the risk of unpredictable cardiac arrest that could result in the donor death and graft loss.