Kimura's disease is a rare, chronic inflammatory condition that usually manifests as highly recurrent head and neck tumors. Systematic review of recurrence predictors following surgical excision. The pathologically confirmed cases at the tertiary medical center were reviewed. PubMed, Medline, the Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Airiti Library containing grey literature were searched through August 31st, 2019. A total of 31 articles were included for meta-analysis which revealed that surgical excision resulted in a lower recurrence rate (pooled odds ratio [POR] = 3.15, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.12-8.82; p = 0.03) than conservative measures. Surgery was an effective single treatment modality for patients with tumors smaller than 3 cm (POR = 2.89, 95% CI: 1.20-6.95; p = 0.02), symptom duration shorter than 5 years (POR = 3.11, 95% CI, 1.03-9.38; p = 0.04), peripheral blood eosinophilia less than 20% (POR = 4.49, 95% CI: 1.46-13.84; p = 0.009) or serum IgE level less than 10000 IU/ml (POR = 8.30, 95% CI: 1.05-65.34; p = 0.04). Directing patients with Kimura's disease through the treatment algorithm will reduce the recurrence rate. Combination adjuvant therapy with surgery is recommended for the following conditions -- a tumor greater than or equal to 3 cm in size, symptom duration longer than or equal to 5 years, peripheral blood eosinophilia greater than or equal to 20%, or serum IgE greater than or equal to 10000 IU/ml to achieve the optimal therapeutic outcome. PROSPERO CRD42020173258 (http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO).

Secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine (SPARC) is a secreted protein which is involved in various biological processes. SPARC expression is associated with tumor metastasis and poor prognosis in several types of cancer. However, the SPARC-induced signaling pathway was not fully understood in head and neck cancer. In this study, our results showed that SPARC treatment promoted cell proliferation and migration in head and neck cancer cell lines FaDu and Detroit 562. In addition, SPARC induced expression of epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) regulators, including Slug, Snail, and Twist in Detroit 562. The results of phospho-kinase array analysis showed that SPARC treatment increased phosphorylation of some molecules including protein kinase B (PKB/AKT), ribosomal S6 kinase (RSK), and extracellular signal–regulated kinases (ERK). The expression of SPARC-induced EMT regulator Slug was suppressed by AKT inhibitor, but not ERK and RSK inhibitors. The SPARC expression in grade IV tumor samples is higher when compared to that in grade I–III tumor samples. Our results suggest that SPARC treatment enhances the EMT signaling pathway via activation of AKT, and exogenous SPARC and tumor expressing SPARC might be associated with tumor progression in head and neck cancers.

Burn-induced neuropathic pain is complex, and fat grafting has reportedly improved neuropathic pain. However, the mechanism of fat grafting in improving neuropathic pain is unclear. Previous investigations have found that neuroinflammation causes neuropathic pain, and anti-inflammatory targeting may provide potential therapeutic opportunities in neuropathic pain. We hypothesized that fat grafting in burn scars improves the neuropathic pain through anti-inflammation. Burn-induced scar pain was confirmed using a mechanical response test 4 weeks after burn injuries, and autologous fat grafting in the scar area was performed simultaneously. After 4 weeks, the animals were sacrificed, and specimens were collected for the inflammation test, including COX-2, iNOS, and nNOS in the injured skin and spinal cord dorsal horns through immunohistochemistry and Western assays. Furthermore, pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1 β and TNF-α) in the spinal cord were collected. Double immunofluorescent staining images for measuring p-IκB, p-NFκB, p-JNK, and TUNEL as well as Western blots of AKT, Bax/Bcl-2 for the inflammatory process, and apoptosis were analyzed. Fat grafting significantly reduced COX2, nNOS, and iNOS in the skin and spinal cord dorsal horns, as well as IL-1β and TNF-α, compared with the burn group. Moreover, regarding the anti-inflammatory effect, the apoptosis cells in the spinal cord significantly decreased after the fat grafting in the burn injury group. Fat grafting was effective in treating burn-induced neuropathic pain through the alleviation of neuroinflammation and ameliorated spinal neuronal apoptosis.

Melatonin is found in animals as well as plants. In animals, it is a hormone that anticipates the daily onset of darkness and regulates physiological functions, such as sleep timing, blood pressure, and reproduction. Melatonin has also been found to have anti-tumor properties. Malignant cancers are the most common cause of death, and the mortality rate of ovarian tumor is the highest among gynecological diseases. This study investigated the anti-tumor effects of melatonin on the ovarian cancer lines, OVCAR-429 and PA-1. We observed the accumulation of melatonin-treated cells in the G₁ phase due to the down-regulation of CDK 2 and 4. Our results suggest that in addition to the known effects on prevention, melatonin may also provide anti-tumor activity in established ovarian cancer.

Human umbilical cord matrix–derived stem cells expressing interferon-β gene inhibit breast cancer cells via apoptosis

Restoring sufficient vascularity of the ischemia/hypoxia flap is always the critical issue in flap surgeries. In a previous studies microRNA-21 (miR-21) expression was upregulated after rat skin flap surgery. MiR-21 has been reported to be induced by hypoxia and the function of miR-21 involves in the process of angiogenesis. However, the precise regulatory mechanisms in miR-21-mediated pathways are still unclear. These issues were investigated via in vitro and in vivo experiments in this study. In human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC), the expression of hsa-miR-21-5p was induced after hypoxic culture and the induction of hsa-miR-21-5p was suppressed after sequential normoxic culture. Moreover, transfection of hsa-miR-21-5p mimic enhanced tube formation capacity in normoxia, but attenuated it in hypoxia. Furthermore, bioinformatic analysis suggested that SMAD7 was a predicted target of hsa-miR-21-5p. Our results demonstrated the effect of hsa-miR-21-5p was different on SMAD7 expression in normoxia and hypoxia. In rat skin flaps, blockage of miR-21-5p significantly increased angiogenesis via analysis of color laser Doppler imaging and repressed SMAD7 expression in ischemic skin tissue. Our study showed the opposite effect of miR-21-5p mediating angiogenesis in normoxia and hypoxia, providing important implications regarding the design of novel miRNA-based therapeutic strategies in flap surgeries.