While previous studies have focused on the health effects of occupational exposure of radiations on medical radiation workers, few have analyzed the dose-response relationship between low radiation doses and changes in blood parameters. Even fewer studies have been conducted on industrial worker populations. Using a prospective cohort study design, this study collected health examination reports and personal dose monitoring data from 705 industrial irradiation workers who underwent regular physical examinations at Dongguan Sixth People’s Hospital. The dose-response effects of low-dose ionizing radiation on blood parameters were assessed using a generalized linear model and restricted cubic spline model. Red blood cell counts decreased then increased, before decreasing again with increasing ionizing radiation. This was in contrast to the curve of the total platelet count after irradiation. Additionally, a radiation dose of 2.904 mSv was the turning point for the nonlinear curve of hemoglobin count changes. In conclusion, long-term, low-dose ionizing radiation affects blood cell levels in industrial irradiation workers. There is a nonlinear dose-response relationship between red blood cell, platelet, and hemoglobin counts and the cumulative radiation dose. These findings should alert radiation workers to seek preventive medical treatment before the occurrence of any serious hematopoietic disease.

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are implicated in the genesis, development, and recurrence of lung cancer (LC) with great resistance to radiation and chemotherapy. The aim of this study is to assess the inhibitory potential of ethanol extract of Withania somnifera (WS); 500 mg/kg body-weight/day and 8 Gy of ionizing radiation (IR) could inhibit the stemness gene and confer the radiosensitizing effect of W. somnifera extract in the female rat LC model. Compared to IR or WS, the in vitro assay showed that WS + IR potentiates proliferation-inhibition and cell death of the A-549 cell line and suppresses sphere formation. The Hedgehog (Hh) signaling associated with the expression levels of lung CSC markers, octamer-binding transcription factor-4 (OCT4), SRY-box 2 (SOX2), CD133, ATP Binding Cassette Subfamily G Member 2 (ABCG2), and NANOG was upregulated with stimulated epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) indicators α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), Drosophila embryonic protein (SNAIL-1), Vimentin, and E-cadherin in the LC rat model. The W. somnifera extract plus IR inhibits Hh activation factors, which has resulted in the suppression of CSC gene markers and EMT factors. W. somnifera extract may be a significant adjuvant in the course of radiotherapy, contributing to the termination of tumor progression, and thus providing cure insights into the molecular mechanisms of lung CSCs intervention.

Rhinoplasty and surgical reconstruction of cartilaginous structures still remain a greatchallenge today. This study aims to identify an imaging strategy in order to merge theinformation from CT scans and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) acquisitions and build a 3Dprinted model true to the patient’s anatomy, for better surgical planning. Using MRI,information can be obtained about the cartilage structures of which the nose is composed.Ten rhinoplasty candidate patients underwent both a low-dose protocol CT scan and aspecific MRI for characterization of nasal structures. Bone and soft tissue segmentationswere performed in CT, while cartilage segmentations were extrapolated from MRI andvalidated by both an expert radiologist and surgeon. Subsequently, a 3D model was producedin materials and colors reproducing the density of the three main structures (bone, softtissue, and cartilage), useful for pre-surgical evaluation. This study has highlightedthat the optimization of a CT and MR dedicated protocol has allowed to reduce the CTradiation dose up to 60% compared to standard acquisitions with the same machine, and MRacquisition time of about 20%. Patient-tailored 3D models and pre-surgical planning havereduced the mean operative time by 20 minutes.

Purpose:To determine the hepatoprotective mechanisms of Heracleum candicans in rats with acute liver injury induced by carbon tetrachloride (CCl4).Methods:Rats were intragastrically administered H candicans twice a day for 14 consecutive days and were intraperitoneally challenged with CCl4. Alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase were measured to indicate liver injury. Malondialdehyde antioxidant enzyme activity and tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interleukin 6 secretion were measured as liver injury indicators. Histopathological tests were conducted to determine whether H candicans ameliorated liver injury.Results:CCl4-induced liver injury led to significant increases in liver injury biochemical indicators transaminase and malondialdehyde activities. H candicans pretreatments inhibited these increases. Pathological sections in pretreated samples exhibited reduced vacuole formation, neutrophil infiltration, and necrosis.Conclusion:H candicans increases the antioxidant capacity of the liver and maintains hepatocyte function in the face of CCl4-induced injury.

Introduction:Oncologic patients who develop chemotherapy-associated liver injury (CALI) secondary to chemotherapy treatment tend to have worse outcomes. Biopsy remains the gold standard for the diagnosis of hepatic steatosis. The purpose of this article is to compare 2 alternatives: Proton-Density-Fat-Fraction (PDFF) MRI and MultiMaterial-Decomposition (MMD) DECT.Materials and Methods:49 consecutive oncologic patients treated with Chemotherapy underwent abdominal DECT and abdominal MRI within 2 weeks of each other. Two radiologists tracked Regions of Interest independently both in the PDFF fat maps and in the MMD DECT fat maps. Non-parametric exact Wilcoxon signed rank test and Cohen’s K were used to compare the 2 sequences and to evaluate the agreement.Results:There was no statistically significant difference in the fat fraction measured as a continuous value between PDFF and DECT between 2 readers. Within the same imaging method (PDFF) the degree of agreement based on the k coefficient between reader 1 and reader 2 is 0.88 (p-value < 0.05). Similarly, for single-source DECT(ssDECT) the degree of agreement based on the k coefficient between reader 1 and reader 2 is 0.97 (p-value < 0.05).Conclusions:The results of this study demonstrate that the hepatic fat fraction of ssDECT with MMD are not significantly different from PDFF. This could be an advantage in an oncological population that undergoes serial CT scans for follow up of chemotherapy response.

Background:Autophagy plays a vital role in cancer development. However, there is currently no comprehensive study regarding the effects of autophagy-related genes (ARGs) on pancreatic cancer prognosis. Thus, this study aimed to establish an autophagy-related signature for predicting the prognosis of patients with pancreatic cancer.Methods:We identified and validated differentially-expressed ARGs using data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database, Genotype-Tissue Expression project (GTEx) and Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. We performed Cox proportional hazards regression analysis on the differentially-expressed ARGs to develop an autophagy-related signature. We tested the expression of these genes through western blotting and verified their prognostic values through gene expression profiling and interactive analyses (GEPIA).Results:We identified a total of 21 differentially-expressed ARGs and screened 4 OS-related ARGs (TP63, RAB24, APOL1, and PTK6). Both the training and validation sets showed that the autophagy-related signature was more accurate than the Tumor Node Metastasis (TNM) staging system. Moreover, the western blotting result showed that the expression of TP63, APOL1, and PTK6 was high, whereas that of RAB24 was low in cancer tissues.Conclusion:This 4-ARG signature might potentially help in providing personalized therapy to patients with cancer.

It has been proven a close relationship between intestinal microbiota andhypertension. Valsartan is a widely used ARB antihypertensive drug; so far, theeffect of valsartan on intestinal microbiota remains largely unexplored. Herein,we evaluated the composition, structure and metabolites of intestinal microbiotaof spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs) after valsartan administration. In thepresent study, valsartan administration decreased intestinal microbiotadiversity, altered gut microbiota composition, leading to 192 unique OTUsdeficiency (vs WKY rats) and 10 unique OTUs deficiency(vs SHRs) and did not prove impaired intestinal mucosalbarriers. Valsartan decreased the production of isobutyric acid and isovalericacid in SCFAs. Our findings revealed valsartan administration inducedfar-reaching and robust changes to the intestinal microbiota of SHRs andprovided a better understanding of the relationship between efficacy ofvalsartan and gastrointestinal tract reaction.