Given a passage, construct a question on the basis of the information present in the passage. Construct the question in such a way that (i) it is unambiguous, (ii) it is answerable from the passage, (iii) its answer is unique (iv) it answer uses text phrases from the passage. Avoid creating questions that (i) can't be answered correctly without actually understanding the passage and (ii) uses the same words or phrases given in the passage.

To investigate the influence of metabolic syndrome on prostate-specific antigen levels by considering prostate volume and plasma volume.', 'We retrospectively analyzed 4111 men who underwent routine check-ups including prostate-specific antigen and transrectal ultrasonography. The definition of metabolic syndrome was based on the modified Adult Treatment Panel III criteria. Prostate-specific antigen mass density (prostate-specific antigen × plasma volume / prostate volume) was calculated for adjusting plasma volume and prostate volume. We compared prostate-specific antigen and prostate-specific antigen mass density levels of participants with metabolic syndrome (metabolic syndrome group, n = 1242) and without metabolic syndrome (non-prostate-specific antigen metabolic syndrome group, n = 2869). To evaluate the impact of metabolic syndrome on prostate-specific antigen, linear regression analysis for the natural logarithm of prostate-specific antigen was used.', 'Patients in the metabolic syndrome group had significantly older age (P < 0.001), larger prostate volume (P < 0.001), higher plasma volume (P < 0.001) and lower mean serum prostate-specific antigen (non-metabolic syndrome group vs metabolic syndrome group; 1.22 ± 0.91 vs 1.15 ± 0.76 ng/mL, P = 0.006). Prostate-specific antigen mass density in the metabolic syndrome group was still significantly lower than that in the metabolic syndrome group (0.124 ± 0.084 vs 0.115 ± 0.071 μg/mL, P = 0.001). After adjusting for age, prostate volume and plasma volume using linear regression model, the presence of metabolic syndrome was a significant independent factor for lower prostate-specific antigen (prostate-specific antigen decrease by 4.1%, P = 0.046).
Is prostate-specific antigen lowering effect of metabolic syndrome influenced by prostate volume?

Recent studies have indicated a protective role of physiological autophagy in ischemic heart disease. However, the underlying mechanisms of autophagy regulation after ischemia are poorly understood. Exosomes are nano-sized vesicles released from cells that play critical roles in mediating cell-to-cell communication through the transfer of microRNAs. In this study, we observed that miR-30a was highly enriched in exosomes from the serum of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients in vivo and culture medium of cardiomyocytes after hypoxic stimulation in vitro. We also found that hypoxia inducible factor (HIF)-1α regulates miR-30a, which efficiently transferred via exosomes between cardiomyocytes after hypoxia. Inhibition of miR-30a or release of exosomes increased the expression of the core autophagy regulators beclin-1, Atg12, and LC3II/LC3I, which contributed to maintaining the autophagic response in cardiomyocytes after hypoxia. Taken together, the present study showed that exosomes from hypoxic cardiomyocytes regulate autophagy by transferring miR-30a in a paracrine manner, which revealed a new pathway of autophagy regulation that might comprise a promising strategy to treat ischemic heart disease.
Does exosomal transfer of miR-30a between cardiomyocytes regulate autophagy after hypoxia?

Cancer stem cell-tumor microenvironment ecosystem is proposed to drive tumor heterogeneity. Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in breast cancer ecosystem were demonstrated to indicate better prognosis and benefit from chemotherapy. This study sought to detect the association between breast cancer stem cells and TILs.', '92 patients with breast cancer were enrolled. Matched cancerous and paracancerous tissues were assembled in a tissue microarray and immunohistochemistry was employed to test expression of breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs) markers. TILs counts were estimated with global hematoxylin-eosin staining. The association between TILs and BCSCs phenotypes was analysed by multivariate analysis.', 'Although it was unable to find direct significant association between BCSCs phenotypes and TILs, the BCSCs phenotype with CD44(+)CD24(-)ALDH1A1(+)EpCAM(+)CD49f(+) was proved to be associated with worse DFS and OS (P=0.037 and 0.001). This result was confirmed by cox proportional-hazards regression model (for DFS and OS respectively, HR=2.438 and 3.383, P=0.019 [95%CI 1.418-3.457] and 0.025 [95%CI 1.162-9.843]). Additionally, in results of TILs, plasma cell-predominant breast cancer (PPBC) was unexpectedly found to indicate worse OS and HR was 2.686 (P=0.038 [95%CI 1.582-3.789]).

Do breast cancer stem cells phenotype and plasma cell-predominant breast cancer independently indicate poor survival?