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Background: Recent reports have shown that deleted in breast cancer 1 (DBC1/CCAR2) is an indicator of poor prognosis of various human cancers. However, its expression in ovarian carcinoma has not been reported. Methods: We investigated the immunohistochemical expression of DBC1 and BRCA1 and their prognostic significance in 104 ovarian carcinomas. Survival analyses were performed according to the Kaplan-Meier method, as well as univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression analysis. Results: Positive expression of DBC1 and BRCA1 were seen in 63% (66/104) and 44% (46/104) of overall ovarian carcinomas, respectively. DBC1 expression was significantly associated with advanced clinicopathological factors such as high tumor stage, latent distant metastasis, platinum-resistance, elevated serum levels of CA125, high histologic grade, and BRCA1 expression. In the histological subtypes of ovarian carcinomas, DBC1 expression was more common in serous carcinoma (72%, 54/75) than mucinous carcinoma (15%, 3/20). BRCA1 expression was significantly associated with latent distant metastasis, platinum-resistance, and higher histologic grade. In addition, DBC1 expression was significantly associated with shorter overall survival (OS) and relapse-free survival (RFS) in 104 ovarian carcinomas (OS; P < 0.001, RFS; P < 0.001) and 63 high-grade serous carcinomas (OS; P = 0.008, RFS; P = 0.023) by univariate analysis. BRCA1 expression was significantly associated with OS and RFS in 104 ovarian carcinomas (OS; P = 0.005, RFS; P = 0.002) and 75 serous carcinomas (OS; P = 0.047, RFS; P = 0.038) by univariate analysis. Moreover, DBC1 expression was an independent prognostic indicator for OS in both 104 ovarian carcinomas (P = 0.021) and 63 high-grade serous carcinomas (P = 0.011) by multivariate analysis. Conclusions: These results indicate that the expression of DBC1 and BRCA1 are closely related with in the progression of ovarian carcinomas and may have clinical utility in the prediction of prognosis of ovarian carcinomas. Especially, DBC1 expression could be employed as a significant prognostic indicator for ovarian carcinomas especially in high-grade serous carcinomas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the results of a study which examined the crystallization of antiangiogenic Kringle V domain of human apolipoprotein A. The Kringle V domain was expressed as a secreted form in Pichia pastoris. The domain was purified via a process consisting of three chromatographic steps. The crystallization of Kringle V resulted in an 85% recovery yield.

In this study, a dissolved oxygen (DO)-stat fed-batch process was conducted in a pressurized 75-L bioreactor, resulting in the production of the short version of human leukotactin-1 (shLkn-1) using Pichia pastoris as the host, with control of the DO-stat profile and an extension of the recombinant shLkn-1 production phase. By regulation of the exhaust-gas valve, we were able to maintain the vessel pressure at up to 120 kPa, in order to overcome DO limitations associated with the use of the DO-stat. The lowest DO value was adjusted by varying the feed pump speed, allowing us to control the DO-stat profile. This principle was successfully applied to both glycerol feeding during the growth phase and methanol feeding for the induction of shLkn-1. The extension of the methanol induction phase to a total of 192 h of culture time resulted in a shLkn-1 concentration of 2.5 g/L, and a total of 102 g of cumulative production. During this extended induction period, the C-terminal residue of shLkn-1 was truncated and this was confirmed by both reverse-phase HPLC and mass spectrometry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]