Search

© 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Aim: Less invasive therapies using mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) are being developed to treat patients with severe liver cirrhosis. MSC constitute a promising cell source for regenerative therapy and are frequently isolated from bone marrow (BMSC) or adipose tissue (ASC). Therefore, this study assessed the characteristics of these two cell types and their safety for cell infusion. Methods: In vitro, exhaustive genetic analysis was performed using human (h)BMSC and hASC. Subsequently, the expression of mRNA and protein was evaluated. In vivo, mouse (m)BMSC or mASC was infused into serial mice via the peripheral vein, and 24-h survival rate, prothrombin time and cause of death were analyzed. Results: On polymerase chain reaction, western blotting, enzyme-linked immunoassay and fluorescence-activated cell sorting, tissue factor was found to be expressed at higher levels in hASC than in hBMSC. Prothrombin time in mice infused with mASC (>120s) was markedly longer than that of untreated mice (6.5±1.7s) and that of mice infused with BMSC (6.7±0.8s) (P

Thymidine phosphorylase (dThdPase) expression was studied in 20 cases of well-differentiated endometrial carcinomas to examine the clinicopathological significance. Immunohistochemical study showed predominant dThdPase expression in tumor stroma. No expression was detected in coexisting normal endometrial stroma or stroma of endometriosis. Seven cases (35%) showed strong stain and 13 (65%) showed weak stain. Based on the strength of immunoreactivity, patients were grouped into two groups: group S (strong) and group W (weak). In group S, 5 (71%) showed vascular involvement whereas in group W, only 3 (23%) cases were positive, giving a significant difference in the frequency of vascular involvement between the two groups (P0.03, chi2 analysis). No correlation was found between dThdPase expression and myometrial invasion. Patients with vascular involvement resulted in poorer outcome (P0.003) whereas between group S and W, there showed no difference in survival (group S vs group W; P0.15). A multivariate analysis including stage, vascular involvement, and dThdPase stain as variables showed none as independent risk factors. However, univariate analysis showed that the presence of a vascular involvement was a risk factor for a shorter survival (relative risk = 6.277, 95% range = 1.2-32.6, P0. 03). It is concluded that expression of dThdPase in endometrial carcinoma is a marker of a desmoreaction and a risk factor for vascular invasion. Since vascular invasion is a risk factor for poor outcome, the significance of dThdPase expression in endometrial carcinoma requires further clinical evaluations.

Anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL) is a subtype of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma characterized by the CD30+ large neoplastic cells and sometimes carries a t(2;5)(p23;q35). Recently, we found a novel hyperphosphorylated 80-kD protein tyrosine kinase, p80, in ALCLs with t(2;5). Subsequent cDNA cloning showed p80 to be a fusion protein of two genes, the novel tyrosine kinase gene and the nucleophosmin gene, in accordance with the sequence of the NPM/ALK gene (Morris et al, Science 263:1281, 1994). Meanwhile, the clinicopathologic features of p80-carrying ALCLs have remained unclear. Paraffin sections of 105 cases of ALCL were immunostained using anti-p80 antibody, and 30 of them were shown to express p80. Clinicopathologic comparison between p80-positive and -negative ALCLs showed that p80-positive cases occurred in a far younger patient age group (16.2 +/- 12.9 years; p80- negative cases, 51.0 +/- 22.3 years; P < .0001) and the patients showed a far better 5-year survival rate (79.8%; p80-negative group, 32.9%; P < .01). These data showed that p80-positive ALCL is a distinct entity both clinically and pathogenetically and should be differentiated from p80-negative ALCL.

Glucose incorporation and utilization in mouse embryos increases during preimplantation development, which may depend at least in part on the hexokinase activity in the embryos. Microdetermination methods including NADP cycling were used to quantitatively examine the enzymatic activity of hexokinase. Hexokinase activity in 1-cell embryos was low (0.035 ± 0.010 pmol of NADPH formed/embryo/min), but progressively increased during preimplantation development. Although there is a significant delay, this increase is also observed when 2-cell embryos are developed in vitro. This increase in hexokinase activity was inhibited by the administration of actinomycin-D in the medium. A reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction was used to study the expression of hexokinase mRNA in preimplantation mouse embryos. Messenger RNA was obtained from 100 of 2-cell embryos and blastocysts using the Micro-Fast Track mRNA isolation kit. Hexokinase mRNA is detectable after the 2-cell embryo stage. The levels of mRNA increased during embryonic development. These results suggest that hexokinase may be a key enzyme synthesized as the expression of zygotic genome in preimplantation embryos, and help in assessing the quality of embryos developed in vitro.

Crystal structures of Bi 2 Sr 2 CaCu 2 O x thin films of which the c axes are tilted about 45 o against substrate surfaces were investigated with x-ray-diffraction, x-ray asymmetric reflection, x-ray topography, and cross-sectional high-resolution transmission-electron microscopy. The following substrates were used: (110), 2 o off (110), 5 o off (110), and 10 o off (110) SrTiO 3 . Bi 2 Sr 2 CaCu 2 O x films were epitaxially grown with the (117) Bi 2 Sr 2 CaCu 2 O x vicinal surface on the 5 o off (110) substrate and were not epitaxially grown on the other substrates

By means of muon spin rotation and relaxation ($\mu^+$SR) techniques, we have investigated the magnetism of quasi one-dimensional (1D) cobalt oxides $AE_{n+2}$Co$_{n+1}$O$_{3n+3}$ ($AE$=Ca, Sr and Ba, $n$=1, 2, 3, 5 and $\infty$), in which the 1D CoO$_3$ chain is surrounded by six equally spaced chains forming a triangular lattice in the $ab$-plane, using polycrystalline samples, from room temperature down to 1.8 K. For the compounds with $n$=1 - 5, transverse field $\mu^+$SR experiments showed the existence of a magnetic transition below $\sim$100 K. The onset temperature of the transition ($T_{\rm c}^{\rm on}$) was found to decrease with $n$; from 100 K for $n$=1 to 60 K for $n$=5. A damped muon spin oscillation was observed only in the sample with $n$=1 (Ca$_3$Co$_2$O$_6$), whereas only a fast relaxation obtained even at 1.8 K in the other three samples. In combination with the results of susceptibility measurements, this indicates that a two-dimensional short-range antiferromagnetic (AF) order appears below $T_{\rm c}^{\rm on}$ for all compounds with $n$=1 - 5; but quasi-static long-range AF order formed only in Ca$_3$Co$_2$O$_6$, below 25 K. For BaCoO$_3$ ($n$=$\infty$), as $T$ decreased from 300 K, 1D ferromagnetic (F) order appeared below 53 K, and a sharp 2D AF transition occurred at 15 K., Comment: 12 pages, 14 figures, and 2 tables

Seventeen patients with endometrial cancer were studied. Tissues of primary (P) and metastatic (M) lesions were obtained from 8 patients and complete sets of P, M and Recurrent (R) lesions were obtained from 9 patients during a follow-up period of 1–10 years. Expressions of estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors, multidrug resistance protein-1, multidrug resistance-related protein, c-erbB-2, membrane-type metalloproteinase, human telomerase RNA, human telomerase reverse transcriptase RNA, E-cadherin and autocrine motility factor receptor were studied by RT-PCR. Also, telomeric restriction fragment length (TRFL) and microsatellite instability were determined between P, M and R. The results indicate that there are significant differences in the gene expression frequency during tumor progression. The mismatch rate ranged from 0 to 47.1% between P and M and from 14.3% to 66.7% between P and R, respectively. The TRFL analysis showed a marked reduction in P and M (P vs. M: 8.2 ± 0.9 vs. 5.6 ± 0.4 kb, mean ±SEM, n = 9, p = 0.002 by paired Student’s t test). The length further decreased in R (P vs. R: 8.2 ± 0.9 vs. 3.2 ± 0.7, p = 0.01, M vs. R: 5.6 ± 0.4 vs. 3.2 ± 0.7, p = 0.005). The genomic instability/replication error was tested by AluI arbitrary primed polymerase chain reaction (AP-PCR). Five out of 17 patients showed an altered replication error pattern (29.4%). The mean number of abnormal AluI AP-PCR patterns in M and R compared to the P was 1.5 (M) and 4 (R). The difference between the P and R was statistically significant (p < 0.04). The present data indicate that biological behavior of cancer cells in P, M and R may differ significantly.

Two hundred ninety-one normal postmenopausal women without hormone replacement therapy were studied for their blood levels of CA125. The levels ranged from 0.1 to 31.8 U/ml (mean+/-SEM 5.5+/-0.3 U/ml). Twenty patients with endometrial adenocarcinoma who had preoperative CA125 levels below 50 U/ml were also studied. The levels of CA125 in the latter group ranged from 2.1 to 43.0 U/ml (17.2+/-2.3 U/ml) and the difference of the mean value of the two groups was statistically significant (P < 0.001). The CA125 levels in normal postmenopausal women have a weak negative correlation with their age (CA125 = -0.025 x age + 6.9, P < 0.001), whereas in cancer patients, a positive correlation was seen (CA125 = 0.6 x age + 11.5, P < 0.05). Patients with endometrial cancer showed a decrease in their CA125 levels after a hysterectomy and salpingo-oophorectomy (6.5+/-1.2 U/ml, P < 0.0001). These results confirmed that the normal range of the CA125 of menopausal women is much lower than that of cycling women and each laboratory should establish its own normal range for the population. Also, it was suggested that CA125 levels which apparently fall within the normal range but are high, however, for the respective age, may indicate that an extensive search for an endometrial malignancy is necessary.

Ten cases of gynecologic malignancies, including three endometrial, two ovarian and four cervical carcinomas, were studied for the expression of a 185 kDa protein (ErbB-2), coded by a proto-oncogene, c-erbB-2, in primary lesions as well as in metastatic lesions. Positive immunoreactivity was observed in all primary adenocarcinomas but not from squamous cell carcinomas. Many adenocarcinoma cells in distant metastatic sites or in tertiary lymph nodes were strongly stained for ErbB-2. These metastatic cells also showed an expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA). Detection of ErbB-2 mRNA by a reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction showed that the transcription occurred exclusively in adenocarcinomas. To our knowledge, this is the first report demonstrating ErbB-2 expression in distant metastatic lesions of gynecologic cancers.

Dural sinus thrombosis, a relatively rare disease, is difficult to diagnose because of variable symptomatic manifestations. We successfully treated a case of dural sinus thrombosis by direct thrombolysis using an endovascular technique in combination with postoperative anticoagulant therapy. The patient, a 19-year-old female, developed a headache affecting her whole head on December 13, 1993. She was admitted to our hospital the next day. Neurological examination upon admission revealed no neurological abnormalities, nor was there any abnormality in CT scan, either plain or enhanced, taken on the day of admission. The patient's consciousness deteriorated in the early morning of December 22. MRI and cerebral angiography revealed thrombi from the confluence of the sinuses to the right transverse and sigmoid sinus, with disturbed circulation through deep cerebral veins. Systemic thrombolytics, steroid and mannitol were started, but, on the next day, the third ventricle was compressed by bilateral swelling of the basal ganglia, with hydrocephalus. Since her consciousness deteriorated further despite ventricular drainage and barbiturate therapy, direct thrombolytic therapy was performed on December 25. A catheter was placed in the superior sagittal sinus, and 600,000 units of urokinase was locally injected, followed by postoperative anticoagulant therapy. The patient's condition improved rapidly. On CT scan, the bilateral swelling of the basal ganglia disappeared along with the hydrocephalus. At about 1 month after endovascular surgery, MRI and cerebral angiography revealed recanalization of the deep cerebral veins, straight sinus and confluence of sinuses with improved opacification of the left transverse sinus, although the right transverse sinus was found to be re-occluded.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)