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Kashin-Beck disease (KBD) is a chronic and deformed endemic osteoarthritis, without fully known etiology. As compared to primary osteoarthritis (POA), its pathogenesis still exists controversial. We performed this study to discriminate the difference in genes expression involved in apoptosis from KBD cartilages and POA cartilages. Microarray analysis and Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) were used to identify the molecular mechanisms/canonical pathways implicated in KBD arthritis. Immunohistochemistry staining was carried out to detect tissue distribution of PDCD5 and EGR1 in the knee cartilages from KBD and POA. The 23 up-regulated apoptosis-related genes with >2-fold change were identified. 'Role of Macrophages, Fibroblasts, and Endothelial Cells in Rheumatoid Arthritis' signaling was screened as the most relevant pathway through IPA. The 8 differentially regulated genes were verified by qRT-PCR analysis. Programmed cell death 5 in middle and deeper zones and early growth response 1 in superficial and middle zones showed protein overexpressed in KBD cartilage samples comparing to those in POA cartilage samples. Data indicates a higher expression level of apoptosis-related functional genes in KBD articular cartilage compared with POA articular cartilage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is accumulating evidence that cancer stem cells (CSCs) play an important role in tumor progression. Novel strategies targeting CSCs have been widely researched. In the present study, we explored whether such CSCs existed in human ovarian cancer (OVCA) cell line and whether anti-CD44 antibody had effects on such subpopulation. We isolated and identified spheroid cells from SKOV-3. Then we used A3D8, an anti-CD44 mAb to treat spheroid cells with so-called 'stemness'. Effects of A3D8 on spheroid cells' biological behaviors were examined. Our findings showed that there was a small subpopulation that had so-called 'stemness' in SKOV-3 cell line. Against spheroid cells, A3D8 can (1) inhibit cell proliferation; (2) change cell cycle distribution and expression of p21, CDK2 and cyclinA; (3) enhance cisplatin (DDP)-induced apoptosis; (4) promote cell differentiation; (5) inhibit clone formation efficiency; (6) reduce invasive efficacy; (7) inhibit tumorigenicity. Thus, to sum up points which we have just showed, spheroid cells isolated from SKOV-3 can be used as an appropriate in vitro model for relevant study of human ovarian CSCs. And our results reasoned that anti-CD44 therapy may become a potential promising strategy for OVCA treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we investigated the correlation between p53 and bcl-2 in gambogic acid (GA)-induced apoptosis. MTT assay was employed to evaluate MCF-7 cell viability after GA treatment. Cell morphological changes were observed follow-up under the inverted microscope after GA withdrawal. To observe the cell apoptosis, DAPI staining was used. Meanwhile, p53 small interfering RNA (si-RNA) was adopted to knock p53 down. All expressions of p53 and bcl-2 were evaluated by Western blot analysis. MTT assay showed that GA inhibited MCF-7 cell growth effectively in a time-dependent manner. With 0.5 h GA treatment, p53 was significantly increased, whereas bcl-2 was reduced potently with 6 h GA treatment. After GA withdrawal, p53 expressions were maintained in high levels. Furthermore, bcl-2 decreasing was attenuated after co-treatment with PFT alpha, a p53 transcription blocker. Same result was observed after p53 knock-down by p53 si-RNA. Gambogic acid induced human breast cancer cells MCF-7 apoptosis by reducing bcl-2 expression via p53. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]