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Interleukins (ILs) are involved in the occurrence and development of numerous types of cancer, and serve a critical role in the development of effective cancer therapeutics. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of IL-27 on chemotherapy resistance in lung cancer cells, and analyze its potential molecular mechanism in lung cancer tissues. Western blot analysis and reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction were performed to examine the RNA and protein expression levels of IL-27. A Cell Counting Kit-8 assay was performed to evaluate the proliferation rates of the lung cancer line A549. Flow cytometry was subsequently applied to determine the rate of apoptosis in A549 cells. The data obtained revealed that the expression of IL-27 with cisplatin, significantly suppressed the proliferation and apoptosis of A549 cells compared with that in the cisplatin treatment group alone. The expression of Akt and apoptosis factors such as Caspase-3 and Bcl-2/Bax also ascertained that upregulated IL-27 inhibited the development of cancer and increased apoptosis in the A549 cells. Therefore, IL-27 may represent a potential target for antitumor therapy, especially when considering the clinical challenges presented by the development of chemoresistance in tumors. These findings suggest that IL-27 is a promising biomarker and represents a novel treatment strategy for patients with lung cancer.

The nucleotide sequences of internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions of rRNA genes of 24 isolates of Histoplasma capsulatum were examined. The results indicate that the sequences of ITS regions in different isolates are not identical. Sequence variations were found at 20 positions in the 496 bp that were sequenced. Ten different sequence patterns, designated types A through H, were observed when the sequences from the 24 isolates were aligned. Twelve isolates from Indianapolis were classified into four different types. Two isolates from New York belonged to type G. Three isolates from different cities were type F. The remaining six isolates were of different types.

The nucleotide sequence variations in the internal transcribed spacer region 1 (ITS1) and region 2 (ITS2) of rRNA genes were found to be useful for typing Pneumocystis carinii isolates that infect humans. Two types of ITS1 (A and B) and three types of ITS2 (a, b, and c) sequences have been found, and P. carinii isolates are classified based on sequence types of ITS1 and ITS2 as Ax or Bx (where x may be a, b, or c). Type determination has been achieved by sequencing the ITS regions or by reacting the ITS regions amplified by PCR with type-specific oligonucleotide (TSO) probes. However, TSO typing alone does not work on a specimen from an individual who is infected by more than one strain of P. carinii where different ITS1 types are present in the same specimen. In this study, type-specific PCR assays were developed to supplement TSO typing. Type-specific PCR primers were made so that they differ at their 3' ends by the two nucleotides which distinguish type A from type B of ITS1 plus an additional "A" residue at the extreme 3' ends of the primers. These two primers were paired separately with a general primer which anneals to a region downstream from ITS2 to specifically amplify Ax or Bx. The amplified products were then reacted separately with ITS2-specific probes 2-a, 2-b, and 2-c to identify their types.

In a 15-year period at the Riley Hospital for Children, granulomas were found in 23 (4%) of a total of 521 liver biopsies. An etiology was identified in 87%: Histoplasma was diagnosed in 15 cases (65%) by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) on paraffin-embedded tissue, serology, and special stains; sarcoidosis was diagnosed in four cases; and schistosomiasis was diagnosed in one case. Serial liver biopsies were available from five patients; granulomas occurred in only one biopsy of the series from each patient. Extrahepatic tissue from six patients contained granulomas, and an etiology for the liver granulomas was identified in all six patients (four histoplasmosis, two sarcoidosis). The extrahepatic tissue from two patients with Histoplasma was diagnostic. We made the following conclusions: that PCR is applicable to archival material and greatly increases the yield of specific infectious diagnoses of liver granulomas compared with conventional diagnostic methods (65 versus 22%); that the infections causing liver granulomas are those that are endemic in a community (e.g., Histoplasma in Indiana); that Histoplasma can coexist with a wide variety of systemic and primary liver diseases; that the likelihood of identifying a cause of liver granulomas is increased if there are extrahepatic granulomas; and that hepatic granulomas may have a limited life span. Treatment of liver granulomas should be determined by the clinical setting and directed at the underlying cause.

A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) that amplifies the internal transcribed spacers of rRNA genes of Pneumocystis carinii (Pc-ITS-PCR) was compared with dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) gene PCR to determine its usefulness in the diagnosis of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. All specimens from non-P. carinii pneumonia AIDS patients were both Pc-ITS-PCR- and DHFR PCR-negative. Twenty-six (96%) of 27 bronchoalveolar lavage specimens from P. carinii pneumonia patients were Pc-ITS-PCR-positive, and all 27 of these patients had at least 1 serum sample positive by Pc-ITS-PCR. In contrast, DHFR PCR detected P. carinii in only 4 (17%) of 24 P. carinii-positive lavage specimens and 2 (10%) of the 20 sera from P. carinii pneumonia patients. These results suggest that serum Pc-ITS-PCR may be useful for the diagnosis of P. carinii pneumonia.

Southern blot analysis of Hodgkin's disease (HD), although often compromised by the small number of abnormal cells present in the tissue, have tended to favor a B-cell derivation of the Hodgkin's and Reed-Sternberg (HRS) cells in cases of nodular sclerosis (NS) and mixed cellularity (MC) Hodgkin's disease. Eighteen frozen and 29 paraffin-embedded sections of lymph node specimens from 29 patients with pretreatment HD (22 NSHD and 7 MCHD) were studied by molecular analysis and immunohistochemistry to determine the phenotype of HRS cells. All cases were reviewed and showed typical morphology and CD45-, CD30+, CD15+, BLA.36+ HRS cells. In 11 of 29 (38%) cases, HRS cells were reactive with at least one B-cell marker (CD20, CD79a, MB2), 7 of 29 (24%) cases showed reactivity with the T-cell marker CD3, and 11 of 29 (38%) cases displayed a "null" phenotype. By using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and consensus primers for the V and J regions of the immunoglobulin heavy chain (IgH) gene, the authors were able to detect B-cell clonality in 9 of 18 (50%) frozen samples of HD analyzed. IgH gene rearrangement was present in 8 of 15 (53%) NSHD and in 1 of 3 (33%) MCHD. In five of nine (56%) of these cases, HRS cells were reactive with at least one B-cell marker, whereas one case expressed the T-cell marker CD3. The other three cases with IgH gene rearrangement showed a "null" immunophenotype. IgH gene analysis was negative in all remaining CD3+ cases and in two other cases that expressed B-cell markers by immunohistology. Southern blotting failed to detect rearrangement of the T-cell receptor beta-chain gene and immunoglobulin heavy and light genes in any of these cases. The results show that PCR represents a specific and sensitive technique for the detection of IgH gene rearrangements in cases of Hodgkin's disease. The results also suggest a lymphoid B-cell derivation of HRS cells in a high proportion of the cases.