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Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether matrine can affect the phenotypes and functional maturation of dendritic cells (DC), and to secrete many cytokines, as well as the cytotoxic T lymophocyte (CTL) specific killing effect induced by gastric carcinoma dendritic cells vaccine in vitro. Materials and methods: The experimental groups consisted of three concentrations of matrine (0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 mg/mL). The DC maturation was detected by flow cytometry. The proliferation of T cells was detected by cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) method. The secretions of cytokines by CTLs were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The specific killing capacity of CTLs to target MKN45 gastric cancer cells was detected by lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release assay. Results: The results showed that matrine could increase the expressions of CD86 and CD83 in a dose-dependent manner. Matrine could promote T cell proliferation (P). Moreover, matrine also significantly increased the levels of interferon-γ (IFN-γ), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-12p70 (IL-12p70), respectively (P). The therapeutic vaccination with DCs vaccine treated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) plus matrine resulted in improved killing effect as compared to that observed with DCs treated with LPS alone (P). Conclusion: These findings define matrine as an immune adjuvant that enhances the DC activation and demonstrate a new pharmacological approach to improve the therapeutic effect of autogenous DC vaccines.

Bulbus Lilii, as a medicinal and edible plant, has anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidative and immunopotentiating pharmacological activities, which seems to be therapeutic on cancer prevention. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of total saponins from Lilium lancifolium (TSLL) on proliferation, apoptosis and migration of human gastric carcinoma cells lines SGC-7901 and HGC-27 and its underlying mechanism. The results showed that TSLL inhibited the proliferation of gastric carcinoma cells by suppressing the level of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and increased p21 level. TSLL induced cells apoptosis by up-regulating expression of pro-apoptotic protein Bax and down-regulating anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 expression. Meanwhile, TSLL remarkably inhibited cell migration and invasion, decreased matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) expression and increased tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases-1 (TIMP-1) expression. Notably, TSLL had stronger anti-cancer effect on undifferentiated HGC-27 cells than differentiated SGC-7901 cells. Accordingly, TSLL might be a promising candidate to prevent and suppress the growth of gastric carcinoma cells.

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) has been recognized as one of the most significant ROS in human health and disease. In this work, we report a new fluorescent probe JNH-1 for the ratiometric detection of H2O2. The probe JNH-1 showed a highly selective fluorescent response to H2O2 against other interferences of ROS and RNS. In addition, this probe was successfully applied for the monitoring and imaging of H2O2 in living human gastric carcinoma HGC-27 cells.

Astragali Radix (Huangqi) is one of the well-known traditional Chinese medicines and has been used in China for more than two thousand years. As a close species, Astragalus dolichochaete Diels was found to possess cytotoxicity during our preliminary study of Astragalus plants from Yunnan Province, China. To better understand the chemical foundation of the cytotoxicity, the major constituents of A. dolichochaete were studied. As a result, two new 8-isopentenyl isoflavane derivatives, dolichochaeteins A and B (1 and 2), together with ten known constituents were isolated, and their structures were elucidated by means of spectroscopy, mainly 1D and 2D NMR techniques. The cytotoxic activities were evaluated for the raw extract, ethyl acetate fraction, compound 2 and glyasperin H (3) against human gastric carcinoma cell line SGC-7901, human hepatoma cell line SMMC-7721 and human leukemic cell line K562. All the samples exhibited significant cytotoxicity.

To better treat gastric diseases and lower systemic side effect, it is essential to design new vectors to control drug release in stomach. Aiming to this challenge, we developed a new gastroretentive drug delivery system: nanomicelles-loaded gastroretentive beads. Firstly, the chitosan-coated emodin-loaded nanomicelles were developed and characterized. In vitro cytotoxicity of emodin-loaded nanomicelles, emodin suspensions and blank nanomicelles was evaluated with human gastric carcinoma SGC-7901 cells by MTT, indicating that the blank nanomicelles had null cytotoxicity and emodin-loaded nanomicelles had better antitumor efficacy compared with emodin suspensions. Secondly, nanomicelles-loaded floating mucoadhesive beads (NFM-Beads) were prepared, and the swelling, degradation, mucoadhesion and floating ability in vitro were separately investigated. FT-IR spectroscopy was applied to identify the formation of nanomicelles and NFM-Beads. Emodin release from NFM-Beads in vitro was fitted to anomalous transport mechanism. In vivo gastroretention behavior of NFM-Beads was evaluated by BaSO4-based X-ray imaging exams, showing that NFM-Beads can be retained in rabbit stomach for at least 8 h. Overall, the new NFM-Beads system could be an effective approach to improve the therapeutic potency of drug against gastric cancer.

Background E2Fs are genes that regulate DNA synthesis and the cell cycle by encoding a family of transcription factors. Increasing experimental evidence has revealed that E2Fs play key roles in tumor progression in various types of cancer. Methods We investigated the survival, expression and transcriptional data of E2F1/2/4 in gastric cancer (GC) patients using the immunohistochemistry assay, Kaplan-Meier Plotter, cBioPortal, String, and GEPIA databases. The plasma of GC patients was analyzed using the real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay. The correlation between E2F1/2/4 expression and clinical features was analyzed using the quartile method. As well, the correlation between E2F1/2/4 and GC immune infiltration was also investigated using the TIMER database. Database of Immune Cell Expression (DICE) was also used to analyze correlations between SOX4 and immune responses. Results RT-PCR and tissue immunohistochemistry confirmed that E2F1/2/4 was highly expressed in serum and GC tissue samples of GC patients, the expression of which was not affected by patient age and gender. Also, the survival analysis revealed that low levels of E2F1/2/4 expression were significantly associated with a longer overall survival (OS) in GC patients. E2F1/2/4 was correlated with patient prognosis and immune cell infiltration, including B cells, CD8+ T cells, CD4+ T cells, macrophages, neutrophils, and DCs in GC. Our findings indicated that E2F1/2/4 could be used as a prognostic biomarker and indicator of immune infiltration in GC. Conclusions This study revealed that E2F1/2/4 could be a promising indicator for tumor-associated immune infiltration and prognosis in GC patients.

Background: Gastric cancer (GC) is the second most common cause of cancer death worldwide but could be more curable if diagnosed at an earlier stage. At present, the capability to predict the efficaciousness of molecular diagnosis for GC for each patient remains elusive. The purpose of this study was to identify tumor biomarkers through systems analysis of multigene predictors exploiting the available data resource.Results: Our study showed that 61 shared DEGs were significantly involved in functions such as gastric acid secretion. COL1A1, MMP9, and SPP1 were highly connected nodes in the PPI network. Among the 61 common DEGs, 34 driver genes were identified, including CST1 and MMP9. A total of 34 drug-gene interactions were found, which involved 9 common DEGs. Moreover, CTHRC1 and INHBA were related to clinical outcome in gastric cancer patients.Conclusion: The identification of new driver genes, such as MMP9, CTHRC1, and INHBA, may contribute to the understanding of the etiology of gastric cancer and the development of individualized therapies.

We investigated the expression of dimethyladenosine transferase 1 homolog (DIMT1) in human gastric carcinoma (GC) tissues, pericarcinoma histologically normal tissues, and normal gastric tissues and explored its clinical significance. Immunohistochemistry staining was used to detect the expression of DIMT1, and the findings were compared with clinicopathological features of patients with GC. The result also was ascertained by Western blotting. The Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test were used to compare the overall survival rate and time in the DIMT1 low-level and high-level expression groups. Immunohistochemical staining indicated that the expression of DIMT1 in GC tissues (65/75; 86.7%) was significantly more common (P.001) than that in pericarcinoma histologically normal tissues (14/75; 18.7%) and normal gastric tissues (2/12; 16.7%). High expression of DIMT1 correlated closely with differentiation (P=.023), invasion (P=.042), lymph node metastasis (P=.008), distant metastasis (P=.006), and TNM stage (P=.013). Western blotting showed that DIMT1 expression correlated positively with TNM stage and implied that more advanced TNM stage was accompanied by higher expression of DIMT1 (P.001). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that high DIMT1 expression correlated significantly (P.001) with a poor prognosis. Our data suggest that DIMT1 is a useful molecular biomarker to predict tumor progression and prognosis in patients with GC.

Four new lanostane triterpenes together with twenty-two known lanostane triterpenes were isolated from the epidermis of Poria cocos . The chemical structures of all compounds were determined mainly by 1D and 2D-NMR spectrometry. Three of the new compounds ( 5 , 10 and 24 ) were evaluated for cytotoxic activities against human gastric carcinoma MGC-803, human hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2, and African green monkey kidney (VERO) cell lines in vitro . The results showed that only compound 10 showed weak cytotoxic activities on MGC-803 and HepG2 cell lines with IC 50 values at 42.90, 44.07 μM, respectively.

// Debao Liu 1, 2, * , Yueying Zhang 3, * , Yan Li 4 and Kaixi Fan 1 1 Department of Oncology, Affiliated Hospital of Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Jinan, Shandong, China 2 School of Medicine and Life Sciences, University of Jinan-Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Jinan, Shandong, China 3 Department of Pathology and Pathophysiology, Institute of Basic Medicine, Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Jinan, Shandong, China 4 Department of Central Laboratory, Affiliated Hospital of Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Jinan, Shandong, China * These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Kaixi Fan, email: fankaixiyx@sina.com Keywords: gastric cancer, neurofibromatosis type I, TNM stage, immunohistochemistry, prognosis Received: December 02, 2016 Accepted: July 06, 2017 Published: August 03, 2017 ABSTRACT We investigated whether the Neurofibromatosis type-1 ( NF1 ) gene was of prognostic relevance to gastric cancer (GC) patients. Immunohistochemical staining of 160 matched GC tumor and adjacent normal tissue samples showed that 58.1% (93/160) of GC samples were NF1-positive as compared to 94.4% (151/160) of normal tissue samples (χ 2 =58.05, P 0.05). Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that negative or low NF1 were associated with poor overall survival (OS) in gastric cancer patients ( P

Synthesis of linear and angular furocoumarins and difurocoumarins has been carried out starting from substituted coumarins and phenyl acetylene leading to the target compounds via styrylcoumarin intermediates. The average yields are higher than those reported before. Newly synthesized furocoumarin and difurocoumarin derivatives were evaluated for inhibition of cell proliferation of human breast carcinoma, human gastric carcinoma, and human lung cancer, exhibiting antiproliferative activity. New difurocoumarin derivative 4-methyl-6,9-diphenyl-2H-difuro[3,2-f:2',3'-h]chromen-2-one exhibited the highest inhibition of cell proliferation on all cell lines.

In this study, three different carboxymethyl chitosans (CMCs), namely O-carboxymethyl chitosan (OC), N-carboxymethyl chitosan (NC) and N,O-carboxymethyl chitosan (NOC), were prepared as nano-carriers for an anti-tumor drug, docetaxel (DCT). Three CMCs were fabricated into drug-loading nanoparticles under different preparing conditions respectively. A series of characterization parameters were determined including drug loading capacity (DC), entrapment efficiency (EE), particle size distribution, zeta potential, and morphology, which were used to find the optimized preparing condition for three kinds of nanoparticles (NPs). Furthermore, the in vitro drug release profiles of all the three kinds of nanoparticles showed a sustained release behavior and the release rate of OC-NPs was the fastest. Moreover, compared with NC-NPs and NOC-NPs, OC-NPs exhibited more cellular accumulation in the human gastric carcinoma cells (SGC 7901) as quantitatively determined by the flow cytometry and also much stronger cytotoxicity against these cells. Accordingly, our results showed that drug-loaded nanoparticles formed by different CMCs have dissimilar physiochemical characteristics which subsequently influence their therapeutic effects. We suggest that OC-based nanoparticle is a more desirable anti-tumor drug delivery system than NC-NP and NOC-NP.

Inonotus obliquus is a medicinal mushroom with a variety of biological activities. It has reported to have strong anti-cancer, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. EBV+ gastric carcinoma is one of the most common EBV-associated cancers that were caused by latent EBV infection. In this study, we investigated the anti-cancer effects of ethanol extract of I. obliquus using in vivo xenograft animal models implanted with EBV+ human gastric carcinoma (SNU719). We also explored the molecular mechanisms responsible for its anti-cancer activity. The result indicated that the extract of I. obliquus had an anti-cancer effect in in vivo xenograft mice with EBV+ gastric carcinoma (SNU719). Extract of I. obliquus also showed a great effect on inducing the expression of p53, p21 and Bax in tumor tissue derived from EBV+ human gastric carcinoma, and these were correlated with increased expressions of the cleaved forms of caspase-9 and Parp. Also, I. obliquus attenuated the expression of viral proteins, BZLF-1 and LMP-2 in tumor tissue from EBV+ human gastric carcinoma.

The aim of the study is to analyse the expression of Interleukin-6 receptor in different human gastric tissue and to correlate with the clinicopathological features of the patients. Immunohistochemistry was done against the IL-6R antibody and the Q-score was calculated from the staining pattern. Higher Q-scores were observed in tumour cells than the adjacent normal cells which were statistically significant. We also observed a significant correlation between the expressions of IL-6R and the clinicopathological features These findings suggest that IL-6R may represent as a therapeutic target for gastric carcinoma and serve as a prognostic indicator, as well.

A phytochemical investigation of the roots of Swietenia macrophylla led to the isolation of seven polyacetylenes, including five new compounds (1&ndash, 5) and two known ones (6&ndash, 7). Their structures were elucidated by extensive spectroscopic analysis and detailed comparison with reported data. All the isolates were tested for their cytotoxicity against the human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line BEL-7402, human myeloid leukemia cell line K562, and human gastric carcinoma cell line SGC-7901. Compounds 1 and 6 showed moderate cytotoxicity against the above three human cancer cell lines with IC50 values ranging from 14.3 to 45.4 &mu, M. Compound 4 displayed cytotoxicity against the K562 and SGC-7901 cancer cell lines with IC50 values of 26.2 &plusmn, 0.4 and 21.9 &plusmn, 0.3 &mu, M, respectively.

A new triterpene named klodorol B (1), together with six known compounds, were isolated from the green walnut husks of Juglans mandshurica Maxim. Their structures were determined using spectroscopic methods on the basis of 1D and 2D NMR, and high-resolution electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. The isolated compounds were evaluated for their cytotoxic activities on human gastric carcinoma (BGC-823), human liver cancer (HepG-2) and human lung cancer (A549) cell lines. .

Taraxacum coreanum Nakai is a wild medicinal plant commonly consumed in Korea due to its health beneficial effects. In the present study, the contents of polyphenolics and flavonoids as well as antioxidative and anticancer activities of water extracts from different parts of T. coreanum Nakai were investigated for their use as functional foods. Extract yields of flower, leaf, and root were 30.25%, 34.53%, and 66.25%, respectively. Total poly- phenols and total flavonoids contents of flower extract were 50.54 mg/g and 35.26 mg/g, respectively, which were much higher than any other parts. The electron donating abilities of flower, leaf, and root extracts were 91.04%, 88.22%, and 38.58%, respectively, at a concentration of 1.0 mg/mL. Cell viability of AGS for human gastric carcinoma, HCT-116 for human colon carcinoma, and A-549 for human pulmonary carcinoma showed the lowest values in flower extracts (40.34%, 39.56%, and 17.52%, respectively), indicating the highest cytotoxicity at a concentration of 400 mg/kg. Both antioxidative and anticancer activities of water extracts from all T. coreanum Nakai parts dose-dependently increased. These results provide preliminary data for the development of T. coreanum Nakai as an edible functional food material.

Two series of thieno[2,3-d]pyrimidine derivatives were designed and synthesized, in which bioactive α -aminophosphonate subunits were introduced at the N3 position through an N N bond connection. The in vitro cytotoxic activity of the novel compounds was tested against human esophageal carcinoma cells (EC109), human hepatocarcinoma cells (HepG2), human gastric carcinoma cells (MGC-803), respectively, by the MTT method. The evaluation results revealed that compounds 6mb , 6mf , 6mg , 6nd and 6nh exerted the most potent inhibition against HepG2, MGC-803 and EC109 cells, respectively. In particular, compound 6mg presented excellent inhibitory effect against HepG2 (91.2%) and MGC-803 (94.4%) cells.

The volumetric analysis of three-dimensional (3-D)-cultured colonies in alginate spots has been proposed to increase drug efficacy. In a previously developed pillar/well chip platform, colonies within spots are usually stained and dried for analysis of cell viability using two-dimensional (2-D) fluorescent images. Since the number of viable cells in colonies is directly related to colony volume, we proposed the 3-D analysis of colonies for high-accuracy cell viability calculation. The spots were immersed in buffer, and the 3-D volume of each colony was calculated from the 2-D stacking fluorescent images of the spot with different focal positions. In the experiments with human gastric carcinoma cells and anticancer drugs, we compared cell viability values calculated using the 2-D area and 3-D volume of colonies in the wet and dried alginate spots, respectively. The IC50 value calculated using the 3-D volume of the colonies (9.5 μM) was less than that calculated in the 2-D area analysis (121.5 μM). We observed that the colony showed a more sensitive drug response regarding volume calculated from the 3-D image reconstructed using several confocal images than regarding colony area calculated in the 2-D analysis.

Medical applications of nonequilibrium atmospheric pressure plasma (NEAPP) have been reported in cancer therapy. Cells with tumorigenic potential are limited to a small population, called cancer-initiating cells (CICs), which are usually expressing aldehyde dehydro- genase (ALDH) in a high level. CICs are believed to cause recurrence or metastasis due to their resistance to apoptosis. Here, we examined the effect of NEAPP on CICs using human uterine en- dometrioid adenocarcinoma cells and poorly differentiated human gastric carcinoma cells. When treated with NEAPP, ALDH-high cells fell into apoptosis in a comparable level to ALDH-low cells. These results suggested that NEAPP treatment was effective not only on non-CICs but also on CICs. NEAPP might become a new therapeutic approach to CICs.

Using dehydroepiandrosterone as the starting material, we have synthesized a series of steroid analogs possessing a D-ring fused with heterocycles which are pyridine, imidazo [2,1-b]thiazoles or substituted thiazole imines. All the final structures are first reported and identified by NMR and MS spectroscopys, the yields of these products are moderate to good and the reaction conditions are mild. The cytotoxicity of the synthesized compounds against EC-109(human esophageal carcinoma), EC-9706(human esophageal carcinoma), MGC-803(human gastric carcinoma) were investigated.

Licorice extracts have been widely used in herbal and folk medications. Glycyrrhiza contains diverse range of biological compounds including triterpenes (glycyrrhizin, glycyrrhizic acid) and flavonoids (quercetin, liquiritin, liquiritigenin, glabridin, licoricidin, isoliquiritigenin). The flavonoids in licorice are known to have strong anti-cancer activities. Quercetin, the most abundant flavonoid, has been shown to have anti-ulcer, anti-cancer, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties. Latent Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection can lead to serious malignancies, such as, Burkitt’s lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and gastric carcinoma(GC), and (Epstein-Barr virus associated gastric carcinoma) EBVaGC is one of the most common EBV-associated cancers. In this study, the authors first examined the anti-cancer effects of quercetin and isoliquiritigenin in vivo xenograft animal models implanted with EBV(+) human gastric carcinoma (SNU719) or EBV(−) human gastric carcinoma (MKN74), and then explored the molecular mechanisms responsible for their anti-cancer activities. The results obtained showed that anti-cancer effect of quercetin was greater than isoliquiritigenin in mice injected with EBV(+) human gastric carcinoma (SNU719) cells. On the other hand, quercetin and isoliquiritigenin had similar anti-cancer effects in mice injected with EBV(−) human gastric carcinoma (MKN74) cells. Interestingly, quercetin inhibited EBV viral protein expressions, including EBNA-1 and LMP-2 proteins in tumor tissues from mice injected with EBV(+) human gastric carcinoma. Quercetin more effectively induced p53-dependent apoptosis than isoliquiritigenin in EBV(+) human gastric carcinoma, and this induction was correlated with increased expressions of the cleaved forms of caspase-3, -9, and Parp. In EBV(−)human gastric carcinoma (MKN74), both quercetin and isoliquiritigenin induced the expressions of p53, Bax, and Puma and the cleaved forms of caspase-3 and -9 and Parp at similar levels.

In most populations, gastric cancer (GC) is approximately two times more prevalent in men than in women, which may suggest the protective role of sex steroid hormones in gastric carcinogenesis. Steroid hormones such as androgens and estrogens can be synthesized not only in the gonads but also in peripheral tissues. Many researchers have conducted studies examining the expression profile of enzymes involved in steroid synthesis, the occurrence of estrogen receptors (ERs) and the influence of ERs in the development, proliferation and progression of gastric cancer. Some studies have also evaluated the relationship between the presence of ERs and survival prognosis. However, the results of these studies are often controversial and divergent. In a recent study, it was indicated that sex steroid hormones and estrogen receptors are partly involved in gastric cancer but their clinicopathological significance still needs further investigation.

Contents of phenolics and flavonoids, antioxidant activity and cytotoxicity were investigated in the methanol extracts of three different Taraxacum species, Taraxacum coreanum, Taraxacum mongolicum, and Taraxacum officinale. Total phenolics content at 1000 mg kg -1 was more present in shoot parts than in roots, and was highest in T. mongolicum shoot and root extracts (76.8 and 40.0 mg kg -1 , respectively), followed by T. coreanum and T. officinale (p -1 than total phenolics. The antioxidant activity of the methanol extracts from all the species dose-dependently increased. DPPH free radical scavenging activity at 1,000 mg kg -1 was highest in shoot and root extracts from T. mongolicum by 89.6 and 83.4%, respectively. According to MTT assay, cell viability of Calu-6 (human pulmonary carcinoma) was lowest in the T. mongolicum shoot and root extracts (IC 50 values=83.4 and 66.4 mg kg -1 ，respectively), and followed by T. coreanum and T. officinale (lowest). Calu-6 was more sensitive to the extracts than SNU-601 (human gastric carcinoma). Antioxidative and anticancer activities in three different Taraxacum species was more correlated with total phenolics content (r 2 =0.0097 to 0.6213) than with total flavonoids level (r 2 =0.0027 to 0.4627). The results showed total phenolics content and total flavonoids level were nighly correlated with anticancer activity and antioxidant activity, and their content and activities were different depending on species.

Nine indoloquinazoline alkaloids (1-9) were isolated from the dried and nearly ripe fruits of Euodia rutaecarpa (Juss.) Benth. (Euodiae Fructus), along with limonin and β-sitosterol. Their structures were elucidated on the basis of their spectroscopic data. Among them, compounds 1 and 2 were new compounds and characterized as (7R,8S)-7-hydroxy-8-methoxy-rutaecarpine and (7R,8S)-7-hydroxy-8-ethoxy-rutaecarpine, respectively, and 1-hydroxy-rutaecarpine (3) and (7R,8S)-7,8-dihydroxy-rutaecarpine (4) were isolated from Euodiae Fructus for the first time. The nine indoloquinazoline alkaloids were evaluated for their cytotoxic activities against human promyelocytic leukemia HL-60 cells and human gastric carcinoma N-87 cells.

Regular use of aspirin (ASA) could reduce the risk of gastric cancer although the precise mechanism remains unclear. Down-regulation of survivin may be one of the cyclooxygenase-independent mechanisms whereby ASA induces apoptosis of gastric cancer cell. In this study, we investigated the effect of ASA on the growth, apoptosis and survivin expression of gastric cancer cell line SGC7901. The survival of cells treated with 3.0 and 10.0 mmol/L ASA for 24 h was decreased by 44.6% and 88.5%, respectively. ASA at 3.0 mmol/L inhibited the viability of SGC7901 cells in a time-dependent manner. Apoptosis analysis showed similar results with MTT assay. ASA at 3.0 and 10.0 mmol/L decreased the mRNA transcript levels of survivin and reduced survivin protein levels in SGC7901 cells also in a time-dependent manner. Our findings indicated that ASA inhibited the proliferation of SGC7901 by suppressing survivin at both the transcriptional and translational level.

In order to investigate the effect and its mechanism of esculetin on human gastric carcinoma SGC-7901 cells, the effect of esculetin on human gastric carcinoma SGC-7901 cells were investigated by MTT method in vitro studies. Then the morphological feature changes of apoptosis cells with esculetin of different concentration by transmission electron microscope were observed and the levels of Cty-c in SGC-7901 cells line using FCM method were analyzed. The results revealed that the Esculetin significantly inhibited the growth of human gastric carcinoma SGC-7901 cells and greatly decreased its growth rate with the esculetin concentration increased, and then the morphological feature changes of apoptosis cells had been observed. After 24h, esculetin could make that the concentration of Cty-c in endochylema and Caspase-3 were all increased. Thus the study showed that esculetin remarkably inhibited the growth of human gastric carcinoma SGC-7901 cells and induce its apoptosis.

Gastric cancer is a worldwide cancer with poor prognosis. Identification of diagnostic biomarkers and effective therapeutic targets is important in the treatment and diagnosis of gastric cancer. Recently, researchers have found that microRNAs play several important roles in carcinogenesis. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between miR-421 expression patterns in human gastric cancer tissues with clinicopathological features.Sixty gastric carcinoma and 18 non-tumor tissues were collected from the Secondary Hospital of Ningbo, China. For quantitative detection of the expression level of miR-421, total RNA was extracted and then reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction was performed. The relationship between miR-421 expression in gastric cancer and clinicopathological features was analyzed. After miR-421 inhibitor was transfected into gastric cancer cells, cell growth was measured by MTT assay. Finally, the expression of its target genes was detected by Western blotting.The miR-421 was over-expressed in 73.33% (44/60) of the gastric cancer samples examined. Over-expression of miR-421 in gastric cancer tissues was not found associated with clinicopathological features. The positive detection rate of miR-421 was higher than that of serum carcino-embryonic antigen (chi(2) = 39.811, P0.001). Inhibition of miR-421 expression decreased the growth of both MGC-803 and SGC-7901 gastric cancer cells in vitro, with up-regulating the expression of its cancer-related target genes, CBX7 and RBMXL1.miR-421 may involve in the early stage of stomach carcinogenesis and could be used as an efficient diagnostic biomarker.

A series of zinc phthalocyanines tetra-α-substituted with 4-(butoxycarbonyl) phenoxy groups ( 1a ) or 4-carboxylphenoxy groups ( 2a ) or 4-(2-carboxyl-ethyl)phenoxy groups ( 3a ), and the corresponding tetra-β-substituted ( 1 – 3b ) analogues, have been synthesized and characterized. The effects of the position of substituents at the phthalocyanine skeleton on their spectroscopic, photochemical and photobiological properties have been revealed. When compared with the tetra-β-substituted phthalocyanines, the corresponding tetra-α-substituted analogues exhibit a less aggregating trend in the cellular growth medium, a slightly higher singlet oxygen quantum yield and higher photo-stability in DMF, and a comparable cellular uptake. As a result, the tetra-α-substituted zinc phthalocyanines exhibit a higher photocytotoxicity toward MGC803 human gastric carcinoma cells than the tetra-β-substituted counterparts. Among all these compounds, phthalocyanine 2a shows the highest photodynamic activity, which may mainly be due to its non-aggregated nature in cellular culture medium and high cellular uptake.

Background/Aims: RUNX3 (PEBP2αC/CBFA3/AML2) is a novel tumor suppressor gene in the human gastric carcinoma. The aims of this study were to determine the methylation of RUNX3 promoter and the association between RUNX3 methylation and the clinicopathological characteristics of patients with gastric carcinoma. Methods: Seventy-nine patients with gastric carcinoma were studied prospectively from April 2005 to May 2007. The methylations of RUNX3 promoter on the gastric carcinoma specimens and the corresponding nonneoplastic mucosa were evaluated by methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction. Results: Comparison of the results with the clinicopathological characteristics identified RUNX3 monoallelic methylation in 32.9% (26/79) of the gastric carcinoma patients and in 11.4% (9/79) of those with nonneoplastic mucosa (p=0.053). The monoallelic methylated gastric carcinoma specimens predominantly consisted of well- and moderately differentiated carcinomas (44.7%), with the unmethylated group constituting 22.0% of them (p=0.031). Among the 48 patients (60.8%) who underwent gastrectomy, there was no correlation between the two groups with regard to Lauren's classification (p=0.235), depth of invasion (p=0.990), nodal status (p=0.601), stage (p=0.900), lymphatic invasion (p=0.537), and vascular invasion (p=0.815). Conclusions: Methylation of the tumor suppressor gene RUNX3 might be one of the mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of gastric carcinoma. (Gut and Liver 2008;2:119-125)

Objective To investigate the effect of activation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) on cell cycle arrest of gastric carcinoma cell line MGC803.