Metformin Abrogates Age-Associated Ovarian Fibrosis.

Purpose: The ovarian cancer risk factors of age and ovulation are curious because ovarian cancer incidence increases in postmenopausal women, long after ovulations have ceased. To determine how age and ovulation underlie ovarian cancer risk, we assessed the effects of these risk factors on the ovarian microenvironment.

Experimental Design: Aged C57/lcrfa mice (0-33 months old) were generated to assess the aged ovarian microenvironment.

Hand selection in a preferential reaching task: The effects of object location, orientation, and task intention in preadolescent children.

Introduction And Methods: Hand selection was assessed in preadolescent children (ages 9-11) within a preferential reaching task to delineate the effects of object location, orientation, and task intention on the assessment procedure and compared to data previously acquired from young adults.

Results: The observed differences support the notion that children are still in a process of refining their movements in attempt to discern the most efficient and effective patterns of behavior. Notwithstanding differences in performance, similarities between preadolescents and young adults also emerged.

What Is Breast in the Bone?

The normal developmental program that prolactin generates in the mammary gland is usurped in the cancerous process and can be used out of its normal cellular context at a site of secondary metastasis. Prolactin is a pleiotropic peptide hormone and cytokine that is secreted from the pituitary gland, as well as from normal and cancerous breast cells. Experimental and epidemiologic data suggest that prolactin is associated with mammary gland development, and also the increased risk of breast tumors and metastatic disease in postmenopausal women.

Handedness throughout the lifespan: cross-sectional view on sex differences as asymmetries change.

Manual asymmetries has been studied by many researchers, however contradictory findings still exist as to whether preferred manual asymmetries increases with age or do we become more ambidextrous. Recently it was shown that perhaps there is a third option, that there is no increase or decrease in laterality but rather preferred manual asymmetries remains consistent throughout adulthood. Another related finding is that females appear to have an advantage in some handedness tasks, such as the Grooved Pegboard.

Diabetic Schwann cells suffer from nerve growth factor and neurotrophin-3 underproduction and poor associability with axons.

Schwann cells (SCs) are integral to peripheral nerve biology, contributing to saltatory conduction along axons, nerve and axon development, and axonal regeneration. SCs also provide a microenvironment favoring neural regeneration partially due to production of several neurotrophic factors. Dysfunction of SCs may also play an important role in the pathogenesis of peripheral nerve diseases such as diabetic peripheral neuropathy where hyperglycemia is often considered pathogenic.

The Role of Prolactin in Bone Metastasis and Breast Cancer Cell-Mediated Osteoclast Differentiation.

Background: Metastasis to the bone is a deleterious aspect of breast cancer and is a preferred site that results in bone loss. Hormones such as prolactin (PRL) have not yet been studied for their role in modulating the secondary tumor bone microenvironment.

Methods: We used quantitative immunohistochemistry with 134 samples of human primary breast cancer and 17 matched primary breast cancers and bone metastases.

Wide-field fluorescence lifetime imaging of cancer.

Optical imaging of tissue autofluorescence has the potential to provide rapid label-free screening and detection of surface tumors for clinical applications, including when combined with endoscopy. Quantitative imaging of intensity-based contrast is notoriously difficult and spectrally resolved imaging does not always provide sufficient contrast. We demonstrate that fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) applied to intrinsic tissue autofluorescence can directly contrast a range of surface tissue tumors, including in gastrointestinal tissues, using compact, clinically deployable instrumentation achieving wide-field fluorescence lifetime images of unprecedented clarity.

Detection of HER2 gene amplification by fluorescence in situ hybridization in breast cancer.

Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) is increasingly recognized as the most accurate and predictive test for both HER2 gene amplification or expression and response to Herceptin therapy in breast cancer. Diagnostic procedures for FISH require rigorous quality control, as with all diagnostic procedures, which rely on standardized methodologies. We describe the use of FISH for HER2 in our own laboratory, based on more than 4000 diagnostic assays, and the optimal approaches to scoring HER2 gene amplification in breast cancer.

Can molecular markers predict when to implement treatment with aromatase inhibitors in invasive breast cancer?

Purpose: Resistance to tamoxifen is linked to overexpression of HER2, and aromatase inhibitors show particular benefit in progesterone receptor (PR)-negative patients. We previously reported reduced survival in patients overexpressing HER1, HER2, and HER3. We now show that both HER1-3 and PR status predicts for early relapse in estrogen receptor (ER)-positive tamoxifen-treated breast cancer patients.

Interlaboratory comparison of HER-2 oncogene amplification as detected by chromogenic and fluorescence in situ hybridization.

Purpose: Chromogenic in situ hybridization (CISH) is a new modification of the fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) technique for detection of oncogene amplification in archival tumor samples. In CISH, the oncogene probe is detected using a peroxidase reaction, allowing use of transmitted light microscopy. We compared detection of HER-2/neu amplification by CISH with a Food and Drug Administration-approved two-color FISH test in an interlaboratory setting.