[Quality of DNA from archival pathological samples of gallbladder cancer].

Background: The quality of the archival samples stored at pathology services could be a limiting factor for molecular biology studies.

Aim: To determine the quality of DNA extracted from gallbladder cancer samples at different institutions.

Material And Methods: One hundred ninety four samples coming from five medical centers in Chile, were analyzed.

Human prostate cancer metastases target the hematopoietic stem cell niche to establish footholds in mouse bone marrow.

HSC homing, quiescence, and self-renewal depend on the bone marrow HSC niche. A large proportion of solid tumor metastases are bone metastases, known to usurp HSC homing pathways to establish footholds in the bone marrow. However, it is not clear whether tumors target the HSC niche during metastasis.

Erythropoietin couples hematopoiesis with bone formation.

Background: It is well established that bleeding activates the hematopoietic system to regenerate the loss of mature blood elements. We have shown that hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) isolated from animals challenged with an acute bleed regulate osteoblast differentiation from marrow stromal cells. This suggests that HSCs participate in bone formation where the molecular basis for this activity is the production of BMP2 and BMP6 by HSCs.

GAS6/AXL axis regulates prostate cancer invasion, proliferation, and survival in the bone marrow niche.

Our recent studies have shown that annexin II, expressed on the cell surface of osteoblasts, plays an important role in the adhesion of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) to the endosteal niche. Similarly, prostate cancer (PCa) cells express the annexin II receptor and seem to use the stem cell niche for homing to the bone marrow. The role of the niche is thought to be the induction and sustenance of HSC dormancy.

Annexin II/annexin II receptor axis regulates adhesion, migration, homing, and growth of prostate cancer.

One of the most life-threatening complications of prostate cancer is skeletal metastasis. In order to develop treatment for metastasis, it is important to understand its molecular mechanisms. Our work in this field has drawn parallels between hematopoietic stem cell and prostate cancer homing to the marrow.

MRS quality assessment in a multicentre study on MRS-based classification of brain tumours.

This paper reports on quality assessment of MRS in the European Union-funded multicentre project INTERPRET (International Network for Pattern Recognition of Tumours Using Magnetic Resonance; http://azizu.uab.es/INTERPRET), which has developed brain tumour classification software using in vivo proton MR spectra.

A prospective long-term follow-up study of alexithymia in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Background: Studies evaluating the stability of alexithymia over long follow-up periods are rare. We examined the temporal stability of alexithymia in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) over 6 years and the association of alexithymia with the long-term outcome of OCD.

Sampling And Methods: Of 42 patients with OCD, 34 (81%) could be reassessed 6 years after inpatient treatment.

2D J-resolved spiral spectroscopic imaging at 7 T: application to mobile lipid mapping in a rat glioma.

Lactate (Lac) and mobile lipids (Lip), which are present in rat gliomas, are difficult to map because their 1H resonances overlap in the 1.3 ppm region. 2D J-resolved spectroscopy enables proper separation of the two resonance lines.

Out-and-in spiral spectroscopic imaging in rat brain at 7 T.

With standard spectroscopic imaging, high spatial resolution is achieved at the price of a large number of phase-encoding steps, leading to long acquisition times. Fast spatial encoding methods reduce the minimum total acquisition time. In this article, a k-space scanning scheme using a continuous series of growing and shrinking, or "out-and-in," spiral trajectories is implemented and the feasibility of spiral spectroscopic imaging for animal models at high B(0) field is demonstrated.

Correlation between the occurrence of 1H-MRS lipid signal, necrosis and lipid droplets during C6 rat glioma development.

The aim of this study was to investigate the possible correlation between the 1H MRS mobile lipid signal, necrosis and lipid droplets in C6 rat glioma. First, the occurrence of necrosis and lipid droplets was determined during tumor development, by a histological analysis performed on 34 rats. Neither necrosis nor lipid droplets were observed before 18 days post-implantation.

Method to determine in vivo the relaxation time T1 of hyperpolarized xenon in rat brain.

The magnetic polarization of the stable (129)Xe isotope may be enhanced dramatically by means of optical techniques and, in principle, hyperpolarized (129)Xe MRI should allow quantitative mapping of cerebral blood flow with better spatial resolution than scintigraphic techniques. A parameter necessary for this quantitation, and not previously known, is the longitudinal relaxation time (T(1) (tissue)) of (129)Xe in brain tissue in vivo: a method for determining this is reported. The time course of the MR signal in the brain during arterial injection of hyperpolarized (129)Xe in a lipid emulsion was analyzed using an extended two-compartment model.

Localized 2D correlation spectroscopy in human brain at 3 T.

The purpose of this study was to acquire a localized 2D (two-dimensional) 1H correlation spectrum, in a volume of interest reasonably small, and within an experiment time compatible with clinical applications. A modified PRESS technique has been used. The last 180 degrees pulse of the PRESS sequence has been converted into a 90 degrees pulse for both refocusing and coherence transfer.