Screening for cerebellopontine angle tumors: is a CISS sufficient?

This study attempted to evaluate the reliability of ultra-thin T2-weighted imaging with a constructive interference in steady state (CISS) sequence as a screening method for tumors in the cerebellopontine angle. A retrospective study of 200 CISS examinations was made by five investigators. The examinations were inspected on plain film supported by clinical information.

Extragonadal germ-cell tumor: a rare differential diagnosis of a cervical lump in a young man.

In this case report, we discuss the potential diagnostic difficulty of identifying the cause or origin of a cervical swelling, a clinical situation often encountered in otolaryngology patients. A 30-year-old man came to us with a painless left cervical lump that he had noticed 8 weeks earlier. A series of examinations--including various biopsies, computed tomography, and extensive staging procedures--could not establish the diagnosis.

Trichostatin A-mediated regulation of gene expression and protein kinase activities: reprogramming tumor cells for ribotoxic stress-induced apoptosis.

Recently we described a new signal transduction-based tumor therapeutic strategy involving first sensitization of tumor cells by trichostatin A (TSA), an inhibitor of histone deacetylation, and thereafter efficient apoptotic triggering by ribotoxic agents, which activate stress-activated protein kinases. In the present work we investigate the molecular basis of the sensitization step in this therapeutic model system and describe TSA-induced changes in mRNA and protein expression of several candidate genes identified previously by complex hybridization. Furthermore, activities of 15 different protein kinases were followed after TSA application, using a new filter-based technique (PhosphoSpots-Assay).

Trichostatin A modulates expression of p21waf1/cip1, Bcl-xL, ID1, ID2, ID3, CRAB2, GATA-2, hsp86 and TFIID/TAFII31 mRNA in human lung adenocarcinoma cells.

Lung adenocarcinoma cells treated for 16 h with trichostatin A (TSA), an inhibitor of histone deacetylases, and untreated cells were analyzed with respect to differential gene expression. Complex hybridization of cDNA arrays revealed repression of Bcl-xL, CRAB2 and TFIID/TAFII31 as well as induction of p21waf1/cip1, GATA-2, hsp86, ID1, ID2 and ID3 mRNA expression, which could be verified by Northern blotting. ID2 induction was further confirmed by Taqman realtime quantitative RT-PCR.

Sensitization of tumor cells to ribotoxic stress-induced apoptotic cell death: a new therapeutic strategy.

We describe a procedure that sensitizes chemotherapy-and tumor necrosis factor-resistant human tumor cell populations in vitro and in nude mouse transplants to the immediate triggering of high rates of cell death by anisomycin, an agent causing activation of stress-activated protein kinases [SAPKs, as defined by P. Cohen (Trends Cell Biol., 7: 353-361, 1997)] including p38/RK and c-jun NH2-terminal kinase homologues, following its binding to ribosomal 28S RNA (M.