Combined treatment of cisplatin and overexpression of caspase-activated deoxyribonuclease (CAD) promotes apoptosis in vitro and in vivo.

Recent studies have demonstrated that a caspase-activated deoxyribonuclease (CAD) causes DNA degradation in nuclei after treatment of cells with caspase-3. In this study, we evaluated the effect of CAD overexpression on tumor cells treated with a chemotherapeutic agent in vitro and in vivo. In an in vitro study, we transfected mouse fibroblast L cells with a vector encoding mouse CAD and evaluated the therapeutic potential of CAD gene transfer to L cells treated with cisplatin (CDDP).

Influence of platelet-derived endothelial cell growth factor/thymidine phosphorylase on the cell cycle in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma in vitro.

Platelet-derived endothelial cell growth factor (PD-ECGF) was isolated as an endothelial mitogen from platelets and demonstrated to have angiogenic activity and thymidine phosphorylase (TP) activity. It was reported that the overexpression of PD-ECGF occurred with the rapid tumor growth in vivo. In this study, we transfected PD-ECGF into the head and neck squamous cell carcinoma cell line IMC-3 and investigated the property of transfectants in vitro.

Incidence of regeneration of the chorda tympani nerve after middle ear surgery.

We retrospectively reviewed 52 patients who underwent middle ear surgery during which the chorda tympani nerves were severed and who then underwent secondary surgery 1 to 5 years later. In 22 patients (42.3%), regenerated chorda tympani nerves (entire length of the tympanic segment) were detected in the submucosal layer of the reconstructed eardrum during the secondary surgery.