Absence of the Epithelial Glycocalyx As Potential Tumor Marker for the Early Detection of Colorectal Cancer.

Detection of cancer at an early stage is pivotal for successful treatment and long term survival, yet early diagnosis requires sensitive and specific markers that can be easily detected by screening procedures. Differences in the surface structure of tumor and healthy cells, if sufficiently pronounced and discernible, may serve that purpose. We analyzed the luminal surface of healthy and neoplastic human colorectal tissues for the presence and architecture of the glycocalyx-a dense network of highly glycosylated proteins-using transmission electron microscopy.

Breast Cancer during Pregnancy: An Interdisciplinary Approach in Our Institution.

Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed during pregnancy.

Case Report: We report on a case of a 26-year-old woman who was diagnosed with right-sided breast cancer in her 15th week of gestation. We discussed possible treatment scenarios and the patient opted for neoadjuvant therapy with taxanes and anthracyclines during pregnancy, followed by delivery and then followed by surgery, antibody therapy, and radiotherapy.

Ingestion of (n-3) fatty acids augments basal and platelet activating factor-induced permeability to dextran in the rat mesenteric vascular bed.

Loss of intestinal barrier function and subsequent edema formation remains a serious clinical problem leading to hypoperfusion, anastomotic leakage, bacterial translocation, and inflammatory mediator liberation. The inflammatory mediator platelet activating factor (PAF) promotes eicosanoid-mediated edema formation and vasoconstriction. Fish oil-derived (n-3) fatty acids (FA) favor the production of less injurious eicosanoids but may also increase intestinal paracellular permeability.

The TGF-beta-pseudoreceptor BAMBI is strongly expressed in COPD lungs and regulated by nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae.

Background: Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHI) may play a role as an infectious trigger in the pathogenesis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Few data are available regarding the influence of acute and persistent infection on tissue remodelling and repair factors such as transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta.

Methods: NTHI infection in lung tissues obtained from COPD patients and controls was studied in vivo and using an in vitro model.

Proteomics out of the archive: Two-dimensional electrophoresis and mass spectrometry using HOPE-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues.

Proteome analyses provide diagnostic information which can be essential for therapeutic predictions. The application of such techniques for analyzing paraffin-embedded tissue samples is widely hampered by the use of formalin fixation requiring antigen retrieval procedures in molecular pathology. In prior studies, the HEPES-glutamic acid buffer-mediated organic solvent protection effect (HOPE) technique of tissue fixation has been shown to provide a broad array of biochemical investigations with excellent preservation of morphological structures, DNA, RNA, and proteins, thus supporting the multimethod analysis of archived specimens.

A model of the isolated perfused rat small intestine.

Intestinal edema remains a serious clinical problem, and novel approaches to study its pathophysiology are needed. It was our aim to develop a long-term stable isolated perfused rat small bowel preparation permitting analysis of vascular, luminal, interstitial, and lymphatic compartments and to demonstrate the utility of this model by studying the effects of the proinflammatory mediator platelet-activating factor (PAF). A temperature-controlled chamber with an integrated balance was designed to perfuse isolated intestines through the mesenteric artery and the gut lumen.

The human placenta releases substances that drive lung cancer into apoptosis.

Background: As there is no optimal treatment of non small cell lung cancer due to its resistance to common chemotherapeutics, we investigated the effect of human placenta-conditioned medium on tumor tissue. The human placenta constitutes a mixture of maternal and fetal origin and displays a variety of immunomodulatory aspects.

Methods: Freshly resected non small cell lung cancer tissues were incubated with placenta-conditioned medium in a short-term tissue culture model and A549 cells were challenged, respectively.

Expression of the acute phase protein haptoglobin in human lung cancer and tumor-free lung tissues.

Besides its main function, i.e., the binding of free hemoglobin and prevention of oxidative stress, the acute phase protein haptoglobin acts as a potent immunoreactive modulator.

On the significance of Surfactant Protein-A within the human lungs.

Surfactant Protein-A (SP-A) is the most prominent among four proteins in the pulmonary surfactant-system. SP-A is expressed by alveolar epithelial cells type II as well as by a portion of non small cell lung carcinomas (NSCLC).The expression of SP-A is complexly regulated on the transcriptional and the chromosomal level.

Theory of sampling and its application in tissue based diagnosis.

Background: A general theory of sampling and its application in tissue based diagnosis is presented. Sampling is defined as extraction of information from certain limited spaces and its transformation into a statement or measure that is valid for the entire (reference) space. The procedure should be reproducible in time and space, i.

LED-FISH: Fluorescence microscopy based on light emitting diodes for the molecular analysis of Her-2/neu oncogene amplification.

Light emitting diodes (LED), which are available as small monochromatic light sources with characteristic features such as maximum illumination power combined with minimum energy consumption and extremely long lifespan have already proved as a highly potential low-cost alternative for specific diagnostic applications in clinical medicine such as tuberculosis fluorescence microscopy. Likewise, the most reliable evaluation of Her-2/neu (c-erbB2) gene amplification, which has been established in the last few years for routine diagnosis in clinical pathology as determinant towards Herceptin-based treatment of patients with breast cancer, is based on fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and corresponding high priced fluorescence equipment. In order to test the possibility to utilize the advantages of low-cost LED technology on FISH analysis of c-erbB2 gene expression for routine diagnostic purposes, the applicability of a standard bright field Carl Zeiss Axiostar Plus microscope equipped with a Fraen AFTER (Amplified Fluorescence by Transmitted Excitation of Radiation) LED Fluorescence Microscope Kit for the detection of Her-2/neu gene signals was compared to an advanced Nikon Eclipse 80i fluorescence microscope in combination with a conventional 100W mercury vapor lamp.

TKTL1 is overexpressed in a large portion of non-small cell lung cancer specimens.

In several tumors the transketolase activity, controlled inter alia by enzymes of the pentose phosphate pathway which is an alternative, energy generating reaction-cascade to glycolysis, has been correlated with proliferation. The increase of thiamine-dependent transketolase enzyme reactions is induced especially through upregulated transketolase-like enzyme 1 (TKTL1)-activity; that shows TKTL1 to be a causative enzyme for tumors enhanced, anaerobic glucose degradation. We investigated TKTL1-expression in 88 human, formalin-fixed non-small cell lung cancer tissues and 24 carcinomas of the breast by immunohistochemical stainings applying a 0 to 3 staining-score system (3 = strongest expression).

Diagnostic outcome of two different CT-guided fine needle biopsy procedures.

Background: CT-guided fine needle bioptic procedures (CTFNP) are characterised by low invasiveness, precise sample collection, a high diagnostic efficiency and support a rapid diagnostic process. A number of different fine needles and bioptic procedures are mainly used for tumour diagnostics today.The aim of the present study was to characterise the most important technical issues of fine needle bioptic procedures.

A novel human ex vivo model for the analysis of molecular events during lung cancer chemotherapy.

Background: Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) causes most of cancer related deaths in humans and is characterized by poor prognosis regarding efficiency of chemotherapeutical treatment and long-term survival of the patients. The purpose of the present study was the development of a human ex vivo tissue culture model and the analysis of the effects of conventional chemotherapy, which then can serve as a tool to test new chemotherapeutical regimens in NSCLC.

Methods: In a short-term tissue culture model designated STST (Short-Term Stimulation of Tissues) in combination with the novel *HOPE-fixation and paraffin embedding method we examined the responsiveness of 41 human NSCLC tissue specimens to the individual cytotoxic drugs carboplatin, vinorelbine or gemcitabine.

Effect of recombinant aprotinin on postoperative blood loss and coronary vascular function in a canine model of cardiopulmonary bypass.

Objective: Aprotinin is a widely used serine protease inhibitor during cardiopulmonary bypass to reduce blood loss and preserve platelet function. However, the bovine-derived aprotinin can induce hypersensitivity reaction with fatal complications. Furthermore, vascular effects of aprotinin are not completely elucidated.