Shorter daily dwelling time in peritoneal dialysis attenuates the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition of mesothelial cells.

Background: Peritoneal dialysis (PD) therapy is known to induce morphological and functional changes in the peritoneal membrane. Long-term exposure to conventional bio-incompatible dialysate and peritonitis is the main etiology of inflammation. Consequently, the peritoneal membrane undergoes structural changes, including angiogenesis, fibrosis, and hyalinizing vasculopathy, which ultimately results in technique failure.

An in vitro short time-high dose drug exposure assay for predicting 5FU-resistance of colorectal cancer.

The goal of this study was to develop a simple and rapid in vitro drug resistance assay to ascertain the effectiveness of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) for the individual therapy of colorectal cancer. Colorectal cancer cells were isolated from tumor specimens and, after 4h exposure to high doses of 5-FU cell viability was measured with an ATP assay. The average IC50 concentration for 5-FU was calculated as 4000 microg/ml from 35 patients' tumors.