Myoferlin Contributes to the Metastatic Phenotype of Pancreatic Cancer Cells by Enhancing Their Migratory Capacity through the Control of Oxidative Phosphorylation.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the deadliest malignancies with an overall survival of 5% and is the second cause of death by cancer, mainly linked to its high metastatic aggressiveness. Accordingly, understanding the mechanisms sustaining the PDAC metastatic phenotype remains a priority. In this study, we generated and used a murine in vivo model to select clones from the human Panc-1 PDAC cell line that exhibit a high propensity to seed and metastasize into the liver.

Methyl DNA immunoprecipitation.

Epigenetics is the study of heritable changes in gene expression. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) and methylation status analysis of genes have been applied to the study of epigenetic modifications, often perturbed in human cancer. ChIP is a technique allowing the analysis of the protein association with specific genomic regions in the context of intact cells.

Characterization and quality control of antibodies used in ChIP assays.

We present here the very robust characterization and quality control (QC) process that we have established for our polyclonal antibodies, which are mainly directed against targets relevant to the epigenetics field such as modified histones, modifying enzymes, and chromatin-interacting proteins. The final purpose of the characterization and QC is to label antibodies as chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) grade. Indeed, the ChIP method is extensively used in epigenetics to study gene regulation and relies on the use of antibodies to select the protein of interest and then precipitate and identify the DNA associated to it.

The prevention of spontaneous apoptosis of follicular lymphoma B cells by a follicular dendritic cell line: involvement of caspase-3, caspase-8 and c-FLIP.

Background: Follicular lymphoma, the neoplastic counterpart of germinal center B cells, typically recapitulates a follicular architecture. Several observations point to the crucial role of the cellular microenvironment in the development and/or progression of follicular lymphoma cells in vivo. The aim of our study was to characterize the spontaneous apoptosis of follicular lymphoma cells in vitro, and the modulation of this apoptosis by follicular dendritic cells.

Germinal center dendritic cells express more ICAM-1 than extrafollicular dendritic cells and ICAM-1/LFA-1 interactions are involved in the capacity of dendritic cells to induce PBMCs proliferation.

Germinal center dendritic cells (GCDCs) have been identified as CD11c(+) CD4(+) CD3(-) cells located in GCs with the ability of inducing marked proliferation of allogenic T cells. Using immunofluorescence techniques, we have observed that this CD11c(+) CD4(+) CD3(-) immunophenotype identified GCDCs but also a subset of extrafollicular DCs. By flow cytometry, we were able to discriminate the GCDCs (CD11c(high) CD4(high) lin(-)) from the other tonsil DCs.