Subependymoma at the foramen of Monro presenting with intermittent hydrocephalus: case report and review of the literature.

Subependymomas are benign neoplasms, accounting for 0.5 % of all central nervous system tumors. These tumors are frequently asymptomatic, often discovered incidentally at autopsy.

Glucosylceramide synthase upregulates MDR1 expression in the regulation of cancer drug resistance through cSrc and beta-catenin signaling.

Background: Drug resistance is the outcome of multiple-gene interactions in cancer cells under stress of anticancer agents. MDR1 overexpression is most commonly detected in drug-resistant cancers and accompanied with other gene alterations including enhanced glucosylceramide synthase (GCS). MDR1 encodes for P-glycoprotein that extrudes anticancer drugs.

A new mixed-backbone oligonucleotide against glucosylceramide synthase sensitizes multidrug-resistant tumors to apoptosis.

Enhanced ceramide glycosylation catalyzed by glucosylceramide synthase (GCS) limits therapeutic efficiencies of antineoplastic agents including doxorubicin in drug-resistant cancer cells. Aimed to determine the role of GCS in tumor response to chemotherapy, a new mixed-backbone oligonucleotide (MBO-asGCS) with higher stability and efficiency has been generated to silence human GCS gene. MBO-asGCS was taken up efficiently in both drug-sensitive and drug-resistant cells, but it selectively suppressed GCS overexpression, and sensitized drug-resistant cells.

Effects of the endothelin-converting enzyme inhibitor SM-19712 in a mouse model of dextran sodium sulfate-induced colitis.

Background: Ingestion by mice of dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) induces colonic vasoconstriction and inflammation, with some of the effects potentially mediated by the vasoconstrictor endothelin-1 (ET-1).

Methods: In this study, mice given 5% 40 kD DSS for 5-6 days had elevated colonic immunostaining for ET-1 and platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule-1 (PECAM-1). Increased ET-1 can induce microvascular constriction; however, the increase in PECAM-1 is consistent with angiogenesis that could decrease flow resistance.

In vivo survivors of transformed mouse ovarian surface epithelial cells display diverse phenotypes for gene expression and tumorigenicity.

Ovarian cancer is the fifth most common cause of cancer death in women. Due to a lack of appropriate animal models, studies involving tumorigenicity, tumor progression and immune response at the molecular level are limited. We isolated many clones derived from thesurvivors of a transformed mouse ovarian epithelial cell line IG-10 in immune- competent mice and found that the clones displayed diverse phenotypes.

T cell transfer model of chronic colitis: concepts, considerations, and tricks of the trade.

The inflammatory bowel diseases (Crohn's disease; ulcerative colitis) are idiopathic chronic inflammatory disorders of the intestine and/or colon. A major advancement in our understanding of the pathogenesis of these diseases has been the development of mouse models of chronic gut inflammation. One model that has been instrumental in delineating the immunological mechanisms responsible for the induction as well as regulation of intestinal inflammation is the T cell transfer model of chronic colitis.