In Vivo Assessment of Metastatic Cell Potential in Prostate Cancer.

Metastasis is the main cause of death for cancer patients, but our ability to improve clinical outcome first requires a better understanding of the dynamics, cellular mechanisms, and kinetics of metastasis. In prostate cancer (PCa), metastatic tumor cells preferentially colonize to bone. However, a lack of applicable mouse models has limited our ability to study this process accurately.

Genetic manipulation of LKB1 elicits lethal metastatic prostate cancer.

Gene dosage is a key defining factor to understand cancer pathogenesis and progression, which requires the development of experimental models that aid better deconstruction of the disease. Here, we model an aggressive form of prostate cancer and show the unconventional association of LKB1 dosage to prostate tumorigenesis. Whereas loss of Lkb1 alone in the murine prostate epithelium was inconsequential for tumorigenesis, its combination with an oncogenic insult, illustrated by Pten heterozygosity, elicited lethal metastatic prostate cancer.

Constitutive Cyclin O deficiency results in penetrant hydrocephalus, impaired growth and infertility.

Cyclin O (encoded by ) is a member of the cyclin family with regulatory functions in ciliogenesis and apoptosis. Homozygous mutations have been identified in human patients with Reduced Generation of Multiple Motile Cilia (RGMC) and conditional inactivation of in the mouse recapitulates some of the pathologies associated with the human disease. These include defects in the development of motile cilia and hydrocephalus.

Optimization of human pancreatic islet isolation with a newly designed cooling system for COBE 2991.

Objective: Islet purification is performed using the cell separator COBE 2991, which allows the purification of large amounts of islets through a continuous density gradient. However, the original cell separator COBE 2991 was not refrigerated, and islets were exposed to inappropriately high temperatures during the purification step of the isolation process. Our aim was to design a cooling system for the purification of human pancreatic islets using COBE 2991, to increase the viability and quality of the preparations.