Mercury and Radiocesium Accumulation and Associations With Sublethal Endpoints in the Florida Green Watersnake (Nerodia floridana).

Mercury (Hg) and radiocesium ( Cs) are well-known environmental contaminants with the potential to impact the health of humans and wildlife. Snakes have several characteristics conducive to studying environmental contamination but have rarely been included in the monitoring of polluted sites. We investigated the bioaccumulation of Hg and Cs and associations with sublethal effects (standard metabolic rate [SMR] and hemoparasite infections) in Florida green watersnakes (Nerodia floridana).

Do national drug control laws ensure the availability of opioids for medical and scientific purposes?

Objective: To determine whether national drug control laws ensure that opioid drugs are available for medical and scientific purposes, as intended by the 1972 Protocol amendment to the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.

Methods: The authors examined whether the text of a convenience sample of drug laws from 15 countries: (i) acknowledged that opioid drugs are indispensable for the relief of pain and suffering; (ii) recognized that government was responsible for ensuring the adequate provision of such drugs for medical and scientific purposes; (iii) designated an administrative body for implementing international drug control conventions; and (iv) acknowledged a government's intention to implement international conventions, including the Single Convention.

Findings: Most national laws were found not to contain measures that ensured adequate provision of opioid drugs for medical and scientific purposes.

Monitoring apoptosis and Bcl-2 on circulating tumor cells in patients with metastatic breast cancer.

Background: Enumeration of circulating tumor cells (CTC) from whole blood permits monitoring of patients with breast carcinoma. Analysis of apoptosis & Bcl-2 expression in CTC might add additional prognostic and predictive information. We estimated the degree of these markers in CTC from patients being treated for metastatic breast cancer.

CXCR1 blockade selectively targets human breast cancer stem cells in vitro and in xenografts.

Recent evidence suggests that breast cancer and other solid tumors possess a rare population of cells capable of extensive self-renewal that contribute to metastasis and treatment resistance. We report here the development of a strategy to target these breast cancer stem cells (CSCs) through blockade of the IL-8 receptor CXCR1. CXCR1 blockade using either a CXCR1-specific blocking antibody or repertaxin, a small-molecule CXCR1 inhibitor, selectively depleted the CSC population in 2 human breast cancer cell lines in vitro.

Regulation of mammary stem/progenitor cells by PTEN/Akt/beta-catenin signaling.

Recent evidence suggests that many malignancies, including breast cancer, are driven by a cellular subcomponent that displays stem cell-like properties. The protein phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) is inactivated in a wide range of human cancers, an alteration that is associated with a poor prognosis. Because PTEN has been reported to play a role in the maintenance of embryonic and tissue-specific stem cells, we investigated the role of the PTEN/Akt pathway in the regulation of normal and malignant mammary stem/progenitor cell populations.

Breast cancer cell lines contain functional cancer stem cells with metastatic capacity and a distinct molecular signature.

Tumors may be initiated and maintained by a cellular subcomponent that displays stem cell properties. We have used the expression of aldehyde dehydrogenase as assessed by the ALDEFLUOR assay to isolate and characterize cancer stem cell (CSC) populations in 33 cell lines derived from normal and malignant mammary tissue. Twenty-three of the 33 cell lines contained an ALDEFLUOR-positive population that displayed stem cell properties in vitro and in NOD/SCID xenografts.

Development and validation of sandwich ELISA microarrays with minimal assay interference.

Sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) microarrays are emerging as a strong candidate platform for multiplex biomarker analysis because of the ELISA's ability to quantitatively measure rare proteins in complex biological fluids. Advantages of this platform are high-throughput potential, assay sensitivity and stringency, and the similarity to the standard ELISA test, which facilitates assay transfer from a research setting to a clinical laboratory. However, a major concern with the multiplexing of ELISAs is maintaining high assay specificity.

ALDH1 is a marker of normal and malignant human mammary stem cells and a predictor of poor clinical outcome.

Application of stem cell biology to breast cancer research has been limited by the lack of simple methods for identification and isolation of normal and malignant stem cells. Utilizing in vitro and in vivo experimental systems, we show that normal and cancer human mammary epithelial cells with increased aldehyde dehydrogenase activity (ALDH) have stem/progenitor properties. These cells contain the subpopulation of normal breast epithelium with the broadest lineage differentiation potential and greatest growth capacity in a xenotransplant model.