RRM1 and ERCC1 expression in peripheral blood versus tumor tissue in gemcitabine/carboplatin-treated advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

Purpose: To comparatively evaluate the prognostic or predictive value of ribonucleotide reductase M1 (RRM1) and excision repair cross-complementation 1 (ERCC1) gene expression in peripheral blood versus tumor tissue from patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated by gemcitabine/platinum chemotherapy.

Methods: A total of 49 patients with advanced NSCLC receiving gemcitabine plus carboplatin chemotherapy were studied. RRM1 and ERCC1 mRNA levels in the peripheral blood and tumor tissue were determined by real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR.

The pathological characteristics of glioma stem cell niches.

Brain tumor stem cells (BTSC) are predicted to be critical drivers of tumor progression due to their self-renewal capacity and limitless proliferative potential. Recent studies suggest that stem cells are controlled by a particular microenvironment known as a "niche". We therefore analysed human glioma tissues and found that the CD133(+) and nestin(+) niches are perivascularly localized in all glioma tissues.

Correlation between glioblastoma stem-like cells and tumor vascularization.

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most lethal type of brain tumor. The formation of abnormal, dysfunctional tumor vasculature and glioblastoma stem-like cells (GSCs) are believed to be the major components of the inability to treat these tumors effectively. We analyzed 70 glioblastoma samples by immunohistochemistry and double immunofluorescence staining.

Effect of all-trans retinoic acid on the proliferation and differentiation of brain tumor stem cells.

Objective: To investigate the effect of all-trans retinoic acid(ATRA) on the proliferation and differentiation of brain tumor stem cells(BTSCs) in vitro.

Methods: Limiting dilution and clonogenic assay were used to isolate and screen BTSCs from the fresh specimen of human brain glioblastoma. The obtained BTSCs, which were cultured in serum-free medium, were classified into four groups in accordance with the composition of the different treatments.

Decreased growth factor expression through RNA interference inhibits development of mouse preimplantation embryos.

Mitogenic growth factors play an important role in cellular development and differentiation. The purpose of this study was to assess the extent to which epidermal growth factor (EGF) and transforming growth factor alpha (TGFalpha) and their cognate receptor (EGFR) are crucial for normal preimplantation embryo development. We used RNA interference to decrease expression of growth factors in preimplantation mouse embryos.

Further optimization of mouse spermatozoa evaporative drying techniques.

It has been shown in the past that mouse spermatozoa could be dried under a stream of nitrogen gas at ambient temperature and stored at 4 degrees C or 22 degrees C for up to 3 months and was capable of generating live-born offspring. In previous desiccation work, dried sperm were stored in a vacuum-sealed plastic bag placed in a vacuum-packed Mylar bag. However, dried specimens stored in this way often lost moisture, particularly in samples stored at higher temperatures (22 degrees C) compared to lower temperatures (4 degrees C).

Long-term storage of mouse spermatozoa after evaporative drying.

To determine if mouse spermatozoa could be preserved long-term without using liquid nitrogen, mouse spermatozoa in trehalose-EGTA solution were partially evaporatively dried under nitrogen gas (5 min at flow rate10 l/min) and stored for 1 week and 5 months at 4, -20, and -80 degrees C before intracytoplasmic sperm injection. Fertilization rates were neither different with spermatozoa stored at 4, -20, or -80 degrees C for 1 week or 1, 3, and 5 months respectively, nor blastocyst formation rates with spermatozoa stored for 1 week and 1 month. However, spermatozoa stored at 4 and -20 degrees C for 3 months resulted in fewer blastocysts (35.

Lignosulfonic acid blocks in vitro fertilization of macaque oocytes when sperm are treated either before or after capacitation.

Lignin-derived macromolecules (LDMs) are biologically active compounds that affect a variety of cell-to-cell interactions including the inhibition of fertilization and embryo development in a number of nonmammalian species. The effect of ligno-sulfonic acid (LSA), a highly sulfonated LDM, on cynomolgus macaque sperm-oocyte interaction was evaluated with a zona pellucida binding assay and by in vitro fertilization (IVF). Sperm were treated with LSA (1.