Expression of mucin genes in the human testis and its relationship to spermatogenesis.

In this study we investigate the expression pattern of mucin genes in the human testis and evaluate the relationship between the expression of mucin genes and impaired spermatogenesis in the human testis. Thirty human testis tissues were collected from patients undergoing diagnostic testicular biopsy to investigate the cause of infertility. One part of the tissue underwent histological observation, and the other part of the tissue was subjected to semiquantitative RT-PCR of mucin genes, that is, mucin1, 2, 3, 4, and 9.

Unilocular extrahepatic biliary cystadenoma mimicking choledochal cyst: a case report.

We report here on a case of extrahepatic biliary cystadenoma arising from the common hepatic duct. A 42-year-old woman was evaluated by us to find the cause of her jaundice. Ultrasonography and CT showed a cystic dilatation of the common hepatic duct and also marked dilatation of the intrahepatic duct.

Glomangiosarcoma of the hand: a case report and review of the literature.

Glomangiosarcomas, or malignant glomus tumors, are very rare, cutaneous, soft tissue tumors. Despite having histologic features of malignancy, these tumors usually do not metastasize. We describe a 74-year-old woman with a glomangiosarcoma on her hand and review the literature.

Inactivation of the RASSF1A in osteosarcoma.

We investigated the expression and mutation of three isoforms of the Ras effector RASSF1 in 10 primary osteosarcomas and 6 osteosarcoma cell lines. RASSF1A was not expressed in 40% (4/10) of the primary osteosarcomas and 83.3% (5/6) of the osteosarcoma cell lines.

Aberrant CpG island methylation of multiple genes in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma.

Aberrant methylation of promoter CpG islands of human genes has been known as an alternative mechanism of gene inactivation and contributes to the carcinogenesis in many human tumors. We attempted to determine the methylation status of 18 genes, or loci known to be frequently methylated in cancers of other organs, in 79 resected intrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas and 15 normal bile duct epithelium by methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction and correlated the data with clinicopathological findings. Methylation frequencies of the loci tested in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas were 59.