S100A10 Has a Critical Regulatory Function in Mammary Tumor Growth and Metastasis: Insights Using MMTV-PyMT Oncomice and Clinical Patient Sample Analysis.

S100A10 (p11) is a plasminogen receptor that regulates cellular plasmin generation by cancer cells. In the current study, we used the MMTV-PyMT mouse breast cancer model, patient tumor microarray, and immunohistochemical (IHC) analysis to investigate the role of p11 in oncogenesis. The genetic deletion of p11 resulted in significantly decreased tumor onset, growth rate, and spontaneous pulmonary metastatic burden in the PyMT/p11-KO (knock-out) mice.

Raloxifene prevents stress granule dissolution, impairs translational control and promotes cell death during hypoxia in glioblastoma cells.

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common primary malignant brain tumor, and it has a uniformly poor prognosis. Hypoxia is a feature of the GBM microenvironment, and previous work has shown that cancer cells residing in hypoxic regions resist treatment. Hypoxia can trigger the formation of stress granules (SGs), sites of mRNA triage that promote cell survival.

Iron Chelation in Murine Models of Systemic Inflammation Induced by Gram-Positive and Gram-Negative Toxins.

Iron is an essential element for various physiological processes, but its levels must remain tightly regulated to avoid cellular damage. Similarly, iron plays a dual role in systemic inflammation, such as with sepsis. Leukocytes utilize iron to produce reactive oxygen species (ROS) to kill bacteria, but pathologically increased iron-catalyzed ROS production in sepsis can lead to damage of host cells, multi-organ failure and death.

Incidence of sub-perineural injection using a targeted intracluster supraclavicular ultrasound-guided approach in cadavers.

Background: Multi-injection targeted intracluster injection ultrasound-guided supraclavicular brachial plexus block has been advocated to provide a faster onset of anaesthesia compared with a double injection technique. By placing the needle within clusters of hypoechoic structures, corresponding to neural tissue, this technique may increase needle trauma and the incidence of nerve injury. This study assessed the rate of sub-perineural needle placement with a single intracluster brachial plexus injection in the supraclavicular fossa of human cadavers.

Anti-inflammatory effects of a novel iron chelator, DIBI, in experimental sepsis.

Background: Iron catalyzes the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) as part of the innate antimicrobial defense. During sepsis, the dysregulated systemic inflammatory response to infection, iron homeostasis becomes disrupted, generating an excess of ROS causing damage to tissues. This can be potentially suppressed using iron chelators that selectively bind iron to prevent its participation in ROS-related inflammatory reactions.

Developing an in situ forming polyphosphate coacervate as a new liquid embolic agent: From experimental design to pilot animal study.

Unlabelled: A radiopaque temporary liquid embolic agent was synthesized from polyphosphate (PP) coacervates and optimized using a design of experiments approach. Variables studied were: strontium substitution (0-15 mol%), barium substitution (0-15 mol%), PP concentration and degree of polymerization of the polyphosphate (Dp). The viscosity, radiopacity and cell viability of the resulting coacervates were measured for 60 formulations and response surface modeling was used to determine the optimum coacervate that maximized radiopacity and cell viability.

Anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial effects of iron chelation in experimental sepsis.

Background: Sepsis is the systemic inflammatory response to an infection. Generation of reactive oxygen species represents an important part of the inflammatory cascade in sepsis. Dysregulation of iron homeostasis can further promote the generation of radicals and amplify the damage caused by systemic immune activation.

Loss of LKB1 expression reduces the latency of ErbB2-mediated mammary gland tumorigenesis, promoting changes in metabolic pathways.

The tumor suppressor kinase LKB1 is mutated in a broad range of cancers however, the role of LKB1 mammary gland tumorigenesis is not fully understood. Evaluation of human breast cancer tissue microarrays, indicate that 31% of HER2 positive samples lacked LKB1 expression. To expand on these observations, we crossed STK11 (fl/fl) mice with mice genetically engineered to express activated Neu/HER2-MMTV-Cre (NIC) under the endogenous Erbb2 promoter, to generate STK11 (-/-/) NIC mice.