Expression of Ras GTPase isoforms in normal and diseased pancreas.

Background: Ki-Ras is well studied in its oncogenic form in relation to pancreatic pathologies. However, the individual contribution of each of the wild-type Ras isoforms (Ha-, Ki-, and N-) in pancreatic cells in health and disease is unknown.

Methods: Archival formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded specimens of normal (n = 6) and malignant pancreas (n = 35) were used for immuno-histochemical detection of Ras isoforms using a modified polymer system.

Subcellular distribution of Ras GTPase isoforms in normal human kidney.

Background: Ras GTPase isoforms have been implicated in proliferative renal disease and are known to have differential cellular expression in kidney. However, their exact subcellular location in various cells is unknown.

Methods: Immunogold labelling for Ras isoforms (Harvey, Kirsten and Neural) was performed for subcellular localization under electron microscopy in fresh normal kidney specimens, obtained from the opposite pole of kidneys removed for renal cell cancer.

Raised tissue copper levels in oral submucous fibrosis.

Oral submucous fibrosis (OSF) is a well-recognised-potentially malignant condition of the oral cavity associated with areca nut chewing. Areca nut has been shown to have a high copper content compared to other commonly eaten nuts, and chewing areca nut for 5-30 min significantly increases soluble copper in whole mouth fluids. Our aims were to determine if tissue and serum concentrations of copper were raised in patients with OSF as a result of chewing areca nut.

Ultrastructural pathology of the heart in patients with beta-thalassaemia major.

Patients with beta-thalassaemia major frequently suffer from hypersiderosis which leads to hemochromatosis of major organs such as the heart and liver. Little information exists about the ultrastructural pathology of the human heart in beta-thalassaemia patients. Five Cypriot patients with elevated blood ferritin and intractable heart failure were investigated.

Ultrastructural and histochemical observations on intracellular and luminal microcalculi in the feline sublingual salivary gland.

As the genesis of salivary calculi in man has not been established, the fortuitous observation of microcalculi in sublingual glands of cats prompted this study. Microcalculi were seen occasionally within acinar cells and lumina and macrophages, and rarely interstitially. Microcalculi were stained with the periodic-acid/Schiff technique, and acid-phosphatase activity was associated with intracellular microcalculi.