A Case of Acquired Hemophilia A: Usefulness of Various Methods for Judging Mixing Test Results for Monitoring the Effect of Immunosuppressive Therapy.

Background: Measurement of FVIII inhibitor (FVIII INH) levels is important for determining the effect of immunosuppressive therapy on acquired hemophilia A (AHA). However, FVIII INH can only be measured at a limited number of laboratories, which means that there are delays in obtaining the results at many sites.

Methods: A series of mixing tests were carried out in a case of AHA, followed by comparison of various methods for judging the obtained results in association with a change of FVIII INH.

Survivin plays as a resistant factor against tamoxifen-induced apoptosis in human breast cancer cells.

Tamoxifen has been the mainstay of endocrine therapy for estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer. However, approximately 40% of breast cancer patients do not respond to tamoxifen treatment. Further, most tumors eventually acquire tamoxifen resistance.

Diagnostic relevance of overexpressed mRNA of novel oncogene with kinase-domain (NOK) in lung cancers.

There have been no target molecules that have enabled us to diagnose lung cancer with high sensitivity and specificity even in its early clinical stages. A molecule termed novel oncogene with kinase-domain (NOK) was recently reported as a receptor protein tyrosine kinase that is expressed in some cancer cell lines and causes the transformation and progressive proliferation of normal cells. Therefore, NOK could be a possible candidate for a diagnostic marker for human cancers.

Olfactomedin 4 promotes S-phase transition in proliferation of pancreatic cancer cells.

Induction of olfactomedin 4 (OLFM4(GW112/hGC-1)) in cancer cells was recently reported to have a novel antiapoptotic action via binding to the potent apoptosis inducer GRIM-19. We sought to clarify undiscovered functions of constitutively expressed OLFM4 in cancer cells. OLFM4 mRNA was highly expressed in pancreatic cancer tissues.

Specific overexpression of OLFM4(GW112/HGC-1) mRNA in colon, breast and lung cancer tissues detected using quantitative analysis.

Overexpression of the olfactomedin 4 (OLFM4(GW112,/hGC-1)) gene was recently reported to inhibit various apoptotic pathways and promote proliferation of cancer cells, suggesting that OLFM4 might serve as a diagnostic marker for human cancers. Therefore, we examined cancer-specific OLFM4 overexpression. OLFM4 mRNA was highly expressed in cancerous tissues obtained from the colon, breast and lung.

Diagnostic relevance of overexpressed NOK mRNA in breast cancer.

A novel oncogene with a kinase domain (NOK), a receptor protein tyrosine kinase, has been reported to cause proliferation of normal cells, suggesting its possible use as a diagnostic marker in human cancer. To determine the significance of NOK expression in cancer cells, the effect of NOK inhibition was first examined on cell proliferation in vitro. The degree of expression in 52 clinical breast cancer samples was then correlated with clinical features.

A novel gene containing PDZ and LIM domains, PCD1, is overexpressed in human colorectal cancer.

Background: The process of colorectal cancer development involves accumulated genetic alterations affecting APC, K-ras and p53. A recently identified gene, PCD1, was reported to be up-regulated in human malignancies including colorectal cancers, but relationships between PCD1 gene expression and clinicopathological findings, as well as the timing of genetic alteration of PCD1 in colorectal cancer development, are not clear. To determine whether PCD1 contributes to colorectal cancer progression, we investigated the expression of PCD1 mRNA in human colorectal tissues.

A proapoptotic caspase recruitment domain protein gene, TMS1, is hypermethylated in human breast and gastric cancers.

Background: Conway et al. demonstrated that methylation of the proapoptotic gene, TMS1, was observed in breast cancer cell lines and tissues, resulting in decreased TMS1 gene transcription. However, whether the TMS1 gene is hypermethylated in other cancers is uncertain.

Down-regulation of TRF1, TRF2 and TIN2 genes is important to maintain telomeric DNA for gastric cancers.

Background: The maintenance of telomeres may be required for long-term proliferation of tumors. Activity of telomerase, a ribonucleoprotein complex that elongates telomeres, has been found in almost all human tumors but not in adjacent normal cells. Several factors which regulate telomere length, TRF1 and 2, TIN2, tankyrase and Rap1, have been identified.

Relevance of c-erbB2, PLU-1 and survivin mRNA expression to diagnostic assessment of breast cancer.

The positivity rates of mRNA expression in breast cancer of the tumor-related genes for c-erbB2, PLU-1 and survivin are unclear. We quantitatively analyzed tissue samples from 39 breast cancers and non-cancerous parts of the same specimens for the above three mRNAs using a TaqMan reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Using the mean + 2SD of non-cancerous sample as a cut-off value, the positivity rates of the tumors for c-erbB2, PLU-1 and survivin were 20.

Decreased gene expression for telomeric-repeat binding factors and TIN2 in malignant hematopoietic cells.

Background: Details of mechanisms regulating telomere length are poorly understood in human hematopoietic cells.

Materials And Methods: Gene expression for TRFs and TIN2 was studied in hematopoietic cell lines, blood or bone marrow cells from acute leukemia and in normal leukocyte fractions.

Results: The telomeres were longest in normal leukocytes, shorter in patient samples and still shorter in malignant hematopoietic cell lines.