Platelet Angiopoietin-1 Protects Against Murine Models of Tumor Metastasis.

Background: In addition to their fundamental roles in preserving vascular integrity, platelets also contribute to tumor angiogenesis and metastasis. However, despite being a reservoir for angiogenic and metastatic cytokines, platelets also harbor negative regulators of tumor progression. Angpt1 (angiopoietin-1) is a cytokine essential for developmental angiogenesis that also protects against tumor cell metastasis through an undefined mechanism.

The benefits of validation of methods for toxicity testing outweigh its costs.

The 4th Annual Forum on Endocrine Disrupters organized by the European Commission brought together the authors of this article around the topic: “From bench to validated test guidelines: (pre)val­idation of test methods”. Validation activities are meant to demonstrate the relevance and reliability of methods and approaches used in regulatory safety testing. These activities are essential to facil­itate regulatory use, still they are largely underfunded and unattractive to the scientific community.

OECD harmonised template 201: Structuring and reporting mechanistic information to foster the integration of new approach methodologies for hazard and risk assessment of chemicals.

In the European Union, the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability (CSS) highlights the need to enhance the identification and assessment of substances of concern while reducing animal testing, thus fostering the development and use of New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) such as in silico, in vitro and in chemico. In the United States, the Tox21 strategy aims at shifting toxicological assessments away from traditional animal studies towards target-specific, mechanism-based and biological observations mainly obtained by using NAMs. Many other jurisdictions around the world are also increasing the use of NAMs.

Extensive genome analysis identifies novel plasmid families in .

Globally, the anaerobic bacterium causes severe disease in a wide array of hosts; however, strains are also carried asymptomatically. Accessory genes are responsible for much of the observed phenotypic variation and virulence within this species, with toxins frequently encoded on conjugative plasmids and many isolates carrying up to 10 plasmids. Despite this unusual biology, current genomic analyses have largely excluded isolates from healthy hosts or environmental sources.

Expansion of Liver Transplantation Criteria for Hepatocellular Carcinoma from Milan to UCSF in Australia and New Zealand and Justification for Metroticket 2.0.

Background: Expansion in liver transplantation (LT) criteria for HCC from Milan to UCSF has not adversely impacted overall survival, prompting further expansion towards Metroticket 2.0 (MT2). In this study, we compared patient survival post-transplant before and after 2007 and long-term outcomes for LT within Milan versus UCSF criteria (to determine the true benefit of the expansion of criteria) and retrospectively validated the MT2 criteria.