Low‑dose trametinib and Bcl‑xL antagonist have a specific antitumor effect in KRAS‑mutated colorectal cancer cells.

KRAS‑mutant colorectal cancer (CRC) is a highly malignant cancer with a poor prognosis, however specific therapies targeting KRAS mutations do not yet exist. Anti‑epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) agents, including cetuximab and panitumumab, are effective for the treatment of certain patients with CRC. However, these anti‑EGFR treatments have no effect on KRAS‑mutant CRC.

Generation of a common innate lymphoid cell progenitor requires interferon regulatory factor 2.

Innate lymphoid cells (ILCs), composed of heterogeneous populations of lymphoid cells, contribute critically to immune surveillance at mucosal surfaces. ILC subsets develop from common lymphoid progenitors through stepwise lineage specification. However, the composition and temporal regulation of the transcription factor network governing such a process remain incompletely understood.

Impact of age on groin hernia profiles observed during laparoscopic transabdominal preperitoneal hernia repair.

Background: How increasing age affects the characteristics of groin hernia remains uncertain. This study evaluated the association between age and the type of groin hernia, especially with respect to its multiplicity, observed during laparoscopic transabdominal preperitoneal (TAPP) hernia repair.

Methods: We retrospectively evaluated 634 consecutive patients with primary groin hernia who underwent laparoscopic TAPP repair between October 2000 and June 2017.

Treatment with specific soluble factors promotes the functional maturation of transcription factor-mediated, pancreatic transdifferentiated cells.

Pancreatic lineage-specific transcription factors (TFs) display instructive roles in converting adult cells to endocrine pancreatic cells through a process known as transdifferentiation. However, little is known about potential factors capable of accelerating transdifferentiation following transduction to achieve the functional maturation of transdifferentiated cells. In this study, we demonstrated, using adult liver-derived progenitor cells, that soluble factors utilized in pancreatic differentiation protocols of pluripotent stem cells promote functional maturation of TFs-mediated transdifferentiated cells.

Fascin1 suppresses RIG-I-like receptor signaling and interferon-β production by associating with IκB kinase ϵ (IKKϵ) in colon cancer.

Fascin1 is an actin-bundling protein involved in cancer cell migration and has recently been shown also to have roles in virus-mediated immune cell responses. Because viral infection has been shown to activate immune cells and to induce interferon-β expression in human cancer cells, we evaluated the effects of fascin1 on virus-dependent signaling via the membrane- and actin-associated protein RIG-I (retinoic acid-inducible gene I) in colon cancer cells. We knocked down fascin1 expression with shRNA retrovirally transduced into a DLD-1 colon cancer and L929 fibroblast-like cell lines and used luciferase reporter assays and co-immunoprecipitation to identify fascin1 targets.

Evaluation of hemodynamic imaging findings of hypervascular hepatocellular carcinoma: comparison between dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging using radial volumetric imaging breath-hold examination with k-space-weighted image contrast reconstruction and dynamic computed tomography during hepatic arteriography.

Purpose: To compare the visualization of hemodynamic imaging findings of hypervascular hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) on dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) using radial volumetric imaging breath-hold examination with k-space-weighted image contrast reconstruction (r-VIBE-KWIC) versus dynamic computed tomography during hepatic arteriography (dyn-CTHA).

Materials And Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the databases of preoperative DCE-MRI using r-VIBE-KWIC, dyn-CTHA, and postoperative pathology of resected specimens. Fourteen patients with 14 hypervascular HCCs underwent both DCE-MRI and dyn-CTHA.

Survival Benefits of Surgical Resection in Patients with Recurrent Biliary Tract Carcinoma.

Background: Whether surgical resection for recurrent biliary tract carcinoma (BTC) prolongs survival and the patients who are most likely to benefit from such treatment remain unclear.

Methods: Among 251 patients with recurrences after the initial resection of BTC, a total of 21 patients (8.4%) underwent surgical resection for the recurrence, with a zero mortality rate.

Nomogram predicting long-term survival after the diagnosis of intrahepatic recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma following an initial liver resection.

Background: The aim of this study was to construct and validate a nomogram for predicting survival after the intrahepatic recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) following an initial hepatectomy.

Methods: A primary cohort of 268 patients who underwent curative hepatectomy for HCC at Shinshu University Hospital between 1990 and 2010 was retrospectively studied. A nomogram was constructed based on independent prognostic factors for overall survival after recurrence.

ASC Induces Apoptosis via Activation of Caspase-9 by Enhancing Gap Junction-Mediated Intercellular Communication.

ASC (apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a CARD) is a key adaptor molecule of inflammasomes that mediates inflammatory and apoptotic signals. Aberrant methylation-induced silencing of ASC has been observed in a variety of cancer cells, thus implicating ASC in tumor suppression, although this role remains incompletely defined especially in the context of closely neighboring cell proliferation. As ASC has been confirmed to be silenced by abnormal methylation in HT1080 fibrosarcoma cells as well, this cell line was investigated to characterize the precise role and mechanism of ASC in tumor progression.

Correlation between the serum levels of type IV collagen 7s domain and the risk of intractable ascites following liver resection for hepatocellular carcinoma: A propensity score-matched analysis.

Background: The severity of liver fibrosis has been reported to be correlated with the risk of intractable ascites after hepatectomy for hepatocellular carcinoma. Since 2009, we have measured routinely the serum concentrations of type IV collagen 7s domain (7s collagen), a biochemical marker of liver fibrosis and applied limited resection to patients with elevation of the serum 7s collagen concentrations above the upper limit of normal (6.0 ng/mL).

Clinicopathological characteristics of non-B non-C hepatocellular carcinoma without past hepatitis B virus infection.

Aim: Past hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is considered a risk factor for hepatocarcinogenesis, but the clinicopathological characteristics of non-B non-C hepatocellular carcinoma (NBNC-HCC) excluding past HBV infection have not been investigated. This study aimed to clarify the clinicopathological features of strictly defined NBNC-HCC.

Methods: Among HCC patients who underwent surgical resection at our affiliated hospitals in Nagano prefecture, Japan, between 1996 and 2012, 77 were negative for serum anti-HBV core/surface antibodies in addition to HBV surface antigen and anti-hepatitis C virus antibody without signs of autoimmune liver disease, Wilson disease, or hemochromatosis.

Contrast-enhancement ratio on multiphase enhanced computed tomography predicts recurrence of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor after curative resection.

Background/objective: No previous study has quantitatively investigated the degree of enhancement of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (pNETs) using a routine preoperative modality. The aim of this study was to evaluate the contrast-enhancement ratio (CER) of pNETs using multiphase enhanced CT and to assess the impact of the CER on disease recurrence after surgery.

Methods: A retrospective study was performed using data from 47 consecutive patients with pNETs who had undergone curative surgery.

Biliary tract variations of the left liver with special reference to the left medial sectional bile duct in 500 patients.

Background: Among the intrahepatic bile ducts, the biliary system of the left medial sectional bile duct (B4) is known to have relatively complex patterns.

Methods: The records of 500 patients who had been diagnosed as having hepato-pancreatico-biliary disease were retrospectively studied for anatomical biliary variations of the left liver with special reference to the drainage system of B4 using magnetic resonance images.

Results: The left hepatic duct was present in 494 patients (98.

Features of acute liver congestion on gadoxetate disodium-enhanced MRI in a rat model: Role of organic anion-transporting polypeptide 1A1.

Purpose: To evaluate the features of hepatic congestion on gadoxetate disodium (Gd-EOB-DTPA)-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and the mechanisms responsible for the radiological findings in a rat model of partial liver congestion.

Materials And Methods: A conventional T1 -weighted spin-echo sequence of the liver was performed using a 1.5T magnetic resonance imager with an 80-mm magnetic aperture for animal studies.

Liver failure after hepatocellular carcinoma surgery.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to construct a prediction model for posthepatectomy liver failure (PHLF), as defined by the International Study Group of Liver Surgery, and evaluate its accuracy in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients with cirrhosis or chronic hepatitis.

Methods: A total of 277 consecutive hepatectomies for HCC between 2005 and 2013 were analyzed retrospectively. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to develop a predictive model for PHLF.

Impact of advanced age on the short- and long-term outcomes in patients undergoing hepatectomy for hepatocellular carcinoma: a single-center analysis over a 20-year period.

Background: The purpose of this study was to analyze the influence of age on both the risk of hepatectomy and the prognosis in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Methods: Patients undergoing an initial hepatectomy for HCC were classified into 2 age groups: 75 years or over (n = 113) and less than 75 years (n = 499).

Results: A zero 90-day mortality was achieved in the elderly.

Differential requirements for IRF-2 in generation of CD1d-independent T cells bearing NK cell receptors.

NK cell receptors (NKRs) such as NK1.1, NKG2D, and Ly49s are expressed on subsets of CD1d-independent memory phenotype CD8(+) and CD4(-)CD8(-) T cells. However, the mechanism for the generation and functions of these NKR(+) T cells remained elusive.

PPARα is down-regulated following liver transplantation in mice.

Background & Aims: Graft dysfunction is one of the major complications after liver transplantation, but its precise mechanism remains unclear. Since steatotic liver grafts are susceptible to post-transplant dysfunction, and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) α plays an important role in the maintenance of hepatic lipid homeostasis, we examined the role of PPARα in liver transplantation.

Methods: Livers were harvested from Sv/129 wild-type (Ppara(+/+)) mice and PPARα-null (Ppara(-/-)) mice and transplanted orthotopically into syngeneic Ppara(+/+) mice.

IL-15-high-responder developing NK cells bearing Ly49 receptors in IL-15-/- mice.

In mice lacking IL-15, NK cell development is arrested at immature stages, providing an opportunity to investigate the earliest developing NK cells that would respond to IL-15. We show in this study that immature NK cells were present in the spleen as well as bone marrow (BM) and contained IL-15-high-responder cells. Thus, mature NK cells were generated more efficiently from IL-15(-/-) than from control donor cells in radiation BM chimeras, and the rate of IL-15-induced cell division in vitro was higher in NK cells in the spleen and BM from IL-15(-/-) mice than in those from wild-type mice.

Proapoptotic action of p53-Tom5 in p53-resistant A549 human non-small cell lung cancer cells through direct mitochondrial dysfunction.

Transcription-dependent apoptosis triggered by p53 hardly occurs in alternative reading frame (ARF)-null cancer cells. Loss of ARF leads to hyperactivation of murine double minute 2 (MDM2), resulting in the degradation of p53. In the present study, A549 (ARF-null) human non-small lung cancer cells were transfected with a plasmid DNA encoding human wild-type p53 and the mitochondrial transmembrane domain of Tom5 (p53-Tom5) for delivering p53 to mitochondria.

A case report of follicular lymphoma arising from the extrahepatic bile duct: interesting contrast-enhanced ultrasonographic findings.

We report a case of follicular lymphoma of the extrahepatic bile duct and the associated characteristic findings of contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS). A 60-year-old man with jaundice was scheduled to undergo surgical treatment because of a suspected diagnosis of biliary adenocarcinoma. CEUS in the high-resolution power Doppler mode showed early pulsatile enhancement of the inner layer of the thickened bile duct wall.