Pluripotency and the origin of animal multicellularity.

A widely held-but rarely tested-hypothesis for the origin of animals is that they evolved from a unicellular ancestor, with an apical cilium surrounded by a microvillar collar, that structurally resembled modern sponge choanocytes and choanoflagellates. Here we test this view of animal origins by comparing the transcriptomes, fates and behaviours of the three primary sponge cell types-choanocytes, pluripotent mesenchymal archaeocytes and epithelial pinacocytes-with choanoflagellates and other unicellular holozoans. Unexpectedly, we find that the transcriptome of sponge choanocytes is the least similar to the transcriptomes of choanoflagellates and is significantly enriched in genes unique to either animals or sponges alone.

Genome Biology: Unconventional DNA Repair in an Extreme Genome.

DNA is under constant assault and needs to efficiently repair breaks. A tiny marine relative of vertebrates makes do with an alternative mechanism to the canonical repair system, which coincides with it possessing one of the most extreme animal genomes.

The ontogeny of choanocyte chambers during metamorphosis in the demosponge Amphimedon queenslandica.

Background: The aquiferous body plan of poriferans revolves around internal chambers comprised of choanocytes, a cell type structurally similar to choanoflagellates. These choanocyte chambers perform a range of physiological and developmental functions, including the capture of food and the generation of stem cells. Despite the increasing interest for choanocytes as sponge stem cells, there is limited knowledge on the development of choanocyte chambers.

A novel technique for securing tracheal blood supply in salvage anterior mediastinal tracheostomy.

Introduction: The only way for complete cure of advanced esophageal cancer with invasion to the mid-trachea is anterior mediastinal tracheostomy (AMT), which has a significantly high risk of fatal complications. The shorter tracheal stump is beneficial for good blood supply, but complicates to create a tracheostomy.

Presentation Of Case: A 71-year-old patient with a history of advanced cervical esophageal cancer who was treated with definitive chemoradiotherapy 3 years earlier had local recurrence on the left side of the trachea despite salvage lymphadenectomy for solitary left paratracheal lymph node recurrence 1 year earlier.

[A Patient Who Underwent Surgery after CR to Chemotherapy for Scirrhous Gastric Cancer Suspected because of Lymphangitis Carcinomatosa].

A 58-year-old woman was diagnosed with scirrhous gastric cancer suspected because of lymphangitis carcinomatosa. She was treated with 10 courses of S-1+CDDP chemotherapy. After 3 years and 6 months, CR was obtained and she underwent curative total gastrectomy with D2 lymph node dissection plus resection of the spleen and transverse colon.

EGFR and HER2 signals play a salvage role in MEK1-mutated gastric cancer after MEK inhibition.

Since the prognosis of unresectable advanced gastric cancer remains poor, novel therapeutic strategies are needed. Somatic MEK1 gene mutations have been reported as oncogenic activating mutations in gastric cancer, and MEK inhibitors can be effective against such gastric cancers. In the present study, however, activated EGFR and HER2 signals after treatment with a MEK inhibitor (trametinib) were found in a MEK1-mutated gastric cancer cell line (OCUM-1 cell line) using a phospho-receptor tyrosine kinase array.

Inter- and intra-tumor profiling of multi-regional colon cancer and metastasis.

Intra- and inter-tumor heterogeneity may hinder personalized molecular-target treatment that depends on the somatic mutation profiles. We performed mutation profiling of formalin-fixed paraffin embedded tumors of multi-regional colon cancer and characterized the consequences of intra- and inter-tumor heterogeneity and metastasis using targeted re-sequencing. We performed targeted re-sequencing on multiple spatially separated samples obtained from multi-regional primary colon carcinoma and associated metastatic sites in two patients using next-generation sequencing.

MEK inhibitor for gastric cancer with MEK1 gene mutations.

The prognosis for patients with unresectable advanced or recurrent gastric cancer remains poor. The identification of additional oncogenes with influences similar to those of epidermal growth factor receptor gene mutations, upon which the growth of cancer cells is dependent, is needed. In this study, we evaluated sensitivity to MEK inhibitors (GSK1120212 and PD0325901) in several gastric cancer cell lines in vitro and found three poorly differentiated gastric cancer cell lines that were hypersensitive to the inhibitors.

Hypoxia induces resistance to ALK inhibitors in the H3122 non-small cell lung cancer cell line with an ALK rearrangement via epithelial-mesenchymal transition.

Patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with echinoderm microtubule-associated protein-like 4 (EML4)-anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) rearrangements generally respond to ALK inhibitors such as crizotinib. However, some patients with EML4-ALK rearrangements respond poorly to crizotinib. Hypoxia is involved in the resistance to chemotherapeutic treatments in several cancers, and we investigated the association between the responses to ALK inhibitors and hypoxia.

Evolutionary origin of gastrulation: insights from sponge development.

Background: The evolutionary origin of gastrulation--defined as a morphogenetic event that leads to the establishment of germ layers--remains a vexing question. Central to this debate is the evolutionary relationship between the cell layers of sponges (poriferans) and eumetazoan germ layers. Despite considerable attention, it remains unclear whether sponge cell layers undergo progressive fate determination akin to eumetazoan primary germ layer formation during gastrulation.