Accurate Morphology Preserving Segmentation of Overlapping Cells based on Active Contours.

The identification of fluorescently stained cell nuclei is the basis of cell detection, segmentation, and feature extraction in high content microscopy experiments. The nuclear morphology of single cells is also one of the essential indicators of phenotypic variation. However, the cells used in experiments can lose their contact inhibition, and can therefore pile up on top of each other, making the detection of single cells extremely challenging using current segmentation methods.

Comprehensive Drug Testing of Patient-derived Conditionally Reprogrammed Cells from Castration-resistant Prostate Cancer.

Background: Technology development to enable the culture of human prostate cancer (PCa) progenitor cells is required for the identification of new, potentially curative therapies for PCa.

Objective: We established and characterized patient-derived conditionally reprogrammed cells (CRCs) to assess their biological properties and to apply these to test the efficacies of drugs.

Design, Setting, And Participants: CRCs were established from seven patient samples with disease ranging from primary PCa to advanced castration-resistant PCa (CRPC).

Nuclear mobility and activity of FOXA1 with androgen receptor are regulated by SUMOylation.

Forkhead box (FOX) protein A1 has been dubbed a pioneer transcription factor because it binds target sites in DNA, thereby displacing nucleosomes to loosen chromatin and facilitating steroid receptor DNA binding nearby. FOXA1 is an important regulator of prostate development, collaborating with androgen receptor (AR). Post-translational modifications regulating FOXA1 are thus far poorly understood.

Dynamic SUMOylation is linked to the activity cycles of androgen receptor in the cell nucleus.

Despite of the progress in the molecular etiology of prostate cancer, the androgen receptor (AR) remains the major druggable target for the advanced disease. In addition to hormonal ligands, AR activity is regulated by posttranslational modifications. Here, we show that androgen induces SUMO-2 and SUMO-3 (SUMO-2/3) modification (SUMOylation) of the endogenous AR in prostate cancer cells, which is also reflected in the chromatin-bound receptor.