Anti-Cancer Effects of Protein Extracts from Calvatia lilacina, Pleurotus ostreatus and Volvariella volvacea.

Calvatia lilacina (CL), Pleurotus ostreatus (PO) and Volvariella volvacea (VV) are widely distributed worldwide and commonly eaten as mushrooms. In this study, cell viabilities were evaluated for a human colorectal adenocarcinoma cell line (SW480 cells) and a human monocytic leukemia cell line (THP-1 cells). Apoptotic mechanisms induced by the protein extracts of PO and VV were evaluated for SW480 cells.

A monoclonal antibody (Mc178-Ab) targeted to the ecto-ATP synthase β-subunit-induced cell apoptosis via a mechanism involving the MAPKase and Akt pathways.

Ecto-ATP synthase has been considered to be an effective target for cancer recently. As inhibitors of ecto-ATP synthase were found to be cytotoxic for tumor cells, a monoclonal antibody (Mc178-Ab) against ecto-ATP synthase was generated in our previous study that exhibited both anti-angiogenic and anti-tumorigenic effects. However, the mechanism of action of Mc178-Ab and its downstream pathways for anti-tumor effects remain unclear.

[A 32P application device for the treatment of condyloma acuminatum in the rectum].

Objective: To investigate the use of a 32P application device (AD) in the treatment of condyloma acuminatum (CA) in the rectum, and to compare its clinical effect with that of the microwave therapy.

Methods: This study included 107 cases of CA in the rectum, 99 males and 8 females, aged 21-58 (33.6 +/- 9.

A built-in zero valent iron anaerobic reactor to enhance treatment of azo dye wastewater.

Waste scrap iron was packed into an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor to form a zero valent iron (ZVI) - UASB reactor system for treatment of azo dye wastewater. The ZVI acted as a reductant to decrease ORP in the reactor by more than 40 mv and functioned as an acid buffer to increase the pH in the reactor from 5.44 to 6.

LYVE-1 enhances the adhesion of HS-578T cells to COS-7 cells via hyaluronan.

Purpose: Lymphatic vessel endothelial hyaluronan receptor (LYVE-1), a specific molecular marker for lymph systems, has only one known ligand, hyaluronan (HA). Many studies have reported that HA, on the surface of tumor cells, is associated with the metastatic behavior of cancer cells. The interaction of LYVE-1 with HA may facilitate tumor cell attachment and enhance dissemination of tumor cells to lymph nodes.

Signalling pathways and vascular calcification.

Vascular calcification is a major risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. A full understanding of the signalling pathways mediating vascular calcification is crucial not just because of the importance of this pathology in disease, but also for exploring potential therapeutic targets. Clinically there is a need to develop therapies to prevent or even reverse calcification in situations of atherosclerosis, chronic kidney disease, diabetes, and aging.

Effects of an electric field and zero valent iron on anaerobic treatment of azo dye wastewater and microbial community structures.

A zero valent iron (ZVI) bed with a pair of electrodes was packed in an anaerobic reactor aiming at enhancing treatment of azo dye wastewater. The experiments were carried out in three reactors operated in parallel: an electric field enhanced ZVI-anaerobic reactor (R1), a ZVI-anaerobic reactor (R2) and a common anaerobic reactor (R3). R1 presented the highest performance in removal of COD and color.

Applying an electric field in a built-in zero valent iron--anaerobic reactor for enhancement of sludge granulation.

A zero valent iron (ZVI) bed with a pair of electrodes was installed in an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor to create an enhanced condition to increase the rate of anaerobic granulation. The effects of an electric field and ZVI on granulation were investigated in three UASB reactors operated in parallel: an electric field enhanced ZVI-UASB reactor (reactor R1), a ZVI-UASB reactor (reactor R2) and a common UASB reactor (reactor R3). When a voltage of 1.

Mitochondrial F1Fo-ATP synthase translocates to cell surface in hepatocytes and has high activity in tumor-like acidic and hypoxic environment.

F1Fo-ATP synthase was originally thought to exclusively locate in the inner membrane of the mitochondria. However, recent studies prove the existence of ectopic F1Fo-ATP synthase on the outside of the cell membrane. Ectopic ATP synthase was proposed as a marker for tumor target therapy.

Combretastatin A-4 inhibits cell growth and metastasis in bladder cancer cells and retards tumour growth in a murine orthotopic bladder tumour model.

Background And Purpose: Bladder cancer is a highly recurrent cancer after intravesical therapy, so new drugs are needed to treat this cancer. Hence, we investigated the anti-cancer activity of combretastatin A-4 (CA-4), an anti-tubulin agent, in human bladder cancer cells and in a murine orthotopic bladder tumour model.

Experimental Approach: Cytotoxicity of CA-4 was measured by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay, propidium iodide (PI) staining assay and clonogenic survival assay.

Arterial and venous vessels are required for modulating developmental relocalization and laterality of the interrenal tissue in zebrafish.

During zebrafish embryogenesis, the endothelium signals to emergent bilateral interrenal primordia to converge toward the midline, yet the merged interrenal tissue has been found to be situated lateral to the midline. We show in this study that bilateral interrenal tissue clusters fused at the central midline, before relocating laterally to be juxtaposed between the dorsal aorta and the posterior cardinal vein. In ets1b morphants where the midtrunk vasculature failed to assemble, various degrees of interrenal fusion defects were displayed, and the interrenal laterality was lost.

Inhibition of LPS-induced C/EBP delta by trichostatin A has a positive effect on LPS-induced cyclooxygenase 2 expression in RAW264.7 cells.

Cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2) is an important inflammatory factor. Previous studies have indicated that COX-2 is induced with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) treatment. Here, we found that an inhibitor of histone deacetylase (HDAC), trichostatin A (TSA), cannot repress LPS-induced COX-2 but it increased the COX-2 level in RAW264.

Prelamin A acts to accelerate smooth muscle cell senescence and is a novel biomarker of human vascular aging.

Background: Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome is a rare inherited disorder of premature aging caused by mutations in LMNA or Zmpste24 that disrupt nuclear lamin A processing, leading to the accumulation of prelamin A. Patients develop severe premature arteriosclerosis characterized by vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) calcification and attrition.

Methods And Results: To determine whether defective lamin A processing is associated with vascular aging in the normal population, we examined the profile of lamin A expression in normal and aged VSMCs.

Distortion product emissions from a cochlear model with nonlinear mechanoelectrical transduction in outer hair cells.

A model of cochlear mechanics is described in which force-producing outer hair cells (OHC) are embedded in a passive cochlear partition. The OHC mechanoelectrical transduction current is nonlinearly modulated by reticular-lamina (RL) motion, and the resulting change in OHC membrane voltage produces contraction between the RL and the basilar membrane (BM). Model parameters were chosen to produce a tonotopic map typical of a human cochlea.

4'-Chloro-3,5-dihydroxystilbene, a resveratrol derivative, induces lung cancer cell death.

Aim: To examine the antitumor effect of 4'-chloro-3,5-dihydroxystilbene, a resveratrol derivative, on lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells.

Methods: The cytotoxic IC(50) was determined by direct cell counting. Flow cytometry, monodansylcadaverine (MDC) staining, transfection, Western blot and a proteasome activity assay were used to study the cellular mechanism of 4'-chloro-3,5-dihydroxystilbene.

Hyaluronan oligosaccharides promote excisional wound healing through enhanced angiogenesis.

The biological roles of hyaluronan (HA) fragments in angiogenesis acceleration have been investigated recently. Studies have confirmed that oligosaccharides of HA (o-HA) are capable of stimulating neovascularization in vitro and promoting blood flow or angiogenesis in animal models. However, few laboratories have studied the function of o-HA as an exogenous treatment in injured tissue repair in vivo.

1,10-phenanthroline stabilizes mRNA of the carcinogen-metabolizing enzyme, cytochrome P450 1a1.

1,10-phenanthroline (phen), flufenamic acid, and indomethacin are inhibitors of aldo-keto reductases 1C1 (AKR1C1), but only phen decreased the benzo[a]pyrene (BaP)-induced cytochrome P450 1a1 (Cyp1a1) protein level. Therefore the decrease in the BaP-induced Cyp1a1 protein level was not due to inhibition of Akr1c1, but to phen itself. Phen decreased the BaP-induced Cyp1a1 promoter activity and protein expression, and in contrast, it increased Cyp1a1 mRNA, resulting from an increase in mRNA stability.

Translational up-regulation of Aurora-A in EGFR-overexpressed cancer.

Abnormal expression of Aurora-A and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is observed in different kinds of cancer and associated with poor prognosis in cancer patients. However, the relationship between Aurora-A and EGFR in tumour development was not clear. In previous reports, we found that EGFR translocates to nucleus to activate Aurora-A expression after EGF treatment in EGFR-overexpressed cells.

Wideband acoustic-reflex test in a test battery to predict middle-ear dysfunction.

A wideband (WB) aural acoustical test battery of middle-ear status, including acoustic-reflex thresholds (ARTs) and acoustic-transfer functions (ATFs, i.e., absorbance and admittance) was hypothesized to be more accurate than 1-kHz tympanometry in classifying ears that pass or refer on a newborn hearing screening (NHS) protocol based on otoacoustic emissions.

Sound-conduction effects on distortion-product otoacoustic emission screening outcomes in newborn infants: test performance of wideband acoustic transfer functions and 1-kHz tympanometry.

Objective: Universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS) test outcomes can be influenced by conditions affecting the sound conduction pathway, including ear canal and/or middle ear function. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the test performance of wideband (WB) acoustic transfer functions and 1-kHz tympanometry in terms of their ability to predict the status of the sound conduction pathway for ears that passed or were referred in a UNHS program.

Design: A distortion-product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE) test was used to determine the UNHS status of 455 infant ears (375 passed and 80 referred).

The inhibitory effect of Gynostemma pentaphyllum on MCP-1 and type I procollagen expression in rat hepatic stellate cells.

Aim Of The Study: Gynostemma pentaphyllum is a popular folk medicine that has been used for treatment of hepatitis in Asia. Our previous study demonstrates that Gynostemma pentaphyllum n-butanol extract inhibits the onset and improves the recovery of CCl(4)-induced liver fibrogenesis in rats and inhibits PDGF-induced rat hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) proliferation. In this study, the effect of Gynostemma pentaphyllum extract on cytokines and type I procollagen expression was analyzed.

Outer hair cell electromechanical properties in a nonlinear piezoelectric model.

A nonlinear piezoelectric circuit is proposed to model electromechanical properties of the outer hair cell (OHC) in mammalian cochleae. The circuit model predicts (a) that the nonlinear capacitance decreases as the stiffness of the load increases, and (b) that the axial compliance of the cell reaches a maximum at the same membrane potential for peak capacitance. The model was also designed to be integrated into macro-mechanical models to simulate cochlear wave propagation.

A small-molecule metastasis inhibitor, norcantharidin, downregulates matrix metalloproteinase-9 expression by inhibiting Sp1 transcriptional activity in colorectal cancer cells.

Norcantharidin (NCTD) is a small-molecule metastasis inhibitor without renal toxicity derived from a renal toxic compound cantharidin, which is found in blister beetles (Mylabris phalerata Pall.), commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine. The anti-metastatic capacity of NCTD is apparently through the downexpression of matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) activity.

Crosstalk between activated forms of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor and glucocorticoid receptor.

Pyrene, benzo[a]pyrene (BaP), and indeno[1,2,3-cd]pyrene (IND) are poly cyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) with four to six annealed phenyl rings. Dexamethasone (Dex) is a synthetic agonist of glucocorticoids. The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) ligands, BaP and IND, did not directly activate the glucocorticoid receptor (GR), and Dex did not activate the AhR either.