Somatic-to-primordial germ cell-like transformation is critical in tumor initiation of mouse breast tumor 4T1 cells.

It has been proposed that tumorigenicity was an intrinsic feature of embryonic/germ cell developmental axis as well as embryonic/germ cell-related genes play a crucial role in tumorigenicity. Our previous studies indicated that primordial germ cell (PGC)-like potential could be reactivated in tumorigenesis. In this study, 4T1, 168FARN and 67NR cells which originated from the same mouse breast cancer were studied and the results indicated that the acquisition of embryonic/germ cell-like state is essential for tumorigenicity.

βKlotho, a direct target of miR-206, contributes to the growth of hepatoblastoma through augmenting PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling.

Hepatoblastoma (HB) is the most frequent pediatric liver malignancy. However, the treatment outcome for patients with advanced-stage HB remains unsatisfactory. Accumulating evidence indicates that βKlotho (KLB) acts as an oncogene or a tumor-suppressor gene in a context-dependent manner.

Epithelial-mesenchymal transition and mesenchymal-epithelial transition response during differentiation of growth-plate chondrocytes in endochondral ossification.

For linear longitudinal bone elongation, the stem-like progenitor chondrocytes distributed in resting zone (RZ) of growth plate have a capacity to differentiate towards the spindle chondrocytes in proliferative zone (PZ), then towards the columnar and tightly adjacent chondrocytes in hypertrophic zone (HZ). We hypothesized this process of endochondral ossification with cells morphological change was occurred along with the inter-conversion between epithelial to mesenchymal cell types. Consistent with this hypothesis, our study demonstrated the chondrocytes highly expressed mesenchymal-like biomarkers and loss of epithelial surface markers in PZ, while converse in RZ and HZ of the growth plate in mice distal tibia in vivo.

Transrectal real-time elastography-guided transperineal prostate biopsy as an improved tool for prostate cancer diagnosis.

Objectives: The aim of this study is to determine the utility of transrectal real-time elastography (TRTE)-guided prostate biopsies in patients subjected to transrectal ultrasound (TRUS)-guided transperineal prostate biopsies.

Materials And Methods: A total of 108 consecutive patients suspicious for prostate cancer (PCa) with elevated serum prostate specific antigen (PSA) level > 4 μg/L or abnormal findings on digital rectal examination (DRE) were enrolled in this study. All patients were sequentially underwent 10-cores systematic biopsy and TRTE-guided targeted biopsy.