Differential expression of microRNAs during melanoma progression:miR-200c, miR-205 and miR-211 are downregulated in melanoma and act as tumour suppressors

BACKGROUND: The incidence of malignant melanoma is increasing faster than that for any other cancer. Histological examination of skin excision biopsies remains the standard method for melanoma diagnosis and prognosis. Significant morphological overlap between benign and malignant lesions complicates diagnosis, and tumour thickness is not always an accurate predictor of prognosis. METHODS: To identify improved molecular markers to support histological examination, we used microarray analysis of formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded samples from different stages of melanomagenesis to identify differentially expressed microRNAs (miRNAs). Differential expression was validated by qRT–PCR, and functional studies were carried out after transfection of miRNA precursors or inhibitors into melanoma cells to modulate miRNA expression. RESULTS: In all, 20 miRNAs showed highly significant differential expression between benign naevi and either primary or metastatic melanomas, the majority being downregulated in melanoma, whereas only 2 miRNAs, namely miR-203 and miR-205, were differentially expressed between primary and metastatic melanomas. In functional in vitro assays, overexpression of miR-200c and miR-205 inhibited anchorage-independent colony formation and overexpression of miR-211 inhibited both anchorage-independent colony formation and invasion. CONCLUSION: We have identified a series of differentially expressed miRNAs that could be useful as diagnostic or prognostic markers for melanoma and have shown that three miRNAs (namely miR-200c, miR-205 and miR-211) act as tumour suppressors

Confocal Microscopy

Description This issue of Dermatologic Clinics, guest edited by Jane M. Grant-Kels, Giovanni Pellacani, and Caterina Longo, is devoted to Confocal Microscopy. Articles in this timely issue include: Basics of Confocal Microscopy and the Complexity of Diagnosing Skin Tumors: New Imaging Tools in Clinical Practice, Diagnostic Workflows, Cost-estimate and New Trends; Opening a Window Into Living Tissue: Histopathologic Features of Confocal Microscopic Findings in Skin Tumors; Addressing the Issue of Discriminating Nevi from Early Melanomas: Dues and Pitfalls; Melanoma Types and Melanoma Progression: The Different Faces; Lentigo Maligna, Macules of the Face and Lesions on Sun-damaged Skin: Confocal makes the Difference; Glowing in the dark: use of confocal microscopy in dark pigmented lesions; Enlightening the Pink: Use of Confocal Microscopy in Pink Lesions; Shining into the White: The Spectrum of Epithelial Tumors from Actinic Keratosis to SCC; Application of Wide-probe and Handy-probe for Skin Cancer Diagnosis: Pros and Cons; Confocal Microscopy for Special Sites and Special Uses; Confocal Algorithms for Inflammatory Skin Diseases and Hair Diseases; In Vivo and Ex Vivo Confocal Microscopy for Dermatologic and Mohs’ Surgeons; Telediagnosis with Confocal Microscopy: A Reality or a Dream?; “Well-aging": Early Detection of Skin Aging Signs; The Role of Confocal Microscopy in Clinical Trials for Treatment Monitoring; and Fluorescence (multiwave) Confocal Microscopy

Three climatic cycles recorded in a loess-palaeosol sequence at Semlac (Romania) - Implications for dust accumulation in south-eastern Europe

Recent inve\stigations of the Semlac loess section in the south-eastern Carpathian Basin, which is situated at an undercut slope position on the right bank of the Mures River in its lower reaches (Banat region, western Romanian), are presented and discussed. Dating back to marine isotope stage (MIS) 10, the more than 10 m thick loess sequence includes four fossil soil-complexes developed in homogenous and relatively fine silty loess. Because of the good preservation of the sediment, Semlac is regarded as a key section for the Carpathian Basin, which offers possibilities to a) improve the understanding of the type and composition (loess homogeneity and pedogenic alteration) of the lowland loess sequences in the Carpathian Basin also beyond the last interglacial palaoesol complex, b) to reconstruct the temporal evolution of the local loess-palaoesol successions, c) gain better insight into the regional paleoenvironments of the last 300ka and d) to compare the loess of the region to loess-sequences in adjacent areas and to dust proxy data in the northern hemisphere. An integrated age model based on correlation to reference records and luminescence dating is compiled. Applying this age model we compare climate proxy data from Semlac to both global data and to data from the very southeast of the Carpathian Basin (Vojvodina, Serbia). The obtained results provide new insight into the dust accumulation regime for the eastern Carpathian Basin and offer new palaeoenvironmental information for the region and are an important step towards establishing a catena from the thin loess-like sediments of the Banat foothills in the East towards the thicker and seemingly more complete loess sections of the south-eastern and central Carpathian Basin. Disentangling grain size data from soil formation proxies is used to investigate patterns of non-local dust. Patterns of non-pedogenetic fine material are similar to grain size proxies from China and other parts of the northern hemisphere, suggesting western and eastern Eurasian loess to have (at least partly) similar mechanistic/climatic origins. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Lost in Translation: True Clinical Impact of RCM Overlooked in "Biopsy outperforms Reflectance Confocal Microscopy in Diagnosing and Subtyping Basal Cell Carcinoma: Results and Experiences from a Randomized Controlled Multicentre Trial"

In 'Biopsy Outperforms Reflectance Confocal Microscopy in Diagnosing and Subtyping Basal Cell Carcinoma: Results and Experiences from a Randomized Controlled Multicentre Trial', the authors found that reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) identifies basal cell carcinoma (BCC) with 99% sensitivity and, impressively, distinguishes superficial BCCs from more aggressive BCCs with 88.9% sensitivity compared to punch biopsy (PB) at 91%,1 a difference without statistical significance