Profiling estrogen, progesterone, and androgen receptors in colorectal cancer in relation to gender, menopausal status, clinical stage, and tumour sidedness

BackgroundAlthough estrogen (ERα/ERβ), progesterone (PGR), and androgen (AR) receptors are pathologically altered in colorectal cancer (CRC), their simultaneous expression within the same cohort of patients was not previously measured.MethodsERα/ERβ/PGR/AR proteins were measured in archived paired normal and malignant colon specimens (n =120 patients) by immunohistochemistry, and results were analyzed by gender, age (≤50 vs. ≥60 years), clinical stages (early-stage I/II vs. late-stage III/IV), and anatomical location (right; RSCs vs. left; LSCs). Effects of 17β-estradiol (E2), progesterone (P4), and testosterone alone or combined with the specific blockers of ERα (MPP dihydrochloride), ERβ (PHTPP), PGR (mifepristone), and AR (bicalutamide) on cell cycle and apoptosis were also measured in the SW480 male and HT29 female CRC cell lines. ResultsERα and AR proteins increased, whilst ERβ and PGR declined markedly in malignant specimens. Moreover, male neoplastic tissues showed highest AR expression, whilst ERβ and PGR weakest alongside ERα strongest expression was seen in cancerous tissues from women aged ≥60 years. Late-stage neoplasms also revealed maximal alterations in the expression of sex steroid receptors. By tumor location, LSCs disclosed significant elevations in ERα with marked declines in PGR compared with RSCs, and ERα strongest alongside PGR weakest expression was detected in advanced LSCs from women aged ≥60 years. Late-stage LSCs from females aged ≥60 years also showed weakest ERβ and strongest AR expression. In contrast, male RSC and LSC tissues exhibited equal ERβ and AR expression in all clinical stages. ERα and AR proteins also correlated positively, whereas ERβ and PGR inversely, with tumor characteristics. Concomitantly, E2 and P4 monotherapies triggered cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in the SW480 and HT29 cells, and while pre-treatment with ERα-blocker enhanced the effects of E2, ERβ-blocker and PGR-blocker suppressed the E2 and P4 anti-cancer actions, respectively. In contrast, treatment with the AR-blocker induced apoptosis, whilst co-treatment with testosterone hindered the effects. ConclusionsThis study advocates that protein expression of sex steroid receptors in malignant tissues could represent prognostic markers, as well as hormonal therapy could provide an alternative strategy against CRC, and their efficacies could be dependent on gender, clinical stage, and tumor location

A Systematic Investigation on the Influence of Intumescent Flame Retardants on the Properties of Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (EVA)/Liner Low Density Polyethylene (LLDPE) Blends

Because of their high filler loadings, commercial-grade clean flame-retardant materials have unstable mechanical properties. To address this issue, intumescent polymers can be used to develop clean flame retardants with very low levels of smoke and toxicity generation. An intumescent flame retardant (IFR) system composed of red phosphorus (RP), zinc borate (ZB), and a terpolymer of ethylene, butyl acrylate, and maleic anhydride (EBM) was used to prepare EVA (ethylene-vinyl acetate) and EVA/LLDPE (linear low-density polyethylene) composites; their mechanical and flammability properties were systematically investigated. The limiting oxygen index (LOI) of the EVA/LLDPE (as base material) composite containing RP and ZB mixed with nonhalogenated flame retardant, mainly magnesium hydroxide (MH) and coadditives, including processing aids and thermal stabilizers, was established. RP was found to have little effect on the tensile properties of EVA/LLDPE 118W/120 phr flame-retardant (MH + RP) composites. There was a minute difference in the effective trend of RP between tensile strength and elongation at break. Following the addition of ZB, the elongation at break of the composites gradually decreased with increasing RP content and then leveled off when the RP content was over 10 phr. Mechanical properties (elongation at break and tensile strength) can be best maintained at below 10 phr content of RP. The mechanical properties decreased with lower amounts of EBM content. In addition, flame retardancy increased when the EBM content decreased. The findings further revealed that MH and RP have poor compatibility, yielding poor mechanical properties. The LOI greatly increased with RP content, even though the total content of flame retardants (main + intumescent flame retardant) was the same in all formulations. Only over 5 phr RP content formulations passed V-0 of the UL-94 test. When under 5 phr, the RP content formulations did not pass V-0 of the UL-94 test

Novel polyvinyl alcohol film dosimeter containing 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide dye for high dose application

A new dyed polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) film dosimeter based on 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MMT) tetrazolium dye is proposed in this study for measuring high gamma radiation dose. Gamma cell irradiator that contains Co-60 gamma-ray source was used to expose the novel MMT-PVA films to different doses up to 25 kGy. The changed in optical property of irradiated and unirradiated films were characterized by UV–Vis spectrophotometer. The results show that the dose sensitive and the linear range of irradiated films were increased considerably with increase of MMT concentration from 1 to 5 mM. The dose response of dyed PVA film changed substantially with changing relative humidity (12–74%) as well as irradiation temperature (10–40 °C). The absorbance of the un-irradiated films does not change up to 10 days in dark while a significant increase in their absorbance was reported for similar films under fluorescent light. The irradiated dosimeters that kept in dark showed a perfect stability for 54 days. It was found that no obvious impact of dose rate on the irradiated MMT-PVA film dosimeters

Degradation and detoxifi cation of 2-chlorophenol aqueous solutions using ionizing gamma radiation

Chlorophenols are compounds with high toxicity, poor biodegradability, and carcinogenic and recalcitrant properties. This work studies, for the first time, the destruction and detoxification of 2-chlorophenol (2-CP) in water using 60Co gamma radiation under different conditions including varied radiation doses, addition of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and varied pH values. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and ion chromatography (IC) confirmed a successful degradation of 2-CP to primarily yield phenol molecules and chloride anions. A radiation dose as low as 25 kGy achieved approximately 90% removal of 50–150 ppm of 2-CP in neutral water. However, the addition of a strong oxidizer such as H2O2 to 2-CP solutions reduced the required dose to achieve 90% removal to at least 1.3-fold. The reduction in radiation doses was also observed in acidic and alkaline media, reducing the required doses of 90% removal to at least 0.4-fold. It was imperative to study the toxicity levels of the oxidation by-products to provide directions for the potential applicability of this technology in water treatment. Toxicology Microtox® bioassay indicated a significant reduction in the toxicity of the degradation by-products and the detoxification was further enhanced by the addition of H2O2 and changing the pH to more acidic or alkaline conditions. These findings will contribute to the knowledge of the removal and detoxification of such challenging environmental contaminant and could be potentially applied to other biologically resistant compounds

Electron beam irradiation of low-density polyethylene filled with metal hydroxides for wire and cable applications

The effects of electron beam irradiation for crosslinking of polymers used for wire and cable insulations are still being researched. In this research, the influence of electron beam irradiation on the different blends of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) filled with aluminum trihydrate and magnesium hydroxide (ATH, MH) were studied. It was revealed by melt flow index, tensile strength, and elongation at break tests that addition of MH to LDPE increases the adhesion forces inside polymer matrices more efficient than similar ATH/LDPE compounds. Field emission scanning electron microscopy test showed that MH is platy in structure and more homogenous mixed than ATH with LDPE. The results on thermogravimetric analysis and limiting oxygen index tests revealed that the thermal stability and incombustibility properties of MH blends are more efficient than similar ATH blends. Meanwhile, it was observed by smoke density test that MH blends produce the lowest smoke density compared with virgin LDPE and similar ATH blends. It was also observed that increasing irradiation by electron beam had impressive affections on the density, gel content, and mechanical properties for all the polymeric samples in this study

Physico-chemical modifications induced by 70 MeV carbon ions in alpha phased polyvinylidene fluoride (<img src='/image/spc_char/alpha.gif' border=0>-PVDF) polymer

131-136In the present paper, the physico-chemical changes induced by 70 MeV carbon ions (12C+5) have been investigated in PVDF using UV-Visible, FTIR, XRD and HFIA techniques. The induced changes have been studied with respect to their optical, chemical, structural and electrical response. The polymer samples have been irradiated in the ion fluence ranging from 11011 to 31012 ions cm-2. The UV-visible spectra show that the optical absorption increases with increasing ion fluence. Two new dips at 482 nm and 654 nm were appeared in the irradiated sample which may be due to the fluorinated defects created due to irradiation. In the FTIR spectra, it was found that transmittance intensity decreases with increasing ion fluence in the range 1500-4000 cm<span style="font-family:Symbol; mso-ascii-font-family:" times="" new="" roman";mso-hansi-font-family:"times="" roman";="" mso-char-type:symbol;mso-symbol-font-family:symbol"="" lang="EN-GB">-1. The diffraction pattern of PVDF indicates that crystallinity decreases with increasing ion fluence but the crystallite size is found to increase due to carbon ion irradiation. The variation of dielectric constant and dielectric loss for virgin and irradiated films have been studied in the frequency range 10 mHz-10 MHz at ambient temperature. There is an exponential increase in ac conductivity with increasing frequency and the effect of irradiation is significant at higher fluence. The dielectric constant and dielectric loss changed significantly due to ion beam irradiation, meanwhile the frequency exponents decreased with increasing ion fluence. It was found that dielectric response in both virgin as well as irradiated samples obey the Jonscher’s power law. </span

Severity of acne, stress, and food habits of medical students at Taif University, Saudi Arabia

BACKGROUND: Stress and food habits seem to be associated with acne, but no study has been reported from in Taif, Saudi Arabia. The aim of this study was to determine the association between the severity of acne, stress, and food habits of undergraduate medical students. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 585 undergraduate medical students. Data was collected on students' demographics, academic year, and level. The Global Acne Grading System (GAGS) was utilized for a clinical evaluation of acne severity and an assessment of the presence and location of acne lesions. To assess respondents' stress, the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) was employed, and adolescent food habits checklist (AFHC) assessed the food habits. To test for statistical significance, Chi-squared test was used for qualitative data, whereas Mann-Whitney U test and, Kruskal–Wallis tests were performed for quantitative variables. RESULTS: The mean age of students was 21.16 ± 1.81 years, 53.5% were female and 53.8% were in the preclerkship academic level. Of these, 9.7%, 78.5%, and 11.8% had low, moderate, and high stress levels. The overall prevalence of acne was 88.2%; Mild, moderate, severe and very severe acne were present among 59%, 23.9%, 3.9% and 1.4% of students respectively. Female students had a significant higher percent of severe acne and students in preclerk ship years had significant higher mean AFHC scores. Students with severe stress had a significant higher mean GAGS score and lower mean AFHC scores. A significant positive correlation was found between GAGS scores and PSS. CONCLUSION: The high rates of stress and acne of the study's participants demand that medical students be given greater attention with regard to dermatology and psychiatric diseases