A Role for the PPARγ in Cancer Therapy

In 1997, the first published reports highlighted PPARγ as a novel cancer therapeutic target regulating differentiation of cancer cells. A subsequent flurry of papers described these activities more widely and fuelled further enthusiasm for differentiation therapy, as the ligands for the PPARγ were seen as well tolerated and in several cases well-established in other therapeutic contexts. This initial enthusiasm and promise was somewhat tempered by contradictory findings in several murine cancer models and equivocal trial findings. As more understanding has emerged in recent years, a renaissance has occurred in targeting PPARγ within the context of either chemoprevention or chemotherapy. This clarity has arisen in part through a clearer understanding of PPARγ biology, how the receptor interacts with other proteins and signaling events, and the mechanisms that modulate its transcriptional actions. Equally greater translational understanding of this target has arisen from a clearer understanding of in vivo murine cancer models. Clinical exploitation will most likely require precise and quantifiable description of PPARγ actions, and resolution of which targets are the most beneficial to target combined with an understanding of the mechanisms that limits its anticancer effectiveness

Catalog of Galaxy Morphology in Four Rich Clusters: Luminosity Evolution of Disk Galaxies at 0.33<z<0.83

Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging of four rich, X-ray luminous, galaxy clusters (0.33<z<0.83) is used to produce quantitative morphological measurements for galaxies in their fields. Catalogs of these measurements are presented for 1642 galaxies brighter than F814W(AB)=23.0 . Galaxy luminosity profiles are fitted with three models: exponential disk, de Vaucouleurs bulge, and a disk-plus-bulge hybrid model. The best fit is selected and produces a quantitative assessment of the morphology of each galaxy: the principal parameters derived being B/T, the ratio of bulge to total luminosity, the scale lengths and half-light radii, axial ratios, position angles and surface brightnesses of each component. Cluster membership is determined using a statistical correction for field galaxy contamination, and a mass normalization factor (mass within boundaries of the observed fields) is derived for each cluster. In the present paper, this catalog of measurements is used to investigate the luminosity evolution of disk galaxies in the rich-cluster environment. Examination of the relations between disk scale-length and central surface brightness suggests, under the assumption that these clusters represent a family who share a common evolutionary history and are simply observed at different ages, that there is a dramatic change in the properties of the small disks (h < 2 kpc). This change is best characterized as a change in surface brightness by about 1.5 magnitude between z=0.3 and z=0.8 with brighter disks at higher redshifts.Comment: 53 pages, including 13 figures and 7 tables. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Serie

Evolution of galactic disks in clusters and the field at 0.1<z<0.60.1 < z < 0.6 in the CNOC survey

Two-dimensional surface photometry is presented for a sample of 351 late-type galaxies with $0.12 < z < 0.65$. These objects are drawn from the Canadian Network for Observational Cosmology (CNOC) cluster survey and are either spectroscopically confirmed members of clusters at $z=0.23$ (64 galaxies), $0.43$ (45), and $0.55$ (36) or field galaxies with similar redshifts. Galaxies in the rich cluster Abell 2256 at $z=0.06$ were also analyzed with the same methods to provide a local reference point. At redshifts of (0.23, 0.43, 0.55) the disk surface brightness in cluster late-type galaxies is higher in the $B$-band by $\Delta \mu_{0}(B) =(-0.58\pm 0.12,-1.22\pm 0.17,-0.97\pm 0.2$) mag, respectively, relative to the Freeman (1970) constant surface-brightness relation; whereas disks in cluster galaxies at $z=0.06$ are consistent with that relation. Field galaxies show a progressive disk-brightening with redshift that is consistent with that seen in the cluster population. Taken together with similar measurements of early-type galaxies (Schade et al. 1996a), these results suggest that the evolution of the field and cluster galaxy populations are similar, although we emphasize that our sample of cluster galaxies is dominated by objects at large distances (up to 3 Mpc) from the dense cluster core, so that the implications of these findings with respect to the Butcher-Oemler effect and the morphology-density relation will not be clear until an analysis of galaxy properties as a function of cluster-centric distance is completed.Comment: accepted for ApJ Letters, also available at http://manaslu.astro.utoronto.ca/~carlberg/cnoc/disk

The Luminosity Function of Field Galaxies in the CNOC1 Redshift Survey

We have computed the luminosity function for 389 field galaxies from the Canadian Network for Observational Cosmology cluster redshift survey (CNOC1), over redshifts z = 0.2-0.6. We find Schechter parameters M^* - 5 log h = -19.6 \pm 0.3 and \alpha = -0.9 \pm 0.2 in rest-frame B_{AB}. We have also split our sample at the color of a redshifted but nonevolving Sbc galaxy, and find distinctly different luminosity functions for red and blue galaxies. Red galaxies have a shallow slope \alpha \approx -0.4 and dominate the bright end of the luminosity function, while blue galaxies have a steep \alpha \approx -1.4 and prevail at the faint end. Comparisons of the CNOC1 results to those from the Canada-France (CFRS) and Autofib redshift surveys show broad agreement among these independent samples, but there are also significant differences which will require larger samples to resolve. Also, in CNOC1 the red galaxy luminosity density stays about the same over the range z = 0.2-0.6, while the blue galaxy luminosity density increases steadily with redshift. These results are consistent with the trend of the luminosity density vs. redshift relations seen in the CFRS, though the normalizations of the luminosity densities appear to differ for blue galaxies. Comparison to the local luminosity function from the Las Campanas redshift survey (LCRS) shows that the luminosity density at z \approx 0.1 is only about half that seen at z \approx 0.4. A change in the luminosity function shape, particularly at the faint end, appears to be required to match the CNOC1 and LCRS luminosity functions, if galaxy evolution is the sole cause of the differences seen. However, it should be noted that the specific details of the construction of different surveys may complicate the comparison of results and so may need to be considered carefully.Comment: 22 pages, including 6 postscript figures, uses AASTEX v4.0 style files. Corrected minor typos and updated references. Results and conclusions unchanged. Final version to appear in the Astrophysical Journa

Virial mass in DGP brane cosmology

We study the virial mass discrepancy in the context of a DPG brane-world scenario and show that such a framework can offer viable explanations to account for the mass discrepancy problem. This is done by defining a geometrical mass $\mathcal{N}$ that we prove to be proportional to the virial mass. Estimating $\mathcal{N}$ using observational data, we show that it behaves linearly with $r$ and has a value of the order of $M_{200}$, pointing to a possible resolution of the virial mass discrepancy. We also obtain the radial velocity dispersion of galaxy clusters and show that it is compatible with the radial velocity dispersion profile of such clusters. This velocity dispersion profile can be used to differentiate various models predicting the virial mass.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure, to appear in CQ