Therapeutic and Radiosensitizing Effects of Armillaridin on Human Esophageal Cancer Cells

Background. Armillaridin (AM) is isolated from Armillaria mellea. We examined the anticancer activity and radiosensitizing effect on human esophageal cancer cells. Methods. Human squamous cell carcinoma (CE81T/VGH and TE-2) and adenocarcinoma (BE-3 and SKGT-4) cell lines were cultured. The MTT assay was used for cell viability. The cell cycle was analyzed using propidium iodide staining. Mitochondrial transmembrane potential was measured by DiOC6(3) staining. The colony formation assay was performed for estimation of the radiation surviving fraction. Human CE81T/VGH xenografts were established for evaluation of therapeutic activity in vivo. Results. AM inhibited the viability of four human esophageal cancer cell lines with an estimated concentration of 50% inhibition (IC50) which was 3.4–6.9 μM. AM induced a hypoploid cell population and morphological alterations typical of apoptosis in cells. This apoptosis induction was accompanied by a reduction of mitochondrial transmembrane potential. AM accumulated cell cycle at G2/M phase and enhanced the radiosensitivity in CE81T/VGH cells. In vivo, AM inhibited the growth of CE81T/VGH xenografts without significant impact on body weight and white blood cell counts. Conclusion. Armillaridin could inhibit growth and enhance radiosensitivity of human esophageal cancer cells. There might be potential to integrate AM with radiotherapy for esophageal cancer treatment

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PLAYER PERFORMANCE AND SALARY IN A PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL LEAGUE

This study aimed to investigate whether teams in Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) are paying their players fairly and equitably based on their performance. Possible performance criteria of professional baseball players are gathered from past literature before subjecting these criteria to regression analysis to obtain criteria that are significant and their corresponding weights. The TOPSIS method is then used to calculate player performance value, and with Quadrant Analysis, relationship between player performance and salary is analyzed. These were used to project salary adjustment for these players for the coming season. Finally, to determine the fairness of salary adjustments, this study employed McNemar test to examine whether adjustments are made based on player performance. This study has found innings pitched (IP), earned run average (ERA) and walks plus hits per inning pitched (WHIP) to be significant abilities in evaluating performance of pitchers, while for fielders, significant abilities for performance evaluation were batting average (BA), slugging average (SLG), hits (H) and on base percentage (OBP) . Based on these derived performance evaluation criteria, more than half of these players gave above average performance, yet their salary adjustments were not made accordingly nor were they made based on the above-mentioned criteria.  Article visualizations