Zbiór opowiadań Marii Dąbrowskiej Dzieci Ojczyzny z 1918 r. oraz jego odbicie w powieści Noce i dnie, wydanej w latach 1932-1934

The entire collection of 1918 stories, especially the last one, entitled My, polskie dzieci! [We, the Polish children!], describing the school strike in Kalisz of 1905, opens Maria Dąbrowska’s many years of reflection on what the future Polish independence should be like. Therefore, 1905 is an important moment in her work, and the description of the school strike in Kalisz exists in her output in three versions. When political independence became reality, the writer took the tedious work of writ­ing her great novel, Noce i dnie [Nights and Days] to describe not only the background of the 1918 independence, as she did in her collection published the same year, but also in order to better explore the concept of social independence. The novel is intended to transform the reader from a passive recipient of the political independence into a conscious and active participant of their personal and social independence.Cały zbiór opowiadań z roku 1918, a szczególnie ostatnie opowiada­nie My, polskie dzieci!, opisujące strajk szkolny w Kaliszu w 1905 r., jest początkiem wielkiej refleksji Dąbrowskiej na temat tego, czym ma być przyszła niepodległość w Polsce. Dlatego rok 1905 jest ważnym ele­mentem jej twórczości, a opis strajku szkolnego w Kaliszu istnieje aż w trzech wersjach. W momencie zaś, kiedy niepodległość polityczna staje się rzeczywistością, pisarka podejmuje żmudną pracę napisania wielkiej powieści Noce i dnie nie tylko w celu przedstawienia rodowo­du niepodległościowego z 1918 r., jak to zrobiła w zbiorze wydanym tego samego roku, ale też aby pogłębić społeczne pojęcie o niepodle­głości. Powieść ma przeobrazić czytelnika z biernego odbiorcy poli­tycznej niepodległości w świadomego i aktywnego uczestnika biorące­go udział w osobistej i społecznej niepodległości

The human telomerase RNA gene (hTERC) is regulated during carcinogenesis but is not dependent on DNA methylation

Telomerase, the ribonucleoprotein complex involved in telomere maintenance, is composed of two main components: hTERT and hTERC. hTERT seems to be the rate-limiting factor for telomerase activity, although hTERC expression was also shown to correlate to a certain extent with telomerase reactivation. To determine whether the absence of hTERC expression could be the consequence of DNA methylation, we quantified hTERC RNA in 60 human samples (19 telomerase-negative normal tissues, nine telomerase-positive and 22 telomerase-negative tumor tissues, eight telomerase-positive and two telomerase-negative cell lines) using a quantitative dot blot on RT-PCR products. Most of the normal tissues did not express hTERC whereas, in telomerase-positive cell lines and in telomerase-positive tumor tissues, a strong up-regulation was observed, suggesting that hTERC transcription is up-regulated during tumorigenesis. The two telomerase-negative cell lines did not express hTERC. In a series of 22 telomerase-negative soft tissue sarcomas (STS), half did not express hTERC at all, or only weakly, whereas a wide range of expression was observed in the other half. As methylation might be involved in hTERC silencing, we examined the methylation pattern in all samples by direct sequencing and methylation-specific single stand conformation analysis after bisulfite modification. hTERC methylation was never observed, neither in normal nor in tumor tissues. Furthermore, there was no correlation between hTERC expression and proliferation, telomere length or hTERT expression in telomerase-negative STS. In contrast, three of eight telomerase-positive cell lines and the two telomerasenegative cell lines were found to be hypermethylated, suggesting that the methylation observed may occur during cell line establishment. In conclusion, this study shows that hTERC expression is indeed regulated during carcinogenesis, but this regulation is unlikely to depend on hTERC methylation, cell proliferation rate, telomere length or hTERT expressio

Primary clear cell sarcoma of the ileum: an uncommon and misleading site

A clear cell sarcoma, arising primarily in the ileum of a 35-year-old man, is reported. Histologically, the neoplasm infiltrated the full thickness of the intestinal wall. It consisted of strands and sheets of round to spindle-shaped cells with clear to eosinophilic cytoplasm, vesicular nuclei and prominent nucleoli. Vascular invasion was present at diagnosis. Tumour cells expressed S-100 protein, melan-A and tyrosinase. They were negative for HMB45, CD117, cytokeratins, epithelial membrane antigen, smooth muscle actin, desmin, CD31, CD34, chromogranin and synaptophysin. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction analysis performed on paraffin-embedded tissue showed EWS-ATF1 fusion transcripts representative of the t(12;22) (q13;q12) clear cell sarcoma reciprocal translocation. The patient, who developed liver metastases 2 months after diagnosis, died of disease at 15 months. This case demonstrates that the gastrointestinal tract is a potential site for primary clear cell sarcoma of soft tissues, and, furthermore, that cytogenetics and/or molecular techniques play a central role in the diagnosi