Esquilino, esquilini. Un luogo plurale

Il testo dà conto delle trasformazioni sociali in senso “multiculturale” del rione Esquilino, concentrandosi su diversi ambiti di interesse di ricerca sociale in chiave transdisciplinare. L’opera si articola in due sezioni: nella prima (4 capitoli di Vincenzo Carbone) vengono delineate le prospettive analitiche adottate, discusse e problematizzate le nozioni di luogo e di pratica spaziale e, attraverso il mapping sociale dell’area, sono proposte chiavi di lettura su territorio, sui processi che lo connotano e sui significati assegnati ai luoghi; nella seconda parte, diversi contributi (9 capitoli di più autori) approfondiscono temi specifici, secondo ambiti disciplinari e prospettive di analisi diversificate

Complete loss of PTEN expression as a possible early prognostic marker for prostate cancer metastasis.

The EGF/IGF growth factors are potent mitogens that regulate cell proliferation and cell survival and are involved in prostate cancer development. Using laser microdissection technology and real-time PCR, together with immunohistochemistry, we have explored the growth factor and integrin dependent PI3-kinase/PTEN/Akt signalling pathway in prostate cell lines and tumour samples by analysing EGF-R, IGF1-R, ILK, beta3 integrin, PTEN and p-Akt protein expression. We provide evidence that loss of PTEN expression rather than upregulated EGF/IGF1 receptor expression was responsible for increased p-Akt in neoplastic prostate cells. We therefore compared PTEN expression in patient biopsies at first time diagnosis recruited prospectively (Study I, 112 patients) and patients with confirmed metastasis recruited retrospectively from the Luxembourg cancer registry (Study II, 42 patients). In Study I, loss of PTEN expression at first time diagnosis was found in 26 of 112 patients (23%). In Study II, 25 of the 42 patients (59%) with lymph node metastasis had complete loss of PTEN expression in both the neoplastic glands of the prostate and the invasive prostate cancer cells in the lymph node, and of these 13 (52%) exhibited already loss of PTEN expression at first diagnosis. These findings demonstrate that loss of PTEN expression is an important factor in progression towards metastatic disease and could potentially serve as an early prognostic marker for prostate cancer metastasis