MYCN gene amplification is a powerful prognostic factor even in infantile neuroblastoma detected by mass screening

MYCN is the most powerful prognostic factor in cases of older children. However, how MYCN is related to the prognosis of infantile cases is not clear. A mass screening program was carried out by measuring urinary catecholamine metabolites (VMA and HVA) from 6-month-old infants. Of 2084 cases detected by the screening program, MYCN amplification (MNA) was examined by Southern blot analyses in 1533 cases from 1987 to 2000. Of the 1533 cases examined, 1500 (97.8%) showed no MNA, 20 cases (1.3%) showed MNA from three to nine copies, and 13 (0.8%) cases showed more than 10 copies. The 4-year overall survival rates of these three groups (99, 89 and 53%, respectively) were significantly different (P<0.001), indicating that MYCN copy number correlates with the prognosis. Cases with MNA more than 10 copies were more advanced than those without amplification (stage III, IV vs I, II, IVs; P<0.001). Patients with MNA more than 10 copies had significantly higher serum levels of neuron-specific-enolase (NSE) and ferritin than non-amplified patients (P=0.049, P=0.025, respectively). MYCN amplification was strongly correlated with a poor prognosis in infantile neuroblastoma cases. Therefore, for the selection of appropriate treatment, an accurate determination of MNA is indispensable

Human periodontal ligament cell sheets cultured on amniotic membrane substrate

Objective Periodontal ligament (PDL) cells and their substrates play key roles in periodontal regeneration. However, there has been no report on the use of amniotic membrane (AM) as a substrate for culturing PDL cells. In the current study, we conducted an analysis of PDL cells cultivated on AM to determine the distribution of factors responsible for maintaining the characteristics of PDL. Materials and Methods Amniotic membrane was obtained from women undergoing cesarean sections, whereas PDL tissue was obtained from human maxillary third molars. The harvested PDL cells were maintained in explant culture for three or four passages, following which they were cultured on AM. Results After 3 weeks of culture, the PDL cells had grown well on AM. Immunofluorescence showed that these cells were capable of proliferating and potentially maintaining their PDL-like properties. In addition, strong cell–cell adhesion structures, namely desmosomes and tight junctions, were shown to be present between cells. Electron microscopy images showed that the cultured PDL cells had differentiated and proliferated on AM with lateral conjugation and adhesion to AM. Conclusion We conclude that AM may represent a suitable substrate for culturing PDL cells and that PDL cells cultured on AM show sheet formation

Exploiting subproblem optimization in SAT-based MaxSAT algorithms

The Maximum Satisfiability (MaxSAT) problem is an optimization variant of the Satisfiability (SAT) problem. Several combinatorial optimization problems can be translated into a MaxSAT formula. Among exact MaxSAT algorithms, SAT-based MaxSAT algorithms are the best performing approaches for real-world problems. We have extended the WPM2 algorithm by adding several improvements. In particular, we show that by solving some subproblems of the original MaxSAT instance we can dramatically increase the efficiency of WPM2. This led WPM2 to achieve the best overall results at the international MaxSAT Evaluation 2013 (MSE13) on industrial instances. Then, we present additional techniques and heuristics to further exploit the information retrieved from the resolution of the subproblems. We exhaustively analyze the impact of each improvement what contributes to our understanding of why they work. This architecture allows to convert exact algorithms into efficient incomplete algorithms. The resulting solver had the best results on industrial instances at the incomplete track of the latest international MSE. © 2015, Springer Science+Business Media New York.Research partially supported by the Ministerio de Economía y Competividad research project TASSAT2: TIN2013-48031-C4-4-P and Google Faculty Research Award program.Peer Reviewe

Supplementary Material for: 18F-FAMT PET Is Useful to Distinguish between Specific Uptake and Nonspecific Uptake Compared to 18F-Flourodeoxyglucose Position Emission Tomography in Esophageal Cancer Patients

<p><b><i>Background:</i></b> L-[3-¹⁸F]-α-methyltyrosine (¹⁸F-FAMT) solely accumulates in tumor cells via an amino acid transport system. This selective uptake pattern results in a very high tumor-to-background ratio, enabling clear delineation of the tumor. The purpose of the present study was to assess the significance of ¹⁸F-FAMT PET, which shows little nonspecific uptake compared to ¹⁸F-flourodeoxyglucose position emission tomography (FDG PET) in esophageal cancer patients. <b><i>Methodology:</i></b> PET-CT studies with ¹⁸F-FAMT and ¹⁸F-FDG were performed as part of pretreatment work-up in 82 patients with histologically confirmed esophageal cancer. We evaluated nonspecific uptakes of ¹⁸F-FDG and ¹⁸F-FAMT PET. <b><i>Results:</i></b> The nonspecific uptake of ¹⁸F-FAMT PET was lower than that of ¹⁸F-FDG PET (<i>p = </i>0.282). In the operation group, 26.1% demonstrated nonspecific uptake in ¹⁸F-FDG PET, whereas only 2.38% (1 case) demonstrated nonspecific uptake in ¹⁸F-FAMT PET (<i>p = </i>0.433). In the inoperable group, 47.5% showed nonspecific uptake in ¹⁸F-FDG PET, whereas 5.0% showed nonspecific uptake in ¹⁸F-FAMT PET (<i>p = </i>0.079). <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> A crucial point for the diagnostic value of PET is distinguishing specific and nonspecific uptake. ¹⁸F-FAMT-PET is a very superior modality with regard to the lower rate of nonspecific uptake in esophageal cancer.</p