Flushing the liver with urokinase before transplantation does not prevent nonanastomotic biliary strictures

Transplant surger

The BMP pathway either enhances or inhibits the Wnt pathway depending on the SMAD4 and p53 status in CRC

Background: Constitutive Wnt activation is essential for colorectal cancer (CRC) initiation but also underlies the cancer stem cell phenotype, metastasis and chemosensitivity. Importantly Wnt activity is still modulated as evidenced by higher Wnt activity at the invasive front of clonal tumours termed the β-catenin paradox. SMAD4 and p53 mutation status and the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) pathway are known to affect Wnt activity. The combination of SMAD4 loss, p53 mutations and BMP signalling may integrate to influence Wnt signalling and explain the β-catenin paradox. Methods: We analysed the expression patterns of SMAD4, p53 and β-catenin at the invasive front of CRCs using immunohistochemistry. We activated BMP signalling in CRC cells in vitro and measured BMP/Wnt activity using luciferase reporters. MTT assays were performed to s

School-based prevention for adolescent Internet addiction: prevention is the key. A systematic literature review

Adolescents’ media use represents a normative need for information, communication, recreation and functionality, yet problematic Internet use has increased. Given the arguably alarming prevalence rates worldwide and the increasingly problematic use of gaming and social media, the need for an integration of prevention efforts appears to be timely. The aim of this systematic literature review is (i) to identify school-based prevention programmes or protocols for Internet Addiction targeting adolescents within the school context and to examine the programmes’ effectiveness, and (ii) to highlight strengths, limitations, and best practices to inform the design of new initiatives, by capitalizing on these studies’ recommendations. The findings of the reviewed studies to date presented mixed outcomes and are in need of further empirical evidence. The current review identified the following needs to be addressed in future designs to: (i) define the clinical status of Internet Addiction more precisely, (ii) use more current psychometrically robust assessment tools for the measurement of effectiveness (based on the most recent empirical developments), (iii) reconsider the main outcome of Internet time reduction as it appears to be problematic, (iv) build methodologically sound evidence-based prevention programmes, (v) focus on skill enhancement and the use of protective and harm-reducing factors, and (vi) include IA as one of the risk behaviours in multi-risk behaviour interventions. These appear to be crucial factors in addressing future research designs and the formulation of new prevention initiatives. Validated findings could then inform promising strategies for IA and gaming prevention in public policy and education

Assessing the efficacy and safety of mycophenolate mofetil versus azathioprine in patients with autoimmune hepatitis (CAMARO trial): study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

Background: Currently, the standard therapy for autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) consists of a combination of prednisolone and azathioprine. However, 15% of patients are intolerant to azathioprine which necessitates cessation of azathioprine or changes in therapy. In addition, not all patients achieve complete biochemical response (CR). Uncontrolled data indicate that mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) can induce CR in a majority of patients. Better understanding of first-line treatment and robust evidence from randomised clinical trials are needed. The aim of this study was to explore the potential benefits of MMF as compared to azathioprine, both combined with prednisolone, as induction therapy in a randomised controlled trial in patients with treatment-naive AIH. Method:s: CAMARO is a randomised (1:1), open-label, parallel-group, multicentre superiority trial. All patients with AIH are screened for eligibility. Seventy adult patients with AIH from fourteen centres in the Netherlands and Belgium will be randomised to receive MMF or azathioprine. Both treatment arms will start with prednisolone as induction therapy. The primary outcome is biochemical remission, defined as serum levels of alanine aminotransferase and immunoglobulin G below the upper limit of normal. Secondary outcomes include safety and tolerability of MMF and azathioprine, time to remission, changes in Model For End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD)-score, adverse events, and aspects of quality of life. The study period will last for 24 weeks. Discussion: The CAMARO trial investigates whether treatment with MMF and prednisolone increases the proportion of patients in remission compared with azathioprine and prednisolone as the current standard treatment strategy. In addition, we reflect on the challenges of conducting a randomized trial in rare diseases.Cellular mechanisms in basic and clinical gastroenterology and hepatolog

HN1 negatively influences the ß-catenin/E-cadherin interaction, and contributes to migration in prostate cells

PubMed ID: 25169422Previously, it has been reported that HN1 is involved in cytoplasmic retention and degradation of androgen receptor in an AKT dependent manner. As HN1 is a hormone inducible gene, and has been shown that it is upregulated in various cancers, we studied the importance of HN1 function in ß-catenin signaling in prostate cancer cell line, PC-3 and mammary cancer cell line MDA-MB231. Here, we demonstrated that HN1 physically associates with GSK3ß/ß-catenin destruction complex and abundantly localizes to cytoplasm, especially when the GSK3ß is phosphorylated on S9 residue. Further, ectopic HN1 expression results an increase in the ß-catenin degradation leading to loss of E-cadherin interaction, concurrently contributing to actin re-organization, colony formation and migration in cancer cell lines. Thus, we report that HN1 is an essential factor for ß-catenin turnover and signaling, augments cell growth and migration in prostate cancer cells. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

TNF?-mediated loss of ß-catenin/E-cadherin association and subsequent increase in cell migration is partially restored by NKX3.1 expression in prostate cells

PubMed ID: 25360740Inflammation-induced carcinogenesis is associated with increased proliferation and migration/invasion of various types of tumor cells. In this study, altered ß-catenin signaling upon TNF? exposure, and relation to loss of function of the tumor suppressor NKX3.1 was examined in prostate cancer cells. We used an in vitro prostate inflammation model to demonstrate altered sub-cellular localization of ß-catenin following increased phosphorylation of Akt(S473) and GSK3ß(S9). Consistently, we observed that subsequent increase in ß-catenin transactivation enhanced c-myc, cyclin D1 and MMP2 expressions. Consequently, it was also observed that the ß-catenin-E-cadherin association at the plasma membrane was disrupted during acute cytokine exposure. Additionally, it was demonstrated that disrupting cell-cell interactions led to increased migration of LNCaP cells in real-time migration assay. Nevertheless, ectopic expression of NKX3.1, which is degraded upon proinflammatory cytokine exposure in inflammation, was found to induce the degradation of ß-catenin by inhibiting Akt(S473) phosphorylation, therefore, partially rescued the disrupted ß-catenin-E-cadherin interaction as well as the cell migration in LNCaP cells upon cytokine exposure. As, the disrupted localization of ß-catenin at the cell membrane as well as increased Akt(S308) priming phosphorylation was observed in human prostate tissues with prostatic inflammatory atrophy (PIA), high-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (H-PIN) and carcinoma lesions correlated with loss of NKX3.1 expression. Thus, the data indicate that the ß-catenin signaling; consequently sub-cellular localization is deregulated in inflammation, associates with prostatic atrophy and PIN pathology. © 2014 Debelec-Butuner et al

Ubiquitously expressed hematological and neurological expressed 1 downregulates Akt-mediated GSK3ß signaling, and its knockdown results in deregulated G2/M transition in prostate cells

PubMed ID: 21323578As the molecular mechanism of ß-catenin deregulation is not well understood, and stabilized ß-catenin is known to translocate into the nucleus and activate genes for proliferation, a novel regulatory factor, hematological and neurological expressed 1 (HN1), for Akt-GSK3ß-ß- catenin axis is reported here. In our studies, HN1 gene structure was characterized. HN1 expression was found to be epidermal growth factor-responsive in PC-3 cells, and protein expression was also upregulated in PC-3 and LNCaP but not in DU145 cells. Additionally, HN1 was found to be downregulated by the specific AKT inhibitor wortmannin but not with PI3K or MAPK inhibitors, LY294002 and PD98059, respectively, in PC-3 and MCF-7 cells. Further, siRNA-mediated knockdown of HN1 resulted in considerable increase in Akt (S473) and GSK3ß (S9),(Y216) phosphorylations; moreover, subsequent accumulation of ß-catenin, increase in c-myc expression, and nuclear accumulation of cyclin D1 were observed in PC-3 cells. Knockdown of HN1 also resulted in prolongation of G 1 phase in cell cycle, increasing tetraploidy, presumably because of cells escaping from abnormal mitosis in PC-3 cells. Consistently, overexpression of HN1 reversed the cell-cycle-specific observations, resulted in accumulation of cells in G 2/M, and reduced the proliferation rate, which were investigated using flow cytometry and methylthiazol tetrazolium assays. As activating mutations of ß-catenin have been demonstrated in late-stage tumors, and ß-catenin stabilization was correlated with poor prognosis in previous reports, epidermal growth factor-upregulated HN1 expression might have a role in deregulating the AKT-GSK3ß (S9)-mediated signaling as a novel compensating mechanism. © 2011 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc

A Turkish family with 6.7 kb deletion associated with isolated growth hormone deficiency type 1A

PubMed ID: 10868200Familial growth hormone deficiency type 1A is an autosomal recessive disease caused by homogenous deletions of both aileies of growth hormone gene 1 (hGH1) in various patterns. The hGH1 gene deletion is an event that probably occurs between the 5' and 3'flanking regions by unequal recombination, and results in deletion of the hGH1 gene in different patterns. Deletions are mostly 6.7 kb and rarely 7.0 kb, 7.6 kb and 45 kb in size. A four-year-old girl diagnosed with growth hormone deficiency syndrome was send to us for further evaluation. DNA samples of the patient, her parents and controls were amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR); furthermore, restriction endonuclease analysis was done with Sma I enzyme and the patterns were evaluated. Our gel electrophoresis results show that the gene deletion pattern of the patient represents a homogenous 6.7 kb deletion, while her parents had a heterogeneous 6.7 kb deletion pattern

The redox biology network in cancer pathophysiology and therapeutics

PubMed ID: 26122399The review pinpoints operational concepts related to the redox biology network applied to the pathophysiology and therapeutics of solid tumors. A sophisticated network of intrinsic and extrinsic cues, integrated in the tumor niche, drives tumorigenesis and tumor progression. Critical mutations and distorted redox signaling pathways orchestrate pathologic events inside cancer cells, resulting in resistance to stress and death signals, aberrant proliferation and efficient repair mechanisms. Additionally, the complex inter-cellular crosstalk within the tumor niche, mediated by cytokines, redox-sensitive danger signals (HMGB1) and exosomes, under the pressure of multiple stresses (oxidative, inflammatory, metabolic), greatly contributes to the malignant phenotype. The tumor-associated inflammatory stress and its suppressive action on the anti-tumor immune response are highlighted. We further emphasize that ROS may act either as supporter or enemy of cancer cells, depending on the context. Oxidative stress-based therapies, such as radiotherapy and photodynamic therapy, take advantage of the cytotoxic face of ROS for killing tumor cells by a non-physiologically sudden, localized and intense oxidative burst. The type of tumor cell death elicited by these therapies is discussed. Therapy outcome depends on the differential sensitivity to oxidative stress of particular tumor cells, such as cancer stem cells, and therefore co-therapies that transiently down-regulate their intrinsic antioxidant system hold great promise. We draw attention on the consequences of the damage signals delivered by oxidative stress-injured cells to neighboring and distant cells, and emphasize the benefits of therapeutically triggered immunologic cell death in metastatic cancer. An integrative approach should be applied when designing therapeutic strategies in cancer, taking into consideration the mutational, metabolic, inflammatory and oxidative status of tumor cells, cellular heterogeneity and the hypoxia map in the tumor niche, along with the adjoining and systemic effects of oxidative stress-based therapies. © 2015 The Authors.BM1203/EU-ROS E05/2014 European Social Fund, ESF European Cooperation in Science and Technology POSDRU141531Gina Manda, Adrian Manea, Bilge Debelec Butuner and Kemal Sami Korkmaz were supported by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST Action BM1203/EU-ROS ); Gheorghita Isvoranu was supported by the Sectorial Operational Program Human Resources Development (SOPHRD), financed by the European Social Fund and the Romanian Government under the Contract no. POSDRU141531 ; the work of Maria Victoria Comanescu was supported by the Romanian National Agency for Research and Innovation , under the Program Capacities, Romania-CERN (Grant E05/2014 ). -