Evidence for Secretion of a Netrin-1-like Protein by Tetrahymena thermophila

Netrin-1 is a pleiotropic signaling molecule with targets in many mammalian cell types. Though first characterized as a chemotactic signal involved in neuronal guidance during development, netrin-1 has since been found to have a regulatory role in angiogenesis, and is also used as a biomarker in certain cancers. Tetrahymena thermophila are free-living protists that rely on chemotactic signals to find food, as well as to escape predators. Chemoattractants cause the cells to swim faster in the forward direction, while chemorepellents cause ciliary reversal, resulting in movement of the cell away from the noxious stimulus. We have previously found that netrin-1 is a chemorepellent in T. thermophila. More recently, we have detected netrin-1 by ELISA in both whole cell extract and secreted protein samples obtained from T. thermophila. In addition, we have immunolocalized netrin-1 staining to the cytosol of T. thermophila using an anti-netrin-1 antibody. We are currently running Western blots to determine the molecular weight of this protein and compare it to its vertebrate counterparts. Further experimentation is needed to determine the physiological role of this protein in T. thermophila

Identification of Metabolites in the Normal Ovary and Their Transformation in Primary and Metastatic Ovarian Cancer

In this study, we characterized the metabolome of the human ovary and identified metabolic alternations that coincide with primary epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) and metastatic tumors resulting from primary ovarian cancer (MOC) using three analytical platforms: gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) using buffer systems and instrument settings to catalog positive or negative ions. The human ovarian metabolome was found to contain 364 biochemicals and upon transformation of the ovary caused changes in energy utilization, altering metabolites associated with glycolysis and β-oxidation of fatty acids—such as carnitine (1.79 fold in EOC, p<0.001; 1.88 fold in MOC, p<0.001), acetylcarnitine (1.75 fold in EOC, p<0.001; 2.39 fold in MOC, p<0.001), and butyrylcarnitine (3.62 fold, p<0.0094 in EOC; 7.88 fold, p<0.001 in MOC). There were also significant changes in phenylalanine catabolism marked by increases in phenylpyruvate (4.21 fold; p = 0.0098) and phenyllactate (195.45 fold; p<0.0023) in EOC. Ovarian cancer also displayed an enhanced oxidative stress response as indicated by increases in 2-aminobutyrate in EOC (1.46 fold, p = 0.0316) and in MOC (2.25 fold, p<0.001) and several isoforms of tocopherols. We have also identified novel metabolites in the ovary, specifically N-acetylasparate and N-acetyl-aspartyl-glutamate, whose role in ovarian physiology has yet to be determined. These data enhance our understanding of the diverse biochemistry of the human ovary and demonstrate metabolic alterations upon transformation. Furthermore, metabolites with significant changes between groups provide insight into biochemical consequences of transformation and are candidate biomarkers of ovarian oncogenesis. Validation studies are warranted to determine whether these compounds have clinical utility in the diagnosis or clinical management of ovarian cancer patients

How comprehensive are nuclear medicine residency websites?

Our goal for this study was to evaluate the comprehensiveness of nuclear medicine (NM) residency websites from the USA and Canada. The authors searched all the existing NM residency programs as listed in the Fellowship and Residency Electronic Interactive Database and the Canadian Residency Matching Service. We analyzed each website for the presence or absence of 44 elements previously identified as important considerations for medical students applying to residency. We compared criteria prevalence between regions and program size using t-tests and analysis of variance. Our results showed that, of 47 NM residencies, 9 did not have a dedicated website, leaving a total of 38 websites available for evaluation. The individual websites in the USA had a mean of 15 of 44 elements sought; in contrast, Canadian programs had 26 of 44 elements sought. The most common elements included contact e-mail, mailing address, and comprehensive faculty listings. Information about resident hometown, academic interests, and extracurricular interests was only included in 3% of the websites. Only 3% of websites included case description and 11% included rotation schedule. Courses attended were included in 5%, educational resources in 8%, and resident education was included in 5% of the websites. In conclusion, about one in five NM residency programs do not have a publicly available website. The websites that do exist are incomprehensive, containing an average of only 32% of elements sought for the USA programs and 41% of elements sought in Canadian programs. Residency program websites are an important tool in recruiting medical students. Addressing the lack of available websites as well as the gap in content of the websites that does exist may improve recruitment of students to NM residency programs

Measurement of the Mass of the Z-Boson and the Energy Calibration of Lep

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