Res Judicata Effect of Bankruptcy Court Judgments: The Procedural and Constitutional Concerns, The

Should a bankruptcy court\u27s judgment bar further litigation of claims arising out of the series of events at issue in the bankruptcy proceeding based on the doctrine of res judicata? Or should res judicata apply only where the subsequent action would constitute a core,\u27 as opposed to non-core, but related proceeding? These questions raise important procedural and constitutional issues about which the courts of appeals are currently split. In 1984, Congress responded to Northern Pipeline by enacting 28 U.S.C. § 157, which authorizes bankruptcy judges to hear all core proceedings arising under the bankruptcy code. The 1984 Act provides that as to non-core proceedings, bankruptcy judges may hear such proceedings but that they may not enter a final order or judgment absent consent of the parties.8 Despite this, the distinction between core and none-core proceedings has generated a significant problem in the area of res judicata. As mentioned above, the courts of appeals are currently split over the question of whether a bankruptcy court\u27s judgment bars further litigation of any claim that arises out of the series of events at issue in the bankruptcy proceeding, including non-core claims

Is Lactate an Oncometabolite? Evidence Supporting a Role for Lactate in the Regulation of Transcriptional Activity of Cancer-Related Genes in MCF7 Breast Cancer Cells.

Lactate is a ubiquitous molecule in cancer. In this exploratory study, our aim was to test the hypothesis that lactate could function as an oncometabolite by evaluating whether lactate exposure modifies the expression of oncogenes, or genes encoding transcription factors, cell division, and cell proliferation in MCF7 cells, a human breast cancer cell line. Gene transcription was compared between MCF7 cells incubated in (a) glucose/glutamine-free media (control), (b) glucose-containing media to stimulate endogenous lactate production (replicating some of the original Warburg studies), and (c) glucose-containing media supplemented with L-lactate (10 and 20 mM). We found that both endogenous, glucose-derived lactate and exogenous, lactate supplementation significantly affected the transcription of key oncogenes (MYC, RAS, and PI3KCA), transcription factors (HIF1A and E2F1), tumor suppressors (BRCA1, BRCA2) as well as cell cycle and proliferation genes involved in breast cancer (AKT1, ATM, CCND1, CDK4, CDKN1A, CDK2B) (0.001 < p < 0.05 for all genes). Our findings support the hypothesis that lactate acts as an oncometabolite in MCF7 cells. Further research is necessary on other cell lines and biopsy cultures to show generality of the findings and reveal the mechanisms by which dysregulated lactate metabolism could act as an oncometabolite in carcinogenesis