Dynamics of Cancer-Related Proteins in Patients with Bladder Cancer

Bladder cancer (BC) is the second most common malignancy in the urologic field. Preoperative predictive biomarkers of cancer progression and prognosis are imperative for optimizing appropriate treatment for patients with BC. The prediction of patient outcomes before initial treatment would enable physicians to choose better modalities and avoid unnecessary aggressive treatments. In addition, preoperative molecular markers are expected to be a minimally invasive tool for predicting precise prognosis and progression in patients with BC. The proteins secreted from the tumor cells reflect various states of tumors in real time and at given conditions, and those expression patterns are different from normal cell components. Approximately 20–25% of cellular proteins are in extracellular spaces, and these proteins have important roles in invasion, angiogenesis, regulation of cell-to-cell interactions, and metastasis. It has been suggested that tumor-secreting proteins are a promising source for tumor diagnostic biomarkers. Proteomic analysis was utilized to identify the secreted proteins in sera from patients with BC. Several biomarkers associated with BC are reviewed here

Distribution and densitometry mapping of L1-CAM Immunoreactivity in the adult mouse brain – light microscopic observation

BACKGROUND: The importance of L1 expression in the matured brain is suggested by physiological and behavioral studies showing that L1 is related to hippocampal plasticity and fear conditioning. The distribution of L1 in mouse brain might provide a basis for understanding its role in the brain. RESULTS: We examined the overall distribution of L1 in the adult mouse brain by immunohistochemistry using two polyclonal antibodies against different epitopes for L1. Immunoreactive L1 was widely but unevenly distributed from the olfactory bulb to the upper cervical cord. The accumulation of immunoreactive L1 was greatest in a non-neuronal element of the major fibre bundles, i.e. the lateral olfactory tract, olfactory and temporal limb of the anterior commissure, corpus callosum, stria terminalis, globus pallidus, fornix, mammillothalamic tract, solitary tract, and spinal tract of the trigeminal nerve. High to highest levels of non-neuronal and neuronal L1 were found in the grey matter; i.e. the piriform and entorhinal cortices, hypothalamus, reticular part of the substantia nigra, periaqueductal grey, trigeminal spinal nucleus etc. High to moderate density of neuronal L1 was found in the olfactory bulb, layer V of the cerebral cortex, amygdala, pontine grey, superior colliculi, cerebellar cortex, solitary tract nucleus etc. Only low to lowest levels of neuronal L1 were found in the hippocampus, grey matter in the caudate-putamen, thalamus, cerebellar nuclei etc. CONCLUSION: L1 is widely and unevenly distributed in the matured mouse brain, where immunoreactivity was present not only in neuronal elements; axons, synapses and cell soma, but also in non-neuronal elements