Altered E-cadherin expression and p120 catenin localization in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Background: E-cadherin is a well-known tumor suppressor and its dysregulated expression correlates with tumor differentiation, metastasis and survival in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). p120 catenin is an Armadillo protein normally bound to E-cadherin in the cadherin-catenin complex at the adherens junction. Dysregulated expression and mislocalization of p120ctn affect the protective function of the complex. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the clinical significance of E-cadherin and p120ctn expression in ESCC. Methods: Immunohistochemistry was performed to investigate the expression of E-cadherin and p120ctn proteins in 71 patients with ESCC. The relationships between protein expression and clinicopathological characteristics were analyzed. Results: Reduced E-cadherin and p120ctn expressions were observed in 42.3% and 8.5% of ESCC cases, respectively. Reduction of membranous p120ctn was observed in 33.8% of cases. Membranous E-cadherin was preserved when p120ctn co-localized on the membrane of tumor cells (72.3%, P = 0.001). High level E-cadherin expression and membranous p120ctn preservation positively correlated with tumor differentiation (P = 0.001 and P = 0.008, respectively). p120ctn expression was also significantly related to lymph node metastasis (P = 0.003). Heterogeneous expression of both E-cadherin and p120ctn was observed in dysplasia. Conclusions: Altered E-cadherin expression and p120ctn localization were related to tumor differentiation, indicating their important roles in the pathogenesis of ESCC. © 2007 The Society of Surgical Oncology, Inc.postprin

Pan-cancer analysis of whole genomes

Cancer is driven by genetic change, and the advent of massively parallel sequencing has enabled systematic documentation of this variation at the whole-genome scale(1-3). Here we report the integrative analysis of 2,658 whole-cancer genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types from the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We describe the generation of the PCAWG resource, facilitated by international data sharing using compute clouds. On average, cancer genomes contained 4-5 driver mutations when combining coding and non-coding genomic elements; however, in around 5% of cases no drivers were identified, suggesting that cancer driver discovery is not yet complete. Chromothripsis, in which many clustered structural variants arise in a single catastrophic event, is frequently an early event in tumour evolution; in acral melanoma, for example, these events precede most somatic point mutations and affect several cancer-associated genes simultaneously. Cancers with abnormal telomere maintenance often originate from tissues with low replicative activity and show several mechanisms of preventing telomere attrition to critical levels. Common and rare germline variants affect patterns of somatic mutation, including point mutations, structural variants and somatic retrotransposition. A collection of papers from the PCAWG Consortium describes non-coding mutations that drive cancer beyond those in the TERT promoter(4); identifies new signatures of mutational processes that cause base substitutions, small insertions and deletions and structural variation(5,6); analyses timings and patterns of tumour evolution(7); describes the diverse transcriptional consequences of somatic mutation on splicing, expression levels, fusion genes and promoter activity(8,9); and evaluates a range of more-specialized features of cancer genomes(8,10-18).Peer reviewe

Enhanced magnetic properties in antiferromagnetic-core/ferrimagnetic-shell nanoparticles

Bi-magnetic core/shell nanoparticles are gaining increasing interest due to their foreseen applications. Inverse antiferromagnetic(AFM)/ferrimagnetic(FiM) core/shell nanoparticles are particularly appealing since they may overcome some of the limitations of conventional FiM/AFM systems. However, virtually no simulations exist on this type of morphology. Here we present systematic Metropolis Monte Carlo simulations of the exchange bias properties of such nanoparticles. The coercivity, H C, and loop shift, H ex, present a non-monotonic dependence with the core diameter and the shell thickness, in excellent agreement with the available experimental data. Additionally, we demonstrate novel unconventional behavior in FiM/AFM particles. Namely, while H C and H ex decrease upon increasing FiM thickness for small AFM cores (as expected), they show the opposite trend for large cores. This presents a counterintuitive FiM size dependence for large AFM cores that is attributed to the competition between core and shell contributions, which expands over a wider range of core diameters leading to non-vanishing H ex even for very large cores. Moreover, the results also hint different possible ways to enhance the experimental performance of inverse core/shell nanoparticles for diverse applications

Synthesis and magnetic properties of melt-spun high Pr-content magnetostrictive alloys

Pseudobinary high Pr-content Tb1-xPrx(Fe0.4Co0.6)(1.93) (0.70 = 35m/s and subsequent annealing at 500 degrees C for 30 min. The lattice parameter of the Tb1-xPrx(Fe0.4Co0.6)(1.93) Laves phase increases from 0.7354 nm for x = 0.70 to 0.7384 nm for x = 1.00 and approximately follows the linear Vegard's law. The Curie temperature decreases, while the saturation magnetization increases as increasing Pr content. The Pr-rich alloys possess the relatively lower coercivity and the faster saturation of magnetostriction as compared with the Tb-rich alloys, which can be understood by their lower magnetic anisotropy. (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier B.V

Structure and magnetostrictive properties of melt-spun Pr(Fe0.4Co0.6)(1.93) alloys

Pr( Fe0.4Co0.6)(1.93) ribbons were prepared by a melt-spinning method. Their structure and magnetic properties are investigated as functions of wheel speed and annealing temperature. The as-spun ribbon consists of a Pr(Fe, Co)(2) cubic Laves phase and an amorphous phase at a wheel speed of v >= 35m/s, while the non-cubic phases of PuNi3-type and rare earth appear when the speed lower than 30m/s. A single Pr(Fe, Co)(2) phase with MgCu2-type structure has been synthesized by the process for the wheel speed of v >= 35 m/s and subsequent annealing at 500 degrees C for 30 min. The epoxy/Pr(Fe0.4Co0.6)(1.93) composite has been produced by a cold isostatic pressing technique, and the magnetic properties have been investigated. The composite rod sample possesses good magnetostrictive properties, i.e., a large magnetostriction (lambda(a) = lambda(parallel to) - lambda(perpendicular to)) of 710 ppm at 800 kA/m and a dynamic coefficient d(33) of 0.67nm/ Aat 100 kA/m, and is of practical value. (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier B.V

Structure and anisotropic compensation of Tb1-xPrx(Fe0.4Co0.55B0.05)(1.93) (0 <= x <= 1) magnetostrictive alloys

Structural, magnetic and magnetostrictive properties of Tb1-xPrx(Fe0.4Co0.55B0.05)(1.93) (0 <= x <= 1) alloys have been investigated. The (Tb,Pr)(Fe,Co,B)(2) Compounds are found to stabilize in a cubic Laves-phase structure. The lattice parameter increases with increasing Pr content and obeys the linear Vegard's law. The spin phase diagram for the compounds is constructed to illustrate both the composition dependence of the Curie temperature (T-C) and spin reorientation temperature (T-SR) and the arrangement for the easy magnetization direction (EMD). It is found that T-C decreases, while TSR increases as increasing Pr content. The saturation magnetization (M-S) decreases to reach a minimum when x <= 0.50, and then increases with further increasing Pr content. The composition for magnetic-moment compensation is about x(comp) = 0.55. The magnetostriction (lambda(a)) decreases with increasing Pr content when 0 <= x <= 0.50, then increases with a further increasing x and exhibits a peak in the range of 0.50 <= x <= 1.0. Both the magnetization and the magnetostriction analyses show that Tb1-xPrx(Fe0.4Co0.55B0.05)(1.93) is an anisotropy compensation system and the compensation point is close to x = 0.80. (C) 2008 Published by Elsevier B.V