Six2 and Wnt Regulate Self-Renewal and Commitment of Nephron Progenitors through Shared Gene Regulatory Networks

A balance between Six2-dependent self-renewal and canonical Wnt signaling-directed commitment regulates mammalian nephrogenesis. Intersectional studies using chromatin immunoprecipitation and transcriptional profiling identified direct target genes shared by each pathway within nephron progenitors. Wnt4 and Fgf8 are essential for progenitor commitment; cis-regulatory modules flanking each gene are co-bound by Six2 and β-catenin, and dependent on conserved Lef/Tcf binding sites for activity. In vitro and in vivo analyses suggest that Six2 and Lef/Tcf factors form a regulatory complex that promotes progenitor maintenance while entry of β-catenin into this complex promotes nephrogenesis. Alternative transcriptional responses associated with Six2 and β-catenin co-binding events occur through non-Lef/Tcf DNA binding mechanisms highlighting the regulatory complexity downstream of Wnt signaling in the developing mammalian kidney

Clinical management of gastric cancer: results of a multicentre survey

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The National Comprehensive Cancer Network clinical practice guidelines in oncology-gastric cancer guidelines have been widely used to provide appropriate recommendations for the treatment of patients with gastric cancer. The aim of this study was to examine the adherence of surgical oncologists, medical oncologists, and radiation oncologists' to the recommended guidelines.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A questionnaire asking the treatment options for gastric cancer cases was sent to 394 Chinese oncology specialists, including surgical oncologists, medical oncologists, and radiation oncologists working in hospitals joined in The Western Cooperative Gastrointestinal Oncology Group of China. The questionnaire involved a series of clinical scenarios regarding the interpretation of surgery, neoadjuvant, adjuvant, and advanced treatment planning of gastric cancer.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Analysis of 358 respondents (91%) showed variations between each specialization and from the recommended guidelines in the management approaches to specific clinical scenarios. The majority of specialists admitted that less than 50% of patients received multidisciplinary evaluation before treatment. The participants gave different responses to questions involving adjuvant, neoadjuvant, and advanced settings, compared to the recommended guidelines.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These results highlight the heterogeneity of the treatment of gastric cancer. Surgical oncologists, medical oncologists, and radiation oncologists are not adhering to the recommended guidelines.</p

Motif-based analysis of large nucleotide data sets using MEME-ChIP

MEME-ChIP is a web-based tool for analyzing motifs in large DNA or RNA data sets. It can analyze peak regions identified by ChIP-seq, cross-linking sites identified by CLIP-seq and related assays, as well as sets of genomic regions selected using other criteria. MEME-ChIP performs de novo motif discovery, motif enrichment analysis, motif location analysis and motif clustering, providing a comprehensive picture of the DNA or RNA motifs that are enriched in the input sequences. MEME-ChIP performs two complementary types of de novo motif discovery: weight matrix-based discovery for high accuracy; and word-based discovery for high sensitivity. Motif enrichment analysis using DNA or RNA motifs from human, mouse, worm, fly and other model organisms provides even greater sensitivity. MEME-ChIP's interactive HTML output groups and aligns significant motifs to ease interpretation. This protocol takes less than 3 h, and it provides motif discovery approaches that are distinct and complementary to other online methods

Hydroxyapatite/titania nanocomposites derived by combining high-energy ball milling with spark plasma sintering processes

Hydroxyapatite-reinforced nanocomposites with titania nanocrystals addition are prepared by a homogeneous mixing of hydroxyapatite nanoparticles and titania nanocrystals based on high-energy ball milling and spark plasma sintering processes. The microstructural and mechanical properties of the HA/titania composites are studied by X-ray diffractometry analysis, Raman spectrometry, and scanning electron microscopy. The hardness and Young's modulus of the composites are characterized by a nanoindenter and they show that the incorporation of the titania nanocrystals improves the mechanical properties of the composites obviously and the improvement should be ascribed to the main solitary effect of the ceramic as additives as well as a denser composites due to combining high-energy ball milling with spark plasma sintering techniques. The bioactivity of the HA/titania composites is evaluated by immersing the spark plasma sintering (SPS) compact disk in the simulated body fluid (SBF) and the results indicate that the bioactivity of the composites is related to the addition of titania by inducing apatite nucleation on the sample's surface after being immersed in SBF.Accepted versio

Dictyostelid Cellular Slime Molds from Christmas Island, Indian Ocean

Reported here are the results of a study for dictyostelids carried out on Christmas Island, Indian Ocean. Six isolates representing four species of dictyostelid cellular slime molds were obtained from two of the four localities from which samples were collected on the island. Two of the species (Dictyostelium insulinativitatis and D. barbarae) belong to the Dictyosteliaceae, genus Dictyostelium, and are new to science. These are described based on both morphology and phylogeny. The diversity and abundance of dictyostelids on Christmas Island appear to be low, which might in part be due to the abundance of land crabs, which considerably reduce the extent of the litter layer on the forest floor.Christmas Island (10°30′S, 105°40′E) is an Australian external territory located in the Indian Ocean, approximately 350 km south of Java and Sumatra and about 1,550 km northwest of the closest point on the Australian mainland. In May 2017, 20 samples of soil/humus were collected on Christmas Island and processed for dictyostelid cellular slime molds. Four species were recovered. Two of these (Dictyostelium purpureum and Cavenderia aureostipes) are common and widely distributed throughout the world, but two other species (Dictyostelium insulinativitatis sp. nov. and Dictyostelium barbarae sp. nov.) were found to be new to science and are described here