43 research outputs found
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Assess the expression of ubiquitin specific protease USP2a for bladder cancer diagnosis
Background: Given that a deubiquitinating enzyme, ubiquitin-specific protease 2a (USP2a), regulates ubiquitination, trafficking, and degradation of EGFR, which plays a critical role in bladder cancer, in this study, we aimed to quantify the USP2a gene expression, and to determine the possibility that USP2a can be used for bladder cancer diagnosis. Methods: Using two independent cohorts (cohort 1, n = 339 in total; cohort 2, n = 140 in total) consisting of human bladder tissues from BC patients and normal controls, we analyzed the gene expression levels of USP2a. A quantitative real-time PCR amplification was performed using a Rotor Gene 6000 instrument to quantify the expression of USP2a mRNA. Results: A comparison of 305 bladder cancers and 34 age-matched controls showed an 81.4 % reduction in USP2a expression in bladder cancers as compared to normal bladder tissues (p < 0.001). In the independent cohort consisting of 140 BC tissues and matched adjacent normal bladder tissues, the levels of USP2a in the specimens of BC patients were reduced by 86.9 % as compared to matched surrounding normal specimens from the same patients (p < 0.001). Furthermore, there was 36.3 % reduction of USP2a gene expression in muscle invasive bladder cancer (MIBC, n = 121), compared to non muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC, n = 184) (p = 0.004). Lastly, USP2a mRNA expression was significantly reduced in higher stages of MIBC patients (p = 0.024), but not in NMIBC patients. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that USP2a mRNA may be considered as a diagnostic marker candidate for bladder cancer, in particular, to stratify MIBC patients with a more invasive phenotype
Subchronic inhalation toxicity of gold nanoparticles
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Gold nanoparticles are widely used in consumer products, including cosmetics, food packaging, beverages, toothpaste, automobiles, and lubricants. With this increase in consumer products containing gold nanoparticles, the potential for worker exposure to gold nanoparticles will also increase. Only a few studies have produced data on the <it>in vivo </it>toxicology of gold nanoparticles, meaning that the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME) of gold nanoparticles remain unclear.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The toxicity of gold nanoparticles was studied in Sprague Dawley rats by inhalation. Seven-week-old rats, weighing approximately 200 g (males) and 145 g (females), were divided into 4 groups (10 rats in each group): fresh-air control, low-dose (2.36 × 10<sup>4 </sup>particle/cm<sup>3</sup>, 0.04 μg/m<sup>3</sup>), middle-dose (2.36 × 10<sup>5 </sup>particle/cm<sup>3</sup>, 0.38 μg/m<sup>3</sup>), and high-dose (1.85 × 10<sup>6 </sup>particle/cm<sup>3</sup>, 20.02 μg/m<sup>3</sup>). The animals were exposed to gold nanoparticles (average diameter 4-5 nm) for 6 hours/day, 5 days/week, for 90-days in a whole-body inhalation chamber. In addition to mortality and clinical observations, body weight, food consumption, and lung function were recorded weekly. At the end of the study, the rats were subjected to a full necropsy, blood samples were collected for hematology and clinical chemistry tests, and organ weights were measured. Cellular differential counts and cytotoxicity measurements, such as albumin, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and total protein were also monitored in a cellular bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid. Among lung function test measurements, tidal volume and minute volume showed a tendency to decrease comparing control and dose groups during the 90-days of exposure. Although no statistically significant differences were found in cellular differential counts, histopathologic examination showed minimal alveoli, an inflammatory infiltrate with a mixed cell type, and increased macrophages in the high-dose rats. Tissue distribution of gold nanoparticles showed a dose-dependent accumulation of gold in only lungs and kidneys with a gender-related difference in gold nanoparticles content in kidneys.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Lungs were the only organ in which there were dose-related changes in both male and female rats. Changes observed in lung histopathology and function in high-dose animals indicate that the highest concentration (20 μg/m<sup>3</sup>) is a LOAEL and the middle concentration (0.38 μg/m<sup>3</sup>) is a NOAEL for this study.</p
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Three essays on family care, time allocation, and economic well -being
The first essay explores the impact of gender norms on time allocation to housework by asking whether individual attitudes towards the gendered division of labor between paid employment and family care mediate the relationship between wives\u27 income share and time spent on housework. I hypothesize that patriarchal attitudes can impose a psychic transactions cost on individuals that impedes efficient allocation of time and introduces frictions into household bargaining. Regression analysis of the 2004 Korean Time Use Survey which collected data on both attitudes and time allocation of married couples shows that husbands\u27 egalitarian attitudes play a particularly important role in increasing their own housework and decreasing their wives\u27 level and share of housework, particularly within households where wives also reveal egalitarian attitudes. The second essay develops and compares input and output-based replacement-cost estimates of the value of parental child care services in the U.S. in 2003-2006. My estimates build on the previous literature on the value of child care in the U.S. in the following ways: (1) I define child care broadly to include supervisory and on-call responsibilities and (2) I explore the sensitivity of valuation to assumptions regarding the effect of adult/child ratios that are likely to affect labor intensity and care quality. The results suggest that the input approach is likely to underestimate productivities of child care time for mothers relative to fathers, multiple-child families relative to one-child families. They also show the significant impact of the indirect child care time and labor intensity/care quality on values of child care time, calling careful attention to this issue in valuing unpaid parental child care time. The third essay develops an output consumption approach, illustrating the effect of different assumptions regarding the degree of rivalry in the time devoted to household production. With an analysis of the 2003-2006 American Time Use Surveys (ATUS), the findings suggest that prior empirical studies on the time costs of children, which focused on time inputs only and ignore the degree of rivalry in household consumption in concluding significant economies of scale in raising children, have overestimated the extent of economies of scale in childrearing. Keywords. Time allocation, gender norm, housework, valuation of parental child care, input versus output approach, household production, time costs of children, Korean Time Use Survey, American Time Use Survey