AIM: Signal transducers and activators of transcription (STATs) are a family of transcription factors activated in response to cytokines and growth factors. Constitutive activation of Stat3 has been observed in a grow...AIM: Signal transducers and activators of transcription (STATs) are a family of transcription factors activated in response to cytokines and growth factors. Constitutive activation of Stat3 has been observed in a growing number of tumor-derived cell lines, as well as tumor specimens from human cancers. The purpose of this study was to investigate the expression of p-Stat3, activated form of Stat3, and its downstream mediators including cyclin D1 and Bcl-XL in colorectal carcinoma (CRC), and to explore the possible mechanism of Stat3 signaling pathway in the tumorigenesis of colorectal carcinoma. METHODS: Tissue samples from 45 patients of primary colorectal carcinoma were selected for studying Stat3 signaling pathway protein expression. Western blot analysis was used to measure the expression of p-Stat3, cyclin D1, and Bcl-xu proteins in colorectal carcinomas. Furthermore, the expression patterns of these proteins were analyzed for their distribution at the cellular level by immunohistochemical staining of the tissues. RESULTS: Protein levels of p-Stat3, cyclin D1, and Bcl-XL were increased in colorectal carcinomas compared with adjacent normal mucosae (P<0.05). Elevated levels of pStat3 were correlated with the nodal metastasis and the stage (P<0.05). Overexpression of cyclin D1 was associated with the nodal metastasis (P<0.05). There was also a significant correlation between the expressions of p-Stat3 and cyclin D1 (r=0.382, P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Constitutive activation of Stat3 may play an important role in the tumorigenesis of colorectal carcinoma, and the detailed mechanism of Stat3 signaling pathway in CRC deserves further investigation.展开更多
AIM: To investigate the expression of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) and its upstream protein kinase in human gastric cancer and to evaluate the relationship between protein levels and clinicopathological p...AIM: To investigate the expression of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) and its upstream protein kinase in human gastric cancer and to evaluate the relationship between protein levels and clinicopathological parameters. METHODS: Western blot was used to measure the expression of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK)-1, ERK-2, ERK-3, p38 and mitogen or ERK activated protein kinaseMEK-1 proteins in surgically resected gastric carcinoma, adjacent normal mucosa and metastatic lymph nodes from 42 patients. Immunohistochemistry was employed for their localization. RESULTS: Compared with normal tissues, the protein levels of ERK-1 (integral optical density value 159 526?5 760 vs 122 807±65 515, P= 0.001), ERK-2 (168 471±95 051 vs 120 469±72 874, P<0.001), ERK-3 (118 651±71 513 vs 70 934±68 058,P<0.001), P38 (104 776±51 650 vs 82 930±40 392, P= 0.048) and MEK-1 (116 486±45 725 vs 101 434±49 387, P = 0.027) were increased in gastric cancer tissues. Overexpression of ERK-3 was correlated to TNM staging [average ratio of integral optic density (IOD)tumor: IODnormal in TNM I, II, III, IV tumors was 1.43±0.34, 5.08±3.74, 4.99±1.08, 1.44±1.02, n = 42, P= 0.023] and serosa invasion (4.31±4.34 vs 2.00±2.03, P = 0.037). In poorly differentiated cancers (n = 33), the protein levels of ERK-1 and ERK-2 in stage III and IV tumors were higher than those in stage I and II tumors (2.64+3.01 vs 1.01±0.33, P= 0.022; 2.05±1.54 vs1.24±0.40, P= 0.030). Gastric cancer tissues with either lymph node involvement (2.49±2.91 vs1.03±0.36, P= 0.023; 1.98±1.49vs1.24±0.44, P= 0.036) or serosa invasion (2.39±2.82 vs 1.01±0.35, P= 0.022; 1.95±1.44 vs1.14±0.36, P=0.015) expressed higher protein levels of ERK-1 and ERK-2. In Borrmann II tumors, expression of ERK-2 and ERK-3 was increased compared with Borrmann III tumors (2.57±1.86 vs1.23±0.60, P= 0.022; 5.50±5.05 vs1.83±1.21, P= 0.014). Borrmann IV tumors expressed higher p38 protein levels. No statistically significant difference in expression of MAPKs was found when stratified to tumor size or histological grade (P>0.05). Protein levels of ERK-2, ERK-3 and MEK-1 in metastatic lymph nodes were 2-7 folds higher than those in adjacent normal mucosa. The immunohistochemistry demonstrated that ERK-1, ERK-2, ERK-3, p38 and MEK-1 proteins were mainly localized in cytoplasm. The expression of MEK-1 in gastric cancer cells metastasized to lymph nodes was higher than that of the primary site. CONCLUSION: MAPKs, particularly ERK subclass are overexpressed in the majority of gastric cancers. Overexpression of ERKs is correlated to TNM staging, serosa invasion, and lymph node involvement. The overexpression of p38 most likely plays a prominent role in certain morphological subtypes of gastric cancers. MEK-1 is also overexpressed in gastric cancer, particularly in metastatic lymph nodes. Upregulation of MARK signal transduction pathways may play an important role in tumorigenesis and metastatic potential of gastric cancer.展开更多
AIM:The prevention of recurrence of colon cancer (CC) after operation is very important for improvement of the prognosis of CC patients,especially those with micro- metastasis.The generation of fused cells between den...AIM:The prevention of recurrence of colon cancer (CC) after operation is very important for improvement of the prognosis of CC patients,especially those with micro- metastasis.The generation of fused cells between dendritic cells (DCs) and tumor cells maybe an effective approach for tumor antigen presentation in immunotherapy.In this study, we fused human colon caner SW480 cells and human peripheral blood-derived DCs to induce an antitumor activity against human CC. METHODS:CC SW480 cells and human peripheral blood- derived DCs were fused with 500 mL/L polyethylene glycol (PEG). RESULTS:The specific T cell responses activated by fusion cells (FCs),were observed.About 100 mL/L to 160 mL/L of the PEG-treated non-adherent cells with fluorescences were considered to be dendritomas that highly expressed the key molecules for antigen presentation in our five cases.In vitro studies showed that fusions effectively activated CD8^+ T lymphocytes to secrete interferon-γ.The early apoptotic ratio of the colon cancer SW480 cells was higher than that of controls,which was affected by cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) stimulated by dendritomas. CONCLUSION:The data indicate that fusion of tumor cells with DCs is an attractive strategy to induce tumor rejection.展开更多
Amino acids(AAs)including D-and L-enantiomers are a group of organic nitrogen species in ambient aerosol.Due to the low abundances of AAs(level of ng/m^(3))and the matrix effects by coexistent components,it is challen...Amino acids(AAs)including D-and L-enantiomers are a group of organic nitrogen species in ambient aerosol.Due to the low abundances of AAs(level of ng/m^(3))and the matrix effects by coexistent components,it is challenging to quantify AA enantiomers in ambient aerosols especially under pollution conditions.In this study,we present an optimized method for analyzing AA enantiomers in atmospheric aerosol samples including a pretreatment process and the detection by high performance liquid chromatography coupled to a fuorescence detector(HPLC-FLD).Matrix effects caused by coexistent chemicals on AA enantiomers analysis in ambient aerosol samples were investigated especially for those collected in pollution episodes.The results revealed that the determination of AA enantiomers is significantly affected by the coexistent organic carbon(as a proxy of organic matter)and water-soluble ion of NH_(4)^(+).To remove the matrix effects,we applied a pretreatment using the solid phase extraction column coupled with alkaline adjustment to sample extract.After pretreatment,18 AAs including 6 pairs of D-and L-enantiomers(i.e.,leucine,isoleucine,valine,alanine,serine,and aspartic acid)can be successfully separated and quantified in aerosol samples by HPLC-FLD.The recoveries are in the range of 67%-106%.This method was successfully applied to the urban aerosol samples from pollution and non-pollution periods for AA enantiomers determination.We suggest that the concentrations of D-AAs and the ratio of D-AA/L-AA are indicative of the contribution of bacterial sources and the infuence of biomass burning.展开更多
The results of data cube will occupy huge amount of disk space when the base table is of a large number of attributes. A new type of data cube, compact data cube like condensed cube and quotient cube, was proposed to ...The results of data cube will occupy huge amount of disk space when the base table is of a large number of attributes. A new type of data cube, compact data cube like condensed cube and quotient cube, was proposed to solve the problem. It compresses data cube dramatically. However, its query cost is so high that it cannot be used in most applications. This paper introduces the semi-closed cube to reduce the size of data cube and achieve almost the same query response time as the data cube does. Semi-closed cube is a generalization of condensed cube and quotient cube and is constructed from a quotient cube. When the query cost of quotient cube is higher than a given threshold, semi-closed cube selects some views and picks a fellow for each of them. All the tuples of those views are materialized except those closed by their fellows. To find a tuple of those views, users only need to scan the view and its fellow. Thus, their query performance is improved. Experiments were conducted using a real-world data set. The results show that semi-closed cube is an effective approach of data cube.展开更多
Data cube computation is a well-known expensive operation and has been studied extensively. It is often not feasible to compute a complete data cube due to the huge storage requirement. Recently proposed quotient cube...Data cube computation is a well-known expensive operation and has been studied extensively. It is often not feasible to compute a complete data cube due to the huge storage requirement. Recently proposed quotient cube addressed this fundamental issue through a partitioning method that groups cube cells into equivalent partitions. The effectiveness and efficiency of the quotient cube for cube compression and computation have been proved. However, as changes are made to the data sources, to maintain such a quotient cube is non-trivial since the equivalent classes in it must be split or merged. In this paper, incremental algorithms are designed to update existing quotient cube efficiently based on Galois lattice. Performance study shows that these algorithms are efficient and scalable for large databases.展开更多
基金Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China,No.30271269
文摘AIM: Signal transducers and activators of transcription (STATs) are a family of transcription factors activated in response to cytokines and growth factors. Constitutive activation of Stat3 has been observed in a growing number of tumor-derived cell lines, as well as tumor specimens from human cancers. The purpose of this study was to investigate the expression of p-Stat3, activated form of Stat3, and its downstream mediators including cyclin D1 and Bcl-XL in colorectal carcinoma (CRC), and to explore the possible mechanism of Stat3 signaling pathway in the tumorigenesis of colorectal carcinoma. METHODS: Tissue samples from 45 patients of primary colorectal carcinoma were selected for studying Stat3 signaling pathway protein expression. Western blot analysis was used to measure the expression of p-Stat3, cyclin D1, and Bcl-xu proteins in colorectal carcinomas. Furthermore, the expression patterns of these proteins were analyzed for their distribution at the cellular level by immunohistochemical staining of the tissues. RESULTS: Protein levels of p-Stat3, cyclin D1, and Bcl-XL were increased in colorectal carcinomas compared with adjacent normal mucosae (P<0.05). Elevated levels of pStat3 were correlated with the nodal metastasis and the stage (P<0.05). Overexpression of cyclin D1 was associated with the nodal metastasis (P<0.05). There was also a significant correlation between the expressions of p-Stat3 and cyclin D1 (r=0.382, P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Constitutive activation of Stat3 may play an important role in the tumorigenesis of colorectal carcinoma, and the detailed mechanism of Stat3 signaling pathway in CRC deserves further investigation.
基金Supported by Technology Foundation of Ministry of Education, China
文摘AIM: To investigate the expression of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) and its upstream protein kinase in human gastric cancer and to evaluate the relationship between protein levels and clinicopathological parameters. METHODS: Western blot was used to measure the expression of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK)-1, ERK-2, ERK-3, p38 and mitogen or ERK activated protein kinaseMEK-1 proteins in surgically resected gastric carcinoma, adjacent normal mucosa and metastatic lymph nodes from 42 patients. Immunohistochemistry was employed for their localization. RESULTS: Compared with normal tissues, the protein levels of ERK-1 (integral optical density value 159 526?5 760 vs 122 807±65 515, P= 0.001), ERK-2 (168 471±95 051 vs 120 469±72 874, P<0.001), ERK-3 (118 651±71 513 vs 70 934±68 058,P<0.001), P38 (104 776±51 650 vs 82 930±40 392, P= 0.048) and MEK-1 (116 486±45 725 vs 101 434±49 387, P = 0.027) were increased in gastric cancer tissues. Overexpression of ERK-3 was correlated to TNM staging [average ratio of integral optic density (IOD)tumor: IODnormal in TNM I, II, III, IV tumors was 1.43±0.34, 5.08±3.74, 4.99±1.08, 1.44±1.02, n = 42, P= 0.023] and serosa invasion (4.31±4.34 vs 2.00±2.03, P = 0.037). In poorly differentiated cancers (n = 33), the protein levels of ERK-1 and ERK-2 in stage III and IV tumors were higher than those in stage I and II tumors (2.64+3.01 vs 1.01±0.33, P= 0.022; 2.05±1.54 vs1.24±0.40, P= 0.030). Gastric cancer tissues with either lymph node involvement (2.49±2.91 vs1.03±0.36, P= 0.023; 1.98±1.49vs1.24±0.44, P= 0.036) or serosa invasion (2.39±2.82 vs 1.01±0.35, P= 0.022; 1.95±1.44 vs1.14±0.36, P=0.015) expressed higher protein levels of ERK-1 and ERK-2. In Borrmann II tumors, expression of ERK-2 and ERK-3 was increased compared with Borrmann III tumors (2.57±1.86 vs1.23±0.60, P= 0.022; 5.50±5.05 vs1.83±1.21, P= 0.014). Borrmann IV tumors expressed higher p38 protein levels. No statistically significant difference in expression of MAPKs was found when stratified to tumor size or histological grade (P>0.05). Protein levels of ERK-2, ERK-3 and MEK-1 in metastatic lymph nodes were 2-7 folds higher than those in adjacent normal mucosa. The immunohistochemistry demonstrated that ERK-1, ERK-2, ERK-3, p38 and MEK-1 proteins were mainly localized in cytoplasm. The expression of MEK-1 in gastric cancer cells metastasized to lymph nodes was higher than that of the primary site. CONCLUSION: MAPKs, particularly ERK subclass are overexpressed in the majority of gastric cancers. Overexpression of ERKs is correlated to TNM staging, serosa invasion, and lymph node involvement. The overexpression of p38 most likely plays a prominent role in certain morphological subtypes of gastric cancers. MEK-1 is also overexpressed in gastric cancer, particularly in metastatic lymph nodes. Upregulation of MARK signal transduction pathways may play an important role in tumorigenesis and metastatic potential of gastric cancer.
基金Supported by Technology Foundation of Ministry of Education,China
文摘AIM:The prevention of recurrence of colon cancer (CC) after operation is very important for improvement of the prognosis of CC patients,especially those with micro- metastasis.The generation of fused cells between dendritic cells (DCs) and tumor cells maybe an effective approach for tumor antigen presentation in immunotherapy.In this study, we fused human colon caner SW480 cells and human peripheral blood-derived DCs to induce an antitumor activity against human CC. METHODS:CC SW480 cells and human peripheral blood- derived DCs were fused with 500 mL/L polyethylene glycol (PEG). RESULTS:The specific T cell responses activated by fusion cells (FCs),were observed.About 100 mL/L to 160 mL/L of the PEG-treated non-adherent cells with fluorescences were considered to be dendritomas that highly expressed the key molecules for antigen presentation in our five cases.In vitro studies showed that fusions effectively activated CD8^+ T lymphocytes to secrete interferon-γ.The early apoptotic ratio of the colon cancer SW480 cells was higher than that of controls,which was affected by cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) stimulated by dendritomas. CONCLUSION:The data indicate that fusion of tumor cells with DCs is an attractive strategy to induce tumor rejection.
基金supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (No.41975156)。
文摘Amino acids(AAs)including D-and L-enantiomers are a group of organic nitrogen species in ambient aerosol.Due to the low abundances of AAs(level of ng/m^(3))and the matrix effects by coexistent components,it is challenging to quantify AA enantiomers in ambient aerosols especially under pollution conditions.In this study,we present an optimized method for analyzing AA enantiomers in atmospheric aerosol samples including a pretreatment process and the detection by high performance liquid chromatography coupled to a fuorescence detector(HPLC-FLD).Matrix effects caused by coexistent chemicals on AA enantiomers analysis in ambient aerosol samples were investigated especially for those collected in pollution episodes.The results revealed that the determination of AA enantiomers is significantly affected by the coexistent organic carbon(as a proxy of organic matter)and water-soluble ion of NH_(4)^(+).To remove the matrix effects,we applied a pretreatment using the solid phase extraction column coupled with alkaline adjustment to sample extract.After pretreatment,18 AAs including 6 pairs of D-and L-enantiomers(i.e.,leucine,isoleucine,valine,alanine,serine,and aspartic acid)can be successfully separated and quantified in aerosol samples by HPLC-FLD.The recoveries are in the range of 67%-106%.This method was successfully applied to the urban aerosol samples from pollution and non-pollution periods for AA enantiomers determination.We suggest that the concentrations of D-AAs and the ratio of D-AA/L-AA are indicative of the contribution of bacterial sources and the infuence of biomass burning.
文摘The results of data cube will occupy huge amount of disk space when the base table is of a large number of attributes. A new type of data cube, compact data cube like condensed cube and quotient cube, was proposed to solve the problem. It compresses data cube dramatically. However, its query cost is so high that it cannot be used in most applications. This paper introduces the semi-closed cube to reduce the size of data cube and achieve almost the same query response time as the data cube does. Semi-closed cube is a generalization of condensed cube and quotient cube and is constructed from a quotient cube. When the query cost of quotient cube is higher than a given threshold, semi-closed cube selects some views and picks a fellow for each of them. All the tuples of those views are materialized except those closed by their fellows. To find a tuple of those views, users only need to scan the view and its fellow. Thus, their query performance is improved. Experiments were conducted using a real-world data set. The results show that semi-closed cube is an effective approach of data cube.
文摘Data cube computation is a well-known expensive operation and has been studied extensively. It is often not feasible to compute a complete data cube due to the huge storage requirement. Recently proposed quotient cube addressed this fundamental issue through a partitioning method that groups cube cells into equivalent partitions. The effectiveness and efficiency of the quotient cube for cube compression and computation have been proved. However, as changes are made to the data sources, to maintain such a quotient cube is non-trivial since the equivalent classes in it must be split or merged. In this paper, incremental algorithms are designed to update existing quotient cube efficiently based on Galois lattice. Performance study shows that these algorithms are efficient and scalable for large databases.
