Differential regulation by hematopoietic growth factors of apoptosis and mitosis in acute myeloblastic leukemia cells

We evaluated the effects of various hematopoietic growth factors (HGFs) on the prevention of apoptosis in blasts from 19 patients with acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML) by assessing DNA ladder formation. After incubation without HGF, apoptosis was noted in all but two patients. HGFs prevented, did not affect, or enhanced apoptosis in 39 (60%), 14 (22%), or 12 (18%) of 65 suspension cultures, respectively. HGFs that prevented apoptosis also stimulated and/or synergized blast colony formation in 35 of 39 corresponding methylcellulose cultures. HGFs that alone stimulated colony formation also prevented apoptosis in all but two of 28 corresponding suspension cultures. In contrast, HGFs that did not prevent apoptosis also failed to stimulate growth in 17 of 26 corresponding methylcellulose cultures. HGFs that enhanced apoptosis alone never stimulated colony formation. After incubation, we noted enhanced c-fos and cjun genes as well as induction of p21 protein. An appropriate dose of HGF elevated c-fos, reduced c-jun and p21, induced G1/S transition, and inhibited apoptosis. In two patients, apoptosis was not induced after incubation. Cells not treated with HGF expressed no c-fos, c-jun, or c-myc, and remained in G0/G1. Taken together, our results support the conclusion that not only c-fos, cjun, and c-myc, but also p53 and p21 are required for blast apoptosis. HGF differentially prevents apoptosis and induces mitosis, and both events seem to be integral to the self-renewal of AML clonogenic cells.     

Late complications in traumatic coronary artery fistula: report of a case requiring surgical repair after 8 years

A full-length cDNA clone for a progesterone membrane binding protein from porcine vascular smooth muscle cells was isolated and the complete nucleotide sequence determined. The cDNA encodes a protein of 194 amino acids with a transmembrane segment. This protein is likely to represent the first steroid membrane receptor or a part of it for which sequence information is available.     

Identification of K1/K10 and K5/K14 keratin pairs in human melanoma cell lines

Keratin expression in cultured malignant melanoma cells has been studied only rarely. Moreover, no studies have reported of universality of keratin expression in human malignant melanoma cells. In this study, therefore, we analyzed keratin expression in eight cell lines. Using a low-salt aqueous solution without high salt and Triton X-100, as a washing buffer for keratin extraction, followed by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2D-PAGE) and immunological analysis, we demonstrated keratin expression in all eight human malignant melanoma cell lines. The keratin polypeptide expressions common to all melanoma cells were K1, K5, K10 and K14. In addition, K8, K13, K17 and K18, respectively, were detected in individual cells. A measure of keratin expression universality in malignant melanoma cells may have implications regarding their invasive and metastatic behaviors, co-expressed with vimentin.     

Analysis of polarization plane rotation characteristic in 2D photonic crystal waveguide with chiral medium by condensed node spatial network

Using the photonic band gap in photonic crystals, the fundamental waveguide structures for the light wavelength range have been developed. Based on the fine structure of these many functional devices have been proposed by analytical or numerical simulation methods and the experiments of trial manufacture. In this paper, the treatment of chiral dielectric in the Condensed Node Spatial Network for the vector potential is explained, and we show the polarization plane rotation property in air‐hole and pillar type photonic crystal waveguide structures with the chiral medium substrate. Then, we show the fundamental advantage of the air‐hole type photonic crystal waveguide structure in application to a mode converter. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 152(1): 7–14, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience. wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20098     

The oxygen and carbon monoxide reactions of heme oxygenase

The O2 and CO reactions with the heme, alpha-hydroxyheme, and verdoheme complexes of heme oxygenase have been studied. The heme complexes of heme oxygenase isoforms-1 and -2 have similar O2 and CO binding properties. The O2 affinities are very high, KO2 = 30-80 microM-1, which is 30-90-fold greater than those of mammalian myoglobins. The O2 association rate constants are similar to those for myoglobins (kO2' = 7-20 microM-1 s-1), whereas the O2 dissociation rates are remarkably slow (kO2 = 0.25 s-1), implying the presence of very favorable interactions between bound O2 and protein residues in the heme pocket. The CO affinities estimated for both isoforms are only 1-6-fold higher than the corresponding O2 affinities. Thus, heme oxygenase discriminates much more strongly against CO binding than either myoglobin or hemoglobin. The CO binding reactions with the ferrous alpha-hydroxyheme complex are similar to those of the protoheme complex, and hydroxylation at the alpha-meso position does not appear to affect the reactivity of the iron atom. In contrast, the CO affinities of the verdoheme complexes are >10,000 times weaker than those of the heme complexes because of a 100-fold slower association rate constant (kCO' approximately 0. 004 microM-1 s-1) and a 300-fold greater dissociation rate constant (kCO approximately 3 s-1) compared with the corresponding rate constants of the protoheme and alpha-hydroxyheme complexes. The positive charge on the verdoporphyrin ring causes a large decrease in reactivity of the iron.     

Factors regulating SCC antigen expression in squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix

Expression of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) antigen emerged concurrently with squamous formation of the uterine cervix and increased during the neoplastic transformation of the cervical squamous epithelium. SCC antigen expression differed considerably among the histomorphologic cell types of cervical carcinoma. Large cell nonkeratinizing carcinoma contained high levels of the antigen. In contrast, no appreciable expression of SCC antigen was observed in small cell nonkeratinizing carcinoma. The pattern of SCC antigen expression closely coincided with EGF receptor (EGF-R) expression in cervical squamous neoplasia. This suggests that the expression of SCC and EGF-R in cervical carcinoma is related to the differentiation or dedifferentiation processes of the tumor cells. SCC production by CaSki cervical epidermoid carcinoma cells was stimulated by EGF. It seems likely that an autocrine system, in which EGF serves as the signal, may exist in cervical squamous carcinoma. 17beta-estradiol and L-triiodothyronine were found to upregulate EGF-R expression, proliferative potential and SCC production in the CaSki cervical carcinoma cells.     

Fabrication of a new substrate for atomic force microscopic observation of DNA molecules from an ultrasmooth sapphire plate

A new stable substrate applicable to the observation of DNA molecules by atomic force microscopy (AFM) was fabricated from a ultrasmooth sapphire (alpha-Al2O3 single crystal) plate. The atomically ultrasmooth sapphire as obtained by high-temperature annealing has hydrophobic surfaces and could not be used for the AFM observation of DNA. However, sapphire treated with Na3PO4 aqueous solution exhibited a hydrophilic character while maintaining a smooth surface structure. The surface of the wet-treated sapphire was found by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and AFM to be approximately 0.3 nm. The hydrophilic surface character of the ultrasmooth sapphire plate made it easy for DNA molecules to adhere to the plate. Circular molecules of the plasmid DNA could be imaged by AFM on the hydrophilic ultrasmooth sapphire plate.     

Studies on calcium antagonistic and alpha 1-adrenergic receptor blocking activities of monatepil maleate, its metabolites and their enantiomers

The calcium antagonistic and alpha 1-adrenergic receptor blocking activities of monatepil maleate (CAS 103377-41-9, (+/-)-N-(6,11-dihydrodibenzo [b, e] thiepin-11-yl) -4-(4-fluorophenyl)-1-piperazinebutanamide monomaleate, AJ-2615), a novel calcium antagonist, its metabolites and their enantiomers were studied in vitro. Monatepil maleate inhibited calcium-induced contractions of rat thoracic aorta (pA2 = 8.71) and l-phenylephrine-induced contractions of rabbit superior mesenteric artery (IC50 = 56.6 nmol/l). The calcium antagonistic activities of the metabolites of monatepil maleate (AJ-2615-sulfoxide A, AJ-2615-sulfoxide B and AJ-2615-sulfone) were 1/10 of that of monatepil maleate. However, their alpha 1-adrenergic receptor blocking activities were similar to or slightly more potent than that of monatepil maleate. The potencies of the calcium antagonistic activities of monatepil maleate and its enantiomers [(S)-AJ-2615 and (R)-AJ-2615] were in the order of (S)-AJ-2615 > monatepil maleate > (R)-AJ-2615 whereas no difference was observed among them in alpha 1-adrenergic receptor blocking activity. In calcium antagonistic and alpha 1-adrenergic receptor blocking activities, there was no difference between the enantiomers of monatepil maleate metabolites. In conclusion, there was a difference with several times in calcium antagonistic activity between the two enantiomers of monatepil maleate but not in their alpha 1-adrenergic receptor blocking activity.     

Distance metric learning for graph structured data

Machine Learning - Graphs are versatile tools for representing structured data. As a result, a variety of machine learning methods have been studied for graph data analysis. Although many such...     

In-place Algorithm for Erasing a Connected Component in a Binary Image

Removing noise in a given binary image is a common operation. A generalization of the operation is to erase an arbitrarily specified component by reversing pixel values in the component. This paper shows that this operation can be done without using any data structure like a stack or queue, or more exactly using only constant extra memory (consisting of a constant number of words of O(log n) bits for an image of n pixels) in O(mlog m) time for a component consisting of m pixels. This is an in-place algorithm, but the image matrix cannot be used as work space since it has just one bit for each pixel. Whenever we flip a pixel value in a target component, the component shape is also deformed, which causes some difficulty. The main idea for our constant work space algorithm is to deform a component so that its connectivity is preserved.