Inhibition of G1 cyclin-dependent kinase activity during growth arrest of human breast carcinoma cells by prostaglandin A2

Prostaglandin A2 (PGA2) potently inhibits cell proliferation and suppresses tumor growth in vivo, but little is known regarding the molecular mechanisms mediating these effects. Here we demonstrate that treatment of breast carcinoma MCF-7 cells with PGA2 leads to G1 arrest associated with a dramatic decrease in the levels of cyclin D1 and cyclin-dependent kinase 4 (cdk4) and accompanied by an increase in the expression of p21. We further show that these effects occur independent of cellular p53 status. The decline in cyclin D and cdk4 protein levels is correlated with loss in cdk4 kinase activity, cdk2 activity is also significantly inhibited in PGA2-treated cells, an effect closely associated with the upregulation of p21. Immunoprecipitation experiments verified that p21 was indeed complexed with cdk2 in PGA2-treated cells. Additional experiments with synchronized MCF-7 cultures stimulated with serum revealed that treatment with PGA2 prevents the progression of cells from G1 to S. Accordingly, the kinase activity associated with cdk4, cyclin E, and cdk2 immunocomplexes, which normally increases following serum addition, was unchanged in PGA2-treated cells. Furthermore, the retinoblastoma protein (Rb), a substrate of cdk4 and cdk2 whose phosphorylation is necessary for cell cycle progression, remains underphosphorylated in PGA2-treated serum-stimulated cells. These findings indicate that PGA2 exerts its growth-inhibitory effects through modulation of the expression and/or activity of several key G1 regulatory proteins. Our results highlight the chemotherapeutic potential of PGA2, particularly for suppressing growth of tumors lacking p53 function.     

c-KIT expression enhances the leukemogenic potential of 32D cells

The growth of human leukemic cells in culture and in vivo is dependent upon the presence of hematopoietic growth factors. Most populations of human leukemic acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML) cells express c-Kit on their surface and respond to Kit ligand (KL) in culture. To determine if this interaction was of potential significance in vivo we used a mouse model system. 32D cells, a murine IL-3-dependent myeloid cell line, were rendered KL responsive by transfection of the murine c-Kit. After injection of 32D or 32D-Kit cells into syngeneic hosts, animals bearing 32D-Kit cells, but not 32D cells, became moribund and were killed. These animals had circulating leukemic blast cells, infiltration of bone marrow, spleen, brain, liver, lung, and kidney. Cells recovered from some of the animals continued to be dependent upon IL-3 or KL for growth while in other cases the cells were factor independent. This model illustrates that the constitutive expression of c-Kit enhances the leukemic potential of 32D cells. The model will be useful for studying the progression of leukemia in vivo and testing whether interruption of the interaction of Kit and KL can affect the growth of leukemic cells.     

Performance analysis of the bidirectional associative memory and animproved model from the matched-filtering viewpoint

This paper discusses the bidirectional associative memory (BAM) model from the matched-filtering viewpoint and offers it a new interpretation. Our attention is focused on the problem of stability and attractivity of equilibrium states. Several sufficient and/or necessary conditions are presented. To improve the BAM performance, an exponential function is used to enhance the correlations between the binary vectors of the retrieval key and that of the stored pattern similar to the key. The modified model is shown to be asymptotically stable. Theoretical analysis and simulation results demonstrate that the modified model performs much better than the original BAM in terms of memory capacity and error correction capability.     

电源对介质阻挡放电(DBD)激发准分子(XeCl*)辐射的影响

本文对电源参数如电压幅值、频率及正负电压对介质阻挡放电激发准分子XeCl 紫外 (30 8nm)辐射的影响进行了实验研究。结果表明 ,UV辐射随电压幅度的增加而增强 ,但效率下降 ;提高频率 ,增加了放电次数 ,导致UV辐射的增强 ;此外 ,在较高的频率下 ,电压上升沿变陡 ,使得电子获得的能量主要用于原子的激发和电离。正、负电压放电的不对称源于电极结构的不对称而引起的放电过程的差异 ,负电压内电极可向放电管中馈入更多的能量 ;比较发光光谱可判断生成准分子的等离子体化学过程没有明显的差别     

钒钛渣对刚玉莫来石耐火材料的侵蚀研究

通过不同温度下钒钛渣对刚玉莫来石耐火材料的侵蚀实验，分析了炉渣、温度对材料的影响，认为致密结构、低气孔率是提高炉衬寿命的关键，板条状莫来石的存在利于减缓渣的侵蚀过程。     

电炉钢外来夹杂控制的研究

介绍了夹杂物的来源,包括内生夹杂和外来夹杂,着重于二次氧化产物、卷渣、内衬侵蚀.同时介绍了鄂钢电炉厂在冶炼和连铸过程中控制夹杂物的操作实践.     

The Silicon Backplane Design for an LCOS Polarization-Insensitive Phase Hologram SLM

Polarization-insensitivity is achieved in a reflective spatial light modulator by laying a quarter-wave plate (QWP) at the incident wavelength directly over the mirror pixels of a silicon backplane, and forming a nematic Freedrickcz cell over the QWP to modulate the reflected phase. To achieve the highest drive voltage from the available silicon process, a switched voltage common front electrode design is described, with variable amplitude square wave drive to the pixels to maintain constant root-mean-square drive and minimize phase fluctuations during the dc balance refresh cycle. The silicon has been fabricated and liquid-crystal-on-silicon cells both with and without the QWP assembled; applications include optically transparent switches for optical networks, beam steering for add-drop multiplexers for wavelength-division-multiplexing telecommunications, television multicast, and holographic projection.