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Biomedical subjects

G Vecchio

Publications and source records attributed to G Vecchio.

152 records · Page 9Linked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

A new oncogene in human thyroid papillary carcinomas and their lymph-nodal metastases.

Using DNA transfection analysis on NIH 3T3 cells, activated human oncogenes have been isolated from a variety of fresh solid tumours. Thyroid neoplasias show a wide range of lesions varying from slowly progressive well-differentiated tumours to anaplastic highly malignant neoplasms. Therefore they represent an attractive model to investigate the role of oncogene activation in different stages of the neoplastic state. Here we report the detection of transforming activity in DNAs extracted from five thyroid papillary carcinomas and two of their respective lymph-nodal metastases.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

A transcutaneous energy and information transfer system for implanted medical devices.

During the last four decades there has been a rapid increase in the development and usage of medical devices. Currently, there are more than 500,000 devices on the market and 25,000 new devices enter the market each year. Many medical devices are now designed to be implantable (pacemakers, defibrillators, circulatory assist devices, artificial hearts, cochlear implants, neuromuscular stimulators, biosensors, etc.). Almost all of the active devices (those that perform work) and many of the passive devices (those that do not perform work) require a source of power. In addition, these devices need to be monitored and controlled, which can be accomplished by utilizing remote communication methods. A transcutaneous energy transfer system combined with a remote communications system has been developed and evaluated in vitro and in vivo (bovine, porcine, and human cadaver experiments). The energy transfer system can deliver up to 60 W with power transfer efficiencies between 60 and 83%. An automatically tuned, resonant frequency tracking method is used to obtain optimum power transfer over a range of operating conditions. The remote communications system can transfer digital data bidirectionally through intact skin at rates up to 9600 baud. The system transmits information by frequency modulating an 890 nm infrared carrier signal. The system has demonstrated satisfactory performance during multicenter evaluation with ventricular assist and total artificial heart devices. Design improvements have been identified, which will be implemented to produce an optimized system for energy transfer to and remote communications with various implantable medical devices.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Preferential expression of the dbl proto-oncogene in some neuroectodermal tumors.

The dbl oncogene belongs to a unique class of human transforming genes. The dbl proto-oncogene is activated by substitution of the 5' portion of the gene with an unrelated human sequence. The proto-oncogene product is distributed between the soluble and membrane fractions of the cytoplasm and its function remains still unknown. In order to understand the biological role of dbl in human malignancies or during cell differentiation we have investigated the expression of the dbl oncogene in a wide number of human tumors of different embryological derivation. We found that dbl is preferentially expressed in a few neoplastic histiotypes of neuroectodermal origin. The transcript size of 5.3 Kb strongly suggests that the gene is not truncated in these tumors. These data, together with the information that the proto-oncogene has been found expressed in normal brain and adrenal medulla, indicate that dbl expression may be involved in cell differentiation of some tissues of neuroectodermic origin.

Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Forskolin and a tumor promoter are able to induce c-fos and c-myc expression in normal, but not in a v-ras-transformed rat thyroid cell line.

The rat thyroid cell line (FRTL5) is dependent on thyrotropic hormone (TSH) for its growth. c-fos and c-myc oncogenes expression was measured in these cells after addition of their specific growth factor TSH and after treatment with either forskolin, an activator of adenylate cyclase or with a tumor promoter, TPA. Transient expression of oncogenes coding for nuclear products and a slight increase in ras-h oncogene expression were observed in normal rat thyroid cells after all treatments. In contrast, in v-ras-transformed rat thyroid cells, which express very high levels of p21, treatment with either TSH, forskolin or TPA does not induce c-fos gene expression, while c-myc expression was constitutive. Normal unstimulated cells show no c-myc expression.

Animals↗