We carried out an experimental study to clarify the feasibility of stomach tissue engineering for reconstruction after partial gastrectomy. A collagen sponge scaffold was implanted to support the regeneration of stomach tissue. A 4 cm square area of the anterior wall of the stomach was surgically resected in three beagle dogs, and then reconstructed using the collagen sponge scaffold. The dogs received intravenous hyperalimentation for 14 days after the operation, and a silicone sheet was used as a patch on the luminal side to protect the scaffold from degradation by digestive juice. The silicone sheet was removed endoscopically 4 weeks after the operation, and the surgical defect was observed endoscopically at various time points. At 4 weeks after surgery, the stomach wall had regenerated, but was not yet covered by stomach mucosal tissue. However, at 16 weeks after surgery, mucosa totally covered the regenerated area. Microscopic findings confirmed regeneration of the stomach wall, mucosa, and thin muscular layer. These results show that tissue engineering of the stomach will be feasible in the near future for reconstruction after partial gastrectomy.

Absorbable Implants↗

PubMedDate not supplied

DNA hybridization study using Y-specific probes in an XX-male.

A 30-year-old male attended the Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University Hospital with the chief complaint of infertility. Physical examination showed bilateral small testes and the semen contained no sperm. Hormonal studies revealed hypergonadotropic hypogonadism and cytogenetic studies showed a 46,XX karyotype. High-resolution banding showed no abnormalities in both of the X chromosomes. Histological examination of both testes showed germinal aplasia and the proliferation of Leydig cells. The diagnosis of XX-male was made from the above findings. A DNA hybridization study using 17 Y-specific probes revealed the presence of a major part of the short arm of the Y chromosome, which had presumably been translocated to the X chromosome. The translocated Y short arm had a small deletion within it.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

LOH analyses of premalignant and malignant lesions of human breast: frequent LOH in 8p, 16q, and 17q in atypical ductal hyperplasia.

The number of breast cancer patients is increasing yearly, and it is important to establish effective methods for clinical management. We investigated loss of heterozygosity (LOH) in tumors derived from 23 patients that harbored synchronous lesions of atypical ductal hyperplasia (ADH), ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), and invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC). Fourteen selected microsatellite markers that were mapped to and/or very close to the tumor suppressor genes or regions with frequent LOH in breast cancer. Our results suggested that i) losses of chromosomal regions 8p, 16q, and 17q are early genetic changes, and ii) ADH is a premalignant lesion for the development of breast cancer.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Cell cycle inhibitory protein p27 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: p27 protein is one of the cdk inhibitors which regulates the progression from G1 to S phase of the cell cycle. Reduced expression of p27 protein has been reported to be correlated with poor clinical outcome in patients with various cancers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed immunohistochemistry of both p27 and Ki67 in 136 cases of resected human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, and evaluated the association between p27 immunoreactivity and clinicopathological features including clinical outcome in these patients. We also examined the correlation between labeling index or the percentage of positive tumor cells for p27 and Ki67 in serial tissue sections in these cases. RESULTS: Cases with invasion of the muscularis propria or adventitia had significantly (p < 0.05) higher p27 LI (65.0 +/- 23.7) than those with invasion limited to mucosa or submucosa and those with carcinoma in situ (58.9 +/- 18.3). There were no significant correlations between p27 and other clinicopathological factors such as sex, age, tumor size, differentiation type, nodal status and histological stage. The cases with p27 LI below 40% tended to have a worse prognosis than those with p27 LI above 40%. There was no significant correlation between Ki67 and p27 LIs. CONCLUSIONS: Reduced expression of p27 may be correlated with the biological behavior of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and may play an important role in the early stages of cancer.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Topoisomerase II alpha expression in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: DNA topoisomerase II alpha (topo II alpha) is associated with active cell proliferation of mammalian cells. Topo II alpha overexpression has been reported in a number of human malignancies and is considered to be related to their biological behaviors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We examined the expression of topo II alpha immunohistochemically in 136 cases of human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, 10 foci of squamous dysplasia and 10 non-pathologic squamous epithelium. We calculated the labeling index (LI) or the percentage of immunopositive cells for Topo II alpha and Ki67, and Topo II alpha LI/Ki67 LI (T/K ratio). These findings were then correlated with clinicopathological features of the patients including their clinical outcome. RESULTS: Both topo II alpha and Ki67 immunoreactivity were detected in the nuclei. A significant positive correlation was obtained between Topo II alpha and Ki67 LIs in all the specimens examined. Topo II alpha LI and T/K ratio were 24.5 +/- 8.0% and 1.04 +/- 0.64 for carcinoma, 19.1 +/- 15.2% and 0.68 +/- 0.29 for dysplasia and 14.0 +/- 14.1% and 0.55 +/- 0.17 for non-pathologic epithelium, respectively. Topo II alpha LI and T/K ratio in carcinoma cases were significantly higher than those of normal epithelium. Topo II alpha LI alone did not correlate with any of clinicopathological parameters examined but among carcinoma cases, cases with lymph nodes metastasis or higher histological stages had significantly higher T/K ratio than those without lymph node metastasis or lower histological stages. In addition, carcinoma cases with T/K ratio of greater than 0.8 demonstrated significantly worse prognosis than those with T/K ratio of smaller than 0.8. CONCLUSIONS: The relative overexpression of topo II alpha as compared with Ki67, i.e., increased T/K ratio was detected in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and is considered to represent a dysregulation or qualitative alteration in topo II alpha, possibly associated with malignances, as reported in other human cancers. In addition, topo II alpha overexpression may also be correlated with the aggressive biological behavior of the patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Primary hepatic carcinoid tumor: a case report.

A case of primary hepatic carcinoid tumor is reported. A 57-year-old woman had no endocrine symptoms. Light microscopic findings revealed tumor cells forming trabecular or insular structures and demonstrating diffuse positive staining by the Grimelius method. Mucin stained with Periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) and alcian-blue was partially present in the tumor cells. Immunohistochemically, most tumor cells stained positive with chromogranin A and cytokeratin stains. Intensive and careful investigation before and after the operation revealed no other origin of the tumor. We present this rare case, describe the clinical features of hepatic carcinoid, and discuss its diagnosis.

Biomarkers, Tumor↗

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17 beta-Hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 and type 2 in ductal carcinoma in situ and intraductal proliferative lesions of the human breast.

17 beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenases (17 beta-HSDs) are involved in the interconversion of biologically active and inactive sex steroids and are considered to play important roles in the in situ metabolism of estrogen in various estrogen dependent tissues. 17 beta-HSD type 1 catalyzes primarily the reduction of estrone (E1) to estradiol (E2), whereas 17 beta-HSD type 2 catalyzes primarily the oxidation of E2 to E1. However, the possible biological roles of these estrogen metabolizing isozymes in human breast cancer, especially in carcinogenesis of the human breast, have not been examined in detail. Because of the potential roles of estrogens in the early stages of human breast carcinogenesis, we have examined the immunolocalization of 17 beta-HSD type 1 and type 2 isozymes and estrogen receptor alpha(ER alpha) in both normal human breast tissue and in breast cancers, including ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), proliferative disease without atypia (PDWA) or fibrocystic disease and atypical ductal hyperplasia (ADH). We also correlated these findings with clinicopathological findings, Ki67 antigen, progesterone receptor (PR), c-erbB-2, and p53. 17 beta-HSD type 2 immunoreactivity was sporadically detected in non-proliferative or Ki67 negative ductal epithelia of normal breast, but rarely in breast carcinoma cells. 17 beta-HSD type 1 immunoreactivity was detected in 12/22 (54.5%) PDWA cases, 8/26 (30.8%) ADH cases, and 25/40 (62.5%) DCIS cases, respectively. 17 beta-HSD type 1 immunoreactivity was not statistically correlated with the age of the patients, Ki67 labeling index (LI), and PR LI, p-53 and c-erbB-2 immunoreactivity. There was no significant correlation between ER alpha LI and 17 beta-HSD type 1 immunoreactivity. There was a positive correlation between ER alpha and Ki67 LI in PDWA, whereas a negative correlation was detected between ER alpha and Ki67 LI in DCIS. There was no correlation between ER alpha and Ki67 LI in ADH. These results suggest that in human breast epithelial cells, development of ADH and DCIS may be associated with the loss and/or deviation of oestrogen dependent regulation of cell proliferation.

17-Hydroxysteroid Dehydrogenases↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Significance of tumor associated tissue eosinophilia and other inflammatory cell infiltrate in early esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Tumor associated inflammatory cell infiltration plays an important role in the biological behavior of cancer as one of the carcinoma-stromal interactions. In this study, we characterized inflammatory cell infiltration on esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SqCC) and correlated the findings with various clinicopathological factors, including clinical outcome of the patients, in order to study its biological significance. We examined 35 cases of surgically resected early esophageal SqCC or carcinoma with invasion limited to the submucosal layer. We evaluated the abundance of CD4+ T-cell, CD8+ T-cell, B-cell, plasma cell, CD68+ macrophage, neutrophil and eosinophil in the stroma adjacent to the tumor and correlated these findings with clinicopathological factors. The cases without LN metastasis had a significantly larger number of tumor associated eosinophils than those with LN metastasis. Primary lesions in cases without LN metastasis tended to demonstrate more CD68+ macrophage infiltration than those with LN metastasis, but the difference did not reach statistical significance. In addition, the cases with more than 50 eosinophils and macrophages per 10 high power field in the primary lesion demonstrated a significantly smaller incidence of LN metastasis than those with less than 50 eosinophils and macrophages per 10 high power field. Thus tumor associated tissue eosinophila, also known as TATE, is considered to be involved in the biological behaviour of early esophageal SqCC, especially in their metastatic potential.

Aged↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Alteration of X and Y chromosomes in human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

The incidence of human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma in males is well-known to be higher than in females and its biological action in male patients is generally much more aggressive than that of the female. Recently, aberrations and/or other abnormalities of the sex chromosomes, especially the Y chromosome, have been postulated to be involved in some of the differences in the incidence and/or biological action of human malignancies between male and female patients. Therefore, in this study, we examined abnormalities of the sex chromosomes in cell smears obtained from 30 male patients diagnosed with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. In addition, TE series cell lines, derived from esophageal squamous cell carcinomas, were studied for sex chromosome abnormalities by utilizing a simultaneous double color fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) and these findings were correlated with various clinicopathological parameters in order to examine its likely biological significance. In esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, Y chromosome loss was detected in all cases studied (1.6-86.9%, mean 22.98 +/- 22.04%), but the loss of the X chromosome was encountered in only 6 of the cases (7.1-40.6%, mean 15.90 +/- 12.46%). There was no significant association between the rate of Y chromosome loss in carcinoma cells and any of the clinicopathological parameters examined including age and stage of the cancer. Loss of the Y chromosome was observed in only two cases of adjacent non-pathological esophageal squamous cell epithelium. Among the TE series examined, the cell lines derived from male patients demonstrated loss of the Y chromosome in all cell lines (1.4-92.9%, mean 44.92 +/- 42.55%), but the great majority of cell lines derived from female patients were associated with the karyotype of XX. These results indicated that the loss of the Y chromosome is associated with the malignant phenotype in human esophageal squamous epithelium, but possibly not with biological behavior. These results also suggested that at least one X chromosome is indispensable for the survival of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Aged↗