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Biomedical subjects

W Chen

Publications and source records attributed to W Chen.

At least 1,063 records · Page 59Linked to original sources
PubMed1993

Sweat gland carcinoma: an easily confused skin malignancy.

Sweat gland carcinoma is a rare malignancy of the skin appendage. Surgeons and pathologists have limited experience with such tumor. Various classifications and diagnostic identifications lead to easy confusion with other metastatic lesions. Eight cases of sweat gland carcinoma were collected from 1020 cases of primary skin malignancies seen at the Veterans General Hospital-Taipei over the past 20 years. After a careful review of the clinical history and histopathology files, as well as immunohistochemical stains of CEA and S-100 protein, only three cases were proved to be sweat gland carcinomas, accounting for less than 0.3% of the primary tumors of skin. All three cases were eccrine histology in type. Two cases were CEA positive, and one case was positive with S-100 protein stain. Five cases which were excluded were negative to CEA and S-100 protein analysis. Thus it is suggested that sweat gland carcinoma should receive more accurate differential diagnosis from other skin malignancies, particularly metastatic tumors. Immunohistochemical analysis could help differential diagnosis. Treatment modalities of sweat gland carcinoma base mainly upon adequate wide surgical excision.

Aged↗
PubMed1993

Risk factors for lung cancer in non-smokers in Xuanwei County of China.

Tobacco smoking and some types of occupational exposures have consistently been considered as important etiologic factors of lung cancer in industrial countries. At the First World Conference of Lung Cancer (Wyndwer, 1983), it was stressed that more attention should be paid to finding out the causes of lung cancer in non-smokers. In Xuanwei County, Yunnan Province, annual lung cancer death rate was 27.7 per 100,000 in males, among China's highest, and 25.3 per 100,000 in females, the China's highest. The female's lung cancer death rate in Xuanwei County was even much higher than that of the same period in USA white women (ECACM, 1979; Mulvihill, 1976). Marked district variation in cancer mortality exists within Xuanwei County. The county can be divided into high-, medium- and low-mortality areas. Over 90% of the population are farmers. The local residents traditionally burned three major kinds of fuels: "smoky" coal, "smokeless" coal and "wood", for heating and cooking. The three lung cancer high mortality areas, including "Chengguan", "Rongcheng" and "Laibin" communes, mainly burned the "smoky" coal from Laibin smoky-coal mine. The fuel was burned in a shallow, unventilated fire pit in the floor of the dwelling. Fuel burning in shallow unventilated pits has resulted in high indoor air pollution levels. The concentrations of airborne particles (pm 10) inside houses during smoky coal and wood combustion were very high. Indoor concentration of suspended particulates and dichloromethane extractable organics were 24.4mg/m3 and 17.6mg/m3 in burning of "smoky" coal; 22.3mg/m3, 12.3mg/m3 for burning wood; and 1.8mg/m3, 0.5mg/m3 for burning of smokeless coals.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adult↗
PubMed1992

A microplate assay for the detection of oxidative products using 2',7'-dichlorofluorescin-diacetate.

A fluorometric microplate assay was established for the detection of respiratory burst activity in phagocytic cells by assessing oxidation of 2',7'-dichlorofluorescin-diacetate (DCFH-DA). This method is based on flow cytometric studies by Bass et al. (J. Immunol. 130 (1983) p. 1910) describing intracellular detection of DCFH oxidation due to the presence of hydrogen peroxides. In the present study we have adapted the assay for use in microtiter plates to determine the amount of extracellular reactive oxidative products. DCFH-DA, granulocytes and stimuli (phorbol myristate acetate, n-formyl-methionyl-leucylphenylalanine, concanavalin A) were added to microtiter plates and after incubation at 37 degrees C, the development of fluorescence intensity was read in a fluorescence concentration analyzer (FCA, Baxter). Calibration of fluorescence units recorded by the FCA was achieved by comparison with defined amounts of fluorescent DCF. The change in measured fluorescence was linear with cell density over the range of 2 x 10(5)-1 x 10(6) cells/well. Cumulative DCF generation in individual wells could be recorded non-destructively at frequent intervals for time course measurements. Results from FCA measurements correlated perfectly with the FACS analysis of the same samples (r = 0.99). In conclusion, this assay can be useful for screening monoclonal antibodies recognizing cell surface structures possibly involved in signal transduction as well as for testing phagocytes for their capacity to release reactive oxidative intermediates.

Flow Cytometry↗
PubMed1992

Decreased expression of E-cadherin and increased invasive capacity in EBV-LMP-transfected human epithelial and murine adenocarcinoma cells.

The EBV-encoded membrane protein LMP is one of 9 viral proteins regularly expressed in virally immortalized B lymphocytes. It is expressed in EBV-carrying lymphoblastoid cell lines of normal origin and in the majority of the poorly differentiated nasopharyngeal carcinomas, but not in Burkitt lymphomas. LMP has been reported to transform rodent fibroblasts, to inhibit epithelial differentiation and to alter morphology and cytokeratin expression in an in vitro immortalized human keratinocyte cell-line, RHEK-I. We now report that an LMP-transfected mouse mammary carcinoma line, SHG, exhibits a similar morphological change to that previously described in the LMP-transfected RHEK-I. In the LMP-transfected RHEK-I and SHG cells, we observed a decreased expression of the calcium-dependent adhesion molecule E-cadherin. The LMP-transfected RHEK-I cells were capable of invading type-I collagen gels while the control cells were not. The LMP-transfected SHG cells showed a significantly higher invasive capacity than the original cell line.

Adenocarcinoma↗
PubMed1992

Interleukin 1: an important mediator of host resistance against Pneumocystis carinii.

The importance of endogenous interleukin 1 (IL-1) in resistance to Pneumocystis carinii infection was examined in a SCID mouse model. Naturally acquired pulmonary infection of P. carinii in SCID mice was completely cleared by reconstitution of the infected mice with immunocompetent spleen cells. IL-1 activity in the lung homogenate supernatant of these mice increased significantly after reconstitution and returned to baseline level after the clearance of P. carinii. Treatment of reconstituted SCID mice with 35F5, a monoclonal antibody against murine type I IL-1R almost completely inhibited the clearance of P. carinii. In contrast, treatment with control rat immunoglobulin G had no detectable effect. Further study revealed that for the complete clearance of P. carinii, IL-1 must be present at the early stage of immune responses induced by reconstitution, since clearance could be blocked by a single injection of 35F5 into SCID mice at 2 d, but not at either 8 or 13 d postreconstitution. Furthermore, pulmonary recruitment of neutrophils, macrophages, and lymphocytes was significantly inhibited in mice that received 35F5 treatment. These findings strongly suggest that, in reconstituted SCID mice, endogenous IL-1 is important in host resistance to P. carinii infection and that IL-1 may function early in the host response possibly by the recruitment of inflammatory cells into the lungs.

Animals↗
PubMed1992

Resolution of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia in CD4+ lymphocyte-depleted mice given aerosols of heat-treated Escherichia coli.

Mice were thymectomized and depleted of CD4+ lymphocytes by treatment with monoclonal antibody to induce Pneumocystis carinii (PC) pneumonia (PCP). These mice were then exposed to aerosols of heat-treated Escherichia coli three times a week. Aerosol treatment for 10 d caused a slight reduction in numbers of PC nuclei in the lungs of mice, and treatment for 22 d resulted in nearly complete resolution of PCP. Large numbers of macrophages, polymorphonuclear leukocytes, and lymphocytes accumulated in lungs of aerosol-treated mice. Depletion of either CD8+ lymphocytes or asialo GM1+ cells that remained in the mice after CD4+ cell depletion had no effect on the ability of the mice to resolve PCP after E. coli aerosol treatments. However, depletion of Thy-1+ lymphocytes in these mice abrogated their ability to resolve PCP and reduced the numbers of macrophages that accumulated in the lungs. In addition, it was found that resolution of PCP induced by heat-treated E. coli aerosol treatments was also abrogated when mice were treated with polyclonal antibodies against tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha). Thus, resolution of PCP in CD4+ lymphocyte-depleted mice by heat-treated E. coli aerosols was not dependent on either CD8+ or asialo GM1+ cells but was dependent on Thy-1+CD4-CD8- lymphocytes and on the participation of TNF. These results indicate that heat-treated E. coli aerosols can act as an immune response modifier by inducing resolution of PCP in mice by a mechanism not dependent on the presence of CD4+ lymphocytes.

Aerosols↗
PubMed1992

Overexpression of the alpha-thyroid hormone receptor in avian cell lines. Effects on expression of the malic enzyme gene are selective and cell-specific.

The role of the alpha-thyroid hormone receptor (TR alpha) in regulation of transcription of the gene for chicken malic enzyme was analyzed in fibroblast cell lines normally unresponsive to triiodothyronine (T3). The gene for this transcription factor was introduced stably and overexpressed using a replication-competent retroviral vector. In chick embryo fibroblasts (CEF), overexpression of TR alpha decreased malic enzyme activity by 90% in the absence of T3. Addition of T3 almost completely restored malic enzyme activity to the level of similarly treated control CEF infected with virus lacking TR alpha. These TR alpha-induced changes in malic enzyme activity were mediated by alterations in transcription of the malic enzyme gene. Similar results were obtained when transcriptional activity of TR alpha was analyzed using a transient co-transfection system. Thus, the unliganded TR alpha is a transcriptional repressor of the malic enzyme gene; binding of T3 to the receptor abolishes this repression. In contrast, stable overexpression of TR alpha in QT6 cells had no effect on malic enzyme expression in the absence or presence of T3. Nuclear T3 binding was equally high in CEF and QT6 cells overexpressing TR alpha. These findings suggest that cell-specific factors control the ability of TR alpha to regulate the malic enzyme gene. Overexpression of TR alpha in CEF had no effect on the expression of fatty acid synthase and acetyl-CoA carboxylase, lipogenic enzymes that are stimulated by T3 in hepatocytes in culture. Thus, gene-specific factors also may control the transcriptional activity of TR alpha.

Acetyl-CoA Carboxylase↗
PubMed1992

T-cell immunity to the joining region of p210BCR-ABL protein.

The hallmark of chronic myelogenous leukemia is the translocation of the human c-abl protooncogene (ABL) from chromosome 9 to the specific breakpoint cluster region (bcr) of the BCR gene on chromosome 22. The t(9;22)(q34;q11) translocation results in the formation of a BCR-ABL fusion gene that encodes a 210-kDa chimeric protein with abnormal tyrosine kinase activity. The ABL and BCR genes are expressed by normal cells and thus the encoded proteins are presumably nonimmunogenic. However, the joining-region segment of the p210BCR-ABL chimeric protein is composed of unique sequences of ABL amino acids joined to BCR amino acids that are expressed only by malignant cells. The current study demonstrates that the joining region of BCR-ABL protein is immunogenic to murine T cells. Immunization of mice with synthetic peptides corresponding to the joining region elicited peptide-specific, CD4+, class II major histocompatibility complex-restricted T cells. The BCR-ABL peptide-specific T cells recognized only the combined sequence of BCR-ABL amino acids and not BCR or ABL amino acid sequences alone. Importantly, the BCR-ABL peptide-specific T cells could recognize and proliferate in response to p210BCR-ABL protein. The response of peptide-specific T cells to protein demonstrated that p210BCR-ABL can be processed by antigen-presenting cells so that the joining segment is bound to class II major histocompatibility complex molecules in a configuration similar to that of the immunizing peptide and in a concentration high enough to stimulate the antigen-specific T-cell receptor. Thus, BCR-ABL protein represents a potential tumor-specific antigen related to the transforming event and shared by many individuals with chronic myelogenous leukemia.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1992

Increased serum concentration of type IV collagen peptide and type III collagen peptide in hyperthyroidism.

Serum concentration of type IV collagen peptide, the 7S domain of type IV collagen (type IV collagen 7S) and the amino terminal propeptide of type III procollagen (type III procollagen peptide) is thought to be a useful marker of progressive liver disease. In the present study, serum levels of these collagens in patients with thyroidal diseases with normal liver function were assayed. Increased levels in the hyperthyroid state and relatively decreased levels in the hypothyroid state were observed. The increased levels in hyperthyroidism was most prominent in type IV collagen peptide. The increased level became normal in the subsidence of hyperthyroidism by treatment with anti-thyroid drug. A positive correlation between serum type IV collagen peptide levels and serum thyroid hormone levels such as T4, T3, free T4 and free T3 was observed. These facts show that serum type IV collagen peptide may be influenced by not only liver disease but also serum thyroid hormone levels. Type IV collagen peptide may provide a useful biochemical marker of hyperthyroid state.

Collagen↗