Genomic alterations in primary cutaneous melanomas detected by metaphase comparative genomic hybridization with laser capture or manual microdissection: 6p gains may predict poor outcome

To clarify the correlation of genomic alterations with clinical and histological features, we performed metaphase comparative genomic hybridization analysis on 20 primary cutaneous melanomas, which were obtained by laser capture or manual microdissection, and 16 melanoma cell lines. There were no differences in the average number of aberrations between acral melanomas (AM) and non-AM, although gains of 5q and 11q13 were more frequent (P=0.05) and 10q loss was less frequent (P=0.01) in AM than in non-AM. Although tumor thickness is considered a measurable estimate of clinical expression, there were no differences in the average number of aberrations among 4 groups, classified by thickness of the tumor. While the majority of aberrations were equally distributed among the 4 groups, 6p gains were found only in the thickest tumors. Patients with 6p or 1q gains had a lower overall survival rate than those without them (P=0.0002 or P=0.013). While gains of 1q, 2q, 3p, 3q, 7q, 20p, and 20q were more frequent in the cell lines than in the primary tumors (P<0.01), losses of 6q, 9p, 10p, and 10q were equally found in both cell lines and primary tumors. The present study showed that chromosomal aberrations had already occurred in the thinner tumors, and that 6p and 1q gains may be a prognostic factor.     

Therapeutic effect of topical administration of SN50, an inhibitor of nuclear factor-kappaB, in treatment of corneal alkali burns in mice

We evaluated the therapeutic efficacy of topical administration of SN50, an inhibitor of nuclear factor-kappaB, in a corneal alkali burn model in mice. An alkali burn was produced with 1 N NaOH in the cornea of C57BL/6 mice under general anesthesia. SN50 (10 microg/microl) or vehicle was topically administered daily for up to 12 days. The eyes were processed for histological or immunohistochemical examination after bromodeoxyuridine labeling or for semi-quantification of cytokine mRNA. Topical SN50 suppressed nuclear factor-kappaB activation in local cells and reduced the incidence of epithelial defects/ulceration in healing corneas. Myofibroblast generation, macrophage invasion, activity of matrix metalloproteinases, basement membrane destruction, and expression of cytokines were all decreased in treated corneas compared with controls. To elucidate the role of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha in epithelial cell proliferation, we performed organ culture of mouse eyes with TNF-alpha, SN50, or an inhibitor of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) and examined cell proliferation in healing corneal epithelium in TNF-alpha-/- mice treated with SN50. An acceleration of epithelial cell proliferation by SN50 treatment was found to depend on TNF-alpha/JNK signaling. In conclusion, topical application of SN50 is effective in treating corneal alkali burns in mice.     

Biological activities of Bacteroides forsythus lipoproteins and their possible pathological roles in periodontal disease

Bacteroides forsythus is a gram-negative, anaerobic, fusiform bacterium and is considered to be an etiological agent in periodontal disease. A lipoprotein fraction prepared from B. forsythus cells by Triton X-114 phase separation (BfLP) activated human gingival fibroblasts and a human monocytic cell line, THP-1, to induce interleukin-6 production and tumor necrosis factor alpha production. BfLP was found to be capable of inducing nuclear factor-kappaB translocation in human gingival fibroblasts and THP-1 cells. By using Chinese hamster ovary K1 cells transfected with Toll-like receptor genes together with a nuclear factor-kappaB-dependent CD25 reporter plasmid, it was found that signaling by BfLP was mediated by Toll-like receptor 2 but not by CD14 or Toll-like receptor 4. BfLP induced apoptotic cell death in human gingival fibroblasts, KB cells (an oral epithelial cell line), HL-60 cells (a human myeloid leukemia cell line), and THP-1 cells but not in MOLT4 cells (a T-cell leukemia cell line). Caspase-8, an initiator caspase in apoptosis, was found to be activated in these cells in response to BfLP stimulation. Thus, this study suggested that BfLP plays some etiological roles in oral infections, especially periodontal disease, by induction of cell activation or apoptosis.     

ISCHEMIC ENTEROCOLITIS WITHOUT ARTERIO–OCCLUSIVE LESION

Four cases of Ischemic enterocolitis without arterio–occlusive lesion were described. Three cases were associated with sigmoid colon carcinomas. Ischemic lesions developed anal to the carcinomas in two cases, and oral to sigmoidostomy to relieve intestinal obstruction by carcinoma in one case. One other case was associated with inguinal hernia. Grossly, ischemic lesions involved relatively short intestinal segments, and the ischemic colonic lesions were not related to teniae coli. Extensive veno–occlusive lesions were discovered in a case of ischemic stricture of the ileum, which had been incarcerated in the right inguinal hernia. Reversible mechanical occlusion of the intestinal vessels caused by transient or recurrent intestinal strangulation is the most probable cause of these ischemic lesions., ACTA PATHOL. JPN. 33: 249–256, 1983.     

Effects of adrenoceptor antagonists on the cutaneous blood flow increase response to sympathetic nerve stimulation in rats with persistent inflammation

There is some evidence that the sympathetic nervous system plays a role in the development and/or maintenance of painful states, and that sympathetic nervous function is altered in these conditions. Our previous experiments showed that electrical stimulation of the lumbar sympathetic trunk (sympathetic stimulation: SS), which normally induces a decrease in blood flow (BF) of plantar skin, induced its BF increase in about 50% of adjuvant-inflamed rats. To investigate the mechanism of this BF-increase response, we examined whether noradrenaline (NA) plays any role in this changed response to SS, and which receptor subtype is involved. We measured paw cutaneous BF response with a laser Doppler flowmeter in rats chronically inflamed with complete Freund's adjuvant. SS induced the BF-increase response in 50-67% of measured sites. Close-arterially injected NA induced the BF-increase response at dosages between 10-100 ng/kg only at the sites with the BF-increase response to SS. The BF-increase and -decrease responses to NA was significantly reduced after the close-arterial injection of either alpha1- or alpha2-adrenoceptor antagonists (p lt; 0.05, respectively). In contrast, although the BF-decrease responses to SS were significantly reduced by administration of alpha1- and alpha2-adrenoceptor antagonist, BF-increase response was reduced only by alpha1-adrenoceptor antagonist, and that only at a higher dose. In addition, the beta-adrenoceptor antagonist had no effects on both responses. These results suggest that the BF-increase response to SS involves, additionally to NA, a non-adrenergic mechanism.     

Social isolation stress augments angiogenesis induced by colon 26-L5 carcinoma cells in mice

We have previously shown that tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), which is an important angiogenesis-related factor, was over-secreted in male BALB/c mice under social isolation stress as compared with the control, and closely associated with a remarkable elevation of tumor invasion and metastasis of colon 26-L5 carcinoma cells. In the present study, we explored the effect of isolation stress on the angiogenesis caused by colon 26-L5 carcinoma cells in vivo and in vitro. Social isolation lead to the enhancement of tumor growth after intrahepatic implantation with a fragment of colon 26-L5 tumor. Angiogenic response (number of vessels oriented towards tumor mass) and tumor growth (size) were significantly increased in the socially isolated mouse relative to that in the group-housed mice. Furthermore, higher protein level of hepatic TNF-α was found in the stressed mice than that in the control. Expression of mRNA for vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) were also elevated in the tumor regions and liver tissues of the stressed mice in comparison with that in group-housed mice. On the other hand, hepatic sinusoidal endothelial (HSE) cells treated with TNF-α exhibited a marked promotion of the migration, invasion, expression of mRNA for matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-9, and tube-like formation, but no cytotoxicity against the cells in vitro. The above data suggest that the social isolation stress augmented the tumor-induced angiogenesis probably by up-regulating the angiogenesis-related factors, including TNF-α, VEGF and HGF, and consequently mediating the functions of endothelial cells such as migration, invasion, and tube-like formation.     

Expression of tumor necrosis factor ligand superfamily costimulatory molecules CD27L, CD30L, OX40L and 4-1BBL in the heart of patients with acute myocarditis and dilated cardiomyopathy.

BACKGROUND: T-cell-mediated myocardial damage is known to be involved in acute myocarditis and dilated cardiomyopathy. Recently, we found that tumor necrosis factor (TNF) ligand superfamily costimulatory molecules, especially 4-1BBL, played an important role in the myocardial damage of murine acute viral myocarditis. METHODS AND RESULTS: To investigate the roles for CD27L, CD30L, OX40L and 4-1BBL, which belong to TNF ligand superfamily, in the development of acute myocarditis and dilated cardiomyopathy, we analyzed the expression of these antigens in the myocardial tissues of patients with acute myocarditis and dilated cardiomyopathy. We also examined expression of the receptors for these molecules, CD27, CD30, OX40 and 4-1BB, which belong to TNF receptor superfamily, on the infiltrating cells. Strong expression of CD27L, CD30L and 4-1BBL and weak to moderate expression of OX40L was found in the cardiac myocytes of patients with acute myocarditis. Moderate expression of CD27L, CD30L and 4-1BBL and weak expression of OX40L was found on the cardiac myocytes of patients with dilated cardiomyopathy. Most of the infiltrating cells expressed CD27, CD30 and 4-1BB and a part of the infiltrating cells expressed OX40. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that expression of TNF ligand superfamily costimulatory molecules on cardiac myocytes may play a role in the cell-mediated myocardial damage in patients with acute myocarditis and dilated cardiomyopathy as in murine viral myocarditis.     

TCR repertoire in early fetal mouse thymus

We investigated the rearrangement and expression of TCR genesin mouse fetal thymus organ culture, a system that avoids subsequententry of hematopoietic precursor cells. The first observablerearranged TCR gene was homogeneous V2-J2, detectable as earlyas fetal day 11 (d11) in the thymic primordla. The productiveTCR was homogeneous V5-J1, first detectable in d13 thymocytes,followed by adult-type TCR (V4 and V7). Sequence analysis ofTCR revealed five types of V-J junctional sequences. In thevery early stage, a homogeneous V-J junction is generated viaa short homology sequence in the coding region (Type I), whilea short homology sequence in the P-nucleotlde rather than thecoding region is used in the following stage (Type II). In thelater embryonic stages, diverse V-J junctions are generatedby well-known mechanisms, such as P-nucleotide (Type III), N-regioninsertion (Type IV) or trimming of the coding ends (Type V).These findings suggest that the generation of homogeneous TCR (V2 and V5) in the early fetal stages is due to the intrinsicrearrangement mechanisms and is in stage specific manner.