AKT as locus of cancer angiogenic robustness and fragility

Angiogenesis get full robustness in metastatic cancer, relapsed leukemia or lymphoma when complex positive feedback loop signaling systems become integrative. A cancer hypoxic microenvironment generates positive loops inducing formation of the vascular functional shunts. AKT is an upstream angiogenic locus of integrative robustness and fragility activated by the positive loops. AKT controls two downstream nodes the mTOR and NOS in nodal organization of the signaling genes. AKT phosphorylation is regulated by a balance of an oxidant/antioxidant. Targeting AKT locus represents new principle to control integrative angiogenic robustness by the locus chemotherapy. J. Cell. Physiol. 228: 21–24, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Ataxia-telangiectasia: Linkage analysis in highly inbred Arab and Druze families and differentiation from an ataxia-microcephaly-cataract syndrome

Summary Ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T) is a progressive autosomal recessive disease featuring neurodegeneration, immunodeficiency, chromosomal instability, radiation sensitivity and a highly increased proneness to cancer. A-T is ethnically widespread and genetically heterogeneous, as indicated by the existence of four complementation groups in this disease. Several A-T-like genetic diseases share various clinical and cellular characteristics with A-T. By using linkage analysis to study North American and Turkish A-O families, the ATA (A-T, complementation group A) gene has been mapped to chromosome 11q23. A number of Israeli Arab A-T patients coming from large, highly inbred families were assigned to group A In one of these families, an additional autosomal recessive disease was identified, characterized by ataxia, hypotonia, microcephaly and bilateral congenital cataracts. In two patients with this syndrome, normal levels of serum immunoglobulins and alpha-fetoprotein, chromosomal stability in peripheral blood lymphocytes and skin fibroblasts, and normal cellular response to treatments with X-rays and the radiomimetic drug neocarzinostatin indicated that this disease does not share, with A-T, any additional features other than ataxia. These tests also showed that another patient in this family, who is also mentally retarded, is affected with both disorders. This conclusion was further supported by linkage analysis with 11q23 markers. Lod scores between A-O and these markers, cumulated over three large Arab families, were significant and confirmed the localization of the ATA gene to aq23. However, another Druze family unassigned to a specific complementation group, showed several recombinants between A-T and the same markers, leaving the localization of the A-T gene in this family open.     

Eumycetoma caused by Curvularia lunata in a dog

Curvularia lunata was cultured from black granules found in granulomatous tumefactions excised from the subcutis of a three year old Medium Schnauzer dog. Draining sinuses were present in some of the tumefactions. Accordingly the diagnosis of eumycotic mycetoma was made. This diagnosis was confirmed by histopathological examination. During the four years following the first surgical intervention, several more similar tumefactions were excised on three different occasions. The dog died of chronic renal failure at the age of 8 years. There was no bone involvement or visceral diffusion of the fungus. The granules were examined by scanning electron microscopy. Immunoglobulins in the dog's serum, assessed by a qualitative test, proved to be equal to immunoglobulins in the serum of a control dog. Precipitating antibodies against C. lunata were not found. The dog was treated for 150 days with itraconazole. In spite of good initial results, recurrence of the fungal lesions were observed after the treatment's interruption. Further treatment with itraconazole for 45 days proved ineffective. No side effects of the drug were observed. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first case in which C. lunata is identified as the causative agent of an animal eumycetoma.     

Continuous representations of time-series gene expression data.

We present algorithms for time-series gene expression analysis that permit the principled estimation of unobserved time points, clustering, and dataset alignment. Each expression profile is modeled as a cubic spline (piecewise polynomial) that is estimated from the observed data and every time point influences the overall smooth expression curve. We constrain the spline coefficients of genes in the same class to have similar expression patterns, while also allowing for gene specific parameters. We show that unobserved time points can be reconstructed using our method with 10-15% less error when compared to previous best methods. Our clustering algorithm operates directly on the continuous representations of gene expression profiles, and we demonstrate that this is particularly effective when applied to nonuniformly sampled data. Our continuous alignment algorithm also avoids difficulties encountered by discrete approaches. In particular, our method allows for control of the number of degrees of freedom of the warp through the specification of parameterized functions, which helps to avoid overfitting. We demonstrate that our algorithm produces stable low-error alignments on real expression data and further show a specific application to yeast knock-out data that produces biologically meaningful results.     

Lycopersicon esculentum: Trifoliate plants recovered from anther cultures of heterozygous tftf plants

The effects of the genotype and growth medium composition on callus induction and shoot regeneration from tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill) anthers were studied. Five male sterile varieties, homozygous for the recessive gene ms 10³⁵, their isogenic fertile counterparts, and nineteen sterile mutants from an F₂ population segregating for ms 10³⁵, were tested. Callus induction and shoot formation were found to be affected by the genotype. The presence of the mutant gene ms 10³⁵ greatly increased callus induction. A significant interaction concerning callus induction was found between the ms 10³⁵ gene and the general genetic background. In most of the plants shoot regeneration from the anthers was associated with various degrees of callus production. However, there was no correlation between callus production and the ability to regenerate plants from that callus. Anthers isolated from plants which were heterozygous for the recessive leaf marker trifoliate, regenerated diploid plants with trifoliate leaves. The plants retained the trifoliate phenotype for over six months in culture under non-aseptic condition. Since the trifoliate phenotype appears only in the homozygous recessive state, the evidence that these trifoliate plants are doubled haploids of sporogenic origin is discussed.     

Bud proliferation and plant regeneration in liquid-cultured philodendron treated with ancymidol and paclobutrazol

Philodendron plants propagated in liquid shake or bioreactor cultures proliferated profusely in the presence of paclobutrazol (PAC) and to a lesser extent in the presence of ancymidol (ANC). The growth retardants inhibited leaf development and induced the formation of bud clusters. Short transient treatments with low concentrations (1.7–3.4 M) of the growth retardants limited leaf growth and proliferation to a lesser extent than higher concentrations (6.8–17 M). The growth retardants had a carryover dwarfing effect in the semi-solid hardening medium, which was more pronounced at the higher concentrations or prolonged exposure periods. Regenerated plants resumed normal growth 3–6 weeks after transplanting. Treatment with growth retardants may become a useful method in the prevention of abnormal leaf growth in large-scale liquid cultures, as well as in enhancing bud proliferation.     

Gas dispersion in volume-cycled tube flow. I. Theory.

A mathematical theory is derived for the dispersion of a contaminant bolus introduced into a fully developed volume-cycled oscillatory pipe flow. The convection-diffusion equation is solved for a tracer gas bolus by expressing the local concentration field as a series expansion of derivatives of the area-averaged concentration. The local, as well as the area-averaged, concentration is determined for a uniform initial slug or Gaussian bolus. The effect of various flow parameters such as Womersley parameter, Schmidt number, and tidal volume is investigated. The overall dispersion is characterized by a time-averaged effective diffusion coefficient, which for long duration coincides with previous dispersion theories based on a constant linear axial concentration profile. The effective diffusion coefficient can be determined from the local time history of concentration, independent of the spatial location or the initial tracer bolus. Furthermore the local peaks of the concentration-time curve follow a decaying curve dictated by the time-averaged effective diffusion coefficient. Thus the theory is directly applicable for dispersion measurements in oscillatory tube flows, a basis for the pulmonary airways application, as shown by Gaver et al. (J. Appl. Physiol. 72: 321-331, 1992).     

Purification of peptidyl-tRNA on benzoylated DEAE-cellulose columns.

The o-nitrophenylsulfenyl group, and amino protecting group in the chemical synthesis of peptidyl-tRNA was used to attach newly synthesized peptidyl-tRNA to a benzoylated DEAE-cellulose column. This facilitated the isolation of a highly purified specific tRNA with a well defined peptide chain.