High-density array analysis of DNA methylation in Tamoxifen-resistant breast cancer cell lines

Roughly two-thirds of all breast cancers are ERα-positive and can be treated with the antiestrogen, Tamoxifen, however resistance occurs in 33% of women who take the drug for more than 5 y. Aberrant DNA methylation, an epigenetic mechanism that alters gene expression in cancer, is thought to play a role in this resistance. To develop an understanding of Tamoxifen-resistance and identify novel pathways and targets of aberrant methylation, DNA from MCF-7 breast cancer cells and Tamoxifen-resistant derivatives, TMX2–11 and TMX2–28, were analyzed using the Illumina HumanMethylation450 BeadChip. Normalizing against MCF-7 values, ERα-positive TMX2–11 had 4000 hypermethylated sites and ERα-negative TMX2–28 had over 33 000. Analysis of CpG sites altered in both TMX2–11 and TMX2–28 revealed that the Tamoxifen-resistant cell lines share 3000 hypermethylated and 200 hypomethylated CpGs. ZNF350 and MAGED1, two genes hypermethylated in both cell lines, were examined in greater detail. Treatment with 5-aza-2′deoxycitidine caused a significant reduction in promoter methylation of both ZNF350 and MAGED1 and a corresponding increase in expression in TMX2–28. A similar relationship between methylation and expression was not detected in TMX2–11. Our findings are indicative of the variable responses to methylation-targeted breast cancer therapy and highlight the need for biomarkers that accurately predict treatment outcome.     

乳腺癌转移风险评估标志物的研究进展

肿瘤转移是造成乳腺癌患者死亡的主要原因,为提高生存期,有大约80%的患者选择了辅助治疗,然而只有其中一部分患者最后真正发生了转移。那些实际转移风险很低,却仍然选择了进一步放疗、化疗、内分泌或免疫治疗的患者,不仅受到了治疗副作用的伤害、也造成了医疗资源的浪费。因此,准确评价患者的转移风险对指导临床工作格外重要。以肿瘤的基因改变和转移过程为切入点,利用先进的分子技术,已有数项指标通过严谨的实验论证,认为可以评估乳腺癌的转移风险,本文将对其进行简要的介绍和分析。     

下肢长骨骨重的非对称性

本文测量82副中国成年下股长骨即股骨,胫骨和腓骨的重量,在两侧骨重相差>1％时,则股骨、胫骨和腓骨及其三骨总重均以非对称性为多,均具有非常显著性差异(P<0.001)。除腓骨重具有明显侧别差异外,其余无显著性侧别差异,对腓骨侧差解释为:①腓骨主要机能是肌的附着,而下肢对踢和足趾取物具有明显的侧别差异;②以两侧骨重相差>1％时为非对称性的标准,由于腓骨绝对重量较小,在两侧相差<0.5克时即多属非对称性。     

Breast cancer-derived K172N,D301V mutations abolish Na/H exchanger regulatory factor 1 inhibition of platelet-derived growth factor receptor signaling

Na⁺/H⁺ exchanger regulatory factor 1 (NHERF1) is a scaffold protein known to interact with a number of cancer-related proteins. nherf1 Mutations (K172N and D301V) were recently identified in breast cancer cells. To investigate the functional properties of NHERF1, wild-type and cancer-derived nherf1 mutations were stably expressed in SKMES-1 cells respectively. NHERF1-wt overexpression suppressed the cellular malignant phenotypes, including proliferation, migration, and invasion. nherf1 Mutations (K172N and D301V) caused complete or partial loss of NHERF1 functions by affecting the PTEN/NHERF1/PDGFRβ complex formation, inactivating NHERF1 inhibition of PDGF-induced AKT and ERK activation, and attenuating the tumor-suppressor effects of NHERF1-wt. These results further demonstrated the functional consequences of breast cancer-derived nherf1 mutations (K172N and D301V), and suggested the causal role of NHERF1 in tumor development and progression.     

Effects of dietary zinc levels on the activities of enzymes, weights of organs, and the concentrations of zinc and copper in growing rats

Zinc (Zn) is an essential nutrient that is required in humans and animals for many physiological functions, including immune and antioxidant function, growth, and reproduction. The present study was performed to investigate the effects of three Zn levels, including Zn adequate (35.94 mg/kg, as a control), Zn deficiency (3.15 mg/kg), and Zn overload (347.50 mg/kg) in growing male rats for 6 wk. This allowed for evaluation of the effects that these Zn levels might have on body weight, organ weight, enzymes activities, and tissues concentrations of Zn and Cu. The results showed that Zn deficiency has negative effects on growth, organ weight, and biological parameters such as alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and Cu−Zn superoxide dismutase (Cu−Zn SOD) activities, whereas Zn overload played an effective role in promoting growth, improving the developments of organs and enhancing immune system. Hepatic metallothionein (MT) concentration showed an identical increase tendency in rats fed both Zn-deficient and Zn-overload diets. The actual mechanism of reduction of Cu concentration of jejunum in rats fed a Zn-overload diet might involve the modulation or inhibition of a Cu transporter protein by Zn and not by the induction of MT.     

乳腺癌分子分型的研究进展

乳腺癌是目前世界上女性最为常见的恶性肿瘤之一。随着个体化的乳腺癌的化疗、内分泌治疗和靶向治疗的广泛使用,乳腺癌的分子分型检测也因此得到高度重视和广泛使用。2013年St.Gallen国际乳腺癌会议上重新定义了乳腺癌的分子分型标准,使Luminal A型和Luminal B型乳腺癌的比例有所改变,导致原本分类为Luminal A型的部分患者重新分类为Luminal B型而使Luminal B型患者数量有所增加。人上皮生长因子受体-2(human epidermalgrowth factor receptor-2,HER2)型乳腺癌的靶向药物曲妥珠单抗与其他化疗药物的联合应用及不同时间应用的治疗效果有了进一步研究。雄激素受体(Androgen Receptor,AR)认为可用于常规评估三阴性乳腺癌,除此之外,三阴性乳腺癌的小亚型的分型也为三阴性乳腺癌的个体化治疗提供了新的思路。尽管乳腺癌分子分型方面已取得一定进展,并获得国际同行间的认可,给乳腺癌患者的治疗和预后复发预测提供了重要依据,但目前所有的分子标记物仍不能够满足治疗需求使其临床实用性仍旧具有局限性,因此还期待更多更深入的研究。     

Cartilage type IX collagen is cross-linked by hydroxypyridinium residues

Type IX collagen, a recently discovered, unusual protein of cartilage, has a segmented triple-helical structure containing interchain disulfides. Its polymeric form and function are unknown. When prepared by pepsin from bovine articular cartilage, type IX collagen was found to contain a high concentration of hydroxypyridinium cross-links, similar to that in type II collagen. Fluorescence spectroscopy located the hydroxylysyl pyridinoline and lysyl pyridinoline cross-linking residues exclusively in the high-molecular-weight collagen fraction, from which they were recovered predominantly in a single CNBr-derived peptide. The results point to a structural role for type IX collagen in cartilage matrix, possibly as an adhesion material to type II collagen fibrils.     

Elemental composition and food intake of Phialidium hydromedusae in the laboratory

Elemental composition and feeding rate of hydromedusae Phialidium sp. on copepods were studied in the laboratory. Regression equations for both mature and immature medusae allowed the estimation of their dry weight (DW), total C and N content as a function of their diameter. The mean C content as percentage of the DW varied from 13.13% ( ) for the immature to 19.38% (5.68) for the mature individuals. The mean N content is 4.03% (2.49) of DW of immatures and 5.85% (2.70) of the matures. Ingestion rate of Phialidium sp. fed on copepods (200–500 μm) increased with prey density but reached a maximum at high prey concentrations. A maximum ingestion rate of 8.55 (1.6) copepods · medusa ⁻¹ · h⁻¹ was reached for prey concentrations of > 140 copepods · 1 ⁻¹ for both immature and mature medusae. Maximum daily consumption of prey weight varied from 1.41 to 978% C body weight for mature medusae and from 2.90 to 975% for the immature individuals.     

miR-21靶向调节MARCKS基因影响人乳腺癌细胞多西紫杉醇敏感性的研究

目的:探讨miR-21对MARCKS基因表达的调控及其与乳腺癌MDA-MB-231细胞株多西紫杉醇耐药的关系。方法:通过基因芯片筛选到miR-21在亲代敏感细胞株(MDA-MB-231/S)与多西紫杉醇耐药细胞株(MDA-MB-231/Doc)中存在差异表达,应用实时荧光定量(RT-qPCR)方法验证此差异,同时分别检测MDA-MB-231/S细胞和MDA-MB-231/Doc细胞转染miR-21模拟物和抑制物后的表达变化;通过靶基因预测软件预测miR-21与MARCKS基因的关系;采用四甲基偶氮唑蓝(MTT)法、流式细胞术、RT-qPCR和蛋白质印迹法检测miR-21表达变化对三阴性乳腺癌细胞多西紫杉醇耐药性的影响,并探讨其与MARCKS基因表达的关系。结果:与MDA-MB-231/S相比,miR-21在MDA-MB-231/Doc中的表达水平明显升高(2.03±0.06)倍(P0.05)。与阴性对照组比,MDA-MB-231/S细胞转染miR-21 mimics后miR-21表达水平明显增高(2.26±0.07)倍(P0.05),而MARCKS基因在mRNA和蛋白水平上均明显下调。MDA-MB-231/Doc细胞转染miR-21 inhibitors后,miR-21表达水平是阴性对照组的(0.36±0.03)倍(P0.05),MARCKS基因的mRNA和蛋白水平高于其阴性对照组。转染miR-21 mimics后的MDA-MB-231/S细胞IC50显著高于其阴性对照组(P0.05),相反,与阴性对照组相比,MDA-MB-231/Doc细胞转染miR-21 inhibitors后,其IC50显著降低(P0.05)。MDA-MB-231/S转染miR-21 mimics后,miR-21表达量明显上调,MARCKS基因分别是阴性对照组的(3.564±0.336)倍和(2.019±0.268)倍(P0.05)。结论:miR-21可能通过靶向调节MARCKS基因增强乳腺癌细胞对多西紫杉醇的耐药性。