Mucin (Muc) expression during pancreatic cancer progression in spontaneous mouse model: potential implications for diagnosis and therapy

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is a lethal malignancy primarily driven by activated Kras mutations and characterized by the deregulation of several genes including mucins. Previous studies on mucins have identified their significant role in both benign and malignant human diseases including PC progression and metastasis. However, the initiation of MUC expression during PC remains unknown because of lack of early stage tumor tissues from PC patients. In the present study, we have evaluated stage specific expression patterns of mucins during mouse PC progression in (KrasG12D;Pdx1-Cre (KC)) murine PC model from pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PanIN) to pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) by immunohistochemistry and quantitative real-time PCR. In agreement with previous studies on human PC, we observed a progressive increase in the expression of mucins particularly Muc1, Muc4 and Muc5AC in the pancreas of KC (as early as PanIN I) mice with advancement of PanIN lesions and PDAC both at mRNA and protein levels. Additionally, mucin expression correlated with the increased expression of inflammatory cytokines IFN-γ (p?相似文献   

Miniaturized Supercapacitors: Focused Ion Beam Reduced Graphene Oxide Supercapacitors with Enhanced Performance Metrics

Miniaturization of energy storage devices with enhanced performance metrics can reduce the footprint of microdevices being used in our daily life. Micro‐­supercapacitor architectures with planar geometry provides several advantages, such as, the ability to control and reduce the distances ions travel between two electrodes, easy integration to microdevices, and offer the potential of being extended into 3D without compromising the interelectrode distances. Here, focused ion beam (FIB) technology is used to directly write miniaturized planar electrode systems of reduced graphene oxide (FIB‐rGO) on films of graphene oxide. Using optimized ion beam irradiation, interdigitated FIB‐rGO electrode designs with 40 μm long and 3.5 μm wide fingers with ultrasmall interelectrode spacing of 1 μm demonstrate a large capacitance (102 mF cm^?2), ultrasmall time response (0.03 ms), low equivalent series resistance (0.35 mΩ cm²), and retain 95% of the capacitance after 1000 cycles at an ultrahigh current density of 45 mA cm^?2. These performance metrics show remarkable improvements on several counts of supercapacitor performance over existing reports due to the miniaturized electrode dimensions and minimal damage to the graphene sheets. It is believed that these results can provide avenues for large‐scale fabrication of arrayed, planar, high‐performance micro‐supercapacitors with a small environmental footprint.