CD44 is a family of transmembrane glycoproteins involved in cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions. Expression of CD44 isofonns (splice variants) has been shown to be associated with poor prognosis in several human cancers. We evaluated the expression patterns of the CD44 isofortn (CD 44 splice variant v6) in infiltrating ductal carcinoma of the breast by immunohistochemical and RT-PCR method. Paraffin embedded blocks from seventy-five cases of mastectomized samples were analyzed immunohistochemically using monoclonoal antibody against CD44v6. CD44v6 was detected in fifty-seven cases (76%) of the tumor samples. Adjacent normal myoepithelial cells and ductal epithelial cells revealed focal positive reaction to CD44v6. Thirtytwo cases (80.0%) with lymph nodal metastasis revealed overexpression of CD44v6 monoclonal antibody, but twenty-five cases (71.4%) without nodal metastasis also showed positive reaction to CD44v6 monoclonal antibody, and there is no statistically significant value. Other prognostic factors of infiltrating ductal carcinoma, such as tumor size, histologic grade and hormonal receptors did not show any significant correlation with CD44v6 expression. The RT-PCR studies for 9 cases of infiltrating ductal carcinoma showed the same band patterns both in the normal and tumor tissues. From the above results, it is concluded that the expression of CD44v6 is not a valuable prognostic marker of infiltrating ductal carcinoma of breast.
Breast* ; Carcinoma, Ductal* ; Epithelial Cells ; Glycoproteins ; Humans ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Paraffin ; Prognosis

Lymphangioma is a benign form of neoplasm arising from the lymphatic system. It occurs as a result of congenital malformations of the lymphatics leading to the obstruction of local lymph flow and the development of lymphangiectasia. Lymphangiomas are common in pediatric patients, in the soft tissues of the neck and the axillae, but lymphangioma of the pancreas is extremely rare, accounting for less than 1% of these tumors. It occurs more frequently in females and is often located in the distal pancreas. Although extremely rare, cystic lymphangioma of the pancreas should be taken into consideration as a differential diagnosis of pancreatic cystic or retroperitoneal lesions, especially in women. Herein, we report on a case of cystic lymphangioma of the distal pancreas in a 37-year-old woman who was treated with complete surgical resection with a review of the literature.
Accounting ; Adult ; Axilla ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Female ; Humans ; Lymphangioma ; Lymphangioma, Cystic ; Lymphatic System ; Neck ; Pancreas ; Pancreatic Cyst ; Retroperitoneal Space

OBJECTIVE: This study was carried out to investigate the characteristics of satellite potentials in clinical electromyography. METHOD: A conventional concentric needle electromyography was applied to the biceps brachii and tibialis anterior muscles in 32 normal controls and 14 patients with neuropathies. The satellite potentials were defined as small extrapotentials, preceding or following the main motor unit action potentials(MUAPs) and separated from MUAPs by an isoelectrical interval of at least 1 msec. RESULTS: In normal controls, the frequency of satellite petentials was 1.27% in the biceps brachii and 1.48% in the tibialis anterior and it was increased in neuropathy by 8.53% (6.7 times of control value) in the biceps brachii and 6.70% (4.5 times of control value) in the tibialis anterior. The satellite potential parameters were not significantly different between the control and neuropathy groups. The amplitude of MUAPs with satellite potentials was significantly higher than that of MUAPs without satellite potentials. CONCLUSION: The satellite potentials could be used as a valuable and easily obtainable, supplemental electromyographic parameters for the detection of neuromuscular disorders.
Electromyography ; Humans ; Muscles ; Needles

This study was performed to evaluate of temperature effects on motor unit action potentials by automatic method in twenty healthy adults. Twenty separate motor unit action potentials were recorded in the biceps brachii with concentric needle electrodes at the three different skin temperatures. The skin temperature of the arm was cooled with coldpack below 24oC and warmed with infrared above 38.5oC. The measured parameters of motor unit action potentials were amplitude, duration, area, spike duration, spike area and number of phases and turns. As the skin temperature was decreased, all parameters except number of turns were increased(p<0.05). And the larger changes were developed by cooling than warming. At three temperature settings, rise time was inverse relationship with amplitude and number of phases and turns. And in general other parameters of motor unit action potentials showed significant positive correlation. Therefore the temperature is a very important considering factor and must be standardized or controlied during analysis of motor unit action potentials.
Action Potentials* ; Adult ; Arm ; Electrodes ; Humans ; Needles ; Skin Temperature

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to develop a critical thinking disposition scale for nursing students. METHOD: The developmental process was construction of a conceptual framework, development of preliminary items, verification of content validity, development of secondary items, verification of construct validity and extraction of final items. The conceptual framework and first preliminary 60 items were obtained through a review of relevant literature and the development of critical disposition scales by 10 researchers who had been studying critical thinking for one year. These items were reviewed by five specialists for content validity and finally 55 items were chosen. The data was collected from October 1 to 15, 2004 and was analyzed using factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha with the SPSS program. The subjects were composed of 560 Bachelor of Science nursing students from 8 nursing schools. RESULT: There were 35 final items which were sorted into 8 factors. The factors were identified as 'intellectual integrity(6 items)', 'creativity(4 items)', 'challenge(6 items)', 'open-mindedness(3 items)', 'prudence(4 items)', 'objectivity(4 items)', 'truth seeking(3 items)' and 'inquisitiveness(5 items)'. The cumulative percent of variance was 55.107%. The reliability of the scale, Cronbach's alpha was .892 and the factors' ranged from .562-.836. CONCLUSION: The result of this study could be used for measuring critical thinking dispositions of nursing students. However, for further validity and reliability, repeated research is necessary.
Adult ; Data Collection ; Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate ; Factor Analysis, Statistical ; Female ; Humans ; *Judgment ; Male ; Research Design ; Students, Nursing/*psychology ; *Thinking

Germ-line mutations at DNA repair loci confer susceptibility to colon cancer in hereditary non-polypopsis colorectal cancer. Somatic loss of DNA mismatch repair gene has been reported in a large variety of other tumor types. Replication errors(RERs) judged by microsatellite instability(MSI) and its associated mutations have been recognized as an important mechanism in various tumor types. To investigate associations between MSI and oral squamous cell carcinoma, the frequency of MSI using 12 microsatellite markers were analyzed for the series of oral tumors. Of 17 tumors, 8 cases(47%) did not show instability at any of the 12 loci; 5(29%) showed instability at 2~3 loci; and 4(24%) showed instability above 4 loci. The 4 cases showing widespread MSI did not differ from those without evidence of instability in terms of age at diagnosis, degree of differentiation, metastasis to lymph node, tumor location or the presence of mutations in the p53 tumor suppressor gene. DCC and D17S 796 were the most frequently detected in MSI analysis. There were no correlation between smoking and MSI frequency, instead, smoking was suggested to increase the mutation rate of p53 and development of oral carcinomas.
Carcinoma, Squamous Cell* ; Colonic Neoplasms ; Colorectal Neoplasms ; Diagnosis ; DNA Mismatch Repair ; DNA Repair ; Genes, p53* ; Genes, Tumor Suppressor ; Germ-Line Mutation ; Lymph Nodes ; Microsatellite Instability* ; Microsatellite Repeats* ; Mutation Rate ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Smoke ; Smoking

Cadmium (Cd) affects cell proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis and other cellular activities and can cause numerous molecular lesions that would be relevant to carcinogenesis. The mechanism of adverse effects of Cd has been poorly understood and, especially on the tight junction. Since there is rare information about the effect of Cd on tight junction protein, we here investigated whether Cd can alter the localization of the proteins. This study examined Cd effects on of tight junction (occludin, ZO-1, and ZO-2) using MDCK cell culture. The change of MDCK cell and tight junction was investigated after treatment of cadmium with phase contrast microscopy, TEER, cell viability, Transmission electron microscopy and confocal laser microscopy. After treatment of cadmium, transendothelial electrical resistance decreased with time and concentration dependent manner. AlamarBlue assay revealed that decreased cell viability also decreased with time and concentration dependent manner. The tight junction moved down between intercellular spaces with decreased density and the cellular thickness around cell junctions decreased with increasing concentration and exposure time of CdCl2. The MDCK cells eventually showed cell death with. Confocal laser microscopy revealed that immunofluorescent reaction of occludin, ZO-1 and ZO-2 decreased. Occludin, ZO-1 and ZO-2 were disrupted at tight junction. These data suggest that after treatment of Cd, increased permeability of MDCK cell monolayer increased. This might be accompanied with disruption of occludin, ZO-1 and ZO-2.
Apoptosis ; Cadmium Chloride ; Cadmium* ; Carcinogenesis ; Cell Death ; Cell Proliferation ; Cell Survival ; Electric Impedance ; Epithelial Cells* ; Extracellular Space ; Intercellular Junctions ; Madin Darby Canine Kidney Cells ; Microscopy, Confocal ; Microscopy, Electron, Transmission ; Microscopy, Phase-Contrast ; Occludin ; Permeability ; Tight Junctions*

BACKGROUND: Abnormalities of genomic methylation patterns have been shown to play a role in the development of carcinoma, and the silencing of tumor suppressor genes is related to local de novo methylation. METHODS: Using methylation specific arbitrarily primed-Polymerase Chain Reaction (Ms AP-PCR), we identified a 322 bp sequence that contained a 5' un-translated and exon1 regions of the TPEF gene. To evaluate the inactivation of the TPEF gene through hypermethylation in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), we investigated the correlation between methylation patterns and TPEF expression in tumor tissues of human HCC and cell lines via a Combined Bisulfite Restriction Assay (CoBRA) and RT-PCR. RESULTS: A dense methylation pattern of the TPEF was detected in most cell lines, as well as in 10 of the 14 (71.4%) HCC tissues. In addition, loss of heterozygosity (LOH) from the TPEF gene was observed in 5 of the 14 (36%) HCC tissues. Furthermore, RT-PCR analysis revealed TPEF expression in 5 of 8 (62.5%) cell lines. Finally, treatment with a demethylating agent, 5-Aza- 2'-deoxycitidine (5-AzaC), increased the expression of TPEF mRNA. CONCLUSION: These results indicate that inactivation of the TPEF gene through hypermethylation may be a mechanism by which tumorigenesis occurs in HCC.
Humans ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular ; Cell Transformation, Neoplastic ; Genes, Tumor Suppressor

Hypermethylation of CpG island is a common mechanism for the inactivation of tumor-related genes. In the present study, we analyzed 13 genitourinary cancer cell lines for aberrant DNA methylation of 5 tumor-related genes using methylation- specific polymerase chain reaction (MSP). GSTP1 was methylated in 5 (38.5%), E-cadherin in 1 (8%), VHL in 1 (8%), and MGMT and hMLH1 in none (0%). Six out of thirteen genitourinary cancer cell lines had methylation of at least one of five genes; 5 had one gene methylated, and, 1 had two genes methylated. Methylation of these 5 genes was not detected in any of the bladder cancer cell lines. GSTP1 was methylated in all of the 3 prostate cancer cell lines. We conclude that aberrant hypermethylation may be an important mechanism for the inactivation of cancer-related genes in kidney and prostate cancer cell lines.
Bladder Neoplasms/genetics ; Cadherins/genetics ; *DNA Methylation ; DNA Primers ; Genetic Screening/methods ; Glutathione Transferase/genetics ; Human ; Isoenzymes/genetics ; Kidney Neoplasms/genetics ; Ligases/genetics ; Male ; Neoplasm Proteins/genetics ; O(6)-Methylguanine-DNA Methyltransferase/genetics ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Prostatic Neoplasms/genetics ; Tumor Cells, Cultured ; Urogenital Neoplasms/*genetics

Both Acanthopanax senticosus and Acorus gramineus Soland are typical Oriental herbs. They have been used as a tonic, anti-rheumatic, anti-inflammatory, anti-stress, anti-cancer agent. But, it is still unclear how they effectively regulate their various biological properties. Ceramide is emerging as a second messenger of apoptotic cell death and there is increasing evidence that ceramide is involved in neurodegenerative disease and the process of senescence. The present study investigated the different effects of A. senticosus and A. gramineus on ceramide-induced apoptosis in human neuroblastoma SK-N-SH cells. We showed that ceramide induced apoptosis through the mediation of reactive oxygen species(ROS) production and A. senticosus, as an effective antioxidant, significantly inhibited the increase of ROS generation, thereby preventing apoptosis. Furthermore, an increase of caspase activity (apoptosis executors) resulted from ceramide reduced by A. senticosus. But A. gramineus had almost no protective effects. These results implicate that ROS play on important roles in ceramide-induced apoptosis, also A. senticosus protects effectively via inhibition of ROS generation by ceramide through selective pathway.
Humans ; Neuroblastoma