Autocrine stimulation via coexpression of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and its receptor (Met) has been reported in many human sarcomas, but few in carcinomas. In this report, we found that one gastric cancer cell line, SNU-484, among 11 gastric cell lines tested has an autocrine HGF- Met stimulation. RT-PCR, ELISA and scattering assay using MDCK cells revealed that SNU-484 cells secreted a significant amount of active HGF (about 1.25 +/- 0.41 ng/24 h/106 cells) into conditioned medium. Resultantly, Met in this cell line was constitutively phosphorylated. Neutralizing antibodies against HGF reduced the tyrosine phosphorylation of Met, resulting in the inhibition of cell proliferation and migration (P <0.005). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on autocrine HGF-Met signaling in a gastric cancer cell line. Our observations with SNU-484 cells suggest that HGF is involved in the development and/or progression of some gastric carcinoma through an autocrine mechanism.
Animals ; Antibodies, Neoplasm/immunology ; *Autocrine Communication ; *Cell Movement ; Cell Proliferation ; Culture Media, Conditioned/pharmacology ; Dogs ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Hepatocyte Growth Factor/immunology/*pharmacology ; Neutralization Tests ; Phosphorylation ; Proto-Oncogene Protein c-met/genetics/*metabolism ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Stomach Neoplasms/*immunology/metabolism/pathology ; Tumor Cells, Cultured ; Tyrosine/metabolism

BACKGROUND: Human papillomavirus (HPV) plays an important role in the development of cervical carcinoma. Although there is a general agreement that high levels of HPV are related to cervical cancer, the prevalence and distribution of HPV genotypes seems to vary by geographical region. This study was designed to investigate the prevalence of HPV genotypes in Gangwon Province, Korea. METHODS: In total, 342 samples were examined by Pap smear and HPV-ID(R) reverse blot hybridization assay (REBA) (M&D, Wonju, Korea). RESULTS: Overall HPV positivity was 80.9% and 64.4% in women with abnormal and normal cytology by REBA, respectively. The five most common HPV types were: HPV 16, 53, 58, 56, and 33 in samples with abnormal cytology, and HPV 16, 53, 58, 70, and 18 in samples with normal cytology. CONCLUSIONS: The REBA can provide useful data regarding prevalence of HPV genotypes. Gangwon Province showed high prevalence of HPV infection in women. The most common HPV type in Gangwon Province was HPV16, and HPV 53, 58, 56, 70 were frequently present.
Chimera ; Female ; Genotype ; Human papillomavirus 16 ; Humans ; Prevalence ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms

BACKGROUND: Dermatophytes (Trichophyton, Microsporum, and Epidermophyton) cause cutaneous mycoses called dermatophytosis. Forproper anti-dermatophytosis therapy, accurate and early diagnosis of dermatophytes is important. Laboratory diagnosis of dermatophytosis for dermatophytes still relies on microscopic and macroscopic examination of in vitro cultures and some physiological tests. These methods (conventional methods) are time-consuming (2~4 weeks) and yet, still have low sensitivity and specificity. Recently, in order to overcome such limitations of conventional methods, molecular-based methods have been developed to identify dermatophytes. The polymerase chain reaction-reverse blot hybridization assay (PCR-REBA) allows sensitive and specific identification of dermatophytes species. OBJECTIVE: This study was aimed to develop a new PCR-REBA with higher sensitivity using less amount of probe concentration, so the assay can be more practical in clinical settings. METHODS: For this, PCR primers and species-specific oligonucleotide probes were designed within the internal transcribed sequences 1 region between 5.8S and 18S rRNA. The species-specific probes designed in this study was to identify 6 species (T. rubrum, T. mentagrophytes, T. tonsurans, M. canis, M. gypseum, and E. floccosum) comprised 99% of dermatophytes isolatedin Korea. RESULTS: The detection efficiency of the PCR-REBA was compared with the microscopic method, and the results showed that the sensitivity of the PCR-REBA developed in this study is 100 times higher than previously developed one. Subsequently, the results of PCR-REBA were evaluated using clinical isolates. DNAs from a total of 68 clinical isolates were analyzed by PCR-REBA, and the inconsistent results between PCR-REBA and conventional microscopic identification results were confirmed by sequence analysis. CONCLUSION: In brief, the results showed that results of sequence analysis were identical with PCR-REBA implying newly developed PCR-REBA is very useful method for accurate and rapid identification of dermatophytes and would provide higher simplicity, specificity, sensitivity than conventional method.
Arthrodermataceae ; Chimera ; Clinical Laboratory Techniques ; DNA ; Early Diagnosis ; Microsporum ; Mycoses ; Oligonucleotide Probes ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Sequence Analysis ; Tinea