Lack of inhibitory effects of the Ju-myo protein on development of glutathione S-transferase placental form-positive foci in the male F344 rat liver.
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The effects of the 77 kDa Ju-myo protein, isolated from Drosophila melanogaster, on the development of glutathione S-transferase placental form (GST-P) positive foci in the male F344 rat liver were evaluated using a medium-term bioassay system. No modifying potential was evident in terms of the numbers or areas of GST-P positive foci. Ju-myo protein did not exert any influence on cell proliferation, as reflected by ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) or spermidine/spermine N1-acetyltransferase (SAT) activity and BrdU labeling. These results demonstrated that Ju-myo protein is unlikely to have inhibitory or promoting effects on rat liver carcinogenesis. (+info)
Central line sepsis in a child due to a previously unidentified mycobacterium.
(26/16288)
A rapidly growing mycobacterium similar to strains in the present Mycobacterium fortuitum complex (M. fortuitum, M. peregrinum, and M. fortuitum third biovariant complex [sorbitol positive and sorbitol negative]) was isolated from a surgically placed central venous catheter tip and three cultures of blood from a 2-year-old child diagnosed with metastatic hepatoblastoma. The organism's unique phenotypic profile and ribotype patterns differed from those of the type and reference strains of the M. fortuitum complex and indicate that this organism may represent a new pathogenic taxon. (+info)
Expression of the hepatocyte growth factor-like protein gene in human hepatocellular carcinoma and interleukin-6-induced increased expression in hepatoma cells.
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Human hepatocellular carcinoma is one of the most frequent malignant tumors. It may occur following exposure to various agents, including viruses and chemical carcinogens; however, the underlying mechanisms of the hepatocarcinogenesis are not known. The present study is the result of our search for genes which may be abundantly expressed in human primary liver carcinoma. One of these genes was found to encode the human hepatocyte growth factor-like protein (HGFLP), also known as macrophage-stimulating protein. HGFLP is structurally homologous to hepatocyte growth factor, a potent growth factor for liver. HGFLP mRNA was also found to be overexpressed in a hepatoblastoma sample and in a sample of subacute fulminant hepatic necrosis. In a study on the effects of cytokines on the expression of HGFLP, we found that IL-6 increased expression of HGFLP mRNA in Hep G2 cells, but IL-1alpha, IL-1beta and TNF-alpha had no effect. An increase in HGFLP could be the result of inflammation and/or tissue injury and its overexpression may prove to be useful as an indicator of hepatoma. (+info)
Hepatectomy for hepatocellular carcinoma: toward zero hospital deaths.
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OBJECTIVE: The authors report on the surgical techniques and protocol for perioperative care that have yielded a zero hospital mortality rate in 110 consecutive patients undergoing hepatectomy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The hepatectomy results are analyzed with the aim of further reducing the postoperative morbidity rate. SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA: In recent years, hepatectomy has been performed with a mortality rate of <10% in patients with HCC, but a zero hospital mortality rate in a large patient series has never been reported. At Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong, the surgical techniques and perioperative management in hepatectomy for HCC have evolved yearly into a final standardized protocol that reduced the hospital mortality rate from 28% in 1989 to 0% in 1996 and 1997. METHODS: Surgical techniques were designed to reduce intraoperative blood loss, blood transfusion, and ischemic injury to the liver remnant in hepatectomy. Postoperative care was focused on preservation and promotion of liver function by providing adequate tissue oxygenation and immediate postoperative nutritional support that consisted of branched-chain amino acid-enriched solution, low-dose dextrose, medium-chain triglycerides, and phosphate. The pre-, intra-, and postoperative data were collected prospectively and analyzed each year to assess the influence of the evolving surgical techniques and perioperative care on outcome. RESULTS: Of 330 patients undergoing hepatectomy for HCC, underlying cirrhosis and chronic hepatitis were present in 161 (49%) and 108 (33%) patients, respectively. There were no significant changes in the patient characteristics throughout the 9-year period, but there were significant reductions in intraoperative blood loss and blood transfusion requirements. From 1994 to 1997, the median blood transfusion requirement was 0 ml, and 64% of the patients did not require a blood transfusion. The postoperative morbidity rate remained the same throughout the study period. Complications in the patients operated on during 1996 and 1997 were primarily wound infections; the potentially fatal complications seen in the early years, such as subphrenic sepsis, biliary leakage, and hepatic coma, were absent. By univariate analysis, the volume of blood loss, volume of blood transfusions, and operation time were correlated positively with postoperative morbidity rates in 1996 and 1997. Stepwise logistic regression analysis revealed that the operation time was the only parameter that correlated significantly with the postoperative morbidity rate. CONCLUSION: With appropriate surgical techniques and perioperative management to preserve function of the liver remnant, hepatectomy for HCC can be performed without hospital deaths. To improve surgical outcome further, strategies to reduce the operation time are being investigated. (+info)
Structure and promoter activity of an islet-specific glucose-6-phosphatase catalytic subunit-related gene.
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In liver and kidney, the terminal step in the gluconeogenic pathway is catalyzed by glucose-6-phosphatase (G-6-Pase). This enzyme is actually a multicomponent system, the catalytic subunit of which was recently cloned. Numerous reports have also described the presence of G-6-Pase activity in islets, although the role of G-6-Pase in this tissue is unclear. Arden and associates have described the cloning of a novel cDNA that encodes an islet-specific G-6-Pase catalytic subunit-related protein (IGRP) (Arden SD, Zahn T, Steegers S, Webb S, Bergman B, O'Brien RM, Hutton JC: Molecular cloning of a pancreatic islet-specific glucose-6-phosphatase catalytic subunit related protein (IGRP). Diabetes 48:531-542, 1999). We screened a mouse BAC library with this cDNA to isolate the IGRP gene, which spans approximately 8 kbp of genomic DNA. The exon/intron structure of the IGRP gene has been mapped and, as with the gene encoding the liver/kidney G-6-Pase catalytic subunit, it is composed of five exons. The sizes of these exons are 254 (I), 110 (II), 112 (III), 116 (IV), and 1284 (V) bp, similar to those of the G-6-Pase catalytic subunit gene. Two interspecific backcross DNA mapping panels were used to unambiguously localize the IGRP gene (map symbol G6pc-rs) to the proximal portion of mouse chromosome 2. The IGRP gene transcription start site was mapped by primer extension analysis, and the activity of the IGRP gene promoter was analyzed in both the islet-derived HIT cell line and the liver-derived HepG2 cell line. The IGRP and G-6-Pase catalytic subunit gene promoters show a reciprocal pattern of activity, with the IGRP promoter being approximately 150-fold more active than the G-6-Pase promoter in HIT cells. (+info)
Fas/Fas ligand interaction in human colorectal hepatic metastases: A mechanism of hepatocyte destruction to facilitate local tumor invasion.
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This study demonstrates a novel role for the Fas pathway in the promotion of local tumor growth by inducing apoptotic cell death in normal hepatocytes at the tumor margin in colorectal hepatic metastases. Our results show that >85% of lymphocytes infiltrating colorectal liver cancer express high levels of Fas-ligand (Fas-L) by flow cytometry. Using immunohistochemistry of tumor tissue we showed strong Fas expression in noninvolved hepatocytes, whereas Fas-L expression was restricted to tumor cells and infiltrating lymphocytes at the tumor margin. Apoptosis was observed in 45 +/- 13% of the Fas(high) hepatocytes at the tumor margin whereas only 7 +/- 3% tumor cells were apoptotic (n = 10). In vitro, primary human hepatocytes expressed Fas receptor and crosslinking with anti-Fas antibody induced apoptosis in 44 +/- 5% of the cells compared with 4. 6 +/- 1.0% in untreated controls (P = 0.004). Both tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) and human metastatic colon cancer cells cells are able to induce Fas-mediated apoptosis of primary human hepatocytes in coculture cytotoxic assays. TIL induced apoptosis in 47 +/- 9% hepatocytes compared with control 4.3 +/- 1. 0% (P = 0.009) and this effect was reduced by anti-human Fas-L mAb (18.7 +/- 1.3%, P = 0.009). SW620 cells induced apoptosis in 26 +/- 2% hepatocytes compared with control 5.6 +/- 1.7% (P = 0.004) and this was reduced to 11.2 +/- 1.8% (P = 0.004) in the presence of anti-human Fas-L mAb. These data suggest that the inflammatory response at the margin of colorectal liver metastases induces Fas expression in surrounding hepatocytes, allowing them to be killed by Fas-L-bearing TIL or tumor cells and facilitating the invasion of the tumor into surrounding liver tissue. (+info)
Extraneural metastasizing ependymoma of the spinal cord.
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This paper reports a case of the rare entity of an extraneural metastasizing ependymoma of the spinal cord. The tumor which arose in the conus medullaris and in the cauda equina was first diagnosed in 1956 when a thoracolumbar myeloresection was performed. At autopsy, 40 years after the primary diagnosis, a massive local tumor recurrence with extraneural metastases in the lungs, the pleura, the liver, and the thoracal and abdominal lymph nodes were found. Immunohistochemical stains of the extraneural metastases showed a strong cytoplasmatic expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). Neither the primary tumor nor its metastases showed any of the conventional morphological criteria of malignancy. Reviewing the literature we discuss the possible mechanism of extraneural tumor spread and the incidence of metastases with regard to the tumor type. (+info)
Primary hepatic carcinoid in a renal transplant patient.
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There seems to be a world-wide increase in the incidence of tumors among immunosuppressed patients. Of 1350 renal allografts transplanted in the past 23 years at the Department of Transplantation and Surgery, 56 cases were malignant tumors. The case of a 58-year-old female patient is reported, with disseminated primary carcinoid in the liver detected 86 days after renal transplantation. According to the literature only 39 patients with primary liver carcinoids have been reported until 1997, but this is the first where the carcinoid developed in an immunosuppressed patient. The rapid progression of the carcinoid could be associated with the immunosuppression. (+info)