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High resolution TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X as well as Sentinel-1 remote sensing Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data are used to determine and monitor the waterline in the Wadden Sea. In this very unique and dynamic coastal region in the southeastern North Sea, tidal flats extend several kilometers away from the coast during low tide with features like tidal inlets and sand banks. Under the influence of tidal water currents transporting large amounts of eroded material, inlets and sand banks move over time; heavy storms can even cause large variations in their extensions in merely a few hours. Observation of these obstacles is crucial for maritime security as high ship traffic is caused by the ports of Hamburg, Bremerhaven, Wilhelmshaven and others. Conventional monitoring campaigns with ships or airplanes are economically expensive and can only provide limited coverage. We present an automatic algorithm with Near Real-Time capability for extracting the waterline at the time of recording from SAR images, which allows for a fast and large scale determination of changes in coastal outlines. The comparison of recent acquisitions of TerraSAR-X and Sentinel-1 to bathymetry data of the Elbe estuary obtained in 2010 reveals significant changes in tidal flat structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduced a functional p16 cDNA into non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell lines expressing different combinations of normal and mutated p16, p53, and Rb genes via a recombinant adenovirus to determine the effect of exogenous p16 expression on cell growth. Analysis of p16-deficient cells infected with Adv/p16 identified growth arrest of the cells in the G0–G1 phase early on. Apoptosis was identified to occur by the 5th day after infection which corresponded with increased p16 expression, reduced Rb expression, and increased Rb hypophosphorylation, but only occurred in cells expressing functional p53. Further analysis indicated that the expression of the anti-apoptotic protein bcl-2 was greatly reduced in the NSCLC cell lines H460 and A549 (both -p16, +p53, +Rb), again only by the 5th day after Adv/p16 infection, but no affect on Bax expression was observed. H1299 cells (-p16, -p53, +Rb) infected with Adv/p16 only exhibited apoptosis by an additional infection with Adv/p53 which also corresponded with a down-regulation of bcl-2. In addition, the infection of A549 cells with Adv/p16 followed by a subsequent infection with Adv/Rb lead to a significant decrease in apoptosis which correlated with an increase in bcl-2 expression. These studies suggest that p16 is capable of mediating apoptosis in NSCLC cell lines expressing wild-type p53, through a direct down-regulation of Rb and an indirect down-regulation of the anti-apoptotic protein bcl-2. Oncogene (2000) 19, 1589–1595. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A single-chain fatty acid methyl ester, racemic anti-3-fluoro-2-hydroxyeicosanoic acid methyl ester (beta-FHE), forms an unconventional air-stable interdigitated bilayer at the air-water interface. The interdigitated bilayer transferred onto solid substrate by the Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) technique keeps air-stable without any substrate modification or protein inclusion. There are two visible plateaus in the surface pressure-molecular area (pi-A) isotherms of beta-FHE Langmuir film during continuous compression. According to Brewster angle microscopy (BAM), grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXD), X-ray reflectivity (XR), fluorescence microscopy (FM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements, the first plateau is attributed to the coexistence of liquid expanded (LE) and liquid condensed (LC) phases in the monolayer, while the second plateau is interpreted as the transition from LC monolayer to interdigitated bilayer. The coupling between tilt and curvature associated with the packing mismatch between headgroup and chain gives rise to buckling and folding of the monolayer, leading to the transition of the LC monolayer to a bilayer structure. The diffusion-limited aggregation (DLA) model is applied to describe the formation of the fractal structures of the bilayer as observed in the second plateau. In addition, the transition between monolayer and bilayer is reversible. The present works are interesting for understanding biological processes, for example, the behavior of lung surfactants.

The phase behavior of 2,3-disubstituted methyl octadecanoate monolayers at the air-water interface is studied by film balance and a Brewster angle microscope (BAM). The comparison of the surface pressure-molecular area (pi-A) isotherms with the corresponding BAM images provides information on the phase behavior of the monolayers. Variations in the phase behavior of different 2,3-disubstituted methyl octadecanoate monolayers can be correlated with the size of the headgroups, the interactions between the polar molecular moieties and the subphase, and the intermolecular interactions. The enlarging of the headgroups makes forming a condensed monolayer difficult for the molecules, even after introduction of substituents giving rise to the formation of hydrogen bonds between the molecules, which may balance the steric repulsion and stabilize the monolayers. Model calculations of the two-dimensional lattice structure of the 2,3-disubstituted methyl octadecanoates on basis of the pg and p1 space group are performed and correspond well with the experimental results.

We have developed a novel polyethylenimine (PEI)-DNA vector formulation that is capable of efficient tumor-specific delivery after intravenous administration to nude mice. To further increase the specificity of delivery, we have attached the peptide CNGRC to the vector, which is specific for aminopeptidase N (CD13). The strategy for coupling this peptide to PEI was based on a novel method involving the strong affinity between phenyl(di)boronic acid (PDBA) and salicylhydroxamic acid (SHA) as well as a polyethylene glycol (PEG) linker to reduce steric hindrance between the vector and the peptide. In vitro assessment of targeting by the CNGRC/PEG/PEI/DNA vector carrying a beta-galactosidase (beta-Gal)-expressing plasmid showed as much as a 5-fold increase in transduction, relative to the untargeted PEG/PEI/DNA-betagal vector, of CD13-positive lung cancer, fibrosarcoma, bladder cancer, and human umbilical vein endothelial cells. Competition with free peptide resulted in up to a 90% reduction in delivery, indicating that gene delivery was specific for CD13-positive cells. Intravenous administration of the CNGRC/PEG/PEI/DNA-betagal vector to nude mice bearing subcutaneous tumors resulted in as much as a 12-fold increase in beta-Gal expression in tumors as compared with expression in either lungs or tumors from animals treated with the original PEI/DNA-betagal vector. In vivo transduction analysis using the CNGRC/PEG/PEI/DNA vector to target the intravenous delivery of a yellow fluorescence protein (YFP)-expressing plasmid to subcutaneous H1299 tumors confirmed delivery of YFP to both tumor cells and tumor endothelial cells. The use of this peptide to further increase tumor-specific delivery mediated by our novel PEI/DNA vector now provides a basis for developing tumor-targeted gene therapies for use in the clinical treatment of cancer.

Successful systemic gene therapy has been hindered by vector-related limitations, including toxicity and inefficient gene delivery to tumor cells after i.v. administration. To circumvent these problems, we developed a novel formulation between the polycation polyethyleneimine and DNA that mediates high-level tumor cell transduction in vitro and efficient i.v. gene delivery in that greater reporter gene expression occurred in tumor than in lung. Strikingly, administration of just 6 micro g of the polyethyleneimine/DNA-p53 vector every 3 days for 3 weeks indicated restoration of normal cell cycle regulation and apoptotic mechanisms as demonstrated by efficient p53 expression, increased apoptosis, and a 70% reduction in tumor size in an orthotopic bladder cancer model. This novel vector formulation represents a new method to increase i.v. delivery of genes to tumors.

Insulin-like growth factor binding proteins (IGFBPs) are secreted into the extra-cellular matrix and inhibit cell growth through IGF-dependent and -independent mechanisms. In this study, we investigated the role of IGFBP-6, a relatively unexplored member of the IGFBP family, in the proliferation of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells. Infection of NSCLC cell lines in vitro with an adenovirus expressing human IGFBP-6 under the control of a CMV promoter (Ad5CMV-BP6) reduced NSCLC cell number through activation of programmed cell death, as shown by cell staining with Hoechst 33342 or DNA end-labeling with bromodeoxyuridine triphosphate. The growth regulatory effect of IGFBP-6 was investigated in vivo by intratumoral injection of Ad5CMV-BP6 in NSCLC xenografts established in nu/nu mice. A single injection of Ad5CMV-BP6 reduced the size of NSCLC xenografts by 45%. These findings indicate that IGFBP-6 is a potent inducer of programmed cell death in cancer cells and support investigations into IGFBP-6 as a potential target in cancer therapeutics.

An adenovirus/DNA complex was constructed by chemically linking poly-L-lysine to the capsid of the replication-defective adenovirus dl312, allowing for coupling with plasmid DNA by an ionic interaction. We have previously demonstrated that this adenovirus/DNA complex can efficiently transduce malignant cells with a plasmid expressing the beta-galactosidase gene both in vitro and in vivo. In this report, we show that this system can deliver a therapeutic gene that encodes for the tumor suppressor protein p53 to lung cancer cells, both in vitro and in vivo, leading to significant biological effects. Transfection of the p53-negative human lung cancer cell line H1299 with the adenovirus/DNA complex carrying a plasmid expressing the p53 gene resulted in high levels of p53 protein and induction of apoptosis. Injection of the complex carrying the p53 gene to subcutaneous tumor sites 5 days after tumor cell implantation resulted in a significant inhibition of tumorigenicity as measured by the number and size of tumors that developed 21 days after treatment. Three and six injections of the complex carrying the p53 gene into H1299 subcutaneous tumor nodules led to significant dose-related tumor growth suppression 18 days after the first injection compared with control-treated tumors. This adenovirus/DNA complex, therefore, is capable of efficiently delivering the p53 gene into malignant cells in vitro and in vivo and now provides a general gene delivery vector that is simple to construct and capable of testing therapeutic genes in malignant cells.

Current viral delivery systems suffer from disadvantages that may limit the rate at which therapeutic gene expressing constructs can be tested both in vitro and in vivo. In this study, our focus was to develop a simple gene delivery system for the rapid and reproducible testing of therapeutic genes in cancer cells both in vitro and in vivo. We report here that a delivery system based on using a conjugated adenovirus in complex from with a DNA plasmid can be used for not only delivering genes in vitro but also for efficient and reproducible delivery in vivo. Replication defective adenoviral particles were chemically modified by covalent attachment of poly-L-lysine (PLL) to the viral capsid, allowing for direct interaction with DNA. The adenovirus/PLL conjugate (Adv/PLL) was used to deliver the plasmid pCMV/beta-gal to several different cancer cell lines (i.e., lung, cervical) in vitro and resulted in transduction efficiencies as high as 52% as determined by histochemical staining. On direct intralesional injection of the Adv/PLL/DNA complex into subcutaneous tumors, transduction efficiencies greater than 35% could also be achieved. As a result, this system provides a simple method for delivering and testing therapeutic genes in cells both in vitro and in vivo, prior to the further development of gene therapy vectors for both malignant and benign disease.

Hemophilia B is a bleeding disorder caused by mutations in the factor IX gene. The disorder is X-linked recessive with a prevalence of about 1 in 30,000 Caucasian males. Factor IX is naturally synthesized in the liver and secreted into blood. Here we report the construction of recombinant adenoviral vectors containing the canine factor IX cDNA that are capable of transducing hepatocytes in mice at high efficiencies in vivo without partial hepatectomy. The recombinant viral vector was used to treat hemophilia B dogs by direct vector infusion into the portal vasculature of deficient animals. Plasma factor IX concentrations in the treated hemophilia B dogs increased from 0 to 300% of the level present in normal dogs, resulting in complete amelioration of the disease as demonstrated by normal blood coagulation and hemostatic measurements. Although plasma factor IX concentration started to decline after a few days, therapeutic levels of factor IX persisted for 1-2 months in the treated animals. The results validate the principle of in vivo hepatic gene delivery to reconstitute the genetic deficiency in a large animal model and suggest that gene therapy is achievable when long-acting vectors are developed.

Intravital microscopy of the rat cremaster muscle was used to evaluate changes in vessel constriction, vessel permeability, and leukocyte adhesion during and after photodynamic therapy (PDT). Animals were given Photofrin doses of 0-25 mg/kg i.v. 24 h before treatment. Cremaster muscles were exposed to 135 J/cm2 light at 630 nm. Animals given 5 mg/kg Photofrin showed no vessel constriction or increase in vessel permeability to albumin. Doses of 10 and 25 mg/kg Photofrin caused a dose-related constriction of arterioles which was observed within the first minutes of illumination at the higher drug dose. After the initial constriction, arteriole response to PDT was biphasic in nature, with some vessels relaxing to nearly control levels while others remained fully constricted. Constriction of venules occurred only at the highest porphyrin dose studied (25 mg/kg) and was delayed in comparison to arteriole constriction. Photofrin doses which produced arteriole constriction also caused an increase in venule permeability to albumin, which occurred shortly after the start of light treatment and was progressive with time. Leakage began at specific sites along the venule wall but became uniform along the entire length of the venule by 1 h after treatment. Changes in the adherence of polymorphonuclear leukocytes to venule endothelium were also observed with PDT. Photofrin doses of 25 mg/kg and 45 J/cm2 light were sufficient to cause polymorphonuclear leukocytes to become adherent to the vessel wall. A second group of animals was given indomethacin trihydrate to examine the involvement of cyclooxygenase products such as thromboxane in vessel response to PDT. Animals given 5 mg/kg indomethacin intraarterially 1 h before light treatment showed no constriction of arterioles or venules at all Photofrin and light doses studied. No increases in venule permeability to albumin were seen in this group of animals. This suggests that cyclooxygenase products including thromboxane are important in causing vessel constriction and changes in permeability during PDT. The initiating event which causes the release of these vasoactive agents remains unknown.

Pretransplant bilateral nephrectomy by the posterior approach has been associated with minimal morbidity and mortality. Unfortunately the posterior approach is not applicable to all patients, e.g., patients with polycystic renal disease or patients who need simultaneously another intraperitoneal adjuvant operation such as splenectomy or vagotomy and pyloroplasty. This article presents 34 patients who had a transperitoneal bilateral nephrectomy and 29 other concurrent adjuvant operations. Morbidity and mortality are comparable to that reported for simple bilateral nephrectomy performed posteriorly. The reduction in morbidity and mortality was believed to be due to a careful application of the basic principles of surgical care and an appreciation of the special problems posed by patients on chronic hemodialysis. Perioperative care will be discussed in detail.