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Objective— Resistin-like molecule (RELM) β is a secretory protein homologous to resistin and reportedly contributes to local immune response regulation in gut and bronchial epithelial cells. However, we found that activated macrophages also express RELMβ and thus investigated the role of RELMβ in the development of atherosclerosis. Approach and Results— It was demonstrated that foam cells in atherosclerotic lesions of the human coronary artery abundantly express RELMβ. RELMβ knockout ( −/− ) and wild-type mice were mated with apolipoprotein E–deficient background mice. RELMβ −/− apolipoprotein E–deficient mice exhibited less lipid accumulation in the aortic root and wall than RELMβ +/+ apolipoprotein E–deficient mice, without significant changes in serum lipid parameters. In vitro, RELMβ −/− primary cultured peritoneal macrophages (PCPMs) exhibited weaker lipopolysaccharide-induced nuclear factor-κB classical pathway activation and inflammatory cytokine secretion than RELMβ +/+ , whereas stimulation with RELMβ upregulated inflammatory cytokine expressions and increased expressions of many lipid transporters and scavenger receptors in PCPMs. Flow cytometric analysis revealed inflammatory stimulation–induced RELMβ in F4/80(+) CD11c(+) PCPMs. In contrast, the expressions of CD11c and tumor necrosis factor were lower in RELMβ −/− PCPMs, but both were restored by stimulation with recombinant RELMβ. Conclusions— RELMβ is abundantly expressed in foam cells within plaques and contributes to atherosclerosis development via lipid accumulation and inflammatory facilitation.

Regenerating gene type IV (RegIV) is a candidate marker for cancer and inflammatory bowel disease. In this study, its potential as a novel marker for the detection of gastric cancer peritoneal micrometastases was examined.RegIV mRNA levels in the peritoneal washes of 95 gastric cancer patients and 22 with benign disease were quantified by real-time RT-PCR. To examine whether expression of RegIV enhance tumorigenicity or not, thirty two mice were injected intraperitoneally or subcutaneously with RegIV transfectants of TMK-1 cells, parental TMK-1 cells, or neomycin control transfectants.RegIV expression was markedly higher in patients with peritoneal metastases compared to those without. The level of RegIV mRNA in gastric cancer patients was related to the extent of wall penetration. A cut-off value for RegIV-positive expression was based on an analysis of negative control patients with benign disease, and gastric cancer patients above the cut-off value constituted the micrometastasis (MM+) group. Based on this criteria, 3 out of 43 T1 or T2 cases were MM+ (93% specificity). Among 15 patients with peritoneal dissemination (7 out of 15 cases were positive by cytology), 14 cases were positive for RegIV expression (93% sensitivity), while analysis of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) mRNA failed to detect micrometastases in 4 cases (73% sensitivity). Combined analysis of CEA and RegIV improved the accuracy of diagnosis to 100%. The prognosis of RegIV-positive cases was significantly worse than that of RegIV-negative cases. Multivariate analysis using the Cox proportional hazards model suggested that RegIV may be an independent prognostic factor. Stable expression of RegIV significantly enhanced peritoneal metastasis in an animal model of gastric cancer.These findings suggest that RegIV mRNA expression has the potential to serve as a novel marker for detecting peritoneal dissemination in gastric cancer.