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Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a highly aggressive tumor arising from the mesothelial cells that line the pleural cavities. This tumor is resistant to most conventional anticancer treatments and appears to be very sensitive to growth-promoting influences of cytokines and growth factors. Identification of natural inhibitory pathways that control growth should aid discovery of novel therapeutic approaches. We hypothesized that alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (alpha-MSH), which is produced by many cell types and antagonizes cytokines and growth factors, could be an endogenous inhibitory molecule in mesothelioma. Twelve mesothelioma cell lines were established from pleural effusions of patients with malignant mesothelioma. Mesothelioma cells were found to express mRNA for proopiomelanocortin and its processing enzymes; release alpha-MSH peptide into supernatants; and express melanocortin I receptor (MC1R), the high-affinity receptor for a-MSH. Immunoneutralization of MC1R in the cell lines enhanced expression of interleukin-8 (IL-8), IL-6, and transforming growth factor-beta. These molecules promote mesothelioma proliferation and are considered therapeutic targets in this tumor. Coincubation of mesothelioma cells with synthetic alpha-MSH significantly reduced cell proliferation. The present research shows an autocrine-inhibitory circuit based on alpha-MSH and its receptor MC1R. Activation of MC1R by selective peptides or peptidomimetics might provide a novel strategy to reduce mesothelioma cell proliferation by taking advantage of this endogenous inhibitory circuit

Thermally reduced QCD leads to three dimensional SU(3) gaugefields coupled to an adjoint scalar field $A_0$. We compute the effective potential in the one-loop approximation and evaluate the VEV's of $TrA_0^2$ and $TrA_0^3$. In the Higgs phase not only the former, but also the latter has a VEV. This happens where the SU(3) gauge symmetry is broken minimally with U(2) still unbroken. It is plausible that in the Higgs phase one has a transition for large enough Higgs selfcoupling to a region where $TrA_0^3$ has no VEV and where the gaugesymmetry is broken maximally to $U(1)\times U(1)$., Comment: Contributing paper to the proceedings of the 5th International Workshop on Thermal Field Theories and their Applications, Regensburg, Germany, August 10-14, 1998. Corrected typos, changes in wording

One of the salient features of high temperature gluodynamics is the Z(N) groundstate degeneracy, key to the understanding of the transition. On the other hand impressive progress has been obtained with effective theories, that seemingly lack Z(N) symmetry. We give a simple unified desciption of the two. As a very useful byproduct we get a natural infrared regulator and show its expediency by calculating the next to leading order in the Debye mass. Higher order corrections to bulk free energy and domainwall surface tension are discussed., Comment: 10 pages including figures, LaTeX, uses epsfig and sprocl2

Thermally reduced QCD leads to three dimensional SU(3) gaugefields coupled to an adjoint scalar field $A_0$. We compute the effective potential in the one-loop approximation and evaluate the VEV's of $TrA_0^2$ and $TrA_0^3$. In the Higgs phase not only the former, but also the latter has a VEV. This happens where the SU(3) gauge symmetry is broken minimally with U(2) still unbroken. It is plausible that in the Higgs phase one has a transition for large enough Higgs selfcoupling to a region where $TrA_0^3$ has no VEV and where the gaugesymmetry is broken maximally to $U(1)\times U(1)$., Comment: Contributing paper to the proceedings of the 5th International Workshop on Thermal Field Theories and their Applications, Regensburg, Germany, August 10-14, 1998. Corrected typos, changes in wording

One of the salient features of high temperature gluodynamics is the Z(N) groundstate degeneracy, key to the understanding of the transition. On the other hand impressive progress has been obtained with effective theories, that seemingly lack Z(N) symmetry. We give a simple unified desciption of the two. As a very useful byproduct we get a natural infrared regulator and show its expediency by calculating the next to leading order in the Debye mass. Higher order corrections to bulk free energy and domainwall surface tension are discussed., Comment: 10 pages including figures, LaTeX, uses epsfig and sprocl2

In the present paper we evaluated the ability of pretargeted immunoscintigraphy (ISG) with antichromogranin A (CgA) monoclonal antibody (Mc-ab A11) in visualizing pituitary masses. The results obtained in 23 patients are described along with those of [111In]pentetreotide scintigraphy (Octreoscan) in 18 cases. Positive ISG was obtained in 9/11 (82%) non-functioning, 1/4 growth hormone-, 1/2 prolactin-, 1/2 thyrotropin-, 1/1 follicle-stimulating hormone-, 0/1 adrenocortico-trophin-secreting pituitary adenomas. In one patient with a positive ISG scan of a non-functioning pituitary adenoma, an associated neurinoma of the acoustic nerve was not imaged. The same occurred in one patient with a pituitary deposit from a mammary carcinoma and in another one with a cyst of the Rathke's pouch. Chromogranin A immunohistochemistry, carried out in 10 tumours, was positive in eight pituitary adenomas and negative in two non-adenomatous lesions. A concordant ISG occurred in all cases except for two pituitary adenomas: one cystic and necrotized and one post-operative remnant very small in size. In 18 patients with pituitary adenoma both ISG and Octreoscan were positive in 61% of cases but with a different distribution among tumours. At variance with ISG, Octreoscan visualized only 5/10 (50%) non-functioning pituitary adenomas and all (4/4) somatotropinomas. In conclusion, ISG is able to image pituitary tumours and particularly non-functioning pituitary adenomas. In this respect, it may be helpful in discriminating non-neuroendocrine masses of the pituitary region from non-functioning pituitary adenomas