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Cancer cells show several metabolic phenotypes depending on the cancer types and the microenvironments in tumor tissues. The glycolytic phenotype is one of the hallmarks of cancer cells and is considered to be one of the crucial features of malignant cancers. Here, we show glycolytic oscillations in the concentrations of metabolites in the glycolytic pathway in two types of cancer cells, HeLa cervical cancer cells and DU145 prostate cancer cells, and in two types of cellular morphologies, spheroids and monolayers. Autofluorescence from nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) in cells was used for monitoring the glycolytic oscillations at the single-cell level. The frequencies of NADH oscillations were different among the cellular types and morphologies, indicating that more glycolytic cancer cells tended to exhibit oscillations with higher frequencies than less glycolytic cells. A mathematical model for glycolytic oscillations in cancer cells reproduced the experimental results quantitatively, confirming that the higher frequencies of oscillations were due to the higher activities of glycolytic enzymes. Thus, glycolytic oscillations are expected as a medical indicator to evaluate the malignancy of cancer cells with glycolytic phenotypes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Double emulsions have been intensively used as a template to form core/shell structured microcapsules encapsulating and releasing a substance of interest in a controllable way for wide spectrum of chemical and biological applications. Herein a numerical model was established to investigate the thermal effect on breakup dynamics of a double emulsion flowing through a microchannel with a constricted segment which mimics the structure of microcapillaries using two groups of cases. In the first group, double emulsion was formed with water dispersed in oil which is surrounded by water (W/O/W); and in the second group, double emulsion was formed with water dispersed in oil which is surrounded by nanofluids where single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCN) was dispersed in an ethylene glycol (EG) solution with volume fraction of 0.05% (W/O/SWCN-EG). In both groups, the thermal effect study was extended to other temperature dependent physical properties such as viscosity, density, and thermal conductivity. Thermal effects on the shear stress distribution in the constricted microchannel will lead to significant difference in deformation between the two groups. The investigation provides new insights to understanding the thermal effect in multiphase flow through complex microstructures where nanofluids have found significant increase in biomedical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

N-myc downstream regulated gene-1 (NDRG1) has attracted much attention as a protein associated with angiogenesis. This study investigated the associations of NDRG1 expression, determined by immunohistochemical analysis, with other clinicopathological factors and prognosis in patients with endometrial endometrioid carcinoma (EEC). Surgical specimens were obtained from 113 patients with EEC. High NDRG1 expression was correlated with advanced stage, poor differentiation, lymph node metastasis, and significantly poorer survival compared with patients with low expression. High expression of NDRG1 was also correlated with high levels of angiogenesis and low expression of the estrogen receptor. These results suggest that high expression of NDRG1 is associated with angiogenesis and is an indicator of a poor prognosis in women with EEC.