Search

Research into cancer cells that harbor gene mutations relating to anticancer drug-resistance at the single-cell level has focused on the diagnosis of, or treatment for, cancer. Several methods have been reported for detecting gene-mutated cells within a large number of non-mutated cells; however, target single nucleotide-mutated cells within a large number of cell samples, such as cancer tissue, are still difficult to analyze. In this study, a new system is developed to detect and isolate single-cancer cells expressing the T790M-mutated epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mRNA from multiple non-mutated cancer cells by combining single-cell microarray chips and peptide nucleic acid (PNA)-DNA probes. The single-cell microarray chip is made of polystyrene with 62,410 microchambers (31-40 µm diameter). The T790M-mutated lung cancer cell line, NCI-H1975, and non-mutated lung cancer cell line, A549, were successfully separated into single cells in each microchambers on the chip. Only NCI-H1975 cell was stained on the chip with a fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-conjugated PNA probe for specifically detecting T790M mutation. Of the NCI-H1975 cells that spiked into A549 cells, 0–20% were quantitatively analyzed within 1 h, depending on the spike concentration. Therefore, our system could be useful in analyzing cancer tissue that contains a few anticancer drug-resistant cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Muscle strength declines with age. However, factors that contribute to such declines are not well documented and have not been extensively studied in elderly populations of Asian origin. Correlations of grip strength with a broad range of factors associated with declines in muscle strength were examined in 202 community-living elderly Japanese women. After adjustment for age, grip strength was positively correlated with body weight, height, serum albumin, haemoglobin, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and serum iron and inversely with serum copper, and log high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP). Multiple linear regression analysis with grip strength as a dependent variable showed that 47.0% of variability of grip strength could be accounted for by height, age and haemoglobin in order of increasing R2. In conclusion, low haemoglobin may contribute to low muscle strength independently of age, anthropometric, nutritional, and inflammatory markers in the elderly, and may represent an important confounder of the association between grip strength and functional decline in community- living Japanese elderly women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: Elevated pulse pressure (PP) has been reported to be a risk factor for type 2 diabetes in elderly patients with hypertension., Methods: Cross-sectional relationships of PP with known risk factors for type 2 diabetes and inflammatory markers were examined in 150 elderly community-dwelling women, 79 women (52.7%) of whom had hypertension., Results: Systolic blood pressure (standardized β, 0.775), log tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α, standardized β, 0.110), age (standardized β, 0.140), and neutrophil count (standardized β, 0.114) emerged as determinants of PP independent of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, interleukin-6, monocyte count, plasminogen activator inhibitor-1, homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance, HDL-cholesterol, and adiponectin (R(2) = 0.772)., Conclusions: The present studies have demonstrated an independent association of higher PP with higher TNF-α, a marker of insulin resistance, and neutrophil count in community-living elderly women and suggest that insulin resistance and chronic low-grade inflammation may in part be responsible for the association between high PP and incident type 2 diabetes found in elderly patients with hypertension.