Search

Overweight is believed to be associated with colorectal cancer risk. Adipose tissue is loose connective tissue composed of adipocytes. It is now recognized as a major endocrine organ, secreting humoral factors collectively called adipokines. Aberrant hormonal systems consisting of modulated adipokines and their receptors are thought to play a role in colorectal carcinogenesis and cancer progression in obese conditions. However, it is still unclear whether and how each adipokine relates to colorectal carcinogenesis. Notably, a couple of molecules that were initially proposed to be obesity-related adipokines were disqualified by subsequent studies. The adipokines, adiponectin, and intelectin-1 (also known as omentin-1), whose levels are decreased in obesity, act as tumor suppressor factors in various cancers. Numerous studies have demonstrated a link between the insufficient expression and function of adiponectin and its receptor, T-cadherin, in colorectal carcinogenesis. Moreover, our recent study indicated that loss of TMEM207, which is critical for the proper processing of intelectin-1 in the colon mucosa, leads to insufficient intelectin-1 production, thus participating in colorectal carcinogenesis. Here, we discuss the recent understanding of the role of adipokines in colorectal carcinogenesis and subsequently describe the potent tumor suppressor roles of intelectin-1 and TMEM207 in colorectal cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Selective growth of GaAs using a graphene mask was investigated. While selective growth with a SiO2 mask required a temperature of more than 620 °C, the critical temperature required with the graphene mask was as low as 600 °C, which is ascribed to the weak bonding characteristics between the graphene mask and the adatoms on the growth surface. The mechanism of selective growth was examined with systematic change of the growth temperature, and the activation energy for selective growth was evaluated. Selective growth with a patterned graphene mask provided excellent selectivity and a very flat and smooth GaAs layer was obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]