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Aggressive hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) complicates frequently hereditary hemochromatosis, a disease for which a strong candidate gene, named HFE, has recently been identified. Patients with HCC who are heterozygotes for mutations in the HFE gene might have distinct features and a distinct disease course.The presence of the 2 mutations associated with hereditary hemochromatosis (C282Y and H63D) was sought by restriction fragment length polymorphism in 61 cirrhotic patients (46 males and 15 females) who underwent resection for HCC at a single institution.There were 4 heterozygotes for the C282Y mutation and 6 homozygotes + 20 heterozygotes for the H63D mutation, with no compound heterozygotes. Carriage of/= 1 HFE mutated allele was significantly more frequent in HCC patients than in 149 control subjects (44% vs. 29%, P = 0.005). Among C282Y heterozygotes, 3 of 4 were female, compared with 12 of 57 wild-type carriers (P = 0.015); no gender distribution existed among patients carrying H63D alleles (6 of 26 vs. 9 of 35, P = 0.813). Survival was longer for patients with wild-type HFE than for those with mutated HFE (67% vs. 22% at 3 years; hazard ratio = 0.42, 95% confidence interval = 0.21-0.80) (P0.01). The negative effect on survival that resulted from possessing/= 1 HFE mutated allele was maintained even after adjustment for gender, age, presence of tumor capsule, presence of comorbid factors, Okuda stage, Edmonson grading, and number of lesions (P = 0.01).Testing for HFE mutations may help identify HCC patients with dismal prognoses for whom surgical resection may not represent the best treatment option.

AIMS: To investigate the immunohistochemical expression of p53 and bcl-2 proteins in squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the oesophagus and to assess whether expression of these oncoproteins can be used to stratify patients into groups with a favourable or unfavourable response to preoperative chemo/radiotherapy. METHODS: The initial diagnostic biopsy and the corresponding resected samples were obtained from 22 consecutive patients with SCC. All patients underwent preoperative chemo/radiotherapy. Tumour sections were incubated with a monoclonal antibody directed against p53 (DO-7). Twenty four non-neoplastic oesophageal biopsy specimens immunostained for p53 served as controls. Twelve randomly chosen sections from the 22 SCC samples were immunostained to test for bcl-2 protein expression. RESULTS: After chemo/radiotherapy, 12 (55%) of the 22 patients had no evidence of tumour in the resected oesophagus. Before chemoradiotherapy, however, 17 (77%) patients were p53 positive. After treatment, residual carcinoma was detected in seven (41%) of the 17 p53 positive patients. All non-responsive cases had the same p53 immunopattern as before treatment. Bcl-2 immunoexpression was detected in six (50%) of 12 patients. Residual tumour was detected in the residual oesophagus in two (33%) of the six bcl-2 positive patients. After treatment, bcl-2 expression was no longer detected in the residual neoplastic cells of a previously bcl-2 positive tumour. Using Fisher's exact test no significant association was found between oncoprotein expression and response to preoperative treatment. CONCLUSION: This study confirms the observation that p53 protein is frequently expressed in SCCs of the oesophagus, probably as a result of a mutation of the TP53 gene. However, no significant association was found between oncoprotein expression and response to chemo/radiotherapy. Anticancer agents do not seem to modify the expression of p53 and bcl-2 proteins.

Twenty-seven cervical condylomata were studied by morphological and immunohistochemical methods (peroxidase-antiperoxidase technique according to Sternberger, with some modifications). The antiserum was obtained from rabbits immunized by human papillomavirus virions; 37% of condylomata stained positively and the koilocytotic cells showed a dark brown nuclear stain. This technique, not particularly useful for diagnostic purposes, could be employed to obtain better understanding of the natural history of these cervical neoplasias.

Bcl-2 overexpression has been shown to be associated with several malignancies, including B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (NHL), mainly low-grade and follicular in type. It has as yet not been described in hairy cell leukemia (HCL). In 30 patients with CLL and 14 with HCL who were consecutively selected for treatment with purine analogues (Fludarabine in CLL and 2-chloro-deoxy-adenosine in HCL), we evaluated bcl-2 oncoprotein expression in leukemic cells on marrow sections that were taken before treatment and stained immunohistochemically with a monoclonal antibody (Dakopatts 124 clone), by the avidin-biotin-peroxidase method. All samples were found to be bcl-2 positive, with a staining intensity that was moderate to strong in CLL and weak to moderate in HCL. 83% of CLL and 100% of HCL patients were responsive to purine analogues. These findings show that bcl-2 is overexpressed in almost all cases CLL and HCL and that bcl-2 overexpression does not predict a poor response to purine analogues, which are believed to induce apoptosis.

Background: Translational medicine aims at transferring advances in basic science research into new approaches for diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Low-grade gliomas (LGG) have a heterogeneous clinical behavior that can be only partially predicted employing current state-of-the-art markers, hindering the decision-making process. To deepen our comprehension on tumor heterogeneity, we dissected the mechanism of interaction between tumor cells and relevant components of the neoplastic environment, isolating, from LGG and high-grade gliomas (HGG), proliferating stem cell lines from both the glioma stroma and, where possible, the neoplasm. Methods and Findings: We isolated glioma-associated stem cells (GASC) from LGG (n=40) and HGG (n=73). GASC showed stem cell features, anchorage-independent growth, and supported the malignant properties of both A172 cells and human glioma-stem cells, mainly through the release of exosomes. Finally, starting from GASC obtained from HGG (n=13) and LGG (n=12) we defined a score, based on the expression of 9 GASC surface markers, whose prognostic value was assayed on 40 subsequent LGG-patients. At the multivariate Cox analysis, the GASC-based score was the only independent predictor of overall survival and malignant progression free-survival. Conclusions: The microenvironment of both LGG and HGG hosts non-tumorigenic multipotent stem cells that can increase in vitro the biological aggressiveness of glioma-initiating cells through the release of exosomes. The clinical importance of this finding is supported by the strong prognostic value associated with the characteristics of GASC. This patient-based approach can provide a groundbreaking method to predict prognosis and to exploit novel strategies that target the tumor stroma. Stem Cells 2014;32:1239–1253

The mesencephalic dopaminergic (mDA) cell system is composed of two major groups of projecting cells in the substantia nigra (SN) (A9 neurons) and the ventral tegmental area (VTA) (A10 cells). A9 neurons form the nigrostriatal pathway and are involved in regulating voluntary movements and postural reflexes. Their selective degeneration leads to Parkinson's disease. Here, we report that gene expression analysis of A9 dopaminergic neurons (DA) identifies transcripts for α- and β-chains of hemoglobin (Hb). Globin immunoreactivity decorates the majority of A9 DA, a subpopulation of cortical and hippocampal astrocytes and mature oligodendrocytes. This pattern of expression was confirmed in different mouse strains and in rat and human. We show that Hb is expressed in the SN of human postmortem brain. By microarray analysis of dopaminergic cell lines overexpressing α- and β-globin chains, changes in genes involved in O 2 homeostasis and oxidative phopshorylation were observed, linking Hb expression to mitochondrial function. Our data suggest that the most famed oxygen-carrying globin is not exclusively restricted to the blood, but it may play a role in the normal physiology of the brain and neurodegenerative diseases.

bstract: APE1/Ref-1, normally localized in the nucleus, is a regulator of the cellular response to oxidative stress. Cytoplasmic localization has been observed in several tumors and correlates with a poor prognosis. Because no data are available on liver tumors, we investigated APE1/Ref-1 subcellular localization and its correlation with survival in 47 consecutive patients undergoing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) resection, APE 1 /Ref-1 expression was determined by immunohistochemistry in HCC and surrounding liver cirrhosis (SLC) and compared with normal liver tissue. Survival probability was evaluated using Kaplan-Meier curves (log-rank test) and Cox regression. Cytoplasmic expression of APE 1 /Ref-1 was significantly higher in HCC than in SLC (P = 0.00001); normal liver showed only nuclear reactivity. Patients with poorly differentiated HCC showed a cytoplasmic expression three times higher than those with well-differentiated HCC (P = 0.03). Cytoplasmic localization was associated with a median survival time shorter than those with negative cytoplasmic reactivity (0.44 compared with 1.64 years, P = 0.003), and multivariable analysis confirmed that cytoplasmic APE I /Ref-1 localization is a predictor of survival. Cytoplasmic expression of APE 1 /Ref-1 is increased in HCC and is associated with a lower degree of differentiation and a shorter survival time, pointing to the use of the cytoplasmic localization of APE1/Ref-1 as a prognostic marker for HCC.

Liver transplantation (OLT) is a treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) superimposed on cirrhosis provided that the disease meets defined criteria. The aim of the study was to evaluate our experience with respect to clinical and pathological staging and long-term results. From 1996 to 2005, 50 patients underwent OLT for HCC including 43 men (86%) and seven women (14%) of median age 57 years (range 37 to 67). All patients fulfilled the Milan criteria. The HCC diagnosis was based on preoperative imaging and alpha-fetoprotein levels; no tumor biopsy was performed. Upon histological examination of the resected specimens, we discovered 6 (12%) incidentalomas and 8 (16%) cases of no HCC. Finally we had 42 "true" HCC. Twenty-six patients (52%) have been downstaged and 10 (20%) upstaged by preoperative imaging; 15% were pT1, 45% were pT2, 27% pT3, and 13% pT4a. Twenty-six percent of cases exceeded the Milan criteria. One patient (pT4a) with microvascular invasion died of pulmonary metastases at 14 months after transplantation. No HCC recurrences within the liver have been encountered at a median follow-up of 20 months (range 0 to 80 months). Overall the estimated 1-, 3-, and 5-year survival rates were 83%, 77%, and 72%, respectively. One-, 3-, and 5-year estimated survival rates were 87%, 75%, and 75% for pT1, and pT2, and 75%, 67%, and 67% for pT3 and pT4a, respectively (P = .99). Based on our experience OLT for HCC has long-term results comparable to those without HCC despite the presence of a significant number of cases exceeding the Milan criteria upon pathological staging.

Background Cases in which a male patient receives a heart from a female donor provide an unusual opportunity to test whether primitive cells translocate from the recipient to the graft and whether cells with the phenotypic characteristics of those of the recipient ultimately reside in the donor heart. The Y chromosome can be used to detect migrated undifferentiated cells expressing stem-cell antigens and to discriminate between primitive cells derived from the recipient and those derived from the donor. Methods We examined samples from the atria of the recipient and the atria and ventricles of the graft by fluorescence in situ hybridization to determine whether Y chromosomes were present in eight hearts from female donors implanted into male patients. Primitive cells bearing Y chromosomes that expressed c-kit, MDR1, and Sca-1 were also investigated. Results Myocytes, coronary arterioles, and capillaries that had a Y chromosome made up 7 to 10 percent of those in the donor hearts and were highly proliferat...