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Post-vasectomy pain syndrome (PVPS) is difficult to treat. Direct damage to the vas deferens, inflammation, compression of nerves through fibrotic adhesions, and congestion of the epididymis are known to cause PVPS. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether the application of anti-adhesion agents after vasectomy can reduce the degree of adhesion and fibrosis in a rat model.In the study, 11 Sprague-Dawley rats (22 vas deferens) from each group were evaluated. In the experimental group, surgery was terminated after applying the anti-adhesion agent; this was not applied in the control group. After 14 days of vasectomy, the scrotum was dissected to evaluate the degree of gross adhesion at the vasectomy site. Histological examination of the surrounding tissues, including the vas deferens and the spermatic cord, was also performed.Adhesions were not observed in 72.73% (16/22) rats from the experimental group, in which the anti-adhesion agent was applied; in contrast, the incidence of adhesions in the control group was 100%. There was a statistically significant relationship between the distribution of grades for adhesion and anti-adhesion agent (chi-square, P0.001). On classification of fibrosis and inflammation, application of the anti-adhesion agent was significantly associated with lower grade inflammation and fibrosis compared to that of the control group (chi-square, P=0.001). The rate of intact muscle structure was 90.91% (20/22) in the experimental group, and 36.36% (8/22) in the control group, and the application of the anti-adhesion agent demonstrated significant association with preservation of intact muscle structure (chi-square, P0.001).The application of an anti-adhesion agent after vasectomy prevented the development of adhesion, fibrosis, and inflammation reaction and further reduced structural destruction.

Receptor-interacting serine/threonine-protein kinase 3 (RIP3) is a key component related to tumor necrosis factor-dependent necroptosis. RIP3 has been known to be a predictive biomarker in many types of carcinomas. We aimed to investigate whether RIP3 expression is correlated with clinicopathological characteristics and the outcomes of patients with breast carcinoma.We performed immunostaining for RIP3 and analyzed the association of RIP3 expression status with the clinicopathological characteristics and survival of 203 patients with invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast.High RIP3 expression was significantly correlated with lymph node metastasis and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 positivity. In patients with triple-negative breast carcinoma (TNBC), high RIP3 expression was an independent prognostic factor for disease-free survival (DFS). RIP3-high TNBC showed the lowest DFS rate.High RIP3 expression is associated with aggressive clinical behavior of breast carcinoma. Our data suggest that RIP3 serves as an independent prognostic factor in TNBC.

BMI1 is known to play a key role in the regulation of stem cell self-renewal in both endogenous and cancer stem cells. High BMI1 expression has been associated with poor prognosis in a variety of human tumors. The aim of this study was to reveal the correlations of BMI1 with survival rates, genetic alterations, and immune activities, and to validate the results using machine learning. We investigated the survival rates according to BMI1 expression in 389 and 789 breast cancer patients from Kangbuk Samsung Medical Center (KBSMC) and The Cancer Genome Atlas, respectively. We performed gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) with pathway-based network analysis, investigated the immune response, and performed in vitro drug screening assays. The survival prediction model was evaluated through a gradient boosting machine (GBM) approach incorporating BMI1. High BMI1 expression was correlated with poor survival in patients with breast cancer. In GSEA and in in silico flow cytometry, high BMI1 expression was associated with factors indicating a weak immune response, such as decreased CD8+ T cell and CD4+ T cell counts. In pathway-based network analysis, BMI1 was directly linked to transcriptional regulation and indirectly linked to inflammatory response pathways, etc. The GBM model incorporating BMI1 showed improved prognostic performance compared with the model without BMI1. We identified telomerase inhibitor IX, a drug with potent activity against breast cancer cell lines with high BMI1 expression. We suggest that high BMI1 expression could be a therapeutic target in breast cancer. These results could contribute to the design of future experimental research and drug development programs for breast cancer.

Single-stranded DNA binding protein 2 (SSBP2) is involved in DNA damage response and may induce growth arrest in cancer cells, having a potent tumor suppressor role. SSBP2 is ubiquitously expressed and the loss of its expression has been reported in various tumor types. However, the correlation between SSBP2 expression and colorectal cancer (CRC) prognosis remains unclear. SSBP2 nuclear expression was evaluated immunohistochemically in 48 normal colonic mucosae, 47 adenomas, 391 primary adenocarcinomas, and 131 metastatic carcinoma tissue samples. The clinicopathological factors, overall survival (OS), and recurrence-free survival were evaluated, and associations with the clinicopathological parameters were analyzed in 391 colorectal adenocarcinoma patients. A diffuse nuclear SSBP2 expression was detected in all normal colonic mucosa and adenoma samples. SSBP2 expression loss was observed in 131 (34.3%) primary adenocarcinoma and 100 (76.3%) metastatic carcinoma samples. SSBP2 expression was significantly associated with poor prognostic factors, such as vascular invasion (p = 0.005), high pT category (p = 0.045), and shorter OS (p = 0.038), using univariate survival analysis. Nuclear SSBP2 expression loss was significantly observed in colorectal carcinoma and metastatic carcinoma tissues, being associated with poor prognostic factors. SSBP2 acts as a tumor suppressor and may be used as a CRC prognostic biomarker.

Nodular histiocytic and mesothelial hyperplasia (NHMH) is a rare and benign proliferative lesion composed of histiocytes with scattered mesothelial cells which was first reported in hernia sac by Rosai and Dehner in 1975 [1]. They described NHMH as a “benign reactive condition simulating a neoplastic process [1].” Since then, several cases have been reported in lung, pleura, inguinal region, urinary bladder, and pelvic cavity [2-9]. We report a case of incidentally detected NHMH, presenting as a pelvic nodule during laparoscopic surgery for uterine myoma and endometriosis.

Background Smad4 and PTEN are prognostic indicators for various tumor types. Smad4 regulates tumor suppression, whereas PTEN inhibits cell proliferation. We analyzed and compared the performance of Smad4 and PTEN for predicting the prognosis of patients with colorectal adenocarcinoma. Methods Combined expression patterns based on Smad4+/– and PTEN+/– status were evaluated by immunostaining using a tissue microarray of colorectal adenocarcinoma. The relationships between the protein expression and clinicopathological variables were analyzed. Results Smad4–/PTEN– status was most frequently observed in metastatic adenocarcinoma, followed by primary adenocarcinoma and tubular adenoma (p

Lymphoepithelioma is an undifferentiated epithelial tumor primarily described in the nasopharynx and characterized by syncytial nests of malignant epithelial cells with a prominent reactive lymphoid infiltrate [1]. A carcinoma that shows similar histological features but arises outside the nasopharynx is called lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma (LELC). LELC has been described in a variety of organs including salivary glands, thymus, lungs, stomach, skin, uterine cervix, breast, prostate, and the urinary tract [2]. The renal pelvis is an extremely rare site for this tumor. To the best of our knowledge, only eight cases have been reported in the English literature and one case has been reported in the Korean literature [1-8]. We recently experienced a case of LELC arising in the right renal pelvis in a 65-year-old woman.

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text, The cell-surface glycoprotein, mesothelin, is normally present on mesothelial cells. Overexpression of mesothelin has been reported in many tumors and is correlated with poor outcome. We investigated the clinicopathologic significance of mesothelin expression in colorectal adenocarcinoma with microsatellites instability (MSI) status. Mesothelin expression was evaluated immunohistochemically in tissue microarray blocks from 390 colorectal adenocarcinoma samples. Mesothelin expression was interpreted according to the intensity and extent. A score of 2 was considered high expression. We analyzed the correlation between mesothelin expression and clinicopathologic characteristics. High mesothelin expression was observed in 177 (45.4%) out of 390 colorectal adenocarcinoma samples and was significantly associated with high histologic grade (P = .037), lymphatic invasion (P = .028), lymph node metastasis (P = .028), and high AJCC stage (P = .026). Kaplan–Meier survival curves revealed no significant difference between patients with high mesothelin expression and patients with low mesothelin expression in both recurrence-free survival (RFS) and cancer-specific survival (P = .609 and P = .167, respectively). In subgroup survival analyses, high mesothelin expression was associated with poor RFS in the MSI-High group of colorectal adenocarcinoma (P = .004). High mesothelin expression was significantly associated with aggressive phenotypes and poor patient outcome in MSI-High colorectal adenocarcinoma.

Background.This study investigated the clinicopathologic significance of extranodal tumor extension in colorectal adenocarcinoma with lymph node metastasis.Method.Included were 419 patients who underwent curative resection for primary colorectal adenocarcinoma.Results.Extranodal tumor extension was observed more frequently in tumors with ulceroinfiltrative gross type (p=0.026), higher histologic grade (p=0.012), high grade tumor budding (p=0.003), vascular invasion (p<0.001), perineural invasion (p=0.015), tumor deposit (p<0.001), high ratio of metastatic/total lymph nodes (p<0.001), and high pN stage (p<0.001). Overall survival was significantly different between an extranodal tumor extension (−) group and an extranodal tumor extension (+) group for both N1 (p=0.022) and N2 homogeneous staging (p=0.007). Both overall (p=0.002) and disease-free survival (p=0.001) were significantly different between the two groups in an N1a homogeneous group and overall survival was significantly different (p=0.016) in an N2b homogeneous group.Conclusion.Our study demonstrated that extranodal tumor extension was a useful prognostic factor for colorectal adenocarcinoma with lymph node metastasis, especially in homogeneous pN staging groups.

The role of dual-specificity protein phosphatase 4 (DUSP4) appears to vary with the type of malignant tumors and is still controversial. The purpose of our study was to clarify the exact role of DUSP4 expression in colorectal adenocarcinoma. We constructed tissue microarrays and investigated DUSP4 expression by immunohistochemistry. DUSP4 was more frequently expressed in adenocarcinomas and lymph node/distant metastases compared to that in normal colorectal tissues and tubular adenomas (P<0.001). Mean DUSP4 expression score was significantly higher in malignant tumors than in benign lesions (P<0.001). DUSP4 expression was significantly correlated with older age (P=0.017), male gender (P=0.036), larger tumor size (P=0.014), nonmucinous tumor type (P=0.023), and higher T stage (P=0.040). Kaplan-Meier survival curves revealed a significant effect of DUSP4 expression on both overall survival and disease-free survival in AJCC stage I (P=0.008andP=0.003, resp., log-rank test) and male gender (P=0.017andP=0.049, resp., log-rank test). DUSP4 protein is frequently upregulated in colorectal adenocarcinoma and may play an important role in carcinogenesis and cancer progression and may be a marker of adverse prognosis.

The Cr doping concentration dependence of the electronic properties including bonding characteristic and spin band gap of SiC dilute magnetic semiconductor is studied by employing first-principles pseudopotential plane-wave method based on density functional theory within generalized gradient approximation. For the cubic /spl beta/-SiC crystal, the calculated lattice constant is a/sub 0/=4.36 /spl Aring/ and the bulk modulus is B/sub 0/=208.14 GPa. The 64 and 8-atom supercell models are employed which corresponds to the impurity concentration of 3 and 25%, respectively. In the case of 3% impurity concentration, the Cr atoms substituting for C induces large stress on the neighboring Si atoms due to the significant difference in atomic size. On the other hand, in 25%-doped SiC:Cr, the adjacent Si atoms moved away from the Cr atom. Calculations of the magnetic moment and magnetization energy is done in which the latter is defined as the energy difference between the ferromagnetic phase and paramagnetic phase of SiC:Cr. Results show that the SiC:Cr has permanent magnetic moments of 2/spl mu//sub B/ regardless of the substitution site and the studied doping concentration. Also, calculation of density of states is done resulting in the determination of a wide spin band gap of 1.58 eV for the SiC:Cr.

Purpose Dual-specificity protein phosphatase 4 (DUSP4), also known as mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphatase (MKP) 2 is a member of the inducible nuclear MKP group. The role of DUSP4 in cancer development and progression appears to vary with the type of malignancy. The purpose of this study was to investigate DUSP4 expression in a case series of invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast. Methods We constructed tissue microarrays consisting of 16, 14, 47, and 266 cases of normal breast tissue, usual ductal hyperplasia, ductal carcinoma in situ, and invasive ductal carcinoma, respectively. DUSP4 expression was investigated by immunohistochemistry. Results Cytoplasmic DUSP4 expression was observed. DUSP4 was more frequently expressed in malignant than in benign cases (p=0.024). The mean DUSP4 expression score was significantly higher in malignant tumors than in benign lesions (p=0.019). DUSP4 expression was significantly correlated with a larger tumor size (>2 cm, p=0.015). There was no significant correlation between overall survival or disease-free survival and DUSP4 expression in all 266 patients. We evaluated the impact of DUSP4 expression on the survival of 120 patients with T1-stage tumors. Interestingly, Kaplan-Meier survival curves revealed that DUSP4 expression had a significant effect on both overall patient survival (p=0.034, log-rank test) and disease-free survival (p=0.045, log-rank test). In early T-stage breast cancer, DUSP4 expression was associated with a worse prognosis. Conclusion DUSP4 is frequently upregulated in breast malignancy, and may play an important role in cancer development and progression. In addition, it may be a marker of adverse prognosis, especially in patients with early T1-stage cancer.

In this study, diffusion behaviors of Fe and Co adatoms on MgO (001) surface were investigated using the ab initio method. The energy barriers for diffusion behavior and magnetic properties, including the spin polarizations (SPs) and magnetic moments, were calculated for Fe/MgO (001) and Co/MgO (001) systems. According to the potential energy surface (PES) calculation for the Fe/MgO (001) system, the most stable adsorption site was the hollow site where the Ead was 0.28 eV/(2 x 2). Mg and O atoms of the surface plane participated the bonding with the adsorbed Fe adatom representing the configuration of C2v symmetry. The bond lengths of Fe-Mg and Fe-0 were 2.31 A and 2.00 A, respectively.The magnetic moment of hollow site-adsorbed Fe atom was reduced to 2.99 mu B from 3.50 mu B of in vacuum state. The SP values calculated from the density of states for Fe atom/MgO (001) system were summarized with the comparison of Co/MgO (001) system.

The deposition behavior of Al atoms on Ni(001) substrate for various adatom incident angle and incident energy is investigated in this study using molecular dynamics simulation to investigate the growth morphology and the quality of thin film in atomic level. Results show that the surface roughness is comparatively decreased irrespective of adatom incident angle at the incident energy of 6 eV.

In this study, we introduce the energy application such as annealing on the Al as deposition state and from molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, the details of atomic configurations for Al atoms on Cu(l 11) surface were investigated. Using this method we can control the size of the Al grains, and, hence, the CCP phenomena can be controlled and improved.The current-perpendicular-to-plane giant magnetoresistance (CPP-GMR) effect has been greatly attracted for its application to ultra high density storage devices.