Immunohistochemical analysis of 8 biomarkers on tissue microarray (TMA) of 46 Moroccan invasive breast carcinoma

Aim of the study: Immunohistochemical evaluation of hormone receptors, Her2/neu, CK5/6, E-cadherin, beta-catenin, p53 and PTEN on Tissue Micro Array (TMA) of 46 Moroccan invasive breast carcinomas. Materials and Methods: The cases comprised 40 invasive ductal carcinomas, 4 invasive lobular carcinomas, 1 mixed carcinoma and 1 invasive colloid carcinoma. TMA paraffin blocs were prepared with the Beecher manual arrayer and immunostaining was performed using standard immunoperoxidase techniques. Results: 58.69% of the cases were ER positive. 43.18% (19/44) were triple negative breast cancers (TNBC) of which 15.78% (3/19) were of the basal phenotype expressing CK5/6. On the other hand, 72.22% (13/18) of the TNBC cases were IDC grade 3. Of the 18 IDC grade 3, 22.22% (4/18) were CK5/6 positive. 41.30% and 10.86% of the cases showed reduced expression of E-cadherin and beta-catenin respectively. Beta-catenin nuclear and cytoplasmic staining was noted in 20% and 97.82% respectively. p53 was overexpressed in 10.86% of the cases whereas PTEN loss or reduced expression was noted in 86.95% of the cases. Conclusion: The aim of our study was to introduce TMA technique in our hospital which is considered a reference institution for cancer in Morocco. Although no statistical study was performed to look for any significance of the results obtained, we found good correlation with some of the data in the literature. To determine the molecular characteristics, if any, of the Moroccan patient, larger multidisciplinary and prospective studies would be interesting in the aim to personalize therapeutic decisions.

Experimental Investigation of Solar Panel Cooling by a Novel Micro Heat Pipe Array

A novel micro heat pipe array was used in solar panel cooling. Both of air-cooling and water-cooling conditions under nature convection condition were investigated in this paper. Compared with the ordinary solar panel, the maximum difference of the photoelectric conversion efficiency is 2.6%, the temperature reduces maximally by 4.7℃, the output power increases maximally by 8.4% for the solar panel with heat pipe using air-cooling, when the daily radiation value is 26.3 MJ. Compared with the solar panel with heat pipe using air-cooling, the maximum difference of the photoelectric conversion efficiency is 3%, the temperature reduces maximally by 8℃, the output power increases maximally by 13.9% for the solar panel with heat pipe using water-cooling, when the daily radiation value is 21.9 MJ.

烟雾病免疫相关基因研究

目的通过分析烟雾(moyamoya)病患者外周血液淋巴细胞和正常人外周血液淋巴细胞免疫相关基因表达的差异,探讨烟雾病的发病机制。方法分别采集烟雾病患者和正常人血液标本各22份,提取烟雾病患者和正常人外周血液淋巴细胞的总RNA,将mRNA逆转录为cDNA,用Cy5和Cy3标记作为探针,与含有492个基因的自身免疫和炎症反应基因芯片进行杂交。以ScanArray4000荧光扫描仪扫描芯片上两种荧光信号,用计算机进行处理和分析。结果烟雾病患者外周血液淋巴细胞和正常人血液淋巴细胞比较,差异表达2倍以上的基因共有32个,其中19个基因表达增加,13个基因表达降低。结论烟雾病发生与患者的免疫相关基因异常有关。

A Status Graph Based Control Allocation Algorithm of Digital Micro-Thruster Array for Micro/Nano-Satellites Orbit Control Application

Digital micro-thruster arrays can be used for special missions of micro/nano-satellites with the requirements of high precision and small impulse.This paper presents a novel control allocation algorithm for the digital micro-thruster array,namely status graph based control allocation(SGBCA)algorithm,which aims at finding the optimal micro thrusters combination scheme to realize the sequential control synthesis for micro/nano-satellite during real-time orbit control tasks.A mathematical model is set up for the control allocation of this multivariate over-actuated system.Through dividing thrusters into disjoint segments by offline calculation and combining segments dynamically online to provide a sequence of the required impulse for the micro/nano-satellite,the time complexity of the control allocation algorithm decreases significantly.All levels of impulse can be generated by the digital micro thruster arrays and the service life of the arrays can be extended using the segment converting strategy proposed in this paper.The simulation indicates that the algorithm can satisfy the requirements of real-time orbit control for micro/nano-satellites.

GENE EXPRESSION PROFILING OF PHENYLBUTYRATE INDUCED DIFFERENTIATION OF GLIOMA CELLS BY cDNA ARRAY

Objective: To analyze the changes of gene expression in phenylbutyrate induced differentiation of glioma cells. Methods: The expression levels of 14000 genes in glioma cells before and after inducement with sodium phenyl- butyrate for 2 h or 6 days were evaluated by cDNA array technique and proved by multi-dot blotting. Results: expression of 98 genes in glioma cells showed changes after the inducement. Some genes involved in transcription and translation and some oncogenes are down-regulated, while some gene involved in differentiation or apoptosis are up-regulated. 18 unknown expression sequencing tag (EST) changed too. Conclusion: A gene expression profile associated with differentiation of glioma cells was established.

Novel Fractal DGS Based on MEMS and Its Application in Miniaturization of Microstrip Antenna Array

An uncommon fractal construction method is applied in the microwave element design. A novel fractal defected ground structure （DGS） based on micro electro-mechanical system （MEMS） is proposed. The size of this novel fractal DGS can achieve 86% size reduction compared with the conventional dumbbell type DGS. This novel fractal DGS is used in the miniaturization design of L-band microstrip antenna array. The simulation result shows that this novel fractal DGS can effectively reduce the mutual coupling between the antenna elements, so it is helpful to the miniaturization of microstrip array, namely the approximately same gain value can be achieved with the shorter distance between elements.

Application of cDNA array for studying the gene expression profile of mature appressoria of Magnaporthe grisea

Appressorium is an infection structure of the phytopathogenic fungus Magnaporthe grisea. Analysis of gene expression profiles ofappressorium development provides insight into the molecular basis of pathogenicity and control of this fungal plant disease. A cDNA array representing 2927 unique genes based on a large EST （expressed sequence tag） database ofM. grisea strain Y34 was constructed and used to profile the gene expression patterns at mycelium and appressorium maturation stages. Compared with mycelia, 55 up-regulated and 22 down-regulated genes were identified in mature appressoria. Among 77 genes, 16 genes showed no similarity to the genome sequences of M. grisea. A novel homologue of peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase was found to be expressed at low-level in mature appressoria of M. grisea. The results indicated that the genes such as pyruvate carboxylase, phospholipid metabolism-related protein and glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase involved in gluconeogenesis, lipid metabolism and glycolysis, showed differential expression in mature appressoria. Furthermore, genes such as PTHll, beta subunit of G protein and SGTI involved in cell signalling, were expressed differentially in mature appressoria. Northern blot analysis was used to confirm the cDNA array results.

干旱胁迫下“Micro-Tom”番茄酵母双杂交cDNA文库构建和鉴定

干旱胁迫作为番茄栽培生产过程中的不利因素之一,严重影响番茄生长发育、产量及品质。为完善“Micro-Tom”番茄在干旱胁迫下蛋白质互作机制,试验以“Micro-Tom”番茄品种为试验材料,采用Gateway技术构建干旱胁迫下“Micro-Tom”番茄酵母双杂交cDNA文库。酵母cDNA文库的文库滴度为6.0×10^7 CFU·mL^-1,插入cDNA片段平均长度>1 kb,重组率为100%。结果表明,试验构建的干旱胁迫下“Micro-Tom”番茄酵母双杂交cDNA文库质量较高,完整度较好,可作为筛选互作蛋白的cDNA文库。

Identification of genes differentially expressed in monocyte－deriveddendritic cells with 1α,25－dihydroxyvitamin D3 using cDNA arrays

In order to study the molecular mechanism of the inhibitory effect of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 on dendritic cells, experiments were performed using Atlas cDNA expression arrays from Clonetech to identify the differentially expressed genes of dendritic cells by 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3. Analysis of cDNA arrays revealed changes in the expression of 9 genes, including those involved in DNA binding and transcription, extracellular cell signaling and communication, intracellular transducers, as well as cell adhesions. The results indicated that a multiple molecular network is involved in the inhibitory role of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 on dendritic cells. The Atlas Array technology may facilitate the elucidation of complex pharmacological process of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 on dendritic cells.

RAPID SCREENING OF AN ARRAYED cDNA LIBRARY BY IMPROVED PCR-BASED METHOD

The present study reports an improved PCR-based technique that allows quick and effective screening of cDNA libraries. First, the cDNA library was arrayed as follow: about 3 X 10’ cDNA clones were multiplied as individual plaques on solid medium in 24-well culture dishes at 1 200 plaque forming units per well. The phage suspension of each well was transferred to an individual microcentrifuge tube in 72-tube box. Then, box pool, row pools and column pools were set up that respectively represent a 72-tube box, rows and columns within the box. To screen a specific target cDNA,primers specific for novel ESTs ob- tained in our laboratory were employed to conduct PCR in a hierarchy mode. PCR began with the box pools, resulting in the identification of some Positive box pools. Then PCR went down to the row and col- umn pools of the positive box. The intersection of the positive row (s) and column (s) revealed the candi- date positive tubes. The specificity of PCR products were meanwhile checked by restriction enzyme diges- tion. Finally, hybridization was carried out to get single specific cDNA clomes from the positive tubes. This PCR-based technique features high specificity, high efficiency and less-cost in large-scale cDNA library screening. Our initial implementation of the technique resulted in the isolation of three longer different cD- NA clones from a human fetal brain cDNA library. Thus this improved technique can serve as an alterna-tive to the time-consuming and laborious conventional hybridization-based method for screening cDNA li-brary.

POSSIBLE REASONS FOR TP53 ACCUMULATION IN NASO-PHARYNGEAL CARCINOMA USING ATLAS HUMAN CANCER cDNA EXPRESSION ARRAY

Objective: To compare gene expression profiles of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) tissue with that of control tissue by cDNA Array and to discuss possible reasons of TP53 accumulation in NPC tissue. Methods: (1) hybridization of Atlas Human Cancer cDNA Expression Array 7742-1; (2) analysis of Atlas Arrays using Atlasimage 1.01a; (3) verification of results of array by RT-PCR; (4) verification of protein expression alterations by immunohistochemistry. Results: (1) Of 588 tumor-related genes, 134 genes were upregulated, 88 downregulated; (2) Of 32 TP53-regulated genes, 13 genes were shown differential expression, 11 upregulated, 2 downregulated; (3) ATM and JNK2 were upregulated; (4) mRNA expression of ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme E2 (M74524) and ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme E2 (L22005) has no evident changes; Conclusion: (1) TP53 dysfunction exists in NPC tissues; (2) ATM and JNK might be the important causes of TP53 accumulation.

Micro Gas Sensor Array for Monitoring Highly Toxic Gases

Recently,the possibility of a disaster due to the improper use of highly toxic gases which are known as agents throughout the world has been increased.Therefore,the development of technology for countermeasure against CWA has been highly demanded.In this study,thick film SnO_2-based gas sensing devices were prepared and the sensing properties for the four different kinds of simulants such as dimethyl methyl phosphonate (DMMP),acetonitrile,dichloromethane and dipropylene glycol methyl ether have been investigated.And a micro sensor array consists of six devices was prepared using MEMS technology to provide high selective and reliable sensing system for the detection of chemical warfare agents.The micro gas sensor array prepared showed good sensitivity and selectivity to CWA.

A Novel Stacked Array Antenna with Uni-planar Compact EBG Reflector

Most broadband microstrip antennae are implemented in the form of slot structure or laminate structure,which provide a broad impedance bandwidth and meanwhile bring large sidelobes and backlobes. A novel uni-planar compact electromagnetic band-gap( EBG) structure is proposed, which shows excellent performance when applied to broadband stacked or aperture coupled microstrip array antennae. The test results indicate that,the directivity is effectively improved,and the front-to-back ratio is increased,and the thickness of the antenna is reduced. These improvements make this structure better used in airborne antennae.

Fabrication of Ordered Micro/Nanostructures Using Probe‑Based Force‑Controlled Micromachining System

This paper presents a probe-based force-controlled nanoindentation method to fabricate ordered micro/nanostructures.Both the experimental and finite element simulation approaches are employed to investigate the influence of the interval between the adjacent indentations and the rotation angle of the probe on the formed micro/nanostructures.The non-contacting part between indenter and the sample material and the height of the material pile-up are two competing factors to determine the depth relationship between the adjacent indentations.For the one array indentations,nanostructures with good depth consistency and periodicity can be formed after the depth of the indentation becoming stable,and the variation of the rotation angle results in the large difference between the morphology of the formed nanostructures at the bottom of the one array indentation.In addition,for the indentation arrays,the nanostructures with good consistency and periodicity of the shape and depth can be generated with the spacing greater than 1μm.Finally,Raman tests are also carried out based on the obtained ordered micro/nanostructures with Rhodamine probe molecule.The indentation arrays with a smaller spacing lead to better the enhancement effect of the substrate,which has the potential applications in the fields of biological or chemical molecular detection.

Identification of auxin responsive genes in Arabidopsis by cDNA array

The plant hormone auxin influences a variety of developmental and physiological processes. But the mechanism of its action is quite unclear. In order to identify and analyze the expression of auxin responsive genes, a cDNA array approach was used to screen for genes with altered expression from Arabidopsis suspension culture after IAA treatment and was identified 50 differentially expressed genes from 13824 cDNA clones. These genes were related to signal transduction, stress responses, senescence, photosynthesis, protein biosynthesis and transportation. The results provide the molecular evidence that auxin influences a variety of physiological processes and pave a way for further investigation of the mechanism of auxin action. Furthermore, we found that the expression of a ClpC (regulation subunit of Clp protease) was repressed by exogenous auxin, but increased in dark-induced senescing leaves. This suggests that ClpC may be a senescence-associated gene and can be regulated by auxin.

Blocking of N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase V induces cellular endoplasmic reticulum stress in human hepatocarcinoma 7721 cells

N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase V （GnT-V） is an important tumorigenesis and metastasis-associated enzyme. To study its biofunction, the GnT-V stably suppressed cell line （GnT-V-AS/7721） was constructed from 7721 hepatocarcinoma cells in previous study. In this study, cDNA array gene expression profiles were compared between GnT-V-AS/7721 and parental 7721 cells. The data indicated that GnT-V-AS/7721 showed a characteristic expression pattern consistent with the ER stress. The molecular mechanism of the ER stress was explored in GnT-V-AS/7721 by the analysis on key molecules in both two unfolded protein response （UPR） pathways. For ATF6 and Irel/XBP-1 pathway, it was evidenced by the up-regulation of BIP at mRNA and protein level, and the appearance of the spliced form ofXBP-1. As for PERK/eIF2α pathway, the activation of ER eIF2α kinase PERK was observed. To confirm the results from GriT-V-AS/7721 cells, the key molecules in the UPR were examined again in 7721 cells interfered with the GnT-V by the specific RNAi treatment. The results were similar with those from GnT-V-AS/7721, indicating that blocking of GnT-V can specifically activate ER stress in 7721 cells. Rate of 3H-Man incorporation corrected with rate of 3H-Leu incorporation in GnT-V-AS/7721 was down-regulated greatly compared with the control, which demonstrated the deficient function of the enzyme synthesizing N-glycans after GnT-V blocking. Moreover, the faster migrating form of chaperone GRP94 associated with the underglycosylation, and the extensively changed N-glycans structures of intracellular glycoproteins were also detected in GnT-V-AS/7721. These results supported the mechanism that blocking of GnT-V expression impaired functions of chaperones and N-glycan-synthesizing enzymes, which caused UPR in vivo.

Monitoring gene expression by cDNA array

A new method designated cDNA array was developed by hybridization of quantitatively arrayed DNA samples isolated randomly from a cDNA library with probes reverse-transcribed from mRNAs of different sources or treatments. The gene expression patterns of 1 000 randomly chosen clones from an Arabidopsis library were analyzed with green seedlings versus suspension cells and seedlings irradiated under UV light. Northern blot and sequence analysis of some differentially expressed clones confirmed the results revealed by cDNA array, indicating that this method is efficient and reliable to monitor gene expression.

Gene expression profiling defined pathways correlated with fibroblast cell proliferation induced by Opisthorchis viverrini excretory /secretory product

AIM： To investigate the mechanism of fibroblast cell proliferation stimulated by the Opisthorchis viverrini excretory/secretory （ES） product. METHODS： NIH-3T3, mouse fibroblast cells were treated with O. viverrini ES product by non-contact co-cultured with the adult parasites. Total RNA from NIH-3T3 treated and untreated with O. viverrini was extracted, reverse transcribed and hybridized with the mouse 15K complementary DNA （cDNA） array. The result was analyzed by ArrayVision version 5 and GeneSpring version 5 softwares. After normalization, the ratios of gene expression of parasite treated to untreated NIH-3T3 cells of 2-and more-fold upregulated was defined as the differentially expressed genes. The expression levels of the signal transduction genes were validated by semiquantitative SYBR-based real-time RT-PCR. RESULTS： Among a total of 15 000 genes/ESTs, 239 genes with established cell proliferation-related function were 2 fold-and more-up-regulated by O. viverrini ES product compared to those in cells without exposure to the parasitic product. These genes were classified into groups including energy and metabolism, signal transduction, protein synthesis and translation, matrix and structural protein, transcription control, cell cycle and DNA replication. Moreover, the expressions of serinethreonine kinase receptor, receptor tyrosine kinase and collagen production-related genes were up-regulated by O.viverrini ES product, The expression level of signal transduction genes, pkC, pdgfra, jak 1, eps 8, tgfβ 1/4,strap and h ras measured by real-time RT-PCR confirmed their expression levels to those obtained from cDNA array. However, only the up-regulated expression of pkC,eps 8 and tgfβ3 1/4 which are the downstream signaling molecules of either epidermal growth factor （EGF） or transforming growth factor-β （TGF-β） showed statistical significance （P 〈 0.05）.CONCLUSION： O. viverrini ES product stimulates the significant changes of gene expression in several functional categories and these mainly include transcripts related to cell proliferation. The TGF-β and EGF signal transduction pathways are indicated as the possible pathways of O. viverrini-driven cell proliferation.

Experimental investigations on the heat transfer characteristics of micro heat pipe array applied to flat plate solar collector

This paper introduces a novel fiat plate solar collector （FPC） using micro heat pipe array （MHPA） as a key element. To analyze the thermal transfer behavior of flat plate solar collector with micro heat pipe array （MHPA-FPC）, an indoor experiment for thermal transfer characteristic of MHPA applied to FPC was conducted by using an electrical heating film to simulate the solar radiation. Different cooling water flow rates, cooling water temperatures, slopes, and contact thermal resistances be- tween the condenser of MHPA and the heat exchanger were tested at different heating powers. The experimental results in- dicate that MHPA-FPC exhibits the enhanced heat transfer capability with increased cooling water flow rate and temperature. Total thermal resistance has a maximum decline of approximately 10% when the flow rate increases from 180 to 360 L h-1 and 38% when the cooling water temperature increases from 20~C to 40~C. When the inclination angle of MHPA-FPC ex- ceeds 30~, the slope change has a negligible effect on the heat transfer performance of MHPA-FPC. In addition, contact thermal resistance significantly affects the heat transfer capability of MHPA-FPC. The total thermal resistances lowers to nearly half of the original level when contact material between the condenser of MHPA and the heat exchanger changes from conductive silicone to conductive grease. These results could provide useful information for the optimal design and operation of MHPA-FPC.

骨碎补总黄酮对去卵巢大鼠基因水平的影响

目的:应用cDNA array技术分析骨碎补总黄酮对去卵巢大鼠基因水平的影响。方法:制作去卵巢大鼠模型,24周后,活杀动物,腹主动脉取血6 mL,并取出脊髓4锄,抽提totalRNA,分离mRNA,进行检测。结果:空白对照组血样与模型组的差异为70个基因,空白对照组与骨碎补总黄酮组的差异为9个基因。骨碎补总黄酮灌服后大鼠模型基因过度表达基本恢复正常。该实验cDNA array分析中脊髓基因基本无差异。结论:骨碎补总黄酮灌服6 个月后大鼠模型基因过度表达能基本恢复正常。表明骨碎补总黄酮对去卵巢大鼠基因表达水平有一定的影响。