Prognostic Impact of Cell Division Cycle Associated 2 Expression on Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma

Objective To examine the expression of cell division cycle associated 2(CDCA 2) in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma(PDAC) and investigate its role in prognosis of PDAC patients.Methods This retrospective study included 155 PDAC patients who underwent surgical treatment and complete post-operative follow-up.Clinicopathologic data were collected through clinical database.Tissue microarray was constructed and immunohistochemistry was performed to detect CDCA2 expression in the PDAC tumor tissues and adjacent non-tumor tissues.Clinicopathological characteristics between high and low CDCA2 expression were compared.Correlation of CDCA2 expressions with patients' survival was analyzed using Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression analysis.Results Expression of CDCA2 in PDAC cells was significantly higher than that in adjacent non-tumor tissues(U=4056.5,P<0.001).Univariate analysis showed that CDCA2 expression [hazard ratio(HR)=1.574,95% confidence interval(CI)=1.014-2.443,P=0.043] and node metastasis(HR=1.704,95%CI=1.183-2.454,P=0.004) were significantly associated with prognosis.Cox regression analysis showed CDCA2 expression was not an independent prognostic risk factor(HR=1.418,95%CI=0.897-2.242,P=0.135) for PDCA patients.Stratification survival analysis demonstrated CDCA2 expression as an independent prognostic risk factor in male patients(HR=2.554,95%CI=1.446-4.511,P=0.003) or in non-perineural invasion patients(HR=2.290,95%CI=1.146-4.577,P=0.012).Conclusions CDCA2 is highly expressed in PDAC tumor tissue.Although CDCA2 is not an independent prognostic risk factor for PDAC patients,it might be used to help predict prognosis of male or non-perineural invasion patients of PDAC.

Influences of Melatonin on the Growth of HeLa Cells

Aim To investigate the influences of melatonin (MT) on the growth of HeLa cells in vitro. Methods Theantiprolfferation activities of MT were evaluated in HeLa cells by means of trypan blue dye exclusion and MTT vital staining.The morphological changes of HeLa cells induced by MT were observed under transmission electronic microscope. Cell divisioncycle influenced by MT was assessed by a flow cytometry. Results MT produced a certain inhibition of HeLa cells at the con-centration of 2 mmol@ L-1 and prolonged the TD. The fraction of cells inhibited was 61.0%. The IC. so of HeLa cells exposed toMT for 96 h was 2.039 mmol@ L- 1. The flow cytometric analyses showed that exposure to MT for 72 h reduced the number ofHeLa cells in phase S. Under electronic microscope, the HeLa cells exposed to MT for 72 h displayed morphological changesof necrosis, apoptosis, more hetero-chromosome and less somatic chromosome. Conclusion MT showed certain influences onthe growth of HeLa cells. Its mechanism may probably be attributable to reduction of the number of cells in phase S.

Discovery of a potent and selective cell division cycle 7 inhibitor from 6-(3-fluoropyridin4-yl)thieno[3,2-d]pyrimidin-4(3H)-one derivatives as an orally active antitumor agent

To the Editor:Kinase cell division cycle 7(CDC7),a cell division cycle protein,takes a vital role in mediating DNA replication1.CDC7 complexes in the nucleus can phosphorylate the minichromosome maintenance complex(MCM)family members that bind to chromosomes.In addition,CDC7 kinase,as a molecular switch regulating DNA replication,can mediate DNA damage signaling pathways to stimulate cell cycle termination as well as DNA replication2.Studies have shown that CDC7 is overexpressed in many types of cancer cells,and its overexpression was related to poor patient survival,tumor grade,genetic instability,aneuploidy and so on3.Therefore,CDC7 is a promising target for antitumor therapy.

Expression of CDC42 in cervical squamous cell carcinoma and its correlation with clinicopathologic characteristics

Objective： The high expression of cell division cycle 42 protein （CDC42） may be involved in the occurrence and progression of several tumors. However, the expression and function of CDC42 in cervical squamous cell carcinoma remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the expression of CDC42 in cervical squamous cell carcinoma and its correlation with clinicopathologic characteristics. Methods： The expression of CDC42 in 162 cervical squamous cell carcinoma tissue samples and 33 normal cervical tissue samples was investigated by immunohistochemistry. The CDC42 mRNA expression was detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction （RT-PCR）. Results： The cervical squamous cell carcinoma group showed a significantly higher CDC42 positive rate, compared to the normal cervical tissues （P〈0.05）. Fttrthermore, the tissues of stage Ⅱ-Ⅳ carcinoma patients showed higher CDC42 expression levels compared to stage I patients （P=0.05）. In addition, the expression of CDC42 was not correlated to age of patients, differentiation degree of cancer cells, or lymph node metastasis （P〉0.05）. Furthermore, compare with normal cervical tissues, the CDC42 mRNA expression in cervical cancer had no significant difference. Conclusions： CDC42 was up-regulated at protein level, but not mRNA level, in cervical squamous cell carcinoma. The high expression of CDC42 was correlated to the clinical stage of the patients, indicating that CDC42 might contribute to the progression of cervical squamous cell carcinoma.

Automated Dynamic Cellular Analysis in Time-Lapse Microscopy

Analysis of cellular behavior is significant for studying cell cycle and detecting anti-cancer drugs. It is a very difficult task for image processing to isolate individual cells in confocal microscopic images of non-stained live cell cultures. Because these images do not have adequate textural variations. Manual cell segmentation requires massive labor and is a time consuming process. This paper describes an automated cell segmentation method for localizing the cells of Chinese hamster ovary cell culture. Several kinds of high-dimensional feature descriptors, K-means clustering method and Chan-Vese model-based level set are used to extract the cellular regions. The region extracted are used to classify phases in cell cycle. The segmentation results were experimentally assessed. As a result, the proposed method proved to be significant for cell isolation. In the evaluation experiments, we constructed a database of Chinese Hamster Ovary Cell’s microscopic images which includes various photographing environments under the guidance of a biologist.

Mechanisms simultaneously regulate smooth muscle proliferation and differentiation

Vascular smooth muscle cell （VSMC） differentiation and proliferation are two important physiological proc- esses during vascular development. The phenotypic alteration from differentiated to proliferative VSMC contrib- utes to the development of several major cardiovascular diseases including atherosclerosis, hypertension, resteno- sis after angioplasty or bypass, diabetic vascular complications, and transplantation arteriopathy. Since the VSMC phenotype in these pathological conditions resembles that of developing VSMC during embryonic development, understanding of the molecular mechanisms that control VSMC differentiation will provide fundamental insights into the pathological processes of these cardiovascular diseases. Although VSMC differentiation is usually ac- companied by an irreversible cell cycle exit, VSMC proliferation and differentiation occur concurrently during embryonic development. The molecular mechanisms simultaneously regulating these two processes, however, remain largely unknown. Our recent study demonstrates that cell division cycle 7, a key regulator of cell cycle, promotes both VSMC differentiation and proliferation through different mechanisms during the initial phase of VSMC differentiation. Conversely, Kriappel-like factor 4 appears to be a repressor for both VSMC differentia- tion and proliferation. This review attempts to highlight the novel role of cell division cycle 7 in TGF-β-induced VSMC differentiation and proliferation. The role of K141ppel-like factor 4 in suppressing these two processes will also be discussed.

LncRNA ZFPM2-AS1 promotes phyllodes tumor progression by binding to CDC42 and inhibiting STAT1 activation

Breast phyllodes tumor(PT)is a rare fibroepithelial neoplasm with potential malignant behavior.Long non-coding RNAs(lncRNAs)play multifaceted roles in various cancers,but their involvement in breast PT remains largely unexplored.In this study,microarray was leveraged for the first time to investigate the role of lncRNA in PT.We identified lncRNA ZFPM2-AS1 was significantly upregulated in malignant PT,and its overexpression endowed PT with high tumor grade and adverse prognosis.Furthermore,we elucidated that ZFPM2-AS1 promotes the proliferation,migration,and invasion of malignant PT in vitro.Targeting ZFPM2-AS1 through nanomaterial-mediated siRNA delivery in patient-derived xenograft(PDX)model could effectively inhibit tumor progression in vivo.Mechanistically,our findings showed that ZFPM2-AS1 is competitively bound to CDC42,inhibiting ACK1 and STAT1 activation,thereby launching the transcription of TNFRSF19.In conclusion,our study provides evidence that ZFPM2-AS1 plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of breast PT,and suggests that ZFPM2-AS1 could serve as a prognostic indicator for patients with PT as well as a promising novel therapeutic target.

The RING Finger Protein Nt RCP1 Is Involved in the Floral Transition in Tobacco(Nicotiana tabacum)

The transition from the vegetative phase to the reproductive phase is a major developmental process in flowering plants.The underlying mechanism controlling this cellular process remains a research focus in the field of plant molecular biology.In the present work,we identified a gene encoding the C3H2C3-type RING finger protein Nt RCP1 from tobacco BY-2 cells.Enzymatic analysis demonstrated that Nt RCP1 is a functional E3 ubiquitin ligase.In tobacco plants,expression level of Nt RCP1 was higher in the reproductive shoot apices than in the vegetative ones.Nt RCP1-overexpressing plants underwent a more rapid transition from the vegetative to the reproductive phase and flowered markedly earlier than the wild-type control.Histological analysis revealed that the shoot apical meristem of Nt RCP1-overexpressing plants initiated inflorescence primordia precociously compared to the wild-type plant due to accelerated cell division.Overexpression of Nt RCP1 in BY-2 suspension cells promoted cell division,which was a consequence of the shortened G2 phase in the cell cycle.Together,our data suggest that Nt RCP1 may act as a regulator of the phase transition,possibly through its role in cell cycle regulation,during vegetative/reproductive development in tobacco plant.