Replication-competent poxvirus vectors with an attenuation phenotype and with a high immunogenic capacity of the foreign expressed antigen are being pursued as novel vaccine vectors against different pathogens. In this investigation, we have examined the replication and immunogenic characteristics of two vaccinia virus (VACV) mutants, M65 and M101. These mutants were generated after 65 and 101 ...

Hepatic progenitor cells play a major role in regenerating diseased liver. In rodents, progenitors forming hepatocytes or cholangiocytes are identified by the stem cell marker Thy-1. The aim of this study was to ascertain whether progenitor cells expressing Thy-1 could be identified in human fetal liver. Midtrimester human fetal liver was immunostained for Thy-1, cytokeratins 18 and 19, vimenti...

Pancreatic cancer is a malignant cancer with a high mortality rate. The amount of chymotrypsin C in pancreatic cancer cells is only 20% of that found in normal cells. Chymotrypsin C has been reported to be involved in cancer cell apoptosis, but its effect on pancreatic cancer cell migration is unclear. We performed cell migration scratch assays and Transwell experiments, and found that cell mig...

While identification and isolation of adult stem cells have potentially important implications, recent reports regarding dedifferentiation/reprogramming from differentiated cells have provided another clue to gain insight into source of tissue stem/progenitor cells. In this study, we developed a novel culture system to obtain dedifferentiated progenitor cells from normal human thyroid tissues. ...

AIM To examine cytokeratin-18 (CK-18) and caspase-cleaved CK-18 expression in tumours and correlate with clinicopathological outcomes including tumour regression grade (TRG) response. METHODS Formalin-fixed human gastro-oesophageal cancers were constructed into tissue microarrays. The first set consisted of 122 gastric/gastro-oesophageal cancer cases not exposed to neoadjuvant chemotherapy an...

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are important targets for treatment and critical surrogate markers when evaluating cancer prognosis and therapeutic response. A sensitive methodology for detecting CTCs in gastric cancer (GC) patients is needed. In this study we demonstrate a device for enrichment and cultivation of CTCs. In total, 22 patients with GC, all candidates for surgery, were enrolled in ...

Differences in gene expression are likely to explain the phenotypic differences between hormone-responsive and hormone-unresponsive breast cancer. We have identified differentially expressed cDNAs in the estrogen receptor (ER)-positive MCF7 breast carcinoma cell line compared with the ER-negative MDA-MB-231 breast carcinoma cell line. Differential screening isolated four differentially expresse...

Multi-layered ("stratified") epithelia differ from one-layered ("simple") polar epithelia by various architectural and functional properties as well as by their cytoskeletal complements, notably a set of cytokeratins characteristic of stratified tissue. The simple epithelial cytokeratins 8 and 18 have so far not been detected in any stratified epithelium. Using specific monoclonal antibodies we...