p53 mutations have been reported in cell lines derived from relapsed neuroblastoma tumors. We hypothesize that functional inactivation of p53 by mutation or other mechanisms is common in relapsed neuroblastoma and can contribute to chemoresistance. Our aim was to determine the frequency of p53 mutations, p14 methylation, or deletion and MDM2 amplification in 23 neuroblastoma cell lines (6 deriv...

p53 mutations have been reported in cell lines derived from relapsed neuroblastoma tumors. We hypothesize that functional inactivation of p53 by mutation or other mechanisms is common in relapsed neuroblastoma and can contribute to chemoresistance. Our aim was to determine the frequency of p53 mutations, p14(ARF) methylation, or deletion and MDM2 amplification in 23 neuroblastoma cell lines (6 ...

In this paper we suggest an iterative algorithm to compute automatically the scattering matrix elements of any given effective lagrangian, Γ. By exploiting the relation between Γ and the connected Green function generator, Z, we provide a formula which does not require the use of the Feynman graphs and it is suitable to implement a numerical routine. By means of this algorithm we have built a r...

Chromatin insulators are DNA-protein complexes that are situated throughout the genome that are proposed to contribute to higher-order organization and demarcation into distinct transcriptional domains. Mounting evidence in different species implicates RNA and RNA-binding proteins as regulators of chromatin insulator activities. Here, we identify the Drosophila hnRNP M homolog Rumpelstiltskin (...

BACKGROUND Ketamine has been shown to have neurotoxic properties, when administered neuraxially. The mechanism of this local toxicity is still unknown. Therefore, we investigated the mechanism of cytotoxicity in different human cell lines in vitro. METHODS We incubated the following cell types for 24 h with increasing concentrations of S(+)-ketamine and racemic ketamine: (i) human Jurkat T-ly...

MYCN gene amplification is a negative prognostic indicator in neuroblastoma and high level MycN expression in Stage IV neuroblastoma is generally a hallmark of poor patient outcome. However, high level expression of the MycN protein in neuroblastoma cells lacking MYCN amplification suppresses growth and drives apoptosis; this, in part, explains the absence of clinical observations of high level...