OBJECTIVE We examined a microdissemination of cancer cells in lymph nodes and assessed its clinical and biologic characteristics. METHODS Both primary tumors and lymph nodes (2030 nodes) were obtained from 122 patients with primary stage I lung cancer who underwent curative operations with routine systematic nodal dissection of both the hilar and the mediastinal nodes. Immunohistochemical ant...

BACKGROUND Combining primary surgery with postoperative radiotherapy (RT) significantly reduces locoregional recurrence rates in selected patients with laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). A prognostic model was used to see if associating laryngeal SCC tissue markers (mammary serine protease inhibitor [MASPIN], CD105, angiogenin [ANG], and nm23-H1) with conventional criteria could better di...

Loss of nucleoside diphosphate kinase (Ndk) function in Escherichia coli results in an increased frequency of spontaneous mutation and an imbalance in dNTP pool levels. It is presumed that the imbalance in dNTP pool levels is responsible for the mutator phenotype of an E. coli ndk mutant. A human homologue of Ndk and potential suppressor of tumor metastasis, nm23-H2, can complement the mutageni...

Expression of nucleoside diphosphate(NDP) kinase, which is homologous to the nm23 gene product in a variety of species, has been found to be inversely associated with metastatic potential. However, the relationship remains controversial according to the tumor cell types and experimental system, with conflicting results from different research groups. In order to determine whether NDP kinase exp...

Activating mutations of Ras have been implicated in approximately 30% of human cancers. In every case, the biochemical consequence of such mutations is to disrupt the GTPase activity of Ras and to render Ras resistant to the actions of GTPase activating proteins. Consequently, oncogenic Ras mutants are "locked" in a GTP-bound active state. We detected a potent activity in Escherichia coli extra...

Human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) modified by targeting DNA hypermethylation of genes in the Salvador/Warts/Hippo pathway were induced to differentiate into neuronal cells in vitro. The differentiated cells secreted a significant level of brain-derived neurotrophy factor (BDNF) and the expression of BDNF receptor tyrosine receptor kinase B (TrkB) correlated well with the secretion of BDNF. In...

The Ser 3 Pro mutation in human nucleoside diphosphate kinase (NDK)-B/Nm23-H2 was recently found in melanoma cells. In comparison to the wild-type enzyme, steady state activity of NDK with ATP and TDP as substrates was slowed down 5-fold. We have utilized transient kinetic techniques to analyze phosphoryl transfer between the mutant enzyme and various pairs of nucleoside triphosphates and nucle...

Nucleoside diphosphate kinase A (NDPK-A), encoded by the nm23-H1 gene, acts as a metastasis suppressor in certain human tumors such as breast carcinoma. However, evidence also points to NDPK-A functioning as a metastasis promoter in other human tumors including neuroblastoma. In fact, amplification and overexpression of nm23-H1 as well as S120G mutation of NDPK-A (NDPK-A(S120G)) have been detec...