BACKGROUND In ovarian cancer (OC) cells, Snail was reported to induce the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), which is a critical step in OC metastasis. At present little is known about controlling Snail expression in OC cells by using specific microRNAs (miRNAs). METHODS We first used a computational target prediction analysis to identify 6 candidate miRNAs that bind to the 3'-untran...

PURPOSE To isolate progenitor cells from rabbit corneal epithelial cells (CEC) in serum- and feeder layer-free culture conditions and to compare the self-renewal capacity of corneal epithelial progenitor cells obtained from the central and limbal regions of the cornea. METHODS Tissue samples of New Zealand white rabbit corneas were dissected from the limbal and central regions to obtain CEC f...

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common liver cancer, with a very poor prognosis. There is an urgent need for an effective therapy for HCC. Ginsenoside Rh2 (GRh2) has been shown to significantly inhibit growth of some types of cancer, whereas its effects on HCC have not been examined. Here, we treated human HCC cells with different doses of GRh2, and found that GRh2 dose-dependently r...

Understanding anion adsorption mechanisms is necessary to allow prediction of anion adsorption behavior. This study was conducted to evaluate the ability of the triple layer model, a chemical surface complexation model, to describe the effect of changes in solution ionic strength (0.01-1.0 M NaCl) and solution pH (3-11) on B adsorption by the iron oxide, goethite, the aluminum oxide, gibbsite, ...

The reduction of ClO(2) to ClO(2)(-) by aqueous iron(II) in 0.5 M HClO(4) proceeds by both outer-sphere (86%) and inner-sphere (14%) electron-transfer pathways. The second-order rate constant for the outer-sphere reaction is 1.3 x 10(6) M(-1) s(-1). The inner-sphere electron-transfer reaction takes place via the formation of FeClO(2)(2+) that is observed as an intermediate. The rate constant fo...

The elevation of cancer stem cells (CSCs)-like properties is involved in the initiation and progression of various human cancers. Current standard practices for treatment of cancers are less than satisfactory because of CSCs-mediated recurrence. For this reason, targeting the CSCs or the cancer cells with CSCs-like properties has become the new approach for the cancer treatments. In addition to...

background : verbascum thapsus (vt) is a medicinal plant that chemical constituents of it revealed the presence of biologically active compounds with antibacterial properties. the aim of the present study was to evaluate the antimicrobial and anti-adherent activities of ethanol extract of (vt) against of three oral streptococci in vitro. methods : in this study, biofilm formation of s. mutans 1...